By Binoy Kampmark

He had been in a coma for eight years after suffering a massive stroke. Now, world leaders have paid their respects to Ariel Sharon’s passing at an official ceremony at the Knesset, prior to the body’s burial on the site of Sycamore Farm in the Negev. At the funeral’s end, two missiles were fired into southern Israel.  Retaliatory air strikes followed on two militant camps in Gaza.  Such was Sharon’s busy, brutal and often opportunistic life, a fate he has shared with his country.

Gushing tributes have piled up on the funeral pyre.  From the comments of unnamed people lining up outside the Knesset to pay their respects, to the usual suspects in power, they have crested on the media waves.  “He was one of a kind, a real leader,” claimed a woman paying her respects on the BBC.  Veterans spoke of their memories of the wars of 1967 and 1973.  Tamir Ezra from Bat Yam, a reserve soldier in 1973, “felt this was someone we could trust and who could do the right thing” (BBC, Jan 13).

For Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “I believe that his memory as one of the most outstanding leaders and daring commanders will remain in the hearts of the Israeli people for eternity.”  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came up with his own sugary tribute.  “Prime Minister Sharon will be remembered for his political courage and determination to carry through with the painful and historic decision to withdraw Israeli settlers and troops from the Gaza Trip.”

An anonymous insider within the UN, with links to the Department of Political Affairs in New York, was taken aback by Ban’s statement.  The statement on Sharon “brings the UN’s obsequiousness towards Israel to a new high and the UN’s standing in the Middle East to a new low” (Electronic Intifada, Jan 13).

Others chomp at the pragmatic line – Sharon was, in the words of Yoaz Hendel, head of the Institute for Zionist Studies, “the most pragmatic Israeli and the most Zionistic Israeli.  He believed in the Zionistic idea and he believed that if you want to survive and to maintain and strengthen Israel, you need to be pragmatic in the neighbourhood.”

Sharon’s mark, much like his bulky frame, impressed itself on Israeli – and Palestinian – history.  It was not merely the engagements in battle. He was housing minister during the 1990s, a period which saw a fanatically expansive drive of construction in the settlements.  The military man had turned social engineer and manipulating colonist.  Settler leader Danny Dayan remembers “the Ariel Sharon that established thousands of communities al around Israel, changing forever the landscape of the country.”

Sharon was a political hybrid, an unbalanced mix of spontaneous insubordination and calculation – in the words of historian Tom Segev, a political soldier and a military politician.  Such a legacy proved “more harmful than useful.”  Such a mix could also prove bumbling – Sharon’s visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque in 2000 prompted the second intifada, though this did not deter his election as prime minister the following the year.

He could also prove opportunistically exciting – some might remember his efforts after the 1973 war, when he attempted to start a party of his own.  The gist of his action was simple: form a party with a peace platform, and make peace with a crushed enemy who would never have any illusions about compassion or understanding about their cause.  The experiment was short lived.

Sharon’s career was also punctuated by brutal exercises of power, some of which are documented by the late Christopher Hitchens in Slate (Jan 5, 2006) – as an enforcer of the occupation of Gaza in 1967, as an important figure in the attack of Egypt in 1956 in collusion with Britain and France, as a leader of Unit 101, responsible for the massacre of the inhabitants of Qibya, a village located in the then Jordanian West Bank (1953).  Certainly, when it came to Sharon, Hitch was no cruise missile leftist.

During the 1980s, when the Israeli war machine started to stutter, Sharon would make his presence felt again.  His finger prints were all over the 1982 massacre of Palestinians and Lebanese in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, an outgrowth of Israel’s disastrous invasion of Lebanon.  The massacre, which comprised anywhere between 700 to 3,500 civilians, were the enthusiastic labour of the Lebanese Christian militia, which had wrongly assumed that Palestinians were behind the killing of Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel.

The catastrophe, and here Sharon has much to answer for as then Defence Minister, was furthered by Israeli complicity – the IDF, at the request of the blood enthused militants, sealed off the exits to the camps as the massacres took place.

The Lion of God had turned bloodied slayer, transforming into the Butcher of Beirut.  Much of the gruesomeness of the event was documented in the Kahane Commission Report of 1983, which investigated the events surrounding Sabra and Shatila.  The Commission’s ultimate recommendation was the removal of Sharon from office.  That said, the finding of “indirect responsibility” on his part raised more than a few eyebrows, including those of Noam Chomsky, who penned an aggressive critique of the findings in his Fateful Triangle.

The final play of the Sharon dice came during his years as Prime Minister (2001-6).  He announced that an Israel complete in the grand scheme of things would have to be abandoned.  The Palestinian territories were, in fact, being subjected to occupation. Land had to be bartered, or at the every least, exited. To that end, he evacuated 8,000 settlers, and withdrew troops from Gaza in August 2005.  The Likud Party was incensed and split, leading to the formation of the centrist Kadima grouping.

Sharon’s political gymnastics at the time, as it always was, proved expeditious, a case of tactical re-ordering.  This was, after all, the man behind the building of the 400-mile barrier in West Bank, purportedly designed to limit the effects of suicide bombers in Israel.  In any negotiations, it was imperative that Israel retain the upper hand, the Palestinians, a significantly withered lower one.

Ghassan Khatib of Bir Zeit University sums this byzantine legacy rather well, charting the moral, or rather moral free territory Sharon traversed.  “The difference between him and other right wing leaders is that he wouldn’t hesitate in pursuing massacres or war crimes in order to achieve political objectives; he might be a soldier but that doesn’t tell a lot because there are good soldiers and there are bad soldiers and I think Sharon was a bad soldier in the moral sense.”

The article The Sharon Formula – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Democratic Voice of Burma

The Burmese government’s News and Periodicals Enterprise (NPE) said at a press conference in Naypyidaw on Monday that seven publishers who originally applied to open private daily newspapers have abandoned their plans and returned their licenses to the Ministry of Information.

NPE director Win Zaw Htay said the seven dailies that never went into circulation were: D-Wave Daily, Khit Moe Daily, Stop-Press Daily, Daily Eleven News, Myanmar Daily, Warazein Daily and People Net Daily.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy said the party had withdrawn from an original plan to publish the D-Wave Daily, the license for which was approved with Suu Kyi as publisher, due to financial shortcomings.

Currently, there are 18 private daily newspapers in circulation in Burma. Five others have until 31 March 2014 to get their presses rolling or they too may have to relinquish their licenses.

Meanwhile, state-run The New Light of Myanmar has announced a joint-venture with Burmese firm Global Direct Link to expand their current daily into a broadsheet.

In an announcement on 13 January, the New Light said the Ministry of Information will continue to hold 51 percent of shares while its new partner will take 49 percent.

The new-look periodical is due to hit news-stands within two to three months and will feature what ministry officials at the press conference termed a “change in form and content”.

Meanwhile, The Irrawaddy Publishing Group, formerly based in exile in Thailand, has launched a weekly news journal in Burmese to accompany its English-language monthly magazine.

During a launch on 2 January, The Irrawaddy was sold out at news-stands in Rangoon and Mandalay, its website said.

The article Burmese Publishers Leave Newspapers On The Scrapheap appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By RFA

By Michael Lelyveld

With the passing of 2013, Russia and China have missed another deadline for completing one of the world’s biggest energy deals.

Negotiations on a 30-year pact to supply China with natural gas have dragged on for over a decade, despite a series of annual goals.

President Vladimir Putin first promoted the export of Siberian gas to neighboring China during a trip to Beijing over 13 years ago, and Russia’s Gazprom unveiled an ambitious plan to build two Siberian pipelines to China during another Putin visit in 2006.

But last March, state-owned Gazprom set a firm time line for finalizing an export contract with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC).

“The parties plan to sign legally-binding principal terms and conditions of the contract in June this year and sign the long-term contract by the end of the year,” Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said during a visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

In September, Gazprom said an agreement on basic conditions was belatedly signed at a meeting in St. Petersburg, but the contract for sales of 38 billion cubic meters (1.3 trillion cubic feet) per year has yet to materialize.

In what appeared to be an admission of further delay, Miller responded positively when asked in mid-December whether the deal might be done in time for the Chinese New Year on Jan. 31.

“Definitely,” he said, according to Interfax. “The contract’s degree of readiness is very high. The only thing left to decide is the base price.”

Impasse over price

The two sides have been at odds over the starting price of the gas deal for at least 11 years.

Other terms are said to have been settled with agreements on a delivery date of 2018, a single pipeline route from eastern Siberia and a formula for price adjustments.

But analysts have warned that nothing is really final until the contract is complete. Differences over the starting price still stand in the way of a deal that could be valued at over U.S. $300 billion (1.8 trillion yuan).

The two sides have not disclosed the current size of the gap between Gazprom’s offer and CNPC’s bid, but in the past, it has been at least $50 per thousand cubic meters, a difference of more than U.S. $55 billion over time.

Reports of progress in the price talks have been mixed.

“Gazprom remains a long way from reaching agreement with CNPC on the price of future pipeline exports,” the industry weekly Argus FSU Energy said in mid-December.

But on Jan. 5, the London-based Financial Times reported that “an agreement is within reach,” citing analysts and sources on both sides.

Central Asian investment

One reason China has been resisting Russia’s price demands is that CNPC has already invested heavily in Central Asian gas with a 2,000-kilometer (1,242-mile) pipeline from Turkmenistan.

After losing money on imports under state-controlled prices for years, CNPC got some relief in July when the government raised domestic gas rates for industrial use.

But China has refused to accept high Russian prices that could lock in losses for decades to come, even though it is paying even higher prices for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).

In a report cited by Barron’s business weekly, the investment bank Credit Suisse said Gazprom “will have to concede on the issue of pricing … owing to its weak bargaining power.” So far, it remains to be seen that it will.

“Nothing has fundamentally changed,” said Edward Chow, senior fellow in the energy and national security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“The Chinese still believe that time’s on their side and Russia needs to come their way,” Chow said in an interview. “The only question is whether the Russians will bite the bullet this time and concede on pricing to something more palatable to the Chinese.”

Is a deal close?

According to the Financial Times, the two sides are converging on a price range equivalent to U.S. $280-308 (1,692-1861 yuan) per thousand cubic meters at the Russian-Chinese border, but it is unclear whether such a compromise will seal the deal.

On Monday, the Russian daily Vedomosti also said that a deal was close, but it reported a higher price range of U.S. $360-400 (2,175-2,417 yuan) per thousand cubic meters as a minimum for Gazprom.

In a recent study by the China Energy Fund Committee, a Hong Kong-based nonpartisan think tank, Chow noted that Chinese energy experts have shown little concern with the country’s reliance on imported gas through 2020, voicing confidence in the development of domestic resources including shale gas in the long term.

That confidence may account for China’s reluctance to meet Russian price demands and its relative lack of concern with current gas shortages as it promotes the cleaner-burning fuel to replace coal in urban areas.

If China is correct in predicting that import dependence will ease after 2020, it may see little reason to sign a 30-year Russian deal.

Chow noted Putin’s agreement in December to slash gas prices for Ukraine by one-third as an incentive for Kiev to forgo an association agreement with the European Union.

In separate negotiations with its European customers, Gazprom has also granted retroactive discounts on its export prices since 2010, encouraging China to hold out for similar breaks.

‘Political decision’ needed

Chow said it may take a political decision between Putin and Xi to break the impasse on gas.

“If they fail to strike a deal after making this big push in Xi Jinping’s first year, you wonder whether it isn’t an infinite process of negotiation that may never come to a head,” Chow said.

Despite obstacles to the gas deal, Russia and China have made major breakthroughs on oil in the past year with the agreement of state-owned Rosneft on doubling exports to CNPC over 25 years in a deal valued at some U.S. $270 billion.

Moscow has also overcome its longtime opposition to major Chinese investments in the Russian energy sector, clearing the way for CNPC to take a 20-percent stake in a groundbreaking Arctic project by independent Novatek to export LNG.

But similar progress in the Gazprom deal with CNPC has yet to be seen.

In one troubling sign, Gazprom has not included any funding for a pipeline or field development to supply China in its capital spending plan for 2014, Reuters reported, citing Vedomosti and the Itar-Tass news agency.

The article China-Russia Gas Talks Go Into Overtime – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By SAAG

By Bhaskar Roy

Execution of middle to senior officials in North Korea are common and normally do not send disturbing signals beyond the country’s borders. The execution of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s uncle last month, however, was no normal execution. It shocked the world.

The uncle, Jang Song-Thaek, was married to Kim Jong-un’s aunt and Kim Jong Il’s sister, Kim Kyong-Hui. He was, therefore, a part of the Kim family and should have been in the inner circle. In the last one year, however, he seems to have gradually fallen out.

Yet, when Kim Jong-Il died in November, 2011 and was succeeded by his son, 28 year old Kim Jong-un, Jang Song-Thaek appeared on the scene, acting as regent to the young Kim Jong-un. Jang was quickly seen as the No.2 in the leadership. This was somewhat of an aberration for the Kim dynasty, as there has never been a second in command. A No.2 is usually a designated successor to the top leader, and the Kim dynasty simply cannot take such a risk. That does not mean that Jang was eliminated for this reason only. There may be several reasons. Jang Song-Thaek’s crimes listed by the state media were mainly economic, one of which was selling coal at a cheap price, since Jang had became an economic czar. He controlled North Korea’s foreign business or, rather, foreign earnings by various means.

Although no country was named as the recipient of Pyongyang’s coal export, most of it went to China. There were several other charges of economic malpractice including one that related to the Rason Special Economic Zone involving China.

The unprecedented publicity given to Jang Song-Thaek’s execution (by firing) along with that of his close associates was a message to China. The North Korean Military strongly disapproved Jang trying to implement Chinese type of economic reforms at Beijing’s persuasion. If Pyongyang lost in these deals, it meant China gained by manipulation and Jang was a willing collaborator of Beijing in exploiting North Korea.

North Korea was in the path of a controlled economic reform initiated by Kim Jong-Il during his last years. Jong –Il quietly visited China several times and was also taken to China’s Special Economic Zone in Shenzhen. It would be interesting to recall that during his return form China by train on such a visit in 2004, there was a major electrical explosion in a North Korean railway station. But the explosion occurred just after Jong-Il’s train had passed through. The incident was hushed up lest foreign intelligence agencies monitoring North Korea suspected it was an attempt on Kim’s life by North Korean hardliners in the army. The hardliners were against the kind of economic reforms that China had undertaken as this policy would weaken their power.

In the last three to four years China-North Korea relations have shown increasing strains. Especially after a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean frigate killing 45 sailors, and artillery bombing of a small South Korean Island, Chinese strategic and policy experts openly called for downgrading relations with Pyongyang. In their analysis China was losing more than gaining in this relationship.

But the Chinese leadership and the communist Party, while constrained, continued to keep the Pyongyang regime afloat. The Chinese sent messages of disapproval by periodically reducing oil supply. North Korea depends on China for 90 per cent of its energy needs and 50 per cent of food. But they are also aware that in pursing an earlier strategy of using North Korea as an instrument of strategic threat to the US and Japan, Beijing had dug itself into a hole.

A recent article by retired Chinese General, Wang Hongguang which appeared in the Huanqiu Shibao briefly, described the dangers of radioactive fallout on China from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programme. The Korean denuclearization talks appear to have receded further. The stability of North Korea is in Beijing’s interest for more than one reason including ideology.

Beijing continues to send messages of disapproval to Pyongyang’s dangerous policies. No Chinese leader attended the commemoration of the second anniversary of Kim Jong-Il’s death. The Chinese ambassador was the only one to attend. This is a very big comedown in the relationship.

The worst possible message China sent to Pyongyang following the Jang Song-Thaek incident was a small report in the Hong Kong daily Wen Wei Po. The report said that Jang and his partners were not executed by firing, but they were stripped naked and fed to 120 hound dogs kept hungry for three days.

This report has generally been dismissed and not picked up by the mainland media either. This is not surprising. Wen Wei Po is not “just” a Hong Kong tabloid. It is China owned and is very much used by Beijing in media warfare and sending messages. Jang and his partners may very well have been executed by a firing squad. What Wen Wei Po said was what Beijing thought of the North Korean regime. That these people were still in the medieval age and deserve no empathy.

But the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson describing the executions briefly as an internal affair of North Korea and hoping for stability says China cannot do anything more at the moment.

“Dear leader” Kim Jong-Il was interested in opening up North Korea. Except for energy, North Korea is sitting on billions of dollars of raw materials. He died and could not take his dreams forward.

Kim Jong-un is only thirty and celebrated his birthday this month with a visit by an American basketball team, playing exhibition games. This is the second visit of this team led by a former NBA star Denis Rodman.

Are these toys given to the thirty year old leader to play with, while the army keeps its tight control? Was Jang Song-Thaek eliminated, not for corruption but for trying to open up North Korea’s economy and introducing economic reforms? Time will tell, as they say.

(The writer is a New Delhi based strategic analyst. He can be reached at e-mail grouchohart@yahoo.com)

The article North Korea’s Publicized But Opaque Execution – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By INEGMA

As part of the efforts exerted by INEGMA’s “Counter-Piracy and Somalia Capacity-Building Program” (CPSCB) to spread awareness for the purpose of building expertise and providing recommendations with regards to maritime piracy off the coast of Somalia, the INEGMA team held discussions with Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant, Commander of the French Joint Force in the Indian Ocean , who deliberated on the latest developments, efforts, recommendations, as well as the upcoming agenda of ALINDIEN* and EUNAVFOR with regards to maritime piracy.

The discussions held with Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant were as follows:

1. INEGMA Team: How does Alindien participate today in the fight against piracy?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: France is committed to the fight against piracy at sea through the European Operation Atalanta. Alindien is the operational command of the French assets deployed in Atalanta, and that is my main contribution to the fight against piracy. Atalanta is a great success since last year, we have witnessed only 6 pirate attacks, and none of them were successful. As Alindien, I am also the French government representative. It is my duty to ensure that any suspected pirate seized by a French ship is transferred to the judiciary, as fast as possible, to secure adequate judicial treatment. On a more general note, my staff keeps a permanent watch on the piracy front. We share our security assessments with ship owners and also keep track of civilian maritime traffic, commercial or private, in order to prevent attacks.

2. INEGMA Team: Since the roots of piracy are onshore, are you considering some operations on land?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: You are right, the roots of piracy are onshore. However, France does not consider that a military operation on land would be the appropriate response. The Somali State and institutions are not developed enough to curb piracy on their own. That is why France is again involved in several missions, such as the European mission EUCAP Nestor, whose aim is to foster appropriate State capabilities in Somalia. But EUCAP Nestor is essentially a civilian mission because we need to support Somali institutions.

3. INEGMA Team: Long-term measures to mitigate piracy are focusing on Somalia’s capacity building capabilities. How are you contributing to this issue?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: Although the waters in front of Somalia are in my area of responsibility, the country itself is not. Long-term measures are civilian measures, not military ones: from legal assistance to training of the maritime and security personnel in Somalia. France is committed to help Somalia in all of these domains.

4. INEGMA Team: The World Bank and INTERPOL’s latest report showed the importance of the pirates’ business model and the need to track the illicit financial flow from pirate activities. How are you dealing with this issue?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: Clearly, our first line of action is to prevent pirate groups to access new funds, deterring and repelling attacks, hence avoiding ransom payment. As military, this is our leverage. We use this same leverage on the fight against terrorism in the Arabo-Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden. Within CTF 150 and 152, we try to interrupt illegal trafficking, mostly of drugs and arms, in order to lessen the financial resources of terrorist groups.

5. INEGMA Team: The EU and NATO mandates’ operations in the Indian Ocean are supposed to expire at the end of 2014. In this perspective, what would be the role of Alindien?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: Alindien’s area of responsibility is not limited to piracy: as I said, terrorism, all traffics are very important issues. The maritime security of the region is of paramount importance for international trade. French and European supply routes run though this area and are a major concern. In fact, the stability of the region is one of the main elements of our White Book on Defense and National Security, published in 2013. As my area extends from the Red Sea, to the Gulf and the limits of the Indian Ocean, including countries like Jordan, Iraq, Iran, the GCC countries, India and Pakistan, I seldom get bored.

6. INEGMA Team: What would you say are the three most serious threats to maritime security in the wider region today?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: In my opinion, the three most serious threats to maritime security in the area are piracy, terrorism and illegal trafficking. Again, I would like to emphasize the link between what is happening at sea and what is happening on the ground. As long as we will face chaos in Somalia, in Yemen, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, illegal activities at sea will last because they are linked to activism in these countries.

7. INEGMA Team: In the Arabian Gulf and Arabian Sea, we find asymmetric naval warfare threats combining with conventional threats. What kind of added demands does a combination of threats like the one we find here put on regional navies and partners in terms of future planning for capability and force posture?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: In any environment, asymmetric threats require flexibility of forces and capabilities. This is the case at sea as well. I think our uttermost priority is to foster the development of appropriate and interoperable naval capabilities in the region. Only by coordinating their efforts will the regional actors manage to set up an efficient tool to fight asymmetric threat at sea. But more than naval capabilities, we need to have a global picture of what is happening at sea: gathering information and sharing it with maritime assets and regional partners requires coordination between all the countries involved in this area. This is the most challenging objective.

8. INEGMA Team: You say maritime interests are shifting on a global scale, how strategic are these trends and what is their likely impact on the role for navies and scope of mission over the next decade in the Middle East and Asia? Are offensive capabilities going to be the game changer?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: Yes maritime interests are shifting, but I don’t believe they will shift radically. “Pivot to Asia” is a reality, but I don’t think that the Indian Ocean and the Gulf are going to become strategically peripheral. Globalization of world trade is dependent of maritime transit of goods, which explains our growing dependence to maritime transportation and the absolute need for maritime security. I actually believe in the “pivot to the sea”. This implies that any actor that wants to matter needs to invest in naval capabilities. We are witnessing this trend with the incredible efforts made by China and India to upgrade their navies and bring them to the next level. To answer your question, offensive capabilities are never the game changer, State ambitions and offensive will are. Truth is the ability to control maritime traffic is essential. To speak more precisely about the Gulf, Iran is the only country in the area which has developed and is improving naval capabilities. This should encourage the other Gulf countries to improve their cooperation.

8. INEGMA Team: You say maritime interests are shifting on a global scale, how strategic are these trends and what is their likely impact on the role for navies and scope of mission over the next decade in the Middle East and Asia? Are offensive capabilities going to be the game changer?

Rear Admiral Antoine Beaussant: It is true we are currently witnessing some type of long-range naval capacity race in the area. However getting the tools does not mean you know how to use them. To put it in another way: these capabilities will not be operational immediately. I am not naïve, though, I am certain that time will bring experience to States that want to acquire it, specifically China and India, but Pakistan and Indonesia as well, which are investing a lot. This also means that regional actors will need to learn and cooperate with newcomers. As I told you, assets are not the problem, political will is. What is certain is that France is in the Indian Ocean to stay. Personally, I can only rejoice about the fact that maritime and naval issues are taken seriously. Most Asian countries have understood the maritime challenges ahead and are moving forward to face it. This is normal. In this context, I believe France has a specific role to play, side by side with its regional partners, in order to secure peace and stability. Look at what we are doing within the CMF: 29 nations are cooperating together to improve maritime security. For the years to come, cooperation and dialogue will be the actual challenges.

*ALINDIEN is a French naval acronym designing the admiral of French Forces in charge of the maritime zone of the Indian Ocean.

The article Somali Piracy And Regional Maritime Security: Views From French Navy Indian Ocean Command appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Press TV

By Barry Lando

The last thing the US should do is become militarily embroiled in the conflict raging again in Iraq. But for Americans to shake their heads in lofty disdain and turn away, as if they have no responsibility for the continued bloodletting, is outrageous.

Why? Because America bears a large part of the blame for turning Iraq into the basket case it’s become.

The great majority of Americans don’t realize that fact. They never did. So much of what the US did to Iraq has been consigned by America to a black hole of history. Iraqis, however, can never forget.

In 1990, for instance, during the first [Persian] Gulf War, George H.W. Bush, called on the people of Iraq to rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein. But when they finally did, after Saddam’s forces were driven from Kuwait, President Bush refused any gesture of support, even permitted Saddam’s pilots to keep flying their deadly helicopter gunships. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were slaughtered….

Even more devastating to Iraq was the Draconian embargo that the United States and its allies pushed through the UN Security Council in August 1990, after Saddam invaded Kuwait.

The embargo cut off all trade between Iraq and the rest of the world. That meant everything, from food and electric generators to vaccines, hospital equipment—even medical journals. Since Iraq imported 70 percent of its food, and its principal revenues were derived from the export of petroleum, the sanctions dealt a catastrophic blow, particularly to the young.

Enforced primarily by the United States and Britain, the sanctions remained in place for almost 13 years and were, in their own way, a weapon of mass destruction far more deadly than anything Saddam had developed. Two UN administrators who oversaw humanitarian relief in Iraq during that period, and resigned in protest, considered the embargo to have been a “crime against humanity.”

Early on, it became evident that for the United States and England, the real purpose of the sanctions was not the elimination of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, but of Saddam Hussein himself, though that goal went far beyond anything authorized by the Security Council.

The effect of the sanctions was magnified by the wide-scale destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure —power plants, sewage treatment facilities, telephone exchanges, irrigation systems—wrought by the American air and rocket attacks preceding the first [Persian] Gulf War. That infrastructure has still to be completely rebuilt.

Iraq’s contaminated waters became a biological killer….There were massive outbreaks of severe child and infant dysentery. Typhoid and cholera, which had been virtually eradicated in Iraq, also packed the hospital wards.

Added to that was a disastrous shortage of food, which meant malnutrition for some, starvation and death for others. At the same time, the medical system, once the country’s pride, careened toward total collapse. Iraq would soon have the worst child mortality rate of all 188 countries measured by UNICEF.

There is no question that U.S. planners knew how awful the force of the sanctions would be. In fact, the health calamity was coolly predicted and then meticulously tracked by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency. Its first study was entitled “Iraq’s Water Treatment Vulnerabilities.”

Indeed, from the beginning, the intent of U.S. officials was to create such a catastrophic situation that the people of Iraq—civilians, but particularly the military—would be forced to react. As Denis Halliday, the former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, put it to me, “the U.S. theory behind the sanctions was that if you hurt the people of Iraq and kill the children particularly, they’ll rise up with anger and overthrow Saddam.”

But rather than weakening Saddam, the sanctions only consolidated his hold on power….

Even after the sanctions were modified in the “Oil for Food Program” in 1996, the resources freed up were never enough to cover Iraq’s basic needs. Hans von Sponeck, who also resigned his post as UN coordinator in Iraq, condemned the program as “a fig leaf for the international community.”

By 1999 a UNICEF study concluded that half a million Iraqi children perished in the previous eight years because of the sanctions—and that was four years before they ended. Another American expert in 2003 estimated that the sanctions killed between 343,900 and 529,000 young children and infants….

Beyond the deaths and wholesale destruction, the sanctions had another equally devastating but less visible impact, as documented early on by a group of Harvard medical researchers. They reported that four out of five children interviewed were fearful of losing their families; two-thirds doubted whether they themselves would survive to adulthood. They were “the most traumatized children of war ever described.”

The experts concluded that “a majority of Iraq’s children would suffer from severe psychological problems throughout their lives.”

Much more chilling, is the fact that the Harvard study was done in 1991, after the sanctions had been in effect for only seven months. They would continue for another 12 years, until May 22, 2003, after the U.S.-led invasion.

By then, an entire generation of Iraqis had been ravaged. But rather than bringing that nightmare to an end, the invasion unleashed another series of horrors.

Estimates of Iraqis who died over the following years, directly or indirectly due to the savage violence, range up to 400,000. Millions more became refugees.

But there was more. The military onslaught and the American rule that immediately followed, destroyed not just the people and infrastructure of Iraq, but the very fiber of the nation….

The result was catastrophic. Frightened Iraqis turned for security to their own tribal or sectarian leaders. Local militias flourished. The violence spiraled out of control. Thousands perished in a horrific surge of ethnic cleansing.

Through bribery and political arm twisting, the US was able to tamp down the conflagration it had helped ignite. Underneath, however, the distrust and hatred continued smoldering.

And then, in 2011, the U.S. troops pulled out…And now, fed by the conflict in neighboring Syria, Iraq is once again caught up in bloody turmoil.

And who is having to deal with all this?

The generation of Iraqis that the Harvard researchers had long labeled “the most traumatized children of war ever described.” The majority of whom “would suffer from severe psychological problems throughout their lives.”

It is they now, who have come of age. It is they who, if they have not fled the country, are the military and police commanders, the businessmen and bureaucrats and newspaper editors, the tribal chiefs and sectarian leaders…–all of them now still caught up in the ever-ending calamity of Iraq.

That, America, is the legacy you helped create for Iraq. How do you deal with it? God knows.

BARRY LANDO is a former producer for 60 Minutes who now lives in Paris.

This article originally appeared at Counterpunch.org.

The article US Legacy In Iraq: Black Hole Of History – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Arab News

By Rajeev Sharma

The west-led international community is unduly worried about the credibility of recently concluded general elections in Bangladesh, boycotted by major opposition parties. This approach is fallacious and misses the woods for the trees.

So much is happening in Bangladesh with so little attention from the world. Stakes are higher than we recognize. Bangladesh is not a small state like Burkina Faso or a small island in the Pacific. It is a country with 155 million plus population with a gigantic youth community. It is overwhelmingly Muslim majority country. Millions of Bangladeshi migrate and eke out their living in Europe, America, Middle East, South East Asia and even in the neighboring India — a country that follows secular democracy. Bangladesh is increasingly a big market with very substantial economic potential that we have largely failed to realize.

The government led by Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina has reduced the gap between demands from existing power consumers and the available supply. Recently the government celebrated achieving installed capacity of 10,000 MW of electricity and plans an addition of capacity over 11,500 MW by 2018. This is no mean achievement considering that she took over from a level of less than 4,000 MW only 5 years ago.

Hasina’s achievements in past five years in the key sectors of education, health and agriculture are commendable given the difficulties in which the government operated and the low levels from which it took over. For years, textbooks of schoolchildren remained without revision. Most children could not get textbooks at all. In a poor LDC country, textbooks matter far more than one imagines. Hasina’s government got textbooks revised by progressive university scholars deleting topics, interpretations and references promoting fundamentalism and parochial religious outlook among young children for years.

Bangladesh is also one of the best performing countries as far as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals are concerned. Some of its key health indicators are better than in the neighboring India with nearly double its per capita income in real terms. Land to people ratio is one of the worst in the world and yet Bangladesh has achieved food sufficiency during Hasina’s tenure.

The point here is not really to eulogize the Hasina’s government but to understand the context of the ongoing political turmoil. In spite of all these, the country is held down by a bloody political conflict marked by mutual hatred of top political leaders and by remarkably cruel street demonstrations by the rightist opposition. On the face of it reason for the ongoing conflict is government’s decision to conduct general elections (now completed) under the present elected government as it happens in most other democracies. Earlier there was a system of caretaker government of technocrats to conduct elections. The opposition, led by Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), demanded re-introduction of the former system. The Hasina government did not agree.

Below the surface, there could be other factors. The government has embarked up on trials of those political activists who clearly committed great atrocities against fellow Bangladeshis who supported secession from Pakistan. In 1971 these political activists, mostly belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), led pillage, murder and rape of their opposition by way of helping the Pakistan Army. They also oversaw ethnic cleansing of minority Hindus, whose number saw drastic reduction in Bangladesh — marking possibly one of the largest enforced demographic changes anywhere in the world. Their trials are belated but they enjoy wide popular support. As can be expected most of those accused are now in JI and BNP. Obviously, BNP and JI are enraged. Progressive Bangladeshis feel that JI and its ally aim at creating anarchy and mayhem to dislodge the government.

Bangladesh is at a crossroads. It is either poised to leap frog to prosperity and secular way of life or to go down the slippery path of fundamentalism. Decades ago Pakistan held similar economic and social promises but the West allowed her to choose the worse path. Today the implications will be higher for the western world. Simply put, Bangladesh is not a problem or promise in South Asia, she is a global concern and should be acknowledged as such. The moot point is religious fundamentalism versus economic and social progress in a large and rising country. We cannot ignore possible takeover of Bangladesh by radicals.

- The writer is a New Delhi-based columnist and strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha.

The article Bangladesh: A Different Viewpoint – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

In Europe, whooping cough (Pertussis) is in the increase, with more than 20.000 cases reported annually. Often infants fall victim to the disease, where it can be life-threatening. Possible complications include pneumonia, brain damage and collapsed lungs, leading to death in one in 200.

There is a vaccine on the market, but a newborn’s immune system is too immature to respond to it. Therefore scientists at the Institute Pasteur in Lille, France have developed a new vaccine that the babies’ immune system can deal with: it is administered intranasally to reproduce the natural conditions of infection as closely as possible.

The new substance is currently undergoing clinical trials and has passed the first phase of testing on human adults successfully.

The results were published on the last issue of the peer-reviewed journal “Plos One”.

The article New Vaccine To Protect Babies From Whooping Cough appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

High concentrations of serum long-chain omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a University of Eastern Finland study published recently in Diabetes Care. The sources of these fatty acids are fish and fish oils.

Type 2 diabetes is becoming increasingly widespread throughout the world, including Finland. Overweight is the most significant risk factor, which means that diet and other lifestyle factors play important roles in the development of type 2 diabetes. Earlier research has established that weight management, exercise and high serum linoleic acid concentrations, among other things, are associated with reduced risk of diabetes. However, findings on how fish consumption or long-chain omega-3 fatty acids affect the risk of diabetes have been highly contradictory. A protective link has mainly been observed in Asian populations, whereas a similar link has not been observed in European or US studies – and some studies have even linked a high consumption of fish to increased diabetes risk.

Ongoing at the University of Eastern Finland, the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD) determined the serum omega-3 fatty acid concentrations of 2,212 men between 42 and 60 years of age at the onset of the study, in 1984–1989.

During a follow-up of 19.3 years, 422 men were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Serum long-chain omega-3 fatty acid concentrations were used to divide the subjects into four categories. The risk of men in the highest serum omega-3 fatty acid concentration quarter to develop type 2 diabetes was 33% lower than the risk of men in the lowest quarter.

The study sheds new light on the association between fish consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes. A well-balanced diet should include at least two fish meals per week, preferably fatty fish. Fish rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids include salmon, rainbow trout, vendace, bream, herring, anchovy, sardine and mackerel, whereas for example saithe and Atlantic cod are not so good alternatives. Weight management, increased exercise and a well-rounded diet built around dietary recommendations constitute the cornerstones of diabetes prevention.

The article Fish Derived Serum Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Reduce Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By IPCS

By Harun ur Rashid

Since 1991 the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has either formed the government or the opposition in parliament. For the first time, BNP’s will not have a parliamentary presence because the party boycotted the January 2014 parliamentary elections because of a non-party poll-time government holding the elections.

In November 2013, Prime Minister Hasina formed a poll-time ‘all-party’ government and invited the BNP to nominate a few MPs but BNP rejected the offer. Sheikh Hasina amended the constitution in 2011 and abolished the non-party caretaker poll-time government on the grounds of the apex court verdict which declared that such unelected government was unconstitutional.

BNP, on the other hand, strongly argued that the AL misconceived the verdict and that the apex court did not rule out non-partisan government for another two parliamentary elections, meaning that such government can exist until 2024.
When a special constitutional committee to amend the constitution was formed in 2010 with MPs from different political parties, the BNP boycotted it. Had they taken part in the committee, they would have been able to robustly argue against the abolition of the caretaker system, although they would have been outvoted by the AL members. However, their views would have been recorded by the people.

For the past two and a half years, primarily two issues – one raised by BNP and the other by Jamaat –e- Islami – have dominated the political scene in the country. While BNP sought the restoration of the non-party caretaker government, the Jamaat demanded that the trial of their leaders by the tribunals set up in 2010 under the International Crimes Tribunals Act be postponed and their leaders released.

The issues are totally separate and consequently people’s reactions have also been different. While it is reported that 77 per cent agreed with the BNP stance on the restoration of the non-party caretaker poll-time government, the people overwhelmingly supported the trial of Jamaat leaders charged with crimes against humanity in the 1971 Liberation War.

Observers say that by supporting the Jamaat for hartals, BNP made a political blunder. Many say that Jamaat has used the BNP for its objectives and BNP should not have allowed itself to fall into this trap.

When violence, arson, derailment of trains that were allegedly masterminded by Jamaat and Shibir supporters occurred (because of death sentences on their leaders), the BNP leadership was silent.

Observers say that the BNP should have disassociated from such violent activities by acknowledging their impact on the lives of Bangladeshis. For instance, BNP leaders could have visited the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital to empathise with the victims.

BNP seemed to have made another political error by not immediately reacting to the resolution of the Pakistani Parliament after Jamaat leader Kader Mollah was executed following an the apex court confirmation in December 2013.

BNP-backed candidates won many local mayoral elections with thumping majorities in the middle of 2013, defeating AL candidates. Although local elections are different from parliamentary elections because the outcome changes the power of the national government, it is a barometer to judge the fairness of elections at this level. Furthermore, due to media vigilance and alertness, it is very difficult to rig an entire election.

Observers say that the BNP should have entered into a meaningful dialogue with the AL on the issue of free and fair polls and should not have stuck stubbornly to the caretaker system when the apex court declared it as unconstitutional. Other ways for free and fair polls could have been negotiated, and some say that the BNP should have accepted ministerial positions in the all-party government headed by the PM. The presence of BNP ministers could have possibly prevented election rigging.
Every one believed that at the end of the day BNP candidates would contest as ‘independent’ candidates and that they could have won the elections since no party in Bangladesh has won two elections contested by two major parties.

The BNP grass-root workers are reportedly disappointed with the strategy of the BNP leadership in boycotting the election and are seeking an explanation from the leadership. It seems the BNP leaders have no satisfactory answer to the question.

Harun ur Rashid
Former Ambassador of Bangladesh to the UN, Geneva

The article Bangladesh Elections: What Went Wrong? – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

At a joint press conference at the White House with the US President, Barack Obama, the President of the Government of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, said he is convinced that jobs will be created in Spain and the European Union during the course of this year.

After a meeting in the Oval Office, Mariano Rajoy and Barack Obama gave a joint press conference at which the two leaders confirmed the “magnificent” relationship that exists between Spain and the United States.

The President of the Government of Spain and the President of the United States commented on the changes taking place in the economies of both the Eurozone and Spain.

A little over a year ago, said Mariano Rajoy, there were doubts over the continued existence of the Euro, financing problems in numerous EU countries, very high risk premiums and a bail-out risk in certain countries, including Spain. However, the situation has now changed and “talk is starting to focus on growth and a clearer outlook is emerging in the fight against unemployment, which is unquestionably the most important issue being faced by certain European Union countries”.

Barack Obama congratulated Mariano Rajoy on “his sound leadership” that has made it possible to return stability to the Spanish economy, switching the course of events towards growth, deficit reduction and a return to the financial markets.

President of the Government Rajoy briefed President Obama on the reforms implemented in Spain over the last two years, which he believes have been “absolutely essential” to the economic recovery.

He also told him that “we are now facing the future with greater optimism in Spain” because, after eleven months of negative growth, Spain’s economy grew by 0.1% in Q3 2013 and by 0.3% in Q4. Nonetheless, Mariano Rajoy acknowledged that many steps still need to be taken.

Unemployment continues to pose the greatest threat in the country, said the President of the Government of Spain, but the most recent data in this regard are “highly encouraging”; there were fewer people in the dole queues in Spain at the end of 2013 than there were at the end of 2012.

Regarding economic and trade issues between the two countries, Mariano Rajoy encouraged US investors to notice “the course of events in Spain” and the future prospects for the country.

The President of the Government said he is a staunch defender of the Free Trade Treaty being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. He described it as an issue of “enormous importance” because the result would be the freest and largest trade area in the world representing 50% of global GDP.

At the meeting, the two leaders have dealt with issues related to security, defence, foreign policy and Latin America.

The article Spain’s Rajoy Tells Obama: ‘I Am Absolutely Convinced That 2014 Will See Jobs Created In Spain’ appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden will sit on the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, the American NGO said on its website.

“He is the quintessential American whistleblower, and a personal hero of mine,” the group’s co-founder Daniel Ellsberg was cited as saying Tuesday.

Snowden, who is currently living in Russia having been granted temporary asylum there, agreed to the proposal and will formally join the board in February, the group said in a statement.

Freedom of the Press Foundation was established in 2012 to promote free speech and support whistleblowing journalism.

In addition to Ellsberg, a former US military analyst known for releasing the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971 during the Vietnam War, the foundation’s board includes Hollywood actor John Cusack and journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras, who have worked with Snowden.

The group has crowdsourced for WikiLeaks and released SecureDrop, an electronic communication tool for potential whistleblowers. It has, however, yet to yield results comparable to Snowden’s high-profile exposé last year of US mass surveillance programs that generated a media storm and prompted him to flee to Russia.

The article Snowden Joins Freedom Of The Press Foundation’s Board appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Anthony Gregory

No one knows how many times police shoot and kill Americans every year. Most estimates put the number at a few hundred a year, but we don’t know the details, including how many of these killed people presented a real threat to anyone. The U.S. government does not do body counts, as it admitted during the Iraq war. And the same appears to be true in domestic policing, where law enforcement has become comparably brutal to the armed forces overseas, including in what has become standard operating procedure in the hundred SWAT raids performed every day across this country, the vast majority of which are launched to serve warrants to people accused of non-violent offenses.

Three news stories in the first couple weeks of this new year remind us of the unsettling culture encouraged in modern policing. It is a culture that values officer safety, however dubious the threats against it, above the rights of everyday Americans, a culture that holds police above the law.

On Sunday, January 5, a North Carolina family called the police for help with their schizophrenic teenaged son, Keith Vidal, who was threatening the mother. As with many calls to the police, this proved to be a terrible mistake for those seeking help. Two officers showed up and managed to help subdue the ninety-pound eighteen-year-old. Then a third officer arrived, and within a couple minutes, the boy’s life was over. The last law enforcer on the scene said, “I don’t have time for this,” according to the boy’s stepfather. Keith was held down, tased, and then shot. The officer “reached right up, shot this kid point-blank, with all intent to kill,” the stepfather said. “Keith was not threatening anybody, Keith did not want any part of it. He was having a bad day. . . . He was flat out murdered, there was no need for deadly force. No reason.”

Yesterday, January 13, a jury acquitted two officers who beat a homeless schizophrenic man to death. On July 5, 2011, Fullerton, California, officers, responding to a tip about car vandalization, came upon a confused man, Kelly Thomas, and attempted to search him. According to the officers, he resisted a search. According to witnesses and video evidence, Thomas apologized and tried to comply. An officer put on latex gloves, and, according to the prosecutor, an unprovoked beating began. They hit him with batons and tased him five times. They called paramedics, one of whom says the police asked that an officer’s minor injury be treated first. Thomas was a bloodied pulp. Here’s how he looked, lying in a coma, before he died from his multiple wounds, if you can stomach the image. The prosecutor closed his argument with Thomas’s last words:

“Dad help me.”
“God help me.”
“Help me. Help me. Help me.”

Unless these officers face justice in federal court, their acquittal sends the message that police are above the law that the rest of us must follow. Of course, police and the public hear this message time and again, over and over. And although I am speculating, I strongly suspect this cultural problem serves as background to another news story from yesterday.

In Wesley Chapel, Florida, a man sat in a movie theater texting his daughter. An older man complained about his disruption, and the two argued. The older man left the theater and came back, the arguing continued, until finally he shot the offending texter dead. Such a frightening public shooting in a movie theater would typically fuel calls for more gun control, to keep weapons out of the hands of everyone but police. Conservatives often respond that trusted citizens should carry weapons to defend the public. But the shooter here was a trusted citizen—a retired police officer, the type of person almost no one thinks should be categorically disarmed.

We don’t know the shooter’s psychology, but a lot of criminological literature has indicated that police officers tend to have more in common with the criminals they arrest than many people assume. Studies indicate, for example, that 40% of police families experience domestic violence—a rate two to four times as high as we see in the general population.

The institutional and cultural realities surrounding modern policing compound the problem. Even if police were less prone to criminality than the general population, they have many incentives to commit violence, to trample rights, to shoot first and ask questions never, to flat-out lie in courtrooms to protect their own. And they face very little accountability for what they do. These realities infect almost every department, to varying degrees, across the nation, and cannot help but instill a widespread attitude in police that they are at war with large segments of the populace and do not need to follow the same rules the rest of us do.

The Florida shooter will likely face comeuppance for murdering a man over an argument in a movie theater. But we can say this with much more confidence because he was retired. If he were a police officer on duty, things could very well be different. He could say the man was refusing arrest—a convenient excuse for police brutality. He could say he was afraid for his life. The police union and many of his colleagues would come to his defense. This is not so far-fetched After all, in April 2011, Florida police tased a man to death, claiming he was being disorderly outside a movie theater.

It is the nature of the state that acts that would be considered criminal if conducted by private individuals are legal if done by the government. Government is a monopoly on legal violence, after all. In today’s America, this reality is no clearer than with the burgeoning police state, whose agents routinely commit violent acts that would condemn most of us to a cell for decades.

There are plenty of reforms that could move us toward a more civilized future—personal accountability for wrongdoing, ending the drug war, slashing government spending on military weapons. But the biggest shift needs to be cultural. We need to talk about these horrors, every day, and make them a permanent national political issue. No politician should be allowed to be elected to any office at any level without answering questions on the rising American police state. If this trend isn’t stopped, most other issues will eventually become obviously trivial in comparison.

The article License To Kill – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

By Ahmad Khan and Beenish Altaf

‘It’s no secret that we live in a 24/7 society’ that is full of risks. In fact, Pakistanis usually take risks in order to find quick solutions of their lingering problems. In addition, people in Pakistan usually don’t care at large about the safety of their lives, and frequently indulge themselves in greater problems while taking risks.

Actually, our mode of survival pivots around risks, and we neglect certain aspects of safety of our lives. For example, we’ve seen people attempting phone calls while driving a car, as a result sometime this ended in serious accidents and usually led to loss of innocent lives.

In reality, however, this is certain phenomenon all around the world. People don’t care about their safety. But, human civilization teaches us to care about our lives, and humans learn from their mistakes, and try to improve their life style in manner with less degree of risk with necessary precautionary measures. On the contrary, risks are not taken in nuclear industry. Risks lead to disasters, but in nuclear field every bit of activity is carefully monitored and dealt with great care.

Technology is overall neutral, which means it has some positive aspects as well as some negative effects. Here, we want to quote Albert Einstein famous saying about technology that “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

Taking this realism into account, one can envisage that nuclear technology, if not properly handled, can have disastrous effects on the human civilization. Any nuclear disaster can annihilate entire human civilization in the disaster hit area. Nuclear Technology for peaceful purposes is a reality, and no one can deny the fact that there are more than 430 nuclear reactors, which are currently operating across the world.

In fact, countries like Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordon etc. are the aspirant of this technology without having adequate, trained and skillful human resources in their infant nuclear industry. Especially, the developed nation, who’s aspiration are high, but they have their legitimate right of acquiring civil nuclear technology to utilize it for future energy production at home.

On the other hand, Pakistan has already a well-establish nuclear industry. It has three nuclear power plants generating power, and two more nuclear power plants are under construction at Chasma. Moreover, it is building two new nuclear power plants at its coastal city of Karachi, which will able to produce 2 GW power till 2019. In fact, their ground breaking ceremony has already been took place at their proposed site. Karachi become the foundation stone of where Pakistan’s nuclear power industry  laid, when KANUPP-1 was constructed.

Right now, some nuclear pessimists in Pakistan are debating over some theoretical threats posed to these two nuclear power plants. They believe that nuclear plants at Karachi can be hit by a Tsunami or an earthquake in future. They also advocate that their design is not sufficiently meeting the international standards.

These are some of the leading arguments they are currently making against the construction of these nuclear power plants. The Chinese model of AP-1000 are designed and approved by an American (Westinghouse Electric Company) with better safety mechanism. As far as Tsunami and earthquake are concerned, the probability is once in half of a century. Substantially, Karachi is lucky enough, not to face any such natural disasters in past 70 years, despite the fact that earthquakes are frequent in Pakistan as of 2005 earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people.

Similarly, floods are also common in Pakistan, like 2010 super flood, which almost made the entire map of Pakistan filled with water. However, here we once again stay with our contention that human survival pivots around risks and sometime the furry of nature pose great risk to human life. But it is human art of survival, which always overcomes these risks. It is the strength of humans to learn from their past mistake, correct them to live a progressive life.

As far as nuclear disasters are concerned, it is obvious that ‘Three Mile Island’ accident was due to technical fault in the coolant of the nuclear reactor, which caused the melting of the core. Subsequently, it caused lethal radiation in the atmosphere in the disaster affected area. However, the disaster didn’t cause any significant human causality.

Likewise, Chernobyl nuclear accident was due to the flawed design of the nuclear reactor as well as inadequate personnel handling the entire operations of the nuclear reactor. Both of the nuclear disasters were caused either from the malfunctioning of the reactor parts or by the faulty design of the nuclear plants.

However, Fukushima disaster only involves Tsunami, which turned off the backup generators, which were supposed to provide electricity to the core in case of a black out at the nuclear plant. After Fukushima, nuclear safety has become a major part of the global nuclear discourse apart from nuclear security debate. However, after previous two nuclear disasters certain lessons were learn in order to correct the mistakes. This involves the revamping of the entire safety mechanism of the nuclear plants in United States after Three Mile Island accident, and correction and modification of Soviet designed nuclear plants in and outside former Soviet Union especially in Europe.

Likewise, the Fukushima accident also left with some key lessons to be learnt. Pakistan also realized the opportunity to learn these lessons, and we strongly believe that the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) have strongly contemplated these lessons into their safety policies. There are two examples which need to be highlighted here, which show PAEC’ level of commitment toward the safety of our nuclear plants.

One is, Pakistan has conducted ‘Stress Tests’ of all its operating nuclear plants. And one is the shutting down one of its nuclear plant for one and half year, when one of its backup generators went out of order. They didn’t take any risk and the plant did not go for generation until the backup facilities was not fully restored. Likewise, Pakistan’s nuclear reactors are under IAEA safeguards fulfilling all IAEA standards.

The Rationale behind the expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear program is the lingering problem of energy crisis, which impinges upon our national security. There is a gap of 5000 MW in the demand and supply chain of power in the country. Pakistan’s energy needs are exponentially growing, and it is predicted that the future demand of power will rise up to 32000 MW till 2018. The construction of these plants at Karachi will be complete in 2019, and they will start pouring 2 GW of power in the national grid.

Similarly, the expansion of nuclear plants till 2030 will enable Pakistan to produce more 7000-8000 MW of electricity from its nuclear plants. In conclusion, nuclear energy involves risks, risks with devastating effects on the human civilization in case of any disaster, but nuclear pessimist must understand that there are great precautionary/safety measures with constant vigilance and strong commitments, which definitely lower the chance of any disaster in Pakistan.

Ahmad Khan and Beenish Altaf work in Strategic Vision Institute, Islamabad.

The article Lesson From Nuclear Disasters And Karachi Nuclear Plants – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Arab News

By Osama Al Sharif

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas knows that the time has come for him to make the toughest decision of his long political career. He has been involved in peace negotiations with Israel for more than 20 years with little to show for it.

Times have changed since he first engaged the Israelis in secret peace talks in Oslo, Norway, to produce what looked then like a historic deal to end decades of conflict. But the core issues have not changed even when Israel’s leaders reneged on that deal and held the late President Yasser Arafat hostage in his Ramallah headquarters more than 10 years ago until his death.
His successor, Abbas, was viewed as a moderate and there were suspicions by his Palestinian critics that he would accept what Arafat had rejected at Camp David in 2000. But he held on, negotiating with Ariel Sharon, then Ehud Olmert and now with Benjamin Netanyahu, through US interlocutors.

But Abbas was always under pressure to resume peace talks without conditions. His demand that Israel freezes settlement activities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank was rebuffed by Netanyahu. The first term of President Barack Obama brought some hope to the Palestinians. But Obama’s attempt to corner Netanyahu and produce an historic deal fell through. For a while the Palestinians were out of options, until John Kerry took over from Hillary Clinton and vowed to revive peace talks.

Today and after six months of mostly secret negotiations, Kerry says the two sides are close to signing a new understanding on final status issues. He appears to be the only one who believes that a deal can be reached. Netanyahu is as elusive as ever. But Abbas knows that he is the one expected to make the big compromises.

Little is known about Kerry’s set of proposals. But Palestinian reaction to them has been tepid. On Saturday Abbas told supporters that he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state nor will he accept a deal that does not consider East Jerusalem the capital of the future Palestinian state. He said he will never abandon the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees, nor will he accept the presence of Israeli soldiers in the Jordan Valley.

On his part Israel’s hard-liner Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted, as saying on Sunday that Israel must accept Kerry’s proposal for a framework agreement with the Palestinians since “any other proposal from the international community won’t be as good.”

He was quoted earlier as saying that Israel rejects the right of return, will not withdraw from East Jerusalem or the Jordan Valley. Moreover, he said that his party would never support an agreement that does not involve an Israeli surrender of territory inside the 1967 lines where Arabs predominate. He was referring to a suggestion that in proposed land swaps Israel will relinquish areas in the Galilee where 300,000 Israeli Arabs reside as part of Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state.

Kerry’s controversial proposals have also been questioned by Jordan, a keen observer of bilateral negotiations. For the first time ever Jordan has said that it will back a deal so long as it meets the conditions of its highest national interests. There have been warnings by prominent Jordanian officials against a “secret” deal that could be struck between Abbas and Netanyahu undermining Jordanian interests especially on refugees, borders and East Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials were quick to respond that Jordan and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are coordinating positions and see eye-to-eye on all issues.

Kerry will be back in the region soon and he will exert pressure on Abbas to embrace his proposals. The Palestinians were told last week that Kerry would not point the finger at Israel if his mediation efforts collapse. There were threats that the US and the European Union (EU) may suspend aid to the PA if talks fail.

Abbas will have to rise to the occasion. What Kerry is offering is nothing more than Israeli conditions and demands. It is a humiliating deal that aims at liquidating the Palestinian cause once and for all. His options are few and difficult. If he accepts he will go down in history as the leader who sold out his people and their inalienable rights. If he rejects the deal he faces a fate similar to that of Arafat, at least in the political sense.

Abbas can always fight US pressure if he can count on Arab support. He can carry out previous threats to disband the PA and declare the West Bank an Israeli occupied territory. He can take his case back to the United Nations and end America’s monopoly on peace negotiations. Abbas must make bold decisions because the stakes have never been higher for the Palestinians.

Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman. Email: alsharif.osama@gmail.com

The article Abbas Faces Uphill Task – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By RT

US federal judges have strongly criticized proposals to reform the NSA from the Obama-appointed Review Group, saying some of them would “hamper the work” of federal courts. It comes three days before Obama will unveil NSA changes to be endorsed.

Judge John Bates, director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, which represents the country’s federal judges, sent the objections in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Bates is well placed to offer an expert opinion, as he is also a former head of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court.

The Review Group’s proposals are not focused on “policy choices” but on “operational impact,” Bates wrote, adding comments and warnings about what will happen if the reforms proposed by the White House NSA review group and NSA critics in Congress are passed.

Bates said that his comments were based on his consultations with the current presiding judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Court of Review, as well as with some former judges.

Obama’s panel of experts, the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, presented its 46 recommendations regarding NSA activities in December following the wide-ranging revelations about NSA surveillance by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

It also recommended several changes to the FISA court system, which authorized NSA broad eavesdropping operations, including massive collection of Americans’ and foreigners’ telephone metadata.

Enacting those reforms, Bates said, would profoundly increase the workloads of federal courts. Some of the proposals may disrupt the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s ability to fulfill its “responsibilities under (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, under which the secret court operates) and the Constitution to ensure that the privacy interests of United States citizens and others are adequately protected.”

Bates strongly warned against a proposal to create a “Public Interest Advocate” to represent privacy and civil liberty concerns before the court, which usually operates behind closed doors.

He said it would provide “greater procedural protections for suspected foreign agents and international terrorists than for ordinary US citizens in criminal investigations.”

Moreover, Bates said, allowing a public advocate to participate in FISA court hearings “could prove counterproductive in the vast majority of FISA matters.”

“Given the nature of FISA proceedings, the participation of an advocate would neither create a truly adversarial process nor constructively assist the courts in assessing the facts,” he wrote, adding that advocate involvement in “run-of-the-mill FISA matters would substantially hamper the work of the courts without providing any countervailing benefit in terms of privacy protection.”

Bates also rejected the panel’s recommendation that the government seek court approval every time it wants to obtain information in cases of national security, known as a national security letter.

“Drastically expanding the [court’s] caseload by assigning to it in excess of 20,000 administrative subpoena-type cases per year […] would fundamentally transform the nature of the FISC to the detriment of its current responsibilities,” Bates wrote.

The judges also opposed ending the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records because, they said, it likely would result in “many more” applications to the court to obtain the data on a case-by-case basis, The Wall Street Journal reported.

On Friday, Obama is expected to announce his plans for the NSA in a speech at the Justice Department. Details of his proposal have not been released.

The article US Judiciary Rejects NSA Reform Proposals From Obama’s Review Group appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By VOA

By Brian Padden

In the U.S. state of West Virginia, a major chemical spill that contaminated a river supplying water to hundreds of thousands of people is slowly dissipating. Officials say the water restrictions have been lifted in some areas near the state capital of Charleston. But in some rural towns people still cannot drink the local water.

In the town of Marmet, which is just south of Charleston, residents line up in the their cars for free bottled water. Schools and most restaurants and businesses remain closed.

Marmet’s Fire Chief Jerry McGhee says responding to the water emergency has brought out the best in the community.

“The fire department and a ton of volunteers, which we really appreciate coming out. The police department, local police department has been here. We had city council personnel with us and just a lot of in-town folks who have chipped in to assist us,” says McGhee.

This crisis began when a chemical known as MCHM, used to clean impurities from coal, leaked from a storage tank owned by a company called Freedom Industries. The chemical got into the Elk River, which supplies drinking water to the region. Residents say the contaminated water smells like licorice. Officials warned people not to drink it, or even wash with it.

Dustin White with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and other environmental activists are critical of what they say is the lack of regulation of the powerful chemical and coal industries in West Virginia. But for now they are focusing on the crisis at hand, bringing water to rural areas.

“For me and a lot of us, this is where we call home. So any time that our people need any type of help, we try to respond in any way we can to help the people who need it,” says White.

Tommy Manns and many local residents say with some help they can survive this crisis.

“It’s not as bad as what people make it seem, but you know we get by. All the water everybody gives out helps a lot,” says Manns.

Officials say it could be several days before the water-use ban is lifted entirely.

The article West Virginia Chemical Spill Still Affecting Rural Areas appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Eurasia Review

The churlish breeze from the Northern hills was blowing softly in the early part of the day. Perched at the foothill and opposite to the largest hospital of Gilgit, my house was offering a panoramic view of the entire city on the morning of 20th December, 2007. I abruptly headed to the dressing room and put on my school uniform comprised of one shirt and two blue sweaters weaved in woolen to avoid the bone-aching chill of Gilgit Baltistan.

I set out to attend the first paper of my annual exams; normally proceed till the end of December sometimes even into the January. The driver( Margoob) had already heated up the engine of vehicle which suffers the tenacious bane of freeze in winter season. We snaked out of our house and joined the train of traffic on main road leading to our college. The whole span of sky was camouflaged by the spread of dense clouds inhibiting the rays of sun to hit even an inch of ground. The grasslands along the margins of road were topped by the blanket of ice transformed from the dew.

It was around 8:30 am, a bare thirty minutes for the exam to commence. I reclined on my seat and heaved a sigh of relief as if I were about to appear before the mighty court to prove my justified performance for the whole year. But suddenly, the sense of togetherness got disrupted by a hail of bullets ominously threatening to pierce our bodies. Margoob advertently steered the vehicle into a street avoiding the storm of bullets. We both fell into an abyss of sheer wonder. Apparently, it appeared a cinema movie where the villains were in search of hero and they sought me out on the face of road languishing for the safety of life. But, it was the terror-struck reality I met upon in less than one minute before.

The front mirror had one hole, probably one bullet out of dozens reached enough in range to snatch the souls out of our bodies. Headlights were splintered into pieces while the green license number attached beneath the bumper split vertically into three unequal parts. We soon discovered that the front tiers got flat, while the most agonizing part of that discovery was the impetuous choice of the street that was dead-ended. Neither did the tiers have enough power to retreat back and sneak away from the explosives aimed at us nor did the street has even a small corridor to let us flee on foot. I could see the face of death looming in my fear-fed eyes. Margoob once looked at me in a calm gesture to appease my nerves and put his arm around my shoulder as though only the Divine Intervention would bail us out. We were literally waiting for the goons, in mask to disguise their identities, to march up and fulfill their task. Every proceeding second was leaving an emotional scar deep in my heart.

The earth-shattering event of 8th January 2005 triggered an epoch of bloodbath in Gilgit. A small gorge on the Northern part of Pakistan, it has been an epicenter of tourism for the time immemorial. On that tragic day of January, a religious leader of Shiites received several bullets on his chest and breathed his last on the spot. This assassination sent an emotional current deep into his followers who, in reciprocal, took to the streets with advanced riffles and guns. They picked on every traveler and lodged bullets into their bodies. Soon, the allegations were leveled against counterpart sect of sunnis. The frenzied circles of fanatics ruthlessly gunned down innocents on that day. I could hear the thundering sounds of bullets striking against the walls of my house.

A house one street apart was burnt down to ashes with household toasted like the chicken roast. The motor cycles in an office adjacent to our backyard were dragged out and broken down into pieces. The road in no time offered a grim look stained by the blood. Thugs with black fabric put tightly around the face were meandering around the vicinity. Every vehicle was torched especially the ones with green plates registered as assets of government. Perhaps, the exclusive attack on me can partly be the stimulus of green license number attached with our vehicle. This event played a dynamic role in pitting both parties against each other and weakened the social fabric of Gilgit for good. After that tragic day, this city never witnessed a long period of peace and harmony. Episodes of killings would enfold repeatedly and scores of people have made an untimely journey of death. The event of 20th December was also the episode of that serial that initiated on the assassination of religious leader.

It was 8:35 on the examination morning as I made an apparently last look at the wrist-watch. The slow ticking of needle was teaching me the precious value of every moment we live on this earth. Human being is an active agent who should feel for the existence of other creatures. No one is indispensible nor has the power to change the entire world from scratch, but this event taught me the role of single individual who can at least put his bit for the betterment. A bead of sweat ran on my face even on that frigid morning, raising the temperature of vehicle. A wafer-thin sliver was what between me and my death. We had no weapons; no aggressors not even a sharp tool to offer a slightest of resistance. A bag at the rear seat, Mathematics book on the right hand and a pencil with blunt tip on the other hand, I was too young to imagine such a murderous attempt on me. Margoob broke out of dormancy and searched out for an iron rod which he thought would supposedly be enough to ward off the immediate second attempt but it was merely a reactive response meant only to satisfy himself.

I looked at the mirror attached with the roof and saw two masked men marching stealthily towards us. It sent a dreadfully agonizing impulse down to the tail of my spine. They were inching close to us with bodies bent a bit on knees as if were to investigate whether we were developing a counter-reaction or were waiting for the death. Out of the blue, Heavenly Intervention lent us a generous support by sending one of his servants. A man emerged from a door on our left unnoticed by us and unleashed a barrage of shots at the thugs who relinquished in spur of the moment. In no time, we were asked by him to enter the door leading into his room. A new lease on life was given to me by this man.

A brave man and the sole brother of two sisters, Ikram had a broad chest with black eyes. Upon my jittery gestures, he snuggled me and smoothened my nerves. He was the postman of nearby post office. The incessant events of violence and massacre led him to keep lethal weapons in order to ward off the possibilities of any mishap. Still the danger was on, looming on the horizon. The thugs were still out there to claim soul out of my body. But, I was taken aback with surprise to be surrounded by a handsome number of youth in the same house to defend me against the clutches of death. I can’t measure the magnitude of euphoria in which I dared to last more distance on the landscape of worldly life. Soon the rangers, deployed at a nearby station, reached at the spot with a string of vehicles topped with red sirens. By then, the thugs had escaped up to the mountainous terrains and had taken refuge in rocky caverns.

The situation got normalized and the entire region was cordoned off. Crowded by the heavily-built frames of rangers, I along with Margoob was put into a vehicle and dropped at my home. Ikram gave a bright look to me and bode farewell before my abrupt departure. My parents leapt to hug me like the swooping eagles. The emotional climate was resonating with the verses of gratefulness. The vibes of nature were profusely infused with the slickness of love. Soon, a tradition paved its way and for months our house was teeming with an ever-surging tide of relatives coming from far-reaches to mark their attendance for the sympathies.

I had an expanded circle of friends in my school times. Out-bounds, parties and hang-outs were very frequent. I was indifferent towards to the purpose of life. Seldom had I given a thought to the value of every breath we take in. I didn’t care to understand the role of human being in shaping the dynamics of this world. I was a 5.10 feet tall, heavily- framed and an ‘educated idiot’ with no inclination towards a contribution for the betterment of humankind on my part. I was living on a planet where everyone was too busy in partying and merrymaking. Social gatherings and festivals were aimed to spin a web of life that has no resemblance with the rest of the world. The misery involved in earning a single bread to traverse the terrain of life was beyond the shot of my eyes just like the sunlight to the owl.
That very event changed the course of my life. Those few moments of fear and agony taught me the importance of every minute step we take to create a change in our society. I had seen threatening face of death in my eyes. It made me know the amount of time one individual has on this earth to bring a change for better. No matter how much his in-put is insignificant in the oceanic stream of global service; his own bit is enough to justify his existence. Life is a debt that needs to be paid off.  I rigorously believe that the favor upon us by this world can only be returned through exploring the possibilities to serve the mankind in true spirit.

Gilgit is still in grip of sectarian violence. Schools and colleges are closed on regular basis. Even, the attack on me led the school administration to postpone exams for a week. Recently, Gilgit was once again turned into a hunting ground after a handful of people on way from Islamabad to Gilgit were stopped and gunned down. As a consequence, a spate of killings left more than two dozen dead in a couple of months. Business, especially the sector of tourism is suffering the most brunt of this curse. The influx of tourists amid the bloodshed has been pared to the bone. But, the austerity measures taken by the democratically- elected government and the gradual maturity of populace has lent strength to the muscles of social security.

Last time, I had a jaunt to Gilgit with some of my acquaintances. Nestled at the feet of gigantic mountains was the beautiful gorge of Gilgit profusely sprayed with fog in the morning. I gathered my courage to a considerable proportion and went to witness the spot of incidence. The entire episode of that shocking day once again became fresh in my mind which was propelled into the recessive corners of my memories.

The article A Narrow Escape In Gilgit-Baltistan – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By IDSA

By Gulbin Sultana

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka in November, 2013. The theme for this year’s CHOGM was “Growth with Equity: Inclusive Development”. Of the 50 countries that attended the meeting1, 27 were represented by their Heads of State. They adopted the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable, Inclusive and Equitable Development.2 While many issues were discussed, however, media attention was focussed on the reactions of various countries to the human rights records of Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.

In the run up to the CHOGM meet, there were calls of boycott in Sri Lanka because of the alleged war crime committed by the Sri Lankan military during the last phase of Eelam War IV and the poor human rights records of the Lankan government. Though such calls were largely ignored, the Prime Ministers of Canada, India and Mauritius among others decided not to attend the meet reportedly to express their concerns against the Lankan government’s atrocities on the Tamils. The prime minister of UK, David Cameron, on the other hand, decided to attend the meet and raise his concerns on alleged human rights violations. In an article in Tamil Guardian, on November 7, 2013, he wrote that rather than “sitting on the sidelines”, “attending the summit [was] not a betrayal of Britain’s values or the Tamil people, it [was] the way we champion them”. He reiterated the points in his op-ed piece in Times of India on November 14, 2013.3

On November 16, 2013, after meeting Rajapaksa the previous evening, in his address to the media Cameron gave an ultimatum to the Rajapaksa government to complete an independent investigation of the alleged war crimes by March 2014 failing which he threatened to push for international investigation through the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).4

Interestingly, on November 18, responding to the media enquiry on Cameron’s remarks, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said that “human rights conditions should be improved by the governments of countries concerned through their efforts and constructive help should also be offered by the international community”.5 The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka later in an e-mail statement clarified that media distorted the original statement and the Chinese position on Sri Lanka remained unchanged. Qin’s comments drew a lot of media attention as China was elected to the UNHRC in 2013. Even Japan’s Special Envoy for Peace-Building, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka Yashushi Akashi, who had, in his previous visits, complemented Rajapaksa government for its efforts and requested international community to have patience, modified his views during his five day visit in December 2013 and stated that it was not only the International Community but also
The Sri Lankans who were anxiously “waiting for action and not just sound and fury”.6

Although the Lankan Government as well as the main opposition party United National Party (UNP) vehemently rejected international investigation, pressure on the government seems to be building up. There are possibilities of meeting serious consequences in the UNHRC in March 2014. Reportedly, the secretary to the ministry of defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had secret meetings with the UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Elisson on December 16 in New York and also with the Indian National Security Advisor and External Affairs Minister in New Delhi.7 Later, on December 23, he met the Deputy National Security Advisor of India at the Defence Ministry premises in Colombo. The details of the discussion were, however, kept away from media. At the same time, to show to the world that the UPFA government was taking up some concrete steps, the department of census and statistics launched a survey to enumerate human and material losses due to the war.

Colombo had thought that the CHOGM would provide an opportunity to project its developmental activities (infrastructure) and reconstruction of the post-war economy to the world. In reality, however, it provided the world the ground situation. Prime Minister Cameron along with some foreign journalists visited Jaffna and spent time talking to the internally displaced people (IDP) at the Sabapathipillai Welfare Centre for the war displaced.8 While driving through Jaffna, Cameron’s convoy was mobbed by demonstrators carrying photographs of their loved ones who disappeared during and after the war.

Participants in the CHOGM also came face to face with the restrictions on peaceful protest and freedom of expression. People coming from the North to participate in a human rights festival in Colombo were stopped by security forces.9 The Lankan government did allow the reporters of Channel 4, known for its investigative reports on the war-crimes in Sri Lanka, to enter the country during the CHOGM.

There is a view in Lanka that CHOGM did more harm than good. In fact many are now questioning the wisdom of the government to host the meet. The government could only ensure participation, which is the lowest in the history of CHOGM. It also failed to make the main opposition attend the summit. In economic terms too, CHOGM did not prove lucrative for the service industry. According to local media reports city hotel occupancy levels were far below expectations. The average occupancy rate of city hotels at this time of the year usually is around 75 to 80 per cent. But during the CHOGM only 50% rooms were occupied.10

However, the pro-government media is defiant with editorials strongly denouncing the threat of international investigation as interference of Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. It is expected to galvanize popular support for Rajapaksa. Rejecting the March 2014 deadline by Cameron to hold credible investigations, Rajapaksa reportedly said that “it was extremely unfair to issue such ultimata when the government was already working towards genuine reconciliation”. He expressed his displeasure “against attempts to sow the seeds of discord through deadlines, ultimata and such deeds when what is needed is to rebuild the mindset of all people who had suffered so long under the brutality of terrorism”.11

As the chair of the commonwealth for next two years and a signatory to the final communiqué which talked about freedom of expression, freedom of religion and protection of human rights, it is the responsibility of the Lankan government to take some affirmative measures on these issues in the island. Even without Cameron’s statement, the government would have had to make visible progress on these issues before the March 2014 UNHRC session.

However, caught up in a self-propelled internal debate in Sri Lanka on the justifiability of ‘international investigation’, the Rajapaksa government’s damage-control diplomacy seems to be spending more time on buying time rather than initiating concrete measures to convince the international community of its intentions. After raising Sinhalese nationalist fervour to an all-time high since the war, it is caught up in its own claims of non-negotiable sovereign rights, which is making it difficult on its part to take any progressive step forward without losing its popularity among the Sinhalese population.

It seems thus probable that Rajapaksa will continue with his nationalist rhetoric to rally around solid domestic support behind him to duck the threat of UNHRC-driven investigation, even at the cost of risking international opprobrium. Some commentators in Sri Lanka even believe that there are high chances of Rajapaksa advancing the date of Presidential election in 201412 to prolong his stay in office by re-fuelling electoral support through his inflexible nationalist stance, this time, on human rights. It remains to be seen whether the government initiates credible measures to correct its human rights records or starts preparations for the Presidential election.

Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IDSA or of the Government of India.

1. Grenada, Kiribati and Maldives did not attend and Fiji was suspended.
2. > “CHOGM 2013 COMMUNIQUÉ as agreed by Heads of Government”, The Commonwealth Secretariat, November 17, 2013 at http://thecommonwealth.org/sites/default/files/news-items/documents/CHOG….
3. David Cameron, “In Colombo, we will stand up for our beliefs”, Times of India, November 14, 2013, at http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-14/edit-page/44031794_1_commonwealth-heads-argument-colombo
4. “Inquire into alleged war crimes or face UNHRC inquiry, British Premier warns Lanka”, Sunday Times, Colombo, November 17, 2013, at http://www.sundaytimes.lk/131117/news/inquire-into-alleged-war-crimes-or-face-unhrc-inquiry-british-pm-warns-lanka-73731.html
5. “See complete text of “Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang’s Regular Press Conference on November 18, 2013” at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/t1100121.shtml
6. “Video: People don’t want ‘sound and fury’ – Akashi”, The Daily Mirror, December 13, 2013 at http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/40204-people-dont-want-sound-and-fury-aka…
7. “Gota Goes To The UN”, The Colombo Telegraph, December 17, 2013 at https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/gota-goes-to-the-un/.
8. Srinivasan, Meera, “Cameron’s visit boosts morale of displaced Tamils”, The Hindu, November 16, 2013 at http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/camerons-visit-boosts-morale-of-displaced-tamils/article5355420.ece?homepage=true.
9. “Situation Report: Sri Lanka’s CHOGM Repressive Tactics To Stifle Dissent”, The Colombo Telegraph, November 15, 2013 at https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/situation-report-sri-lankas-chogm-repressive-tactics-to-stifle-dissent/.
10. > Serasinghe, Sharmini, “What Did Sri Lanka Get Out Of CHOGM?”, The Colombo Telegraph, November 21, 2013 at https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/what-did-sri-lanka-get-out-of-chogm/.
11. “President rejects Cameron’s deadline”, The Government of Sri Lanka Website, November 18, 2013 at http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/Current_Affairs/ca201311/20131118president_rejects_cameron_deadline.htm.
12. Sri Lankan President is elected for six year term. However, Sri Lankan constitution allows fresh Presidential election after completion of four year terms.

Originally published by Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (www.idsa.in) at http://www.idsa.in/idsacomments/PostCHOGMDilemmasofRajapaksa_gsultana_150114

The article Post-CHOGM Dilemmas Of Rajapaksa – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By RT

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has strongly condemned the US airstrike that killed 7 children and a woman in central Afghanistan on Tuesday night, emphasizing that American troops once again acted against all mutual agreements between the states.

“As a result of bombardment by American forces last night… in Siahgird district of Parwan province, one woman and seven children were martyred and one civilian injured,” a statement from Karzai’s office said as cited by AFP.

The issue of civilian causalities has been very sensitive in relations between the US and Afghanistan. The two countries are currently in a dispute over a security agreement that would see American troop presence remain after the withdrawal of the main US forces scheduled for December. The Obama administration has argued that if the US does not leave behind at least 8,000 troops the Taliban movement might gain momentum.

“The Afghan government has been asking for a complete end to operations in Afghan villages for years, but American forces acting against all mutual agreements… have once again bombarded a residential area and killed civilians,” Karzai stressed in a statement following the airstrike.

Earlier reports by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) indicated that at least two civilians were killed in Siahgird district after an “enemy force engaged Afghan and coalition forces” and ISAF had to call in “defensive air support to suppress the enemy fire.”

At least 10 insurgents and one ISAF soldier were also killed in the fighting, NATO added. According to a Taliban spokesman cited by AFP, 12 Afghan soldiers were killed during the attack in Siahgird, the largest district of Parwan province located about 50 km north of Kabul.

This event is “directly tied” to what is in dispute between the Afghan government and the US government, Robert Naiman, policy director at Just Foreign Policy rights organization told RT.

“The Afghan government doesn’t want the US to engage unilaterally in military operations and particularly wants an end to all night raids. This event is an example of why the Afghan government is so adamant about this, and events like this make it less likely that the US and the Afghan governments will be able to reach an agreement,” Naiman said.

The Obama Administration has been ratcheting up the pressure for Karzai to sign the agreement. The Afghan president in the meantime is adamant to delay the signing saying that whatever comes out of this agreement should be determined after presidential elections in April.

“If it’s not nailed down before the elections, this is going to be key issue in the election, which would be great, because then the Afghan people can decide what they want,” Naiman said. “People can vote for the candidate that has the position that they agree with. So if you believe in democracy in Afghanistan you should be delighted that the agreement be delayed until after the election.”

The article Afghanistan Accuses US Of Killing Woman, 7 Children In Airstrike appeared first on Eurasia Review.