Monday March 15th:
Met two Muslims working on full citizenship and inter-community cooperation in Britain
Portcullis House: Kurdish New Year celebrations.
1 Parliament Street: Dinner with visiting Parliamentarians from the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq.
Tuesday March 16th:
Talk, discussion and lunch for Professor Avi Schlaim of Oxford University on the current situation in Israel and Palestine, and on the perverse effects of Western and Israeli policies.
Meeting for Mr Yildiz, member of the Turkish Parliament, from the former Democratic Society Party, and now from the Peace and Democracy Party. Discussion about Kurdish national identity and the needs for reform in the constitution of Turkey and the criminal justice system.
In the House of Commons, celebration of the Adzeri New Year.
Wednesday March 17th
Lunch with visiting Albanian parliamentarians. Their group contained three men and three women. We discussed human rights, minority issues and the trafficking of people, drugs and weapons.
Celebration of Iranian New Year with members of the opposition in Iran, and London Iranian community
Gaza: meeting to discuss the war of 2008/9. A member of the Goldstone Commission, a retired officer of the Irish army, spoke about the Commission’s impartial investigations into war crimes. He described the disproportionate force used by Israel, the white phosphorous flechettes and tungsten shrapnel used in densely populated civilian areas. He gave details of the permanent harm done by bulldozers to olive and fruit trees, to wells and to the soil of agricultural land. The combined effect of all these amount to an illegal collective punishment, in addition to the deaths of over 14,000 people, mainly civilians.
My Noble Lord is to be commended on his unceasing efforts to bring peace to regions. It is difficult to bring comment to the blogs on one who appears to take on insurmountable events. The best one can do is wish you well in your efforts in finding a solution.
Even the Noble Wizard Gandalf, to whom you bear resemblance, would struggle against such odds.
So would Your Lordship say that he sees his role as more than wearing the ermine at the Opening then?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_External_Action_Service
The JSC (Joint Situation Centre)
of the EU (European Union) provides advanced information about potential areas of conflict
worldwide.
In view of the noble Lord’s concern that he has expressed in recent post for such regions, does he involve himself with the work of the JSC or the new External service of the European Union under the careful guidance of the Baroness Cathy Ashton,(leave of absence) Europe’s High representative?
In case noble Lord Norton is listening, I am particularly interested in such work. Javier Solana’s name will surely go down in the annals of the Europe Union as a guiding light of the last 20 years.