哈珀依然不相信以故意轰炸UN观察点

[Fisher2004]

ZT: UN observer confirmed dead in last week's strike

UN observer confirmed dead in last week's strike

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060729/UN_observer_060730/20060731?hub=Canada

Updated Mon. Jul. 31 2006 6:18 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The body of missing Canadian UN observer Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener has been found -- almost a week after his observation base in southern Lebanon was hit during an Israeli air strike.

Maj. Hess-von Kruedener, 43, was killed along with three other UN observers after Israeli jets bombarded the town of Khiam, near the eastern end of Lebanon's border, on July 25.

The bodies of three soldiers from Austrian, China and Finland were found shortly after the attack, but Hess-von Kruedener, a father of two grown children, remained missing until a body was positively identified as his on Monday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was "deeply saddened" to learn of Hess-von Kruedener's death.

"On behalf of the Government of Canada, I extend my profound sympathy to the family, friends and loved ones of this brave soldier, who served our country with distinction and honour," Harper said in a statement released Monday.

Last week, Hess-von Kruedener's family were hopeful he had survived the attack.

"I kind of equate it to an earthquake in India," his sister Tonya Hess told CTV Newsnet on Saturday.

"They pull people out after seven days. I think it's possible, and not only that, I believe that it is going to happen. I have full faith that he's going to be returned."

Bombing was "intentional"

Israel insisted the bombing was an accident, despite UN observers repeatedly warning the Israeli military about their location.

However, Hess-von Kruedener's wife, Cynthia, accused the Israeli military of deliberately attacking her husband's observer post.

"So why were the Israelis firing on that base? ... In my opinion, those were precision-guided missiles, so the attack was intentional," she told reporters outside her Kingston, Ont. home Thursday.

She also said that Israel had attacked the area several times before, "for weeks upon weeks," according to her husband. Her comments add fuel to the controversy over the bombing, which has included allegations from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the observers were deliberately targeted by Israel.

It's an allegation that has been vigorously denied by Israeli officials who insist on calling the incident "a tragic mistake."

At the heart of it lies information that has come out over the past few days that UN observers in Lebanon phoned the Israelis at least 10 times over a six-hour period pleading for the shelling of the position to stop.

When it became evident the shelling wasn't going to stop, the base commander called top UN officials in New York.

Ireland has filed an official protest over the incident as six of those specific phone warnings came from Lt.-Col. John Molloy, a senior Irish UN peacekeeper whose job was to liaise with the Israel Defence Forces.

On Saturday, two peacekeepers were wounded when an Israeli strike hit their UN station. UN observers had recently been relocated to peacekeepers' posts for their own safety.

Hess-von Kruedener had completed nine months of his one-year tour of duty with the UN in Lebanon.

He was an infantry officer with 20 years service and had done four earlier operational tours in Cyprus, twice in Bosnia, and Congo.

 

[Fisher2004]

ZT: Prime Minister Harper's full Cabinet has not met over Mideast crisis

The Hill Times, July 31st, 2006
NEWS STORY
By Simon Doyle and Kate Malloy

http://www.thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/july/31/cabinet/&c=1

Prime Minister Harper's full Cabinet has not met over Mideast crisis

But Cabinet ministers took concerns over politics of support for Israel to PMO.
At least 12 Cabinet ministers were engaged in discussions with the Prime Minister's Office over the last few weeks about the potential political fallout of the government's support for Israel, according to a source close to the government's foreign policy on the Middle East.

Sources confirmed that there have not been any full Cabinet meetings since the Middle East crisis erupted on July 12, but one source told The Hill Times that more than 12 ministers representing Canada's different regions had taken their concerns to the PMO after consultations with interested groups and constituents.

"A significant number of ministers I know have been engaged and in consultation with the Prime Minister and Peter MacKay on the issues. Part of it is, I think, political. I think they're trying to ensure that their assessment of how this is playing out in the country and amongst their own supporters is accurate and keeps them safe," the source told The Hill Times.

"Part of it was on substance, but I have to tell you that on substance, it wasn't a big issue. They're pretty united on this," the source said, who did not want to name the ministers, but said many of them represented the old Progressive Conservative Party. "We're not just talking about Stockwell Day [Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.]. It's pretty wide."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), who has been accused of micromanaging the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon from his trip to the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, has taken a pro-Israeli policy approach to the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where hundreds of civilians in Lebanon and Israel have been killed in Israeli air strikes and Hezbollah rocket attacks.

As of late last week, about 50 Israelis had been killed and an estimated 600 Lebanese civilians.

Observers have questioned the degree to which the intensely divisive foreign policy issue may cost the Conservative government politically.

Sources also told The Hill Times that Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.), Parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, has played a key role in coordinating information and connecting ministers with the Prime Minister while he was on tour in Europe, and that Minister MacKay and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor (Carleton-Mississippi Mills, Ont.) have been working closely on the matter.

However, another source, also close to the government's Middle East policy, told The Hill Times that Mr. MacKay is having no influence on the government's policy.

When asked about Minister's MacKay's role, the source said: "He's told what to do."

The PMO is said to have consulted with ministers for their views on Canada's position as well as conduct its own polling on the issue, emerging satisfied by the position taken by Mr. Harper.

"You know what? I think that regardless about what you think about his positions, he is proving himself to be a pretty astute politician, and one of the things that he does is ensure that he has his back," the source said about Mr. Harper. "So, he may have his views, but I think he wants the benefit to say that he has consulted on whatever the issue is. So I think he's on safe ground here."

Even Mr. Harper's initial comments on July 13, the source added, when the Prime Minister called Israel's air strikes a "measured" response to a Hezbollah attack on Israeli soldiers, came after some initial discussion with ministers.

Some of Mr. Harper's most important and trusted Cabinet ministers sit on his Priorities and Planning Cabinet Committee. Among its 11 members are Minister MacKay, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice (Calgary Centre-North, Alta.), Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day (Okanagan?Coquihalla, B.C.), Justice Minister Vic Toews (Provencher, Man.), Treasury Board President John Baird (Ottawa West?Nepean, Ont.) and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier (Beauce, Que.).

Liberal MP Bernard Patry (Pierrefonds-Dollard, Que.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said part of the reason the government's seemingly slow response to evacuate thousands of Canadians from Lebanon was that the Prime Minister tried to manage the issue from the G8 meetings, and, as a result, failed to quickly consider advice from the Foreign Affairs Department.

"They had some advice from Foreign Affairs that something was coming and they should prepare themselves. The problem with Mr. Harper is the fact that he was busy at the G8. He was in St. Petersburg, and if you're busy at the G8 and sitting around the table with the leaders of the world, you cannot take a phone call. What if something's going to happen in Lebanon? They didn't have the time to react. That's because the problem right now with the current government is that all the decisions?99 per cent?all the decisions are taken from the Prime Minister's Office," Mr. Patry said.

"Everything is coming from the PMO. If the Prime Minister is not available?and he needs to be there, G8 is No. 1, there's no doubt about this?he didn't realize that this was a priority and a priority for Canadians."

The PMO was said to be instrumental in crafting the evacuation plan. A Globe and Mail report on July 20 said the PM had micromanaged the crisis from his trip to the G8 meeting in Russia, causing delays and confusion.

"It's pretty difficult to micromanage anything if you're in St. Petersburg and all of the work is being done here is Ottawa," one senior government official said at a background briefing on the evacuation in Ottawa on July 20. "We've been in very close touch obviously with the Prime Minister and with his senior staff, and it's not a question of micromanagement at all but of close collaboration, and the Prime Minister has followed the work that we've been doing, the decisions we've taken and it's been extremely collaborative. I really want to emphasize that point."

Meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is scheduled to convene for an emergency meeting Tuesday, Aug. 1 in Ottawa, to discuss the Canadian rescue mission from Lebanon.

Mr. Patry said the three opposition parties recalled the committee for the meeting, where he hopes to discuss the escalating conflict in Lebanon, where a UN soldier, Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, and three other UN personnel, were presumed dead last week after an Israeli air strike destroyed their base.

"How many did you see killed yesterday? Four people, and a Canadian one of them. An escalation is no good," Mr. Patry said.

Ontario Conservative Sen. Hugh Segal has also said he will ask the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to review the evacuation from Lebanon and the cooperation between the departments of Foreign Affairs and National Defence.

Foreign Affairs, Defence and CIDA officials told reporters at the briefing on July 20 that they began adding planning to a contingency evacuation plan on July 13, with more serious meetings and the formation of an inter-departmental task force, including the PMO and PCO, on Saturday July 15.

Prime Minister Harper, meanwhile, who was in Ottawa last week, told reporters in Cambridge on July 25, that he visited the operations centre in Ottawa the day earlier and said the federal public servants had done a "fantastic job of evacuating thousands of Canadians at a scale we have never done before on very short notice."

Said Mr. Harper: "As I said, I think tremendous gratitude needs to go to literally hundreds of public servants across various departments who have been working day and night for the past week-plus to get this unprecedented evacuation completed successfully. In terms of Canada's position, let me just say the position remains the same. It's the position we'll be seeking as Peter MacKay heads to Rome to talk with other governments about what to do next. The problem we have here is we have extremist and terrorist organizations that governments are either unwilling or incapable of controlling. If we're going to get a permanent settlement in the Middle East, we must be able to stop this kind of violence, to stop these kinds of attacks that inevitably provoke this kind of conflict. Our government believes strongly that both the Israelies and the Palestinians deserve to live in safe, secure, democratic, peaceful states. That's our objective. And we will strongly oppose any outside or inside terrorist forces that attempt to upset this situation through the use of terror and violence."

The Prime Minister said the government will review lessons learned in the evacuation of thousands of Canadians from Lebanon.

"All I will say is this: that the government has taken the view on this particular occasion that given the circumstances, given how suddenly it came upon us, that we would spare no expense to protect and to secure the safety of any Canadians who wanted to come to Canada."

But opposition MPs are critical that the Prime Minister had not yet called a full Cabinet meeting.

NDP MP Alexa McDonough (Halifax, N.S.), her party's foreign affairs critic, said she would be "astounded" if they hadn't met, but in some way she wouldn't be surprised because Mr. Harper is a "one-man band."

"He and his office, the Prime Minister's Office, were so insistent on micro-managing [the evacuation] that a lot of our extremely, experienced, expert, professional diplomatic staff were just paralysed because they couldn't get answers back on things," said Ms. McDonough. "I had several contacts with people just enraged at the effect it was having on embassy staff and Foreign Affairs staff in Ottawa."

Liberal MP Belinda Stronach (Newmarket-Aurora, Ont.), a former Conservative MP, said the fact that Mr. Harper hasn't called a full Cabinet meeting "is reflective of his style," pointing out that he doesn't seek input or engage his full caucus or Cabinet.

"What's taking place in the Middle East, it has great consequences, so I think it does warrant a special Cabinet meeting or a special caucus meeting or even a special meeting of Parliament. It's of such consequence. It warrants that," said Ms. Stronach.

Meanwhile, Ms. McDonough said the House Foreign Affairs Committee will look at Canada's evacuation, the need for a ceasefire and the humanitarian aid.

She said at the moment there is no accountability, except Prime Minister Harper saying "aye, aye sir to whatever George Bush wants and his being totally uncritical of events happening there."

Declared Ms. McDonough: "I think that's we have Parliamentary committees, to provide some balance, to provide some dialogue, to provide some insights, hopefully."

"I felt increasingly distressed at what I think is not reflective of the diversity of opinion in this country. In fact, I think the government's unilateral position, unilateral actions are not accountable when there's no Canadian position, no Canadian content, no Canadian values in the position that Harper keeps taking on these things, and MacKay as well, and I think if we come back to a multi-partisan committee that exists for the purpose of dealing with foreign affairs matters and international development matters, we're at least establishing some dialogue and hopefully we'll be able to put forward recommendations to the government to be more responsive I think Canadians actually want us doing in the world," Ms. McDonough said.

sdoyle@hilltimes.com
The Hill Times

 

[Fisher2004]

ZT: MPs get first chance to grill MacKay on Mideast response

MPs get first chance to grill MacKay on Mideast response

BILL CURRY

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060731.PARL31/TPStory/National

With a report from Brian Laghi

OTTAWA -- Members of Parliament will get their first opportunity tomorrow to grill Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and his officials on the government's handling of the outbreak of violence in the Middle East.

Mr. MacKay's appearance tomorrow morning will be the first official interaction between the government and the opposition since Prime Minister Stephen Harper adopted a supportive position toward Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It will also be Mr. MacKay's first opportunity to face questions from MPs about his department's handling of the evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon and the Prime Minister's call for a review of Canada's policy with respect to future evacuations.

Mr. MacKay's spokesman, André Lemay, said the minister is looking forward to the opportunity to address some of the negative media reports regarding the government's handling of the evacuation.

"I think he's got a lot of good stories to tell," said Mr. Lemay, noting that the department has received more than 500 calls thanking the government for its work.

NDP MP and foreign affairs critic Alexa McDonough said she has three questions for the minister.

She wants to inquire about what she describes as the "bungling" of the evacuation, Mr. MacKay's opposition to a ceasefire in the region and the issue of humanitarian aid.

"It was a screaming insult to Canada as a whole and certainly the Lebanese people for all of a million dollars to be announced. It's just a total disgrace," she said.

Former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, Allan Rock, said the government should be calling for a ceasefire.

"I think that it's clear there's not going to be a military solution to the menace that Hezbollah represents to the security of Israel," he told CTV's Question Period.

Mr. Rock said the government's shifting position in the region has not done "grave damage" to Canada's international influence, but that the international community is watching "very closely what we say and how we say it."

The government position was also criticized by Liberal MP Dan McTeague, who said Canada has not been even-handed. He said that civilian casualties in Lebanon caused by the Israeli response is radicalizing Lebanese citizens who had never been involved in the issue before.

"Everyone repudiates Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. However, if anything has happened over the past couple of weeks, it has [given] Hezbollah the credence it clearly doesn't deserve," he said.

Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to Mr. MacKay, said the government has been engaged on the issue, and said a quick ceasefire would lead to the status quo.

The beginning of August will bring a rare buzz of activity on Parliament Hill. The Commons foreign affairs committee hearings will be just one of three separate committee studies bringing MPs back in the middle of summer.

In addition to Mr. MacKay's committee appearance tomorrow, the Commons international trade committee will meet today to hear government and business officials comment on the Canada-U.S. softwood lumber agreement.

International Trade Minister David Emerson will face questions from MPs about the status of the deal, which will be voted on this fall.

A third committee dealing with an ongoing review of Canada's anti-terror laws will also meet today for a closed-door meeting.