Ahmadinejad and Abdul Tavab al-Zin (Iran Daily)

06 October 2008

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said corrupt powers are on the decline and it is crucial that countries and nations join hands and resist the last vestiges of colonialism.

The president who was receiving Sudan’s new ambassador to Tehran, Abdul Tavab Al-Zin, stressed that the two nations shoulder heavy responsibility in terms of bilateral, regional and international ties, IRNA reported.

“Two-way cooperation should expand especially in key areas of economy and agriculture,“ he noted.

Ahmadinejad recalled that the recent move of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague regarding Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir is ugly and unfair.

“With that move the ICC discredited itself and also the value of its legal activities. It became clear that ICC is not at the service of justice and people’s rights, but a tool manipulated by hegemonic powers to exert pressure.“ The ICC recently filed charges against Bashir for allegedly waging a campaign of genocide and rape in the war-torn region of Darfur.

Ahmadinejad characterized Tehran-Khartoum bonds as deep and ideological and underlined the need to resist corrupt global powers.

He noted that both countries have been subject to extensive political and cultural onslaught.
“Since the corrupt global powers do not want (to see) even a single advanced and powerful Islamic state to exist in the world, they are preoccupied with creating impediments. Needless to say the key to thwarting plots is to expand cooperation and forge unity in our ranks,“ he said.

Al-Zin, for his part, presented a brief report on the internal conditions in his country and highlighted domains in which Iran and Sudan could further expand collaboration. He added that the African country as a matter of policy backs Iran’s principled stance toward key international issues.

Asa cum m-am obisnuit, profit de orice ocazie pentru a mai face cate o poza pe ici pe colo. Daca se mai intampla sa am bateria descarcata la telefon, sau pur si simplu sa uit telefonul acasa, aceste lucruri nu se intampla niciodata cu camera. Den Haag este spectaculos in felul sau, incepand de la contrastul arhitecturii moderne cu cea medievala, tipica dutch, pana la tinuta ''office'' a majoritatii localnicilor, care evident nu renunta nici macar in taioare sau costume la mersul pe bicileta, doar ca pana si pe acesta parca il fac intr-un mod mai stilat. Den Haag este orasul diplomatilor, politicienilor, avocatilor, consultantilor financiari etc. Daca aveti rabdare, puteti urmari cateva din cliseele postate, in speranta de a va crea o mica imagine asupra orasului si locurilor prin care am trecut Click pe photo de mai jos pentru a vedea si restul de 50 de alte poze. Pacat ca nu am prins tocmai o zi luminoasa si calda, dar si asa, mi-am petrecut 6 ore plimbandu-ma de nebuna prin tot orasul, pana m-a razbit foamea si m-am intors acasa in nebunia din Amsterdam... Apropo, povestea cu pasaportul fiindu-mi rezolvata, iar trec prin chinurile fricii de zbor

The weekend is upon us again! Sheesh! Feels like the weekend was just here! I can't believe I'm complaining about the weekend coming so soon, but here I am doing just that. Maybe the week hasn't flown by. It probably just feels like it because I had a wild night out on a Tuesday. Hahaha, Only in Amsterdam can you still find a crowded dance club on a Tuesday night.[caption id="" align="alignright" width="320" caption="me, dev, and mike at the club"][/caption] I went out with Dev, Tony, and some of his military friends who were visiting Amsterdam. We had a great time dancing and drinking until about 4 am! My actual weekend was pretty nice too. Per was here from Sweden. We had a good time just hanging out and enjoying each other's company/Amsterdam. Well, I did...hope he did too. We took a day trip to the Hague and saw the "The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991" or the ICTY. Long name, eh? I didn't know much about it or what went on there, but Per explained the history and importance of it in great detail. I feel like I learn so much about...EVERYTHING when I'm around that kid. He knows...EVERYTHING. It's kind of creepy. We also visitied the Peace Palace and walked around for hours talking. Good times. I'm visiting him in just 3 weeks. Can't wait!

So anyway. I don't remember what happened to the week of September 10–17, except that it was cold and rainy, but the past week has been a rough one at our house. Not duck soup at all. First Rusty had a case of roundworm, which is almost inevitable for puppies, but it was pretty horrifying. Like an Alien sequel. Then he came down with another gastrointestinal problem, probably unrelated—possibly from ingesting some of that duck soup when he fell into the canal, but who knows. After several days of this, Rusty is thin and wobbly, our hands are raw from constant washing, and all of us are exhausted. Two bright notes: (1) I am now certain that I really do love Rusty, and (2) Rusty thinks the chicken-and-rice diet is A-OK! He would give it two thumbs up, if he had thumbs.

I’ve said it often enough, it is on the front of every one of my 580
BLOGS, the only way to revive the corpse of this New Labour monstrosity would be to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bring our troops home and stop the slaughter of Iraqi and Afghan civilians. Yet Brown and all of his squabbling cabinet have responsibility for these wars, have financed them and refuse to see that Bush, Blair and Brown are the terrorists and if the wars were ended terrorism would virtually cease overnight.

Now Brown has made his speech to the Labour Party Conference and said nothing about the war in Iraq. Millions of words, cascades of promises to listen and learn, but not a single word on Iraq. And Labour MPs and media barons such as Paxman and Jon Snow seem joined in a conspiracy to deceive, each of them interviewing Brown and neither raising the issue of Iraq.

The conspiracy to avoid even the broadest of issues of Foreign Policy in the run up to this Labour Party Conference began for me on Thursday when David Dimblebury’s ‘Any Questions’ returned to the BBC and neither he, nor the speakers, nor the audience uttered a word on Iraq. Then today old has been’s like Mandelsohn, Blunkett, Prescott and others have been interviewed yet not a word has been said about the war. This is a complete denial of civil rights for the majority of the population who are opposed to the war and makes Britain a dictatorship, as bad as that of Mugabe and other dictatorships we claim to deplore. This cannot continue and when Brown is inevitably brought before the Court of Human Rights at The Hague for Crimes against Humanity all those who have been a party to these crimes will find themselves like the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials after World War II called to account.

STOP THE WAR COALITION.

Fortunately not all MPs and journalists and activists are ninnies who gave Brown a standing ovation today. The Stop the War Newsletter No. 1058 of 23 September 2008 reports on the anti-War demonstration at the Labour Party Conference. Thousands of activists marched through Manchester and delivered a letter to Brown demanding the withdrawal of all British troops from the catastrophic and unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The parallel Convention that will meet while the phoney New Labour set up sits and supports the carnage which these war criminals create. Activities are being planned for the autumn which assumes that Brown is not stopped by a Citizen’s Arrest, which it now seems that George Galloway and Ken Purchase will sit idly by and twiddle their thumbs. It looks therefore as if other anti-war MPs such as Jon Cruddas, Dianne Abbott and other MPs of the Socialist Campaign group will have to act to bring the wars to an end NOW.

Another event supported by Stop the War will be an international
anti-Nato demonstration in Strasbourg next April (for which funds are needed and also recruits) as well as anti-war campaigns at army bases.

Karadzic's broken Bosnia remains

In the old days we would trot along to see Radovan Karadzic often. He would see us at the drop of a hat.

He was affable, jocular, hugely confident that what he was doing was right.

From time to time he would roll out his maps. There were lines separating the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) in Bosnia from the rest.

There was a line through the heart of Sarajevo - these quarters for the Muslims, those for the Serbs.

The term "ethnic cleansing" was not invented by the foreign journalists he courted so warmly. It was how his own followers described what they were doing.

Radovan Karadzic would freely outline his plans to journalists

Republika Srpska is the land that Radovan built. Ethnic cleansing was the means by which he achieved it.Go back there today and you see, starkly, that while the ideologues and architects of the policy are, for the most part, behind bars, the foot soldiers of ethnic cleaning are still at large.

They are still, in many cases, at their desks in the town halls and police stations across Bosnia.

Mirsad Tokaca runs Bosnia's Research and Documentation Center.

It collates evidence of crimes committed during the 45-month war.

He believes there are between 3,000 and 5,000 war criminals who should face prosecution.

The Hague tribunal has restricted itself to a few dozen "big fish" and has said it will issue no more indictments.

Bosnia's own state-wide war crimes court came into existence three years ago and has so far brought prosecutions against about a hundred people.

The local courts are supposed to prosecute local war criminals. They do not.

Where it started

Bijeljina, in north-eastern Bosnia, is where it all started.

Ten times they took me outside and told me they were going to kill me - it was a terrible experience Jusuf Trbic Bosnian Muslim survivor

On 31 March 1992, a paramilitary unit led by the feared Zeljko Raznatovic - known as Arkan - crossed the river from Serbia and unleashed a reign of terror.

Civilians were shot dead in the street. Prominent Muslims were rounded up, and some of them murdered.

The Muslim (Bosniak) population - tens of thousands of people - was driven out.

Saalem Corbo is one of the returnees. He remembers how Arkan's men rampaged through the town. And, he says, they had local help.

Mirko Blagojevic, a Bijeljina Serb and head of the Serbian Radical Party in the town, formed and led his own paramilitary unit, according to evidence presented to the Hague tribunal.

"He knew where the prominent Muslims in the town lived," says Mr Corbo.

"He led Arkan's troops to their houses so that they could be rounded up. Few of them survived."

Survivor

Jusuf Trbic is one who did survive.

"Mirko Blagojevic came to my father-in-law's house at 1600 on 1 April," he told me.

"He was with Arkan's men. They took me to Arkan's headquarters and told me I had to make an announcement on local radio instructing all the Muslims to surrender their weapons.

"But I didn't know anything about weapons. They held me all night and beat me.

"Ten times they took me outside and told me they were going to kill me. It was a terrible experience."

We live with the former war criminals, we see them every day in the streets Branko Todorovic Helsinki Committee for Human Rights

Mirko Blagojevic is not a convicted war criminal. No case has ever been brought against him, far less proven.

He is not hard to find. He has enjoyed a long career as an elected politician in the years since the war ended.

He emphatically denied co-operating with Arkan's men. He denied all the allegations made by Mr Corbo and Mr Trbic.

Branko Todorovic runs the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bijeljina.

He said only two war crimes trials had been brought by local prosecutors since the war ended - and both of these were against Muslims who had co-operated with Serb guards in a concentration camp.

Arkan salutes troops in Bijeljina, where he unleashed terror in 1992

The Bijeljina courts, by the way, have jurisdiction over the Srebrenica area, where 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered in a few days in July 1995.

"We live with the former war criminals, we see them every day in the streets," says Mr Todorovic.

Why does it matter?

The ethnic partition of Bosnia endures. The Dayton agreement of 1995 ended the war. But it divided Bosnia into two, ethnically defined entities - Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

The leaders of Republika Srpska long ago abandoned their original dream of union with Serbia.

They have accepted some of the symbols of Bosnian statehood - a common currency, a shared passport, a flag.

Mr Karadzic's hearings at The Hague have been broadcast on TV

The one truly successful example of reintegration is - ironically - in the army, where former Muslim, Serb and Croat enemies now serve alongside each other.Beyond that, there is little that is truly Bosnian.

The entities, not the Bosnian state, have real executive power.

The Bosnian state barely functions. It is incapable of carrying out the reforms that Bosnia desperately needs.

And so as Croatia and Serbia continue their respective journeys to the European mainstream - to EU and possibly Nato membership - Bosnia, still broken, still paralysed, is being left behind, and is in danger of sinking further into corruption, poverty and organised crime.

Look at Republika Srpska today and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Radovan Karadzic got much of what he set out to get.

Karadzic faces fresh indictment

Mr Karadzic has said the court is biased against him

UN war crimes prosecutors at The Hague are due to file a revised indictment against Bosnian Serb ex-leader Radovan Karadzic by Monday.

The announcement was made during a hearing which ended without setting a date for Mr Karadzic's trial. A new hearing could be held within a month.

Mr Karadzic faces 11 counts relating to the Bosnian civil war in the 1990s.

A not-guilty plea to all charges was entered on his behalf after he refused to enter any plea himself.

Mr Karadzic was arrested in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, in July after 13 years on the run and living under a false name.

The charges against Mr Karadzic include what is regarded as Europe's worst massacre since World War II - the killing of up to 8,000 men and youths in the enclave of Srebrenica.

Addressing the tribunal, prosecutor Alan Tieger said the revised indictment would be filed by Monday, without giving details.

'Intimidation'

At the hearing on Thursday, Judge Iain Bonomy said a new pre-trial "status conference" - or hearing to set a trial date - would be held within a month.

THE EXISTING INDICTMENT Eleven counts of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities Charged over shelling Sarajevo during the city's siege, in which some 12,000 civilians died Allegedly organized the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosniak men and youths in Srebrenica Targeted Bosniak and Croat political leaders, intellectuals and professionals Unlawfully deported and transferred civilians because of national or religious identity Destroyed homes, businesses and sacred sites

Mr Karadzic confirmed that he planned to conduct his own defense, which he said he was doing on behalf of Serbs who had suffered in the former Yugoslavia, and for the leaders of small states who could also find themselves in court in future.

He also said again that he doubted he could get a fair trial, and complained of intimidation by court officials.

He asked for permission to put together a legal team to help him, saying at least one of them should be present in court at all times.

"I'm not prepared to be passive and to have other people decide on matters that concern me," he said.

'Nato court'

Mr Karadzic also repeated his argument that the trial was illegal because, he said, the terms of a deal made with former US peace envoy Richard Holbrooke had offered him immunity from prosecution.

The remains of those killed at Srebrenica continue to be found

The claims have been ridiculed by Mr Holbrooke.

At the 29 August hearing, Judge Bonomy entered the plea of not guilty in accordance with tribunal rules.

The current indictment includes genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The alleged crimes include Mr Karadzic's involvement in an attempt to destroy in whole or in part the Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) and Bosnian Croat ethnic groups.

That included the killings at Srebrenica and the shelling of Sarajevo, killing and terrorizing the city's civilians.

The indictment says Mr Karadzic knew about the crimes that were being committed by Bosnian Serb forces, but failed to take action to prevent them.

Managing director, driver.

In a speech to the Dutch parliament at the 13th Century "Hall of Knights" in The Hague, Queen Beatrix outlined the government's budget.

"Thanks to the efforts of the previous years, the Dutch economy is in relatively good shape," said the queen, reading a speech written by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

"Unemployment is low, and since the year 2000, the purchasing power per household has increased by 12 percent," she said. "Our pension system and other social services are solid."

Dutch unemployment is at 4 percent.

In addition, there may be a surplus of 1.2 percent in the Dutch gross domestic product next year. This will be from windfalls from the country's natural gas reserves.

But the budget is to continue a decade-long trend of cutting welfare state entitlements and readying for the effects of an aging population.

Among other measures, citizens aged 18-27 will no longer be eligible for unemployment compensation, and will be obliged to either work or study.

Meanwhile, workers aged 62-65 will be given a bonus for each year they keep working.

In a confident review of the country's finances, Finance Minister Wouter Bos said debt is expected to fall below 40 percent of GDP in 2009 and will be near 36 percent by 2011 -- the lowest level since records began in 1814.

"It's a very relaxed budget against a very turbulent background," he said.

Economic growth is expected to slow from 3.5 percent in 2007 and 2.5 percent in 2008 to 1.25 percent in 2009.

Holland's Budget Day was treated as a day of celebration, full of pomp and circumstance. The Queen rode in a gilded carriage drawn by eight horses through the streets of the Hague. Hundreds of royalists cheered and waved.

Later, the Queen and the rest of the royal family stood on the balcony at the Palace Noordeinde, waving to the numerous royal fans.

]]> http://gonexc.wordpress.com/?p=267 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:53:06 +0000 gonexc http://gonexc.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/a-small-step/ Unlike Neil Armstrong's words there is no giant leap in the offing. Indeed, the BBC correspondent got it right; no-one is dancing in the streets. I am referring of course to the power sharing deal signed yesterday between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangarai. Both the EU and USA have said that they will not do anything until they see concrete signs of change. And change there had better be; the WFP estimates that 5 million people (half the population) will need food aid by January next year. That is quite and achievement for a country that only 10 years ago was a net food exporter.

A lot of really odious laws have to go too. The Public Order and Security Act (POSA) that effectively allows the government to prosecute anyone for anything including criticism of the president or the police has to be one of the first. I am curious to see what is going to become of the state controlled media that will hopefully have to become self-funding and a little less fawning. The ruling party (ZANU-PF) has relied on state funding for most of its tenure - will that be withdrawn? I hope so. Will the culprits of political violence meet their true justice? I doubt it, certainly not the fat cats who really should. No, this is definitely not first prize, it is a pragmatic solution. I would really like to see Robert and his cronies in The Hague with the good company of various eastern European criminals but that is unlikely. The best I can hope for is that he suffers a massive, debilitating stroke that leaves him irrelevant and wallowing in his own excrement and bitterness. I did not watch or listen to the signing ceremony yesterday but one who did hear him droning on about colonialism and the "War of Liberation" (that ended 28 years ago) said that he looked like a distinctly spent force. There is hope yet.

Realism and International Organizations

The quick and easy answer is that I'm not sure. I have always been a firm believer that international organizations only exist because strong States allow them to, as they are essentially tools for these States to exert influence and more or less control the smaller ones. Granted, according to the little pamphlet that I received the OPCW has overseen 40.46% of the world's declared stockpile of 71,314 metric tonnes of chemical agents, and 35.39% of the 8.67 million chemical munitions and containers defined by the CWC as being lethal, have also been destroyed. (I say declared, as the treaty's process of eliminating such weapons, is that of States first declaring or identifying them). Though the United States and the Soviet Union both declared that they possessed 30,000 and 44,000 tonnes of chemical weapons respectively, I would assume that they actually possess more than that, and would be curious to see what percentage they hold at their disposal in relation to the declared and undeclared weaponry.

Slow and Steady

Furthermore, this has been a long time in the making. If one had to pick a date, one could point to the year 1675, in which France and Germany agreed in prohibiting the use of poison bullets. Additionally, out of fear of not being able to keep up with the West in developing his weaponry, Tsar Nicolas II used his niece, Queen Wilhelmina of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to host a conference in The Hague in 1899, which ultimately produced an agreement to restrict the use of projectiles that were filled with poison gas. After the horrifying use of chemical weapons during World War I (so horrifying in fact that hardly any was used on the battlefields in World War II), which caused 1.3 million casualties and 90,000 deaths, a Protocol emerged in 1925 for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Despite these measures, chemical weapons were still used in the Iran-Iraq War, as well as by the United States in Vietnam, in which some still have not detonated. In short, progress has been very slow, and ground was eventually made with the end of the Cold War.

Despite these misgivings, the powers given to the Organization itself could be a reason for its success. It's allowed to conduct on-site inspections, which allows greater transparency as well as gives it a greater autonomy over its members. Moreover it was interesting to see how such agreements can be effective, despite having measures that, more or less, allow its members to keep their sovereignty. (Like all treaties, they can leave at any time, and not individuals, but rather member states of the treaty are responsible for blowing the whistle on each other)

Additionally it proves that when States are willing to work together toward an important issue, such as the complete banning and disarmament of chemical weapons, conventions and measures can be effective when taken on the level of an Inter-Governmental Organization, such as the UN. But probably the most important of all, despite the length and the waiting for a ripe political environment, the OPCW could become a model for future efforts in different fields of weaponary, such as the Organisation for the Prohibition of Biological Weapons (OPBW), which is still a work in progress. Finally, if success could be furthered to other areas, perhaps one could be created for nuclear weapons as well?

Iran raps Israel 'kidnap threat'

Mr Eitan suggested Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be brought to trial

Iran has protested to the UN after an Israeli minister suggested his country could kidnap Iran's president over threats he has made against Israel.

Iran's UN ambassador called the remark "outrageous and vicious" and called on the UN Security Council to take action.

Israeli minister Rafi Eitan suggested President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could be kidnapped and brought to trial.

Mr Eitan, an ex-intelligence chief, was involved in the kidnap of leading Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960.

In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Mr Eitan suggested that such an operation could be staged to bring Mr Ahmadinejad before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The Iranian leader has made a number of threats against Israel, repeatedly predicting the state will soon disappear.

Mr Ahmadinejad also drew international rebuke by quoting the view of the late Iranian spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomenei, that Israel was a tumour that needed to be erased from history.

'Resolute response'

In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the ambassador Mohammad Khazee said Mr Eitan's remarks reflected Israel's "aggressive and terrorist nature", Iran's Irna news agency reported.

"These dangerous threats of resorting to criminal acts against the officials of a sovereign country, or threatening to use force against a member of the United Nations not only constitute manifest violations of international law and contravene the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, but are against the basic values of the civilised world," he said.

Mr Khazee said such remarks demanded "a resolute and clear response" by the UN and its security council.

Iran, he said, had never threatened any other nation but "would not hesitate to act in self-defence to respond to any attack against its territory or its people".

Israel has expressed increasing concern about what it considers to be a threat from Iran's nuclear programme and recently suggested it might resort to military force to stop it.

Iran has insisted its nuclear ambitions are solely peaceful.

Sarkozy leads EU trio to Moscow

President Sarkozy (L) brokered a ceasefire between Russia and Georgia

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is due to arrive in Moscow for talks with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the crisis in Georgia.

He is joined by the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and the European Commission head, Jose Manuel Barroso.

Mr Sarkozy is expected to press Russia to fully implement a peace plan he brokered to end the fighting.

Meanwhile, Georgia has gone to the UN's highest court over what it claims are Russian human rights abuses.

Judges at the International Court of Justice in the Hague are being asked to impose emergency measures to halt what Georgia says is a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Russia in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russian forces remain in South Ossetia and large parts of Georgian territory after it responded heavily to Georgian attempts last month to recapture the separatist region.

Difficult goals

After talks in Moscow, the three senior European figures are due to go on to the Georgian capital, Tblisi, to meet President Mikhail Saakashvili.

Russia says it is honoring the terms of a six-point plan agreed to end the conflict.

However, European nations do not agree.

PEACE PLAN No more use of force Stop all military actions for good Free access to humanitarian aid Georgian troops return to their places of permanent deployment Russian troops to return to pre-conflict positions but Russian peacekeepers may take unspecified "additional security measures" International talks about security in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

President Sarkozy wants Russian troops to pull back from their current positions in Georgia - well beyond the boundaries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The European trio is also expected to press the Russians on arrangements for a strengthened international effort to monitor developments on the ground.

Some European leaders have already warned that there can be "no business as usual" with Russia until the peace plan is fully implemented, and the European Union has suspended talks on a new partnership agreement with Moscow.

However, with winter approaching, individual European countries continue to consume Russian oil and gas as usual.

Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, and its continuing failure to implement the agreement to the letter, will have profound consequences for Russian relations with the EU.

It will also make it difficult for President Sarkozy to achieve his goals in Moscow, he says.

What next?
A somewhat themed photograph of a moving person on a train station. While I try to convince myself I should give my current camera more time I am thinking about a different type of camera right now. Of course there are very good reasons to keep a small compact camera. But lately, I tried the DP1 for instance and I loved the gorgeously sublte color transitions. I only have some grips with that camera that holds me back (, and even more with the software).

The main reasons for me to look for another camera now are better high ISO performance for low light photography. Larger dynamic range, and (as said above) capturing better color transitions. Low noise and clean images are absolutely no reason for me. I like a simple camera and no zoom lens. I don't need image stabilization, and other modern day features. Well it needs a good LCD screen, but not to review the photographs (will talk about that later). I would love to see an optical view finder in the camera too. I love landscape photography (nature and urban), but I felt in love with street photography. So I want a quiet camera, hardly noticed by others with prime lenses.

Soon Photokina will begin (September 23) and next week some manufacturers will introduce new cameras (Panasonic, and Leica at least). I have nothing particular in my mind yet, but since I will go to Photokina I will look closely at the stands of Olympus and Panasonic (micro Four Third system), Sigma (DP2/3?), Leica (digital CM?). But maybe there will be other suprises too.

Digital photography
There is something about digital photography that worries me. Cameras are replaced so quickly that we forget it is all about photography. All the focus is on gear and not on discussing photographic topics. I get the impression for instance that there are more gear oriented forums on the internet, than photographs related forums. And many seem to be better at writing about cameras (or speculating) too. It is just funny how many photography related forum members discus photography and never posted any photographs on those forums.

But there are more things about digital photography that influence the way we photograph. Since cost isn't an issue anymore to take more photographs, we all take more photographs (and more junk too). As a result, the rise and fall of photographers will be faster too.

With film you only know how good your photographs are when they are processed. In digital photography many (or most) depend on the LCD screen on the back of the camera to preview their just taken photographs, or to constantly check the settings. No nervous feelings anymore of failures or sucessess, no (or little) exposure mistakes. Therefore I set the preview in my camera off. I like to be in a mood to photograph, and wait until I get home to view my photographs.

That is an important reason for me to want a camera with an optical viewfinder. It should all be about making photographs, even now when I am shooting with digital cameras. That is also the reason I try to minimize the post processing too.

Tomislav Nikolic went too far for party hardliners

The head of the main opposition party in Serbia has resigned after senior colleagues refused to back the country's efforts to join the EU.

Tomislav Nikolic had recently persuaded his Serbian Radical Party to approve the ratification of an important agreement with the European Union.

But there was a party revolt over the issue, with critics saying it meant abandoning Serbia's claim to Kosovo.

Kosovo unilaterally declared itself independent from Serbia this year.

Mr Nikolic had steered his party towards the centre of Serbian politics, focusing on social issues such as unemployment and poverty, rather than the militant nationalism of the past.

Mr Nikolic is officially the deputy president of the party as its leader, Vojislav Seselj is facing charges at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

His endorsement of the Stability and Association Agreement, signed earlier this year but still awaiting ratification by the Serbian Parliament, was a bridge too far for many of his party colleagues, our correspondent says.

A meeting of the party leadership on Friday night reversed the decision to endorse the agreement with Brussels.

Mr Nikolic resigned in protest, both from his position as de facto leader of the party, and as the head of its group in parliament.

The parliamentary vote on the agreement with the European Union is expected next week.

As besotted people do, we were chatting away, dreaming about our future and our wish to travel the world and live overseas. Little did I know that not too far away in the future would we be moving to The Netherlands!

Kaushik was given the opportunity to move to The Hague in The Netherlands through his job as a computer programmer and I am simply coming along for the ride in hopes of keeping up my freelance design work and delving in to my old passion of drawing, painting and sewing.

I plan on updating this blog with my adventures and thoughts of living overseas, not to mention the endless photos I will be taking! My next post won't be for another week or so until we have arrived and are settled in.

Until then, gauw tot ziens (see you soon) to my lovely friends and hallo (hello!) to the new ones I intend on making.

Myself and Kaushik, already fitting in and we haven't even

moved yet

The medal winners gathered at the Queen's Huis ten Bosch Palace just outside of The Hague.

"It was a very special occasion" one of the golden hockey players said. "It is not every day you visit the queen."

The Olympians were taken by ope  bus from the Palace through the streets of The Hague, where a crowd of 25,000 people cheered them on, to the Knight's Hal , for a reception by the Prime Minister.

Holland picked up 16 Olympic medals in Beijing - 7 of them gold.

Uncovering truth about Georgia conflict

Courtesy BBC NEWS

As accusations of indiscriminate violence, murder and genocide are hurled between Russia and Georgia over the South Ossetia conflict, human rights investigators are painstakingly trying to establish the facts on the ground.

Residential buildings were hit during the conflict

Researchers suggest both sides may have violated the codes of war - using violence that was either disproportionate or indiscriminate, or both - claims that the International Criminal Court is currently investigating.

Russian prosecutors have announced they are opening criminal cases into the deaths of 133 civilians who they say were killed by Georgian forces.

Initially, however, Russia suggested more than 1,500 people had died in the conflict.

Last week, Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice, based at The Hague, alleging the country had attempted to ethnically cleanse Georgians from the breakaway regions.

Uncovering the facts - even of very recent history - becomes a battle in itself when people are displaced and desperate.

"Gathering comprehensive data about the dead from civilians is a time-consuming task," Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch's deputy director for Europe and Central Asia, told BBC News.

"We have to cross-check data and check that people are not misidentified or miscounted."

Shifting status

Neighbors who take up arms during a conflict, for example, shift status, becoming combatants rather than civilians, which can confuse calculations of civilian death tolls.

Russian forces have been accused of using cluster bombs

"We have to make sure there is no double-counting - if a body is moved, we have to be careful not to count it twice - maybe it is counted once in the village itself and then it could be counted again in the city morgue," Ms Denber said.

"To get really accurate figures you would really have to go to every single village."

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) - which has just gained access to South Ossetia - says it hopes to uncover the truth by remaining neutral and only revealing what its told - by survivors, eyewitnesses and relatives - to relevant authorities.

"The work of the ICRC is totally confidential," spokeswoman Jessica Barry explained from the Georgian capital, Tblisi.

"We do take allegations of arrests, of people missing or reported dead. We can also offer our services to the authorities for the transfer of mortal remains.

"All the work we do is gathering confidential information which we share with the authorities with the aim of finding out the location of loved ones for the civilian population."

War of words

The ferocity of the conflict on the ground was echoed in the way both Russian and Georgian officials conducted a media war, making ever graver accusations against each other, competing for television airtime and giving spiralling civilian death tolls.

The war has been played out both in the media and on the ground

All of which muddies the waters when trying to establish if human rights and international laws have been violated.

"There has been a lot of controversy about the Russian figures," says HRW's Rachel Denber.

"When that figure came out - of 1,500 dead - it wasn't very helpful, it didn't provide any sourcing or methodology, there were no details about how the figure was calculated. We certainly can't confirm it."

"The problem here is that when Russia puts out a figure like that it does two things - it distracts attention from where there are violations and from the real scale of what is happening."

The organization puts the civilian death toll in the dozens, rather than the hundreds.

Responsibility to protect

As well as multiple rocket launchers mounted on four-wheel drives, known as Grads, campaigners say cluster munitions - which can contain hundreds of smaller bomblets - were used during the conflict. Both these weapons are intrinsically indiscriminate, they say.

Disproportionate attacks are prohibited [...] if there is likely to be civilian damage excessive in relation to the expected military gain, you don't fire Rachel Denber, Human Rights Watch

"If you have a military objective then the Grad rocket is not a targeted weapon, civilians are going to get hit and that is exactly what happened, and happened on a significant scale. The proximity was such that it was indiscriminate," Ms Denber said.

She cited a reported case in which Russian forces dropped bombs on a convoy of passenger cars fleeing Georgia's Gori district, and another in which Georgian soldiers pursued armed South Ossetian militias using tanks, driving and firing through a residential neighborhood.

"The rule is that disproportionate attacks are prohibited. In other words, if you have your eye on a military target, and there is likely to be civilian damage excessive in relation to the expected military gain, you don't fire," Ms Denber said.

Although the fighting has now stopped, violations continue, she says, with Russian forces failing to protect civilians in areas of Georgia and South Ossetia that they control - a key part of the international law governing behavior during war.

"We have numerous stories of Ossetian forces roving around ethnic Georgian villages - running around, looting homes, torching them," she said.

"We are looking into other accounts of violence, of people being robbed at gunpoint. These are areas that Russian forces have control over - it is their responsibility to protect them."

On November 20th 2008, Stef will do his Bob Dylan Tribute at the Crossing Border Festival, The Hague, Holland. According to haagspoppodium.nl Stef will also do a french programme together with Frédéric Beigbeder.