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Russia-China visit and statements to the press

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http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70750
Press statements by President of Russia and President of China

From Strategic Stability

Report # 218. Russian-Chinese ties became much stronger in every domain, including in military sphere

March, 22, 2023

1. Chairman Xi Jinping visit to Moscow: major results

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese guest Xi Jinping have signed 14 joined documents on increased cooperation in fields ranging from trade and industry to science and the military. The two leaders also touched on the prospects for peace in Ukraine.

Russia and China signed the Joint Statement on Deepening the Russian-Chinese Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation for a New Era, as well as the Joint Statement by the President of Russia and the President of China on the Plan to Promote the Key Elements of Russian-Chinese Economic Cooperation until 2030.

The parties expressed their intention to provide strong mutual support in defending each other’s core interests, above all sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and development.

The two sides have agreed to further develop of the comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Russia and China, and to deepen their cooperation on the international stage.

The sides reiterate that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, and it must never be fought.

All nuclear powers must not deploy nuclear weapons outside their national territories and must withdraw all nuclear weapons deployed abroad.

Russia and China expressed concern over the intensification of U.S. efforts to build a global missile defense system and deploy its elements in various regions of the world, combined with the buildup of high-precision non-nuclear weapons for disarming strikes and other strategic capabilities, as well as the U.S. desire to deploy land-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific and European regions and to transfer them to its allies.

Russia and China oppose attempts by individual countries to turn outer space into an arena of armed confrontation and will oppose activities aimed at achieving military superiority and using it for military operations.

Moscow and Beijing agreed to “regularly conduct joint maritime and air patrols and joint exercises,” develop military exchange and cooperation using all available bilateral mechanisms, and increase mutual trust between their armed forces.

Despite the consequences of the pandemic and the sanctions pressure, trade reached a historic high of $185 billion in 2022. Both sides expect that Russian-Chinese trade will reach $200 billion by the end of 2023. Russian gas supplies to China climb up at least to 98 billion cubic metres by 2030, plus 100 million tonnes of LNG.

“This is an example of how world powers, who are permanent members of the UN Security Council and have a special responsibility for maintaining stability and security on the planet, should interact,” Vladimir Putin said at the ceremonial dinner.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised Beijing’s 12-point peace roadmap for Ukraine, during a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

“We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with the Russian stance and can be taken as a foundation for a peaceful settlement when they are ready for it in the West and in Kiev. However, so far we have not observed such readiness on their part,” Putin stated. The document was released last February under the title “China Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis.”

The document was vehemently rejected by NATO countries and the Ukrainian government.

In its joint statement the two sides declared their specific stances on Ukraine: “The parties note that in order to resolve the Ukrainian crisis it is necessary to respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries and prevent the formation of bloc confrontation, to stop actions that contribute to further fomentation of the conflict. The parties emphasize that responsible dialogue is the best way for sustainable resolution of the Ukrainian crisis and the international community should support constructive efforts in this regard. The sides call for the cessation of all steps contributing to the escalation of tension and prolongation of hostilities, to avoid further degradation of the crisis up to its transition to an uncontrollable phase”.

Russian Foreign Ministry briefing on current situation in Ukraine and the West’s flow of armaments and ‘scorched earth’ tactics – March 23, 2023

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Russian Foreign Ministry

Excerpt from
Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow,

March 23, 2023

Ukraine crisis

Peaceful life is being established on the territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, which were liberated from the neo-Nazi Kiev regime. Tens of thousands of specialists from other Russian regions are restoring and rebuilding residential blocks and civilian infrastructure and repairing hundreds of kilometres of roads.

On March 15, 2023, a technological complex of an asphalt concrete plant was installed, and a trial batch of road pavement was produced in the Lugutinsky District, LPR. This will make it possible to upgrade about 410 km of roads, 20 bridges and overpasses. In Mariupol, it is planned to repair 54 km of roads and five bridges, complete the restoration of the city centre, and build another 30 multi-storey buildings with 2,700 apartments in total this year. In Donetsk, a perinatal centre with modern equipment, designed for 149 beds, will open its doors by the end of 2023.

Time has shown that the Kiev authorities succeeded only in destruction. Russia returned to these territories forever (there is no doubt about this) and is actively restoring what was destroyed by the Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Naturally, they were not the only destroyers. They were actively assisted by those who created them and illegally brought them to power, first of all, the Anglo-Saxon duo of Washington and London. We will talk about this later today.

On March 18, 2023, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky introduced another package of sanctions against 300 individuals and 141 legal entities. In addition to Russian nationals, the list includes citizens of Iran and Syria, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Restrictive measures were introduced against a number of Russian defence, aviation, shipbuilding and automotive enterprises, including the Kalashnikov and Almaz-Antey concerns, as well as several companies from Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

The Kiev regime has wilfully cranked up the adoption of anti-Russia sanctions. This is being done to keep their own agenda afloat, including in the West, and to continue doing what they do best, where they are truly unequalled – professional scrounging against the backdrop of the total destruction of everything that was created by generations before them.

There is no end to the collective West pumping weapons into the Kiev regime. On March 20, the Pentagon said the amount of US military assistance to Ukraine had exceeded $32.5 billion since the beginning of the special military operation. According to Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, nine NATO countries agreed to provide Kiev with more than 150 Leopard tanks to put together nine tank brigades.

The EU announced the allocation of funds to purchase more than 1 million rounds of ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The money – about $2 billion – will be taken from the European Peace Facility, as before.

On March 21 of this year, UK’s Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence Annabel Goldie made a few highly irresponsible statements. She announced that London would supply Ukraine with armour piercing rounds, which contain depleted uranium, alongside two Challenger-2 battle tanks. Her words were later confirmed at the official level in the UK. It was not a slip or another mistake. No, this was downright stupidity confirmed at the official level by the UK.

All the above is additional evidence of the aggressive intentions of the West, which does not need peace in Ukraine, in the region, or in the world. The West is obsessed with the manic idea of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia and is ready to sacrifice an entire country, other nations, millions of lives for this. They would go to any length to have this fevered mind’s idea, the need to dominate and feel exceptional, confirmed through such destructive logic and its practical implementation.

The recent statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken proved this. Commenting on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, he directly said a ceasefire in Ukraine was unacceptable. Let me remind you that the funding mechanism America’s satellites in Europe are using to send money to the Kiev regime is called the European Peace Facility. Antony Blinken does not believe there is a possibility of a ceasefire. How these things can coexist in one mind is completely incomprehensible. There can be only one answer – one of them is an overt and cynical lie. Which one? That’s obvious. It isn’t a “Peace Facility,” European or any other kind. That facility should have long been renamed a “War Facility.”  That would make more sense and deal with any inconsistency.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov: Russian diplomacy in a changing world

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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s article for Razvedchik (Intelligence officer) news magazine, March 24th, 2023

Russian diplomacy in a changing world

It is a privilege for me to submit this article to Razvedchik news magazine and share with its readers my understanding of the current international developments, as well as Russia’s foreign policy priorities.

We live at a time of historic geopolitical shifts. “The change of eras is a painful albeit natural and inevitable process. A future world arrangement is taking shape before our eyes,” President Vladimir Putin said.

Today, the emerging multipolarity constitutes a key trend in international affairs, as I have noted on multiple occasions. New centres of power in Eurasia, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have achieved impressive results in various areas, guided by their commitment to self-reliance, state sovereignty, and their unique cultural and civilisational identities. They have an independent foreign policy, which prioritises their core national interests. This puts in place objective factors for the emergence of a new multipolar world order – a more resilient, just, and democratic framework reflecting the natural and inalienable right of every nation to determine its future, as well as choose its own internal and socioeconomic development models.

By the way, there are politicians in the West who are beginning to come to terms with this reality, even if reluctantly. For example, President of France Emmanuel Macron has talked about the end of the Western hegemony in international affairs on multiple occasions, even if, truth be told, all this happened before he joined the ranks of the pro-Ukrainian coalition engineered by Washington for countering Russia. It is a separate matter that a correct diagnosis may not necessarily translate into practice or reshape foreign policy thinking based on the principles of international law, equal and indivisible security. On the contrary, the US-led so-called collective West is doing everything to revive the unipolar model, which has run its course. They want to force the world to live in a Western-centric rules-based order that they invented themselves, while seeking to punish those who disagree with these rules, even if no one has ever seen them and they are nowhere to be found.

We never had any illusions as to who we are dealing with. It was clear to us that after the Cold War ended, Washington and its NATO satellites sought total hegemony and wanted to resolve their own development challenges at the expense of others. In the Euro-Atlantic, NATO’s aggressive eastward expansion became an integral part of this selfish policy, carried out despite the political promises that were given to the Soviet leadership not to expand NATO, as well as contrary to the commitments approved at the highest level within the OSCE to refrain from seeking to reinforce one’s security at the expense of security of other states.

The OSCE and Russia-NATO summits adopted multiple resolutions proclaiming that no single group of states or organisation can bear primary responsibility for maintaining peace and stability in the region, or to view any part of the region as its sphere of influence, but these documents have been trampled upon. All these years, NATO has been moving in an opposite direction.

For years, the West persisted in its efforts to penetrate the post-Soviet geopolitical space and to build the so-called axis of instability along the Russian border. The United States and NATO countries have always viewed Ukraine as one of the tools they could use against Russia. To complete the transformation of our neighbouring state into an anti-Russia, the Western spin doctors engineered and then supported an anti-constitutional government coup in Kiev back in February 2014. It was staged even though Germany, Poland and France acted as guarantors of a peaceful political settlement between the government and the opposition.

For eight years, the West not simply turned a blind eye to the genocide of people in Donbass but openly encouraged the Kiev regime’s preparations to use armed force to seize these territories. An illustration of this is the recent admission made by Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, who have admitted that they only needed the Minsk Package to give Kiev time to build up its combat capabilities. One more signatory of that document, Petr Poroshenko, has made a similarly cynical admission. This is nothing other than evidence of hypocrisy of the Western political establishment and the Kiev regime it nurtured.

The Western politicians’ real objectives were manifested again in December 2021, when Washington and Brussels rejected Russia’s proposals on providing it security guarantees regarding the region to the west of Russia’s borders.

It is obvious that the situation in and around Ukraine is only an element of a large-scale collision created by a small group of Western states that wanted to maintain their global domination and to turn back the objective process of the rise of a multipolar architecture. Acting in the worst colonial traditions, the Americans and their lapdogs are trying to divide the world into “democracies” and “authoritarian regimes” or, in plain English, into the select few, who are exceptional, and everyone else, who must serve the interests of the “golden billion.” The ultimate essence of that cynical philosophy has been expressed by the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who said, “Europe is a garden. The rest of the world […] is a jungle.” It was a Freudian slip that exposed their real intentions.

It is not surprising that threats and blackmail have been used not only against Russia but also against many other states. A strategic goal of the systemic deterrence of China has been formulated, including as part of the so-called Indo-Pacific strategies. The malicious practice of interfering in the internal affairs of states, including the fraternal state of Belarus, has not stopped. The years-long trade and economic blockade of Cuba has not been lifted. There are many other examples of this kind. Overall, nobody is safe now from the United States and its satellites’ raiding and mobster-style attacks.

To ensure the adoption of an international agenda in their own interests, Washington and Brussels are trying to “privatise” international organisations and to make them serve their mercenary interests. Here are a few examples. The Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been given attributive functions that are not within its scope, and the Council of Europe has been turned into an instrument of anti-Russia policy and, in fact, an appendage to NATO and the EU. The situation with the OSCE, which was created to conduct an honest European dialogue, is almost the same. This Vienna-based organisation has become a fringe agency where the West is accumulating filth and lies to drown the fundamental principles of the Helsinki Final Act.  It is obvious that the OSCE can no longer deal with serious issues of European security. The West continues its efforts to eliminate the remaining capabilities of the OSCE, in particular, by initiating an exclusive “European political community” that is closed to Russia and Belarus.

Today, our relations with the United States and the EU are at the lowest ebb since the end of bipolar confrontation. When the special military operation began, the West declared a total hybrid war against Russia. Its goal is to defeat us on the battlefield, destroy the Russian economy and undermine our internal political stability.

We have drawn the necessary conclusions from this. There will be no “business as usual” again. We will not knock on the closed door, let alone make unilateral concessions. If the West comes to its senses and offers a resumption of contacts, we will see what exactly they offer and will act based on Russia’s interests. Any hypothetical agreements with the West must be legally binding and must include a streamlined mechanism of their verification.

To tell the truth, we no longer have any illusions about converging with Europe, being accepted as part of the “common European home,” or creating a “common space” with the EU. All these declarations made in European capitals have turned out to be a myth and a false-flag operation. The latest developments have clearly shown that the ramified network of mutually beneficial trade, economic and investment ties between Russia and the EU were not a safety net. The EU did not think twice about sacrificing our energy cooperation, which was a pillar of their prosperity. We have seen that the European elites have no independence and always do whatever they are ordered to do in Washington, even if this results in direct damage to their own citizens. We take this reality into account in our foreign policy planning.

We continue to scrutinise the prospects and expediency of our membership in the international cooperation mechanisms where the West can manipulate the rules of procedure and secretariats to force these cooperation mechanisms to adopt the West’s mercenary agenda to the detriment of Russia’s priorities and equal interaction. In particular, we have withdrawn from the Council of Europe and several other agencies.

We are working with our reliable international partners to transition to foreign trade settlements in non-dollar and non-euro currencies and to create an infrastructure of interbank and other financial and economic ties that will not be controlled by the West.

If the West decides to abandon its Russophobic line and opt for equal cooperation with Russia, this will above all benefit them. However, we are realists who know that this scenario is improbable in the near future. Besides, it will take a great deal of effort to win back our trust. Washington and Brussels will have to work very hard to do it.

There are many partners in the world apart from the US and the EU. This is a global and multipolar world. The attempts to isolate Russia, build a fence around it and turn it into an outcast have failed. The global majority countries, where some 85 percent of the world’s population lives, are not willing to pull chestnuts out of the fire for their former colonial parent states. The international community no longer looks up to the West, which President Putin has aptly described as the “empire of lies” as the ultimate truth or the ideal of democracy, freedom and prosperity.

…

https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1859498/

Study: Uranium weapons being used in Ukraine have significantly increased Uranium levels in the air in the UK

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From Research Gate

Christopher Busby

March 2023

Abstract

Data covering the period November 2017 to November 2022 was obtained from the Atomic Weapons Establishment, Aldermaston to find if there was an increase in Uranium associated with the Ukraine war. Results from 9 High Volume Air Samplers deployed onsite and offsite by AWE showed that there were significantly increased levels of Uranium in all 9 HVAS samplers beginning in February 2022 when the war began. The result has significant public health implications for the UK and Europe.

Background

Uranium weapons have been increasingly employed in battle action since their first use by the US and UK forces in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Since then, they have been used in the Balkans in the late 1990s, then Kosovo in 2000, probably in Afghanistan in 2002 and then also in the 2nd Gulf War (GW2) in March and April 2003. On impact, uranium penetrators burn fiercely to give an aerosol of sub micron diameter oxide particles which are largely insoluble and remain in the environment for many years [1].

There is considerable public and scientific concern that these radioactive particles may remain suspended for long periods, or may become resuspended and are therefore available for inhalation by non-combatants at some distance from the point of impact.

Little research seems to have been carried out on the distance travelled by the uranium aerosols. The military maintain that the uranium remains near the point of impact, and the Royal Society report also states that the material does not travel more than some tens of metres. On the other hand, measurements of uranium in local populations in Kosovo some nine months after the use of uranium weapons tested positive for depleted uranium in urine and the United Nations (UNEP) found uranium particles in air filters in Bosnia and Kosovo some years after its use. The author visited both Kosovo in 2001 (with Nippon TV) and South Iraq in 2000 (with Al Jazeera), and measured DU residues in the environment using scintillation counting for beta and alpha radiation. Samples were taken in Kosovo and analysed in Wales to show the presence of DU particles precipitated from snow and present in puddles far from the impact points. Later, information on Uranium in air samplers deployed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment showed the presence of Uranium from the 2nd Gulf War in 2003 [2] in a study similar to the present one.

The question of the dispersion of uranium aerosols from battlefields is of significant legal interest, since if a radioactive weapon resulted in the general contamination of the public in the country of deployment or elsewhere, the weapon would be classifiable as one of indiscriminate effect…

researchgate(dot)net/publication/369170067_Uranium_weapons_being_employed_in_Ukraine_have_significantly_increased_Uranium_levels_in_the_air_in_the_UK

Depleted uranium (DU) anti-tank shells have already arrived to Ukraine; using DU is act of genocide

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From Strategic Stability

March 22, 2023

2. Depleted uranium (DU) anti-tank shells have already arrived to Ukraine

On March 21, UK Minister of State for Defense Annabel Goldie stated that London would provide Kiev with armor piercing shells for its Challenger 2 main battle tanks, including DU ammunition.

“I would like to note in this regard that if all this happens, then Russia will be forced to react accordingly – I mean that the Collective West is already starting to use weapons with a nuclear component,” Vladimir Putin declared during presence of Chairman Xi Jinping on March 21 in Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also made very critical remarks on this matter. The use of munitions with depleted uranium will dramatically reduce Ukrainian capabilities of producing high quality food, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the press conference in Moscow.

.”All conversations that they see the well-being of Ukraine in the future end with their statements about their intention to supply depleted uranium shells,” Russian MFA official spokesperson said, adding that the use of depleted uranium projectiles is actually an act of genocide against the population that such weapons are used on.

Russian academic community advocated to bomb railroads and highways on the Western part of Ukraine that might be used to deliver such shells with DU from the UK. Some of the experts proposed to sever diplomatic relations with London. They claim that one antitank shell fitted with DU can contaminate one hectare of land with water and vegetation.

“The UK government is sending depleted uranium shells for use in the Challenger 2 tanks gifted to Ukraine, a move CND has condemned as an additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict,” the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said on March 21.

In his research paper named “Uranium weapons being employed in Ukraine have significantly increased Uranium levels in the air in the UK” (March 2023) Christopher Busby, Environmental Research SIA, said that: “Uranium levels in all the onsite and offsite High Volume Air Samplers deployed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston, UK increased significantly in the period beginning with the start of the Ukraine War. This supports the belief that Uranium weapons are being deployed in the theatre and that the fallout of Uranium nanoparticles, has contaminated Europe and the United Kingdom.” [p.6]

From Report # 218. Russian-Chinese ties became much stronger in every domain, including in military sphere

UK and US depleted-uranium weapons for Ukraine

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From Beyond Nuclear
3-21-23

From Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament: 
The UK government is sending depleted uranium shells for use in the Challenger 2 tanks gifted to Ukraine, a move the longtime British peace and disarmament organization, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has condemned as an additional environmental and health disaster for those living through the conflict.

Defence Minister Baroness Goldie admitted in the answer to a written question that armour piercing rounds containing depleted uranium (DU) were included in its tank package for Kiev. She added that the rounds “are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armoured vehicles.”

A byproduct of the nuclear enriching process used to make nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons, DU emits three quarters of the radioactivity of natural uranium and shares many of its risks and dangers. It is used in armour piercing rounds as it is heavy and can easily penetrate steel. However on impact, toxic or radioactive dust can be released and subsequently inhaled.

DU shells were used extensively by the US and British in Iraq in 1991 and 2003, as well as in the Balkans during the 1990s…

CND General Secretary Kate Hudson said:

“Like in Iraq, the addition of depleted uranium ammunition into this conflict will only increase the long-term suffering of the civilians caught up in this conflict. DU shells have already been implicated in thousands of unnecessary deaths from cancer and other serious illnesses. CND has repeatedly called for the UK government to place an immediate moratorium on the use of depleted uranium weapons and to fund long-term studies into their health and environmental impacts. Sending them into yet another war zone will not help the people of Ukraine.” 

from Military Watch Magazine

American Depleted Uranium Weapons For the Ukrainian Army: Why is Russia So Worried?

1-30-23

Russia has issued a strong warning against the supply of depleted uranium weapons to the Ukrainian Military, amid concerns that a wide range of Western tanks and armoured vehicles set to be delivered to the country are designed specifically to use such munitions. Head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control Konstantin Gavrilov cautioned to this effect on January 25: “We know that Leopard 2 tanks, as well as Bradley and Marauder armoured fighting vehicles, can use depleted uranium shells, which can contaminate terrain, just like it happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq. If Kiev were to be supplied with such munitions for the use in western heavy military hardware, we would regard it as the use of ‘dirty nuclear bombs’ against Russia, with all the consequences that entails.” Regarding the possible responses Russia could take, Gavrilov elaborated: “If Washington and NATO countries provide Kiev with weapons for striking against the cities deep inside the Russian territory and for attempting to seize our constitutionally affirmed territories, it would force Moscow to undertake harsh retaliatory actions. Do not say that we did not warn you.” A number of analysts took this to be an implied threat of a Russian nuclear response.

Depleted uranium is prized as one of the heaviest elements on the planet, and is made from low-level radioactive waste left over from the manufacture of nuclear fuel or nuclear warheads which makes it affordable to produce in large quantities. Although it has been used in the armour of American M1 Abrams tanks, those intended for the Ukrainian Army will not have this armour the composition of which is a sensitive Pentagon secret. Aside from armour, however, depleted uranium is more widely used in anti armour weapons including the rounds fired by tanks and other combat vehicles to provide a greater penetrative capability. A notable example is the M829 armour fin-stabilised discarding sabot round which is compatible with M1 Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks, older versions of which were employed extensively by the Abrams during the Gulf War. Such munitions could be particularly useful in the Ukrainian theatre as Russia has continued to improve the capabilities of its frontline armour. The potential environmental impacts of their use, however, can be calamitous, with the radioactive particles emitted into the air when depleted uranium rounds are used having half-lives of over four billion years. The easily inhalable dust can travel for well over 40km from the site of each impact, creating a mass area effect. 

The effects of depleted uranium shelling were seen in the Gulf War, with British Royal Navy Commander Robert Green reporting: “a surge of unexplained illnesses, cancers and children born with genetic deformities among the Iraqi people, especially in the south near the battlefields.” A confidential UN report leaked in May 1999 similarly concluded regarding depleted uranium weapons: “this type of ammunition is nuclear waste, and its use is very dangerous and harmful.” In the subsequent Iraq War the following decade the city of Fallujah was particularly heavily bombarded by depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces, with Professor Chris Busby. One of the authors of a survey of 4,800 Fallujah residents wrote regarding the connection between these attacks and the rapid increase in cancers and birth defects that followed: “to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened.” He concluded that some kind of uranium weapon had to have been the cause.

The Fallujah survey by 11 experts, which covered over 700 households, concluded that the effects on the population were “similar to that in the Hiroshima survivors who were exposed to ionising radiation from the bomb and uranium in the fallout.” Depleted uranium weapons were found to have had highly similar effects in Yugoslavia, and were also used for limited strikes by U.S. forces in Syria. Although Operation Desert Storm was authorised by the United Nations Security Council, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and bombings of Syria and Yugoslavia were widely considered by legal experts to be acts of aggression in violation of international law. This only increased the controversy surrounding depleted uranium attacks in these conflicts and the contamination that resulted. Legal arguments against supplying depleted uranium weapons to Ukraine, by contrast, are limited, and while Russia considers Ukraine’s ethnically Russian Donbas regions to be part of its territory, this is not internationally recognised meaning use of depleted uranium rounds there would constitute an internal Ukrainian affair. How Russia may respond to such weapons being used against the Russian population however, or against its own forces, remains to be seen. 

Note: Many of the details on previous depleted uranium attacks, and the causes of the U.S.-led military campaigns in which such weapons were widely used, were taken from the upcoming book by international security scholar A. B. Abrams: ‘Atrocity Fabrication and Its Consequences: How Fake News Shapes World Order.’

https://beyondnuclear.org/depleted-uranium-weapons-to-ukraine/

militarywatchmagazine(dot)com/article/hiroshima-uranium-ukraine-russia-worried
militarywatchmagazine(dot)com/

Iraqi Holocaust; 20th Anniversary of Iraq invasion, five million people dead since 1990

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From Global Research

Iraq Invasion 20th Anniversary: Five Million Dead in Iraqi Holocaust 1990 Onwards

by Gideon Polya
March 20, 2023

The 20th anniversary of the war criminal US, UK and Australian invasion of Iraq in 2003 will fall on about 20 March 2023. On this occasion mendacious and racist Western media will at best remember the Iraq War as a US policy mistake. However decent people will remember the carnage. From 1990 onwards Iraqi deaths from US-imposed violence and deprivation have totalled about 5.0-5.5 million, similar to deaths in the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million).

(A) Some important prefatory comments on violent deaths, avoidable deaths from imposed deprivation, and culpability.

One notes that “holocaust” implies a large number of deaths whereas  “genocide” is precisely defined by Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the UN Genocide Convention) thus:

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” [1].

Further, deaths in war and occupation come from violence and from imposed deprivation. Whether a child dies from violence (bombs, bullets or bashing) or from being deprived of life-sustaining requisites (food, potable water and medicine), the death is just as final, and the culpability of the perpetrator just as real. However while deaths in war from violence are often hard to assess, avoidable deaths from imposed deprivation can be estimated from comparative demographic data (that have been provided for the years from 1950 onwards by the UN Population Division). The methodology used to estimate avoidable deaths from deprivation is described in detail  in my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” [2].

Culpability for avoidable deaths from imposed deprivation is set out by Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention ( the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons In Time of War) that state that the  Occupying Power  is obliged to supply the conquered Subjects with life-sustaining food and medical requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”.These key injunctions of International Law have been grossly violated by the US and its degenerate and serial war criminal allies (notably the UK, Apartheid Israel, France and US lackey Australia) in the post-9/11 US War on Muslims [3, 4].

Scrupulously ignored by mendacious Mainstream media (M3) journalist, editor, politician, academic and commentariat presstitutes is the horrible reality that the ongoing Iraqi Genocide and Iraq Holocaust actually commenced 109 years ago with the British invasion of Iraq in 1914 for oil and imperial hegemony [2, 5]. The deaths in the various stages of the 109-year and ongoing Iraq Holocaust are succinctly set out below.

(B) Deaths from violence and deprivation in the ongoing, 109-year Iraqi Holocaust.

(1) British rule or hegemony (1914-1950): 4 million.

British interest in invading and conquering Iraq came from discovery of oil in adjacent Iran in 1908. Western violation of Iraq commenced with the British invasion for oil and imperial hegemony a mere 6 years later, in 1914 during WW1.  Churchill had forced the Ottoman Empire (1517-1924 Ottoman Caliphate) into WW1  by seizing British-built battleships that the Turks had already paid for. Assuming excess mortality of Iraqis under British rule or hegemony (1914-1950) was the same as for Indians under the British – interpolation from available data indicate Indian avoidable death rates in “deaths per 1,000 of population per year” of 37 (1757-1920), 35 (1920-1930), 30 (1930-1940) and 24 (1940-1950) –  one can estimate from Iraqi population data that Iraqi avoidable deaths from deprivation under British occupation and hegemony from 1914-1950 totalled about 4 million [2, 4-7].

(2) Gulf War (1990-1991) and Sanctions period (1990-2003): 1.9 million.

Violent deaths and avoidable deaths from violently-imposed deprivation in the Gulf War (1990-1991) and the Sanctions period (1990-2003) totalled  0.2 million and 1.7 million, respectively. During the Sanctions period the US, UK an Israeli air forces relentlessly bombed Iraqi infrastructure with consequent huge avoidable deaths from deprivation. On May 12, 1996, Madeleine Albright (US UN Ambassador and later US Secretary of State) defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a “60 Minutes” segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Madeleine Albright replied “We think the price is worth it” [6]. This was a singular instance in which the US admitted to its genocidal carnage. Back in 1990 eminent Australian medical scientist  Professor Fred Mendelsohn (his industrial chemist father Oscar Mendelsohn befriended and employed my Jewish Hungarian refugee father,  Dr John Polya, in about 1940) argued for peace and warned in a letter published by The Age (Melbourne) that huge numbers of children would die in the looming Gulf War. This wonderful and inspiring pro-peace humanitarian  was right – Iraqi under-5 infant deaths under Sanctions totalled 1.7 million, a massive crime against Humanity.

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Urgent: Imprisoned Diplomat Alex Saab’s Life Is in Danger

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By Free Alex Saab and Popular Resistance

19 March 2023

Today the Free Alex Saab Movement makes an urgent call to the world to denounce the alarming health condition of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, which endangers his life.

In July 2021, the Working Group against Torture and several UN rapporteurs expressed their concern about the irreparable deterioration of Alex Saab’s health condition.

Let us recall that in Cape Verde, on July 7, 2021, after many refusals, Alex Saab was visited by his family doctor, who in his report detected a worrying health condition of the Venezuelan official, especially because Saab is a stomach cancer survivor. The doctor diagnosed: anemia, anorexia, diabetes mellitus type 2, hypothyroidism, hypertension, high risk of thromboembolic disease including pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. In addition, he highlighted that a high infection by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori was found in his blood and an endoscopy identified bleeding from the digestive tract that could mean recurrence of the cancer; likewise, the lower left molar was found broken due to the beatings received during the torture and access to proper medical care was recommended, however, he was never allowed to receive treatment.

Subsequently, the treating physician issued, on September 9, 2021, a new report highlighting the need for patient Alex Saab to receive specialized medical care and asked the authorities of Cape Verde to take into consideration the need to preserve the health and life of Alex Saab. Cape Verde did nothing in this regard.

Alex Saab arrived in the territory of the United States, kidnapped for the second time, on October 16, 2021 and from that moment until today he has not received any medical attention according to the basic diseases that had been reported, ignoring the call of the UN rapporteurs.

Alex Saab is in the Federal Detention Center in Miami and his prison situation is even worse than in Cape Verde; he has not been allowed family visits and has not seen his wife and children for more than two years and eight months, who have also been victims of persecution by the U.S. authorities and their allies.

Alex Saab has also not been allowed consular visits, which is a human right of every prisoner deprived of liberty. The U.S. State Department has not responded to the Venezuelan State’s request to grant him a consular visit, as established in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

In the medical reports made in July, Alex Saab’s doctor had already informed that they had identified bleeding from the digestive tract, which could mean a recurrence of the cancer. Now, it is extremely alarming to learn that Alex has been vomiting blood for weeks and despite having reported it to the U.S. authorities, there is still a lack of medical attention at the prison. Why has the U.S. not bothered to treat him?

Everything indicates that the lack of medical attention is part of a State policy, as was his illegal arrest. Could it be that they want to hand over Alex Saab dead to the Venezuelan authorities? Why then the insistence on not providing him with medical attention, and not allowing his doctor to visit him?

Everyone knows that the truth is on the side of the Venezuelan diplomat, and sooner or later the United States must release him, but they are taking more time than usual, could it be that they are waiting for his illnesses to develop further?

We, the #FreeAlexSaab Movement, holds the U.S. Government responsible for the life and for what may happen to the diplomat Alex Saab Moran.

We ask at the same time that the International Committee of the Red Cross to be present at the Federal Detention Center in Miami-USA.

Likewise, we urge the High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights to take action and denounce this violation of the human rights of the Venezuelan diplomat illegally detained in U.S. territory.

We request the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, as the highest defender of International Law, to make an announcement on this case, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and human rights.

We demand immediate freedom for Alex Saab Moran, the Venezuelan diplomat kidnapped in the United States. We urgently require a humanitarian, political and diplomatic solution to this unjust situation.

It is time for a solution that will bring benefits for both nations, it is time to move forward, we urge the U.S. Government to sit down and reach an agreement, Venezuela has shown to be open to a solution.

Copyright © Free Alex Saab and Popular Resistance, PopularResistance.Org, 2023

https://popularresistance.org/urgent-imprisoned-diplomat-alex-saabs-life-is-in-danger/

https://www.globalresearch.ca/urgent-imprisoned-diplomat-alex-saab-life-danger/5812978

Save Jeju! Report from Jeju Island on U.S.-NATO military expansion in South Korea — ongoing struggle to stop Navy base (VIDEO)

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From Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

March 22, 2023

Of the 365 days per year, “more than 200 days of war drills” in Korea.

Global Network Advisory Board member Sung-Hee Choi reports on the latest developments in South Korea as Washington expands military operations throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

 
‘We are a target’, she says.
 
This aggressive military expansion, labeled the ‘Asia Pivot’ by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is creating major tensions in the region as the US prepares for war with China, North Korea and Russia.
 
During the interview Sung-Hee talks about the US Navy destroyer USS Rafael Peralta (DDG-115) that recently ported at the Navy base in Gangjeong village on Jeju. She shares a short video of a protest held at the base as the destroyer crew members were bussed to a hotel outside of the village.
 
The DDG 115 was built in Bath, Maine and during the ‘Christening’ of the warship in 2015 several members of the peace community from across the state were arrested for non-violently blocking the streets and entrances surrounding the shipyard as the public was invited to attend the ceremony. (Regular peace vigils are held at Bath Iron Works in Maine where these destroyers are built. Currently there are seven more under construction.)
 
There has long been a connection between Maine and the activists in Gangjeong village.  Over the years eight Maine-based activists (as well as hundreds of other international peaceniks) traveled to the village to join protests against the Navy base construction that was forced on South Korea by Washington.
 
In another part of the interview Sung-Hee reports on recent (and on-going) US-NATO war games aimed at North Korea. She shares a second short video of protests in Seoul opposing these war games.
 
Near the end of the interview Sung-Hee talks about how the US Space Force has assigned personnel to South Korea and is drawing their nation into the larger US program of militarizing space.

Each time a US-NATO warship arrives at the Navy base on Jeju Island protests are held in the water and at the Navy base gates.

Daily protests have been held since 2007 when the base construction was announced.

Gangjeong village is a fishing and farming community with a 500 year history. Their sacred rocky coastline was blasted and covered with cement to build the docks for warships.

Throughout the long struggle to oppose the Navy base, which sits in a strategic spot just off the Korean peninsula, art has been used to illustrate the villagers love for nature and their commitment to resist US-forced militarization.

Toxic contamination from base construction and visiting warships has now begun to impact the once pristine environment of the village and the sea.

Please help us by liking and sharing this video. 

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/

http://savejejunow.org/

Save Jeju Now!

Help the people of Jeju Island!

Congressman Brad Sherman leads colleagues in re-introducing the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act

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From JNCTV

March 1, 2023. Arya Ansari, (202) 225-5911, (202) 740-0994

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-32), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led 19 members of Congress in re-introducing the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act – bipartisan legislation that calls for serious, urgent diplomatic engagement in pursuit of a formal end to the Korean War. Congressman Sherman made the announcement in a press conference on Capitol Hill and was joined by his Congressional colleagues along with members of the Korean American Public Action Committee (KAPAC) and supporters of the Korea Peace movement.

“The continued state of war on the Korean Peninsula does not serve the interests of the United States nor our constituents with relatives in North and South Korea,” said Congressman Brad Sherman. “Serious, urgent diplomatic engagement is needed to achieve peace between North and South Korea. I’m pleased to stand here today, with my colleagues, the Korean American community, and supporters of the Korea peace movement, to reintroduce this crucial bill and continue to help grow the movement for Korea peace.”

In 1953, the parties to the Korean War signed an Armistice Agreement that pledged an end to “all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved.” Common sense tells us that this conflict ended in July 1953. But in fact, we only signed an armistice. Therefore, we have officially remained in a state of war with North Korea for 70 years. This situation does not serve anyone’s interest.

On April 27, 2018, in Panmunjom, the leaders of South Korea and North Korea declared that “a new era of peace has begun on the Korean peninsula,” and committed “to declare the end of war” on the Korean peninsula 65 years after the signing of the armistice agreement.

The Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act expresses support for the commitments made at Panmunjom and urges the Secretary of State to pursue meaningful diplomatic engagement with North Korea and South Korea in pursuit of a binding peace agreement constituting a formal and final end to the state of war between North Korea, South Korea, and the United States. The bill also requires a report from the Secretary of State that describes a clear roadmap for achieving a permanent peace agreement on the Korean peninsula.

One major consequence of the continuation of the Korean War is that the United States does not have formal relations with North Korea. The current restrictions barring United States nationals from traveling to North Korea have had profound effects on Americans with relatives living in North Korea, who long to see their relatives – in many cases, for one last time.

The Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act requires the Secretary of State to conduct a full review of the restrictions in place conditioning the travel of Americans to North Korea, and to submit a report to Congress detailing that review.

Congressman Sherman is pleased to be joined by his bipartisan colleagues Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Cori Bush, Luis Correa, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Paul Tonko, Chuy Garcia, Andy Biggs, Dina Titus, Rashida Tlaib, Marilyn Strickland, Sara Jacobs, Jan Schakowsky, James McGovern, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Adriano Espaillat, Pramila Jayapal, Judy Chu, and Ilhan Omar in introducing the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act.

https://jnctv.org/2023/03/04/congressman-brad-sherman-leads-colleagues-in-re-introducing-the-peace-on-the-korean-peninsula-act/