3 Aid Flotilla Activists Missing, Says Turkish Charity Head Bulent Yildirim

Thursday, June 3, 2010 ISTANBUL –

Funeral prayers are held in Istanbul for eight of the nine people killed on a Gaza aid flotilla as families around the country mourn their dead. At least three activists are still missing, the group that organized the flotilla says, vowing to send larger convoys to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip.

At least three members of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla that was attacked by Israeli commandos are still missing, the group that organized the convoy said Thursday as funeral prayers were given for eight slain activists.

“We have a longer list. There are still people who are missing,” Bülent Yıldırım, the head of the Humanitarian Relief Foundation, or İHH, one of the main organizers of the flotilla, told reporters at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport.

“Our doctors handed over to Israel 38 people who were injured, but they told us there were only 21 injured when we were returning.”

The İHH leader also said the group would send larger convoys to end the embargo on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Yıldırım and hundreds of other activists returned early Thursday to a hero’s welcome in Istanbul. About 1,000 people, some chanting anti-Israeli slogans, packed the city’s airport in the middle of the night to greet the planes carrying them back from Israel.

Seven planes were used to deport 527 activists to Turkey and Greece, said Israeli interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad, adding that seven other activists remained in Israeli hospitals for treatment of wounds suffered during the Israeli raid. Another plane brought 31 Greeks, three French nationals and one American to Athens.

The first plane contained the bodies of eight Turks and a U.S. national of Turkish origin. All were shot dead in the Israeli raid, according to forensic experts. The nationalities of the victims were determined after post-mortem examinations at a forensic institute in Istanbul, the Anatolia news agency reported. Forensic experts found bullet marks on all the bodies and determined that one was shot at close range.

The exact circumstances of the activists’ deaths are expected to become clear in a ballistics examination that will take about a month to complete.

The 19 wounded activists deported from Israel also suffered from gunshot wounds, according to the chief doctor of the Ankara hospital treating them. “The patients generally have serious injuries to their chests, abdomens and limbs. What we have is mostly gun wounds,” Metin Doğan said in televised remarks.

Israel charges that the passengers on the boat attacked its soldiers, but organizers of the flotilla say Israeli forces started firing as soon as they landed on the ship.

Families mourn

Funeral prayers for eight of the nine people killed onboard the Mavi Marmara were held at the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul on Thursday. The coffins of Cengiz Akyüz, Ali Haydar Bengi, İbrahim Bilgen, Furkan Doğan, Cengiz Songür, Çetin Topçuoğlu, Fahri Yaldız and Necdet Yıldırım were wrapped in Turkish flags. The crowd at the funeral chanted anti-Israel slogans before and after the prayers. The funeral prayer for journalist Cevdet Kılıçlar, an İHH member, will be held at the same mosque Friday.

Families of the victims also mourned in various provinces of the country. Photographs of Bilgen, who was a mayoral candidate from the Saadet, or Felicity, Party in the March 2009 local elections, were hung over busy streets in the eastern province of Siirt.

In Adana, Cumali Topçuoğlu, the brother of 54-year-old victim Çetin Topçuoğlu, said family members were happy because their brother had become a “martyr.”

In Diyarbakır, a condolence tent was erected in front of the Ulu Mosque for Bengi, the father of four children.

An official from the İHH identified 19-year-old Doğan, originally from the central Turkish town of Kayseri, as the U.S. national among the victims. Doğan, who held an American passport, had four bullet wounds to the head and one to the chest, according to the İHH’s Ömer Yağmur. The bodies were handed over to the victim’s relatives after the autopsies.

The United Nations and the European Union have harshly criticized Israel after its commandos stormed the six-ship flotilla in international waters, setting off the clashes. About 700 activists – including 400 Turks – were trying to break the Israeli and Egyptian naval blockade by bringing in 10,000 tons of aid.

Eyewitness accounts

Two Swedes aboard the aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces this week said they had witnessed “premeditated murder.”

“We were witnesses to premeditated murders,”

historian Mattias Gardell told Swedish public radio Thursday upon arrival in Istanbul.

“This was a military attack on a humanitarian aid operation far out in international waters,” said Gardell, a Swedish activist who was on the Mavi Marmara along with his wife, fellow historian Edda Manga, during the attack. “It was a very surprising and aggressive overreaction by Israel.”

Kuwait citizen Ali Buhamd said he saw a wounded Turkish citizen getting shot in the head. “The soldiers also left another Turk to bleed to death despite [his] calls for help,” he added.

Shane Dillon from Ireland, from the crew of the ship Challenger 1, said he witnessed some volunteers being beaten up and a Belgian woman’s nose being broken.

Of five Australians on the Gaza flotilla, two – journalists Paul McGeough and Kate Geraghty, who was injured by a stun gun during the Israeli raid – have returned to Turkey, daily The Australian reported on its website Thursday. Three others – Ahmed Luqman, who was shot in the leg, his wife, Jerry Campbell, and his sister Maryam Luqman – are reportedly still in Israel

Source

Activists’ eyewitness accounts detail Israeli raid on Gaza aid ship

Thursday, June 3, 2010
ISTANBUL — Daily News with wires

Activists detained after their Gaza aid ship was attacked by Israeli commandos earlier this week began detailing their accounts on Thursday of what some activists called “premeditated murder.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the activists as “violent supporters of terrorism,” charging that Israeli forces were “stabbed, they were clubbed, they were fired upon” as they stormed the boat.

Eyewitness accounts differ from what Israeli security forces have said.

An Australian journalist on board the Gaza-bound aid ship said Israeli commando boats had circled their flotilla like “hyenas hunting animals in the night” before his colleague was shot with a stun gun.

Two Swedes aboard the Gaza-bound aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces this week said in a radio broadcast Thursday they had witnessed “premeditated murder” aboard the Turkish ship that came under the heaviest attack.

And the leader of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation or, İHH, Bülent Yıldırım, said he saw Israeli soldiers shoot a photographer and an activist who had already surrendered.

A ‘very ugly’ incident

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough and photographer Kate Geraghty were released from Israeli detention and deported to Turkey on Thursday, and said they were slowly recovering from their ordeal.

“We’re fine, we’re both fine,” McGeough told the Herald’s website from Turkey.

“We are leaving Israel on legal advice that we will be able to appeal our deportation in absentia,” he added.

McGeough said Israeli boats had circled the flotilla like “hyenas hunting animals in the night” before moving in suddenly, describing it as a “very ugly” incident.

“Kate and I got pushed around,” he said, adding that the atmosphere was “testosterone-driven.”

‘We could have died’

“We were witnesses to premeditated murders,” said Swedish historian Mattias Gardell who was on the Mavi Marmara along with his wife, fellow historian Edda Manga.

Manga and Gardell, who were among 11 Swedes taking part in the flotilla but the only ones on the Mavi Marmara, were on deck when the shooting began.

“I saw the ship’s security personnel trying to prevent divers from climbing onto the boats,” Manga said.

“Then one of our comrades said [the soldiers] were shooting and had killed three people … [and] that we had to throw ourselves to the floor. We were on deck. We could have died,” she said.

Shot after surrendering

Yıldırım, the leader of the Turkish İHH, said many people were wounded by gas bombs and that a journalist was taking photographs when he was shot by an Israeli soldier, adding that one of their friends was shot after he surrendered.

Yıldırım said passengers on the ship showed civil resistance, the press was there, and that the İHH called on the passengers not to allow Israeli soldiers in.

“We rendered ten of the soldiers who got on the ship ineffective, we took their weapons, but it would have been self-defense even if we had used those weapons,” he said. “Still, we threw the weapons into the sea.”

–

Compiled from AFP and AA reports by the Daily News staff.

Freed Colombian activist describes Israeli raid

Thursday, 03 June 2010 11:16 Cameron Sumpter
Colombian activist Edda Virginia Manga Otalora described the Israeli special forces raid on a flotilla of aid ships headed for Gaza, which was intercepted Monday before reaching its destination.

Speaking from her home in Stockholm, Manga, who was released from Israeli custody Wednesay, said that the flotilla had been in international waters when it was attacked, reports El Tiempo.

“They tried to get on the boat in two ways: with divers who climbed on board, and men descending from helicopters,” Manga said.

“These men were from a special unit of the Israeli defense force, which carries out operations against terrorist groups; they are trained to kill,” added Manga.

According to the Colombian native, the first person killed was a photographer who had been recording the attack, and in total, sixteen people were killed.

Manga said that she had been treated “fairly well” because she had a Swedish passport, while the Turkish people had their hands and feet tied, and some had hoods put over the heads.

The activists were then told by the Israelis that they had no rights and were taken to a high security prison, where they were offered no means of communication to the outside world.

In order to secure a release, Manga said, she was told she must sign a statement saying that she had entered Israel illegally.

Manga thanked Turkish President Abdullah Gul for providing the plane to take her home to Sweden.

The Israeli raid caused protests worldwide. The United Nations Security Council issued a statement condemning the raid, and said there will be a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent” investigation.

The Swedes have landed at Arlanda

They are tired and dazed, but relieved to be home.

- The last two hours last night, I was worried that they would leave me alone. Police in Israel showed such hatred towards me, “says the artist Dror Feiler.

Today at 16.20 landed the last seven Swedes from using the convoy In Gaza. They flew to Istanbul late in the night with over 500 activists who had been detained in Beer Sheva Elafängelset in southern Israel.

Taking on board the aircraft was Dror Feiler, Matthias Gardell, Edda Manga, Amil Sarsour, Kimberly Soto Aguayo, Saman Ali and Henry Ascher.

They hug each other again and again. Browsing in newspapers from around the world to know what has been written about their relief work.
Friends for life

- We knew each other before in this. Now, what we have been friends throughout their lives, “says Amil Sarsour.

Finally the plane came into Dror Feiler and Henry Ascher. All seven of the champagne toast and orange juice to celebrate that they are now free.

Their passports were stolen from them at the prison in Beer Sheva, says they.

- I got confirmation that they took my passport in prison. But before I could fly from Tel Aviv, they forced me to sign a paper certifying that the passport disappeared. Given what the Israelis did before with stolen passports, it feels unpleasant, “says pediatrician Henry Ascher.

Dror Feiler has always been kept isolated from the rest of the Swedes. He says that the soldiers pointed him out as soon as they got on the ship.

- They harassed me and took my film camera. When I wanted a receipt, they said to me that I had no rights. They pushed me down on the floor and let me sleep with her arms tied and face down at the floor, “he says.

Emptied his pockets

The tents in the Ashdod port in which vessels were in the country but Dror Feiler take off all clothes and jewelry. They emptied his pockets of everything, “he says.

- They did a full body search with all that implies, and then they interrogated me for hours. They had all my phone numbers and to my wife.

When he came to Elafängelset he was put in solitary confinement for 48 hours. He pleaded to see his lawyer Gaby Lasky.

- I am threatened with hunger, but I did not see her anyway. In one days I ate nothing.

When all detained activists were flown home last night it seemed that long to Dror Feiler would not get along. He was taken away and was finally on the last plane has left Israel.

- They seem to have such a hatred of us. When I saw the policemen and guards in the passport control treated us, I was terrified. They are brainwashed.

The Swedes said they first received a document in which they would write that they have illegally into Israel, was later revised the wording in the documents.

At half past five in the morning, after the Turkish planes landed at Istanbul’s airport, the Swedes were entitled to a medical center in conjunction with the more than 500 activists who were flown to Turkey after they had been imprisoned in Elafängelset in southern Israel. Outside thousands of people met them with cheers and flowers.
Fantastic support

- It was great to meet people’s support. We woke up in jail and less than one day later, people throwing flowers for us in Turkey. It is unlikely, “says Henry Ascher.

All that came with the Turkish plan of Tel Aviv had their injuries documented and they could retrieve their luggage. But not all Swedes say they have lost the very personal possessions.

Apart from two sessions of all electronic devices such as cell phones, cameras and computers away.

- It is the systematic theft, “says Dror Feiler.

On the plane home was also tired. The Swedish activists have tried to get some sleep before it’s time to meet with relatives.

- In prison, we never sleep more than one and a half hours at a time, “says Mattias Gardell.

Swedes accuse Israel of ‘premeditated murder’

Politics – Published Thursday, 03 June 2010 11:23 | Author: AFP / The Swedish Wire

Two Swedes aboard the Gaza-bound aid flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces this week said in a radio broadcast Thursday they had witnessed “premeditated murder” aboard the Turkish ship that came under the heaviest attack.

“We were witnesses to premeditated murders,” said historian Mattias Gardell who was on the Mavi Marmara along with his wife, fellow historian Edda Manga, when Israeli commandos attacked the ship early Monday, killing at least nine people.

“This was a military attack on a humanitarian aid operation far out in international waters … It was a very surprising and aggressive overreaction by Israel,” he told Swedish public radio upon arrival in Istanbul with planeloads of nearly 500 activists, including seven Swedes, early Thursday.
(…)
Asked about why activists on the Turkish ship had attacked the Israeli soldiers, Gardell stressed “it is not as if Israel is a police officer who no human being has the legitimate right to defend him or herself against.”

“If you are attacked by commando troops you of course must have the right to defend yourself … Many people on this ship thought they were going to kill everyone. They were very frightened … It’s strange if people think one should not defend oneself. Should you just sit there and say: ‘Kill me’?” he said.

Manga and Gardell, who were among 11 Swedes taking part in the flotilla but the only ones on the Mavi Marmara, were on deck when the shooting began.

“I saw the ship’s security personnel trying to prevent divers from climbing onto the boats,” Manga said.

“Then one of our comrades said (the soldiers) were shooting and had killed three people … (and) that we had to throw ourselves to the floor. We were on deck. We could have died,” she said.

Renowned Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, who was on another ship, said upon his return to Sweden late Tuesday that “all the ships (in the flotilla) were hijacked, and this was really piracy.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who was in Istanbul for a conference, met the seven Swedes who flew to Turkey early Thursday after being released from Israeli custody.

“It is important that we now launch an immediate, independent investigation,” Bildt told Swedish public radio before meeting the Swedes, adding “It is also important that we start a more intensive dialogue with Israel to try to influence them to change their Gaza policy.”