The Independent Special

The Independent:
Babies among dead on Gaza front line

By Anne Penketh in Gaza and Daniel Howden
Published: 27 July 2006

Only the bloodstains on their white shrouds spoke of the tragedy that had unfolded. Two Palestinian girls, one just eight months old, were dead. They were killed when an Israeli tank shell struck a house near Jabalya in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Yesterday marked the end of Cpl Gilad Shalit's first month in captivity and Israel stepped up operations inside the Strip in an operation codenamed Sampson's Pillar.

The ferocity of the response to that kidnapping, and the determination of operations to stop Palestinian militants' rockets, saw a barrage of air strikes and raids yesterday that killed at least 19 Palestinians, including three children and a handicapped man.

Israeli shells struck at a rate of one a minute throughout the afternoon, with the buildings of Beit Hanoun shaking under the sustained fire. The army has killed 140 Palestinians since it began its assault. About half are civilians.

Among those killed yesterday were seven loyalists of the governing Hamas militant group and one gunman from the kindred Islamic Jihad faction. Nearly 60 people were wounded, including a cameraman for Palestinian television. Six were in a critical condition.

The mayor of Gaza City has said the Israelis have caused widespread damage in disproportionate retaliation after the capture of Cpl Shalit. Maged Abdul Ramadan, said: "The announced goal is to get the [Hamas] government to collapse. But I know it won't succeed because they never gave the elected government the chance to prove whether they are for peace or not. In the second initifada the situation got bad. Since the new government in March it's got very bad. And since the end of June it's become unbearable."

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on the world to remember the plight of the Palestinians despite the conflict in Lebanon. "This is the forgotten war," he said. "We urge the international community to intervene."

Israel's army, which abandoned Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, said it had carried out strikes against gunmen.

Buzzing overhead, unmanned aircraft fired missiles at militants on the streets, Palestinian witnesses said. Israel also bombed offices used by a Hamas-led force in Gaza City.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, rejected demands by militants to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Cpl Shalit, but said he might consider it later to help Mr Abbas, a moderate.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said: "The Hamas position is clear. There must be a reciprocity of time and action in the process, meaning the soldier gets freed and Palestinian prisoners go free at the same time."

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1199342.ece

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Rice resists immediate ceasefire at summit

By Stephen Castle in Brussels and Donald Macintyre in Haifa
Published: 27 July 2006

Crisis talks on Lebanon yesterday ended with public divisions over the need for an immediate ceasefire and without agreement on who could lead an international military force for the region, or what its mandate should be.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, resisted pressure to demand an instant end to Israel's military offensive, insisting that any ceasefire must be "sustainable" and that there could be no return to the previous status quo.

Underlining the differences at the conference in Rome, the Italian Foreign Minister, Massimo D'Alema, said many participants appealed for an immediate and unconditional truce "to reach, with utmost urgency, a ceasefire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities". Ms Rice won backing from Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, who said: "Even if you could get a ceasefire half an hour ago, you would probably be back in hostilities in a few days." When asked about the timescale for ending the fighting, Ms Beckett said: "We are looking at days, not weeks."

In Israel, meanwhile, the full impact of what was easily the worst day for its military since its offensive in Lebanon began 15 days ago was proving hard to absorb. Yesterday saw one of the worst death tolls of soldiers in a single day since the Operation Defensive Shield incursion into Jenin, in the West Bank, four years ago.

It was only during the 8pm news bulletins on Israeli TV that the army confirmed that any soldiers had been killed - a figure of eight that seemed certain to rise significantly. The death toll alone would probably not be enough to dent the solid support shown by the opinion polls for an operation which started in response to the abduction of two soldiers but widened rapidly to that of "crippling" Hizbollah as part of a "change in the rules of the game".

But it comes at a time when sections of the media have started to question the validity of the strategy - but not the goals - pursued by the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. The loss of soldiers in war is one thing; losses without tangible results in security might be another.

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1199354.ece

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World's most complex election
brings hope to war-ravaged Congo

By Steve Bloomfield in North Kivu, Congo
Published: 27 July 2006

Seventeen-year-old Maria turned to her son, Joseph, aged nine months, and told him what she hopes will happen when he grows up. "You will be elected President of Congo," she said.

Maria left school at 13. She has no job and is shunned by her family who believe she has brought shame upon them by having a child out of wedlock. But she has hope - and a new-found belief in democracy shared by the Democratic Republic of Congo's 60 million people that none of them have ever experienced before. While the chances of baby Joseph becoming head of state may be slim, many of her compatriots believe that another Joseph - Kabila - will become the DRC's first democratically elected leader in more than 40 years when the country goes to the polls on Sunday.

The 25 million voters will choose between 33 hopefuls and 9,500 parliamentary candidates on ballot papers the size of a table cloth. It is the most expensive election in Africa's history.

According to the United Nations, it has also been the world's most complicated election to organise. In a country the size of western Europe but with only 300 miles of paved road, many of the 53,000 ballot boxes are on their way to polling stations via dug-out canoes or on election officials' backs through the jungle.

The main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), is boycotting the poll, claiming it will not be free or fair. Their demonstrations in Kinshasa, the capital, have been broken up by riot police firing tear gas. At a rally in the eastern border town of Rutshuru last week seven demonstrators were shot dead by soldiers.

Mr Kabila, who came to power in 2001 at the age of 29 after his father, Laurent, was assassinated, is the favourite. As President of the transitional government, Mr Kabila has a 14,000-strong presidential guard and total control of state media. He is the only candidate with name recognition across the country's 11 districts. The top two candidates will run off against each other in October, at the earliest, and a final result is not expected until the new year. Whoever wins will have to do nothing less than build a nation from the bottom up.

The DRC has endured more than a century of brutal misruleand the effects of a regional war, which involved at least six other countries and killed four million Congolese over the past decade, are still being felt. About 1,200 people - half of them infants - are still dying each day from war-related diseases. And if they are not dying, children are fighting. Abducted in their thousands by militia groups, the boys become soldiers, the girls sex slaves.

Mugele Mukobya Mizegele's village in the southern Katanga region was attacked by armed militiamen. As his family fled for their lives, his father, brother and sister managed to escape but Mugele and his mother were captured. The militia's leader told Mugele's mother she had to stay and work for them as a porter. "She refused," said Mugele, "so they killed her in front of me. Then they gave me a gun and made me fight."

Before his village was attacked, Mulenge was training to become a mechanic. But from the age of 14 he has carried an AK-47. For the past three years he has lived alongside the people who killed his mother in the jungle fighting against rival militia groups and government forces.

When baby Joseph grows up, Maria will have to tell him his father is dead. She married a militiaman at 13 and had twins while he fought in the bush. After he was killed she was forced to become a soldier. Several of her husband's comrades raped her. The last rape produced Joseph. "I wish to be able to go to school," she said. "But I am too old now. I will learn something manual so I can work and afford to send my children to school. They will learn, work, then one of them will become President of Congo. If my children can study, they will be useful for society. We need people who can be useful."

Mugele and Maria are no longer part of the militia and are being supported by humanitarian groups. But for countless others, the fighting continues. Save the Children says an even greater number of of children are being re-recruited as fighters and sex slaves. Regional observers fear that militia groups, concerned that they might lose power when the votes are counted, are gearing up for a fresh conflict. There are no signs that Congo's nightmare is coming to an end.

© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article1199345.ece