Wednesday 21 March 2012

Argentine veterans insist with identifying remains of 123 comrades buried in Falklands

Argentine veterans from the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas war with Britain reiterated on Wednesday a request for the identification of 123 unknown comrades buried in the Falkland Islands.

The request was presented by the Malvinas War Veterans branch from La Plata, to Julio Alak, Justice and Human Rights minister. It follows the presentation last August of an appeal before a federal court with the purpose of identifying the remains in the NN graves.

“In the Malvinas Darwin cemetery there are 234 graves of which 123 have no names and only have a plaque which reads ‘Argentine soldier, only known to God’” said Ernesto Alonso a member of the board from the Veterans organization.

Alonso recalled that at the end of the conflict in June 1982 “many bodies remained in the battle fields and the identification was left in the hands of the British, but in 123 cases they couldn’t do it because they did not have the ID ‘dog tags’ with names or any other element to help with the identification”.

Minister Alak said that in “today’s Argentina the identity is a superior value which the State defends and claims, as has been the case in the hundreds of babies stolen by the macabre terrorist machine of the dictatorship”.

Malvinas veterans are demanding the participation of the Argentine Anthropology Forensic Team, EAAF, a organization which has earned international acknowledgement for its identification of disappeared persons during the 1976/1983 dictatorial regime that ruled Argentina.

“We’re requesting the Executive to take the necessary steps so that a team from EAAF can work at the Argentine Memorial in Darwin and helps to identify the remains of our comrades and the probable causes of their death”, said Alonso.

“It’s a humanitarian request to which the British I’m certain will not object, when thirty years of the conflict have gone by” added Alonso recalling that in Europe they are still identifying the remains of combatants from the two world wars.

During the 74-day conflict following the Argentine invasion of the Falklands on 2 April, 255 British, 649 Argentines and three local civilians lost their lives. Most Argentine losses occurred when the sinking of ARA Belgrano.

08 March 2012

http://en.mercopress.com/2012/03/08/argentine-veterans-insist-with-identifying-remains-of-123-comrades-buried-in-falklands

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French, Israeli, ZAKA Volunteers Secured Full Jewish Burial in Israel for Toulouse Victims

The bodies of the four victims of yesterday’s shooting attack at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse will be flown back to Israel for burial later Tuesday night, arriving in Israel at 4 a.m. local time. The funeral is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. in Jerusalem.

The ZAKA International Rescue Unit handled all aspects of returning the four bodies to Israel. A special delegation from Israel, led by ZAKA International Rescue Unit commander Mati Goldstein, joined the volunteers from the ZAKA France. The teams worked at the school, clearing the scene and assisting in the forensic identification of the victims.

One of the ZAKA volunteers reported that, after a short memorial ceremony in the courtyard of the Otzar Hatorah school, the bodies were transferred in an army plane to Paris. The bodies will be flown out on the midnight El Al flight from Paris to Tel Aviv. The ZAKA volunteers from France, working together with the delegation from Israel, assisted the local burial society with all matters relating to honoring the dead, collecting all the body parts from the scene of the massacre. According to an Israeli ZAKA volunteer, “the Jewish community in France is still in shock and cannot fully comprehend the scope of the disaster.”

ZAKA Chairman and Founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav said, “Yesterday, ZAKA received a request from the family to assist them in ensuring their loved ones are buried in Israel. After a delay, we were successful in procuring burial plots for them in Jerusalem. ZAKA ambulances will take the bodies from the airport to the cemetery in Jerusalem.”

Tuesday 20 March 2012

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/french-israeli-zaka-volunteers-secured-full-jewish-burial-in-israel-for-toulouse-victims/2012/03/20/

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Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead

Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead
INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Relatives of over 1,800 people killed in Africa's worst maritime disaster say the case must not be buried as Dakar attempted Monday to have a French inquiry into the accident annulled.

In Ziguinchor in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, the air was heavy around a few white tombstones where victims of the 2002 Joola ferry disaster are buried at the overgrown Kantene cemetery

"The Joola case will not go unpunished despite Senegal's acrobatics to have it buried," said Eli Jean-Bernard Diatta, standing among the graves.

She lost her elder brother who had been chaperoning 26 children on a football trip when the boat capsized in stormy seas off Gambia while sailing between Casamance and the capital Dakar. None of the children survived.

Kantene is one of four cemeteries where about 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified. The severely overloaded ferry was licensed to carry 550 people but had 1,927 passengers on board, of whom only 64 survived.

In 2003 Senegal declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

The dead captain was declared the main person responsible.

However 22 French students died in the accident and their families that same year brought legal action against the Senegalese authorities in France for manslaughter and failing to help people in danger.

In 2008 France issued warrants against nine Senegalese officials, later withdrawing those against ex-prime minister Mame Madior Boye and ex-defence minister Youba Sambou.

A Paris appeals court in 2009 threw out an earlier bid by Dakar to have the case annulled, but a similar request was filed again a year later by the lawyers for the seven civilian and military officials still the subject of arrest warrants.

One of them was arrested in Paris in October 2010.

In the courtyard of her home in Ziguinchor, Marie Helene Mendy, who was widowed in the accident and left to raise two children, said she was still awaiting "the truth".

"The state closed the case but not the families. If we don't judge this case our children will. One of my sons tells me 'Mummy, when I am big I am going to look for my dad in the sea'. He hasn't forgotten."

Pierre Coly is one of the 64 survivors: "I am glad the Joola case is still in the news in France while in Senegal they want to stifle it. If it was possible to have a similar enquiry here that would be good," he said.

The Joola was carrying people from across Senegal, including school students and artists, as well as citizens from Belgium, Cameroon, France, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Niger, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

The official death toll of 1,863 was 300 more than the number lost in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, but other sources put the number at 1,953 at least.

Source : Sapa/George Herald 20 March 2012

http://sawdis1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/senegal-boat-disaster-victims-want.html

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Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead

Senegal boat disaster victims want Paris probe to go ahead
INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Relatives of over 1,800 people killed in Africa's worst maritime disaster say the case must not be buried as Dakar attempted Monday to have a French inquiry into the accident annulled.

In Ziguinchor in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, the air was heavy around a few white tombstones where victims of the 2002 Joola ferry disaster are buried at the overgrown Kantene cemetery

"The Joola case will not go unpunished despite Senegal's acrobatics to have it buried," said Eli Jean-Bernard Diatta, standing among the graves.

She lost her elder brother who had been chaperoning 26 children on a football trip when the boat capsized in stormy seas off Gambia while sailing between Casamance and the capital Dakar. None of the children survived.

Kantene is one of four cemeteries where about 500 recovered bodies were buried in mass graves, most unidentified. The severely overloaded ferry was licensed to carry 550 people but had 1,927 passengers on board, of whom only 64 survived.

In 2003 Senegal declared the case closed after several ministers and high-ranking military officers were fired, without it ever coming before a court.

The dead captain was declared the main person responsible.

However 22 French students died in the accident and their families that same year brought legal action against the Senegalese authorities in France for manslaughter and failing to help people in danger.

In 2008 France issued warrants against nine Senegalese officials, later withdrawing those against ex-prime minister Mame Madior Boye and ex-defence minister Youba Sambou.

A Paris appeals court in 2009 threw out an earlier bid by Dakar to have the case annulled, but a similar request was filed again a year later by the lawyers for the seven civilian and military officials still the subject of arrest warrants.

One of them was arrested in Paris in October 2010.

In the courtyard of her home in Ziguinchor, Marie Helene Mendy, who was widowed in the accident and left to raise two children, said she was still awaiting "the truth".

"The state closed the case but not the families. If we don't judge this case our children will. One of my sons tells me 'Mummy, when I am big I am going to look for my dad in the sea'. He hasn't forgotten."

Pierre Coly is one of the 64 survivors: "I am glad the Joola case is still in the news in France while in Senegal they want to stifle it. If it was possible to have a similar enquiry here that would be good," he said.

The Joola was carrying people from across Senegal, including school students and artists, as well as citizens from Belgium, Cameroon, France, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Lebanon, Niger, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

The official death toll of 1,863 was 300 more than the number lost in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, but other sources put the number at 1,953 at least.

Source : Sapa/George Herald 20 March 2012

http://sawdis1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/senegal-boat-disaster-victims-want.html

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