Pigs Got Wings
Human Rights Watch has condemned Hezbollah for firing rockets into civilian areas and has outright called them war crimes. I am well aware that they have mentioned Hezbollah's unacceptable actions before, but this is without a doubt the strongest public statement I have ever seen from them that is not directed at the US or Israel.
Hizbullah must immediately stop firing rockets into civilian areas in Israel, Human Rights Watch said Saturday.
"Lobbing rockets blindly into civilian areas is without doubt a war crime," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Nothing can justify this assault on the most fundamental standards for sparing civilians the hazards of war."
"Most of the attacks appear to have been directed at civilian areas and have hit pedestrians, hospitals, schools, homes and businesses," the humanitarian organization's website stated.
Since July 12, when Hizbullah captured two IDF soldiers and killed eight, Human Rights Watch researchers have been documenting the war's impact on civilians in Israel and Lebanon, interviewing the witnesses and survivors of attacks, as well as doctors, emergency workers, police, military and government officials.
"Hizbullah must stop using the excuse of Israeli misconduct to justify its own," said Roth.
The organization's Web site recognized that northern Israel had come to a virtual standstill because of Hizbullah's rockets, which were "exacting an enormous human and economic toll."
"Under international humanitarian law - also known as the laws of war - parties to an armed conflict must not make the civilian population the object of attack, or fire indiscriminately into civilian areas. Nor can they launch attacks that they know will cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects that exceeds the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated. Such attacks constitute war crimes," the site explained.
"Several medical and educational institutes have sustained damage from Katyusha attacks." Human Rights Watch researchers visited hospitals in Nahariya and Safed after they were hit.
At Nahariya Hospital, rockets had been landing near the hospital since July 12, a hospital spokesperson said. "There are no military bases around here; nothing military at all," he said. "I believe they know perfectly well they are firing at a hospital."
"In the absence of troops or military assets inside, hospitals must never be attacked," Human Rights Watch said. "Deliberately attacking them is a war crime."
Please let this be a first step to taking this evil weapon away from terrorists. If the world condemns these terrorists, they will stop these heinous actions.
By Black Jack, Saturday, 5 August , 2006 @ 4:23 pm
“If the world condemns these terrorists, they will stop these heinous actions.”
Permit me to doubt. When have words ever stopped religious fanatics, steeped in hate, and persuaded the reward of eternal pleasures await in heaven? I hope you’re right, but the evidence is decidedly unpersuasive.
Observe it took Human Rights Watch 3 weeks to conclude that shooting rockets into cities is likely to cause harm to civilians. Plenty of ordinary folks, and not a few school children, could have told them that on day one.
By crosspatch, Saturday, 5 August , 2006 @ 7:14 pm
Check this out …
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21956_Reuters_Doctoring_Photos_from_Beirut&only
Looks like reuters is doctoring photos. What I noticed besides the smoke was the buildings. The news outlets are making the areas appear to be more built up than they are by photoshopping additional buildings into the pictures.
In other words … many of the pictures you see in the paper might have been created and not be an actual photograph of a real situation.