New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link Ukraine Buys Huge Amounts of Russian Fue... Fri Jan 20, 2023 08:34 | Antonia Kotseva

offsite link Turkey Has Sent Ukraine Cluster Munition... Thu Jan 12, 2023 00:26 | Jack Detsch

offsite link New Israeli Government Promises to Talk ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 21:13 | Al Majadeen

offsite link Russia Training Iranian Pilots Ahead of ... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:19 | The Times of Israel

offsite link Lukashenko Abolishes Copyright Protectio... Tue Jan 10, 2023 15:05 | Nikki Main

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
A Blog About Human Rights

offsite link UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights

offsite link 5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights

offsite link Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights

offsite link Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights

offsite link Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety Thu Mar 28, 2024 13:00 | Toby Young
Climate Change: The Movie, the new film by Martin Durkin, should be shown at every school in the country to disabuse anxious young people of the idea that we're in the midst of a 'climate emergency'.
The post Climate: The Movie is a Perfect Cure for Climate Anxiety appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The WHO?s Plot to Seize Power Over Nation States in Future Pandemics Must Be Stopped Thu Mar 28, 2024 11:12 | Will Jones
The World Health Organisation is gearing up to persuade the world's governments to sign a new pandemic treaty that would allow the unelected body to seize power over nation states in future pandemics, warns Matt Ridley.
The post The WHO’s Plot to Seize Power Over Nation States in Future Pandemics Must Be Stopped appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Easter Quiz: Why Are White Things So White? Thu Mar 28, 2024 09:00 | Steven Tucker
It's hard to tell the difference these days between genuine news stories relating to 'anti-racist' ? or, more realistically, anti-white ? ideas and the spoofs and fakes. Pit your wits against our Easter quiz.
The post Easter Quiz: Why Are White Things So White? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Record Ozone ?Holes? Reported Despite 35-Year CFC Ban Thu Mar 28, 2024 07:00 | Chris Morrison
The ozone hole scare of the 1980s and the banning of CFCs was the template for the subsequent alarm promoting Net Zero. Yet the ozone hole is now back as large as ever, even after a 35-year CFC ban.
The post Record Ozone “Holes” Reported Despite 35-Year CFC Ban appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Thu Mar 28, 2024 00:50 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the virus and the vaccines, the ?climate emergency? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Moscow attack reminds us of the links between Islamists and Kiev's fundamentalis... Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:57 | en

offsite link Failure to assist a people in danger of genocide, by Hassan Hamadé Tue Mar 26, 2024 06:32 | en

offsite link Yugoslavia March 24, 1999 The Founding War of the New Nato, by Manlio Dinucci Sun Mar 24, 2024 05:15 | en

offsite link France opposes Russian Korean-style peace project in Ukraine Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:11 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°79 Fri Mar 22, 2024 11:40 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Lampeduse: NATO Ship ignores starving refugees in echo of Irish famine days

category international | racism & migration related issues | opinion/analysis author Monday May 09, 2011 23:02author by AC Report this post to the editors

DOZENS OF African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean Sea after European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help.

Saw this story '63 refugees left to die at sea after Nato aircraft carrier fails to respond' in the Irish Times today and thought of the Heaney poem about the Irish famine. Where is the outcry? Looks like nothing has changed since then in this laissez faire era. See the Irish Times for the full article.

...

A vessel carrying 72 passengers, including several women, children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.

Nearly all of those on board eventually died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open water for 16 days.

“Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard,” said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. “By the final days, we didn’t know ourselves . . . everyone was either praying or dying.”

...

The vessel, with 72 people on board, set sail from Tripoli on March 25th, carrying 47 Ethiopians, seven Nigerians, seven Eritreans, six Ghanaians and five Sudanese migrants. Twenty were women and two were small children, one of whom was just a year old. The boat’s Ghanaian captain was aiming for the Italian island of Lampedusa, but after 18 hours at sea, the small vessel began running into trouble and losing fuel.

The account from witness testimony, survivors and other individuals who were in contact with the boat’s passengers paints a harrowing picture of a group of increasingly desperate people condemned to death by a combination of bad luck, bureaucracy and the apparent indifference of European military forces who had the opportunity to attempt a rescue.

The migrants initially used the boat’s onboard satellite phone to call Fr Zerai in Rome, who in turn contacted the Italian coast guard.

The boat’s location was narrowed down to about 100km outside of Tripoli; coast guard officials assured Fr Zerai that the alarm had been raised and all relevant authorities had been alerted.

Soon afterwards a military helicopter with the word “army” on its side appeared above the boat. The pilots, who were wearing military uniforms, lowered down bottles of water and packets of biscuits and gestured to passengers that they should hold their position until a rescue boat came to help. The helicopter then flew off, but no rescue boat ever arrived.

No country has yet admitted to sending the helicopter that made contact with the migrants.

A spokesman for the Italian coastguard said: “We advised Malta that the vessel was heading towards their search and rescue zone and we issued an alert telling vessels to look out for the boat, obliging them to attempt a rescue.” The Maltese authorities denied they had any involvement with the boat.

At some point on March 29th or 30th, the boat was carried near to a Nato aircraft carrier – so close that it would have been impossible to be missed.

According to survivors, two jet aircraft took off from the ship and flew low over the boat while the migrants stood on deck and held the two starving babies aloft into the air, but from that point on no help was forthcoming. Unable to manoeuvre any closer to the carrier, the migrants’ boat drifted.

...

“We saved one bottle of water from the helicopter for the two babies and kept feeding them even after their parents had passed [died],” said Mr Kurke, who survived by drinking his own urine and eating two tubes of toothpaste, “but after two days, the babies passed too,”
...

Related Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0509/1224296491527.html
author by ACpublication date Mon May 09, 2011 23:07author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I wouldn't normally be Heaney's greatest fan but when I saw the above article today I couldnt' help thinking of this poem. How little the logic of empire, and the complacency of the masses, changes from age to age.

FOR THE COMMANDER OF "THE ELIZA"

. . . . the others, with emaciated faces and prominent, staring eyeballs, were evidently in an advanced state of starvation. The officer in charge reported the incident to Sir James Dombrain, the Inspector General . . . . . and Sir James "very inconveniently," wrote Routh, "interfered." Cecil Woodham-Smith: The Great Hunger.

Routine patrol off West Mayo; sighting
A rowboat heading unusually far
Beyond the creek, I tacked and hailed the crew
In Gaelic. Their stroke had clearly weakened
As they pulled to, from guilt or bashfulness
I was conjecturing when, O my sweet Christ,
We saw piled in the bottom of their craft
Six grown men with gaping mouths and eyes
Bursting the sockets like spring onions in drills.
Six wrecks of bone and pallid, tautened skin.
"Biadh, biadh, biadh," in whines and snarls their desperation
Rose and fell like a flock of starving gulls.
We'd known about the shortage but on board
They always kept us right with flour and beef
So understand my feelings, and the men's,
Who had no mandate to relieve distress.
There was relief available in Westport
Though these poor brutes would clearly never make it.
I had to refuse food: they cursed and howled
Like dogs that had been kicked hard in the privates.
When they drove at me with their starboard oar
(Risking capsize themselves) I saw they were
Violent and without hope. I hoisted
And cleared off. Less incidents the better.
Next day, like six bad smells, those living skulls
Drifted through the dark of bunk and hatches
And once in port I exorcised my ship
Reporting all to the Inspector General.
Sir James, I understand, urged free relief
For famine victims in the Westport Sector
And earned tart reprimand from good Whitehall.
Let natives prosper by their own exertions;
Who could not swim might go ahead and sink.
"The Coast Guard with their zeal and activity
Are too lavish" were the words, I think.
Seamus Heaney

author by Tpublication date Tue May 10, 2011 09:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

People should remind themselves this is the same NATO that makes the claim that it is bombing Libya to save civilians lives. If it was really that concerned it would have saved these lives too. Clearly it is not just as clearly they are intervening in Libya not to save lifes but to help the Western powers help themselves to Libyan resources.

The whole episode shows the callousness of the machinery of the state.

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Mon May 16, 2011 15:11author address author phone Report this post to the editors

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24779

also, if you are not on it already

stopnato@yahoogroups.com

unifiedcommand_worldmap1.jpg

author by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite partypublication date Wed May 18, 2011 20:19author address author phone Report this post to the editors

.. at it again.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24746

Next up on the circus bill: Buffalo Soldier.

 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy