Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malaysia. Show all posts

Malaysia Wants Honest Brokers To End Middle East Crisis

- Malaysia feels that the Middle East conflict remains unresolved largely because of the lack of honest brokers committed to enforcing and applying equally on all sides the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said this being the single most important factor fuelling Muslim anger towards Israel and the West, it was imperative that Israel abide by all UN resolutions and withdraw to its pre-1967 borders."Malaysia believes that the Palestine-Israel conflict remains the core issue which needs to be resolved to ensure stability in the Middle East," he said on the sidelines of the Ninth Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) of Foreign Ministers which ended here Tuesday.

Anifah said he told ASEM's 45 member countries, that also include three UN Security Council permanent members - China, France and Britain - that a negotiated outcome was the only way to ensure long-term peace, security and stability in the region.

"We call for a final, just and comprehensive settlement with the realisation of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognised borders...no one likes to be displaced from one own's home and land," he said.

During the meeting, Anifah said the ministers also spoke about the global economic crisis, Influenza A(H1N1), energy security and maritime security, as well as the latest development in Myanmar and Monday's nuclear test by North Korea.

In the chairman's statement issued at the end of the meeting, the foreign ministers said they discussed the recent development concerning democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and called on Myanmar to release all those under detention and to lift restrictions placed on political parties.

The ministers said they welcomed the talks between the European Union Troika and Myanmar at the ministerial level as a further step to mutual understanding.

On the global economic crisis, the ministers said they rejected protectionism and want to enhance market access for the exports of developing countries, warning that protectionist measures might provoke retaliatory actions, further harming the world economy and delaying its recovery.

The ministers also raised concern over climate change and emphasised the importance of flexible mechanisms such as carbon market.

Anifah will attend the EU-Asean Meeting in Phnom Penh tomorrow which among others, will discuss ways to fight terrorism, human trafficking, drug smuggling and weapon proliferation.
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Malaysia wants Israel dragged to court

Malaysia explains why the international community needs to take Israeli leaders to court as a first step toward peace and prosperity.

At a Tuesday forum in London with the theme The Gaza Genocide: The World Community Must Act, Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim suggested Israeli military aggression against Palestinians to be worthy of prosecution.
"We drag a person to court to be prosecuted for his act of having killed someone. We use the maxim mens rea in determining his murderous intent," noted the Malaysian diplomat.

"But we simply allow a neighboring state to marauder thousands with guns, air strikes, chemicals and tanks," continued Rais, questioning the impunity Israel has enjoyed for sixty years.

Israel in December began pounding the Gaza Strip in air operations that later escalated into a full-fledged ground attack on the densely-populated territory.

Tel Aviv went against its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and attacked schools, mosques, houses, UN compounds and government buildings during the conflict.

The three weeks of military aggression inflicted more than $1.6 billion in damages on the Gazan economy. The carnage also killed around 1,350 Palestinians and injured nearly 5,450 people -- mostly civilians.

Israel also committed war crimes, including the use of the deadly white phosphorus shells in densely populated civilian areas, as revealed by various investigations.

Rais responded that the Palestinians had suffered more than their fair share of human calamity ever since Britain and world powers allowed the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the dispossession of the Palestinian homeland.

Israel has been emboldened by sixty years of world inaction and supposes that there is very little the international community can do in terms of punitive measures, he explained.

"It knows for sure that the American government shall always shield them, at least from the operatives of the Security Council (SC). Israel also knows that for so long as the SC is controlled under the veto system, nothing much could be done by way of sanction and execution," he said.

The US has so far vetoed at least 45 anti-Israel resolutions at the UN and has blocked official condemnation of crimes committed against the native Palestinian population.

"Israel continues to receive armaments from the United States which, in turn, were used as weapons of mass destruction against the Palestinians," Rais said.

The aggression against Gaza was the latest in a series that began when world powers created Israel in 1948 under the Zionist slogan of a 'land without a people and a people without a land'.

The establishment of Israel in the Middle East was carried out in compensation for the hardships and suffering imposed on the Jews of Europe due to anti-Semitism in the continent.

Zionists benefited by gaining power over the native land of the Palestinians, but the establishment and the subsequent terror attacks against the Palestinian population gave rise to the philosophy of resistance and in recent years armed retaliation.

The United States and European powers have since failed to condemn Israeli crimes against Palestinians for their fear of the powerful Zionist lobby and being labeled 'anti-Semitic'.

Celebrated Malaysian politician and former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad touched on the issue on the sidelines of the forum in an interview with Press TV.

"I feel that his (US President Barack Obama's) hands are tied. Most American presidents and I will say including Obama may not take any stand against Israel for fear of losing comfortable support in the US itself," he said.

"The Israeli lobby in the US is truly powerful and they can determine who wins and who loses in the elections."

Mahathir explained that while Israel should "exist in some form or another", the current trend that it "occupies Palestinian land" and terrorizes Palestinians must not continue.

Malaysian officials believe the only way the world can see peace is for war to be criminalized.

Rais said the Israeli conduct in Gaza amounted to "genocide" and suggested that "If there be nothing else, Malaysia and like-minded states move that an Israeli War Crimes Tribunal be formed under the UN Charter, that an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) established by the Security Council."

"The establishment of ICTI should provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes against humanity and genocide against the people of Palestine, just as the ICTY had done in the Balkans," he added.
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Malaysia Considering Israeli War CrimesTribunal

The special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat tomorrow is expected to adopt Malaysia’s stand on the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip as well as initiatives to further prompt the international community into action over the Zionist regime’s atrocities against the people of Palestine. The members of parliament, both from the government and opposition, will debate on the bloody conflict, which has killed up to 850 people, at the sitting scheduled to begin at 2.30pm.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will table a motion which will be seconded by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the de facto leader of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), will also speak at the special sitting while Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim will wind up the debate.

The special sitting is an extension of the initiatives adopted by Kuala Lumpur to get the Tel Aviv regime to stop the atrocities it launched on Dec 27 last year against the Palestinians and the various amenities in Gaza, home to 1.5 million people.
The people of Palestine have suffered for a long time under Israeli occupation of the territory and an economic blockade over the last 18 months.

The special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat is significant in figuring out further initiatives following Israel’s rejection of a United Nations resolution adopted on Friday calling for an immediate cease-fire. The United States had abstained in the UN vote.

Malaysia, a strong supporter of the struggle of the Palestinian people, is seen by many as having the clout to coax the international community to adopt efforts to free the people of Palestine from the cruel clutches of Israel.

This was, more or less, evident when the UN responded positively to a request from Malaysia and Brazil to convene a special session, which took place on Friday.

Nevertheless, the Malaysian government has expressed disappointment over the UN resolution which it felt had failed to consider several important elements hoped for by the majority of the international community, such as humanitarian aid and the formation of an international peace-keeping force.

Malaysia has all along rejected the Israeli occupation of Palestine which has seen the conflict prolong since 1948 following the establishment of Israel and the displacement of millions of Palestinians from their homeland.

The latest conflict saw Malaysians reacting along with the peace-loving international community seeking justice to demand an immediate stop to the Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has proposed that the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) set up a peace-keeping force to be despatched to Islamic countries faced with conflicts such as that in Palestine.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has proposed that the special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat adopt a resolution for the UN to set up a tribunal to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, as had been suggested by Francis Boyle, an expert in international law and human rights, from the United States.

Others have also called for the boycott of products of Israel’s allies, including the United States.

The Malaysian government has also offered US$1 million (RM3.6 million) in humanitarian aid for the people of Palestine, to be channelled through voluntary relief agency Mercy Malaysia, and relaunched the humanitarian fund of Wisma Putra to help the Palestinians.
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'Malaysia must keep fighting for Palestine'

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia must continue to

champion the Palestinian issue so that its importance and
the rights of Palestinians are accepted internationally.

Kuala Lumpur should continue the work done as chair
of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to help
find a resolution to the Middle East crisis, Peace Malaysia
co-ordinator Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said.

"I think such pressure needs to continue because without it,
who else will help the Palestinians? Malaysia should take
the lead," he said at the sidelines of a forum yesterday.

The forum, Palestine: 60 years of struggle -
Al Nakbah Remembered
, was jointly organised by the
International Movement for a Just World and Peace Malaysia.

Mukhriz said as a Muslim country separated by distance
from West Asia, Malaysians may view the crisis differently.
"We perhaps look at it from a distant
perspective without the historical baggage."

He added that Malaysia has always been at the forefront of the
Palestinian cause, even during Tunku Abdul Rahman's premiership.
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