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AWMC Mourns Passing of Samir Kassir 

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon's opposition accused Syria on Thursday of continuing to interfere in its politics, blaming Damascus for the killing of a prominent anti-Syrian journalist who died when a bomb exploded under his car.
Opposition leaders called for a general strike Friday to protest the killing of Samir Kassir, who died as an international team was investigating the February assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri. Anti-Syrian leaders were quick to make a link between the two killings.
Hariri's son and political heir, Saad Hariri, said the same people were behind both assassinations, "and God knows what's coming." Syria denied involvement in Thursday morning's bombing of Kassir's car in the Christian Beirut neighbourhood of Ashrafieh, where he lived. The explosion, which shattered windows in nearby buildings, came amid Lebanese parliamentary elections that the opposition hopes to win, ending Syria's control of the legislature.
A Syrian information ministry official said such accusations were "expected due to the role of their promoters in the campaigns that harm Syria." After a Thursday night meeting, the opposition reiterated calls for the resignation of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria. But a representative of the Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun walked out of the meeting, saying Kassir's killing was being used for political purposes.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice condemned the killing as a "heinous act." Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was a tragedy, adding that Kassir was "a very honest man." US Ambassador to Beirut Jeffry Fieltman said Kassir had symbolised Lebanon's "desire for freedom, sovereignty and democracy." After meeting Hariri late Thursday, Fieltman said Kassir had "served the voice of those Lebanese who fought and yearned for freedom, independence, and the end of the heavy-handed Syrian occupation of Lebanon." Hariri defiantly told reporters: "We want our freedom, we want our independence, we want our sovereignty and no one is going to stop us."
Interior Minister Hassan Sabei estimated that the bomb that killed Kassir had weighed about half a kilogramme. He said initial reports indicated it was detonated by remote control.
Afterward, Kassir's body lay slumped to one side of the car. Colleagues wept at the scene of the explosion. Police sealed off the area, preventing people from approaching.
Kassir, a 45-year-old Christian, was an academic and founding member of the Democratic Left Movement, a small group that played an active role in the protest campaign against Damascus' control. He wrote a column in An-Nahar, a leading newspaper that frequently criticises Syria, and was a regular on television talk shows.
In a recent television appearance, he said he had long received threats from security agents trying to silence him.
Kassir was of Palestinian descent, and his Lebanese passport was confiscated in March 2001 by authorities in what he said was part of a campaign to intimidate him.
The February assassination of Hariri, a former prime minister and vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon, sparked anti-Syrian protests and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army after 29 years of political and military dominance. The opposition has blamed Syria and its Lebanese allies in the security services for Hariri's assassination, a charge Damascus has denied.
Damascus also denies claims by opposition politicians and the United States that Syria has kept intelligence agents in Lebanon. Lebanon's opposition blames the Syrian-Lebanese intelligence apparatus for a spate of bombings of commercial areas in recent months that have killed three people and wounded more than two dozen.
Kassir's killing comes at a crucial time for Lebanon. The country is in the midst of parliamentary elections, which began Sunday and run through June 19. A UN-mandated team led by a German prosecutor is investigating the assassination of Hariri.
Opposition leaders turned their wrath on Syria and on its closest Lebanese ally, President Lahoud. "Samir Kassir was assassinated by the remnants of the security agencies that control the country and that is headed by Emile Lahoud," said Walid Jumblatt, a vocal opponent of Syria, on Future television.
Lahoud condemned the bombing, and Prime Minister Najib Miqati vowed that his government "will not allow anyone to target security and freedom." Gibran Tueni, general manager of An-Nahar newspaper, went to the scene of the bombing and said: "The Lebanese security authorities and the remnants of the Syrian system in Lebanon, and directly the Syrian regime from top to bottom, is responsible for every crime and every drop of blood spilled." The Syrian information ministry official said the accusations "contribute to the political and media pressures exercised on Syria in a bid to gain the blessings of Syria's and Lebanon's enemies." The official, who was not identified, stressed Syria's determination "not to interfere in internal Lebanese affairs and hoped that the others would not interfere in those affairs," Syria's official SANA news agency reported.
Robert Minard, secretary-general of the international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, condemned the murder and urged the Hariri probe to look into the case.
Kassir also had French citizenship.
The French government condemned the attack "with the greatest firmness," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.
Giselle Khoury, Kassir's wife, demanded a French and international investigation into her husband's assassination, Al Arabiya satellite channel reported.
Khoury, a journalist who works for Al Arabiya, was in the United States at the time of the explosion.
 

AWMC Mourns Passing of Edward Said

Palestinian American thinker and academic Edward Said (68) passed away early Thursday, September 25 Palestine time in a New York hospital after more than a decade of struggle with leukemia. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University . Professor Said's passing is a tremendous loss for activists on the question of Palestine and for academia. He was a true renaissance man, well-versed not only in his own discipline of comparative literature, but also in philosophy, music, and history. He was the music editor for The Nation in the 1990s; he was also an accomplished pianist. Last spring, Columbia University celebrated the 25 th anniversary jubilee of his seminal work, Orientalism , which has had far-reaching effects on the humani ties and social sciences, and is widely credited for initiating the field of postcolonial studies . Among his influential books about the Palestinian question are The Question of Palestine , After the Last Sky , and The Politics of Dispossession . His 1993 Reith Lectures, published as Representations of the Intellectual , explore the role of the politically committed intellectual. He is also the recipient of many international prizes, including the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Professor Said, a Christian Palestinian born in Jerusalem in 1935, was deeply committed to his people's cause. He served on the Palestinian National Council in the 1980s, and was an important figure in Arab-American activist networks. More recently, he had been a strong advocate for democratization in Palestine , and he was fiercely critical of the Oslo Agreements, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and Israeli occupation. His eloquence and elegance at his many speaking engagements impressed audiences in New York City and around the world; his fierce prose in bi-weekly articles published in Al-Ahram Weekly were read eagerly on both the Arab street and around the world on the Internet. He was proud of the fact that despite the many trials of his illness, and his many hospitalizations, he hardly ever missed Al-Ahram 's publication deadline. His articles have been regularly published on Amin.org in Arabic and English.

Amin conveys its deepest sympathies to Professor Said's family. We urge all who respected his work to carry on with Professor Said's efforts for justice, peace, and democracy in Palestine.

MAZEN DANA

The "unconscionable" death of Mazen Dana
Are journalists being targeted in Middle East war zones? To a colleague of the slain Reuters cameraman, it sure seems that way.

BY By Laura McClure

Please click here for details 

  About the writer
  Laura McClure is assistant news editor at Salon.

  FWD by Walid Batrawi E-mail wbatrawi@journalist.com 

Jordanian Riham Farra killed in UN blast

AMMAN (JT) — A former Al Arab Al Yawm columnist working as a spokesperson for the UN was killed Tuesday in the explosion at the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

Riham Farra, 29, was working in Arabic for the agency's public relations office. Her first day of work in Baghdad was the day of the blast, said her sister Rula. Farra was only expected to be in Iraq for a month, filling in for a colleague.

“We all knew she would be something special. But God did not give her enough time to achieve all her goals,” said a tearful Rula.

At least 23 people were killed and 100 wounded when a truck bearing a massive bomb, grenades and other weapons exploded just outside the hotel the UN had fashioned into its headquarters.

Rula said her sister had begun writing books, poetry and stories at the age of nine. She grew up to be the first daily female political columnist in Jordan during her four years at Al Arab Al Yawm.

She left Jordan in 2001 to continue her higher education in England, then turning down a job with the BBC to work for the UN in New York just nine months ago “before the ink was even dry on her degree,” said Rula.

“She was hoping to work for the UN so one day she could help her people in Palestine,” Rula explained. “She hoped to help the people suffering in Iraq.”

Farra had a “very clever, strong and critical way of writing,” said Jamil Nimri, a fellow columnist at Al Arab Al Yawm. “I was surprised when I (first) saw her, this small, shy girl.”

Nimri said he had often discussed politics and their columns with Farra during her time at the paper.

Nimri said he was impressed by the strong voice in her articles, which frequently criticised the government.

Rula said her sister was always independent and “had the courage to write what the other male columnists here wouldn't.”

“I used to consider her one of the most open-minded journalists in Jordan,” said Fattah Mansour, manager of Al Hadaf newspaper, an associate of Farra for several years. “She was very brave.”

Mansour said Farra was a strong advocate for freedom of speech and was active at the Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists that Mansour helped found.

Farra graduated with a degree in journalism from Yarmouk University and began her career at Sheehan weekly newspaper, where she later became editor-in-chief.

MARTAYER OF MEDIA [ NAZEEH DARWAZEH ]

      JOURNALISTS CLUB - NABLUS

STATEMENT ON THE MURDER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS AND PALESTINE TV CAMERAMAN , NAZIH  DARWAZEH, 43, ON 19^TH APRIL, 2003, IN NABLUS CITY CENTRE

We the Palestinian Journalists and Cameramen who worked with foreign news agencies and with Palestinian newspapers, local Radio and TV stations here in Nablus :-
        We wish to express our concern at the completely unjustifiable murder of Nazih and our outrage at the evasive response of the IDF to our demand that the gunman who killed him in cold blood be brought to justice.  Major Sharon Weingold, the IDF spokesperson maintains that they cannot identify the man who fired the bullet which shattered Nazih’s skull, even though the shooting was captured on extensive video footage from several press cameramen who were standing close to the murdered man.  She further attempts to escape the ethical and legal issues involved in the killing of a journalist, in her statement, which includes the words “… the entry of Press … endangers the forces (!) and the photographer.”  And, thirdly, she attempts to shift the blame, when she asserts that the attacking Israeli soldiers came under defensive fire from a nearby alley (though no defending fire was witnessed then) and that the fatal shot may have come from there. 

This kind of evasive justification from the IDF, showing complete disregard for truth and International Law, gives us cause for concern that this kind of unjustified murder will be repeated and that more journalists may be murdered merely for recording the truth.

After speaking with ten witnesses, including four Journalists, who were close to our friend at the time of the killing, we are absolutely certain that the shot came from a particular Israeli soldier who deliberately targeted Nazih’s right eye.

We call upon our colleagues worldwide – members of the IFJ, journalists, cameramen and editorial staff and others, of all nationalities and all political persuasions - from the USA, the UK and Europe, from the Arab countries and from Israel, indeed from everywhere, to protest at this criminal act and to note our deep concern and worry over the ‘explanation’ given by the IDF spokesperson.   For all of it is in the same vein as the distortions we have been fed previously when covering, or reporting on, similar crimes committed by the occupying army, and for which no one is ever brought to justice.

We demand support from all of you, and we ask that you stand united with us, so that this killing will not be allowed to pass without the indictment of the murderer of our, and your, colleague.

Finally, we would like to remind you of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights :-

“ … for every person has the right to enjoy free _expression of opinion  … and this right includes the right to freedom to hold beliefs and opinions without harassment and to follow the news and the facts, and to receive it and to send it to others by any means regardless of borders.”

The Journalist club- Nablus

E-mail at  atefsaed@hotmail.com

                qusini@yahoo.com

In memory of Martyr Arab Journalists and Writers

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