Translation

.يولد جميع الناس أحرارا متساوين في الكرامة والحقوق. وقد وهبوا عقلا وضميرا وعليهم أن يعامل بعضهم بعضا بروح الإخاء‎
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Saturday, August 14, 2010

Congo: LRA Conducts Massive Abduction Campaign

New Regional Strategy Needed to Protect Civilians and Rescue Children
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This ten-year-old boy was abducted by the LRA in Bamudanga, northern Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 27, 2010. Some weeks later he managed to escape.
 
 

The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight. The evidence points to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the author of this atrocious campaign.
Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher
(Washington, DC) - The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 697 adults and children in a largely unreported campaign in the Central African Republic and the neighboring Bas Uele district of northern Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 18 months, Human Rights Watch said today. Nearly one-third of those abducted have been children, many of whom are being forced to serve as soldiers or are being used for sex by the group's fighters.
During the abduction campaign, the LRA has brutally killed adults and children who tried to escape, walked too slowly, or were unable to bear the heavy loads they were forced to carry, Human Rights Watch found in its investigations in the region. The LRA has killed at least 255 adults and children, often by crushing their skulls with clubs. In dozens of cases, the LRA forced captive children to kill other children and adults.

"The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The evidence points to Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the author of this atrocious campaign."
Human Rights Watch called on the affected governments and their allies to strengthen their protection of civilians and to put greater emphasis on efforts to rescue the abducted children and others.

A month-long Human Rights Watch research mission to the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Bas Uele district of northern Congo from July 12 to August 11, 2010, in which over 520 civilians were interviewed, including 90 former abductees, in individual and focus group interviews, found that the LRA's abduction campaign was similar in both countries and is having a devastating impact on affected communities.

In southeastern CAR, the LRA began large-scale abductions on July 21, 2009, and to date has abducted 304 people, including many children. The LRA first attacked the villages surrounding Obo, before moving west toward Rafai, Guérékindo, Gouyanga, Kitessa and Mboki, along the Congolese border, and north toward Djema, Baroua, and Derbissaka. Most recently, on June 12 and 13, 2010, the LRA abducted 16 people in farms surrounding the town of Rafai, including a mother and her 2-year-old daughter, both of whom the rebels later killed.

A similar LRA abduction campaign is under way in the remote Bas Uele district of Congo. On March 15, 2009, the LRA attacked the town of Banda, abducting some 80 people. In the months that followed, the LRA progressed westward, conducting raids on the towns and villages of Dakwa, Bayule, Disolo, Esse, and further north in Digba, Sukadi, and Gwane, among others.

On May 27, 2010, the LRA attacked numerous villages near Ango, the territorial capital, abducting 23 people, including 16 children. Some abductees who later escaped told Human Rigths Watch that the LRA questioned them about the location of schools in Ango, indicating the rebels may have been seeking specifically to abduct children. The LRA advance was halted when they encountered Congolese soldiers less than 15 kilometers from Ango, forcing them to change direction.

During the LRA's campaign in Bas Uele between March 2009 and June 2010, the rebels abducted at least 375 people, at least 127 of them children, most ages 10 to 15. More recent information indicates that there have been more LRA attacks.
There has been very little reporting of the LRA's numerous abuses in the region because it is so remote and communications are so poor. Few humanitarian agencies are working there, and there is only a small United Nations presence.
Tens of thousands of people have fled the area. In southeastern CAR an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people have sought refuge in the main towns, leaving entire villages abandoned. In the last few months, the government has deployed about 200 troops to the area to help protect civilians, too few to provide adequate protection. The Ugandan army has made some troops available to help protect civilians in the area.

Civilian protection concerns in Bas Uele district are even greater. An estimated 54,000 civilians have been displaced in the district or have sought refuge across the border in CAR. The Congolese army has deployed an army battalion to the area, but it is ill-equipped and has little or no transportation and communications equipment.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, MONUSCO, with 19,000 peacekeepers across the country, has only 1,000 in the LRA-affected areas of northeastern Congo - far too few for the scale and geographical breadth of the problem. No peacekeepers are based in Bas Uele district. In the past two months, the MONUSCO base in Dingila, Bas Uele district, was closed and new MONUSCO bases expected to open in Dakwa and Digba have not yet been established.

"The protection of civilians under LRA attack across central Africa is woefully inadequate, with some communities receiving no protection or humanitarian aid at all," Van Woudenberg said. "National governments, the Ugandan army, and the UN need to take urgent steps to protect people from these LRA attacks."

A Vicious Abduction CampaignHuman Rights Watch's field investigations have found that LRA combatants often attack villages early in the morning or late in the day, when residents are likely to be home. The LRA fighters grab their victims and tie them to one another at the waist in long human chains. The abductions are usually followed by extensive looting of food, clothing, salt, and other items, which are loaded in heavy bundles onto the captives' heads, backs, and shoulders before they are marched off into the forest.

A 40-year-old woman from Guerekindo in southeastern CAR told Human Rights Watch how on March 29, 2010, she watched in horror as the LRA tied up her husband and five young children in a human chain, loaded them with the household's goods, and dragged them out of their home. She was left on her own with twin infants and has had no news of her missing family members.

According to former abductees, once away from a main road, the LRA force their captives to work for hours or days shelling peanuts, a staple crop in the area, or pounding rice or manioc to prepare for cooking. Those who work too slowly are beaten. The LRA rebels prohibit captives from speaking to one another and from eating, drinking water, or going to the toilet without permission.

Once the work is completed, some adults may be released, though they are usually viciously beaten or otherwise humiliated first. In Digba, Bas Uele, on September 27, 2009, the LRA whipped each of the 12 Congolese adult abductees with branches, then with a machete after they had worked all night shelling peanuts, before releasing them. A 41-year-old teacher in the group was punished more severely because he spoke English.

In another case, following large-scale abductions in Banda, the LRA forced their Congolese captives to dance for their freedom, releasing some adults only after they had danced for several hours. A woman who was released told Human Rights Watch: "I still remember the horrors of that night and being forced to look happy while I danced for my life. I am terrified that the LRA will come back."

Adults who are not released may be kept as porters, forced to march at a rapid pace to the LRA's next location, heavily loaded with pillaged goods. Those who cannot keep up are killed. On May 6, the LRA killed a 42-year-old Central African man named Bungu near Meskine, in CAR, who was loaded down with basins of peanuts and bags of rice. When he fell in a swamp area and was unable to get up, an LRA combatant beat him on the head with a heavy wooden club, crushing his skull.

Adults who make it to an LRA camp are often killed instead of released. One 12-year-old Congolese girl told Human Rights Watch that she was forced to participate in killing dozens of adults who had reached an LRA camp to prevent them from revealing its location to government soldiers or the Ugandan army.

"The LRA tied the hands of the victims behind their back, a cord around their legs, and placed the victims face down on the ground," she said. "Then the LRA would give us children a heavy wooden stick and force us to beat them on the head till they died."

Brutalization of Children
Human Rights Watch found that abducted children are usually separated from the adults and kept close to the LRA commanders. They are rarely released. They quickly learn to obey the LRA's rules and to speak Acholi, the commanders' language, and are exposed to immense brutality to integrate them into the group. The LRA forces many children, as part of their indoctrination, to kill other children who try to escape or fail to obey the rules.

Of the 45 children interviewed by Human Rights Watch, most of those who had been with the LRA a month or more had been forced to kill other children. Human Rights Watch received information of at least 42 children killed by other child abductees in 2009 and 2010, though the figure is probably much higher.

Military training begins within months of captivity. Many children as young as 10 or 11, abducted in Congo, CAR, and Southern Sudan in 2008 and 2009, are now armed with guns and participate in LRA attacks. LRA combatants use mind control methods to get children to forget their lives back home and to view other human beings as animals. Witnesses to LRA attacks and those who were abducted told Human Rights Watch that the young LRA combatants are usually the most vicious and are ordered to carry out the beatings and killings.

The LRA assigns abducted girls to commanders for sex or as servants. Refusing sexual relations often results in death. A 17-year old Congolese girl, Osanna, abducted in Banda in March 2009, protested when a commander tried to rape her. The LRA tied her up and forced other children abducted from Banda to kill her by taking turns hitting her on the head with a heavy wooden stick. Her 12-year-old sister was forced to participate.

Children who escape are deeply traumatized by what they have experienced. One 15-year-old boy who had spent eight months with the LRA before he escaped told Human Rights Watch: "I am no longer the same. I often think about how many people I killed and then I can't sleep. I will never forget what they made me do."

Ordered From LRA's Central Command
The available information strongly indicates that the LRA's central command has been ordering these abductions, which have been conducted in a manner consistent with the LRA's well-established practices. Abductees who spent months with the LRA before managing to escape said the abduction campaign was carried out on orders from Kony that LRA commanders should replenish their ranks.

At least four former abductees who spent months or years with the LRA and had learned to speak Acholi told Human Rights Watch that there was a clear order from Kony to his commanders to abduct children. Some indicated that the abduction campaign was to enable the LRA to return to Uganda. Human Rights Watch has also seen transcripts of two oral messages from Kony in May in CAR, indicating that he continues to communicate with a number of his commanders.

Human Rights Watch research found that the campaign in CAR is led by Gen. Okot Odhiambo, the LRA's second in command, and by LRA groups acting under the direct command of Kony. In Bas Uele, the campaign is led by Lt. Col. Kidega, a senior LRA commander who has a number of smaller LRA groups under his command. Human Rights Watch also received reports of abductions and killings by Gen. Caesar Acelam in the areas around Yalinga and Bria in the Haut-Kotto prefecture of CAR.

Three of the LRA's leaders, including Kony and Odhiambo, are sought by the International Criminal Court under arrest warrants issued in July 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda. All three remain at large and continue to commit atrocities.

Long History of LRA AtrocitiesThe recent LRA abductions and killings are part of the rebel force's longstanding practice of atrocities and abuse. Pushed out of northern Uganda by the Ugandan military in 2005, the LRA now operates in the remote border area between southern Sudan, Congo, and CAR.

In December 2008, the governments of the region, led by the Ugandan armed forces and with intelligence and logistical support from the United States, opened a military campaign against the LRA in northeastern Congo, known as Operation Lightning Thunder. The military campaign failed to end the violence or to apprehend the LRA's leaders. Instead, the LRA spread out across the central African region and have continued their campaign against civilians.

Human Rights Watch has previously reported on widespread and horrific killings in the Haut Uele district in northern Congo, including two deadly LRA rampages: one over the 2008 Christmas period, when 865 were killed, and a massacre in the Makombo area in December 2009, which resulted in the deaths of at least 345 civilians.

Human Rights Watch has urged the US government to swiftly carry out the legislation signed by President Barack Obama on May 26 to develop a comprehensive strategy to protect civilians in central Africa from LRA attacks, bring LRA leaders implicated in atrocities to justice, and, together with regional governments, end violence by the rebel group.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Israel: Halt Demolitions of Bedouin Homes in Negev

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Pre-Dawn Raid Destroys Entire Village
August 1, 2010

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

(Jerusalem) - The Israeli government should immediately impose a moratorium on demolishing the homes of Bedouin citizens, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also fully compensate those whose homes and property it has destroyed and allow them to return to their village pending a final agreement with the displaced that respects their rights under international law.

In a pre-dawn raid on July 27, 2010, Israeli security forces destroyed all 45 homes, animal pens, and other structures in the village of al-Araqib, leaving more than 300 people homeless, about half of them children under 16. Nearly 90,000 Palestinian Arab Bedouins, the indigenous inhabitants of the Negev (Naqab) region of southern Israel, live in dozens of "unrecognized" towns. Because the Israeli authorities refuse to recognize their towns and villages, the Bedouins risk the destruction of their homes at any time.

"Tearing down an entire village and leaving its inhabitants homeless without exhausting all other options for settling longstanding land claims is outrageous," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The attack on these Israeli citizens' property shows that Israel's discriminatory policies toward Palestinian Arab Bedouin have not changed."

The July 27 raid began around 4:30 a.m. when 1,300 armed police officers in riot helmets and shields blocked the entrance to the village and entered it. The force included mounted cavalry, helicopters, inspectors from the Israel Land Administration (ILA) - the government agency responsible for managing the 93 percent of Israeli land owned by the state, and demolition crews operating bulldozers, according to witnesses and video images viewed by Human Rights Watch.

The crews forcibly removed the villagers, mostly children and elderly people, from their homes before the demolition operation began. Awad Abu Freih, spokesman for the al-Araqib civil committee, told Human Rights Watch that residents were unarmed and stayed in their homes after police arrived in a form of passive resistance. Bulldozers also destroyed carob and olive trees, chicken coops, and other structures, residents said.

The Israeli police foreign press spokesman, Mickey Rosenfeld, told Human Rights Watch that the police acted on a court order issued 11 years ago but not previously executed. The operation "was done quietly and sensitively and in coordination with the village representatives," Rosenfeld said. Abu Freih denied that there had been any coordination. Rosenfeld added that Land Administration officials evacuated al-Araqib residents to an area close to the nearby city of Rahat, where, he claimed, they had additional residences.

Ortal Tzabar, a Land Administration spokeswoman, confirmed in a statement to Human Rights Watch that the authorities also uprooted 850 olive trees that she said were "to be replanted elsewhere."

Abu Freih and Ye'ela Raanan, spokeswoman for the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Villages, a local organization, said that only a few dozen people from al-Araqib have other homes. Some residents may have spent the night with friends or relatives in Rahat after the demolitions, Raanan said, but "there are at least 250 people now who don't have another option." Raanan said she was at al-Araqib during the operation and that residents began on July 28 to build makeshift tents on the site with wooden frames and cheap fabric.

Residents and Israeli rights activists told Human Rights Watch that police began assembling at the village late Monday evening. At 12:15 a.m., the Kiryat Gat Peace Court (court of first instance) rejected an appeal filed by village residents contending that the state had no legal grounds to demolish their homes.

The Negev Coexistence Forum, a Bedouin rights group, said in a statement that al-Araqib existed before the creation of Israel in 1948 and that residents returned there after being evicted by the state in 1951. Many of the unrecognized villages are around Beer Sheva, the Negev's largest city. The current draft of a metropolitan plan for Beer Sheva designates the land where al-Araqib is located as a "recreational area" and as an area for "forest and forestation."

A lawyer who represents several al-Araqib residents and who asked not to be named, said that the Israeli government issued "evacuation orders" in 2002 to nine people in the village based on Article 21 of the Property Law, which allows for the owner of a piece of property - in this case, the state of Israel claims to own the property - to evict anyone residing on it illegally. But, he said, in the eight years since then authorities had not made any attempt to carry out these orders.

While the village population has grown since then, no other residents received evacuation or demolition orders until June of this year, the lawyer said, when several others received letters from the government threatening them with house demolition. These letters were based on Article 64 of the Repossession Law (Hotza'a Lapoal), which says the authorities may also evict other residents, interpreted by the state and the courts to include those in a vaguely-defined "legal relation" with anyone against whom other orders have been issued.

Israeli authorities carried out the demolitions despite pending legal claims to the land that Al-Araqib residents are pursuing in Beer Sheva District Court. Abu Freih, the al-Araqib civil committee spokesman, told Human Rights Watch that over a dozen such land claims are pending. One resident and human rights activist, Nouri al-Okbi, testified in court that the Israeli government confiscated 820 dunams (82 hectares) of land from his family, without compensation, when they were expelled in 1951.

The state contends that the Bedouin have never had recognized land claims in the area. Al-Okbi's lawyer, Michael Sfard, recently produced evidence in court, however, that appeared to show that the Jewish National Fund had bought land in this area from Bedouin owners during British rule, as did Ottoman authorities before then. This, he said, indicated that the area had customarily been recognized as belonging to the Bedouin.

The demolitions came two days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made comments in a government meeting, as reported by Israeli media, about the "threat" of losing a Jewish majority in the Negev region. "We are under real attack on this issue [of Israel as a Jewish state]," Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a July 25 government meeting regarding amendments to the citizenship law. "The meaning could be that different elements will demand national rights within Israel, for example, in the Negev, if we allow for a region without a Jewish majority. It has happened in the Balkans, and it is a palpable threat."

Israel has demolished thousands of Negev Bedouin homes since the 1970s, and over 200 since 2009. Israeli authorities have demolished many structures in al-Araqib in the past, although never the entire village. The Land Administration also began spraying villagers' crops with herbicides in 2002 as a mechanism to cause evacuation, a practice deemed illegal by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2007.

"Israel employs systematically discriminatory policies in the Negev," Stork said. "It is tearing down historic Bedouin villages before the courts have even ruled on pending legal claims, and is handing out Bedouin land to allow Jewish farmers to set up ranches."

Background
Tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens in southern Israel live in "unrecognized" villages like al-Araqib. Because the government considers the villages illegal, it has not connected them to basic services and infrastructure such as water, electricity, sewage treatment, and garbage disposal. Although the villages do not appear on official maps, some existed before the state of Israel was established in 1948. Others sprang up after the Israeli army forcibly displaced Bedouin tribes from their ancestral lands immediately following the 1948 war. Israel passed laws in the 1950s and 1960s enabling the government to lay claim to large areas of the Negev where the Bedouin had formerly owned or used the land. Planning authorities ignored the existence of Bedouin villages when they created Israel's first master plan in the late 1960s.

Israeli officials contend that they are simply enforcing zoning and building codes and insist that Bedouin can relocate to seven existing government-planned townships or a handful of newly recognized villages. The government-planned townships are seven of the eight poorest communities in Israel and are ill-equipped to handle any influx of new residents. Many - if not most - Bedouin have rejected relocating to the townships, which have minimal infrastructure, high crime rates, scarce job opportunities, and insufficient land for traditional livelihoods such as herding and grazing. In addition, the state requires Bedouin who move to the townships to renounce their ancestral land claims - unthinkable for most Bedouin, who have claims to land passed down from parent to child over generations.

Bedouin constitute 25 percent of the population of the northern Negev, but occupy less than 2 percent of its land. Over the past decade, Israeli authorities have allocated large tracts of land in this region, and public funds, for the creation of private ranches and farms. There are 59 such "individual farms" in the Negev - only one allocated to a Bedouin family and the rest to Jewish families - that stretch over 81,000 dunams of land, greater than the total land area granted to the seven planned Bedouin townships housing 85,000 people. The Israeli human rights organization Adalah says the state has connected these farms to national electric and water grids, despite the fact that some lack proper planning permits. In a series of laws, the latest passed on July 12, the state retroactively legalized such farms and authorized the establishment of more.

Human Rights Watch documented the systematic discrimination that Bedouin citizens face in a130-page report, "Off the Map," released in March 2008.

Israel ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1991, requiring it to guarantee the right to housing. The United Nations Committee responsible for interpreting the covenant has said this means governments can carry out forced evictions only in "the most exceptional circumstances," and even then only in accordance with human rights principles requiring the government to consult with the affected individuals or communities, identify a clear public interest requiring the eviction, ensure that those affected have a meaningful opportunity to challenge the eviction, and provide appropriate compensation and adequate alternative land and housing arrangements.

Another right at stake is the right to property, set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The 2007 UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, opposed by only two states in the world - the US and Canada - states that indigenous peoples have the right to lands they traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used, and that states should give legal recognition to this. It also says that no relocation of indigenous peoples should take place without their free, prior, and informed consent and only after prior agreement on just and fair compensation.

In December 2008, the Goldberg Commission, appointed by the government in late 2007 to find a solution for the land claims of residents of the unrecognized villages, recommended that the state recognize villages that have a "critical mass" of permanent residents and that do not interfere with other state planning. In practice this would be limited to the recognition of only a few of the dozens of unrecognized villages. The commission also called for the establishment of several claims committees to deal with Bedouin ownership claims and provide financial compensation for expropriated land. In May 2009, the government established the Prawer Committee to outline a plan to implement the Goldberg Commission's recommendations.

Los ilegales, parte de la vida estadounidense

ISABEL PIQUER Corresponsal en Nueva York 01/08/2010 08:00

Dos agentes detienen a un inmigrante irregular

Dos agentes detienen a un inmigrante irregular.Se calcula que en Estados Unidos viven unos 12 millones de sin papeles, más o menos la misma cifra que en toda la Unión Europea. En Arizona representan el 8% de la población y juegan un papel esencial en el sector turístico, el mayor negocio del estado.

Estados Unidos, por razones históricas obvias, siempre ha sido, pese a las apariencias, bastante acomodaticio con sus irregulares porque los necesita económicamente. Los indocumentados pueden meter a sus niños en las escuelas y recibir atención médica de urgencia.

Así lo estipula la Corte Suprema que en 1982 declaró que ningún estado podía negarse a educar hijos de irregulares, porque suponía discriminarlos. Cuatro años más tarde, en 1986, el Congreso aprobaba el Emergency Medical Treatmen and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), que obliga a todos los hospitales y ambulancias a asistir a cualquiera que necesitara atención médica inmediata, independientemente de su ciudadanía, estatus legal, o capacidad de pago.

Integración económica
La idea es integrar al indocumentado en la vida económica antes que en la legal. Algunos estados, como Maine, New México y Tennesee otorgan permisos de conducir a los sin papeles.

La preocupación por la inmigración ilegal, especialmente en tiempos de crisis cuando escasea el empleo, ha endurecido las políticas de los estados hacia los indocumentados. Y no sólo en Arizona. Esta semana, la Asociación de Libertades Civiles de Nueva York ha denunciado que uno de cada cinco distritos escolares de la ciudad pedía información sobre el estatus migratorio de los niños que optaban a una plaza. Aunque ningún escolar fue expulsado, la asociación advirtió del precedente que creaba.

Estados Unidos no tiene documento nacional de identidad. Las piezas que más se usan para los quehaceres diarios son las licencias de conducir que otorgan los estados, y para asuntos más serios, el número de Seguridad Social, que, como su nombre no indica en absoluto, suma la historia crediticia de cada habitante. En Estados Unidos se es lo que se debe y lo que se gasta. En este país de tradición anglosajona, una de las libertades del individuo es no tener que llevar papeles, contrariamente a Europa. De ahí que la ley de Arizona levantara tantas ampollas.

Ningún policía en Estados Unidos puede detener o simplemente parar en la calle a un latino, por ejemplo, porque piense que es ilegal. Le puede detener por saltarse un stop y de paso pedirle los papeles. La iniciativa de Arizona daba a las fuerzas del orden un poder migratorio hasta ahora sólo reservado a las autoridades federales. Pero no era el único problema. Al no haber documento de identidad, resultaba incluso complicado pedirle una prueba de nacionalidad a un estadounidense.

EE UU dice que cuenta con un plan de ataque a Irán pero no quiere usarlo

El jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto de EE UU ha revelado en una entrevista que es la militar es una alternativa a la diplomacia.

  • EE UU no quiere que Teherán posea armas nucleares por lo que no descartan una intervención armada para evitarlo.

Marines de EE UU

Un mando de alto rango del Pentágono dijo este domingo que EE UU cuenta con un plan de ataque a Irán en el caso de que fuera necesario recurrir a él para prevenir que Teherán se haga con un armas nucleares, pero que preferiría no tener que usarlo.

El jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto de EE UU, el almirante Mike Mullen, confirmó en una entrevista en el programa dominical Meet the Press, de la cadena de televisión NBC, que el Gobierno dispone ya del plan de ataque, preparando en los últimos meses y cuya planificación no ha sido ocultada por el Pentágono.

El Gobierno de EE UU siempre ha dejado claro que emplea una estrategia de doble vía con Irán: la diplomática y la de las sanciones, pero al mismo tiempo nunca ha quitado de la mesa la opción militar, según recordó hoy Mullen a Teherán.

"Las opciones militares han estado sobre la mesa y siguen estándolo", señaló Mullen en la entrevista. "Espero que no tengamos que llegar a ese punto, pero es una opción importante y es una que es bien entendida" por Teherán, agregó, no obstante. Preguntado si el Ejército dispone de un plan de ataque contra Irán, el jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto respondió: "sí lo tenemos".

En abril pasado, el secretario de Defensa, Robert Gates, se mostró, en una entrevista televisiva, satisfecho con la planificación, las previsiones y las estrategias del Gobierno ante la posibilidad de que Irán se convierta en un país con armas nucleares.

"Estoy muy satisfecho; satisfecho con el proceso de planificación, tanto dentro de este edificio como a nivel intergubernamental. Dedicamos mucho tiempo a Irán y seguiremos dedicándolo" a este asunto, aseguró. Mullen aseguró este domingo en NBC que las consecuencias de un potencial ataque contra Irán le "preocupan".

Una acción militar contra la República Islámica podría tener "consecuencias no buscadas que son difíciles de predecir en una parte del mundo increíblemente inestable", explicó.

No obstante, permitir que Teherán desarrolle armas nucleares también es inaceptable, recalcó. "Francamente, estoy extremadamente preocupado por las consecuencias de ambas" posibilidades, dijo el almirante. Por eso, expresó su esperanza de que la combinación del esfuerzo diplomático de la comunidad internacional y las sanciones lleven a Irán a suspender su programa nuclear.

Mullen subrayó que la decisión de un eventual ataque militar tendría que ser tomada por el presidente Barack Obama, y subrayó que tanto la amenaza de un Irán con arma nuclear como un ataque contra la República Islámica para parar el programa nuclear "tiene grandes desventajas".