Video & Text Fwd: Video/Text: Libyan U.S.-Led Coalition Cluster Bomb

Stop NATO
RT
Libyan US-led coalition clusterbomb
March 25, 2011


AFP Photo / Eric Feferberg

Operation Odyssey Dawn struck with quick might. France and Britain campaigned for the military offensive into Libya, but it was America that led the way.

In six days, the US-led coalition has fired hundreds of Tomahawk missiles against Muammar Gadhafi’s tanks, compounds and Libyan air defenses.

Nearly one week after waging war, no country has been able to clarify a clear goal or exit strategy for Libya. US and Western allies sold the humanitarian intervention as a means of protecting Libyan civilians from Gadhafi’s firepower, but coalition strikes are now being blamed for mounting casualties.

"We have not choices. Only victory or death. We have no other reason to live,” said a Libyan woman whose relative was killed in the crossfire.

There is also little sign of anti-Gaddhafi forces gaining much traction with only a few government forces switching sides.

“They are randomly shooting. They are killing a lot of people and civilians. The Americans, the Brits and French,” said a Gaddhafi supporter.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama said the US will soon hand over control of the mission.

Question is, to whom?

As for the 22 Arab countries that pushed for the no-fly zone, their militaries are nowhere to be found. Only Qatar put up a handful of warplanes while being prohibited from flying too close to Libya.
....
With the cost of this odyssey at a reported $100 million per day, US lawmakers want some answers.

"We would've asked, what is the intelligence that we have. When Secretary Gates leads us to believe he doesn't know plan ‘B’. We would've pursued that," said US Congressman, Charles Rangel.

Just last month, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates publicly opposed American military intervention in Libya.A third US war he’s now forced to defend.

"This command and control business is complicated, and we haven’t done something like this kind ‘of on the fly’ before … so it’s not surprising to me that it would take a few days to get it all sorted out," said US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Also hard to sort out is US Senator John McCain’s position on Libya.The Republican has repeatedly called for Gadhafi’s removal in recent months.

“He has American blood on his hand because he was responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103,” said US Senator John McCain.

Yet just 18-months ago, McCain flew to shake hands with the Libyan leader and peddling American military equipment.

Tripoli peddling American military equipment and shaking hands with the Libyan leader and his son "We intend to do everything we can to ensure relations between our countries deepen," said McCain.

Today, the rift between Libya and US couldn’t be further apart as Gadhafi has vowed to fight fire with fire.

In the short term, we will beat them. In the long term, we will beat them," said Gadhafi.
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Video & Some texts Fwd: [SPARK] The defense budget should be cut! 국방 예산 감축되어야

* Image source: same as the link

- The defense budget cut is the will of people who judged the [Lee Myung Bak government’s] hunting North Korea with the pretext of Cheonan ship [incident]!
- People-friendly welfare budget is a lie without cutting the wasteful defense budget!
- “Just society” without the cut of the illegal defense budget is a fair but empty phrase!
- It is time to reduce military budget not to build war power!
_______________________________________________________
* Related blog

Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Photos Fwd: [SPARK] The National Assembly should cut the defense budget and expand the public welfare budget!
국회는 국방 예산을 삭감하고 복지 예산을 늘려야
________________________________________________________
* The SPARK uploaded the report on its recent Peace Disarmament rally on Oct. 26, 2010. You can see some photos and video, HERE. Some translated excerpts can be seen underneath the below video.
________________________________________________________

관련 국문 기사는 여기를 가세요.
[평통사]106차 평화군축집회
국회는 국방예산 삭감하고 민생복지예산 확충에 나서라!
2010. 10. 26(화) 낮 12시/여의도 국회 국민은행 앞
________________________________________________________
* Video source: Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea



_________________________________________________________

_ 평통사와 민주노총, 진보신당등이 국회 국민은행 앞에서 군비축소와 민생복지예산 확충을 촉구하는 106차 평화군축집회를 진행하였습니다.

_ Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea (SPARK), Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), and New Progressive Party, Democratic Labor party etc. held the 106th peace Disarmament rally that demanded the reduction of military budget and expansion of welfare budget, in front of the Kook-Min bank near the National Assembly, [on Oct. 26, 2010].

_ 10월 25일 부터 2011년도 국방예산에 대한 국회 심의가 시작됩니다. 2011년도 국방예산 요구안은 올해 29조 5,627억 보다 5.8%증액된 31조 2,795억입니다. 국방예산이 30조를 넘어선 것은 사상 처음입니다.

_ The National Assembly review on the 2011 defense budget began on Oct. 25. The 2011 defense budget proposes 31 trillion 279.5 billion won (* about $ 27 billion), that is 5.8 % increment from 29 trillion 562.7 billion (* about $ 25 billion), this year. It is for the first time that the ROK defense budget went over 30 trillion won.

_ 오혜란 평통사 평화군축팀 팀장은 “이명박 대통령이 예산안 시정연설에서 2011년도 예산안의 특징을 ‘공정사회’,‘서민희망/미래대비예산’이라고 주장했는데, 이는 말뿐이다. 방위비분담금 중 연합방위력증강사업비의 경우는 예산편성의 법적근거가 없는데도 312억원이나 편성되었다.

_ Oh Hye-Ran, director of Peace Disarmament said, “Even though Lee Myung-Bak government claimed that the 2011 budget featured ‘just society,’ ‘hope and future-readiness for citizen,’ they are only words. The budget for the Combined Defense Improvement Project (CDIP) among the defense-sharing budget, was estimated even as 31.2 billion won (* about $27 million), even if it has no legal basis.

_최창준 민주노동당 자주평화통일위원장은….지금은 MD, PSI참여 국방비 인상등 전쟁을 준비하는 것이 아니라 금강산 관광 재개, 대북 쌀지원, 하나로 건강보험등 평화와 복지에 예산을 사용해야한다."

_Choi, Chang-Joon, Chairman of the Self-reliance, Peace & Unification Committee, Democratic Labor Party said… “Now is not the time to prepare war such as increment of the defense budget by joining MD & PSI, but the time to use the budget for peace & welfare such as the resumption of the Geumgang Mt. trip [in N.K], rice support for N. Korea and Hanaro health care.

-안병순 공무원 노조 교육위원장은…[이명박] 파탄의 위기를 국민적 분노로 연결시켜 전쟁비용예산은 계속 감축시켜 평화유지비용으로, 서민복지비용으로 전환시켜야 한다."

- Ahn Byung-Soon, Education Director of the government workers’ union said, “ We should connect the crisis of Lee Myung-Bak government to people’s rage, continuously reduce the war cost budget and [convert it] to peace maintenance cost and commons’ welfare budget.

_조승현 부장은 "확산탄과 대인지뢰는 국제적으로 모두 금지되어있는 무기로써 그 피해대상이 대부분 민간인이다라는 공통점을 가지고 있다. 대인지뢰에 경우 2000년도 이후에 47명이 민간인이 죽거나 다쳤다.'세계에서 가장 넓은 지뢰밭의 고향' 이라는 말은 미국 도시사전 사이트에 KOREA를 넣으면 첫 줄에 나오는 문구다. 한반도가 확산탄과 대인지뢰에 의해서 대량으로 피해를 입을수 있는 지역이다."

_Cho Seung-Hyun, staff of the Peace Disarmament team said, “The Cluster Bomb Unit(CBU) and anti-personal mine is all internationally prohibited and have the common character that the targets of their damage are mostly civilians. In case of anti-personal mine, 47 civilians were killed or wounded since 2000. ‘The home of the largest mine field in the world,’ is the phrase that comes in the first line when you type the word, “KOREA’ in the city dictionary site, United Sates. The Korean peninsula is the region that can be enormously harmed by the Cluster bomb units and anti-personnel mine,”

_흡수통일을 추구하는 이명박 정부 하에서의 국방비 증액은 대북 방어가 아닌 선제공격과 침략, 무력흡수통일을 위한 한미연합전력구축에 그 목적이 있는 만큼, 국방비 삭감투쟁은 이명박 정권의 기반을 허물고 평화와 통일, 복지로 나아가는 전제를 마련하는 투쟁이라는 의의를 갖습니다.

_As the increment of the defense budget under the Lee Myung-Bak government who pursues the absorbing unification is not for the defense against North Korea but for the preemptive strike, invasion, and establishment of the ROK-US combined war power for the absorbing unification by military power, the struggle for the defense cut has the meaning that it tears back the base of the Lee Myung-Bak regime and prepare for the premise for the peace, unification, and welfare.

Photo Fwd: Stop Rain of Death, Cluster Bombs

* All the image source: Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea, July 29, 2010

Jeju Aerospace Museum in the Seogwipo City, by 2013?

* Image source: same as the below link
Design of the Jeju Aerospace museum by Daerim Inc. Consortium

The Seogwipo Daily Newspaper reported on March 23 that the Daerim inc. consortium was selected as the company to build the ‘Aerospace museum’ in Seokwang-ri, Anduk-myeon. City of Seogwipo, Jeju Island.

*The Jeju Free International City Development Center announced on March 22, that the Daerim Inc. Consortium was finally selected before the Samsung C & T inc. consortium, as a result of the bid for the laying out & carrying out the construction of the aerospace museum.

The Daerim inc. consortium is composed of Daerim Industry (42%), Hanwha Construction (20%), Hwasung Industry(18%) and other two companies(each 10%)

* Wait. Daerim Inc. is one of the companies, with Samsung, who have involved in the Yongsan tragedy, and is to take charge of the 1st construction part of bay & harbor for the planned Jeju naval base. Hanwha is infamous for the production & export of the cluster bombs. (For more. click HERE)


The Korea Times has reported on May 5, 2009 as below:


“Tourist haven Jeju Island, famous for flowers, rocks and wind, could become a technology hub when an aerospace museum is completed by 2013.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs started construction at Shinhwa Park, Seogwipo, Tuesday with a planned investment of some 130 billion won ($100 million) in the project.

The ministry, the Air Force and the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province have teamed up to bring the museum to fruition.

The 330,000-square-meter complex is to be composed of an ``experience center'' where people can try programs related to the space industry and view ``exhibitions'' showing basic information about air and space, which are still considered largely irrelevant to many people here.

Pilot training, simulators, entertainment facilities, training centers and a three-dimensional cinema and planetarium are to be built to attract the younger generation. A history museum focusing on Korean space studies and the Air Force will appeal to other age groups, the ministry said.

The museum surroundings will feature five theme parks where people can sit in aircraft exhibits.

Simulated Air Force combat, operational training and a military transport for soldiers are also to be exhibited.”


How the story is relevant to the Jeju naval base plan that the ROK government has bluffed out to finish by 2014? ? It is surely one of the attention points.


* Jeju Island is undergoing six major projects to become a ‘Global city’: Health Care Town, English Education City, Jeju Science Park, Resort-type Residential Complex, Myths and History Theme Park, and Seogwipo Tourism Port. With the exception of Health Care Town and English Education City, the four projects have already been initiated.(Architecture Now, May 18, 2009)

No Missile Defense, No Cluster Bombs!

No arms race in the North East Asia!! No MD!(SPARK)

No Poongsan, cluster munitions production & export company! (SPARK)
Remove the non-humanitarian cluster munitions, weapons of mass destruction! (SPARK)

Join the Convention on Cluster Munitions! (SPARK)
No MD that makes China enemy! (SPARK)
Stop the plan to join the MD (SPARK)
Stop the HHOP (Humphreys Housing Opportunity Program)) construction business
that makes the USFK as the invasive forces to overseas! (SPARK)
(* The HHOP here concretely means rental housing for the USFK and their families, Pyeongteak)

'South Korea, join the Convention on Cluster Munitions! (SPARK)'

South Korea, join the Convention on Cluster Munitions! (SPARK)


* SPARK means Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea

* Below is rough translation from the SPARK site.

[98th SPARK Peace Disarmament Rally for the abolishment of the cluster munitions and for joining of the convention on the cluster munitions]
: Simultaneous actions for the abolishment of the cluster munitions in front of the Defense Department, Poongsan headquarter (Seoul), and Angang factory of Poongsan (Kyungjoo)

Noon, Feb. 23 (Tuesday), 2010
Place: In front of the civil service consultation center, Ministry of the National Defense dept.


1. Cluster munitions of which a big bomb contains the small bombs, from 2~3 at least to 2,000 at most, and that bursts by spreading those, are the weapon that indiscriminately scorch the vast areas and an anti-humanitarian weapons, to the degree that 98% of the killed by them are the civilian.

2. Even though South Korea is one of the representing cluster production and export countries, she has not joined the Convention on the Cluster Munitions. And at least $80.8 billion won budget[about $ 76 million] of the cluster munitions [for storage] is included in 2010 defense budget.

3. Hanwha is exporting 2.75 inch MPSM (Multi-Purpose Sub-Munition) that is jettisoned from the helicopter or aircraft, while Poongsan is producing, selling and exporting the 155mm Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions (DP-ICM) that is used by K-9 self-propelled gun. The South Korean cluster munitions production companies of Hanhwa and Poongsan are becoming the targets of the international denouncement as those are designated as the ‘companies for investment ban’, each in Dec. 2006 and Jan. 2008, by the Norwegian GPDC whose motto is the ethical investment.’

4. On Feb. 23, Tuesday, the SPARK [did] the 98th SPARK Peace Disarmament Rally; for the abolishment of the cluster munitions; for urging the South Korean government to join the convention on the cluster munitions; for stopping the negotiation to join the US MD system; and for urging to stop the permission on posing and conditional use of the rental housing for the USFK families (The cost for that illegal practice would be from South Korean people’s bloody tax]. The SPARK [has also done] one-man protest simultaneously in front of the Poongsan headquarter, Angang factory of the Poongsan.


Peace Disarmamnet team, SPARK


The endorsers

Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea
Sharing Culture
All Together
Share Culture of the University Students
And New Progressive Party


* There are other organizations who actively protest against the Cluster munitions, as well. Please see HERE.

Photo Fwd: Afghans Protest NATO's Killing Of Children, Other Civilians

* Image source/ caption:Press TV
'Afghan civilian death prompts anti-US rallies
Thu, 31 Dec 2009'

* Image source/ caption: TVNZ News

'Source: Reuters:
'Afghan protest the killing of 10 civilians, most of them teenagers, in a military raid'

"In Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, which borders Kunar, around 200 university students rallied in the streets to protest, demanding those responsible for the weekend attack be brought to justice.'

* informed at StopNATO

TVNZNews
Afghan protest the killing of 10 civilians, most of them teenagers, in a military raid
Dec. 31, 2009

* informed at Information Clearing House
Press TV
Afghan civilian death prompts anti-US rallies
Thu, 31 Dec 2009


* Related articles

Information Clearing House
Afghan Civilians Handcuffed And Killed By US Occupation Forces: Report
Western troops accused of executing 10 Afghan civilians, including children
December 31, 2009 "The Times"

StopNATO
Christmas In Afghanistan: NATO Cluster Bombs And Maimed Children
25.12.2009

StopNATO
NATO-Afghanistan-Pakistani Tripartite Escalation Of South Asian War
December 30, 2009

Photos Fwd: Peace action: No Cluster Bombs on Dec. 3

* All Image source: World Without War(South Korea). Click 1. 2. 3

* All Image source: World Without War(South Korea). Click 1. 2. 3

The black banners says, “South Korean government that produces and exports the cluster munitions,
join the Convention on Cluster Munitions: Stop Rain of Death, Cluster Bombs”

Some young peace activists in South Korea did a peace action on Dec. 3, the first anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions(CCM).

According to the Korean email on Dec. 10, sent by the organization, World Without War,

“ The cluster munitions have the high misfire rate and most of their victims are civilians thus the international society with 94 nations participating signed the agreement in Oslo on Dec. 8, 2008 to prevent the humanitarian damage by them. However, the South Korea that produces and exports the Cluster Munitions has not participated in the agreement. Therefore, we decided to do the campaign to inform those facts on the 1st anniversary of the CCM."
(unofficial translation)

The representing corporations to produce and export the Cluster Munitions in South Korea are Hanwa and Poonsan, according to the activists.


* Related blog

http://nobasestorieskorea.blogspot.com/2009/11/poster-fwd-no-cluster-munitions-on-dec.html
Poster Fwd: No Cluster Munitions on Dec. 3, 2009

Poster Fwd: No Cluster Munitions on Dec. 3, 2009

* Poster forwarded from Jieun(Peace and Disarmament Center, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy(PSPD) on Nov. 23, 2009



A Korean group called, “Weapon Zero (무기 제로팀)” calls the protest against the Cluster Munitions on Dec. 3, the first anniversary of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The convention ‘was adopted in Dublin by 107 states on 30 May 2008 and signed on 3 December the same year’. ‘The Convention enter[ed] into force six months after the 30th state has submitted its instrument of ratification, and is open for ratifications and signature at the United Nations headquarters in New York.’ See the Convention website.

The poster urges the South Korea government who did not sign the convention yet to immediately sign it. The nations who did not sign yet include the United States, China, Russia who are the main product and use nations of cluster munitions. The South Korea (Hanwha Co, Poongsan Co.) is said one of the most active countries to produce the Cluster Munitions in Asia, with China. About 34 countries are heard to produce the cluster bombs. See the signatory countries.

Text Fwd: 30 Years After War Ended, Vietnam Needs 300 Years To Heal

StopNATO
30 Years After War Ended, Vietnam Needs 300 Years To Heal

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=49096&cid=57&p=01.08.2009
Voice of Russia
August 1, 2009

Vietnam War came to a halt over 30 years ago but the aftermath will tell for
another 300 years

-[I]t is necessary to draw up an international programme to assist Vietnam.
And not only Vietnam, for that matter. One should remember that the neighbouring
Cambodia and other countries of Indochina are coming up against similar
consequences. Another case in point is Yugoslavia, which came under NATO bombing
attacks, with unexploded bombs still found there now and then. The situation is
much the same in Iraq. The aftermath of the armed aggressions will keep killing
people for a long time still if the international community fails to come to
grips with the problem.

Vietnam will need at least 300 years and over 10 billion dollars to clear the
whole of its territory of unexploded air bombs, shells and mines that have been
there since the war against the United States ended in 1975. This came in a
statement by the Deputy Chief of the Vietnam armed forces engineer troops
Colonel Fan Duk Tuan.

The Vietnam Was ended 35 years ago. Yet it is still continuing to incur losses.
Under a report that Vietnam has prepared together with the US Vietnam Veterans
Foundation over 10,000 have died and another 12,000 have been injured in Vietnam
in recent years in the post-war years. They have all hit mines that remained in
Vietnam following the US aggression. There is no end of this kind of unexploded
mines, bombs and shells in the country, says the first deputy Chairman of the
Russian-Vietnamese Friendship Society Board Yevgeny Kobelev, who is certainly in
the know, since he was in Vietnam during the war years.
"I was in Vietnam as the ITAR-TASS correspondent in the 1964 through 1967, when
the US launched its air warfare against North Vietnam, Yevgeny Kobelev says.

"I saw US military aircraft use no end of cluster bombs to carpet-bomb huge
areas of North Vietnam. These cluster bombs, just as other types of bombs, would
often not go off. They are still lying there, in Vietnam. What's more,
Americans used heaps of ammunition they had had since the end of the Second
World War. This is a fact since the Vietnamese found some unexploded bombs,
500-kilo or 1,000-kilo bombs that had been made in 1945. Those bombs, too, would
not always blow up on impact. And it is for experts to count just how many such
bombs remain scattered over Vietnam today."

Well, experts have counted up the number of such charges, and the figure is
staggering. That's taking account the fact that Vietnamese have been de-mining
their country for dozens of years to stop the war, which is long since over,
from claiming more human lives. The unexploded bombs also negatively affect the
national economy.

According to Fan Duk Tuan, last year alone Vietnam spend almost 70 million
dollars on de-mining and making land suitable for civil construction. Access to
mineral deposits has been complicated and tourism is hard to develop in the
situation that's taken shape. Yevgeny Kobelev feels that Vietnam needs
international assistance, with the United States and its allies in the Vietnam
War due to play the main role.

I think a correct and real way to settle the problem, Yevgeny Kobelev says, is
to press for the United States and the countries that either supported the US in
that war or were immediately involved in fighting should admit their guilt. And
it is necessary to draw up an international programme to assist Vietnam.

And not only Vietnam, for that matter. One should remember that the neighbouring
Cambodia and other countries of Indochina are coming up against similar
consequences. Another case in point is Yugoslavia, which came under NATO bombing
attacks, with unexploded bombs still found there now and then. The situation is
much the same in Iraq. The aftermath of the armed aggressions will keep killing
people for a long time still if the international community fails to come to
grips with the problem.
===========================
Stop NATO