Flotilla Passengers Huwaida Arraf of Free Gaza Movement and Retired Army Col. Ann Wright Respond to Israeli Claims on Deadly Assault
支援船に乗っていたフリー・ガザ運動のフワイダ・アラフと元米軍大佐アン・ライトさん、 死者がでた襲撃に対するイスラエルの主張に反論
AMY GOODMAN：Welome back to Democracy Now the War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez as we continue to talk about the aid flotilla. Juan…
エイミー・グッドマン Democracy Nowにようこそ。戦争と平和に関する報告です。エイミー・グッドマン、ホワン・ゴンザレスがお伝えします。
JUAN GONZALEZ: We also have someone else on the line who was also on that boat. Anne Wright, a Retired Army colonel and former US diplomat. She spent twenty-nine years in the military and later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department. In 2001 she helped oversee the reopening of the US mission in Afghanistan. In 2003 she resigned her State Department post to protest the war in Iraq. She was on the Freedom Flotilla and was just deported to Turkey.
ゴンザレス：元陸軍大佐であったアン・ライトさんも乗船中。２９年間軍隊に、その後国務省の高級外交官に転進。2001年にはアフガニスタンの米国大使館の再開に尽力。2003年にイラク戦争に反対し外交官を辞任。ガザ自由の船団に乗船中に逮捕され、釈放後トルコに強制送還されたところです。
AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Wright, welcome to Democracy Now! ライト大佐、Democracy Now へようこそ。
ANN WRIGHT: Hi, Amy, Juan. エイミー，ホアン、こんにちは。
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us what happened to you?
あなたに何が起こったのかお話願えますか。
ANN WRIGHT: Well, I was also on the Challenger 1 with Huwaida. And let me just give a great compliment to Huwaida and all of the Free Gaza Movement. It’s a tremendous, tremendous thing that they have done in creating this movement of boats that had six large vessels that went toward Gaza. And let me tell you how thrilling it was to see all of those boats steaming, those civilians trying to challenge the governments of the world that say there must be a siege to strangle the 1.5 million people in Gaza, and yet the citizens of the world are challenging that with everything they’ve got.
アン・ライト：私もフワイダといっしょにチャレンジャー１号に乗っていました。フワイダさんとガザ解放運動の人々に深い感謝をささげます。６隻の船団でガザに向かうという大仕事をやってくれたのですから。１50万人のガザの人々を拘束する封鎖を容認する各国政府に挑戦し、出来る限りの支援物資を集め船に詰め込んで揚揚と船出した市民の皆さんの姿を見て私はワクワクしましたよ。
JUAN GONZALEZ: Tell us what you saw and how you were treated by the Israeli soldiers. ゴンザレス：何を見ましたか。イスラエル兵士の態度はどうでしたか。
ANN WRIGHT: Well, I saw the attack on the also of the helicopters coming over, the rappelling down of the soldiers, the sailors, the Zodiac boats coming up the side, the spraying of them. Then, with that, the captain of the Marmara told us to go ahead to try to get as far away as we could, because we had the fastest boat. We were—as Huwaida very accurately described, our boat was boarded. People were thrown on the deck. Windows were blown out. Flash bangs were used. One of our journalists was hit with something of an electric shock. I don’t know that it was a taser. She doesn’t know, either, yet. One of the women was hit in the face, in the nose, with one of the liquid-filled balls. They were very excessively rough, excessively forceful, on trying to slow down, stop—actually, we were already stopped. They weren’t stopping us at all. We were already dead in the water, and yet all of this force used on us.
ヘリコプターからラッペルで兵士等が降りてくる、船からは水兵が上がってくる、スプレイをまく、我々の船は先に進むよう命じられる、乗客ははずみでデッキに放り出される、電気ショックを受けた状態のジャーナリスト、 液体のはいったボールで顔面や、鼻を負傷した女性等と大混乱に陥りました。 お
AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Wright, I wanted to get your response to Vice President Biden. He was on the Charlie Rose show last night, and he was questioning what the big deal was getting this humanitarian aid directly to Gaza. This is the Vice President.
ライト大佐、バイデン副大統領の反応をどう見ますか。昨夜のチャーリー・ローズ・ショーでの発言です。ガザに直接人道支援船で向かうのはどういうものかと疑問を呈しています。
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: You can argue whether Israel should have dropped people onto that ship or not, but the truth of the matter is, Israel has a right to know—they’re at war with Hamas—has a right to know whether or not arms are being smuggled in. And up to now, Charlie, what’s happened? They’ve said, “Here you go. You’re in the Mediterranean. This ship, if you divert slightly north, you can unload it, and we’ll get the stuff into Gaza.” So what’s the big deal here? What’s the big deal of insisting it go straight to Gaza? Well, it’s legitimate for Israel to say, “I don’t know what’s on that ship. These guys are dropping eight—3,000 rockets on my people.”
バイデン副大統領 はじめからイスラエルが支援船に活動家らを乗せて出航させるべきでなかったのでは、そうすればこんな騒動にはならなかったという議論もできるでしょう。しかし、現実に船が出てしまったわけで、イスラエルは当然知る権利があるのです。ハマスと闘っているのですから。武器が密輸されるのではないかを知る権利です。地中海のど真ん中を航行中にと言いますが、少し北に舵をとれば荷降ろしをする陸地があったわけでそこからガザへ運べばよかったのです。何故ガザに直行するとして大騒ぎしたのですか。イスラエルが「船には何が積み込まれているかわからない、わが国の市民に3000発のロケット弾を打ち込んだ連中を支援しようとしているのだから」 というのは合法的なことですよ。
AMY GOODMAN: That was Vice President Biden last night. Colonel Ann Wright, your response? エイミー・グッドマン： 昨夜のバイデン副大統領のテレビでの様子でした。あなたの見解は？
ANN WRIGHT: Well, I think our vice president needs to take another look at this thing. The ships were open to inspection beforehand, and I’m quite sure Mossad had their little agents that were all over that place. These groups are humanitarian groups that are bringing in goods that are needed for the people of Gaza. They’ve had plenty of inspections on them.
アン・ライト：副大統領は見落としていますよ。支援船は十分な検閲を受けて出航しています。（イスラエルの諜報機関）モサドは国中に検閲網を張り巡らせて検査をしているのですから、武器を見逃すはずがありません。乗船していたのは、ガザの人々が必要としている物資を届けようとしていた人道支援家ばかりです。いやというほど検査も受けて。
If you talk about violence, it’s not 3,000 rockets Hamas is putting on Gaza; it’s a twenty-two-day attack that the Israelis did that killed 1,400 people, wounded 5,000, left 50,000 homeless. And here we are a year and four months later, and the Israelis will not let any sort of reconstruction materials in. And then, when reconstruction materials start coming that way, instead of waiting until—if they have a zone that they are trying to protect, let ships come into it and stop them.
暴力というなら、ハマスが打ち込んだ３０００発のロケット弾よりも、イスラエルが２２日間にもわたってガザを攻撃し、１４００人の人々を殺し、５０００名の人を傷つけ、５万人の家を奪ったことを言うべきでしょう。一年四ヶ月たった未だに再建の物資さえ届けられないのです。陸路ではイスラエルが防衛上立ち入り禁止地域を設け、通行できないのですよ。だから、船で直行しようとしたのです。
But I would say that there are ways that you can stop them without killing people. There are ways you can stop even passenger ship like that ferry boat, and certainly like our little thirty-foot craft. You don’t have to use commandos with—I mean, you can use commandos with excessive force, which they do, but there are other ways to do it, if you want to kind of preserve a sense of civility, humanity, and meeting the international law, quite honestly.
乗客を殺さなくても船の航行を止めることは出来たはずです。我々の乗ったわずか３０フィートのちいさなフェリーボートを、重装備の軍艦で襲撃するなど考えられない行為です。 国際法の遵守、人道尊重の意識がまるでなかったのですから。
And going outside a boundary, going into international waters, I mean, what they are are pirates. They are pirates. They kidnap people, and they’re stealing stuff. They’ve probably stolen over a million dollars’ worth of cameras, computers, cell phones. I mean, I’m in Istanbul. We just got here early this morning. Some luggage is here. There’s not a thing in it. Everything has been taken. The Israeli military said, “Oh, yes, we have to count this. You know, we have to take it.” Well, what they’ve done, they’ve stolen it. And if we have any friends that are in Israel, I hope that they go down to the black market and see where our stuff is, because somebody is making a killing on this thing.
公海上でのイスラエルの行為はまさに海賊行為でした。人を誘拐し、物品を奪いつくしたのです。１００万ドル以上にのぼるであろうカメラ、コンピューター、携帯電話を奪ったのです。今朝イスタンブールについてみると我々の荷物は中に何一つ残っていない空っぽの状態でした。皆、盗まれたのです。イスラエルの闇市にいけば、盗品で暮らす連中が売った我々の所持品が見つかるかもしれません。
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Ann Wright, once you were in Israeli custody, how were you and the other prisoners treated?
ゴンザレス：イスラエルで拘束中どのような扱いをうけておられましたか。
ANN WRIGHT: Well, in the brand new Israeli prison—nobody had ever been in this particular prison in Barsheba that we were in—the treatment was reasonable. However, when we got out to the airport, I have never seen supposedly professional law enforcement people treat others with such disrespect. They were laughing, giggling, commenting on wounded and dead. It was a very pitiful, pitiful performance by law enforcement people. And I think what we saw as internationals coming in there is the tip of the iceberg compared to what Palestinians see every single day from those types of law enforcement officials.
アン・ライト：バルシェバに出来たばかりのまっさらな刑務所に我々は留置されました。扱いは悪くはありませんでした。しかし、空港に向けて刑務所を出る時に目撃したイスラエルの役人とおぼしき人物らのひどい態度には愕然としました。彼等は、死者や負傷者らをうすら笑いを浮かべて物のように酷評していたのです。役人にあるまじき悲しい、悲しい光景でした。外人部隊の我々が見たことは、パレスチナの人々が、来る日も、来る日も見ている役人らの態度に比べれべれば、ほんの氷山の一角にすぎないのでしょうが。
AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Ann Wright, we want to thank you for being with us, speaking to us from Istanbul, where she was just deported to. She is a retired US Army colonel, former US diplomat, spent twenty-nine years in the military, later served as a high-ranking diplomat in the State Department. In 2001, she helped oversee the lead-up to Afghanistan, in 2003 resigned her State Department post to protest the war in Iraq. She was on the Freedom Flotilla, as was Huwaida Arraf.
エイミー・グッドマン：イスタンブールからのご出演有難うございました。２９年間の軍隊経験を持つ元陸軍大佐、国務省外交官として活躍され、アフガニスタンの再建にも尽力、イラク戦争に反対して２００３年に辞任されたアン・ライトさんでした。フワイダ・アラフさんと共に自由船団に乗船しておられました。
