ABC TV Q&A had its first show for 2011with a Panel comprised of David Williamson, playwright; Graham Richardson, lobbyist and Labor legend; Amanda Vanstone, Howard government minister and former Ambassador to Italy; Gerard Henderson, historian and chief executive of the Sydney Institute; and Catherine Deveny, comedian and commentator.
I submitted the following question: "UNICEF informs that 311,000 Occupied Afghanistan infants die each year. 2.6 million Afghan infants have die under US Alliance occupation, 90% avoidably and due to gross US Alliance violation of the Geneva Convention. What has Australia become?"
The question was, of course, not asked.
A conceivable , succinct answer would have been that Australia has become a holocaust-complicit, holocaust-ignoring , genocide-complicit, genocide-ignoring, politically correct racist (PC racist), war criminal, racist, rogue state, Apartheid Australia.
Detailed answer.
The ongoing, US Alliance-imposed Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide that as of December is associated with post-2001 violent and non-violent avoidable deaths totalling 4.9 million, post-invasion unde-5 infant deaths totaling 2.6 million and Afghan and Pashtun refugees totalling 5-6 million – an Afghan Holocaust and an Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Geneva Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ) which states: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”(for the Awful Truth see “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ).
The sheer criminality of US Alliance and Australian failure to supply life-sustaining requisites to Subject people is made clear in Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ):
Article 55. To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods.
The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.
Article 56. To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21.
In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory.
Of course, under international humanitarian conventions Australia has an obligation to supply such requisites to its own citizens as well as to its Subjects through invasion, conquest and forcible occupation of other countries. However it is noteworthy that no Treaty was ever signed by the invading Europeans with the conquered Indigenous Peoples of Australia.
WHO data reveal that the “annual total per capita medical expenditure” (2004) permitted by the US Coalition is $124 (in Occupied Iraq) and $29 (in Occupied Afghanistan) as compared to vastly higher amounts in various US Alliance Occupier countries: $3,122 (Australia), $3,554 (France), $3,328 (Germany), $2,623 (Italy), $3,383 (Netherlands), $2,447 (New Zealand), $2,784 (UK) and $6,714 (the US) (see WHO: http://www.who.int/en/ ; see also: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17066/42/ ). One can now understand why there is such horrendous infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan as reported by UNICEF (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ).