Great Miscarriage of Justice for Dr. Aafiya Siddiqui

Great Miscarriage of Justice in case of
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Lord Ahmed

Dr. Mozammel Haque

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani scientist, disappeared from Karachi in March 2003 and the Pakistani media took up the case and described the circumstances under which she disappeared. Pakistani politician Imran Khan of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Party and Sister Yvonne Ridley along with the Cage Prisoners took the case up and Sister Yvonne Ridley went to Pakistan and had press conferences and challenged the then Pakistani authorities.

Sister Yvonne Ridley asked who was prisoner 650 and the Grey Lady of Bagram? Who is this woman who was heard crying? Both former Guantanamo Bay detainees, Binyam Mohamed and Moazzam Begg as well as some two other Arabs who were taken to Bagram and from there to Guantanamo Bay; all of them said they have seen a woman and they have described this woman. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to be the one they heard her scream.

Imran Khan of Pakistan Tahrik-e-Insaf Party and Sister Yvonne Ridley asked the American and Pakistani authorities about her but both of them said she did not exist. They did not know anything about her. This was early July 2008. Sister Yvonne Ridley came back and she asked Lord Ahmed whether he could do anything. Lord Ahmed put down some questions in the Parliament asking Her Majesty’s government whether they were aware of Prisoner 650; whether Prisoner 650 is Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and whether the grey lady of Bagram was the same woman.

Within a couple of weeks, Lord Ahmed got an acknowledgement from the Ambassador and also from the Justice Department of the United States of America to say that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was arrested in Kabul and she has been held in custody because she tried to attack some American Marines.

Dr. Aafia was tried in a “Kangaroo”, as Lord Ahmed said, court in New York where she has no independent lawyers. The judge decided to have a law firm chosen by the authorities. She could not defend her case. Dr. Aafia was convicted for attempting murder of five soldiers.

A meeting hosted by Lord Ahmed, in partnership with the Association of Pakistani Lawyers, with British Muslim Lawyers Association and many other organisations, held in the House of Lords Committee Room on Tuesday, the 9th of February, 2010. Lord Ahmed said, “All I am asking that we should be saying that this has been a great miscarriage of justice.”

Lord Ahmed: A great miscarriage of Justice
While introducing the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, Lord Ahmed said, “Much to my surprise and shock that within 12 to 13 days after asking these questions, my office also wrote to the Secretary of Justice, United States of America and also their Ambassador in London. Within a couple of weeks we got an acknowledgement from the Ambassador and also from the justice department of the United States of America to say that Dr. Aafiya Siddiqui was arrested on such and such date in July in Kabul and she has been held in custody because she tried to attack some American marines.” “This is unbelievable story. It does not stuck up. There is no sense in a fabrication of these types of story,” added Lord Ahmed.

Dr. Aafia had three children. Lord Ahmed alleged that this woman has been abused mentally, physically and who knows, even God forbids, sexually, if she was abused and her children, two of them we don’t know what happened to them.”

The American authorities, the judge decided that she would have a law firm chosen by the authorities. “Such a kangaroo court. We know that the way they have actually managed it. They disallowed Pakistani journalists from going into the court room. They did not allow any independent journalist to go and report,” said Lord Ahmed and added, “all these things stuck up, in my view, to say that this was a set up and so there has been a great miscarriage of justice.”

“We have already written to President (Barrack) Obama and we are preparing a letter now; we are going to ask all Muslim parliamentarians and parliamentarians of Pakistani origin to sign that letter so that the letter can go to President Obama to point out that this is being a miscarriage of justice and also to ask him to repatriate Dr Aafia Siddiqui and sent her back to Pakistan,” said Lord Ahmed.”

Lord Ahmed made it a point that what I am asking is that we should be saying that this has been a great miscarriage of justice. “If America is really serious of having some influence in this part of the world and if they think that they are going to reduce extremism in this region, then this type of oppression, this type of abuse will not be kept tolerated,” said Lord Ahmed and added, “In fact, it makes ordinary citizen, not only in Pakistan but around the world that their blood boils when they hear of stories. I can honestly tell you that if Aafia Siddiqui had been involved in any kind of terrorism, or had she been in my view, then I would not be sitting in front of you and would not be fighting for her case. I can honestly tell you that I believe that the Americans had done a greatest injustice.”

Lord Ahmed mentioned, “This is nothing new for Americans; they have done it before. They have done it in Abu Ghraib; they have done it Guantanamo Bay; they have done it in many other countries in the world. On this particular case Dr Aafia Siddiqui has become a symbol of freedom for Pakistani Muslims around the world and she will remain so and we will do our best to get her released and get her sent back to Pakistan.”

Rabia Zia
Rabia Zia of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, UK, told the gathering, “We want to ask the present government and the Prime Minister Gilani to actually find out who is leading her disappearance and we want him personally to ask President Obama and his government to extradite Dr Aafia and to send her back with her family and being tried of she has been accused of.”

Sister Yvonne Ridley
Sister Yvonne Ridley said, “First of all, I would like to say, without Lord Ahmed, this investigation would never have got off the ground because when I asked the Americans about who is this woman prisoner in Bagram; they said, it was a fantasy; they said, I was mad; that I was imagined it. Prisoner 650, the great lady of Bagram did not exist. Frankly Lord Ahmed believed me and he pursued it and he finally got the American to capitulate and admit that there was a woman prisoner in Bagram.”

Sister Yvonne Ridley mentioned her attempt to contact Judge Berman. “In fact, I wrote a letter to Judge Berman and asked why he was running an apartheid system in his court where he was keeping all of Aafia’s supporters out of the court along with the Pakistani media,” said Sister Yvonne and added, “I sent that by a carrier firm and copied it to the US Attorney General to find out why when we have some one like President Obama in the White House who said he stands for equality and justice; there is an apartheid system running in the court. So we knew that Aafia was not going to get justice in the US.”

Sister Yvonne Ridley did not believe that American politicians will be of any help. “American politicians don’t want to know anything to do with war on terror; so we are not going to get anyone from Capitol Hill really campaigning for Aafia,” said Sister Yvonne Ridley and added, “The place we have to go to get justice, I think, is back in Pakistan; that is where the great demonstrations are there; that is where the people will march in their thousands and thousands for justice for this wronged daughter of Pakistan. Aafia has captured the hearts of so many people and we have to put pressure on Gilani to demand her return and the best way we can do it is by petitioning, by marching, by rallying, by protesting by the people who have the biggest hearts and the loudest voices and the determination to do it, that is in back Aafia’s home, in Pakistan.”

“That is where we will get justice for Aafia and that is where we have to put the pressure on before this judge sits down in the first week of May and use his verdict. Because we know that the verdict is going to be the worst possible verdict,” emphasized Sister Yvonne Ridley. .

Parliamentarian Mohammad Sarwar
The first Pakistani MP Mohammed Sarwar said, “My view is that it was wrong for the Pakistan government at that time to hand over Aafiya to the American administration. I think we should condemn this and we should condemn this unanimously.”

MP Sarwar of Glasgow Central also mentioned, “It’s a huge campaign in front of us; first of all, sister Yvonne is absolutely right that we should exert our maximum pressure on Pakistan government because she is a Pakistani national and the whole nation in Pakistan is behind Dr. Aafia. Pakistan government should exert their maximum pressure on the Obama administration to ensure that she is released and she comes back to Pakistan.”

Parliamentarian Sarwar said, “I can assure you that Lord Ahmed and myself have already decided that we are going to write a letter to President Obama seeking a meeting with him for Muslim parliamentarians from the United Kingdom to discuss Dr. Aafia’s case and I want to assure you that we will campaign vigorously for her release.”

Appreciating and congratulating Lord Ahmed for his hard work, Sarwar said, “Lord Ahmed is really somebody we should be proud of; who has always championed the campaign whether it is Guantanamo Bay, or Palestine issue or Kashmir issue. He did not try to advance his own political career at the cost of principle. So I do want to pay tribute to Lord Ahmed for his hard work during this year.”

Lord Ahmed met Congressman in Chicago
Accordingly Lord Ahmed went to the United States and met with Congressman Mike Quigley on 19th of February in Wrighleyfield, Chicago and briefed him on two very important issues. He told the Congressman that Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s case has become a Nation concern in Pakistan due to the miscarriage of justice. He asked Mr Quigley to raise this issue in the Judicial Committee of the Congress, of which he is the Member.

Congressman Quigley said that he was not aware of Dr Aafia’s case and he is prepared to ask question to the Judicial staff and with the Authorities. Lord Ahmed said, “this is a serious case of miscarriage of Justice and there must be an independent Investigation and retrial of this case".

Lord Ahmed also met with Congressman Dany Davies later on 19th of February afternoon to discuss Dr Aafia Siddiqui's case in Chicago. He told the Congressman that Dr Aafia Siddiqui had been abducted from Karachi in 2003 and disappeared for five years before being charged and brought before a judge in New York in August 2008.

Lord Ahmed said that “in July 2008 Yvonne Riddley a freelanced journalist asked him to make representation to the American authorities and the British Government to identify Prisoner 650, the Grey Lady of Bagram, and much to his surprise Dr Aafia was charged with attempted murder of an American serviceman in Afghanistan. He said the tragedy of this case is that there is no forensic or scientific evidence of this allegation, she is not charged with any terrorism offences but with a charge that has no logic.”

Lord Ahmed told Mr Danny Davis the Congressman (Former joint Chairman of President Obama's Campaign in Chicago) that there has been a gross miscarriage of justice in this case, thus, an independent inquiry is needed.

Congressman Davis assured Lord Ahmed and his colleagues that he would join any group in Congress to obtain justice for Dr Aafia. Congressman suggested that Sheila Jackson Lee a member of Congress from Euston be contacted as she is a great supporter of Pakistan and fights for the protection of liberties.

Then Dr Ahmed travelled to Dallas where he addressed a large gathering and meet with Dr Aafia's brother Mohammed Siddiqui.

We do support Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, says David Miliband

We do support Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders
with Jerusalem as its capital, says David Miliband

Dr. Mozammel Haque

“We do support Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, with the final settlement of refugees; we also say that Palestine will exist and recognise and celebrate the country of Israel next door to it within secure borders as well,” said the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, MP, as a guest speaker and keynote speaker at the annual function of the Muslim Friends for Labour, at the Kensington Town Hall, on 19th of January 2010 and added, “Because the truth is that we will not find justice for one ethnic group or one religious group unless we recognise the co-existence; the only basis for real existence. We should be the people for willing to stand up against injustice wherever it exists but also celebrate those who are campaigning against injustice wherever that exists as well.”

Earlier, while delivering the opening speech, the pioneer of the Muslim parliamentarians in the Labour Party, Mohammad Sarwar, requested the audience to stand up to observe one minute of silence to pay respect to the victims of earthquake in Haiti. After the silence, MP Sarwar, as a chair of the Muslim Friends of Labour, requested his fellow parliamentarians, Minister Sadiq Khan, Minister Shahid Malik, Khaled Mahmood MP, and Lord Ahmed, to join him at the stage while he would be speaking. All these parliamentarians wanted to listen the prospective future parliamentarians.

Parliamentarian Mohammed Sarwar
As chair of Muslim Friends of Labour, Mohammed Sarwar felt proud and excited at the function. “Excited because as we celebrate the contribution of the Muslims in this Labour Party tonight; we also look forward to the future of this relationship. All I can remember as a young man born in Faisalabad Pakistan moving to this country to join my fiancé, that time, my wife Parveen to UK and at that time I had no intention, whatsoever, to entering politics. All I wanted to do was to create a better life for myself and my family. So you can imagine how much tremendous honour it was for me to be elected as Britain’s first Muslim Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom,” said Mr. Sarwar.

Parliamentarian Sarwar also felt proud because now there are so many talented parliamentarians in the country. “Extremely proud to have so many other talented parliamentarians around me. Lord Ahmed, I am sure all of you know, the first Muslim Member of the House of Lords, who has been a great campaigner for peace and human rights in Palestine and Kashmir; in fact, he has just returned yesterday of having witness first hand suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. He does a tremendous job,” Sarwar added.

Mr. Sarwar also mentioned “Our rising star, Rt. Hon. Sadiq Khan MP, is the first Muslim Privy Counsellor and the first Muslim to sit in the Cabinet. We are proud of that. Shahid Malik, as you know, first he was International Development Minister, Justice Minister, then Home Office Minister and now Community Minister and he was the first Muslim to be member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party. And most importantly my younger brother Khaled Mahmood MP, who has taken the lead on tackling terrorism and who despite his ill-health is with us tonight.” He also recognised the fantastic job of hundreds of Labour Councillors, Mayors, deputy Mayors, throughout the country.

Parliamentarian Sarwar also introduced the five new prospective Parliamentary candidates (PPCs). “Today’s event is the future. I am delighted to introduce five of our new PPCs joining us this evening. Four of them are talented British Muslim women and we will be hearing from them all very shortly,” said Sarwar and added, “In my opinion it is the most important general elections of our time. We face a clear choice between two features: we can come together and fight for the values and principles we believe in and build upon the achievements we have made or we can take Britain backward if Tories come to power.”

Parliamentarian Sarwar also mentioned, “I am not for one minute going to pretend that Labour Party has got everything right but we have achieved some great developments for the Muslims here in Britain and abroad. We have protected Muslim values and protected their rights in the society. No political party in the United Kingdom or across Europe has fought harder against racism, fascism and discrimination than our Labour Party. I can say from my heart.”

Two-state solution
As regards Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sarwar said, “The Labour Party is the first mainstream political party to have a manifesto commitment to a Two-State solution in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This policy has been reaffirmed by our current Foreign Secretary David Miliband who has taken that we should believe that this should be based on pre-1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital. However, we will work hard with our international partners to implement this policy and turn it into a reality. And I have no doubt in my mind that God willing, we will have an independent Palestinian state and we will have Palestinian ambassador in the United Kingdom in London.”

“I can assure you, brothers and sisters, we will continuously campaign vigorously for the creation of an independent Palestinian State based on pre-1967 borders,” emphasized Sarwar and added, “I generally believe with your continued support and with hard work and firm determination we can win the historic four-time victory for the Labour government.”

After his opening speech, the five aspiring Parliamentary candidates came to address from the stage.

Yasmin Qureshi
“Over the years there may be a time when we may disagree with perhaps on certain issues that our party has pursued but there are many many issues that we agree on and in particular in economic, social welfare and the form of justices which we carried out which no one can disagree,” said Yasmin Qureshi, representing as a Labour candidate from Bolton Southeast and thanked the people from Bolton Southeast for selecting her as a Labour candidate.

She also thanked Sarwar sahib and Lord Nazir. Mentioning about Lord Nazir, Yasmin mentioned, “certainly one of the persons who pursued me to be one of the candidates with the Labour Party for long time. He has always been there as somebody I can turn for advice and assistance. So I really like to thank him.”

“Please continue to give your support; we need your support particularly now there is a general election coming and the choice is very starchy,” she said.

Roshenara Ali
“I know that today is the very precious occasion for all of us, parliamentary candidates and for parliamentarians within the Muslim community because it has been a very great struggle I know too well having grown up in the midst of east end of London, the heart of the British Muslim Bangladeshi community. The struggle and the hard work and the determination that have given someone like me and many others the opportunity to hope for a task to stand as a woman in Parliament after the next general election,” said Roshenara Ali, Labour Parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow in east end of London. .

She was selected in 2007. “That has been a long selection, a contest if you like; in an open shortlist in Bethnal Green and Bow where part of membership is Bangladeshi Muslim background. Nobody told them to vote for a woman; they did it out of choice because they felt it is the right things to do,” said Roshenara and added, “I want to remind media and everybody in this room that within our own community there is a great sense of optimism over the need of representation in politics, woman and man of Muslim background.”

After thanking all “for the constant encouragement and support,” Roshenara said, “Why we are doing this; we know more than ever before just how important for us it is to be the centre of thing, in the mainstream as the British Muslim community and to pave the way for new generation to enter politics and public life. That will change the face of Britain and that is how to make sure the interest of the whole community including the Muslim community as represented in British politics. That is our concern, that is at the heart of the Government and that is national politics.”

Maryam Khan
“I am proud of being British Pakistani. The current situation in Pakistan shows that it needs persistent friends and supporters and I intend insha Allah to be one of those; neither I ignore the plight of Kashmiri and Palestinian people either and I will always support their struggle for freedom,” said sister Maryam Khan, a prospective Parliamentary candidate for Bury north.

Maryam also said, “I would continue to campaign as a committed member of Labour Party for social justice, continuing to believe in combating poverty, prejudice and inequality.”

Shabana Mahmood
Shabana Mahmood first took a minute to reflect on the four prospective parliamentary candidates who are women. Shabana said, “I am so pleased that all the Muslim men on the campaign trail have been nothing but welcoming and wanting to hear what I have to offer, challenging me and asking me the questions while I am on the campaign.”

Shabana also said, “I am delighted that four of us are women. It is really important because so many Muslim men were instrumental in my own selection followed by non-Muslim men and women. Same for Roshanara, Yasmin and for Maryam. The fact that four of us are women it is incredibly a very powerful thing about Muslim community in this country. Things are changing every single day.”

Shabana concluded by saying, “The Labour party is a great movement for change. It always has been and it always will be. Because I know it delivers truly amazing international institutions such as National Health Service which is not only competent socialist values, labour values and, might be, Muslim values too. Whatever the past issues may have with the party, absolutely it is the best movement for change that we have.”

Anas Sarwar
Another parliamentarian candidate, Anas Sarwar, a parliamentary candidate from his own constituency in Glasgow Central, where he was born and brought up and thanked those who have “made so many contributions to this country and there has been such great inspiration and role models to me and my generations.”

“Most of all, you are giving the young people the confident, the confidence to stand and be confident to be as both Muslims and British. I hope with your support we can continue your hard work and make a generation that follows us as far we are all of you,” said Anas.

Anas also said, “We must recognise the challenges that we have to face. We must recognise the inequalities in health, education and housing at home. We have still too many living in poverty, living in injustice and living in conflict abroad.”

Speaking about conflict abroad, Anas wanted to raise one issue “that have been passionate from my very young age, the Palestinian conflict which has been mentioned before,” said Anas and added, “I visited Palestine for the first time when I was just 12 years old, the issue is still with me ever since. The situation, I can show you, only got worse; 70% of the population unemployed; 80% of the population eating purely on UN Food programme and two-thirds of the essential medicines under the World Health organisations unable to gather. That is simply unacceptable in our 21st century world.”

“This issue is never religion,” said Anas and maintained, “We must double our efforts and show by giving the people of Gaza and Palestine the freedom and the democracy that they deserve and also peace and freedom for both sides. I am sure that I can speak for the rest of our candidates, my fellow parliamentarians that we will continue our fight until we do achieve peace and justice not only in Kashmir but in Palestine as well.”

Anas concluded his speech by saying about the relationship between the Labour Party and the Muslim community. “We had good times and bad times; we had times we agree and times we disagree. But what keeps us together, what unites us is our beliefs, values and shared principles, what we call, justice and our commitment to eradicate poverty both at home and abroad. And together, brothers and sisters, we can face challenges head on and together we can deliver equality and justice for all,” concluded Anas.

Guest Speaker and Keynote Speaker
Rt.Hon. David Miliband, Foreign Secretary
“There has been going on a big change in our society and that change is represented by many of the people in this room,” said British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband and mentioned, “Now I feel of coming of age in the Muslim community of Britain where I see five new candidates have been selected and they are also optimistic about the future of Britain and the future of the Labour Party; because they represent a new wave of change.”

“There is a time of binding together; there is a time of mutual support and then there is a time of branching out to the wider community to represent people, not just of your own religion or of your own ethnic groups, but represent the whole community,” said Miliband and expressed his “great confidence that the five new candidates that we selected, that you selected, was not the great representatives of Britain’s Muslim communities; they will be great representatives of the Labour Party but they will be great representatives of every single person in their communities in their constituencies.”

“And the reason for that they have been selected not for the colour of the skin, not for the religion that they worship, they are being selected for content of their character, of their ethics, their beliefs and their commitments for fair and just society. And that is the basis on which we achieve change. Because we always remember whatever our religion, whatever our race that unite us than divide us and the message that go out of the five new candidates is that the Labour party is determined to represent every race, every religion and every ethnicity,” said Foreign Secretary.

The British Foreign Secretary emphasized on three things tonight. First, he said, “This coming of age of the Muslim community of Britain is a tribute to you and it is a tribute to those people who are pioneers in politics, business, in arts, in sports, in diplomacy.” Miliband also mentioned about the first British Bangladeshi High Commissioner who recently completed his tenure as High Commissioner in Bangladesh.

“It is a tribute to you but it also says something about our country: That this is increasingly a country which is an open society; increasingly a country where people get on by their put in; increasingly a country that is more respectful and tolerant of the diversity and differences. So this meeting is an opportunity to celebrate what is great about our country as well as the great about our party,” mentioned Miliband.

The second thing that the Foreign Secretary said was his role as Foreign Secretary. “Britain is a mirror to the world,” said Miliband and mentioned that one of the great challenges is “to bring people together to coalition for change. And I think if we look for the future issues of the world, whether economic challenges, whether climate change, whether national and international security they depend on the coalition of the countries of the Muslim majority countries and countries which are not.”

“How do we build that coalition?” asked the question and immediately said, “First of all, we build that coalition by recognising and respecting the differences between Muslim majority countries; the diversity within the Muslim world is striking as the similarities within. Secondly, we have to recognise that there are big processes of reform going on in the Muslim world.”

Call to end the siege, lift the blockade in Gaza

European Parliamentary Delegation to Gaza
Calls to end the siege, lift the blockade in Gaza

Dr. Mozammel Haque


60 European Parliamentarians from 13 European countries ranging from Ireland in the West to Slovakia under the leadership of Sir Gerald Kaufman left London on Thursday, 14th of January, stayed overnight in Cairo and then left by road on Friday to travel through Rafah crossings into the Gaza Strip. The delegation returned back and gave a press conference at the Jubilee room of the Parliament House on 21st January about their experience.

Sir Gerald Kaufman
“We traveled around Gaza; seen for ourselves the destruction which still is blatantly obvious year after the Israeli attack due to the fact it is almost impossible for Palestinians to rebuild. We saw the schools in which people took refuge and spoke to some of the survivors. We visited the people living in camps now for a year; we visited Alshoumani family, the extended family 29 of whom were killed by the Israeli. We had devastating account from the survivors including the young girl who saw her parents have been shot out in their heads in front of her and mother who saw her husband and small son were killed in front of her. We learnt a very great deal about what had been taking place,” described Sir Gerald Kaufman, the leader of the delegation and added, “no one is untouched in Gaza and that includes people on the farms, for example, we came by Strawberry farm where 10,000 people used to work, were closed down; because it was impossible for them to export their strawberries.”.

Sir Kaufman also said, “We saw, for example, a place hit by the illegal weapon white phosphorous which are still giving out toxic fuels; we heard about the appalling child malnutrition. We heard for ourselves at the breakfast time Israeli gunfire from the sea. I was told that was happening every morning without fail.”

Marshall-Andrews
Another member of the delegation was Marshall-Andrews, who is not only a parliamentarian but also a lawyer, a QC and specialized in what is in criminal matters; and he is extremely interested in International Law; in so far as it applies to international crime committed by the governments or individuals.” What I was looking for was to see whether I could see clear Prima facie evidence of the commission of war crimes or war crimes against humanity during the course of Operation Cast Lead or indeed before that,” said Mr. Marshall-Andrews.

He also added, “I very much hoped that I will not find what we found and I hoped that I would come away with reservations about the Goldstone Report. I did not and I don’t think anyone of the 60 odd delegations would have been any difference of what we witnessed with our own eyes in terms of the destruction of civilian infrastructure including two schools, one of which 37 children had died during the course of the onslaught and what we saw in terms of destruction of civilian houses ; what we saw the destruction of the Parliament building itself; which is a democratically elected parliament; whether you like the parliament or not does not matter; they have their parliament building and that have been destroyed. It is extremely difficult to see how that act alone has had anything to do with the defence of Israel.”

The delegation “listened to testimony given by those who had seen their families killed before their very eyes; this, not by accident or error, or the wanton use of mortar fires or artillery or aircraft. These deaths were caused by the soldiers on the ground, in circumstances which are wholly indefensible. And I listened to that testimony. We all did,” said parliamentarian Marshall-Andrews and added,”what we heard provided the strongest possible prime facie evidence of the existence of individual collective war crimes. That is what I went to discover. In addition to that, of course, we all saw the destitution which is clear by the years of blockade.”

Baroness Jerry Tong
Another member of the delegation, Baroness Jerry Tong, who is also from the medical profession background, was concerned particularly t about the health issues in Gaza. She was in Gaza in November 2008. She was extremely concerned then by the nutritional standard and the general unhealthy conditions of the people in Gaza and indeed in the West Bank. Baroness Tong said, “If we look at the children who are in the majority in Gaza population, 60% of those children are suffering from malnutrition , are extremely anemic.,” she said and added, “prolonged anemia indulges in your brain power diminishes your energy and makes you unable to concentrate ; it’s a very debilitating disease. It also stunts your growth.”

The other condition that concerns Baroness Tong greatly among the children in Gaza is “post-traumatic disorder”. She said in the case of the children of Gaza, “this is not post-traumatic; this is ongoing stress disorder and it’s ongoing for three years; it is being far far worse since Operation Cast Lead. The helicopter gun ships are still coming over the Gaza Strip and John Ging told this. The Israeli started torturing by sonic boom which for a little child huge boom huge explosive noise is terrifying when you see what they have gone through,” said Baroness Tong and added, “it makes people unable to concentrate, unable to connect facts and unable to succeed academically at schools., especially if it is ongoing. We are not talking about an event a day or few days.”

Baroness Tong raised a question here, “So what we are doing here? watching the blockade of Gaza, future generation of badly educated, stunted, weak people who are unable to concentrate and also adults in Gaza already full of bitterness and anger but they are also be getting full of bitterness and anger. And now what is that setting up for the future? What is Israel laying in store? It’s a time bomb. I would just like to appeal to the Israeli authorities, if they see any of this; to remember what they are doing and remember that it is not in the interest of Palestinians to lift the siege of Gaza but it is in the interest of Israel and the Israel’s future.”

Lord Ahmed
Lord Ahmed, another member of the delegation, said, “For me seeing is believing. I was also with Baroness Tong and Clare Short in November 2008 when we visited Gaza; but this time when we visited the areas which have been completely demolished with the bombing and with the F16 and helicopter gun ships. And Sir Gerald mentioned that the young girl from the Shimoni family Mona, 13-year-old, who described to us in full details on how the 97 members of their family were taken and anyone of them, did not belong to any political party; they are just farmers, they are just ordinary people of Gaza. And so when the Israelis keep talking about this was being targeted at Hamas or terrorists or others. This family categorically said that they had nothing to do with politics or any political party.”

Lord Ahmed said, “I agree with everything that has been said that this is a collective punishment of 750,000 children of Gaza, half of the Gaza’s 1.5 million is under 18.”

“I think that the war crimes that has been committed have to be pursued and all I can say is that we urge our government and parliamentarians here that there should be no appeasement statement or appeasement policy that we will change our law and Israeli state terrorists will be welcome in the United Kingdom,” Lord Ahmed said and added, “If there is any attempt by the government then I think all parliamentarians have to stand up for international law and we would have to fight the government or any one else on this particular issue.”.

'What kind of world we are living in'
During the Q & A session, Sir Gerald Kaufman said, “Nobody wants 1.5 million people to be supplied by goods coming in through the tunnels; For God’s sake, what kind of world we are living in when the Israelis government is content to see 1.5 million people living on below the bread line. Is that the kind of thing that the Israeli state was founded to impose? That’s not why I supported the foundation of the Israeli state.”

'What time bomb we are creating'
Again during the Q & A session, Baroness Tong said, “John Ging of the UNRWA actually told this that this year he only receives 60 percent of the funding he had last year to do all the things that he has to do. What are we doing to these people and I repeat what time bomb are we creating in Gaza for the future?”

'It’s a strange world we are living'
Sir Kaufman also mentioned in the Q & A session, “There were heart-breaking when we met some of the victims, these people living in tents; sleeping in night in the cold; express sympathy with the victims of Haiti. People in Gaza expressing sympathy and rightly expressing sympathy and the world rightly wanting to do to help the people in Haiti but at the same time the world can stand by and watch what is happening to the people of Gaza; it is a strange world we are living.”

'The whole world can do a lot
but is not doing it'
In reply to a question from Dr. Mozammel Haque, a freelance Journalist, Sir Gerald Kaufman said, “The whole world can do a lot; but the whole world is not doing it. That’s the point. There are great many things we could do if we set our mind to do it; we could for example, impose economic sanction on Israel, for which I have called now for very many years because there are very high standard of living including the very high standard of living of the settlers is based on hand-outs from the United States. The Israeli state economy is an economy which is propping up. We in the European Union could do a very great deal more in pressure and in trade agreement. So yes we can do things. My colleague Philip Stacey has taken a particular initiative with regard to European trade agreement.”

“So yes, there are lots we can do it. But unfortunately not much of it is being done and when we met Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Mousa, in Cairo he said something which is not often said but I think it is about time it was said. That was about President Obama. President Obama went to Cairo and made a fine speech about the need for peace in the Middle East. But President Obama talks a talk. But he, of all the people of the entire world, could actually do something about this in a way that the rest of us can’t do. But he is not doing it,” Sir Gerald added.

Jeremy Corbyn
Another member of the delegation, who was busy in his constituency, came in the middle of the Q & A Session. This is the fourth time that Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington has been to Gaza over the years. Speaking about his quick impression said, “A group of people, 1.5 million people in Cage have physical needs, have medical needs, have social needs, have economic needs and have psychological needs as well and the effect on the population of being unable to travel, unable to work, unable to secure knowledge the medical degree any of the other needs of granted very very serious and the effect on young people even more serious.”

“What came to me after the lengthy meeting in Gaza with the prime minister and with the parliament that they are people who had democratic mandate; they are people who are freely elected; we all observed that elections and nobody found a fault with it. The rest of the world should recognize,” said Parliamentarian Corbyn and added, “I got the very strongest impression from the prime minister that he wanted to be part of that political process, part of the solution and part of the future.”

“So our call to end the siege, so our call is to lift the blockade, our call is for other people to visit Gaza. Why can’t our Foreign Secretary go to Gaza? why can’t European representative go to Gaza? If we are able to go to Gaza, if other people able to go to Gaza, then why it is not for them,” said Mr. Corbyn.

'We need to change'
Parliamentarian Corbyn also mentioned, “The long term implication of keeping 1.5 million people in prison, in poverty and in misery is a greater and greater danger to the whole peace of the entire region. And it does not bring actually peace and security for Israel. What it brings for Israel is a shame national psychosis of the whole situation. So I thought the visit is extremely valuable and we are very determined 60 parliamentarians in 13 countries to pressurize our governments to end the siege of Gaza, to end the blockade of Gaza, give support to those people but above all be serious about a political solution: recognition of Palestinian people and their long-cherished right to live in peace, in freedom, in their place with the rest of the world. That is the message I picked up very strongly from Gaza.”

“Those people need our support, need our help and need our solidarity. We as a historical colonial power, we were part of the problem; we need to change,” added Mr. Corbyn. .

Immigrants Contribution to the United Kingdom

Immigrants contribution to
the United Kingdom

Dr. Mozammel Haque

“Immigration policy is the hot potato in the months up to the election. That is something which is understandable in terms of the way Immigration policy undoubtedly in the next six months. I am sure this is a subject which will be of great interest,” said Mr. Tom Brake, M.P., Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Home Affairs, while chairing the seminar on “Immigrants Contribution to British Society,” organized by Universal Peace Federation, held at the Committee Room of the House of Commons, on Tuesday, 24th of November 2009. Besides the speakers, among the audience, there were Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham and Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green and Bow.

The first speaker, Keith Best
The first speaker, Keith Best, Chief Executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, while speaking about the economic benefits that migrant brings to the United Kingdom, he mentioned students bring eight billion pounds a year to the economy, “Students on the Border Agency’s own figures, that I suspect is underestimate, bring something like eight billion pounds a year to the economy, it’s not just the 20,000 pounds allowances that they have to pay overseas students fees in this country,” said Best and added, “Once you look into even major academic institution, like the London School of Economics, more than half of their total income is derived from overseas students fees,” he added.

Speaking about public opinion, Best said,”It is really rather alarming. If you look at the 2008 Transatlantic Trends Survey which look at the public opinion on immigration in the US and in the Six EU states, i.e., France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and this country and incidentally in a week’s time, the next survey will be published as well. What you find there is that the UK has a more anti-immigrant public opinion than any one of those other countries; which is really alarming indeed. And I think that is the magnitude of the problem.”

Then Best spoke about the remittances by the migrant to their back home which helped development of their country. “Migrant workers sending their remittances back home which directly impact on the economy. If you read the World Bank Report you will see that actually in many of the developing countries remittances represent more than the development aid.”

Before concluding his speech, Best mentioned about integration. “We now live in a globalised economy. If you look at comparative figures in UK, it reckons to be about 10 per cent of people living in this country when they are not actually born here. In Canada, it’s 20 percent, in Australia, it’s 25 per cent; in United States, it’s 12 per cent; in France, it’s 14 percent; these countries, to my knowledge, are not on the brink of immediate social disintegration. The idea that Britain cannot live comfortably in social cohesion with that level of migration, frankly is wrong. And we need to expose that and say to the British people the facts. When you think that virtually half of the people who answer the opinion poll think that all migrants are here illegally you really realized that the profundity of the problem that we had in trying to get that message across.”

“We all need actually to make sure the facts of migration and not the mythology of it,” he added.

Lord Bikhu Parekh
Lord Bikhu Parekh, Chair of ‘Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain’ Report in 2000, started with the classification of the audience. He mainly classified the audience into two groups: converted and racists or nationalists. “What I would like to do is to ask a different kind of question: We can easily talk to the converted and convince them that immigration is a wonderful thing; because we are all immigrants; this is the kind of things we want to hear. So it is easy to convince the converted. And it is impossible to convince the racists. Those who are racists, those who don’t like black and browns at all and those who are nationalists in the mould of Enoch Powell, either we don’t want Black people or we have a certain way of life.”

Referring to the points of remittances mentioned by Best, Lord Parekh said, “Keith made a very beautiful argument that when you go to Bangladesh or to Mirpur or to India there are villages where remittances from immigrants here have made a profound difference. Now if I go to the audiences here and say look with the same kind of argument; they will say I don’t know what you are trying to tell me. This argument has a meaning only if I have a moral obligation to help people in that part of the world. I don’t recognize any such obligation. So while that argument is very attractive to us but it will not cut any ice with this audience I am thinking about.”

Britain had no tradition of immigration
Lord Parekh mentioned that Britain had no tradition of immigration. “It is worth bearing in mind that until now certainly in Britain we have had people coming from outside but they are not immigrants. They are asylum seekers; refugees; we never positively went out to recruit immigrants, in a way that Canada and Australia and the United States did. Therefore, we have no tradition of immigration and therefore we have no vocabulary in terms of which we can talk about immigration. That is the first point to bear in mind,” said Lord Parekh and added, “When people came in the 1880s; 1920s, they were not immigrants; they were asylum seekers, they were refugees. So what kind of immigration that we are talking about.”

Immigration is a post-war phenomenon
Lord Parekh said, “It is a post-war phenomenon. Therefore, it’s a new to British life. We must bear in mind. Because there are no old arguments, the traditional arguments upon which we can rely; we have to create our own tradition of arguments.”

Lord Parekh in the aftermath of that report on immigration went round the country and began to ask himself: “Can I speak only to satisfy my conscience or do I want to achieve something? And if I wanted to achieve something; how do I relate to the audience; what is my audience? Racists I cannot touch, converted I don’t want to touch. In the middle 75 to 80 per cent of the people what language they do understand. And at the same time I want it’s not enough what is the language they do understand is also important that I should share the value of that language.”
.
i) Migrant will do dirty work
“For example, I can go and tell them who will do the dirty work? So, allow this people to live but in the very course of that argument, I am spreading the racist argument and the racist idea that they are here only to do the dirty work. And therefore that argument will be: bring them in to do this kind of work but don’t let them go in the hierarchy and become our bosses. So that argument important as it is but has a stint to it. So I would not use that kind of argument,” said Lord Parekh.

ii) Demography pension
Second argument of demography vis-à-vis pension examined by Lord Parekh and said, “Second kind of argument I can make it. Look there is a logical demography. Our population is aging; who is going to provide for the pension; these people are going to work and therefore we need this chap from outside who can provide the pension and maintain you. Powerful argument. But again there is a catch. They are there only in order to serve us. , they are not important in their own right. But it is an important argument.”

iii) Highly skilled people
The third argument one can make as Keith has made that they are highly skilled people and we need them badly. Lord Parekh mentioned, “I remember making this argument in the presence of Margaret Thatcher several years ago. We are talking about foreign aid. I said Madam do you know we are 10,000 south Asian doctors, mainly Indians. They are from India and it takes about 100,000 pounds to train a doctor in this country. So this 10,000 people multiplied by 100,000 come to one billion pounds and a south Asian doctor has saved us one billion pounds; or if you want to put it differently the poor countries of south Asia have subsidized us, given us the foreign aid to the tune of one billion and that is only to talk about doctors. Boring professors like me, well-established businessmen and if you add them all up. Once I was in the CRE when I was deputy chair doing the calculations. They told me it comes to like just under two billion pounds of subsidy that the poor countries are giving.”

“Highly skilled people are fine but the argument has a catch mainly we don’t want to deprive them of their own country people or in fact there is a bill recently; there is a government statement; in fact, there will be no recruitment of doctors and nurses in the developing countries. So the highly skilled argument important in one context but has also small catch.”

Therefore, what Lord Parekh was trying to do is to find out both strength and the weakness of the argument, in the hope in the end of the day, “what are the arguments we should be making which are free from this drawback,” Lord Parekh said.

iv) Enormous contribution
Fourth argument one can make is that the enormous contribution that immigrants make. About this argument, Lord Parekh said, “Those immigrants don’t take away jobs; that they produce jobs; they also pay more in taxes than the average population because the population is young. It is also the case although you give the welfare benefit they give far more to the country than they draw in terms of welfare benefits. So there is a net contribution of something like three to four billion pounds as a result of immigrants. That’s an important argument.”

“Catch to the argument is contribution of four billion pounds to the economy is an abstract; it does not translate easily into a particular area where immigrants are concentrated; people have to wait longer in the queue in hospital or finding a children going to school where 90 per cent of children don’t speak English. So they would say, look: four billion pounds you are talking about is an abstraction like GDP is an abstraction how does it translate in terms of day to day life? So you make that argument, the important argument, but at the same time we must be prepared that this argument has a negative implication,” mentioned Lord Parekh.

So far Lord Parekh made all the arguments are economic argument. He said, at the end of the day economic arguments always have problem. It’s a matter of statistics. He mentioned, “There are two other kinds of argument which one can make for immigration.”

a) More resourceful and more enterprising
Lord Parekh argued, “Those who come in as immigrants are invariably determined, more resourceful and more enterprising. Because in order to get out of the society where you lived you must be more resourceful, more capable to take risk and therefore we are getting an input infused talent, motivation, inspiration and it is good for our society. Not just in economic terms it means, it is new vitality, new sources of energy.”

“The second point is although it is intangible you would generally find immigrants are more resourceful, more enterprising and more dynamic and that shows not just in business but shows in terms of column you write, that shows your quality, that shows your lots of lots of intangible,” maintained Lord Parekh.

b) In terms of variety, in terms of culture
The other argument is not in terms of new vitality but in terms of variety and in terms of culture. Lord Parekh said, “Those immigrants bring in, not different kinds of food, they are here to serve us, so they cook food for us; so they can go to Indian Restaurant and hate Indians. In fact, go to Indian Restaurants and therefore hate Indians because the idea is we go there, we expect them to serve well food and we don’t expect them to be Nazir or Bikhu Parekh or anybody else. Don’t say Lord, you are here to serve food. So when people like to enjoy Indian food but you hate Indians. It’s a paradox. It’s obvious.”

Lord Parekh argued, “It is not an argument in term of food but in term of arts, in term of culture; in term of music; in term of literature. That in all these areas, the fact of human spirit. Immigrants bring new vitality. The only catch in that argument is that most people we want to convince have no interest in art or literature or whatever.”

c) Build bridges
And the last argument one can make for immigration, argued Lord Parekh, is: “In this globalizing world we need to build bridges to other parts of the world. We want to understand what’s going on specially a country like ours; which was once a great Empire, still applying internationally minded country, far more internationally minded than the many other countries I can think of and for this country not to lose a baring golden at large. And what every new immigrant brings another country, another continent another way of life. So the wider the range of immigrants the greater the number of immigrants the wider be the view of your life and the way of life.”

Lord Parekh concluded by saying “These are the kinds of arguments I would want to make in favour of immigration. But always bear in mind that a) no argument by itself is comprehensive and b) every argument - all of these arguments push beyond a certain point can also be an argument against immigration and form racism, if you are not careful. If you say they do the job they want, right, this is what they are fit for. They bring variety of food, right; that should be they should be doing. So please remember that the audience we are trying to persuade is a very complex audience. They operate at various wave lengths and therefore the idioms in which we talk have to be equally multilayer”

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, distinguished Journalist and Commentator, who arrived this country from Uganda in 1972 and since that time over 30 years fighting this battle, said, “I feel there is no point anymore in fighting for pro-immigration argument. For the first time I feel we have lost the battle. I would actually say my industry; this House, politicians of all parties, have really surrendered to this kind of machine that started driving through the country the particular ideology and it is ideologically based on the problem of immigration into this country. I don’t think I have ever before seen such a sustained collaborative machine. I won’t want to depress you but I think we have to be realistic.”

British Muslim Peace delegation
met South Darfur Governor

Dr. Mozammel Haque

NIYALA: A Ten-Member Delegation of the British Muslim Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation under the leadership of Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham left for Sudan, on Saturday, the 4th of April 2009. The members of the delegation were as follows: Lord Nazir Ahmad, Leader of the Delegation; sister Yvonne Ridley, former reporter of Daily Express and a revert to Islam; Dr. Merve Kavakci of the George Washington University, Washington D.C.; Abdullah Al-Faliq, Researcher of the Cordova Foundation, London; Dr Mozammel Haque, Researcher and Media Advisor, Islamic Cultural Centre, London; Lawrence Khan, Secretary of Lord Ahmad; Barrister Aisha Alvi, human rights activist; Mukhtar of Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) , Shairkhan Jameel Ahmed, representative of Markaz Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadis and Syed Lakhte Hassanain, chairman of Muslim Hands.

The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) for Peace and Reconciliation delegation led by Lord Nazir Ahmad arrived at Niyala, the capital of south Darfur on Monday, the 6th of April and met the Governor of South Darfur state, Mr. Ali Mahmoud Mohamed, at a press conference. The Governor gave a brief background of the state describing the total areas of the state, its population which is four million. The state is suitable for farming and it has animal resources. The two-third of the state has borders with Chad, Central and West Africa.

Meeting with Governor at a press Conference
Speaking about the conflict, the Governor Mohamed said, rebellion started in the north Darfur in 2003 and later on it came to the south. It is an extension.

Speaking about the allegation that the war is between Arabs and Africans, the Governor said, “This statement is false.” Pointing to the people sitting around him at the press conference, the Governor asked, “Can you differentiate between the Africans and the Arabs?” The Governor emphatically said, “There is no difference between Arabs and Africans. But yes, there is difference in the language spoken. Still, the main language is Arabic.”

Speaking about the IDP camps, the Governor Mr. Mohamed said, “The total population of the state is four million, whereas there are 250,000 in the camps. They mainly came from the north Darfur.”

Speaking about security situation, the Governor said, “The security situation is very stable and settle. There are 15 localities in the State. Out of these 15 localities, only one portion is not under the control of the government. But the other 14-plus are under the governmental control. So only a portion is not under the governmental control. Even this portion which is under the control of rebels, the south Darfurian government is controlling its education system.”

Speaking about the NGOs and the gaps thereof due to the expulsion of NGOs, the Governor said, “We have managed to complete the gaps with the removal of the NGOS. There was need for food, clean water and health. These services are delivered by 20 doctors, 24 assistant medical staff. During the presence of the NGOs, there was no doctor.”

Lord Ahmad, leader of the BMI Peace and Reconciliation delegation, after introducing the members of his delegation, said, “As you will be aware that the British Muslim Community was decided to bring peace in Darfur and we had been in Al-Fasher, the capital of north Darfur twice and now we want to hold peace at the local level. Peace will come only with comprehensive peace with the help of the Qatari government, United Nations, European Union and African Unity.”

“Our approach is the bottom-up approach, to bring these things to present and that’s why we are here. In the past, we met with tribal leaders, visited mosques, and had conference with Governor and leaders in north Darfur. In Khartoum, we met with Imam Sadeq Al-Mahdi and other leaders. In London, I also met Abdul Waheed Noor and other rebel leaders and tribal heads at the House of Lords,” said Lord Ahmad and added, “We have no interest, neither political, nor economical or oil. Our interest is humanitarian and peace.”

Lord Ahmad also proposed to hold a conference of all the main leaders of North and South Darfur with the rebel leaders either in London or Doha or Makkah and also to hold a Football match in London between the north and south Darfur teams under the Darfur United Football banner.

Civil Administration Meeting
Lord Ahmad addressed the tribal leaders, elders and representatives of various tribes and various organisations in the Civil Administration meeting. Lord Ahmad said, “We do not want to speak, we want to listen. The British Muslim Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation started last year and we had meetings twice at Al-Fasher with honourable brothers and sisters like you. We decided to listen to their grievances and to see how we can build peace and reconcile. Of course, we know all the people of Darfur are Muslims; 100 per cent Muslims. The Qur’an gives us very clearly the guidance. I do not have to remind you because you can understand classical Arabic better than me. But the Qur’an is full of how you make peace; Qur’an is full of peace.”

“All what we wanted is to listen to you and how you can make peace. I will remind you when Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was only 16-17 years of age, in Halful Fadhul, he brought everybody together; people who were non-believers, people who had faith; of course there were no Muslim then. All he wanted then was to make peace. Today all the brothers and sisters that have come from the United Kingdom, of course sister Merve Kavakci from the United States, we are all here to listen to you on the Sunnah of the Prophet on how you can make peace,” said Lord Ahmad.

The Speaker then asked the leaders of different tribes to speak their ideas how to solve the problem. Twelve speakers expressed their opinions, views and ideas and plus a note from a leader was read out. Thus, 13 leaders expressed their views and opinions. They represent eleven tribes.

Lord Ahmad proposed to hold a conference before a civil administration meeting where more than sixty leaders, representatives of different tribes were assembled and thirteen of the Sixty expressed their opinions and views. They welcomed the Lord Ahmad’s proposal of having a Football match between two Darfur Teams under the Darfur United Football in London in summer on the back of holding a conference of different leaders of Darfur with the rebel leaders also at the capital of the United Kingdom.

The leaders of various tribes expressed their views on many issues. They talked about lack of development projects, about education, health, clean water and non food items. They also mentioned about the lust for power, authority and people wants to rule. Another speaker praised the British government as a great power and said many graduates came out from the British universities. But he lamented that Britain has not played its role properly. He requested the members of the delegation “to convey our greetings to the British people and government.”

Another speaker suggested two things before the conference: firstly, there should be ceasefire before the negotiation; secondly, to unite the rebellions in one body and they should represent in that one body. While supporting the idea of holding a conference outside Sudan, another leader expressed his ideas of solving the problem between nomads and farmers and also to solve other tribal conflicts. Problems will not be resolved unless the problem of poverty is solved; because of poverty, there is theft and robbery.

Football Match
After that the Governor of South Darfur took the BMI Peace delegation to a Football Match between the Tahrik Football team and the Helal Football team. Lord Ahmad presented gifts to each scorer.

Meeting at the Legislative Assembly
There was a meeting at the Legislative Assembly of the South Darfur which is composed of, according to the interim Constitution of 2005, the executive bodies, state Governor, 73 members; six women; ten executive committees in various forms; among these, there are Economic, Law, Planning, Humanitarian Affairs, Women Affairs, Agriculture and Animal resources.

The members of the Legislative Assembly represent different localities of the state. Lord Ahmed addressed the members of the Legislative Assembly. He mentioned his visit to Gaza. He also mentioned the role British Muslims are playing. Lord Ahmad said, “You have to understand, there has to be a peace process.”

On Tuesday, the 7th of April, the Governor of South Darfur took the BMI peace delegation to the biggest market place of Niyala where there are all the locally produced vegetables, fruits and hand-made shoes and garments. The Governor was shaking hands with the people, young and old, boys and girls, men and women. He was very friendly with them.

Baba Village
The British Muslim Initiative for Peace and Rehabilitation delegation visited the Baba IDP returnees’ villages at Niyala, South Darfur on Tuesday, the 7th of April 2009. Internal Displaced Persons (IDP) returned in July 2008 to their villages. Baba village is one of them. In the Baba village, there are 465 households or families. There are two schools for boys and girls and two water pumps, the village leader said.

“To make it a model village for the IDPs, they need water tanks, water-pipes inside their house. So far as the education is concerned, they have one school for boys and girls. Governor of South Darfur promised to build house for teachers,” said the village leader.

Lord Ahmad said, “I am conveying you the greetings of three million British Muslims and six million American Muslims, because sister Marwah is, though from Turkey, but now lives in America. You are like our brothers and sisters. When you feel pain we also feel pain in the UK, USA, Arabia and 1.3 billion Muslims live all over the world. We want to bring peace and hope. We don’t want killings.”

Speaking about himself, Lord Ahmad said, “My father came to the United Kingdom from Kashmir and now I am in the House of Lords, the oldest Parliament of the world.”

Giving hope to the IDPs, Lord Ahmad said, “This place has so much potential. You have oil, gas and plenty of animal resources. Why Darfur cannot be like Dubai and Abu Dhabi which were like you 40 years ago?”

Lord Ahmed also promised to “come again and instead of living in the Governor’s House at Niyala, we will stay with you one night in the village here.”

The Chairman of the UK-based Muslim Hands, said, “You came back to your village. Allah the Almighty gave you protection, security and long life with your family and children. Insha Allah, peace will come. Darfur state has lot of oil and resources. Your basic needs are water, health, sanitation, Mosque and Madrasah. Insha Allah, we will try to help you continuously and our manager will come time to time to see you.” After Muslim Hands made his promise, Lord Ahmad said, “Our delegation will see he delivers his promises.”

The UK based charity Muslim Hands started its work in south Darfur in July 2004 after its visit to Niyala. Since 2004 Muslim Hands has set up its office in Niyala. Its first Mosaih camps used to have two schools with 1600 students, three Khalwahs (Madrassahs), Health unit and dozens of latrines; one water hand pumps. Most of Mosaih people have returned to their homelands in Galdee, Banut and Draib Arreh.

In Niyala area, the Muslim Hands has done over 22 Water hand pumps, 100 improved latrines, six Madrassahs. It also helped a lot of people of Sani Dalaibah with environment protection projects such as latrines and spraying, mosquito nets health and medication and plastic sheets.

Preparatory Symposium for Darfur
Women Conference at Khartoum
The preparatory symposium for Darfur Women Conference was organised by the Sudan International University, held at Friends House, Khartoum, on 8th of April, 2009. It was a women symposium. Lord Ahmad started the symposium by reciting Surah Ar-Rahman from the Holy Qur’an. Then the President of the Sudan International University Dr. Omar Bakri said, “We are trying to focus and throw light on how to improve the life of women in Sudan.”

Lord Ahmad said, “We have only one hope – peace. We have no political interest, no interest in oil or gas. Sisters are organising this conference.”

“I must admit: war is man’s creation, they create war and the women suffer. Its women who suffer; lost their homes, their near and dear ones, shortage of foods, they were being thrown into this; they have to bring family together those who are fighting, who are fighting outside,” Lord Ahmad said.

Addressing those people who are fighting, Lord Ahmad said, “Stop fighting – stop destroying the family. Women have every right to live in peace.”

Lord Ahmad also pointed out, “We are not in competition; we are trying to bring people together; we go to the villages, meet with members of the tribes; for us we reach out and give this message of hope, message of peace, message for humanity. Darfurians are brave Muslims because Darfurian soldiers were in the Ottoman Empire. Why Darfur cannot be like Dubai and UAE which were like Darfur 30/40 years ago. You need peace. Just bring peace. That is the most important.”

Lord Ahmad also mentioned that the Women Conference which will be held at Khartoum on 21 May 2009 will be addressed by many Members of the British Parliament. “My colleague, Clara Short will be the keynote speaker in those conferences.”

Earlier, the BMI peace delegation led by Lord Ahmed met Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin, Adviser to the President and also Leader of the Parliamentary Majority and discussed about the NGOs, refugee issues and ICC indictment. In the Sunday evening, the delegation met with Dr. Nafi Ali Nafi – Assistant to the President, National Congress Party Vice President and also Dr. Mariam Sadig Al-Mahady of the Ummah Party.

BMI Peace and Reconciliation Delegation
Met Advisor to the President of Sudan

Dr. Mozammel Haque

KHARTOUM: A Ten-Member Delegation of the British Muslim Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation under the leadership of Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham left for Sudan, on Saturday, the 4th of April 2009. The members of the delegation were as follows: Lord Nazir Ahmad, Leader of the Delegation; sister Yvonne Ridley, former reporter of Daily Express and a revert to Islam; Dr. Merve Kavakci of the George Washington University, Washington D.C.; Abdullah Al-Faliq, Researcher of the Cordova Foundation, London; Dr Mozammel Haque, Researcher and Media Advisor, Islamic Cultural Centre, London; Lawrence Khan, Secretary of Lord Ahmad; Barrister Aisha Alvi, human rights activist; Mukhtar of Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) , Shairkhan Jameel Ahmed, representative of Markaz Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadis and Syed Lakhte Hassanain, chairman of Muslim Hands.

Speaking about the objective of the delegation, Lord Ahmad said, “Our job is really to build confidence bottom up. We will talk to the communities, we will talk to the leaders, we will build momentum like we did last time; we will speak and listen and once we have done that we will give them the hope; because for me, the most important is the hope. Our message is we build around that.”

Lord Ahmad said, “Our message is very clear. This is our message: we, British Muslims, do not have financial, economic or political interest. Our interest is simple: peace and we want to bring all sides and tribes together. Our message is clear: we want anybody, any human being to make peace. That’s what the Prophet (peace be upon him) did in Halful fadhul and that he did all his life.”

Lord Ahmad, Leader of the Delegation
British Muslim Initiative (BMI) delegation arrived at Khartoum, capital of Sudan early morning of Sunday, 5th of April, 2009 and met Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, Adviser to the President and also Leader of the Parliamentary Majority, Dr. Nafi Ali Nafi – Assistant to the President, National Congress Party Vice President and also Dr. Mariam Al-Sadig Al-Mahady of the Ummah Party and discussed about the issues such as expulsion of NGOs, situation of IDPs and their camps and ICC indictment.

Lord Ahmad said, “Last year we travelled to Al-Fasher, capital of North Darfur and that was successful. Our commitment is peace and we do not have any intention. We do not want to humiliate.”

“I do not believe all NGOs are innocent. We want to know how we can help under the present circumstances. How Muslim NGOs from other countries, UK, USA and the Middle East come here and do it? Would you like to reconsider the situation?” enquired Lord Ahmad.

The number of International NGOs in the whole of Sudan is 188. In Darfur, there are 118 NGOs from all over the world including the Islamic NGOs: 52 in South Darfur, 35 in North and 31 in West Darfur. That’s the total number of the International NGOs in the three states of Darfur, according to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs of Sudan.

Last month the registration of 13 NGOs from the whole of Sudan was revoked for different reasons; out of which only 10 were working in Darfur. Three has nothing to do with Darfur: Save the Children, UK and NRC have nothing to do with Darfur. They don’t operate in Darfur; they operate in other areas in Sudan, according to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs of Sudan.
The Ministry official also said, “From the United States we have 19 international NGOs in Darfur; 5 were expelled, remaining 14. From Britain we have 16, two were expelled and now we have 14 working at field. From France, we have 10 international NGOs, two were asked to leave till working in Darfur.”

Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani
Advisor to the President of Sudan
Speaking about the expulsion of NGOs, Dr. Ghazi said, “We have very strong objection for some of the NGOs. We cannot trust anyone who claims to be charitable and humanitarian simply because they are great.”

Dr. Ghazi accused, “These people have done many mistakes, some time some of them collaborated with the ICC, quite different from their professed objectives, some were involved in proselytization in Darfur, involved transfer of people outside and some of them were involved in bringing people to sensationalize the matters. Darfur, for some time, has become an industry where there is Hollywood.”

“A number of diplomats from different embassies said that the decision to expel NGOs was overdue. It should have been done long time ago. But, of course, that was done at the right moment. You have indicted our President and what do you expect; do you think that is to be passed without any incident,” asked Dr. Ghazi and added, “But we are ready to look into the matter as objectively, as constructively and as impartially as possible.”

Speaking about the expulsion of NGOs, Dr. Ghazi said, “This is the game of numbers; this is a war of numbers.”

Dr. Ghazi maintained, “We will not allow any politics in the name of humanitarian aid. No politicising; we should have common objective. They still go on politicising Darfur. We could not talk solving the problem so long this politicising is going on. We are not against humanitarian aid.”

Speaking about the needs gaps after the expulsion of NGOs, Dr. Ghazi said, “We did joint assessment on the grounds. We came up with a report which is very objective. It is a joint report; joint statement – UN and Sudan.”

Speaking about the ICC Indictment of the Sudanese President, “The legal basis of the case is very weak,” said Dr. Ghazi and argued, “This is a political case. Sudan is not signatory to the ICC and as such this does not fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC.”

Dr. Ghazi also mentioned about the composition of the ICC. “Look at the composition. It includes only European countries and some other countries like Canada and others. China is not signatory to the ICC; India is not signatory to the ICC and Russia is not signatory to the ICC. You are talking about the International community. Where is the international community? This is the international community. So far ICC has tried only Africans. So the whole thing is very shaky.”

Speaking about the reaction to the ICC indictment of the Sudanese President, Dr. Ghazi said, “In terms of the reaction within the Sudan, it has substantiated and strengthened the Government; it has strengthened the President and the institute of National Congress Party rather than weakening. At the regional level, you have seen the response in the Arab countries and in some Muslim countries. The support shown by the Doha Summit is unprecedented. The support they have shown to the whole of Sudan is more than the support shown for the question of Palestine.”

Dr. Ghazi also said, “If someone has committed crime, he has to be tried under national tribunal. We discussed this and told we are not averse to the possibility of having some African supervision in order to having transparency.”

Mr. Ahmad Muhammad Harun
Sudanese Minister for Humanitarian Affairs
The BMI for Peace and Reconciliation delegation met the Sudanese State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Ahmed Mohamed Haroun, on the same day, afternoon in his office and discussed about the expulsion of the NGOs and the gap in the humanitarian works.

After introducing the members of his delegation, Lord Ahmad said, “We spoke to Dr. Nafi and Dr. Ghazi this morning in relation to our visit and Dr. Ghazi actually suggested that we must see you because you have the facts and figures in terms of NGOs. We are interested to know after the indictment and what has happened. We want to know about the NGOs that have been expelled whether you are going to be able to cope with the work that used to come out, now they are not here whether you would be able to deal with it. Obviously we want to hear about their activities as much as you can on the allegations of the relations they were involved and how they are interfering ICC or giving information out of country on intelligence basis.”

Lord Ahmad mentioned about the international reputation of those NGOs. He said, “After all Save the Children, Oxfam, whether they are involved or not they have international reputation and CARE and IRC and Mercy and MSF all these have very big presence in the international community and reputation. For whatever reasons, whether rightly or wrongly, it is perceived that this is just a reactionary revenge because President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). So this is a reaction. We want to hear from your Excellency as a minister responsible on how you see the effects of this and how you see the developing.”

Lord Ahmad mentioned, “Dr. Nafi made it very clear that they (NGOs) will not come back even over my dead body almost, he said. But there are others who think there may be room for reconsideration. If there is room for reconsideration maybe we can have a conference in London. What we want to say we want to help. Please tell us how we can help.”

Minister Haroun said, “Simply we have a clear case against these international NGOs. First of all, they helped directly; they gave them fuel, logistics, system of communication, information about our troops; some of them signed memos with ICC data collection. It is not a real data; it is a fabricated data. If they sent to them the real data information we are happy, but fabricate the facts that are unacceptable. We have a document, copies memos between ICC. They always made a campaign against Sudan government by mobilising the international communities and media to put a lot of pressure on the government of Sudan. For that reason, we just circulate to tell them you are out of our country. You come to assist us not to attack us. The concept of humanitarian work is a voluntary way; it is not a compulsory way. You cannot compel to receive your aid.”

“On the 4th March 2009, the Government of National Unity (GoNU) revoked the registration certificates of 13 International and 3 National organisations due to their involvement in activities violating their humanitarian mandates and threatening national security, such as cooperation with ICC, false reporting and advocating with the International Community and Security Council for more pressure on Sudan,” said the document presented by the Ministry.

The Ministry also informed that a joint committee was formed with the UN agencies to oversee the implementation of contingency plans for water, health, food and non food items. The Government of Sudan and the United Nations discussed the matter on several occasions, focussed on the following sectors: food aid; health and nutrition; non-food items; and water and sanitation and concluded their report.

The Minister Haroun said, “We made a joint assessment with the UN and come out with the result that shows the gaps in food sector, health sector and in non food item sectors. It shows that very narrow gap due to our government intervention and by international NGO intervention.”

The Ministry official who gave detailed information about NGOs said, “From this report, we found that the food is available and is accessible in Darfur and WBC distributed for March and April in normal in all the camps and the affected areas. The food is available in Sudan up till September 2009. Food is there.”

Dr. Mariam Al-Sadig Al-Mahady
On the same day evening, the BMI delegation met Dr. Mariam Al-Sadig Al-Mahady of the Ummah National Party and discussed about the issues of expulsion of NGOs, the ICC indictment and the forthcoming elections before proceeding to have a conference in Niyala, the capital of South Darfur, on Monday, the 6th of April, 2009.

Speaking about the ICC indictment of the Sudanese President, Dr. Mariam said, “ICC, unless it revised the way it is carrying the indictment of the President of Sudan, it is losing its validity; because it was established as an independent legal body, but now it seems through the United Nations Security Council it is getting more politicised. So unless this issue of the indictment of the President is addressed in a more rational way the things in Sudan will be in muddle with as well as the political ICC. That’s why we have to look very seriously into the issue of how we handle the issue of ICC for its own sake and for the sake of stability, peace and justice in Sudan.”

“If ICC is used as a tool of harassment by the first country against the third country, ICC will eat its vitality as a tool of Justice,” observed Dr. Mariam.