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Direct talks with Hezbollah urged by Liberal
MPs tour Lebanon areas
Bomb damage called `criminal'
Aug. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
ANDREW MILLS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
AITAROUN, LEBANON—The Canadian government must begin direct talks with militant groups such as Hezbollah to effectively bring a peaceful end to conflicts like the one that has ravaged Lebanon this summer, Toronto Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj says.
Standing at the spot where an Israeli air strike killed several members of a Montreal family last month, Wrzesnewskyj said Israel's summer offensive against Lebanon was nothing less than "state terrorism."
"Over 1,200 dead and counting. Over 40,000 apartments and houses flattened. A country's infrastructure dismembered. You look around here," said Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre). "I believe what's happened is absolutely criminal."
It was one of the strongest statements a Liberal MP has made against Israel since July 12, when it launched air, land and sea attacks after guerrillas from the militant Shiite group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially called the ensuing Israeli onslaught a "measured response" to the raid, but as the civilian death toll mounted, he later toned down his comments saying such judgments had become more difficult as the war escalated.
But for the three Canadian opposition MPs who yesterday toured the wasteland of south Lebanon on a fact-finding mission led by the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, Israel's attacks here have been anything but measured.
"Those who were injured and killed on the Israeli side of the border feel equally devastated, but the extent of the damage is far greater here. And to say that Israel's response was a measured response is just so far out of whack from reality," said NDP MP Peggy Nash (High Park-Parkdale).
More than 150 Israelis were killed in the fighting.
Nash, Wrzesnewskyj and Bloc Québécois MP Maria Mourani (Ahuntsic) travelled through some of Lebanon's worst-hit towns and villages yesterday.
A representative from the Conservative party was invited, but pulled out at the last minute, saying the Prime Minister's Office had security concerns. Ottawa says it still plans to send an envoy to Lebanon.
Harper sided firmly with Israel throughout the 34-day war in Lebanon, while both the Liberals and NDP encouraged a negotiated solution, with the Liberal interim leader Bill Graham calling Harper's position a "grave error."
Wrzesnewskyj said even if Canada had attempted to play a role, the country's anti-terrorism legislation prevents it from having any contact with groups listed as terrorist organizations under the criminal code.
And though the Liberal MP said Hezbollah must remain on Canada's terrorist list because "they've committed war crimes by sending rockets into civilian areas," what needs to happen with the militant group is for the international community to begin direct talks.
"We can't shackle ourselves by saying, `We're not going to talk,'" he said. "We must talk."
He added that dialogue should begin between Canada and all the terrorist groups on the list.
All three MPs here speculated that Conservatives' unwillingness to send a representative is reflective of their support for Israel's government.
Mourani, who is of Lebanese descent, said people here have thanked her for coming, but they've told her that she should be embarrassed about the way Ottawa has responded.
"This is a change of mentality here, people's vision and image of Canada has changed. This is shameful of Canada," Mourani said.
The MPs travelled through areas where Israeli forces have destroyed homes, businesses and hundreds of civilian lives and ended in this border village where diggers have spent days scraping through debris in a delicate effort to remove the bodies of the al-Akhras family.
The Montreal couple, their four young children and other family members, were caught in their ancestral village when the fighting broke out. The home they had sheltered in took a direct hit on July 16.
Wrzesnewskyj called for a full international investigation of attacks on civilians.
"This sort of state impunity has to end," he said. "It's almost having to save a people from themselves. What do you think (Israel's) breeding here? Extremism."
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Direct talks with Hezbollah urged by Liberal
MPs tour Lebanon areas
Bomb damage called `criminal'
Aug. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
ANDREW MILLS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
AITAROUN, LEBANON—The Canadian government must begin direct talks with militant groups such as Hezbollah to effectively bring a peaceful end to conflicts like the one that has ravaged Lebanon this summer, Toronto Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj says.
Standing at the spot where an Israeli air strike killed several members of a Montreal family last month, Wrzesnewskyj said Israel's summer offensive against Lebanon was nothing less than "state terrorism."
"Over 1,200 dead and counting. Over 40,000 apartments and houses flattened. A country's infrastructure dismembered. You look around here," said Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre). "I believe what's happened is absolutely criminal."
It was one of the strongest statements a Liberal MP has made against Israel since July 12, when it launched air, land and sea attacks after guerrillas from the militant Shiite group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper initially called the ensuing Israeli onslaught a "measured response" to the raid, but as the civilian death toll mounted, he later toned down his comments saying such judgments had become more difficult as the war escalated.
But for the three Canadian opposition MPs who yesterday toured the wasteland of south Lebanon on a fact-finding mission led by the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, Israel's attacks here have been anything but measured.
"Those who were injured and killed on the Israeli side of the border feel equally devastated, but the extent of the damage is far greater here. And to say that Israel's response was a measured response is just so far out of whack from reality," said NDP MP Peggy Nash (High Park-Parkdale).
More than 150 Israelis were killed in the fighting.
Nash, Wrzesnewskyj and Bloc Québécois MP Maria Mourani (Ahuntsic) travelled through some of Lebanon's worst-hit towns and villages yesterday.
A representative from the Conservative party was invited, but pulled out at the last minute, saying the Prime Minister's Office had security concerns. Ottawa says it still plans to send an envoy to Lebanon.
Harper sided firmly with Israel throughout the 34-day war in Lebanon, while both the Liberals and NDP encouraged a negotiated solution, with the Liberal interim leader Bill Graham calling Harper's position a "grave error."
Wrzesnewskyj said even if Canada had attempted to play a role, the country's anti-terrorism legislation prevents it from having any contact with groups listed as terrorist organizations under the criminal code.
And though the Liberal MP said Hezbollah must remain on Canada's terrorist list because "they've committed war crimes by sending rockets into civilian areas," what needs to happen with the militant group is for the international community to begin direct talks.
"We can't shackle ourselves by saying, `We're not going to talk,'" he said. "We must talk."
He added that dialogue should begin between Canada and all the terrorist groups on the list.
All three MPs here speculated that Conservatives' unwillingness to send a representative is reflective of their support for Israel's government.
Mourani, who is of Lebanese descent, said people here have thanked her for coming, but they've told her that she should be embarrassed about the way Ottawa has responded.
"This is a change of mentality here, people's vision and image of Canada has changed. This is shameful of Canada," Mourani said.
The MPs travelled through areas where Israeli forces have destroyed homes, businesses and hundreds of civilian lives and ended in this border village where diggers have spent days scraping through debris in a delicate effort to remove the bodies of the al-Akhras family.
The Montreal couple, their four young children and other family members, were caught in their ancestral village when the fighting broke out. The home they had sheltered in took a direct hit on July 16.
Wrzesnewskyj called for a full international investigation of attacks on civilians.
"This sort of state impunity has to end," he said. "It's almost having to save a people from themselves. What do you think (Israel's) breeding here? Extremism."
link