AdeMak

I had a brief interview on Wednesday, May 29th about Israel and Gaza on Jahan Emrooz ("Today's World"), a live late night news programme broadcast from Tehran on the Islamic Republic Of Iran News Network (IRINN). One question related to the revelation about the threats issued by ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen to Fatou Bensouda, the former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,` and the other to the paralysis caused to the United Nations system by the use of the veto to deny a UN Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire to the conflict in Gaza. Q. According to the recent report published by the Guardian, Mossad directly threatened the ICC prosecutor and her family. We can see that Israel not only doesn't stop its genocide and doesn't follow international laws but also threatens the prosecutor. You teach law in England, based on the actions that Israel has shown what do those international rules mean? Ans. Well, I think that this is an extremely sad development. It shows us two things. First is that Israel does not believe itself to be a normal nation. It deems itself to be exceptionalist and that it can act above international laws and norms, and as a result it rejects the universal moral order. And the second point would be that it also reveals the shambles of this so-called international rules-based order which the United States, Israel's benefactor and enabler, has often touted. It shows the hypocrisy that Israel can do things which are redolent of gangsterism. If you interfere with a judge, a person who is a judicial (office) holder through threats to them or harass them as Yossi Cohen did, that is a criminal offence, a very serious criminal offence which should be punished. Alas, that is the situation that we see ourselves in because this has been brewing for many years. Israel has flagrantly flouted international law and it is time for the international community to start doing something. The first thing they should start doing, obviously, is to accept the prosecutor's recommendation that Netanyahu and defence minister Gallant be prosecuted, and that notice is served and that this be rigorously pursued. Otherwise the international law will be in disrepute. Q. Another factor is the position of the UN in the world. We know that the United States has vetoed the ceasefire in this war four times. Even Joseph Borrell mentioned that the UN system was paralyzed by veto. If international organizations cannot stop the genocide, when will they be useful? Ans. Yes, I think for once Mr. Borrell is making sense. He speaks to the views, opinions and principles of people around the world. I think that it is extraordinary that the United States has continued to give licence to Israel to do whatever it pleases. Even in the past you had situations where the United States in its position with the United Nations would give Israel certain limits. Now, that has gone out of the window, and it really is imperilling the credibility of the United Nations as an institution. I think that when you have a deadlock for a serious issue like genocide you cannot have more than one veto. I think there should be a position where the next vote should be (decided) on a majority basis, in which case Israel would be to a certain extent be held to account. So I wholeheartedly agree with Borrell's view or appraisal of the situation. I would add just one other thing. If the United Nations is not shaping up in the way that it should, I think it invites us to consider those other supra-national bodies, international organisations like the EU, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, these organisations - OPEC even - that they should put in as much economic and diplomatic pressure against Israel. These are international collectives, but unfortunately this has not happened. Turkey has made some inroads, but they could do more. If the oil from Azerbaijan could be stopped - I think that it goes to Israel under the auspices of Turkey- that would put Israel under enormous pressure to the extent that it may not be able to continue with this mass genocide.

Photo and Newspaper document of the infamous abortive coup d'etat led by Lieutenant Colonel Bukar Suwa Dimka on Friday, February 13th 1976. Dimka led the ambush in which the military Head of State, General Murtala Muhammed, was assassinated while being held up in traffic. He had been making a short journey from his residence to Dodan Barracks, the seat of government in Ikoyi, Lagos. Dimka would visit the British High Commission in Lagos to request that he be put in contact with the exiled General Yakubu Gowon, who had been overthrown in July 1975 by Muhammed. The request was refused by the High Commissioner Sir Martin LeQuesne. Dimka and his cohorts took over the National Broadcasting Corporation building from where his coup speech was broadcast to the nation. Among the grievances held against the government of Murtala Muhammed was the policy of demobilising large numbers of soldiers, promotions granted to senior figures in the junta and Nigeria's perceived tilt to the political left by supporting the Soviet-backed MPLA in Angola. Dimka escaped from broadcasting house when his men were overpowered and was on the run until early March. A wave of arrests followed his interrogation and "confession" in which he implicated many officers including Major General Iliya Bisalla, the Federal Commissioner for Defence. Bisalla was among the first batch of officers and men executed on March 11th 1976. The Federal Military Government (FMG), now headed by Muhammed's successor, Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo, called on General Yakubu Gowon to return to Nigeria from British exile to face questioning. Gowon emphatically denied any prior knowledge or involvement in the coup and offered to provide written answers to questions or to answer the questions on neutral territory. Brigadier Shehu Yar'Adua, the Chief of Staff Supreme Headquarters, was particularly keen to place Gowon in front of his accuser, Dimka, and for this reason Dimka was not executed in March. However, with the prospect of Britain extraditing Gowon in the manner that it had extradited Chief Anthony Enahoro to face treason charges in the early 1960s diminishing, the Supreme Military Council took the decision to execute Lt. Colonel Dimka and six others. Executed alongside Dimka was Mr. Joseph Gomwalk, a Police Commissioner who had been a military governor. A kinsman of Gowon (most of the alleged Coup plotters including Maj. Gen. Bisalla and Dimka were from Plateau State in the Christian Middle Belt), Gomwalk had been tried and acquitted by a military tribunal but, in defiance of the "double jeopardy" principle, was retried and convicted. General Gowon was stripped of his rank and pension and placed on a fugitive list which ironically included his Civil War opponent, Lieutenant Colonel (General of the army of secessionist Biafra) Odumegwu Ojukwu. Gowon was pardoned and allowed to return to Nigeria where he has lived since completing his doctorate at Warwick University, England. (c) Adeyinka Makinde (2022). Music: "Epic" by Benjamin Tissot (via Bensound dot com). NB. "February 13th 1976: The Abortive Coup Led by Lt. Colonel Bukar Suwa Dimka". https://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/... "Friday, February 13th 1976: Remembering the Day General Murtala Muhammed was Assassinated". http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2014/02/friday-february-13th-1976.html "Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo: Implacable Foes of Southern African Aparthied and Colonialism". http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2019/09/murtala-muhammed-and-olusegun-obasanjo.html "Roll Call of Death: The Tragedy Of A Fair Number of West African Military Officers Who Graduated From Sandhurst". https://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2021/06/roll-call-of-death-tragedy-of-fair.html Karma and the Nigerian Soldier: A brief note on how tragedy befell those who themselves instigated tragedy http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2022/12/karma-and-nigerian-soldier-brief-note.html