The road to the ICC

ICC announced new rules to encourage somehow the war criminals to show up with their dignity  in the court !! They can return back to their countries during the trial ..etc. Of course this can happen in a perfect world.No war criminal will give up that easily
Already Amr Moussa , the general secretary of the Arab league is having talks with the ICC in order to sue the IDF for war crimes against the Palestinian People in Gaza as the evidence of war crimes was crystal clear. I respect Moussa’s quick and smart move but I wonder why he did not the same the thing with the Egyptian POWs case when he was a FM of Egypt or even in his current position with my all respect and support to the Palestinian cause ((according to sources like MP Hamden Sabahi he told him once that Egypt can’t sue Israel officially for war crimes against her POWs because the Jews will sue us for nationalization !! I do not think that it is powerful reason !!))
This is from the official side , unofficially some Arabic civil society and human rights organization will have a meeting today at San’a’ governorate in Yemen in order to form an alliance to sue the IDF war criminals abroad, again I wonder why our civil society organization did not think in this option before but it is a good step. But of course I do not want to be pessimistic already the civil society and human rights organizations in the Arab world are too weak .
On the other hand the Israeli government knows that its soldiers and officers can be sued from wars crimes and as their habit to break international laws and so it announced that it would protect any Israeli fighter accused of war crimes will be granted a state protection from prosecution over seas. Strangely Ehud Olmert who once said that he cried for the murder of the Palestinian children was the one who announced this statement.
Still the human rights organizations in Israel are giving hard time to the military establishment and also the radical Zionists. Yesh Din,an Israeli Human rights organization is calling the IDF to sack a military Rabbi who distributed religious books on the soldiers calling them to show no mercy to a cruel enemy .

The foreign ministry is officially responsible of the POW Case in Egypt

On the 5th of March 2008, the Administrative court in Cairo issued a historical ruling oblighing the Egyptian foreign ministry to investigate the allegations that the Israeli Defense Forces “IDF” had killed Egyptian POWs in 1956 and 1967.

egyptianow-apThe court ordered the Egyptian foreign ministry to prepare a list with the names and numbers of the POWs killed by the IDF.The importance of that rule is that it is an official obligation on the Foreign

The importance of that rule is that it is an official obligation on the Foreign ministry.

The ministry should open an immediate investigation in this important case.This court order comes as the end of a very long lawsuit filed against the Egyptian government by the families of the POWs and ex-POWs

The lawyer who filed the Suit is Wahid El-Oksori , the head of Egyptian Arab socialist Party and a veteran officer.

This is very important court order, it does not recognize the crimes but it orders the Foreign ministry to investigate the allegations,it opens the door officially

Still, I doubt that the Foreign ministry will obey the court’s order and it will not be the first time nor the first ministry or governmental authority that will ignore a court’s order. By the way about the list with names and numbers of the POWs, they can be easily done with the records of the reported missing officers and Soldiers from 1956 and 1967 from the Egyptian army archives. 

Were they Egyptians or Jordanians ??

Do you remember the mass grave for Muslims in Eilat last month ?? Already  the Defense and National security committee in the Egyptian assembly should have discussed it yesterday ,unfortunately there were no news regarding this discussion as yesterday the El-Malt’s CAO report was the main topic in the media for the last two days and seriously I have to say it was much important and it is expected to take all the attention whether from the media or the members of Parliament.

On the other hand there is a great historical debate about the mass grave and its location , also it is expected thing , Um Rashrash is already a center of debate of whether it is an Egyptian land or not .

The historical debate started when 1948 veteran , free officers movement member and military historian General Gamal Hamad said to Gamal Hamad Masrawy website that those remains are not for Egyptian officers and soldiers and there was no Egyptian Battalion in the Um Rashrash village in year 1949 and that they were for Jordanian battalion

We did not fight the Israelis in any battle in the Um Rashrash region. These remains could be for Jordanian officers and soldiers as this region was following the Jordan

Of course the old veteran and famous military historian had contradicts totally with what the Front for restoring Um Rashrash is saying , especially the front includes many historians and many military personalities like General Saad El-Din Shazaaly.

Still it is very easy to know to which army those people used to belong to , through photos of their military uniforms or the remains of their uniforms to be accurate , also through the photos and the Holy Quran found in the site, we can know in which country it was printed and thus it will be an evidence for us.

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Strangely there is no one from Jordan claimed that these were remains for Jordanian Battalion till now.

Anyhow whether they are Jordanians or Egyptians ,the war crime is still there ,  the evidence is still there.

More info about Yesterday’s POWs’ mass grave in North Sinai

Even before I got the newspapers , here couple of details about the Mass grave that was found in North Sinai yesterday the wednesday the 9th of January 2008.

It turned that the Mass grave was found by accidently yesterday when one of the natives of Al-Arish city reported to the police authorities that he found while digging in order to build a new house remains of bones in military uniforms .

The place till now is not known but it is in the Sheikh Zowaid city which is between the city of Al-Arish , the capital of North Sinia Governate and the city of Rafaah which is on the Egyptian-Israeli borders.

The remains are estimated to be for 30 persons from the Egyptian soliders who were killed during the six days war.

Eye witnesses from the natives are reporting to the media that currently the Egyptian authorities presented in the Egyptian army (( I highly doubt that it is the Egyptian army because according to Camp David ,the Egyptian Army does not have existence in this area , may be I am wrong but I will ask about it )) made it a restricted area , no one is allowed to reach it currently .

The good news is according to the media also there is a team of foresnics who will examine the bones in order to know whether those people were killed from 40 years ago in in action “KIA” or as “POWs” , I hope and I wish that the findings of this team to be announced publicly and if in case “POWs” I wish that the regime takes more serious steps as they will have then official evidence

Already from my readings and research which you can find here in the website , I will say that they were not killed in action or battle , they were killed as POWs because The city of Shiekh Zowaid is a populated area with mass graves for POWs , the residents of the city who were there in 1967 had seen by their own eyes the systematic mass murder for the Egyptian POWs

This comes at the same time the mass grave of the 1949 soliders was found in Eilat and also it comes at the same time where the Egyptian-Israeli relation is facing hard time after what President Mubarak ,the president of Egypt attacked the Israeli foreign minister Livni for crossing the lines with him .

Sources :

The Parliament will discuss the Eilat Mass grave

The mass grave that was found in “Um Rashrash” at Eilat is believed by many parties in Egypt including military experts that it belongs to the Egyptian army officers and soldiers who were killed in the village in year 1949 in the “Operation Uvdah ((Established fact)) “ which was led by the current Israeli President Shimon Perez.

On the next 13th of January 2007, the Egyptian Parliament will discuss the case based on the request of PM “Talaat El-Sadat” ((The Nephew of late President Sadat)) , the request was a demand to the committee of the National security in the Egyptian assembly to discuss the findings of the mass grave as a possible mass grave for Egyptian soldiers and officers who were killed in 1949 in the Operation “Uvdah”. PM “El-Sadat” in statement for Al-Arabiya.net said that it is important that the Egyptian foreign ministry and other specialized official parties in Egypt to follow the case to know to whom this mass grave belongs to. He continued saying that he believed that the mass grave belongs to the Egyptian force that was in “Um Rashrash” when Perez and his Israeli force entered the village and that it would be easy to check from the names and the history of those 350 officers and soldiers from their family if the regime cooperated this time and did not act as in the Previous POWs case.

On the other hand the “People’s front to restore Um Rashrash” said that it owns historical documents that prove that this

I am happy that a man like “Talaat El-Sadat” is neglecting the issue like the rest of the PM , already “El-Sadat” discussed in the Parliament the POWs case and “UM Rashrash” case and currently “The people’s front to restore Um El-Rashrash” chose as a general secretary to the front which includes many public and military personalities including General Saad El-Shazely. The front believes that “Um Rashrash” village where the mass grave was found is originally an Egyptian land that Israel had occupied in 1949 and that it must return back immediately. Already the foreign ministry last year issued an official statement saying that “Um Rashrash” was under the Egyptian control only till 1906 when the Othman Empire along with Great Britain drew new maps for bordering that did not consider Um Rashrash an Egyptian land but Palestinian land. Of course the front denies this and saying that they own more than 700 historical documents that prove the Egyptian identity of the land even after 1907.

“Um Rashrash” is a big topic I would to discuss separately despite it is related historically with the Mass grave

Let’s hope that the National security committee reaches to some good decision and decide to investigate more

By the way I do not like this media official and unofficial media about the mass grave and the possibility that it can be for Egyptian soldiers

So the war crimes against our POWs did not start in 1956 but in 1948, well I changed the tagline of the website to include 1948 and insh Allah I working on a section to include all the details of the Uvdah massacre because Uvdahs do not stay buried forever

Minister Shahab : Egypt did not close the 1967 POWs file

Egyptian Minister for the parliament affairs and NDP member Mofid Shahab assured in his meeting with youth in Alexandria that Egypt did not close the file and that Egypt demanded both Israel and the UN which represents the international community to investigate the matter !! With a request to the UN that it would form an inquiry committee for the case !!

And that Egypt waits the results of these investigations to know the truth about what really happened to her soldiers and to punish those who did those crimes if they are proven to take place !!

They are proven to take place !! I am sorry but this is an accusation to the POW of 1956and the veteran 1967 of being liars then !!

I don’t know how on earth we would trust Israel in its investigation , they will not criminalize their army legends like Biro !!

FilBalad.News | ???? : ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ??? 1967

 

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Egypt Veteran’s Fight For Justice

Al-Jazeera international report about the story of  two 1967 war veteran and what they suffered from mistreatment against all international and ethic laws in Atlit prison

Please read the testimony of Amin Mohamed Darwish

Al Jazeera English – Focus – Egypt Veteran’s Fight For Justice

Here is another testimony for an old Palestinian man Fares Salih ,it includes what happened in Gaza , it is very interesting concerning the looting and killing the Israeli soldiers and officers did in Gaza

Egypt didn’t and won’t close the POWs file till the truth is revealed !!

I don’t know which one to believe the Egyptian foreign minister’s statement or the Israeli foreign minister’s statement 

The first says that the Egypt didn’t and won’t close the POWs file till the truth is revealed and that he asked angerily from the Israeli foreign minister to open an investigation about the crimes against the POWs

while the second appears laughing with the Egyptian foreign minister saying that her meeting with him and the jordanian foreign minister was historical with no mention what so ever to the requests or the demands of the Egyptian minister !!

anyhow I don’t care about this minister’s demand because really Egypt won’t close or forget the rights of its sons and this is what this website is doing

If the minister said so ,it would be great but I hope he is real and honest about it because from the pictures of the press Conference in Cairo I see them so happy

Link to FilBalad.News | أبو الغيط : مصر لم ولن تغلق ملف الأسرى حتى يتم كشف الحقيقة

 Photo Source : Getty Images

[tags]Politics, news, Egypt, Israel, POWs[/tags]