ENB WORLD

*Hammas seized Gaza
*America arms Sunnies
*Stalemate over South Africa strike
*Mass rescue of slaves in China

Hammas seized Gaza as Abbas sacks govt
By AFP GAZA CITY, June 15, 2007 (AFP)

Hamas seized full control of the Gaza Strip early Friday after days of ferocious gunbattles, hours after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas sacked the government and declared a state of emergency. Masked Hamas fighters overran all security strongholds of Abbas's rival Fatah faction across the territory, where at least 113 people have been killed in less than a week in an explosion of bloodshed. The takeover of Gaza effectively split the Palestinians into two, with Hamas -- considered a terror outfit by the EU, Israel and the United States -- in charge of the Gaza Strip and Fatah retaining control over the West Bank. "All of the headquarters of the security services in the Gaza Strip are under control of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, including the presidency," Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, told AFP. Fatah-linked gunmen responded by urging Abbas to declare martial law and called for their fighters to mobilise in the West Bank and consider any Hamas member an "outlaw." Abbas announced Thursday the dismissal of the three-month-old government and declared a state of emergency in Gaza and the occupied West Bank over what he called a "military coup." In a decree read by his presidential secretary general, Abbas said he made the move "because of the criminal war in the Gaza Strip, the taking over of the security services of the Palestinian Authority, the military coup and the armed rebellion by outlaws." But Hamas immediately dismissed the declaration as "practically worthless" and later announced it was in control of all Fatah-linked security bases in Gaza, including Abbas's sprawling seafront presidential compound. Abbas's announcement ended a fractious power-sharing accord between his secular Fatah party and the rival Islamist Hamas, locked for months in a deadly feud that has seen more than 260 people killed since December. Abbas also appointed an emergency cabinet and will call for new elections "as soon the situation allows," presidency secretary general Tayeb Abdelrahim said. Under the Palestinian basic law, the emergency government does not require approval from the parliament which has been dominated by Hamas since January 2006, when it routed long-dominant Fatah in polls. The sacked prime minister Ismail Haniya said Hamas would not declare a "state" in Gaza and called Abbas's move to fire the cabinet hasty. "The Gaza Strip is an indivisible part of the homeland and its residents are an integral part of the Palestinian people. No to a state in the Gaza Strip only because the state is a whole that cannot be divided," Haniya said in an address televised live in the middle of the night. The international community voiced increasing alarm about the situation in Gaza, where clashes have sent many of the estimated 1.4 million residents cowering inside for days. "What is happening in Gaza is the second liberation of the Gaza Strip from the band of (Israeli) collaborators after the first liberation from the bands of settlers" in 2005, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP. In one of the fiercest clashes that left 14 dead and 70 wounded, Hamas gunmen stormed the preventive security force compound in Gaza City and hoisted the Islamist movement's green flag on the roof after an hours-long battle. Fatah fighters loyal to Abbas, some stripped to their underwear, were dragged out of the building with their hands in the air as black-clad masked Hamas gunmen stood watch. Local television stations broadcast chilling footage of Samih al-Madhun, a leader of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, being dragged through the streets with crowds shouting "dog" at him, before he was riddled with bullets. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades early Friday claimed to have killed a Hamas member in the West Bank town of Nablus in retribution for Madhun's killing. In a statement the group called for "martial law" and a complete deployment of the Fatah movement, saying its members "should consider the Hamas organisation in all areas of the West Bank as outlaws and to stop any armed movement for them whatever it costs." On Thursday, a bomb ripped also through the studio of the official Voice of Palestine radio close to Fatah, forcing it off the air, in an attack blamed on Hamas. Islamist fighters prayed on the sidewalk while on the rooftop others fired rounds into the air to celebrate their latest victory in what one Hamas leader described as "a battle between Islam and heresy." Abbas, who has warned of civil war if the Gaza "madness" continued, cancelled a planned visit to France because of the violence. The international community warned that the no-holds-barred power struggle endangered prospects of a future Palestinian state and peace with Israel. US President George W. Bush was "profoundly concerned" and called for a halt to the clashes, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Abbas to voice Washington's "full support." Britain expressed regret at the dissolution of the cabinet, saying "once again extremists carrying guns have prevented progress against the wishes of the majority who seek a peaceful two-state solution." Human Rights Watch has accused both sides of committing war crimes during the fighting, which has turned hospitals into battlegrounds, seen ambulances prevented from reaching wounded and peace demonstrators shot dead. UN chief Ban Ki-moon held preliminary talks on the idea of sending an international force to Gaza, but Hamas rejected the move, saying it would treat foreign troops as occupation forces. Israel -- which pulled its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 -- has watched with increasing alarm, but said it would not intervene. Tensions have been boiling ever since Hamas routed long-dominant Fatah in the January 2006 poll, often fanned by disagreement over who should control the security services in one of the most densely populated areas of the planet.

America arms Sunnis against al-Qa'eda
By Damien McElroy in BaghdadLast Updated: 2:18am BST 13/06/2007

American military commanders are providing arms to Sunni Muslim insurgents in Baghdad to encourage them to fight al-Qa’eda-linked groups. The Sunni insurgents have been re-named "freedom fighters'
Despite fears that militants will use temporary allegiances with American forces to re-arm and gain tactical advantages over rivals, US leaders have approved a series of deals in parts of the capital.
The policy comes as it emerged that American forces were conducting joint patrols with groups of insurgents – who have been re-designated as “freedom fighters” by the Americans – in the Amariyah district of the capital.
Impromptu alliances have emerged after community leaders vowed to expel foreign fighters loyal to al-Qa’eda in at least two districts of the capital.
While the pacts are untested, US officers claim an increase in the number of arrests of al-Qa’eda loyalists and seizures of arms caches.
Maj Gen Rick Lynch said contacts with the Sunnis offered the coalition the prospect of winning over the bulk of the fighters waging a vicious insurgency against the Baghdad government.
“What’s the long term effect of arming members of the Sunni population?” Major Gen Lynch said. “What I’ve seen over time is the Sunni population saying 'enough, we’ve had enough of these attacks’. As a result you see them wanting to arm themselves so they can protect the population mostly against al-Qa’eda. So we’ve got to reach out to them.”
Al-Qa’eda’s harsh tactics – including punishment shootings and extortion – appear to have alienated Sunni communities who had previously tolerated terrorists.
American commanders have even conceded they may be embracing men with the blood of US soldiers on their hands to see more pressure put on al-Qa’eda.
In Amariyah, troops from the 1st Cavalry Division conducted a patrols with a local group calling itself the “Baghdad Patriots” last week. The patrols appeared to yield immediate results with the arrest of five alleged al-Qa’eda members and the seizure of weapons caches.
The Washington Post reported that American military commanders had granted the gunmen powers of arrest, allowed the Iraqi army to supply them with ammunition, and fought alongside them in street battles. One senior military commander was quoted as saying that American forces “have made a deal with the devil”.
The US said it will use fingerprinting, retinal scans and other tests to establish whether insurgents had been involved in fighting against American troops.
Elsewhere, eleven people died over the weekend in clashes between insurgent groups in Am. Imams in the district gave their backing to co-operation with US forces after a series of unprovoked killings by al-Qa’eda cells determined to impose a strict Islamic code.
In an apparent effort to stop the revolt, the Islamic Army in Iraq – a leading al-Qa’eda aligned insurgent group – last week declared a ceasefire against other insurgent groups.

Stalemate over South Africa strike

Negotiators for the South African government say they will not give striking civil servants the 12 per cent pay rise they have demanded.
Hospitals and schools across the country have been disrupted since an indefinite strike began on Friday.
Miners and municipal workers are considering joining the dispute, state televsion said on Tuesday. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, public services and administration minister, said the government had tabled a revised offer on Monday but that South Africa was unable to afford the 12 per cent increase.
The government has offered a general salary increase of 6.5 per cent for this year. Determined unions "We feel that 12 per cent is a realistic demand and we hope that the government will come to the table and we can compromise somewhere," Krister Van Rensburg, executive officer of the Federation of Unions of South Africa, told Al Jazeera.
"I am sure that in the period of great economic growth that we are witnessing now... the government can dig deeper into their pockets and spend some money"
Krister Van Rensburg, executive officer of the Federation of Unions of South Africa "I am sure that in the period of great economic growth that we are witnessing now... the government can dig deeper into their pockets and spend some money."
Fraser-Moleketi said the strikers' demands would mean the public service wage bill would reach "unsustainable" heights of 20 per cent of South Africa's gross domestic product.
"The ball is in the court of the unions at this point in time and we are waiting for them to come back and engage with the offer on the table," she said ahead of her budget speech in parliament.
"We are saying let's look at the package that's on the table and let's see whether there can be shifts in that package."
Tensions have increased in the five days since the beginning of the strike, with police using stun grenades and accusations that the union was forcing workers to stay off the job.
On Tuesday, the National Union of Mineworkers said it was consulting its 280,000 members on possible strike action, SABC radio said. The South African Municipal Workers' Union is also discussing joining the stoppage, it said.

Mass rescue of 'slaves' in China

More than 200 people, including 29 children, have been rescued after working as "slaves" in brick kilns in central China, state media reports.

Tens of thousands of police moved in on the kilns in Henan province, arresting 120 people, Xinhua news agency said.

They acted after media reports claimed that children were being forced to work in kilns in neighbouring Shanxi province, Xinhua said.
Photos of distraught parents were also published.
Xinhua said that, following the reports of child labour, some 35,000 police were despatched to the 7,500 kilns in Henan.
They reportedly rescued 217 people, including 29 children.
Xinhua said the victims had been "enticed or sent by human traffickers to the kilns", where they were "beaten, starved and forced to work long hours without payment".
Henan's police governor Qin Yuhai vowed to "do everything we can to fight human trafficking and rescue those held captive".
Dirty and disorientated
There have been similar cases in a neighbouring province which received national media coverage after parents of the children launched an online campaign to find them.
On Wednesday, 400 men from Henan made an online appeal for help in their bid to rescue their children from brickworks hidden deep in the mountains of Shanxi.
They said they had "risked their lives" to rescue about 40, but believed at least 1,000 children had been kidnapped for sale to traffickers.
"We were shocked by what we saw," they were quoted by Chinese media as saying.
"Some children had been isolated from the outside world for seven years, and some were beaten and maimed because they tried to escape, and the backs of some were burnt by supervisors with burning red bricks."
Last week, 31 disorientated workers were rescued from a brickwork factory in Shaanxi.
They were reported to have been duped into working at the factory, and faced a harsh regime in which they worked unpaid for 20 hours a day with only bread and water in return.
Police said that when they raided the works they discovered foul-smelling workers, who had been wearing the same clothes for a year.
Eight were reported to be so traumatised by their experiences that they were only able to remember their names.