Comments on: Amnesty: bring Lebanese attackers to justice

By: End racism

End racism — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 03:52:00 +0000

I've said this before and I will say it again, there will be a war in Lebanon. Very soon.

Here's the beginning.

By: sasa

sasa — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 20:47:00 +0000

I think there’s a tendency for the Syrian and Lebanese governments to bury their heads in the sand and pretend the relationship is only ‘friendly and brotherly’.

They hope (as I expect) that the violence is a short-term reaction. But there’s a sign that the Lebanese factions are willing to come back on to the streets, wave their own flags and declare themselves once more. That’s not what the organised ‘independence 05′ campaign wants. They’ve fought hard to get only the Lebanese flag on to the streets to show a unity which doesn’t exist.

By: sasa

sasa — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 20:44:00 +0000

Amnesty have been quite good, they have a page dedicated to Iraq. But they still get nearly all of their funding and workers from the West. That causes a few problems in terms of the values and agendas they hold. I'm quite sceptical of the 'universality' of rights they talk about. They are incredibly centralised, and blinkered over the agenda they pursue, and dissent is a rare thing in Amnesty - ironically!

However, their field work and gathering of reports is second-to-none. They're doing a great job, and they're still in Iraq even though most internationals have pulled out.

Iraqi and Arab based NGOs are doing a fantastic job.

Human Rights Watch is a very dangerous organisation. I'd take what they say with a large pinch of salt.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 15:19:00 +0000

i agree – its horrible, come to think of it though, Amnesty haven’t said much about the thousands of deaths in Iraq..or have they?

By: Ayman

Ayman — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 13:04:00 +0000

The numbers are shocking. What are the Lebanese and Syrian governments doing about this?