Leading , Keralite in Kuwait, Advocate Palavilayil Thomas Panicker told KM that the Keralites in Kuwait are concerned about their future as the war continues vigorously for the last 13 days. Many of them are skeptical about the outcome of the war and their own future. However, they are still optimistic and hope nothing will happen to Kuwait. Though, Indians, as all others are in tension , are fully confident that Kuwait is well protected and no major damages would happen to Kuwait.
They believe that Kuwaiti Government has taken all possible measures to face the war and give security to all residents. As the war is not finished within one week as many of them expected, and Saddam, still retaining his brute power over Baghdad, Kuwaiti expatriates are as worried as anybody else. The recent missile attack on the Supermarket has not eroded the confidence but warned them to take more ideal precautions during the war. Business is down especially in small restaurants and shops/establishments selling different items/equipment other than food items.
Offices, Companies, Banks, Govt. Departments, Airport, Schools, etc. also are functioning normally. Acclording to Thomas, there is no panic situation around.Advocate Thomas Panicker also reiterated that Indians have full confidence on the security arrangements and emergency measures taken by Kuwaiti Government. This confidence is demonstrated by the fact that though flights are available 99% of Indian families are staying back in Kuwait. They also appreciate the positive steps and policies adopted vis-?-vis the current war. All Indians support the stand taken by Kuwait in this war. Advocate Thomas says the Kuwait Indians are all anxious to see this war successfully achieves its aim and a friendly, democratic government is established in this country and a continuous threat/headache is removed and permanent peace established here. -keralamonitor.com04.2.2003
Media Monitor Reporters Without Borders petitions the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission over bombing of Iraqi state TV
Reporters Without Borders called today on the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to investigate the US-British coalition forces bombing of the Iraqi state TV headquarters in Baghdad as a possible violation of international humanitarian law.
It is the first time in its existence that the Commission is being petitioned. Set up in 1991 under the First Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions, it has the job of investigating any alleged serious violation of international humanitarian law.
"A media outlet cannot be a military target under international law and its equipment and installations are civilian property protected as such under the Geneva Conventions," said Reporters Without Border secretary-general Robert Ménard. "Only an objective and impartial enquiry can determine whether or not the Conventions have been violated."
To have jurisdiction, the Commission has to be petitioned by one of the parties in a conflict or by one of the countries that have recognised its jurisdiction. To conduct an investigation, all the belligerents must accept its authority. Among the countries involved in the Iraq war, only Australia and the United Kingdom have formally recognised it, allowing an investigation to go ahead as far as they are concerned. The United States and Iraq have not yet accepted the principle of such an enquiry.
Reporters Without Borders called on the Commission, which is based in Berne (Switzerland), to seek consent from all the belligerents to investigate the bombing of the Iraqi TV headquarters and the Iraqi information ministry building.
The TV headquarters were badly damaged by US-British coalition forces bombing on the evening of 25 March and the station's broadcasts cut off. Programmes resumed the next morning. The building also housed the Youth TV station, run by President Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday.
A missile hit the information ministry at dawn on 29 March and damaged the "tent city" built by the international media on the roof of a nearby building. Nobody was hurt but the press centre on the ground floor of the ministry was badly damaged, with windows blown out and computers and other equipment strewn on the ground.
The ministry was again bombed by coalition forces on the night of 30-31 March and the government TV station again went off the air, this time for more than 10 hours. Satellite dishes used by the station were on top of the building and offices, studios and transmission antenna were just next door.
Coalition spokesmen said on 25 March that the attack on the TV building was a bid to knock out President Hussein's means of communication with the Iraqi people and army. They mentioned the film the station was showing of US prisoners of war and bloody corpses said to be those of US soldiers. These coalition statements show that the Iraqi national TV was deliberately attacked.
U.S. strikes hit Baghdad Red Cross maternity hospital
Click to enlarge photo
BAGHDAD -American Bomber aircraft have hit a Red Crescent maternity hospital in Baghdad, killing several people and wounding at least 25, The attacks occurred at 9:30 a.m. (6:30 a.m. British time) and caught motorists by surprise as they ventured out during a lull in the bombing. At least five cars were crushed with drivers burned to death inside, Reuters correspondent Samia Nakhoul said. At least three doctors and nurses working at the Iraqi Red Crescent hospital were wounded in the blasts. Among the wounded were patients who had come to hospital for help. The missiles also obliterated wings of Baghdad's trade fair building, which lies next to a government security office that was apparently missed in the bombings.
BBC cameraman killed by landmine in Iraq
London- A BBC cameraman has been killed after stepping on a landmine in northern Iraq on Tuesday, said the company.Kaveh Golestan got out of the car and stepped on to the landmine near the town of Kifri at midday. He was killed instantly,a BBC statement said.BBC correspondent Jim Muir and producer Stuart Hughes, who were working , were also injured in the explosion. Hughes suffered leg injuries and is being treated at a US medical unit near Sulaymaniyah in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. Muir was not seriously injured.
Golestan was a Pulitzer-prize winning freelance cameraman who worked for the BBC's Tehran bureau. He is survived by a wife and a19-year-old son.
"Kaveh Golestan was an outstanding photo journalist who had worked in support of freedom of expression in his native Iran and elsewhere and was well known to many western news organizations, said BBC news director Richard Sambrook."He had worked with the BBC for many years," Sambrook added.
BBC Director-General Greg Dyke said, "the incident highlights the dangers our news crews face all the time in Iraq. Be assured that their safety is always our first priority and that we are doing all we can to ensure their well-being."Golestan is the latest of several journalists to die reporting the Iraqi war, now in its 14th day.
ITN veteran correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed when the vehicle he was in was hit in what is thought to have been a 'friendly fire' incident on March 22. Two of his colleagues are still missing.On the same day, an Australian cameraman, Paul Moran, was killed in a car bomb in the northern Iraqi town of Khurmal.On Sunday, British Channel 4 TV reporter Gaby Rado was found dead in the car park of a hotel in Sulaymaniyah. It is thought he had fallen off the top of the hotel.
Middle East Peace Middle East "roadmap" to be discussed in Brussels
BRUSSELS, April 2 Representatives from the European Union (EU), the United States, United Nations and Russia will meet on Thursday in Brussels to discuss peace plan known as a proposed "roadmap" for the future of the Middle East, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.EU's special Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos would meet his counterparts from Russia, the United States and the United Nations, also called as the "Quartet", to discuss details of the presentation and implementation of the plans, sources said.
The meeting coincides with a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will hold talks with NATO and EU foreign ministers in Brussels on the future of post-war Iraq.The Quartet has delayed publishing the roadmap for months at US insistence to avoid putting pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a run-up to a general election held on Jan. 28.The plan will set out steps toward ending violence between Israel and the Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Pentagon PA staff helping out embedded reporters
Source - Written by Douglas Quenqua Published on March 31 2003
WASHINGTON: They may not get as much attention as their media counterparts, but dozens of Pentagon public affairs officers are "embedded" right alongside the reporters in Iraq. Each military division in the region has approximately 40 to 60 journalists in tow, and between five and six public affairs officers behind the scenes, according to a Pentagon official. It's their job to get the reporters to their assigned units safely, keep tabs on them, and provide them with backup equipment or help filing their stories should there be any complications.
"They are a backup," explained PA officer Major Timothy Blair. "We told journalists that were coming to the embedded program that they needed to bring whatever tools or assets they needed to transmit their products, and that we would assist them if their primary needs failed, i.e., help charge their batteries or run their tapes back to a distribution point."
The Pentagon also maintains the Coalition Press Information Center (CPIC) in Kuwait, a base of operations for public affairs officers not traveling with troops.
A 24-hour operation designed to keep up with news cycles in every time zone, the CPIC maintains contact with the bureau chiefs of embedded journalists and disperses information to other journalists in the region. Indeed, one of the CPIC's most vital roles is to discourage "rogue" journalists from venturing into dangerous areas by providing the information they might otherwise attempt to get on their own. "These are service members. They are used to doing this full time with their units," Blair said. "But the size and breadth of what we are doing right now is larger than anything anyone has done before."