disorder
disorder
In Gaza
Fri, 12 May 2023 07:28:13 +0000
1. As Donetsk civilians live in constant fear of Ukrainian shelling, from on the ground, I detail the terror
May 11, 2023, RT.com
-Eva Karene Bartlett
Heavy Ukrainian shelling of central Donetsk on April 28 killed nine civilians – including an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother – and injured at least 16 more. The victims were burned alive when the minibus they were in was hit by a shell.
Another tragic day for the people of the Donbass. More Ukrainian war crimes, slaughtering 9 civilians in Donetsk yesterday, including 1 child, and injuring at least 16 more when Ukraine rained munitions down on residential areas of the city, once again. pic.twitter.com/hQanExMWul
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) April 29, 2023
The attack also targeted a major hospital, apartment buildings, houses, parks, streets, and sidewalks. All civilian areas – not military targets.
According to the Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) Representative Office in the JCCC (Joint Monitoring and Co-ordination Center on Ukraine's War Crimes), Kiev's forces fired high-explosive fragmentation missiles "produced in Slovakia and transferred to Ukraine by NATO countries." Regarding an earlier shelling on the same day, the JCCC noted that US-made HIMARS systems were used, targeting "exclusively in the residential, central quarter of the city."
I was outside of Donetsk interviewing refugees from Artyomovsk (also known as Bakhmut) when both rounds of intense shelling occurred, the first starting just after 11am. I returned to see a catastrophic scene, with a burnt-out bus – still smoking – and some of its passengers' charred bodies melted onto the frame. This tragic picture was sadly not a one-off event.
Elsewhere, city workers were already removing debris and had begun repaving damaged sections of the roads. I've seen this following Ukrainian shelling many times, including on January 1 this year, when Ukraine fired 25 Grads into the city centre. Similarly, in July 2022, Ukrainian shelling downtown killed four civilians, including two in a vehicle likewise gutted by flames. When I arrived at the scene about an hour later, workers were repaving the affected section of the street.
The damage to the Republican Trauma Center hospital was quickly cleaned up, but videos shared on Telegram immediately after the shelling show a gaping hole in one of the walls. The room concerned contained what was, apparently, Donetsk's sole MRI machine.
Along Artyoma street, the central Donetsk boulevard targeted countless times by Ukrainian attacks, the destruction was evident: Two cars caught up in the bombing, residents of an apartment building boarding up shattered windows and doors, the all-too-familiar sound of glass and debris being swept away. In the residential area, the first to be targeted that day, in a massive crater behind one house, the walls and roof of another home were intermixed with rocket fragments.
Another year of Ukrainian war crimesShort clip from what I saw at the sites bombed by Ukraine yesterday.
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) April 29, 2023
Longer clip & more info here:https://t.co/baapVcthhr pic.twitter.com/XoNNCxlgMY
What I've seen of Ukraine's war crimes against civilians in the Donbass over the yearshttps://t.co/6v5ppge8gR pic.twitter.com/HjKoOn7Hj9
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) April 30, 2023
In April 2022, following strikes on a large market area in Kirovsky district, in western Donetsk, which killed five civilians and injured 23, I went there to document the aftermath, not expecting to see two of the five dead still lying in nearby lanes. This shelling was just before noon, a busy time of day in the area. Bombing at such periods is an insidious tactic to ensure more civilians are maimed or killed.
Double and triple striking the same areas is another method used by Ukrainian forces. In an interview last year, the director of the Department of Fire and Rescue Forces of the DPR Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergey Neka, told me, "Our units arrive at the scene and Ukraine begins to shell it. A lot of equipment has been damaged and destroyed."
Andrey Levchenko, chief of the emergency department for the Kievsky district of Donetsk, also hit by Ukrainian attacks, said: "They wait for 30 minutes for us to arrive. We arrive there, start assisting people, and the shelling resumes. They wait again, our guys hide in the shelters, as soon as we go out, put out the fire, help people, then shelling resumes."
Excerpts from my report on Ukraine's targeting of Donbass rescuers, war crimes.
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) September 3, 2022
In August, the Donetsk Fire & Rescue Dpt Director told me 40 employees had been injured, 4 killed. In past few days, reports from the DPR note 14 more rescuers have been killed, 9 more injured. pic.twitter.com/fzhcRoOwLT
I was here in Donetsk in mid-June, during a day of particularly intense Ukrainian shelling of the very centre of the city, which killed at least five civilians. The DPR authorities reported that "within two hours, almost 300 MLRS rockets and artillery shells were fired." One Grad rocket hit a maternity hospital, tearing through the roof.
The following month, Ukraine fired rockets containing internationally-banned 'petal' mines. The streets of central Donetsk, as well as the western and northern districts and other cities, were littered with the hard-to-spot mines designed to grotesquely maim, but not necessarily kill, anyone stepping on them. These mines keep claiming new victims to this day – when I last wrote about them here, 104 civilians had been maimed, including this 14-year-old boy. Three had died of their injuries. Since then, the number of victims has risen to 112.
Even with warning, these nefarious "petal"/"butterfly" mines dropped by Ukraine on Donetsk are hard to see & easy to miss.
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) August 1, 2022
Ukraine is committing war crimes against the civilians of the Donbass, and has been for 8+ years. pic.twitter.com/p5byG95GVG
In August, heavy Ukrainian shelling of the centre of Donetsk hit directly next to the hotel I was staying in, along with dozens of other journalists and cameramen. Six civilians were killed that day, including one woman outside the hotel, as well as a child. She been a talented ballerina due to leave to study in Russia soon, and along with her grandmother, her ballet teacher was also killed that day, herself a world-famous former ballerina.
Three bouts of Ukrainian shelling of the city centre in a span of just five days in September killed 26 civilians. Four were killed on September 17, among them two people burned alive inside a vehicle on the same central Artyoma Street. Two days later, 16 civilians were killed, the remains of their bodies strewn along the street or in unrecognizable piles of flesh. Three days later, Ukraine struck next to the central market, killing six civilians, two in a minibus, the rest on the street.
In my subsequent visits to Donetsk and surrounding cities in November and December, I filmed the aftermath of more Ukrainian shelling (using HIMARS) of civilian areas of Donetsk and the settlement of Gorlovka to the north. The November 7 shelling of central Donetsk could have killed the toddler of the young mother I interviewed. Fortunately, after hearing the first rockets hit, she ran with her son to the bathroom. When calm returned, she found shrapnel on his bed.
The November 12 shelling of Gorlovka damaged a beautiful historic cultural building, destroying parts of the roof and the theatre hall within. According to the centre's director, it was one of the best movie theatres in Donetsk Region, one of the oldest, most beautiful, and most beloved buildings in the city. He noted that the HIMARS system is a very precise weapon, so the attack was not accidental.
In an interview around that time, retired US Colonel Douglas Macgregor said, "Your more complex systems like HIMARS, the high mobility rocket system that we provided, are operated exclusively by American and British contractors. Ukrainians aren't operating them."
Ukraine's shelling goes onEarly morning during Easter Mass on April 16, the Ukrainian army fired 20 rockets near the Cathedral of the Holy Transfiguration in the centre of Donetsk, French journalist Christelle Neant reported, noting that one civilian was killed and seven injured. The shelling extended to the central market just behind the cathedral. Just over a week prior, on April 7, another shelling of that market killed one civilian and injured 13, also considerably damaging the market itself.
Ukraine continues to shell the western and northern districts of Donetsk, also pounding Gorlovka, as well as Yasinovatya just north of Donetsk (killing two civilians some days ago).
On April 23, shelling in Petrovsky, a hard-hit western Donetsk district, killed one man and injured five more. The same day, in a village northeast of Donetsk, a rocket killed two women in their 30s. Security camera footage shows the moment when the women attempted to take cover. The munition that killed them hit directly next to where they huddled.
A few days later, on my way to interview refugees from Artyomovsk sheltering in another city, I passed along the road through the tiny village where those women were killed. It's a road I've driven a dozen times or more, a quiet, calm, scenic region of rolling hills, a lovely river, a beautiful church. It's far from any front line. The murder of these two women was another Ukrainian war crime.
The people here are constantly terrorized by Ukrainian shelling or the threat of it, and have been since Kiev started its war on the Donbass in 2014.
Related:-What I've seen of Ukraine's war crimes against civilians in the Donbass over the years (In Gaza)
-Ukrainian strike on Donetsk market was a terrorist act, April 30, 2022, RT.com
-Today, Ukraine bombed a Donetsk hotel full of journalists – here's what it felt like to be there, August 4, 2022, RT.com
-Ukrainian Army War Crimes Include Shelling of Ambulences, Firetrucks, and Rescue Workers in the Donbass Republics—Similar to Israelis and U.S. Backed Terrorists in Syria, September 23, 2022, Covert Action Magazine
-Western media continues to ignore how Ukraine is using NATO weapons to kill innocent civilians in the Donbass, June 16, 2022, RT.com
-Here's why Human Rights Watch deliberately only scratched the surface in exploring Ukraine's use of banned 'petal' mines, March 28, 2023, RT.com
-Donbass Frontline Villager: "Ukraine Doesn't Consider Us Human", Wants To "Annihilate Us", November 2022, In Gaza
**For the below videos which do not preview due to Youtube censorship, you can find them on my Odysee account.
Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:07:54 +0000
2. Human Rights Watch deliberately only scratched the surface in exploring Ukraine’s use of banned ‘petal’ mines
This is what I've been reporting since late July when Ukraine fired rockets containing petal mines (300+/rocket) all over Donetsk & other cities: they're often impossible to see, even if you've been warned of their presence. https://t.co/DMab8myVnd
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) January 24, 2023
March 28, 2023, RT.com
-by Eva Karene Bartlett
Since Ukraine dropped thousands of mines on the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in July, 104 people have fallen victim to the internationally-banned PFM-1 'petal' (otherwise known as 'butterfly') devices. Nine of them are children. Of which three died.
Among the most recent civilians to be injured, on March 19, were two 60-year-old men. On February 26, a woman in her sixties was wounded in her neighborhood. On February 14, a teenager stepped on a petal mine near a school. These are just a few documented examples from recent weeks.
The first wave of over 40 victims came within the first few weeks after Ukrainian forces deployed the mines over Donetsk en masse in July 2022, and the number has more than doubled since. Since then I, along with other reporters on the ground, have documented their lingering presence and the civilian victims.
NGO reports… selectivelyNPR article on HRW finally confirming Ukraine's use of prohibited "petal mines" which are killing civilians including children – what REAL journalists like @EvaKBartlett have reported for months now. pic.twitter.com/TjyJ6MqewG
— Brian Berletic (@BrianJBerletic) February 3, 2023
After signing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty in 1999, Kiev was obligated to destroy its stockpile of 6 million PFM-1s. It denies using them, but abundant evidence incriminates Kiev in this particular war crime. While the West has yet to turn its attention to the victims of the petal mines in the Donbass, reports of Ukraine using them elsewhere have emerged.
In its January 2023 report on banned landmines, the Human Rights Watch NGO notes, "In 2021, Ukraine reported to the UN secretary-general that 3.3 million stockpiled PFM mines still need to be destroyed." HRW then advised Ukraine to investigate itself for its use of the prohibited mines.
The report is titled "Ukraine: Banned Landmines Harm Civilians. Ukraine Should Investigate Forces' Apparent Use; Russian Use Continues," implying that not only is Russia also deploying the petal mines, but that Russia's use of them is beyond question, while Kiev's use is open to debate.
Yet, much like in 2020, when the UN accused Russia of war crimes in Syria based on "we say so" and unnamed sources, you won't find proof of Russia's use of petal mines in the HRW report. In fact, buried there is a HRW admission that it "has not verified claims of Russian forces using PFM mines in the armed conflict." This is a standard media tactic: boldly state one thing in a headline and quietly clarify the opposite in the body of the article, which most people won't bother reading.
On the other hand, HRW claims it interviewed over 100 people, "including witnesses to landmine use, victims of landmines, first responders, doctors, and Ukrainian de-miners," regarding Ukraine's use of the objects in Izium (a city in the Kharkov region, north of Donetsk) while it was briefly under Moscow's control. The HRW team entered the city after Russian forces withdrew in September. Everyone interviewed, the report noted, "said they had seen mines on the ground, knew someone who was injured by one, or had been warned about their presence during Russia's occupation of Izium."
The testimony records that the areas were all, "close to where Russian military forces were positioned at the time, suggesting they were the target," and that residents in Izium said that rocket attacks, "happened frequently during the Russian occupation."
The report cited 11 civilian mine-casualties, and noted that HRW had seen "physical evidence of PFM antipersonnel mine use," including, "unexploded mines, remnants of mines, and the metal cassettes that carry the mines in rockets."
It has to be noted that HRW has been banned in Russia since April 2022, making it impossible for the organization to gather evidence on the ground in areas controlled by Russian forces. However, lack of access to evidence has not stopped it from using its report to carry accusations against Russia, citing Ukraine's former prosecutor general Irina Venediktova's claim that "Russian forces used PFM mines in the Kharkivska region as early as February 26". In contrast, the numerous credible reports of Kiev's use of petal mines in Donetsk, available through open sources, are absent from the report.
HRW's history of targeted condemnationsHuman Rights Watch is one of many Western-funded NGOs with a history of whitewashing NATO and its allies' crimes while pretending to be a neutral observer. Over the years, I've pointed out the hypocrisy of Ken Roth, who was the George Soros-funded NGO's executive director from 1993-2022. In March 2021 he pushed Washington's propaganda about Russia starving Syria. More glaringly, in 2015, Roth used footage from an eastern Gaza neighbourhood (Shuja'iyya) that had been flattened by Israel, to claim the footage depicted Syria's Aleppo. He went on to likewise push the 2013 Ghouta "chemical" narrative, which had long been widely-discredited by journalists and by the so-called "rebels" themselves.
I stand corrected: this is video of Gaza destruction after last summer, not Aleppo. Telling. https://t.co/i8lni23MqD pic.twitter.com/eEXUVx6Cmc
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 9, 2015
If dubious claims from HRW or its representatives aren't indication enough of their allegiances to Western narratives, then their links to the US government should be. The vice chair of its board of directors, Susan Manilow, according to this 2014 article, describes herself as "a longtime friend to Bill Clinton," who helped manage his campaign finances. Bruce Rabb, also on the board, lists in his biography that he "served as staff assistant to President Richard Nixon" from 1969-70 – the period in which his administration secretly and illegally carpet-bombed Cambodia and Laos.
The article further notes that the advisory committee for HRW's Americas Division has even boasted the presence of a former Central Intelligence Agency official, Miguel Díaz. According to his State Department biography, Díaz served as a CIA analyst and also provided "oversight of US intelligence activities in Latin America" for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
So, when HRW recently decided to finally discuss Ukraine's deployment of the insidious petal mines (tens of thousands of which have been fired into the Donbass by Ukraine over the course of the past year), it is not because the body has suddenly become neutral and impartial, but it is rather a grasp at credibility: reporting what is widely known – that, in violation of international law, Ukraine has been deploying Petal mines – but avoid providing the whole story.
By downplaying and ignoring Kiev's widespread use of petal mines throughout the DPR, HRW is deliberately downplaying war crimes, much like the entirety of Western corporate media.
Kiev's Western supporters may even have to deal with its use of the petal mines at their own expense down the line – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently announced his country would invest $2.2 million into de-mining Ukraine. Of course, no mention was made of the Ottawa Treaty-banned munitions which will have to be cleared.
Kiev's deadly deliveryIn one incident I witnessed first hand, an attack took place just after 9 pm on July 30, 2022. Ukraine fired rockets, each packed with over 300 mines, onto Donetsk, its suburbs, and other cities, including Yasinovataya, Makeevka and Gorlovka. The rockets exploded in the air to ensure greater distribution of devices on the ground. The attack mirrored previous 'deliveries' to the hard-hit Donetsk districts of Kievskiy, Kirovsky and Kuibyshevkiy.
The morning after, I walked the central Donetsk streets extremely carefully, wary of every leaf or piece of cardboard which could be obscuring or covering a Petal mine, so difficult are they to pick out from their surroundings. They cannot seriously damage military vehicles, which means that scattering them over Donetsk only has one purpose – to target and maim civilians. Some models of the petal mines have a self-destruct timer. Others, including those used by Kiev, can stay on the ground for years.
The innocent victims of DonbassSince reporting the initial bombardment in late July, I have been following up on the methodical destruction of these mines by Russian sappers, as well as on civilians harmed by the illegal munitions. One of the more recent victims was 14 year old Nikita. His foot was blown off when in early November, 2022, he stepped on a mine in a playground while on his way to visit his grandmother.
RT journalist Roman Kosarev recently spoke with another recent teenage victim, who stepped on a petal mine when getting into a car.
Kosarev also spoke to the Director of the Donetsk Republic's Trauma Center, Andrey Boryak, who said: "The injury from such a mine is very severe, and immediately leads to a handicap. It's almost impossible to save the foot and the lower part of the leg."
HRW has had over 6 months to investigate Ukraine littering the DPR with Petal/PFM-1 mines… but it has not, and will not. It's once again the case that the lives of Donbass civilians don't matter when it comes not only to Western media reporting but also to supposedly-neutral human rights bodies. Even worse still is the knowledge that in spite of the valiant efforts of sappers in the DPR, the mines will inevitably claim more innocent civilians as their victims.
Related:
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/08/23/in-just-under-three-weeks-ukrainian-fired-prohibited-petal-mines-maim-at-least-44-civilians-kill-2-in-donetsk-region/–The West is silent as Ukraine targets civilians in Donetsk using banned 'butterfly' mines
Wed, 01 Mar 2023 14:43:24 +0000
3. Dr. Marwa Osman On Recent Developments in Occupied Palestine
Following our mid-February conversation, I spoke again with Lebanese journalist and political commentator, Dr. Marwa Osman, about recent developments in occupied Palestine.
Among the things discussed were:
-The new Israeli law passed in the Knesset that legitimizes the deportation & ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by revoking their citizenship and residency.
-The near-daily resistance acts against the occupation forces, particularly at inhumane "checkpoints" & against Israeli invasions into Jenin Camp.
-The UN Charter on right for people under occupation to defend themselves by any means possible, including armed resistance.
-That Israel bombs Gaza and Syria routinely without world condemnation, including just two weeks after the worst earthquake to hit the Levant in 100 years.
-The brutal Israeli policies of terrorism in Gaza: gunning down fishers and farmers; shooting medics, including firing dart bombs at medics; the over 15 year full blockade of Gaza; destroying Gaza's sole power plant and not allowing Palestinians to rebuild it; not allowing Palestinians to maintain or improve on their sewage holding and treatment facilities (meaning floods of sewage, sewage pumped into the sea, sewage contaminating the ground water).
Follow Marwa:
Tweets by Marwa__OsmanSee our previous conversation:
–Commentator & Journalist, Marwa Osman, on the Western Sanctions Preventing Syria's Rescue Efforts
RECOMMENDED LINKS:
Tweets by palinfoen Tweets by QudsNen Tweets by PalEvePlus Tweets by MyPalestine0 Tweets by ShehabAgency Tweets by j_nagencyRELATED LINKS:
https://www.972mag.com/citizenship-residency-revocation-explainer/
Huwara lines: one of Israel's degrading & deadly military checkpoints
Israeli settlers attack Palestinians, steal land with impunity. Imagine outrage & calls for sanctions if any other state did it
stars and bombs: random israeli bombing a few hundred metres from home
The Israeli Zionist Coward of an entity bombed #Damascus hours ago, targeting a residential building.
— Marwa Osman || مروة عثمان (@Marwa__Osman) February 19, 2023
Martyrs fell, at a time when #Syria is suffering from the greatest human tragedy as a result of the biggest Eartbquake to hit the Levant in 100 years. pic.twitter.com/ZblA6jCtCJ
Caged In Ram
Observations from Occupied Palestine, part 1
Nablus After the Israeli Military Invasion
Azzoun: village under israeli assault and lockdown
Observations from Occupied Palestine: Gaza
Gaza has suffered the longest, most barbaric, lockdown in the world – I know, because I lived through three years of it
fishing under fire
they would have already shot us by now…
Israeli Navy Terrorism: Destroying Boats and Lives
Israeli naval abductions and shooting at Palestinian fishermen: it's routine
https://gisha.org/en/increase-in-israeli-navy-attacks-on-gaza-fishermen-including-children/
Israel destroying Gaza's farmlands: arson in Johr ad-Dik
farming under fire in the border region
Canada okay with Israeli soldiers firing on unarmed Palestinian farmers, and us
the third hit her in the kneecap: teenager targeted by zionist soldiers
Lost in the Buffer Zone
how israeli policies and attacks have ravaged Gaza's agricultural sector
7 Minutes Before the 2nd Bombing
Abu Tomaa house, Deir al Balah, now an F-16ed crater
Israeli army kills Palestinian medic with dart bomb
Ensuring maximum casualties in Gaza
"next time it will hurt more": Israeli threat against surviving family members of White Phosphorous attack
Attack on Water Brings Sanitation Crisis
Gaza playlist
Shireen Abu Akleh was deliberately killed by an Israeli sniper, claims fresh investigation report
Wed, 22 Feb 2023 07:44:07 +0000
4. Tamara Lorincz: Canada’s Support For Ukraine’s War on the Donbass & Canada’s Anti-Russia Policies
I spoke with Canadian researcher and writer, Tamara Lorincz, about Canada's militaristic foreign and defence policies, Canada's belligerent NATO role in bombing sovereign nations, Canada's role in fomenting the Maidan protests which preceded the (2014) illegal coup in Ukraine, and, among other things, Canada's support to Ukraine's war on the Donbass.
Tamara has a Masters in International Politics and Security Studies and is currently working on her PhD. She has has long been very actively involved in various anti-war, peace & educational initiatives, with an emphasis in exposing the military's impacts on the environment, Canadian defence and foreign policy, disarmament, & resistance to NATO, among many other things.
See her bio here: https://www.balsillieschool.ca/people/tamara-lorincz/
Follow her: https://twitter.com/TamaraLorincz
Conversation points:
*Trudeau government & Canada's new defence policy: (June 2017) "Strong, Secure and Engaged"–a "militaristic, belligerent, posture on the world. Canada will spend $553 billion on military over next 20 years…Defence policy very informed by membership in NATO & partnership in NORAD."
*Canada's role in the illegal bombing of the former Yugoslavia (1999)
*Canada's role in the US-led illegal occupation of Afghanistan (Canada has never been held accountable for war crimes committed in Afghanistan)
*(2011) Canadian general led NATO's bombing of Libya, killing civilians & destroying civilian infrastructure *(2014-2016) Canada's illegal bombing, with US-led coalition, of Syria.
*Under Harper government, FM Baird was on the ground fomenting the Maidan protests & illegal coup; under Trudeau and Freeland support for Ukraine continues.
LINKS:
Canada's interference in Ukrainian democracy
https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/the-canadian-bandera-network
https://coat.ncf.ca/research/Chomiak-Freeland/C-F1.htm
*My reports from the Donbass, under Ukrainian fire.
The Donbass: My Articles, Videos & Interviews From/On the Donetsk & Lugansk People's Republics (2019-present)
Under Fire from Ukraine and Misperceived by the West, The People of the DPR Share Their Stories
On the OSCE's claims of Russian war crimes
*CBC
2/Despite its claims, @ISDglobal is not independent but closely aligned with funders and partners linked to the US @StateDept, @NATO countries and pro-#Ukraine & anti-#Russia organizations like the @OpenSociety. It gets worse. https://t.co/GXWhw0LB35 pic.twitter.com/Sj0VCQyhaO
— Tamara Lorincz (@TamaraLorincz) July 6, 2022
Government-Funded CBC Smears Me. Interview With Maverick Media: "CBC Fake News: Hit Piece Targets Journalists (Eva Bartlett)"
*Ukraine Intensified Its Shelling of the Donbass Weeks Before Russia's Special Military Operation:
The Military Situation In The Ukraine
I disrupted #Canada's Minister of @NationalDefence @AnitaAnandMP. War in #Ukraine is not about "democracy". #Canada should call for a ceasefire not send more weapons. @TorontoMet Uni should have a real debate & stand for #peace. @PamSugiman @reggcohn @WBWCanada @Winnipegpeace pic.twitter.com/Lm3JBkpe60
— Tamara Lorincz (@TamaraLorincz) October 22, 2022
This morning, I was pleased to disrupt speech by @NationalDefence @AnitaAnandMP. Minister, you're lying. #Canada training neo-Nazi militias in #Ukraine, killing #Donbass civilians. Sending weapons not calling for peace, risks nuclear war. Tell the truth. https://t.co/FjMCX0Bry2
— Tamara Lorincz (@TamaraLorincz) September 19, 2022
Fascinating Insights on Russia, by Americans Who Chose to Relocate HereJoin us to stand for "Peace Now! Stop the #Ukraine #Russia War, Stop #NATO" on Sun. Feb. 26 from 1-2pm at the Waterloo Public Sq. 75 King St. Part of the International Weekend of Action. @VOWPeace @WBWCanada @HamiltonHcsw @bardishkw @kwpeace #StopTheWar pic.twitter.com/VZZtM4Uz9F
— Tamara Lorincz (@TamaraLorincz) February 17, 2023
Sat, 11 Feb 2023 13:24:37 +0000
5. Western sanctions will mean that more Syrians die after the earthquakes
The economic stranglehold and selective approach to aid will lead to more death and displacement
Feb 10, 2023, RT.com
-by Eva K Bartlett
Following the devastating earthquakes that rocked Türkiye, Syria and their neighboring countries on February 6, leaving more than 20,000 dead, Damascus is struggling to deal with this unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe as it remains under brutal Western sanctions that have brought the country to its knees.
The West's war on Syria that began in early 2011 failed to topple its elected president, but the subsequent years of increasingly cruel sanctions – all in the name of 'helping the Syrian people' – have succeeded in rendering life miserable and near impossible, with most unable to afford to properly feed their families, much less heat their homes.
Now, in a time of crisis, the Syrian people cannot even receive donations or emergency support from abroad. One supporter set up a GoFundMe campaign, only to have it taken down due to the sanctions. Type the word "Ukraine" into the search field on PayPal or GoFundMe and you'll see countless appeals for sending money to Ukraine. But for Syrians, Western platforms like these are off-limits, and have been for years.
Adding to the destruction left by warOn February 6, southern Türkiye and northern Syria were hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, followed by dozens of aftershocks and then another earthquake. While the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and others were affected, the worst of the damage was in Türkiye and Syria.
As of February 9, the official death toll in Syria was 1,347, with more than 2,300 injured. Nearly 300,000 Syrians have been displaced due to the earthquakes. The scenes initially coming out of Türkiye and Syria were heartbreaking and catastrophic, with buildings collapsing in front of people, and piles of rubble with the dead and the maimed trapped below.
In Syria, the earthquakes added to already extensive damage from the war. Aleppo, the country's second-largest city, was tragically prone to building collapses because of the terrorist occupation that had lasted until 2016. The militants had frequently tunneled under buildings, in many cases in order to lay explosives and destroy them, as they did with the Chamber of Industry in April 2014. With the Syrian population already struggling to just survive prior to the earthquakes, now Aleppo and the coastal regions of Syria affected by the earthquakes face even more death, injury and displacement.
Sanctions were already killing SyriansEven without the earthquakes, Syrians struggled to get medication, hospitals struggled to get or maintain critical machinery and equipment, and the population as a whole suffocated as the country's economy steadily worsened, all by design.
Western leaders are adamant that the only ones to blame for the Syrians' suffering before the earthquake were President Bashar Assad and his government (or "regime," as Washington calls any undesirable foreign government it hasn't yet toppled), whose "dictatorship" caused the people to rise up and start a civil war (actually a US-led proxy war against Syria to overthrow said government). The sanctions, ostensibly aimed at the "regime," are, by this logic, intended to helpand protect the general population. In reality, they are strangling Syrian civilians.
Here's what life is like for many Syrians now, according to British journalist Vanessa Beeley: "The US and its proxy Kurdish separatist forces are occupying Syrian resources in the northeast which includes their oil, which means of course that the bulk of Syria is reliant upon Iranian oil to keep any kind of electricity running. At the moment, we have basically about two or three hours of electricity per day. There is no heating in the majority of homes across Syria."
As Beeley notes, earthquake-displaced Syrians – unless they receive emergency aid – face freezing and wet conditions, "without any alternative shelter, without any electricity, without any heating." And thanks to the sanctions, desperately needed humanitarian aid and fundraising is difficult. International cargo planes can't land in Syria, and crowdfunding services and even credit cards are unavailable. The virtue-signaling Western nations – the main cause of suffering in Syria since 2011 – have not only persisted in keeping the sanctions in place; most of them haven't offered any meaningful help since the earthquake, just hollow words.
So, lift the cruel, debilitating, sanctions on Syria, which in addition to having already created untold misery now prevent fundraising efforts.
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) February 7, 2023
The US regime could lift the brutal sanctions (but won't because they care so much for the Syrian people…)
Hypocritehttps://t.co/AxtfXz1WVg
The Chinese Foreign Ministry blamed the sanctions for amplifying the miserable situation, and likewise pointed out that the US' illegal presence in Syria and theft of Syrian resources was also exacerbating the economic situation.
"Frequent [US] military strikes and harsh economic sanctions have caused huge civilian casualties and taken away the means to subsistence of the Syrians. As we speak, the US troops continue to occupy Syria's principal oil-producing regions. They have plundered more than 80% of Syria's oil production and smuggled and burned Syria's grain stock. All this has made Syria's humanitarian crisis even worse."
A friend in need is a neighbor on the sanctions listAll of the above has left Syrians to rely mostly on the country's friends for help. Incidentally, many of those nations and groups are among the most vilified by the West.
Following the earthquake, Russia's Ministry of Defense dispatched "over 300 personnel, and 60 military and special vehicles" for rescue and aid efforts in Syria. The Russian Emergencies Ministry sent more than 100 rescue workers to Türkiye and Syria, including an airmobile hospital with 40 medics.
Iran sent a plane with 45 tons of medical, food and sanitary aid to Syria, and has pledged to send more.
Even battered Libya, itself largely destroyed by another Western regime-change project, sent a plane with 40 tons of medical and humanitarian aid, as well as an ambulance, to Aleppo International Airport.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance movement, sent convoys of humanitarian aid to Syria. Lebanon's army said it would send members of its Engineering Regiment to Syria, to contribute to the search and rescue operations.
Not everyone who offered their help to Syria are on Western sanctions list, of course. Algeria sent 115 tons of aid of food and medical supplies, tents and blankets, as well as 86 specialized civil protection personnel. The United Arab Emirates will apparently send $50 million to Syria for relief efforts, and Indian, Emirati and Jordanian planes carrying humanitarian and medical aid for Syrian victims arrived in the capital on Wednesday. Even New Zealand pledged to contribute NZ$500,000 "for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) to meet humanitarian needs."
[source: https://t.me/VanessaBeeley/12565 ]
Meanwhile, Western corporate media stuck to the narrative of blaming the Assad government, with a New York Times article on the issue apparently saying initially that Western sanctions had hampered relief efforts to Syria – before quickly changing the line to say the government "tightly controls what aid it allows into opposition-held areas." This is in-keeping with the old trope that the Syrian government denies aid to civilians in areas occupied by terrorists, which in most Western media are dubbed "rebels" and "opposition fighters." This is something I and other journalists on the ground have repeatedly debunked, visiting liberated areas and hearing time and again that locals had been starving because terrorists had been hoarding humanitarian aid, denying it to civilians or selling it at massively inflated prices.
Western aid is not for everyoneNYT never misses an opportunity to push West's regime-change lexicon.
— Eva Karene Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) February 8, 2023
"Opposition" = literally AL-QAEDA
Instead of calling for an end to the criminal sanctions against the Syrian people, NYT exploits humanitarian tragedy to push West's agenda of toppling elected Syrian govt. pic.twitter.com/3RpsIiQ1VF
On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned about a looming "secondary disaster" in Syria, pointing to "major disruptions" to basic life supplies, but failing to highlight the role of Western sanctions or the terrorist presence in northwestern Syria as the underlying causes. Reports on UN aid reaching northern Syria via Türkiye also downplayed the presence of Al-Qaeda terrorists in the areas mentioned, as well as Türkiye's years-long support for Syrian anti-government forces. Such reports likewise neglected to mention the need for emergency relief in government-controlled areas of Syria, and the government's efforts to bring that relief in.
Some 12 years into the West's proxy war on Syria, the continued denial of the very basics of emergency humanitarian relief to Syrians outside "rebel-controlled" areas, shows how little the West's claim to care for Syrians really matter. The lack of concern by the UN, WHO, and affiliated aid agencies for the Syrians of Aleppo, among other government-controlled areas, is not at all surprising, given these bodies over the years systematically downplayed terrorism against Syrian civilians.
As the humanitarian disaster continues, it is also worth remembering that, over the decades, Syria has taken in refugees from numerous countries. Yet, in spite of the current emergency situation and the very dire need to lift the West's sanctions, it is unlikely the "benevolent" West will change its crippling anti-Syria policies to allow Syrians to merely survive.
Everyone donating to @molhamteam for Syrian victims of the devastating earthquake should know that the donations go ONLY to Idlib, and NOT to Aleppo,Hama,Latakia or elsewhere, & they are known to pocket donations.
— Ibn Walid (@walid970721) February 6, 2023
Also, their hero is the infamous terrorist, Abdel Baset Sarout. https://t.co/EarawrS0uy pic.twitter.com/u3Hy0f89Lj
RELATED LINKS:
–UN official challenges punitive unilateral sanctions suffocating Syrians
–Western leaders, screw your 'Sanctions Target the Regime' blather: Sanctions KILL PEOPLE
Fri, 23 Dec 2022 15:30:25 +0000
6. “Eva Bartlett: Western Silence As Ukraine Targets Civilians in Donbass”
"Addressing the EIR Symposium, "Peace On Earth, Or Humanity's Doom? The Case For Negotiations," Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, who was granted the 2017 International Journalism Award by the Journalists' Club of Mexico and has spent years doing on-the-ground reporting of wars in the Middle East, gave an eyewitness account of the ongoing genocide against the people of Donbass, where she has been reporting for the last year. Since 2014, she reported, 12,500 civilians have been killed by sniping and shelling with NATO weapons in both the Lugansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic, with over 4,500 killed since mid-February of this year. Given that civilian areas are targeted, this shelling constitutes terrorism and war crimes.
According to Bartlett, the Ukrainian military has also been saturating the Donbass with PFM-1 "petal" mines, insidious devices designed not to kill but to maim victims by blowing off their hands or feet. Children are particularly susceptible to these devices. She made the point that were Russia committing these crimes, it would be covered as a constant scandal by Western media. Bartlett ended her remarks by pointing to a flag of the Donetsk People's Republic she proudly displays on the wall of her home, representing to her the resilience of a people shunned by most of the world and ridiculed as if their lives are meaningless. She expressed hope that the work she is doing will lead to Ukraine being held accountable for its war crimes and help allow people to speak openly about the fact that Ukraine is committing genocide."
[source: https://youtu.be/Pg_AxQqqj0w ]
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I cited the JCCC, from a press conference in Donetsk & with DPR auhorities, which I attended online.
"She called the new round of escalation in the Donbass, which began on February 17 this year, bloodier in the whole conflict. « Since February 17 2022, the Ukrainian army killed 4,527 civilians, including 154 children, and injured 4,317 people, including 274 children », said Ms. Choutkina."
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"Military terror has escalated beyond all limits after NATO members started supplying weapons to Ukraine," the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC), a monitoring group that tracks attacks on the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics, said on Wednesday. "We have recorded a four-fold increase in the number of victims among the civilian population," Natalya Shutkina, a representative from the Donetsk People's Republic at the JCCC, said as quoted by TASS. The JCCC held a press conference on Wednesday during which it showed fragments of Western shells and rockets collected after Ukrainian strikes in Donbass and explained the toll these attacks had taken. Since February 17, 4,527 civilians have been killed, including 154 children, Shutkina stated. Another 4,317 civilians, including 274 children, have been injured, she said, adding that Ukrainian attacks have damaged over 12,000 homes, 128 medical facilities, and 67 sites required for providing basic utilities, such as water and heating. …" https://www.rt.com/russia/568240-donbass-death-toll-report/
