Britain Must End Colonial Rule in Gibraltar

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Britain Must End Colonial Rule in Gibraltar

The Eve of an Israeli Attack on Gaza
Iraqi Deputy Premier Urges Opposition to Escalating Hostile US Trend

News In Brief:
Independent Candidates find Favour in Local Elections
Treasury to Claw Back £90 million from Higher Education
Anthrax Attack Bacteria Identical to US Army Strain

Following recent talks with the Spanish government concerning the future status of Gibraltar, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, visited the "UK Overseas Territory" last week, in order, he said, to "listen to peoples views and their hopes".

The talks with the Spanish government were held in the wake of the protests of thousands of Gibraltarians in March this year. They were concerned that the government might be about to conclude an agreement with Spain which will altar Gibraltar’s current status – it is in essentially still a British colony ruled by a governor – to allow some measure of Spanish control.

Gibraltar, which is described by the Foreign Office as a peninsular "in southwest Europe, bordering on the Strait of Gibraltar on the southern coast of Spain", was captured from Spain during the War of Spanish Succession by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1704. It was then ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in July 1713. Since that time Spanish governments have made numerous attempts to recover what they consider to be Spanish territory, but British governments have always refused to acknowledge Spanish sovereignty, not least because Gibraltar has remained important for its strategic position and as a military base.

However, since 1984 a new series of talks between the two governments, known as the "Brussels Process", has been taking place. A new round of these talks commenced in March last year, and led to the issuing of a joint communiqué by the two governments in February earlier this year, stating that both parties aimed to "conclude a comprehensive agreement before the summer, covering all outstanding issues including cooperation and sovereignty". This communiqué and subsequent talks have led to speculation that the British government has plans for some kind of joint sovereignty of Gibraltar.

Jack Straw’s visit was aimed at placating the Gibraltarians. In interviews in the press and on television he argued that an agreement with Spain was essential and pledged that it would be an agreement "which preserves Gibraltar’s traditions and links with Britain; gives Gibraltarians more control over their lives through enhanced self-government…and delivers a lasting agreement on sovereignty". At the same time he stated that any agreement concluded with Spain would not "pave the way for Spanish control of Gibraltar" nor "end British military arrangements on Gibraltar", and would any case be put before the Gibraltarians in a referendum.

As in the past, Jack Straw is trying to present the government’s approach as in the interests of all concerned and particularly in the interests of the Gibraltarians. They, on the other hand, are extremely suspicious of the government’s actions which, it has been openly admitted, are linked to enhancing the government’s position in the EU as well as elsewhere.

What is most noticeable about the government’s approach is that it clings to colonialist views and logic and finds its safest refuge in the reactionary Treaty of Utrecht. According to Jack Straw this treaty is binding in international law, cannot be repealed and clearly laid down that Gibraltar is British. It might be wondered how any government in the 21st century can cling to such a treaty which, after a predatory and colonial war some three hundred years ago, was imposed in such a way as to allow the government of Britain to expand its colonial possessions at the expense of France and its naval bases at the expense of Spain. This treaty also provided Britain with the monopoly of annually supplying Spanish colonies with some 20,000 enslaved Africans.

In the modern world the provisions of such a treaty cannot be defended. Nor can there be any lasting agreement for the peoples of Spain and Gibraltar while the British government refuses to recognise that maintaining colonial possession and colonial rule is an anachronism in the 21st century for which there can be no justification.

With Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps under siege, the invading Israeli forces are still occupying Palestinian centres of population and withdrawing only to re-occupy again. They are shelling and destroying the remaining ruins they created from the Palestinian establishments, according to an official Palestinian statement of May 9.

The Israeli occupation forces are still shelling the city of Tulkarem, especially its refugee camps, using US-made Apache helicopters, tanks and artillery, targeting the civilian residential areas, destroying many buildings, and then arresting dozens of men and boys, imposing a tight curfew and shooting at anything which moves. The invading Israeli occupation forces are still occupying Al’oja town in Jericho, searching the houses, arresting all males aged from 14 to 60, and gathering them in a schoolyard, having invaded the security post and arrested all 14 members of the Palestinian security force. The invading Israeli forces entered Hebron with military jeeps, personnel carriers and other military machinery and took over the "force 17" presidential guard station.

The reserves are being recruited again, and large Israeli military forces are gathered around the Gaza Strip. In the northern areas of Gaza, after criminally levelling agricultural lands and destroying their crops, thus destroying the citizens’ only means of livelihood, the Israeli forces issued warnings that 1,500 acres are to be confiscated for use as Jewish settlements.

On the eve of an Israeli attack on Gaza, more protests are taking place. On Saturday, May 11, a demonstration is to be held at the gates of the Gaza Strip demanding that Ariel Sharon's war machine be stopped, before it crushes Israelis and Palestinians alike. A big peace demonstration is expected in the centre of Tel-Aviv where tens of thousands Israelis will call upon the Israeli government to withdraw from the Palestinian occupied territories. The daily violence and Ariel Sharon's brutal policies are leading to a growing number of Israelis speaking out against the government, including those called up as reservists. The number of Israeli soldiers jailed since the beginning of the Intifada now numbers 114.

Palestinians in Gaza are braced for an Israeli army strike. On Thursday they began to stockpile food and supplies against a possible Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip after a further suicide bomb attack. Israel's security cabinet authorised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to take tough military action in response to Tuesday's attack near Tel-Aviv in which the suicide bomber was reputed to come from Gaza. Residents of a refugee community known as Beach Camp feared any Israeli incursion would be launched from the sea. Beach Camp, one of the largest refugee centres in Gaza, is home to 80,000 Palestinians, most displaced during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war from towns now inside Israeli borders. "We can do little to stop them, but they will never be able to kill our people's hope for freedom," one resident said.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a leader of Hamas in Gaza, believed Israel would go ahead and storm the Strip regardless of the identity of the bomber. "Israeli officials will go into a second stage of their 'Operation Defensive Shield'. We will defend ourselves and our people with all our might and capabilities," he told Reuters news agency.

Palestinian fighters in Gaza continued combat exercises after Israel launched its West Bank offensive. Gunmen watch entrances to refugee camps and have planted mines in areas where they suspect they may soon receive hostile visitors. They said any combat in Gaza would be as fierce as it was in Jenin refugee camp, where militants hidden in closely packed houses and alleys fought an Israeli incursion tooth and nail. An Israeli military thrust into Gaza could be more complicated and would risk even heavier bloodshed to civilians than in the West Bank because the coastal strip is one of the world's most densely populated territories, with eight packed refugee camps.

"There are no divergences in our view on the necessity of our troops intervening against the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip," Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh said after an emergency Israeli security cabinet meeting.

Government sources told the Maariv daily that Sharon "made the decision to respond as soon as he heard of the attack" during his Tuesday meeting in the White House with US President George W. Bush.

A reserve general of the Israeli army's southern command warned that conditions in the Gaza Strip's camps were likely to be "much worse" than Jenin, citing the example of Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. "Jabalya is one kilometre by one and a half kilometres, it's a small area with closely-knit dwellings and between 55-60,000 people. What more description can you give?" he said. By comparison, Jenin is home to about 13,000 people and covers a smaller area.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat warned Israel that it would be making a "very grave" mistake if it attacked the southern Palestinian territory.

The brutal Israeli aggression is being escalated with the approval and backing of the US. It is being carried out in accord with that superpower’s definition of "terrorism", to which the British government subscribes, which exempts the real war criminals. However, the Palestinian people, who have survived all the past Israeli massacres, mass deportations and vengeful destruction, are declaring that they will never submit to the will of those who seek to justify the atrocities of the "war against terrorism". WDIE adds its voice of support to the cause of the Palestinian people, whose strength springs from the justness of its national and humanitarian goals.

Iraqi Deputy Premier Tariq Aziz opened the Follow-Up and Co-ordination Committee of the Baghdad Conference by pointing to recently improved ties between Iraq and the Arab world. He mocked US President Bush's remarks on Iraq presenting a threat to its neighbours and said that it was the US that posed a threat. He urged those present to seek means to counter the US designs. The following is the text of a report from the Iraqi news agency INA web site of May 7:

The seventh meeting of the Follow-Up and Co-ordination Committee of the Baghdad Conference began this morning attended by Mr Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Foreign Relations Office of the Ba'th Party Regional Command in Iraq. The conference will last for three days.

In a speech at the opening session, Mr Tariq Aziz welcomed the participants that represent political parties, organisations, committees, and other bodies from fraternal and friendly countries. Aziz also appreciated the presence of a number of figures that were attending this meeting for the first time. Tariq Aziz reviewed the various developments that have occurred since the sixth meeting of the committee that was held last October pertaining to Iraq, Palestine and other major Arab issues. He said that the recent period has witnessed important developments in favour of Iraq's just cause that has gained further Arab and international importance.

Tariq Aziz said that the activities that have recently taken place in the Arab homeland and the world confirm this fact that has become better known than at any time in the past on the Arab and international levels. He added that these events confirm the increasing backing and support for Iraq's cause. He pointed out that the increased participation in the meetings of the Follow-Up and Co-ordination Committee attests to this fact. Mr Tariq Aziz emphasised that the [Arab League] Beirut summit [in late March] resulted in important progress in improving Arab relations. He pointed out that the summiteers called for ending the unjust siege imposed on Iraq and they categorically rejected and opposed any fresh military aggression on Iraq.

Tariq Aziz added that Iraq's success in signing free trade agreements with many Arab countries is an important indication that points to the fact that the Arab governments and masses want the unjust siege to end and they wish to restore normal relations with Iraq.

The deputy prime minister stressed that the escalating, hostile, US trend against Iraq and recent public statements by US officials about launching a large-scale attack on Iraq constitute an extremely dangerous phenomenon not only against Iraq but also against all independent states in the world. He clarified that the United States is hostile to Iraq because the Iraqi national leadership is independent on the political and economic levels.

Tariq Aziz ridiculed the US president's assertion that Iraq constitutes a threat to its neighbours. He said that Iraq enjoys good relations with its neighbours and is sincerely and seriously trying to solve the problems with them through political means. He said that it is, rather, the ongoing US military aggression towards Iraq that threatens security and stability in the region. Tariq Aziz called on all independent and peace-loving countries in the world and on all honest freemen in the world to reject and to resist against this aggressive US trend. Tariq Aziz also hoped that the participants in the meeting would discuss the activities that they intend to take in the coming stage against the aggressive US designs. He urged them to escalate their activities in order to lift the ongoing unjust siege that is imposed on Iraq without any legal or moral justification.

The deputy prime minister described the horrible massacre that the Zionist entity committed in the Jenin camp and the criminal acts of murder and destruction that butcher Sharon's troops are perpetrating against the unarmed Palestinian people as the ugliest crime against humanity. Tariq Aziz added that the Zionist government has thus violated all international laws and norms and all human values within the sight and hearing of the whole world. He said that the grave events in Palestine in the recent past have glaringly exposed the criminal alliance between US imperialism and the Zionist entity. These events have also unmasked the double standards that the US administration practices in dealing with world issues, especially the issues of Palestine and Iraq. He said that the US administration of evil is insolently, brazenly and arrogantly standing alongside this entity, justifying its crimes, and protecting it from any international move, especially in the Security Council.

Tariq Aziz called on all the independent countries and all the freemen of the world to close ranks and use all means to resist against this imperialist US policy that is posing a grave danger to peace and stability in the world. Tariq Aziz reminded his audience of the importance of the call that was made by President Saddam Hussein in 1999 to establish an institutional grouping among independent states that opposes the US policy of unilateral actions and hegemony against all peoples that reject this reckless policy. The deputy prime minister concluded by saying that what is happening in Iraq and Palestine, what happened in Yugoslavia, the blatant intervention in the internal affairs of independent countries, and the abortive coup attempt in Venezuela urge us all to be vigilant. He said that we should all close our ranks and work together to confront such events that are tolling the alarm. Tariq Aziz stressed the importance of continuing to struggle against globalisation that is a form of imperialism and a serious attempt to control the independent economies and the political and cultural options of nations.

The opening session was attended by Harith al-Khashali, director of the Foreign Relations Office in the party's regional command in Iraq; Sa'd Qasim Hammudi, secretary-general of the Arab Popular Forces Conference; and a number of comrade members of the party's Foreign Relations Office.

"People power became firmly established as a political force last night as independent and single-issue candidates swept aside the mainstream parties in some parts of Britain," was how the London Evening Standard summed up the May 2 local elections the following day.

In Worcestershire, the independent Kidderminster Hospital Heath Concern party – which campaigned against the closure of the local hospital's A&E department – won five seats to take overall control of Wyre Forest District Council.

In Elmbridge, Surrey, a consortium of local residents' groups, which fight mainly on planning issues, took control of the local council for the first time after previously sharing with local Liberal Democrats.

Grassroots campaigners also got a foothold in power in Lewisham, where a candidate representing Local Education Action By Parents won a single seat on the council.

The victory in Wyre Forest follows the election of KHHC candidate Dr Richard Taylor in the General Election, when he beat Labour minister David Lock at the polls. He was elected to Parliament with a majority of 17,630.

In Lewisham, LEAP, set up by a local parent and GP, took a seat in Telegraph Hill, a part of the borough where a campaign to reopen a disused secondary school has mobilised residents.

Helen Le Fevre, 38, a nurse at St Thomas' Hospital, secured her place on the council by a margin of 53 votes. Mrs Le Fevre said: "We had the highest turnout of any ward in the borough and that shows the passion that is behind education. The failure to provide sufficient places in schools is a burning issue. It is a new grassroots politics."

Higher education will be hit for an extra £90 million next year because of Gordon Brown's Budget rise in employers' National Insurance contributions, it emerged last week.

The Department for Education and Skills' estimate of the additional cost of raising employers' NICs by 1 per cent from next April is three times the extra amount made available to universities next year to help cover the cost of improved research performance. The DfES puts the cost of additional NICs for further education colleges, including sixth-form colleges, at £25 million.

The additional cost comes on top of an estimated £140 million shortfall in research funding next year and a 0.7 per cent cut in core teaching funds. Institutions also face a pay claim for next year of between 13 and 15 per cent from the joint unions pay body. Employees will pay an extra 1 per cent in NICs from next April.

Universities UK and the University Finance Directors' Group are carrying out a survey of the NIC burden. Interim findings reveal that the combined extra costs faced by the 68 institutions that have responded so far is nearly £31 million. UUK has 122 member institutions.

Baroness Warwick, chief executive of UUK, said: "Following the recent HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council for England) funding allocation and RAE (research assessment exercise), this comes at a time when universities can ill afford it. This added burden reinforces our case for the government to provide the necessary additional investment for higher education in the forthcoming spending review."

The institutions also may have the additional costs of millions of pounds in further NICs of researchers if research grants are insufficient. So far, the UUK/finance directors' group survey puts this extra cost at £6.6 million.

Michael Yuille, chairman of the finance directors' group and director of finance at Glasgow University, said: "At Glasgow University the additional amount of the NIC could be £720,000, with possibly £300,000 for researchers."

A DfES spokeswoman said the extra cost of meeting increased NICs for higher and further education would be considered alongside other priorities in the 2002 spending review, the results of which are due this summer.

The DNA sequence of the anthrax sent through the US mail in 2001 has been revealed and confirms suspicions that the bacteria originally came from a US military laboratory.

The data released on May 9 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the US uses codenames for the reference strains against which the attack strain was compared. But the two reference strains that appear identical to the attack strain most likely originated at the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.