By Observer Research Foundation

By Nidhi Sinha

Volgograd, the south-western city of Russia, was the target of recent terrorist attacks in which more than 30 people lost their lives. The latest bombings are the third in the past three months. It has been suspected that the attacks are in consonance with the previous ones carried out by the Islamist militants operating from North Caucasus — an active playground for violent anti-Russian separatist movements. Doku Umarov, the Islamist militant leader from Chechnya, is the prime suspect in the Volgograd attacks. Previously, he had given the call to target the Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi in February. It is anticipated that the recent bombings were carried out to disrupt the games.

The bombings in Russia bring into notice the challenges which India also faces in tackling Islamic militancy. In fact, the Chechen insurgency has in the past been compared to the insurgency in Kashmir. Pakistan, for long been a terrorist safe haven, has been the common factor behind the disturbance in both areas. Kashmir is the base of the jihadist struggle but others parts of India, like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore and most recently Bihar, have faced the brunt of terrorist attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the attacks in Volgograd. He said, “Whatever the motivation of the criminals may be, there can be no justification for crimes committed against civilians, especially women and children.” Mr Putin has ordered law enforcement agencies to take adequate measures to ensure security and stability in the region. In the past, Russia has been the target of various terrorist attacks. The Volgograd attacks are reminiscent of the past bombings carried out in Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk in 1999 which eventually triggered the Second Chechen War by Russia.

Since 1988-1989, India has faced secessionist movement in Kashmir. Similarly, Russia has also had recurring separatist movements in the Caucasus since its disintegration in 1991. Chechnya falls within the North Caucasian region where conflicts over separation from Russia have been happening for decades. Both the conflicts have, however, taken a new dimension due to the impact of jihadist ideology and the influence of international terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. In the past, some media reports had brought forth the connection between jihadists in Kashmir and Chechnya. This put the spotlight on the the terror infrastructure in place that allows jihadists to operate on this scale.

The choosing of Volgograd as the venue of the bombings has been symbolic from the point of view of the militants, who are expanding their base beyond the Caucasus. Mr Putin had resolved to wipe out extremist activities from Russia and his handling of the events in North Caucasus in the 1990s made him popular. But 14 years later, Russia is still haunted by the Chechen War, in the form of these attacks. Insurgent activities continue in Chechnya and in the neighbouring Republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia.

The recent attacks also bring into picture the high-handedness of the Russian administration in clamping down on the activities of the Islamists in run up to the Sochi Olympics. Their mosques and educational institutions have been shut and their religious leaders subjected to harassment. All this has led to further radicalisation.

In the past, India had implemented the Prevention of Terrorism Act after the attack on Parliament in 2002, but it was repealed after it came under criticism after supposedly indiscriminate arrests. One can question if using extreme force to wipe out terrorist activities really help in weeding them out. After the attacks, Russia has tightened its security conditions as the Sochi Olympics is just around the corner.

India has always sought to establish strategic partnerships to fight terrorism with major global players. The India-Russia Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism, for instance, was set up in 2002. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Moscow, the Moscow Declaration of 2001 on International Terrorism between the countries was reiterated. This reflects that both the countries work closely on this issue.

The India-Russia strategic relationship encompasses Russia’s pro-India posture on Kashmir and India’s support for the Russian position on Chechnya. The recent Volgograd attacks have garnered a tough response from India. Prime Minister Singh has condemned the recent attacks. He said, “These attacks are a grave violation of human rights and an unconscionable crime against humanity. We stand resolutely together with the people of Russia in the face of these horrible acts of terrorism.” In this moment of despair, when Russia is grappling with the problem of terrorism on its home-front and also trying to successfully host the Sochi Olympics, India should show solidarity with its old friend.

(The writer is an Associate Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi)

Courtesy: The Pioneer, January 10, 2014

The article Warning From Volgograd – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By CNA

By Carl Bunderson and Kevin Jones

The story of the U.S. Catholic Church in the early 21st century is one of excitement and renewal, say two authors of a book that examines successful dioceses, bishops and priests.

“The priesthood is growing. There are also vibrant signs of life among the laity and throughout the Church. Those stories need to be told,” Christopher White, the director of education and programs at the California-based Center for Bioethics and Culture, told CNA Dec. 12.

White is the co-author of “Renewal,” a new book from Encounter Books which makes the case that Catholicism is recovering from decades of “faithless practice” and confusion.

He said this recovery is especially evident in parishes that express “a stronger Catholic identity.”

His co-author, Anne Hendershott, who is a sociology professor and director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at Franciscan University of Steubenville, said writing the book has given her new appreciation for U.S. Catholicism.

“I haven’t been as excited about the religion as I am now,” she said. “There have been times when I was discouraged and I believed the media presentations of the religion as being in decline.”

The book “Renewal” focuses on areas where the Catholic Church is showing revitalization. Ordination rates to the priesthood are at a 20-year high, and the average age of new priests continues to decline. Ten years ago, the Church struggled under the weight of the clergy sexual abuse scandal; now many seminaries are at full capacity.

The new generation of priests consists of men who are “wholly committed” to their vocation and consider celibacy “a grace and benefit to ministry,” White said.

“They are unafraid to be counter-cultural,” he added. “I think in previous generations…you had individuals that in some ways wanted to straddle both worlds and in some ways make the priesthood and the Church as well conform to the ways of the world.”

He drew on his own experience as a convert to Catholicism, which was “very different” from what he had heard about the Catholic faith in his upbringing and in cultural commentary.

“If you would have asked me 10 years ago to describe the Catholic Church, [I would have said it was] a dated institution with a dying membership whose teachings were confusing, whose members were negligent in the practice of their faith.”

Attending church in Manhattan, he instead found “very solid” parishes with “dynamic” parish priests.

Both John Paul II and Benedict XVI helped provide “definitive interpretations” of the Second Vatican Council, the book’s authors continued. Unity and outspokenness among the bishops have increased, while dissenting Catholic factions have declined in prominence.

“Catholicism has always stood for something, but we didn’t always have bishops who were able to project that very well,” Hendershott said. “They seemed reticent, reluctant to talk about the truth of the religion. And now we have all these great priests and bishops that are talking about it. And they’re not
embarrassed about it, they’re not ashamed.”

The book emphasizes the role of bishops in creating a fruitful culture in their dioceses. It examines dioceses that have “transformational leaders,” outlining their best practices.

Bishops who are clear about Catholic teaching and “bold in defending the Church in the public square” attract more people, White said.

Hendershott stressed that Catholicism is not simply about morality and the Catechism. Rather, people are “drawn to the beauty of the religion.”

In dioceses where bishops can express this beauty through music, liturgy, and homilies, she said, “you are going to have flourishing vocations.”

She added that a demanding form of religion, rather than a lax one, tends to attract.

“The more a religion asks of believers, the more vibrant that religion will be. There’s got to be a reason for people to be part of a religion, or else they’ll just go to the movies,” she said, citing sociologist Rodney Stark.

Hendershott and White both see room for continued improvement, especially in Catholic higher education.

“Renewal is on the way, but we’re not fully there yet,” White said.

Many institutions of Catholic higher education need to do better in helping pass on the faith to future generations and encouraging new vocations, he said.

“We’ve got to get that right,” he emphasized.

The article New Book Examines ‘Vibrant’ Revival Of US Catholicism appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Alan Caruba

A President who thinks that extending unemployment compensation “creates jobs” is so out of touch with reality that it should come as no surprise that Obama has the worst record of unemployment rates since the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The latest employment figures for December showed that the economy only added 74,000 non-farm jobs, the fewest in three years! The government claims that the unemployment rate dropped 0.3%—the first time in 60 months that it dropped below 7%. And the official rate is bogus. The government only counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for work.

As of October 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported that “The U.S. now has 90.6 million ‘non-institutionalized’ men and women over the age of 16 not working—an all-time high. That’s 10 million above the 80.5 million when President Obama took office. With total unemployment at 144.3 million, for every three Americans over the age of 16 earning a paycheck there are two who aren’t even looking for a job. That’s an ugly portent for American prosperity.”

In a September 2013 edition of Investor’s Business Daily, Betsey McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and author of “Beating Obama-Care”, wrote that “After 4-1/2 years of the Obama presidency, an unprecedented number of Americans have given up looking for work, wages are stagnating, low-wage earners are suffering most and the U.S. is fast becoming a nation of part-time workers.”

You can thank Obamacare for the rise in part-time workers as it increased the cost of hiring full-time workers and many businesses have reduced the hours of workers to avoid incurring it. Obamacare is a job killer. From Jan 1 through July 31, 2013, 77% of jobs created were part-time. Fewer than one out of four people got hired for full-time jobs. This is the opposite of a normal economy.

The official Labor Department figure of seven percent (7%) unemployment is a fiction as it does not include the millions who have given up looking for work. Mort Zuckerman, the chairman and editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report, writing in a July 2013 edition of The Wall Street Journal, said “The unemployment figure so common in headlines these days is utterly misleading. An estimated 22 million Americans are unemployed or underemployed. That puts the real unemployment rate for June at 14.3%, up from 13.8% in May.”

McCaughey noted that since 2008 Congress has extended jobless benefits from a maximum of 26 weeks to as many as 99 weeks every year, but failed to do so for 2014. While benefits ended for more than 1.9 million unemployed, the President and Congress went on vacation.

Now the most important piece of legislation according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a three-month extension of benefits. In an election year, this is likely to be extended repeatedly as Republicans are being described as heartless and indifferent, but the facts reveal a President who has been responsible for the millions of unemployed.

According to Paul Harrington, the director of Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, “Back in 2007, 7% unemployment would seem disastrously high, but now it’s more like a humble brag.” For those that are working, the “fiscal cliff” agreement with Congress included an increase of the Social Security payroll tax that raised it from 4.2% to 6.2% which translates for a worker earning $30,000 a year to a loss of $50 a week less in take-home pay.

The percentage of Americans who have a job or are seeking one plunged to a 34-year-low in the spring of 2013 to 63%. Little wonder that a record number of Americans households saw their real income drop by $2,627 and the number of people in poverty increased by approximately 6,667,000 according to the Census Bureau.

A record 46,496,000 are now poor by government standards. This represents an increase of 16.73% from 2008 to 2012.

Obama’s policies have created a nation of millions on some form of government dole. By June 2013, a record 23,116,928 American households were enrolled in the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—AKA food stamps—according to data released by the Department of Agriculture. That outnumbers the population of the entire Northeastern United States or those living in the entire Western U.S.

By December 2013, the total number of people now receiving federal disability benefits hit a record 10,988,269, up from the previous record of 10,982,920 set in November, according to the Social Security Administration. The average monthly benefit was $1,146.43, an increase from the previous December. CNSNews.com reported that the number of Americans getting disability benefits exceeded the entire population of Greece. The number has increased every month for 202 straight months.

The poverty level has broken a 50-year record.

The poverty rate has stood at 15% for three consecutive years, the first time that has happened since the mid-1960s, famed for LBJ’s “war on poverty.” More than $20 trillion has been spent on poverty since then. Today the government spends nearly $1 trillion annually on 80 federal means-tested programs providing cash, food, housing, medical care, and targeted social services for the poor and low-income Americans.

The poverty level is defined by the government as an annual income of $23,492 for a family of four. The poverty is directly attributable in part to Obama’s failed efforts to improve the nation’s economy.

To put it in other terms, the U.S. spent $3.7 trillion on welfare over the past five years that Obama has been in office.

New research from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee, reported in October 2013, noted that “The enormous sum spent on means-tested assistance is nearly five times greater than the combined amount spent on NASA, education, and all federal transportation projects.

It isn’t even the entire amount because states contribute more than $200 billion each year, primarily in the form of low-income health care. And, of course, Obamacare has already produced an increase of those enrolling in Medicaid.

The statistics all add up to a nation in which Americans are worse off since the election and reelection of President Obama and we have another three years in which to endure his historic failure to turn around the economy. What can we expect from a President who thinks that unemployment compensation “creates jobs”?

The government does not “create jobs”; the private sector does that and, under Obama, it has been under attack with a vast increase in government regulations and policies that produce unemployment.

Is there “income inequality” in America? Yes, there always has been, but what Obama does not talk about is the “income mobility” that permits low income Americans to secure employment and higher wages when the economy is improving. It is another Big Lie from a President who is wedded to Marxist “solutions” that have never worked.

The article America’s Unemployment Sinkhole – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Arab News

By P.K. Abdul Ghafour

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that it would continue to impose a 20-percent cut in foreign pilgrims and a 50-percent reduction in domestic pilgrims during the upcoming Haj season.

“The government will continue to request foreign countries to slash the quota of their Haj pilgrims by 20 percent due to ongoing expansion works in Makkah and the holy sites,” said Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar.

Speaking to the Turkish Haj mission, he said the measure was taken upon directives issued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to ensure the safety and security of pilgrims.

Hajjar said Saudi Arabia would be able to host more pilgrims once the expansion works for the Grand Mosque and “mataf” are completed.

Saad Al-Qurashi, chairman of the National Committee for Haj and Umrah at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the early announcement of the government’s decision to reduce the number of Haj pilgrims would help Haj service companies and hotels avoid losses.

“We understand that this reduction will continue for one more year,” he told Arab News.
Last year, Haj service providers in Makkah and other cities suffered losses worth SR2 billion for renting hotel rooms, arranging food and purchasing plane tickets, especially because of the drastic reduction in the number of domestic pilgrims.

Khaled Al-Kaf, a manager of a Haj service company, said last year’s decision to cut the number of pilgrims came to them as a surprise. “The late decision had a negative impact on our Haj preparations,” he said.

Hajjar highlighted the success of the electronic track system applied on Haj pilgrims. “It enabled pilgrims to know the various services they would enjoy before arriving in the Kingdom.”

Hajjar said the electronic system has made things clear and transparent and the issuance of Haj visas faster. “It also ensures better services to pilgrims.”

The minister’s meeting with foreign Haj missions was aimed at making early preparations for the upcoming Haj season. Saudi Arabia has established about 70 offices worldwide to provide Haj-related services.

Hajjar emphasized the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Mehmet Gormez, head of religious affairs in Turkey and the country’s mission, commended Saudi Arabia’s efforts to improve Haj services.

“Saudi Arabia has been shouldering this great responsibility over the years with dedication and efficiency,” Gormez said.

He said the meeting would help the two sides make early arrangements for pilgrims. He stressed the importance of educating pilgrims about Haj-related matters prior to their arrival in Saudi Arabia.

The article Saudi Arabia Says 20% Cut In Quota For Foreign Hajis Stays appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Arab News

By Sabria S. Jawhar

There is a war on Saudi women these days that was impossible to conceive just a generation ago. Increasing sexual assaults, harassment in public places, blaming women for the ills of Saudi society, and now, according to a report published Friday, verbal abuse directed at wives.

It is all pretty disconcerting.

In my mother’s day, such abuse hardly existed. Although statistics are not available that addressed Saudi social demographics in the 1960s and 1970s, anecdotal evidence of the period suggest that fathers and husbands generally took their faith seriously and put an emphasis on harmonious family relationships.

Today, the family dynamics are radically different. The Internet, satellite television, the ease of traveling abroad and educational opportunities for women have changed the Saudi landscape.

The intellectual growth of women in education and at the workplace has had a profound impact on Saudis. And the consequences are, well, many people do not like it. These changes have pushed both men and women out of their comfort zones. Many women are embracing it.

Many men are not.

And as a result many people are acting out, betraying our Islamic faith and our obligations to Saudi society. And the abuse is heaped on women, who are benefiting the most from the changes in society. We see with sickening regularity video clips of men chasing women from malls into the parking lot. A man just the other day was videotaped reportedly molesting a young girl. So-called religious men advocate abusing women in the workplace so they will quit and return home.

Then we have a new poll from the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue, which found that a majority of the 992 men polled said that women wearing eyeliner and mascara are responsible for men sexually assaulting women. Typical victim blaming.

Part of the problem is that Saudi law enforcement remains mired in the 19th century and is far from catching up with 21st century technology and the 21st century lifestyle of Saudi youths.

The Saudi Ministry of Justice has been talking about codifying its legal system for years now, but we have seen little evidence of any intent to a standardize legal system that will make sexual assault, harassment and abuse illegal with real-world consequences.

Now, we have a new study that reports that 73 percent of all Saudi women suffer some form of verbal abuse. Verbal abuse is defined by the study as humiliating a wife in public, demanding that a woman be silent in public, threats of physical abuse, denigrating a woman’s personal appearances, using sexually explicit profanities against her, and not speaking her name. Sadly, 31 percent of the 285 women polled said they consider themselves responsible for their husband’s verbal abuse, while 17 percent apologize for their actions that purportedly caused the abuse.

There have been suggestions that Hollywood movies are to be blamed for the increase in verbal abuse of women. That is all pretty much hogwash since it allows men — like the guys who sexually assault women who wear too much eye makeup — off the hook for their behavior.

We have a neighbor next door to use who screams at his wife and children every single day, sometimes from morning until night. The daughters, whom all seem to be under 14, wear no makeup and are as quiet as mosque mice when they step out of the apartment on those rare occasions. The mother is never seen. The girls do not wear makeup, and given their age, I see no evidence that they deserve his reign of terror.

But what I do hear is the kids behaving in the same manner as their father. What I fear is the cycle of verbal abuse will be handed down from one generation to another. Those fathers who verbally abuse their wives and the brothers who harass women at malls and claim they were provoked into raping a woman are setting an example for the younger generation of men to wage war on women.

Answers can be found in Islam, but blaming western media and educated women who happen to wear makeup is the coward’s way out of solving the problem.

Email: sabria_j@hotmail.com

The article Stop Blaming Western Media For Hike In Gender Crimes – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Iran Review

By Massoud Mousavi Shafaei

The relentless expansion and universality of the globalization process, which has its roots in fundamental components of free market, has turned this phenomenon into the dominant face of the existing international system. The wide welcome given to this process has helped to create some kind of global consensus according to which the following general pattern is used to determine international status of individual countries: development ↔ wealth ↔ power. (1)

Under these conditions, and in order to maintain their legitimacy and survival, countries will have no other choice, but to enter a new development process through a globalized approach. Due to its specific geopolitical coordinates, Iran will not be certainly able to remain immune to these developments. At least part of the Iranian policymakers has already pointed to the necessity of initiating an extroversive development process. This conclusion is a result of their understanding of the aforesaid global developments, their knowledge of changes in international system following the termination of the world’s bipolar system, and their awareness of the requirements that emanate from the emergence of an integrated globalized economic system.

The main outcome of this awareness has been an effort which is aimed at turning “development” into a “goal” while still being a “means” for the promotion of the regional and international status of the country. Those who designed and formulated Iran’s 20-Year Perspective Plan had this issue clearly in mind. This large-scale instrument is a symbol of the necessity to pay attention and get attuned to the aforesaid global developments. The 20-Year Perspective Plan, which has been meant to provide a vision of the country’s all-out development up to 2025, has taken an inconspicuous approach to delineating large-scale national goals of the country by saying: “Iran [by 2025] is a developed country ranking the first in economic, scientific, and technological terms across the region, with an Islamic and revolutionary identity, a source of inspiration for the Islamic world and with constructive and effective interaction in international relations.”

The real nature of these goals clearly indicate that the national development drive in the country should not, and cannot, bear fruit through confrontation with the rest of the world. On the contrary, necessary resources and the stability, which is needed for the realization of developmental goals, can be only made available through constructive interaction with the rest of the world. Since achievement of the national sustainable development through a globalized approach based on constructive and effective interaction with the world has been announced as one of the main goals pursued by the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is necessary for the national development drive to become coordinated with the main development current in international system. A development-based approach to foreign policy can pave the way for the realization of this goal by improving the country’s relations with the rest of the world and paving the way for Iran to avail itself of available international facilities.

A developmental foreign policy is the same focal point in which “development, foreign policy, and globalization” fuse in a profound and powerful relationship. In case the aforesaid interaction is established with the rest of the world – as a prelude to achieving development and taking care of people’s welfare – then necessary grounds would be provided for more autonomy and promotion of the nation’ self-respect as two basic goals of the Iranian foreign policy. In fact, under present circumstances, every government’s potential and ability to move in the direction of relentless development, welfare, and progress has been taken as a solid basis against which the legitimacy and national security of a country is measured. On this basis, the Islamic Republic of Iran will have to undergo a period of transition to go past its current ideology-based and territory-based foreign policy principles toward an extroversive development process in order to be able to maintain its legitimacy and survive under the existing global conditions.

The requirement for the adoption of a developmental foreign policy approach by the Islamic Republic of Iran stems from pressures on the country from two interdependent and powerful phenomena; that is, globalization and development. Such pressures are simultaneously put on the country at two foreign (international) and domestic (national) levels. As a result, for the Islamic Republic, the adoption of a developmental approach to foreign policy is not an option anymore, but an inevitability, which is directly related to the very foundations of the legitimacy and national security of the Islamic Establishment and helps it to continue its political life.

A developmental foreign policy, as its name denotes, considers its main mission to be paving the way for the realization of the goals that a country seeks through the process of sustainable development. In other words, such a policy is, in fact, one of the main tools at the hands of a development-oriented government which it uses to achieve three main goals of “attracting international resources for development,” “establishing and maintaining stability in the country’s security environment,” and “creating a positive image of the country as a collective opportunity.” In general, a developmental foreign policy approach is based on the promotion of cooperation and coordination at international level. Of course, giving priority to cooperation in this policy as well as avoiding tension and confrontation with international system can, by no means, be taken as equivalent to unconditional submission to the status quo in international arena. On the contrary, this policy seeks to make gradual and reformist changes in international system in line with the country’s national interests by taking good advantage of international laws and regulations and also by promoting consensus on this issue among allied countries.

Massoud Mousavi Shafaei
Assistant Professor of Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran

Notes:

(1) To better understand the dominant face of the existing international system, one should go well beyond the ideas as well as security and military atmosphere rife in the Middle East and take into account a macro image of the general situation in a world which is based, more than anything else, on the quest for more development and welfare.

The article Developmental Foreign Policy: An Iranian View – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Al Bawaba News

Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour, who promised that the “new constitution will establish a modern civil state,” said the country’s new leader will have “full powers,” without detailing what these powers are in a television address on Sunday.

Mansour said Egypt “is currently facing a ferocious attack,” without specifying the attackers.

He warned about those who misunderstand Islam and “legalize bloodshed” of the Egyptian people, urging for a more moderate understanding of Islam.

Mansour added: “We are in a dire need to renew the religious discourse to safeguard our Islamic values and its principles, and to get rid of this religious polarization.”

“The Egyptian security forces are watchful, and victory is inevitably coming,” he said.

He also urged Egyptians “to lead the ship of the nation to the shores of safety” and vote for the new constitution in which “moderate” Islam was used as a base for legislation.

But as Adly urged Egyptians to go to the referendum, hundreds of student supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammad Mursi battled security forces Sunday at three Cairo universities.

The protests took place two days before the referendum, scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday that officials said will be protected by a massive deployment of soldiers and police.

Egypt’s more than 52 million voters will decide whether to support amendments to the constitution initially drafted under Mursi’s Brotherhood-led administration.

After Mursi’s ouster on July 3, two panels dominated by secular-leaning politicians and legal experts later rewrote the charter.

The passing of the referendum would give legitimacy to the interim government and a boost to a military-backed plan for presidential and parliamentary elections.

Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood group and its allies stepped up confrontations in the streets ahead of the vote.

Students at Cairo and Ain Shams universities marched off campus, burned tires and blocked main roads, the Associated Press reported, adding that riot police fired tear gas and students responded by hurling stones.

In one incident, witnesses said the students set a police vehicle and a traffic post on fire.

Students at the Islamic al-Azhar University also protested. Police arrested 19 protesters for blocking traffic, said a security official who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Original article

The article Egypt’s New Leader Will Have ‘Full Power’ appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By RFA

Soldiers in Cambodia’s far northwestern Banteay Meanchey province have accused their commanders of blatant corruption, nepotism and fraud, saying they were ripping off veterans of their pensions and running an illegal logging business using military vehicles along the border with Thailand.

The soldiers made their accusations against sub-regional commander Plong Dara and his deputy, Keo Senglorn in a 16-page complaint to local rights group Adhoc.

Thirty-nine soldiers affixed their thumbprint signature in the complaint statement, saying they represented the whole of Banteay Meanchey’s provincial armed forces.

Sources close to the soldiers said that they had filed complaints previously to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet and to the Ministry of Defense, relevant military institutions and the Anti-Corruption Unit but to no avail.

Instead, after the complaints, 20 soldiers were fired, the sources said.

“It was all about money,” a soldier, who asked not to be named, told RFA’s Khmer Service. “They [the commanders] bribed the Ministry of Defense’s Inspectors” to avoid being detected, the soldier said.

Defense official accused

The sources accused the Ministry of Defense’s secretary of state Neang Phat of abetting the commanders and firing the soldiers who had filed the complaints earlier.

“Neang Phat helped fire those soldiers to eliminate evidence,” they said.

RFA tried calling Plong Dara about the complaint but he hung up on the reporter.

The soldiers also attached documents showing that the salaries of soldiers had been cut without any reasons for several years.

The documents also listed “phantom” names of soldiers and suggested that the commanders were stealing pensions from retired soldiers and family members of soldiers who have died, and exploiting the benefits of 159 disabled soldiers.

The names of the soldiers whose salaries were compromised were identified in the complaint.

They also accused the commanders of using military property, including trucks, for their personal business. They cited instances where military trucks had been used to transport luxury wood illegally from Thailand.

“On Dec. 4 and 6 [last year], Plong Dara ordered soldiers in Camp 505 to transport wood using six vehicles from Thailand to Sereisophoan for his private business,” they said in the complaint, which also accused the commander of encroaching on military land.

Abuse

Adhoc provincial coordinator Sum Chankea called on the Ministry of Defense to investigate the allegations, saying the commanders had abused the law and should be suspended pending the probe.

“If this problem continues, it will affect the morale of the soldiers who have sacrificed for the country,” he said, citing the questionable salary cuts as an example.

Another soldier told RFA that before any investigation, the commanders must be temporarily suspended so that investigators would be able gather more information on the various cases implicating them, such as ordering soldiers to bring in luxury wood from Thailand.

The soldier claimed that Thai soldiers had shot and killed some of the Cambodian soldiers who were forced to carry out the illegal logging.

Cambodia is the most corruption nation in Southeast Asia, according to the latest survey by Transparency International. In a world ranking, it placed 160th among 177 countries.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

The article Cambodian Military Commanders Accused Of Fraud, Corruption appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Asian Correspondent

By Graham Land

Regarding industrialization, economic growth and liberalization, I once heard Vietnam described as “China on steroids”. In terms of the environment, that statement conjures up nightmarish scenarios. Sure, Vietnam, like China, may be talking the talk and even sometimes walking the walk in terms of “green growth strategies”, but what have been the actual results?

Objectives from Vietnam’s official National Green Growth Strategy:

The period 2011-2020: Reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions by 8-10% as compared to the 2010 level; reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 1-1.5% per year. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy activities by 10% to 20% compared to the business as usual case. This commitment includes a voluntary reduction of approximately 10%, and an additional 10% reduction with additional international support.

If Vietnam is anything like China, green growth is accompanied  – and eclipsed – by even more pollution, climate forcing and industrial growth. So I’d be surprised if things are moving in the above-described direction.

On the positive spin side, Vietnam is also home to a massive billion-dollar Intel plant, which reportedly operates under environmental standards far stricter than required under Vietnamese law. These standards help Western multinationals and Vietnamese suppliers save energy while offsetting CO2, according to several large companies operating in Vietnam.

From the New York Times:

Intel, for example, has reduced its global energy bill by $111 million since 2008 as a result of $59 million worth of sustainability investments in 1,500 projects worldwide, Ms. Boger [Intel’s plant manager] said. The projects have offset carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the amount produced by 126,000 American households per year, she added, and Intel’s $1.1 million solar array at the Vietnam facility offsets each day an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to that emitted by about 500 of Vietnam’s motorbikes.

But if environmental standards are going to be largely dictated by the private sector, that doesn’t say much for the enforcement of Vietnam’s own environmental policies, nor does the highly informal and therefore dangerous nature of some of its growth industries, for example e-waste.

We should keep in mind that most of Vietnam’s “recycling”, like in much of the developing world, is rudimentary. This means that it isn’t carried out by established organizations, whether governmental or private, that collect reusable waste. It is rather done by poor individuals, who thereby risk their health and wellbeing by dealing with potentially toxic materials in unregulated circumstances. For example, e-waste in Vietnam has increased massively in recent years.

From Vietnam Net:

According to the Science & Environment Institute, belonging to the Hanoi University of Technology, e-waste accounted for 1,630 tons in 2005, and since 2010 the figure has been 61,000-113,000 tons per annum.

Also according to VITTEP, more than 92 percent of the units that collect, carry and store e-waste do not have licenses. Of these, 97 percent are private run establishments with tiny operation scale, which do not meet the environment requirements.

While e-waste collection centers do exist in Vietnam, some 70-85% of people sell their e-waste to unregulated scrap iron dealers instead.

In other news, Vietnam recently came to an arrangement in which the World Bank will buy carbon credit from small Vietnamese hydroelectricity plants. Hopefully these dams won’t choke off any important tributaries, placing poor villagers in peril. In the past Vietnam has put pressure on neighboring Laos to be cautious when developing the Mekong dam project.

The article In The Shadow Of China: Vietnam’s ‘Green’ Industry – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Andy Worthington

On the 12th anniversary of the opening of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, I can think of no better person to remind the world of the ongoing injustice of the prison than Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in Guantánamo, who has persistently challenged the cruelty and idiocy of his captors in the most articulate manner.

I have been writing about Shaker, who has been cleared for release since 2007, and who longs to be reunited with his wife and his four children in south London, for many years, and last year, when the men still held embarked on a prison-wide hunger strike to remind the world of their plight, Shaker’s words — issued via Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the legal action charity Reprieve, following phone calls with Shaker — regularly provided a powerful and informative commentary on the realities of life in the prison, as can readily be ascertained from the following accounts: From Guantánamo, Shaker Aamer Tells His Lawyer Disturbing Truths About the Hunger Strike, “People Are Dying Here,” Shaker Aamer Reports from Guantánamo, As Petition Calling for His Release Secures 100,000 Signatures and From Guantánamo, Shaker Aamer Tells BBC He Is “Falling Apart Like An Old Car”, as well as Shaker’s own op-eds in the Observer (in May), the Guardian (in June) and the Huffington Post (in November). Please also check out the CBS “60 Minutes” broadcast from Guantánamo, which was powerfully hijacked by Shaker shouting from his cell to attract the attention of Lesley Stahl.

Via Clive, Shaker has provided a statement that will be read out at today’s protest outside the White House, which I will be posting here very soon, but for now it’s my great pleasure to cross-post Shaker’s latest op-ed, as published last Sunday in the Observer, in which he reflected on his own dehumanization by his captors, and also highlighted the extent to which the US has betrayed the values it once upheld in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the basis of “national security” — which, sadly, has in fact been used by the authorities for 12 years as an excuse for numerous criminal activities for which no one has been held accountable, and which continue to keep 155 men at Guantánamo, mostly without charge or trial, and even though 77 of them have been cleared for release.

In Guantánamo, ‘national security’ rides roughshod over human rights
By Shaker Aamer, The Observer, January 5, 2014

The military justifies its actions by claiming to protect the US — but it is also violating the constitution it is meant to uphold

The language that they use here at Guantánamo reflects how they treat us prisoners. Just the other day, they referred to me as a “package” when they moved me from my cell. This is nothing new. I have been a package for 12 years now. I am a package when en route to Camp Echo, the solitary confinement wing. I am a package en route to a legal call. “The package has been picked up … the package has been delivered.”

It is not enough that we are called packages. At best, we are numbers. I worry that when I come home that my children will call for “Daddy”, and I will sit unmoving. I am 239. I even refer to myself as 239 these days. I am not sure when I will ever be anything else. It is much easier to deny human rights to those who are not deemed to be “human”.

I have been reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) so I could mark it with the violations the US government commits against us in this facility at Guantánamo Bay. I have been studying each article and on virtually every occasion I have noted how the US military is doing the opposite. After going through all of the articles, I have identified one underlying motive that leads the US to violate the whole declaration.

It is national security. This is the coathanger the government uses to suspend all of these rights. It is always a matter of national security. The US military violates its own constitution. What is almost sadder is to watch the rest of the world credulously accept that the US government has good reason to jettison the very liberties that the US constitutional convention felt were so important — all in the name of protecting those same rights. At the same time, they conduct a daily charade here in Guantánamo — they stage everything that visitors see, and they brag about how well this place is run. What shameless people they are.

In all of this, the US sows the seeds of its own destruction. Prior to 9/11, few people paid any attention to what is called “Islamic extremism”. Since that time, many people have paid no attention to anything else. What is called “extremism” has nothing to do with a correct interpretation of Islam. Yet Guantánamo is the archetypal example of US hypocrisy, a hypocrisy that is provoking people to turn to extremism. How, for example, can the US purport to export the rule of law to Afghanistan or Iraq when the US tramples on the law at home?

So as I studied the UDHR it was not enough that I should recognise that the US military has instituted a GDNHR — Guantánamo Declaration of No Human Rights. I felt I also had to understand why this was: national security, national security, national security.

It is time for the world to wake up and smell the coffee (or, in the case of English people, you might want to wake up and smell the tea). If we want to preserve and foster peace, we must reject the coathanger of national security, and turn once again towards justice.

The article Shaker Aamer In Guantánamo: I Am ’239,’ A ‘Package’; If My Children Call Me Daddy, Will I Know Who I Am? – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Richard Silverstein

There are two divergent tracks that the Sharon obituaries are taking in the media today: either he was a war criminal or a hero of the nation.  Max Blumenthal writes in The Nation offering a suitably grisly obituary that hits all the notes in Sharon’s brutish past.  He reminds us of the thousands of Arab soldiers and civilians from Egypt to Lebanon (and everywhere in between) who were ruthlessly killed to achieve his political or military objectives.  His Hebrew nickname was “The Bulldozer,” perhaps a suitable reference to his days as undisputed national champion of the settlements and Greater Land of Israel.  But we might think more aptly of the D-9 armored bulldozer that murdered Rachel Corrie.  Sharon was a figure who mowed down anyone who stood in his way, whether Arab or Israeli.

On the other side, then there’s Rep. Deborah Wasserman-Schultz’s over the top tweet featured here with shout-outs to Amb. Ron Dermer and @Israel, the Israeli foreign ministry’s “digital diplomacy team”:

May G-d console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. Rest in peace, Ariel Sharon

There is also this piece of typically borderline liberal Zionist hagiography by Ethan Bronner in which he makes this false statement about what he calls Sharon’s “barrier”:

It not only reduced infiltration by militants into Israel but also provided the outline of a border with a future Palestinian state, albeit one he envisioned as having limited sovereignty.

Though terror attacks from the West Bank declined, the Wall had almost nothing to do with it. Further, the Wall provides the “outline” of a border only if you accept Israel’s theft of 15% of the overall territory of Palestine by means of fence-fiat.

Ronen Bergman writes a much more nuanced portrait of Sharon’s weaknesses and strengths, though he ultimately accepts the perspective of Israeli liberals who saw Sharon as the DeGaulle of Israel.  A strongman, ex-general who would miraculously rescue the nation from itself and make peace with its enemies. While this is an attractive narrative, especially for those who despair of Israel ever making its way out of its miasma, it ultimately grants Sharon more credit than he deserves, since he never got to realize this dream. Thus we can never know if he would:

If Mr. Sharon had not had a stroke in 2006…he would most likely have reached a peace agreement with the Palestinians. And he would have used his powerful personality and irresistible drive, as well as the widespread affection he had acquired among his people, to force the right-wing settler movement to accept it.

This time, I have no doubt, Mr. Sharon would indeed have saved Israel — mainly from itself.

I am not as sanguine as Bergman. Sharon may’ve reached a peace agreement. He was strong and wily enough to have done it had he wanted to. Certainly, an argument can be made that this was the direction in which he was headed just before his fatal stroke. But the truth is, we’ll never know. I, for one, am not prepared to say that a leader with as brutal and unpredictable a past as Sharon definitely would’ve done something that would’ve marked such a radical break with his political and ideological past (making peace with the Palestinians).

This argument made on Sharon’s behalf is similar to one made, and more justifiably in his case, in favor of Yizhak Rabin: had he lived, he would’ve transformed Oslo into a real and lasting peace. Though Rabin too had a ruthless streak and past, it seems to me more credible to believe Rabin could’ve made such a break and negotiated a peace deal with the Palestinians. But again we’ll never know. And the truth is that each of these leaders had horrific crimes in their past, which don’t allow us to predict exactly how much they could’ve or might’ve changed had they lived.

Unlike Bergman, I find it difficult to write or think anything positive. I can remember when I was a graduate student at the Hebrew University in 1980 riding on a public bus past a government office in Jerusalem and seeing a mock tank placed outside it by protesters who feared Sharon would mount a military coup to attain power. Israeli liberals saw Sharon then (and really for many decades) as evil incarnate. Even Menachem Begin didn’t trust Sharon (though he later relented and named him defense minister, a decision he undoubtedly regretted for the rest of his life after Sabra and Shatilla).  In the accompanying article from Maariv during that same year, Begin is quoted saying he wouldn’t name Sharon defense minister because he was likely to “find tanks circling the prime minister’s office.” It’s hard for me to believe anything constructive could come out of such a person.

We don’t know what he might’ve done had he lived. But my sense is that Israel is in such a desperate state that if anyone could’ve saved the country from itself, it was him. He was the sort of larger than life figure who could’ve, had he been convinced it was an existential necessity, carried all opposition before him in favor of a peace agreement. Settlers, his former ideological mates in the Likud, all would’ve been swept away by the forcefulness of his personality.

The question is whether Sharon could’ve freed himself enough from his past to understand what was truly necessary to get an agreement. He might’ve, instead, been happy to offer the sort of bantustan plan Bibi is hoping will come out of the current round of peace negotiations. But that would not and will not be enough to satisfy Palestinian demands. Would Sharon have agreed to return essentially to 1967 borders (with territorial adjustments) with Jerusalem as capital of two states? Would he have been able to come to an agreement on the issue of refugees?

Those of us who have always had and continue to have hope for Israel would like to think so. But the evidence since his coma in 2006 points away from this. Instead, it points to an Israel hell-bent for disaster, if not self-destruction. Therefore, pondering the “what-ifs” around Sharon’s life and death is a luxury almost too painful to contemplate.

Finally, I first heard this passage from Bertholt Brecht quoted in an article penned by a famed Hebrew University history professor.  It is as apt today as it was thirty years ago when I first read it:

Andrea: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.
Galileo: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.

Israel is a land that desperately needs a hero.  It is a land that might’ve bred such a one had Sharon lived and fulfilled the dreams of some of those who believed in him (“might” in this case promising more than one has any right to expect).  But it is ultimately now bereft even of that possibility.  A land with no hope of a hero.

This article appeared at Tikun Olam

The article Ariel Sharon: War Criminal Or Savior Of The Nation? – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Pambazuka News

By Jok Madut Jok

South Sudan is at a crossroads. The government might have to swallow its pride and reward Riek Machar‘s unconstitutional and deadly political actions. Any attempt to punish him could backfire terribly. But this option has its own dangers as well

INTRODUCTION

The unfolding unrest in South Sudan, beginning with the events of December 15, 2013 in Juba when fighting broke out within the presidential guard and spread to Greater Upper Nile within two days, may not have been exactly predictable, but it was not entirely surprising. Surely, the abrupt nature of it, the scale of violence within a single military unit, the rapid spread to other branches of the armed forces in other states, the speed at which it begun to take on ethnic overtones and the death toll of over 1,000 people, many of them civilians, has shocked the population. How South Sudan seemed to have gone from one day of confidence that it would weather the political disagreements within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the country’s ruling party, to the next day of near total unraveling was definitely terrifying for Juba residents. It has also caught the international community within the country – represented by the United Nations, European Union, African Union and various diplomatic missions – totally off guard.

Most alarmed by these developments were neighboring countries in East Africa and theHorn. Uganda scrambled to intervene and the Prime Minister of Ethiopia Haile MariamDeslaigne and the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta descended on Juba on December 26to explore any possibilities of mediating a dialogue between President Salva Kiir Mayardit and his wayward Vice President, Riek Machar Teny, who is now heading what is increasingly referred to as a rebellion, which the government says followed a failed coup attempt. The Inter-Governmental Agency on Development (IGAD), a regional grouping that has been central to peace negotiations of Sudanese conflicts before South Sudan’s Independence and understands the complexities of the conflicts more than few other bodies do, convened a summit in Nairobi on December 27, 2013 in order to explore how to end the mayhem that has already caused huge casualties in revenge attacks by the Nuer on the Dinka in Unity, Jonglei and Upper Nile states for the attacks against the Nuer that were orchestrated in Juba by government soldiers.
President Kiir attended the Nairobi summit but Mr. Machar is still difficult to reach, somewhere deep in the swamps of the Upper Nile’s Sudd.

These talks will now be held, as the delegations have began to travel to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, but their success to produce anything will remain in question, given Riek Machar’s pre-conditions. Whether the countries of East Africa have any capacity to pressure the two parties into some kind of a deal is also in question. It is unclear what buttons the IGAD countries will push against South Sudanese in order to pressure them into first agreeing to an immediate ceasefire and then into an agreement to end the conflict. President Salva Kiir, representing the state, might be threatened with regional isolation if he shows any intransigence, but little can be done to pressure Mr. Machar, someone whose endgame is undeclared and a non-state actor with very little to lose. Perhaps threats to use force against him might be the only way to pressure him into peace talks, but that also depends on whether he thinks he can engage the Juba government in a civil war and what the source of his strength might be. Topics for the peace talks also depend on his explanation of the origins of this conflict. Whether or not this situation was triggered by a failed coup attempt is now a mood point. The priority now is how to get the country out of this mess and back onto its path to stability and development. Peaceful dialogue is the only viable approach, but what is to be discussed at such talks, what could possibly end the violence immediately and what the role of the international community beyond east Africa should be are some of the questions that remain unclear at this stage.

WHAT CAUSED THIS CRISIS?

Many former politicians turned analysts and critics in Juba were quick to deny that this was a coup attempt. Peter Adwok Nyaba, former Minister of Higher Education, who was sacked when President Kiir replaced his entire cabinet in July 2013, has offered his version of “root causes,” of the Juba incident, saying that it was the President who had become suspicious of his critics and decided to disarm the Nuer within his presidential guard, the Tiger Battalion, which the Nuer officers resisted and the whole affair got out of hand. This explanation is entirely implausible in view of the recent political activity that had seen many SPLM heavyweights, including Mr. Machar, the SPLM deputy chairman who was also the country’s Vice President until that July wholesale sacking, criticizing the president for his “dictatorial tendencies.” They had recently seen their party positions dissolved by the chairman on account that they had mismanaged the party. In view of this growing opposition to Salva Kiir from a cross-section of politicians who had lost power, an opposition the president had seemed to respect and tolerate as their constitutional right, and was never hindered in any fashion, there was no reason for the president to then suddenly accuse them falsely of a coup, not least in the midst of the congress of the National Liberation Council, the ruling party’s legislative body. Nor is it logical that these groups should also suddenly opt for a coup after having been granted apolitical platform to use for a more civil competition for the reins of power. In short, there are signs that a change of government was planned and yet it would have been a very sloppy coup, making it questionable that these people had actually planned a coup.

It is perhaps important to explore the above-mentioned squabbles within the ruling party as part of the genesis of the current crisis, especially the reaction of Kiir’s government to the calls for reforms that were made by the party leaders he had fired from both the party leadership and the SPLM-led government. These party officials, many of whom had been members of the party’s highest organ, the Political Bureau, and had been demanding thatPresident Kiir, himself the chairman of the party, convenes a meeting of the PoliticalBureau to sort out the differences between the chairman and over two-thirds of its members. These leaders held a press conference on December 6th, 2013 in which they accused the president of running the party in ways that violated the party constitution. The press conference called for convening the Political Bureau in order to organize the agenda for the meeting of the National Liberation Council, the party’s legislature. But instead of responding to what seems like a legitimate constitutional right of the people who held the press conference, the president instructed his deputy, Vice President James Wani Igga, to issue a very crude response in which he dismissed outright their claims and accused them of being “disgruntled” for their loss of power. When the current crisis began, the president did not help the situation and the image of his government when he appeared in military fatigue to deliver his statement in the wake of the revolt, signaling his readiness for a military confrontation. So it is fair to say that the demand for reforms within the party and the president’s frustration of these demands was a clear factor in this crisis.

BUT DID THESE POLITICAL DIFFERENCES HAVE TO TURN VIOLENT?

Our investigation shows that there were two streams of thinking in this quickly forming opposition body, with multiple aspiring leaders. The first stream is the one involving Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior (the widow of the SPLA/M former leader, the late John Garang de Mabior), Pagan Amum Okiech, the sacked Secretary General of the SPLM, Deng Alor Kuol, the former Minister of Cabinet Affairs and few others, all of whom seem to be committed to a civil political battle to replace the president, whether through some sort of a deal within the party or through the 2015 general elections. The second stream involves the former Vice President Riek Machar Teny, Taban Deng Gai, the former elected governor of Unity State, who was fired by the president in May 2013 and who is extremely angry for the unconstitutional presidential decree that removed him, and a number of senior military officers commanding divisions in Bor, Bentiu, and Malakal. While Taban Deng Gai, an ardent loyalist to President Kiir then, was a recent recruit to this group, Riek had been planning to depose the president by force for quite some time, and was ready to take action if his political alliances with the other group did not bear fruit. Each of the two groups participated in the alliance without revealing what each had in mind, as they were both joined together by a common goal, the removal of President Kiir, but with varying approaches. They were bound to fail given multiple competing leadership aspirations, however.

In the hours leading up to the night of the revolt, these personalities were all still together, deciding to boycott the last day of proceedings of the NLC, with the political action to depose the president looking rather unlikely. So Riek Machar made his move without telling the others, as he was unsure all along if the rest would support him to become the head of the pack. One of the officers who was in on the uprising within Tiger Battalion lined up a number of his immediate officers and executed them by himself and the fighting broke out inside the main military command center, known to locals as al-Qayada, located to the southwest of Juba town. By 11 PM, hell broke loose and Juba residents could not hear anything else but gun and artillery sound for the rest of the night, all day and all night Monday and all the way until about 3:30 pm on Tuesday when the government forces finally neutralized the revolting forces. Meanwhile Riek Machar had slipped out of the town on Monday morning around 4 AM, leading to speculations that he had taken refuge in the United States Embassy, then it was the United Kingdom High Commission, or perhaps the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. By evening time, word had trickled back to Juba that he had trekked north together with Taban Deng Gaiand Alfred Lado Gore, former minister of environment, with the plan to join up with military officers in Jonglei who had already planned to echo the actions of their Juba-based leadership. On Tuesday Riek Machar went from denying knowledge or any involvement in any coup to being the leader of the rebellion, almost overnight, which would have been quite an about-face if he had indeed been truthful about being unaware of a coup plan.

Many local analysts and people in the media have been reflecting on these events and have been able to tease out some of the signs that the intense competition for political power within the ruling SPLM was bound to spark violence, as it was likely to touch the wounds of the last three decades of liberation wars during which South Sudanese had turned guns against one another over leadership of the movement. Those moments of violence during the liberation period, though often extremely destructive, particularly to ethnic relations, were often patched up or swept under the rug in the interest of keeping the eyes on the common goal, but they were never sufficiently resolved and far too many communities were left wanting for justice. One of such moments was the 1991 split in the SPLA, in which Riek Machar and Lam Akol Ajawin, then senior deputies to John Garang, attempted to depose the latter and sparked massacres in Jonglei state. This revolt happened in the midst of war against the government in Khartoum, and led to a prolonged and destructive conflict. It saw Machar ordering massacres against the Dinka of Jonglei state, which gave rise to a protracted Dinka-Nuer conflict for the subsequent seven years. In the end and despite the reunification of the SPLA, no one was held accountable to this incident, and many others similar to it, and there was no recompense to the affected citizens. This set the precedent for the kind of politics whereby the political ambition of the individual or small groups of individuals translates into efforts to gain power by force. It is this history that has the whole country standing on edge, as the risks of a repeat of1991 are written all over the current row and are all too scary to fathom.

When the current mayhem started, many people were reminded of these historical incidents, and some individuals, especially soldiers who had escaped or survived them, reacted with the pain of those memories in mind and heart as their moral compass. The revolt and subsequent clashes resulted in hundreds of deaths of both soldiers and civilians, partly due to avenging of past actions, as some of these soldiers read the situation as being yet another chapter in Riek Machar’s ethnic-based struggle for power. As a matter of fact, many soldiers fought nearly completely without commanding officers to direct them or to prevent them from going overboard, as many of them were caught off-guard by the fighting and simply ran into the fight in a random manner. That is what led to the excesses that are now being reported as state-sponsored killings.

Also related to this confrontation is another aspect of the liberation wars that brought the independence of South Sudan in 2011. This aspect concerns the failure of the post-war development programs to meet the dividends that the citizens highly expected going into independence. Poverty and dashed aspirations are linked to this; and so are the security situation, isolation of various communities from one another due to poor infrastructure, denying them the opportunity to interact with one another at market places or travel across ethnic lines with ease. Negative stereotypes that various ethnic nationalities harbor about one another have also created a barrier to social interaction, cross-ethnic marriages and sharing of space. When small disagreements happen between communities that are separated, these stereotypes become the only references upon which to base their reactions.

It is evident that the Juba incident that eventually ushered in what seems to be a Dinka-Nuer killing and counter-killing has exposed the fragility of the new state that many had been pointing out since long before independence. It has also shown serious challenges regarding social cohesion and national unity across ethnic lines, something the stability of the country cannot be ensured without. It has shown fragility of the democratic processes, the result of which is that when some politicians fail to get a path to office, they still have the capacity to resort to violence and attract their tribesmen to their side. This was unsurprising due to the absorption of large militia forces from the many rebellions in Greater Upper Nile into the (SPLA), the liberation army now turned national defense force.

The government of Salva Kiir Mayardit had reasoned, quite convincingly, that absorbing these militias and rewarding their leaders with high ranks in the army was a reasonable price to pay for stability of the country. But this policy of trying to gain peace by accommodating every militia force quickly started to appear much more costly than was anticipated, especially on two accounts. First is the swelling of the army ranks with one ethnic group, the Nuer, who make up over 50% of the total national defense force. Second, it made the SPLA officer corps very unhappy with the placing of former rebel leaders above them in rank. This policy was also criticized for arguably weakening the military professionalism that was already challenged by the SPLA’s background as a guerrilla army trying to transform itself into a professional one.
The post-war and post-independence security situation in the country put the government in a serious bind. On the one hand, the multiplicity of militia forces from Unity and Jonglei states particularly meant that the nascent state would not have an opportunity to build peace, reconcile its people and focus on developing its resources for the benefit of its population that had been long affected by war and violence. Striking peace deals with these militias was the only immediately viable way forward. But on the other hand, inviting all of them into the national army meant compromising on the endeavors to professionalize the armed forces, as many members of these militias were hardly ever disciplined enough to be part of a professional national defense force. Instead, they simply saw the army as the quickest way to salaried employment and joined even without proper training as soldiers.

The result was that the army was made up of an amalgamation of previously warring factions, with no institutional culture or common ethos to which all soldiers subscribe. There was no coherent or unified command hierarchy and no respect for a central command. An additional side problem was that many young people who had not even been part of the militias were able to join some of them right on the eve of absorptions, taking advantage of the opportunity to get themselves absorbed into the army without prior background in military discipline.

This policy splits public opinion. Some, in agreement with President Kiir, see it as the most viable solution to what had become a complex security reality of a country emerging from prolonged militarization. They see it as a minor price for stability. Others see it as a liability, both in terms of the price tag of constant increases in the size of the army and in terms of the security consequences of such a mismatched army, where the officers of the original SPLA grumble about having their former foes becoming their commanders.

These issues may not have caused the violence currently underway, but they contributed to its escalation, and have not been given the attention so many people had been calling for over the past two years. The Sudd Institute has been ringing alarm bells since its founding in 2012 about the poor management of the security situation of the country, lack of reckoning with the history of ethnic relations that had been wrecked by long liberation wars, limited attention to the swelling ranks of unemployed youth and the urban bias that had left the swath of rural populations unable to share in peace dividends. Samuel Wassara of Juba University has also recently pointed to an additional issue that may have contributed to the current crisis, and that is the issue of political apathy among political parties, analysts and civil society, to not have spoken louder about the wrong direction the country had been taking. Public political apathy may have been born of the narrow political space prevailing in the country, but it gave the government leaders the opportunity to be complacent about reforms. A case had been made that these were all part of a ticking bomb that could unravel the gains of independence any minute. It was only a matter of time before any incident could set off that bomb. So what was the trigger that sparked the explosion on December 15th?

The Citizen Newspaper reports that they have evidence that Riek Machar has been planning to take power in Juba since 2005, having always seen himself as being more qualified for the top job than President Kiir. His return to the SPLM after thirteen years since he broke away in 1991 was only made possible by his own self-imagining to rise to the top. It was also made possible by compromises that President Kiir had struck with most of the leaders that had been opposed to late Garang. Riek was accommodated in order to bring him back into the fold, so as to unite South Sudanese ranks for the purpose of working together for the secession referendum and the independence. But as soon as he rejoined the SPLM, becoming the Vice President, he was given responsibility over many national tasks, building of institutions and a number of foreign policy roles. One of these roles was effort to mediate the conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)and the Ugandan government. It was in this context that he started planning for his political ambitions to take power in South Sudan at some point. This is where he forged secret deals with other military personalities within the region and beyond. But perhaps what shocked most people, despite the fact that Machar is no stranger to the use of violence to try to gain power, was that he would continue on this path after spending the last year talking to South Sudanese about national reconciliation and peace-building. It was also particularly disappointing that Machar and some of his colleagues, most of whom were arrested in the wake of the outbreak of violence, began their quest for political changes through peaceful means, holding a rally on December 6, 2013, but still chose the way of violent conflict in the end.

POWER POLITICS OR TRIBAL WARS?

The question that has recently bedeviled the media and various analysts covering the tragically unfolding situation in South Sudan is the question of whether or not this has anything to do with ethnicity or tribal hatreds. My answer to this question is that, while ethnic politics in South Sudan is complex and is undeniably part of everyday sociopolitical life, there is no doubt that it has sometimes been overplayed in analyzing the recent developments. But the real question is not so much about ethnic identity fueling violence but rather the mechanisms by which ethnic relations get deployed in the contest between politicians that are vying for control of the state and the services it provides. Put another way, is it ethnic identities that get politicized or the political competitions that get ethnicized?

Historically, conflict within South Sudan has taken three forms: the liberation wars in which the south fought the north in the old Sudan; ethnic feuds over resources, especially among cattle herding communities; and rivalries between political leaders. With the independence of South Sudan in 2011, the liberation wars against Khartoum are now over. Ethnic feuds, despite the occasional stamping of politics with an ethnic hue, remain relatively easy to reconcile in the context of traditional cultures, and are often confined to the ethnic groups directly involved and rarely affecting the rest of the country. The most devastating stream is that of political wrangling among various leaders vying for power, whether at the national or state level, as politicians sometimes become desperate, unable or unwilling to make political gains by focusing on ideas, and as a consequence reach for the ethnic card, drawing their kin into conflict by explaining to them that it is the survival of the whole group that is at stake. In this sense, the last two trends, the ethnic composition of the country and the political rivalries, are interlinked, and they are at the root of what happened in Juba on December 15th.

The ongoing clashes, the consequence of which are the country’s disunity, continued instability and lack of reconciliation, reveal how some individuals are either possessed by misconceived ideas about why the fighting broke out on December 15th or engage in deliberate exploitation of these incidents to score political points. These can only further fan the flames of destruction, all because these individuals are seizing on the fragile ethnic relations that were weakened by decades of war. The fact that such individuals can commit such ethnic-based atrocious acts or rally large numbers of people and order them to commit these acts is born of ethnic double standards and hypocrisy among many South Sudanese.

During the period between 1991 and 1998 vast numbers of Dinka people were killed on the orders of some of the leaders who revolted, on account that these Dinka were defending John Garang’s tight and undemocratic control of the SPLA/M. For example, Riek Machar’s war against the Dinka at that time was aimed at John Garang but he thought that all the Dinka were standing in the way. Then the reconciliation and reunification of the SPLM happened in the wake of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement(CPA) that ended the north-south war. The SPLM reunification was done in hope that the historical moments in which South Sudanese had fought each other would be patched up in the interest of future stability. Riek Machar, one of the architects of those south-on south wars, became the Vice President of South Sudan, in hopes that all can now look past that tragic history and focus on a brighter future. But that was not to be. The wartime memories may have necessitated Juba’s recent targeted killings of the ethnic Nuer. When the fighting broke out in Juba on December 15th, a mere two years into independence and relative stability, some of the Dinka soldiers who remember 1991 unleashed their misconceptions of what this fighting meant and went on a rampage, killing scores ofNuer people, innocent and culprit alike.

Likewise, when Riek and Taban Deng Gai joined up with Peter Yak Gadet in Jonglei state around December 19th, their first order of business, our investigation shows, was to avenge the recent events of Juba. Gadet started his revolt, in support of Riek Machar, by executing his deputy at the Division 8 command, Major General Ajak Alier. Gadet’s record of rebelling against the state and then returning through President Kiir’s amnesties is as long as the Silk Road. In the wake of his current rebellion from the SPLA, he started his mission by executing scores of the Dinka officers subordinate to him. He may have done this to simply eliminate these officers for pure military calculations, but the act is read all over the country as revenge for what happened in Juba. Whatever Gadet was thinking, his actions have not helped the already cantankerous ethnic mood, and it might only be a matter of time before the Dinka find themselves in the same position of seeking revenge, unless there is a dialogue that ends this vicious cycle.

Notably, attempts have been made to provide detailed reports of mistakes made by some individual soldiers, particularly from the Dinka during the Juba fighting, in which scoresof Nuer soldiers and civilians were killed. The government has also started investigation into the allegations of deliberate targeting of Nuer and has already arrested scores of suspects. But these actions have not persuaded a lot of Nuer people to not seek revenge and instead seek justice through other means. Some Nuer have already embarked on shocking revenge attacks on the Dinka in Bor, Bentiu, Akobo, Panriang, and Malakal. These revenge attacks may neutralize the Dinka in Juba not to cooperate with the investigations into the killings of the Nuer, creating cycles of more revenge and counter-revenge. When the very ethnic group whose members were victimized in the course of the fighting in Juba earlier is too angry to wait for investigation, and instead goes on a rampage to avenge the atrocities, any hopes to stop the continuation of the cycle of violence by revealing the truth and calling for calm are dashed. Hypocrisy and ethnic double standards now run wild in South Sudan and the fate of the nation is rendered more uncertain than it already was. No one seems to have the courage to cut the cycle of violence and counter-violence.

Perhaps it takes leadership on the order of what happened in African countries like South Africa, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, whose leaders have stood up against the tide of African ethnic double standard and said “enough is enough,” and that the cycle of violence must be severed. But there is no evidence of such leadership in South Sudan atthe moment and emotions have taken over reason. By the look of things, a combination of this hypocrisy, political promiscuity of the leaders and strong citizenship in ethnic nationalities, instead in the nation, means that South Sudan is still a long way away from cohesion and stability. This is especially true given the absence of investment and commitment to the strengthening of institutions of social cohesion, reconciliation and peace building through revisiting certain historical moments of discord between ethnic groups.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO THIS CRISIS?

South Sudan is at a crossroads. Either the current efforts by regional powers will persuade Riek Machar and the government of South Sudan to immediately end military confrontations and start dialogue on reaching a peace deal, or they will fail and a civil war might ensue. President Kiir, trying to make good on his usual pronouncements about commitment to peace and avoidance of a return to war, has extended an olive branch to his former deputy. Riek Machar, however, has made mere overtones to do likewise, but on conditions that seem either unworkable or extremely difficult to meet, like the possibility of the president stepping down, the release of political detainees and a power-sharing arrangement. Machar’s demands for power-sharing will surely put the government in the same trap as the leaders of armed militias have been doing over the years. To object to it on grounds that politicians should not be rewarded with power after using violence risks pushing Machar toward the civil war route. But to bribe him back with a share in government risks encouraging the trend whereby failed politicians have to revolt against the state, kill people, destroy property, and then get rewarded with power and resources for their deadly actions.

A politically mature and stable country may see Machar’s actions as crimes punishable by law and pursue him in that regard, but South Sudan is not such a country. The country is in seriously dire straits, with its two biggest nationalities, the Nuer and the Dinka, severely divided and at each other’s throats, its oil production (the country’s primary source of revenue) currently under threat, foreign reserves depleted, difficulty in honoring its obligations to its citizens, and foreign lenders and the whole economy likely to buckle at the knees, especially if the current situation becomes a civil war. With all of that needing immediate attention, if the country is to be viable, it might be the case that the government will have to swallow its pride and negotiate a deal that will indeed reward Riek Machar‘s unconstitutional and deadly political actions. Any temptations that the current government leaders might have to punish Mr. Machar could well be the start of unraveling of the gains the country has made since independence. South Sudan is thus held at ransom by an ambitious politico-military personality. The country might have to pay that ransom in order to save its own life.

But what issues will the IGAD-mediated dialogue address and who must be involved? Our reading is that the IGAD might be the best broker in this situation. Despite the unflattering remarks by President Museveni of Uganda, threatening East African military intervention against Riek Machar, which depressed the appearance of neutrality of IGAD, the regional body remains the more fitting mediator. But consultations with and assistance from the US government would still be needed.

CONCLUSION

We conclude with statements we have heard from various South Sudanese in Juba about the way out of this mess. This situation has also thrown up a lot of questions that we do not have answers for and are presented here. The efforts being made by IGAD heads of states should not just focus on resolving the immediate situation at hand, as if it is a confrontation solely between Riek Machar and Salva Kiir. Clearly the two warring parties and their leaders need to reach a deal that would immediately stop the fighting and contain the continued emotional ethnic retaliations. But when the discussions move into processes of political settlement, the mediators should look at both this fighting and the mediation efforts as an opportunity to take a comprehensive look at all the problems that made the current situation possible in the first place. There is an opportunity here to include all the stakeholders, especially all the political parties, in the spirit of the 2010 all-party conference that was held in Juba to rally everyone behind the independence referendum. Whatever solutions will be attempted this time around, they should look at the constitution, system of government, gender issues, [1] unity in diversity issues, commitments to a nation-building program, separation of SPLA from SPLM, the structure of the army and other security forces, and above all, a review of the history of acrimony between ethnic groups, with a view to an eventual reconciliation process based on a credible presentation of the historical factors that brought South Sudan to this ugly juncture.

What about all the people who did not have to die, but have died because of the political ambitions of a few? Should this fact be buried again in the expediency of reaching a deal, so that victim communities are once again left without justice? What about the ethnic relations that have been destroyed by these actions? Can the country move past these consequences and build a nation where ethnic affiliations can no longer be appropriated by power-seekers? What will it take for South Sudanese to never be dragged back to war with each other over political ambitions of a few tribesmen? These are all some of the questions that any political solutions must address. Whatever solutions arrived at, they must include some form of justice mechanism built into the final deal so as to ensure that the victims of these atrocities are not just swept aside as collateral damage as they were under the CPA. A peace deal that only focuses on ending the conflict and without exploring complex social, legal, governance, security and historical issues, simply defers the resumption of conflict. This was the mistake that previous agreements had made and it is what has directly led to the crisis of today. Sweeping away the calls for justice for wartime atrocities, as was the case with the CPA, is part of the reason behind the current tragedy, and must not be repeated in the search for a solution to it.

END NOTE

[1] The composition of the current government delegation to the peace talks in AddisAbaba has already repeated the mistakes of previous negotiations. A large group ofmales; not a single woman is in the team.

Jok Madut Jok is a cofounder of the Sudd Institute. He is the author of three books and numerous articles covering gender, sexuality and reproductive health, humanitarian aid, ethnography of political violence, gender based violence, war and slavery, and the politics of identity in Sudan.

ABOUT SUDD INSTITUTE

This is a Policy Brief by The Sudd Institute, an independent research organization that conducts and facilitates policy relevant research and training to inform public policy and practice, to create opportunities for discussion and debate, and to improve analytical capacity in South Sudan. The Sudd Institute’s intention is to significantly improve the quality, impact, and accountability of local, national, and international policy-and decision-making in South Sudan in order to promote a more peaceful, just and prosperous society.

The article South Sudan And The Prospects For Peace Amidst Violent Political Wrangling – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By SATP

Maharashtra consolidated its position further in the campaign against the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) through 2013, after the tentative gains it had secured through 2012. More substantive losses were inflicted on the Maoists in 2013, in comparison to other Maoist-affected States over the same period. In fact, in their own assessments the Maoists acknowledged that their movement in Maharashtra had “weakened”.

The fatality figures alone tell much of the story. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), 45 people were killed in the State in Left Wing Extremist (LWE) linked violence in 2013, including 10 civilians, seven Security Force (SF) personnel, and 28 Maoists, while 21 civilians, 14 SF personnel and five Maoists were killed in 2012.

Significantly, while civilian and SF fatalities fell to less than half between 2012 and 2013, Maoist fatalities have increased by an astonishing seven times. The Maoist fatality figure for 2013 is, in fact, the highest for any one year in Maharashtra. In terms of geographical spread, except for one civilian fatality in Gondia District, all other fatalities in 2013 were recorded in Gadchiroli District.

Maharashtra recorded seven major incidents (each resulting in three or more fatalities) in 2013, as against just one in 2012. The Maoists suffered heavily in five of the seven 2013 incidents. Common to these significant operational successes against the Maoists was the fact that the rebels were taken by complete surprise, a crucial departure from the experience of the past in Gadchiroli as well as most other theatres of Maoist violence. This point was driven further home by the fact that, in these operations, the Maoists were not even able to execute orderly withdrawals, as evidenced by the high number of bodies recovered. The Maoists do not generally leave behind the bodies of their fallen comrades. Moreover, SF casualties in these operations have been minimal, in sharp contrast to the ratio of fatalities in 2012.

Further, as a result of the growing strength of their intelligence network, the Gadchiroli Police were able to successfully execute a counter-ambush against a group of 50 to 60 Maoists, who were waiting to ambush Police search parties in the Hetalkasa Forest under the Malewada Police Station in Gadchiroli on May 19, 2013. After the encounter, the Police recovered the body of a Maoist and a small cache of arms and ammunition.

As indicated, the SFs managed to significantly cut down operational losses. Out of the seven SF fatalities recorded in 2013, three personnel were killed in a single Improvised Explosive Device (IED) incident on October 17. Due to the tremendous SF pressure, moreover, Maoist strikes against civilians also declined significantly, with just one major incident, on June 13, involving civilian fatalities, when Llyod Company’s Vice President, a subcontractor and a Police patil [village representative] accompanying them, were killed near Nender village in Etapalli tehsil in Gadchiroli. The Maoists carried out the killing purportedly to protest against the attempt to start mining in Surajagad and Damkodvadavi Hills in the Gatta area, despite ‘popular sentiment’ against mining in the area.

Other patterns of Maoist violence also registered a decline in 2013. In total, 12 exchange-of-fire incidents were reported between the SFs and the Maoists from Maharashtra in 2013, as against 22 in 2012. In one such incident, on February 11, 2013, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) staved off a Maoist attack near Sirpur village in the jungle of Pendhri in Gadchiroli District. The 192 Battalion of CRPF was engaged in an area domination exercise from the evening of the previous day, when a group of Maoists, camping in the jungle, triggered a blast on spotting the SFs party.

The Maoists engineered only two explosions in 2013, as against one IED attack in 2012.

Three arson related incidents in 2013 were attributed to the Maoists, in comparison to seven such incidents in 2012. In the worst of these, on January 13, 2013, a group of around 40 Maoist cadres set ablaze 27 vehicles at a road construction site near Lekha (Menda) village on Godalvahi-Dhanora road in Gadchiroli District. They also set ablaze a Gram Panchayat building in Godalwahi village in Dhanora Division of Gadchiroli District on April 28, 2013.

One abduction case in Gondia District was registered against the Maoists, as against seven such cases in 2012.

Four bandh (shut down strike) calls were given by the Maoists over various issues in 2013, though they evoked a lukewarm response. The Maoists had imposed six bandhs in 2012.

Twenty-two Maoists were arrested in 2013 in comparison to 41 in 2012, the most significant being the arrest of a ‘deputy commander’ of the Kasansoor Dalam (armed squad), identified as Ramesh alias Kaju Gawde, during an anti-Maoist operation in Reknar village in the Etapalli tehsil (revenue unit) of Gadchiroli District and Chaitu Pada, who was arrested for involvement in the murder of the Vice-President of Lloyds Metals & Engineers and two others, on June 24, 2013. Other arrests that drew greater media attention included the apprehension of two activists of the Kabir Kala Manch (a Maoist ‘cultural organisation’) – Sheetal Sathe and Sachin Mali – on April 3, 2013, and the arrest of Prashant Rahi aka Prashant Sanglikar, an Uttarakhand-based journalist-turned-activist, on September 1, 2013. Further, the Gadchiroli Police’s decision to register cases against Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow (PMRDF) Mahesh Raut and his friend Harshali Potdar from Mumbai, after two arrested Maoists revealed that the pair were travelling with them to meet top Maoist leaders, and the subsequent raid on the house of G.N. Saibaba, an assistant professor at Ramlal Anand College, Delhi University, in Delhi, generated much media controversy.

Thirty Maoist cadres surrendered in 2013, as against just eight in 2012. 28 Maoists from different dalams in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh border areas, surrendered before the Gadchiroli District Police, under ‘Campaign Navjeevan’ (New life). The Campaign was launched in December 2012. Meanwhile, statistics furnished by Gadchiroli Police indicate that 396 Maoists have ‘returned to the mainstream’ since 2005, when the Government’s surrender policy was relaunched with fresh vigour. The list of surrenders, however, is devoid of names from the top Maoist leadership.

Explaining the turnaround, Maharashtra Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) (Special Operations), Prem Kisan Jain, told the media, “We have reorganised the setup within the Department, in which all anti-Naxal operations, including intelligence, training and action, have been brought under one chain of command.” Further, Jain claimed that increasing the duration of the stay of the forces in the forests to 3 to 5 days, instead of shorter durations, had helped them immensely in disrupting Maoist logistics: “We have not only managed to confine Maoists in their areas, but have also been able to penetrate into hitherto impregnable areas, which has put them on the defensive.” Coordination among the State Police Force, the State special force (C-60) and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), also improved dramatically. Advanced training centres, manned by Army personnel, have been set up and more specialised equipment has been provided to the counter-insurgency (CI) troops. The “economical use of ammunition” has also helped the Police, with better firing skills and restraint in the use of ammunition during encounters. In the past, panicked and indiscriminate firing by SFs had often resulted in units running out of ammunition during an ambush or encounter.

In addition to operational improvement, there has been a visible transformation in the capacities and processes of intelligence gathering. While surrendered Maoists have provided crucial operational information, Police also appear to have significantly infiltrated Maoist ranks in Gadchiroli.

Nevertheless, on April 1, 2013, the Maharashtra Government once again included four tehsils of Gondia District — Gondia, Goregaon, Tiroda and Amgaon — in the list of Maoist-affected areas. These areas had been removed from the list of Maoist-affected areas on February 4, 2013. Further, on March 6, 2013, the Maharashtra Government said that it could not be claimed that LWE activities in Gadchiroli District had ended until the movement comes to a complete halt.

On March 11, 2013, the Maharashtra State Home Department informed the State Legislature that it spent INR 2.91 billion for the construction of 10 fortified Police Stations in Maoist affected areas, and on the capital outlay for road transport. Further, on March 20, 2013, the State Government adopted a resolution to hike the salary and dearness allowance of Police personnel serving in Maoist affected areas, by 50 per cent. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Anti-Naxal Operations Unit now has a Special Propaganda Cell for countering the campaigns triggered by the Maoists.

On July 15, 2013, the State Government announced that the Maoist-affected Gadchiroli and Gondia Districts would soon get a ‘special development authority’ to curb red-tapism, and thereby expedite development. Further, Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil underlined the urgent need of forming a District Development Authority for Gadchiroli, arguing that both the system and the CPI-Maoist constituted a great development challenge in Maoist-afflicted area.

Dramatic gains have clearly been registered in the anti-Maoist campaigns in Gadchiroli. Nevertheless, the Maoist capacity for revival must not be underestimated, as it often has been in the past. Far greater consolidation is necessary before the present gains can be thought to be irreversible.

The article India: Maharashtra Assessment 2014 – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Jim Kouri

Lebanon-based, terrorist network Hezbollah boasted in the Middle East news media that it has greatly improved its missile prowess including their ability to target Israel cities and towns with pinpoint precision, according to a senior Iranian army commander’s statement on Sunday appearing in the local news organization Kayhan International.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, of the Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said that Zionists will soon see Hezbollah’s new missile capability if the Israeli military attempts to take action against the Shiite Islamist group, according to Middle East reporters on Sunday.

The Kayhan International news story said the recently killed Hezbollah commander, Hassan al-Laqis, should be credited with building up Hezbollah with weapons, rockets, missiles and other improvements.

Hezbollah’s Al-Laqis was killed in southern Beirut in December. Iran’s top IRGC commanders, including the commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, which is responsible covert and special operations, attended a commemoration ceremony held to honor the deceased Hezbollah chief.

“[Al-Laqis] was a great, resourceful and very active Hezbollah commander whose works could be revealed should a Hezbollah-Israel war break out. He created great defense supplies [sic], ” and was “one of Hezbollah’s masterminds in the field of electronic war,” Hajizadeh said.

Hezbollah’s capability has improved so tremendously in recent years that it can hit and destroy any target inside Israel with pinpoint ability, he claimed.

Hezbollah has been financially and militarily supported by the Islamist Iranians since the terrorist group was founded in 1982 during the Lebanese war with Israel.

Hezbollah members practice an Iranian-style radical Shiite ideology that plays a central role in the organization’s establishment and continues to play a central role in its operation. Hamas, on the other hand, is a radical Sunni Islamic movement with roots in Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, according to an Examiner news story.

Neither terrorist group just appeared out of thin air: Hezbollah was established in part as a result of longstanding religious and cultural links between the Shiite communities in Lebanon and Iran, which intensified after the fall of the Shah in 1979, thanks to President Jimmy Carter’s betrayal of the Shah of Iran and his family, the Examiner story noted.

The article Hezbollah Terrorists Boast Of Improving Missile Accuracy‏ – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By SA News

Bafana Bafana got off to their perfect start of their 2014 CHAN tournament with a convincing 3-1 victory against the Mambas of Mozambique at the opening match played at Cape Town stadium on Saturday evening.

The first five minutes saw Bafana Bafana on the Mozambican half, but failed to get an early goal as the solid defence of the visiting team kept them at bay.

A promising moment came in the 9th minute but Bernard Parker’s shot out of the box was very weak and never troubled the Mozambican goalkeeper, Soarito.

The visitors threatened to upset Gordon Igesund boys with an early goal from Diogo who grass cutter shot deflected off Mokeke into the back of the net, leaving Khune frustrated.

The goal sparked Bafana to life as they continued to put their opponents under pressure just outside the box, but they kept on disappointing their home fans with their poor finishing.

South Africa got a free kick on the 26th minute after Tshabalala was brought down just out the box, but Mashego wasted the opportunity to equalise when his strike went wide and very high.

However, as Bafana kept on putting pressure at the Mozambican box, Lobo brought down Parker in the box and the referee did not hesitate to award Bafana a penalty.

As always, Parker did not disappoint. He converted the penalty easily bringing the silent Cape Town stadium to life once again.

South Africa should have taken the lead on the 35th minute when Mashego receive a nice cross from Tshabalala, but the Mamelodi Sundowns striker was unfortunate as his tap-in comes off the woodwork.

Mozambique was lucky to go into the half-time break without conceding a second goal as it was a one way traffic as Bafana were all over them teaching them a free football lesson.

In the first minute of the second half, Mashego was left with the Mambas of Mozambique goalkeeper, Soarito who denied him to put South Africa on the lead.

Gordon Igesund replaced Chabangu with Lindokuhle Mbatha, a wise move which saw Bafana getting a second goal.

Hlompho Kekana put South Africa on the lead in the 58th minute when he took a shot from far which gave Soarito no chance.

Igesund made his second substitution of the match on the 74th minute when he made Mashego to make way for Asavela Mbekile.

With Mbatha doing great business for Bafana on the right flank, Parker scored his second goal on the 81 minute after receiving a pass from Tshabalala. Vilakazi made way for his Wits teammate, Mathew Pattison on the 85th minute.

Itumeleng Khune, Bryce Moon, Buhle Mkhwanazi, Thabo Nthethe, Hlompho Kekana, Lerato Chabangu, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Sibusiso Vilakazi, Thato Mokeke, Bernard Parker and Katlego Mashego.

Mozambique starting line-up: Soarito, Monis, Khan, Chico II, Miro, Josimar, Alvarito, Kito, Diogo, Sonito and Lanito.

South Africa is on Group A along with Mali, Nigeria and Mozambique. Bafana have met their neighbours, Mozambique four times, but Bafana have won all the games.

South Africa finished 4th in the 2011 edition of the Chan tournament held in Sudan

The article Bafana Off To Winning Start appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By PanArmenian

Samsung has been tipped to launch a budget phablet dubbed the Galaxy Note 3 Neo at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next month, according to Digital Spy.

GSM Arena has published purported specs details for the device, suggesting that it will sport similar internals to the Galaxy Note 2.

The source states that the handset will feature the same 5.5-inch 720p screen, 2GB RAM and 16GB storage as its previous-generation predecessor, but will measure in slimmer at 8.6mm.

However, the Note 3 Neo will reportedly feature a hybrid six-core processor, combining a 1.3GHz quad-core chip with a 1.7GHz dual-core chip, switching to the more powerful component when the task at hand demands it.

Samsung recently dispelled speculation that it is planning to unveil its Galaxy S5 smartphone at MWC by confirming that the flagship smartphone is in line for March or April, which could pave the way for the Note 3 Neo to debut at the convention.

A budget version of the Galaxy Note 3 was previously rumoured for release under the moniker of the Galaxy Note 3 Lite.

The article Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo Phablet Tipped To Launch At MWC appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By PanArmenian

“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” celebrates a milestone. The sequel to 2012′s “The Hunger Games” beats “Iron Man 3″ to become the top earner at domestic box office. The Jennifer Lawrence starrer has collected $409.4 million, while the Robert Downey Jr.-led flick garnered $409 million, AceShowbiz said.

The Francis Lawrence-directed pic marks the first time a film headlined by a woman finished first in the domestic year-end list, since “The Exorcist” in 1973 although Linda Blair’s and Ellen Burstyn’s roles in the vintage film were on par with the priest characters portrayed by actors Max von Sydow and Jason Miller.

Additionally, it’s the first time since 2008 that a non-3D title ruled the yearly domestic chart. Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer says, “The success of ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ is a testament to the vision of author Suzanne Collins, the sure hand of director Francis Lawrence, the brilliant performances of a remarkably talented cast led by the amazing Jennifer Lawrence, and superb execution by our motion picture production, marketing and distribution teams.”

In the worldwide year-end list, “Catching Fire” sits at the third place with $832.8 million while “Iron Man 3″ still at the top spot with over $1.2 billion and “Despicable Me 2″ at the runner-up place with $921.2 million globally.

The article ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ Top Earner At 2013 Box Office appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By COHA

By Dr. Ronn Pineo

Stuffed with firecrackers, doused in gasoline, and lit on fire, human effigies exploded in the streets of Valladolid, Yucatán, Mexico, as city residents brought in the new year last week. The effigies, constructed out of discarded clothes and old newspapers, symbolized all the worries of the passing year, with their immolation and detonation representing a cathartic blasting into oblivion all layers of anxieties and tears Mexicans suffered in 2013.

In the days before New Year’s Eve the dummies stoically awaited their fate, seated smartly in plastic chairs in front of the homes of their makers, available to be admired by all who passed by. While this cultural practice is by no means unknown elsewhere in Mexico, and indeed, in many parts of Latin America, such displays have reached a particularly dramatic level of lively competition in the Yucatán: best dressed dummy, most expressive countenance, widest scatter field upon explosion.

For those in Valladolid and Mexico there was certainly much to try to forget from 2013. The most commonly expressed concern for many Mexicans is personal security, although this issue is seldom raised in the Yucatán. Fortunately, the peninsula remains, at least for the moment, outside of the main staging areas for the gang conflicts and the violence that have so devastated the city of Juárez in the north and the state of Michoacán in central Mexico.

What is mostly on the minds of ordinary people in Valladolid are the sharp increases in fees and taxes pushed by President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-present) and enacted by congress in October. Widespread protests followed, featuring organized civil disobedience, including collective toll jumping at Mexico City’s metro, but these demostrations did little to weaken the President’s resolve. The tax hikes, including an extension of an existing tax–the VAT (value added tax)–to more products and new imposts on soft drinks and food, went into effect on New Year’s Day.

The VAT and the food and drink taxes are profoundly regressive, hammering the poorest Mexican who can ill afford yet more extraneous burdens. Despite all the happy pronouncements by the World Bank and the Economist magazine, free market magic has not transformed Mexico into a middle class country. Poverty remains the rule in the countless small towns that dot the Yucatec Maya-speaking countryside, where children go barefoot, black mold climbs the walls, and city services are left utterly neglected. Asking poor families to now pay more, especially when the Mexican wealthy remains one of the most undertaxed in Latin America, is absolutely shameful.

Perhaps the Mexican president will listen to the voices of protests, and, like Bolivian President Evo Morales, “lead by obeying.” But if he does not, we can expect many Peña Nieto effigies to suffer fiery endings at the close of 2014.

Dr. Ronn Pineo, Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs and Chair of the Department of History at Towson University

The article Death And Taxes: Mexicans Bring In New Year With A Bang – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By William Dunkerley

The United States has unleashed its heavy artillery on the Sochi Olympics. It’s in the form of an official Travel Alert to Americans issued by the Department of State. It says U.S. citizens “should remain attentive regarding their personal security at all times.” The Alert justifies itself with a litany of potential problems that under scrutiny turn out to be largely non-issues. This has all the appearances of a scare tactic.

It may cause a lot of Americans to reconsider attending. A New York Times headline warned, “Americans Traveling to Winter Games Cautioned.” President Barack Obama already announced that he isn’t going.

Previously, many potshots have been taken at the upcoming Olympics in media reports from various outlets. They too raised fears about attending the Games. But the new U.S. actions aren’t merely potshotting. This is a frontal attack with big cannons.

All this comes in the wake of two highly-publicized terrorist events. The first was a series of two suicide bombings in Volgograd, Russia in late December. The second was the discovery of six dead bodies in cars on the outskirts of Pyatigorsk, Russia in early January.

Regarding the former, a CBS News report read, “Suicide bomber attacks near Sochi.” CNN’s version said, “Russia bombings raise questions about Sochi Olympics security.”

On the Pyatigorsk incident, ABC News proclaimed, “Mystery bodies, explosives discovered near Winter Olympics site.” The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported, “Russia launches probe after six found dead near Sochi.”

These were certainly tragic events. But the media should have paid a bit more attention to their geography. For instance, would a suicide bombing in the Italian Alps be a realistic worry for people at a large public gathering in Berlin, Germany? Or likewise an incident 100 miles north of Montreal to people in New York City? Those are examples of distances similar to the expanse between Volgograd and Sochi. That’s what CBS news called “close.”

In the other example, Pyatigorsk to Sochi? That’s like Brooklyn, New York to Brattleboro, Vermont, or Munich, Germany to Alsace, France. ABC News and the Atlanta Journal Constitution both considered that proximity to be “near.”

It’s hard to imagine that journalists and editors at these media outlets are simply out to lunch. I find it difficult to chalk-up these exaggerations to ignorance. I’d call them potshots.

Then there’s the State Department’s cannon blast. The Travel Alert. Certainly, travelers should always be “attentive regarding their personal security” wherever they travel. It just makes sense. But why did the State Department make that the subject of an ominous sounding Travel Alert?

For comparison, I checked to see if similar alerts are active for other places in the world. What I found is that there are currently two. One is for Egypt over the “continuing political and social unrest,” and the other for Madagascar, related to its election season. It’s because, “gatherings intended to be peaceful can turn violent with little or no warning.”

But the general instability in those two troubled countries is a far cry from the security-controlled environment that will be present at the Sochi Olympics complex. Indeed, wouldn’t security and control be bywords of any Olympic venue past and future?

The United States had the experience of hosting the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. That was just five months after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. I searched for press coverage from the months preceding the opening of those Games. Who in the United States believed at that time that the al-Qaeda threat had been eliminated? I went looking for reportage regarding any suggested Olympic danger. There wasn’t too much. NPR reported on February 7, 2002, “When the Winter Olympics gets under way in Salt Lake City Friday, officials promise the heaviest security ever for a sporting event.” (Keep in mind that the earlier terrorist activities killed about 3000 people.) But on December 30, 2013, NPR carried this report: “Two suicide bombings in as many days have killed 31 people and raised concerns that Islamic militants have begun a terrorist campaign in Russia that could stretch into the Sochi Olympics in February.”

Notice how the 2002 report has a reassuring tone, whereas the 2013 report seems alarmist. The tonal difference in coverage seems to belie the relative death totals. What is NPR up to?

There’s no doubt that the Sochi Olympics presents a unique security challenge. And disasters at previous Olympics show there is a concrete risk of tragedy. But the media have failed to take into account that Putin’s political enemies have been taunting him with suggestions of violence during his showpiece Olympics and urging boycotts. There’s been little investigative journalism to differentiate between credible physical threats and the use of verbal threats in the media as a weapon. Overall, the news coverage that I’ve seen seems to suggest a goal of fomenting alarm, instead of simply reporting the facts.

No one should be surprised that media-based attacks against Russia and its leader would grow stronger during the Olympic season. Past media attacks, organized by Putin’s political enemies, have been opportunistic and also founded upon fabricated allegations. Crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed on Putin’s birthday. The initial media blitz over reputed former spy Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning in London occurred while Putin was attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Hanoi. The focus of the attendant news stories involved accusations of Putin’s culpability. The Sochi Olympics now present Putin’s enemies with an obvious opportunity for doing similar damage to his reputation. Strangely, Putin has never done anything to effectively counteract the incessant malicious media attacks against him.

As early as October 2012, efforts were made to draw the Kremlin’s attention to the impending Olympics media problem. Russia without Spin, a Russian-American private sector initiative that I strongly support, was offering to help with its specialized expertise. But it was hard to find friends in the Kremlin for this project. Those within the administration, and leaders of its communications arms, ultimately seemed not to care about solving the problem. They appeared more focused on simply assuring their share of the state budget, even though the problem of Putin’s terrible international reputation would go unaddressed in any serious and effective way.

In response, Russia without Spin undertook a demonstration to show the efficacy its proprietary skills in counteracting news reports that are founded upon fabricated information. The Litvinenko case was ideal for that purpose. It involved a high-profile British search for alleged Russian culpability, albeit with an absence of any substantiating facts. In the end, the Russia without Spin initiative was successful in its advocacy for ending the specious search. The quest for Russian culpability was cancelled and the Litvinenko topic was taken out of the news, at least for the time being.

Russia without Spin’s Litvinenko demonstration, having achieved its objective, has now concluded its work. The Litvinenko story may flare up again in the future. But it’s unclear what if anything the Putin administration would do in response. The Russia without Spin initiative still stands ready to help, however, if called upon.

Perhaps now it’s time for the Kremlin to reassess its interest in remediating its reputational problems. If it does nothing, Putin and Russia will continue to be victims of the typical malicious media attacks they have sustained since the beginning of Putin’s leadership in Moscow. It’s hard to see how that will help anyone other than Putin’s political enemies.

The article Sochi Under Attack by US – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By RT

Japanese paratroopers recaptured an island from an enemy in a wargame as its Defense Minister vowed to defend a disputed East China Sea territory. China’s ships sailed near the contested islets as Beijing reportedly expanded its air defense zone.

Tokyo’s military on Sunday held a military drill dubbed “Island Defense,” in which the country’s elite airborne troops simulated the retaking of a remote island from an enemy nation.

The plot for the annual drill, which took place at an exercise field east of Tokyo, stayed the same for the second year in a row as the dispute over the group of tiny islets in the East China Sea, claimed by China, Taiwan and Japan, showed no signs of resolution.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who was overseeing the drills, vowed to protect the territory around the islands, which Japan considers to be its own.

“We can never overlook China’s repeated entries into our territorial waters. In addition to diplomatic efforts, we will cooperate with the Coast Guard to securely defend our territory and waters around the Senkaku islands,” Onodera said.

The islands, which are known as Diaoyu in China and as Senkaku in Japan, have again found themselves in the middle of regional tension less than two weeks into the New Year. Three Chinese patrol ships briefly entered the disputed waters early Sunday, the first time since controversial fishing rules approved by China’s southern Hainan province took effect January 1.

The fishing rules require foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval before entering the disputed waters in the South China Sea, as the local government maintains they are under its jurisdiction.

Both the boats’ venture and the reminder of the unilaterally imposed fishing law sparked angry official reactions from Japan and its ally the United States.

“Setting something like this unilaterally, as if you are treating them as your own territorial waters, and imposing certain restrictions on fishing boats, is not something that is internationally tolerated,” Onodera said, claiming that China is “threatening the existing international order.”

Washington earlier branded the fishing rules “provocative and potentially dangerous,” prompting a rebuttal from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday.

Patrol ships from China and Japan have often shadowed each other in the disputed area, since Tokyo moved to nationalize its control over three of the islands, with the state buying them from a Japanese family for 2 billion yen in September 2012.

Beijing considered the move to be a breach of its territorial sovereignty, as it holds that the islands were returned to China in 1945, half a century after their annexation by Japan in an earlier Sino-Japanese War.

After World War II, the US took control of the islets, until the US Senate voted to return them to Tokyo in 1972. The decision followed a discovery of potential oil and gas reserves in the vicinity of the islands by a UN commission in 1969. Both Chinese and Taiwanese governments also declared their ownership of the territories in 1972.

Tensions over what are believed to be resource-rich territories have soared in recent months, particularly after China announced the creation of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) covering a large swathe of the East China Sea, including the disputed isles.

Both Japan and its ally the US strongly condemned the creation of the Chinese air defense zone, which was announced in November, ostensibly sending their ships, jets and bombers to pass through the territory. China also scrambled its fighter jets to shadow the military aircraft passing through the area and kept patrolling the nearby waters.

A report Sunday by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper, however, suggested that Beijing was serious on taking a hard-line stance over the disputed territories, expanding its defense zone even farther toward Japan.

In response to an inquiry from the Japanese newspaper, China’s Defense Ministry confirmed the eastern tip of the zone is just 130 kilometers from the Japanese island of Kyushu. This makes it as close to Japan as Tokyo’s own declared air defense zone is to China. The report suggests the newly decided Chinese identification zone has been revised since its introduction on November 23.

The article Japan Holds Military Drill As South China Sea Islands Dispute Widens appeared first on Eurasia Review.