Quantcast
Channel: Eurasia Review
Viewing all 73339 articles
Browse latest View live

Forecast 2014: Africa – Analysis

0
0

By Geopolitical Monitor

By Alessandro Bruno

Africa is discovering a new spirit of optimism, reminiscent of the first decade of its post-colonial era. Despite inadequate infrastructure and at times even poorer governance, the continent has been attracting more and more interest from American and European investors, as well as Chinese, targeting such countries as Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Angola, Tanzania, and Rwanda to name a few. Today, half of the world’s 30 fastest-growing countries are in Africa, which is quickly losing its image of hopelessness and despair. Unfortunately, economic growth, while significant, rarely benefits the impoverished majority, even amid scenes of bustling business taking place from Dakar to Nairobi, and statistics indicating an emerging African middle class of some 150 million – which could quickly rise to 300 million by 2015, barring any ‘black swan’ events. Politically, there is optimism as almost all 55 African countries have some kind of constitution with an active civil society that is contributing to more democratic or pluralistic political engagement. The continent’s two longest lasting internal conflicts (Somalia and Congo) persist; even if at a lower intensity, while two newer ones (Mali, Central African Republic) continue unabated. However, considering that from 1998-2003, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbors left some three million dead, the 2,000 registered ‘military’ deaths recorded in 2013 suggests that 2014 could be one of Africa’s most peaceful in recent history.

Political

Africa continues to show signs of progress that, if pursued and encouraged, will contribute to a positive year ahead. There have been indications that commodity valuations could rise in 2014, which would be a boost for Sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Apart from impressive economic growth, an ever-larger number of African countries have been finding stability and healthier democratic governance thanks to the active role being played by civil society – one of the pillars of what appears to be an African revival.

Some longer term political problem areas remain, such as in Somalia, Eritrea and the DR Congo, while new conflicts are brewing in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Should tensions persist or worsen in either one of these two countries, Central Africa could see a dramatic security vacuum due to refugee flows and weak state authority; both of which favor regional militant groups like Al-Qaida in the Maghreb (AQIM), Somalia’s al-Shabab, and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Meanwhile, many other African countries have overcome the physical and social devastation of past decades of civil war and revolts. They include Angola, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Uganda, and Chad.

In the past few years, Africa has shown several important institutional improvements: secondary education participation rates have increased by 48%, life expectancy has increased on average by 10%, and the rate of infant mortality in most countries has decreased dramatically. Even gender equality has improved, and according to the Economist, the rate of female participation in primary school has been rising steadily, from 84% to 93% between 1999 and 2010.

Central African Republic Grasps at Democratic Stability

The big political question for Central African Republic (CAR), which is in the midst of a civil war that began in December 2012 and degenerated considerably in late 2013, is whether or not it will have a democratically elected president in 2014. France, which has deployed troops to help stabilize the situation, will certainly push political events in this direction, relying on the backing of regional players who do not wish to see the implosion of CAR; an event that would surely produce a ripple effect throughout Central Africa. The main risk here is that the new elections needed to restore national security could be arranged in a sloppy manner, leading to a spiral of sectarian violence between Christian and Muslim militias that would have dire humanitarian and regional implications.

South Africa Heads to the Polls

In the second half of 2014, the ANC, led by President Jacob Zuma, will face its first electoral test without the ‘moral’ backing of Nelson Mandela, the party’s historic leader. Jacob Zuma, who has several personal scandals under his belt, is still expected to win another five-year term, but his win will probably come by the lowest margin for the ANC since the end of Apartheid. The party could drop below a 60% majority, which has not happened since 1994. Moreover, there is a generation of 20-something black South Africans who were born into democracy and never experienced apartheid, leaving them predictably less attached to ANC. Julius Malema, the former head of the ANC’s Youth League, could seduce them with his populist tone and policies, eating away at Zuma’s votes.

Economics

The prospects for economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa are positive, and while overall lower prices for mineral commodities (Africa’s main export) put some pressure on revenues in 2013, there is a general consensus that these raw material prices will recover in 2014 and 2015. Progress in reducing poverty in the region remains weak due to an unequal distribution of wealth. According to analysts at the World Bank, the GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa will grow by 4.9% in 2013, 5.3% in 2014 and 5.5% in 2015. Economic development will be supported by strengthening domestic demand and increasing production in the mining, agriculture, and service sectors. Foreign direct investment in Africa has grown in recent years; in 2013 it increased by an estimated 24%, a trend that shows no signs of diminishing. Many governments have increased public investment in energy and infrastructure, allowing for the construction of new ports (for example, in Ethiopia – via Djibouti – Ghana, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia) in an attempt to increase competitiveness. Much of the financial and technical support for these projects has come from larger developing countries such as China, Brazil, and India, among others.

The effort to diversify exports has so far produced weak results and the continent is still exposed to substantial risk in the event of a significant reduction in international prices. This dynamic is particularly salient for oil-rich countries (Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea) but it also affects countries rich in agricultural resources like cotton, cashew nuts, coffee, and tobacco. China has been absorbing large shares of African production and export markets remain undiversified. Finally, the tourism sector, which presents some of the highest growth potential, has shown positive signs, especially in the Sub-Saharan region. The OECD predicts that by 2021, tourism could provide jobs for 6.7 million people. The most successful countries in 2013 were Cape Verde, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Tanzania. In fact, these countries have liberalized air transport and diversified tourist offererings, all the while preserving their environment and creating incentives for private investment seeking a high rate of return. Many large international hotel chains are working on initiatives to benefit from this increasing demand from foreign tourists and the African middle class.

Military

On the military level, the focus remains on peacekeeping efforts to manage regional conflicts and tensions, often characterized by tribal, ethnic, and religious issues. Moreover, international military missions will continue to be deployed in 2014 to combat maritime piracy (in the Gulf of Guinea as well as the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia), transnational crime, smuggling, trafficking in human beings, smuggling of arms and drugs, and terrorism. Regional conflicts and geopolitical shifts in North Africa over the past three years have increased such risks, while brewing internal conflicts in South Sudan and the Central African Republic could further destabilize the Sub-Saharan region, with repercussions – especially due to refugee flows – in Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Tanzania. France, since it became directly involved in crushing the Islamists who took over northern Mali in 2012, has continued to play the main international military role in central Africa.

Central African Republic on the Brink

In 2013, a coalition of largely Seleka Muslim rebels seized power in Bangui, triggering tribal killings and looting that inevitably led to attacks by Christian militias. There is a risk of genocide as Christian militias have been targeting Muslims since December 2013. France may increase its involvement in CAR and the United States, worried by regional consequences, has also promised military aid for the international peacekeeping coalition.

France is bound by international covenants such as the Cotonou Agreement to help pacify internal and transborder conflicts within its former colonies, and it has taken a primary role in forming the African force needed to manage the conflict in the Central African Republic. Where the deployment of troops is not suitable, France has committed to contributing technical expertise and equipment. In this sense, President Francois Hollande has pledged to train 20,000 African soldiers per year – where his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, trained some 12,500. France is actually training an international force to manage conflicts, an ‘African Army,’ and promising adequate material support. It is keen to retake a dominant role – or interest – in its former colonies. In December, the management of the African peacekeeping force for the Central African Republic (MISCA) was officially transferred from the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) to the African Union (AU). However, the lack of trust in any African force’s ability to manage peacekeeping was what originally prompted French military intervention and what will, ultimately, keep France engaged in the conflict.

South Sudan’s Civil War

Unfortunately, Africa will still garner attention for atrocities in 2014. The deputy secretary-general of the United Nations for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, said there was evidence that child soldiers were engaged in the fighting in South Sudan. The two sides in South Sudan’s civil war have continued fighting through the first weeks of 2014 even as ceasefire talks between the rebels, led by former vice-president Riek Machar, and the government progressed in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Fighting is centered on the strategic city of Bor, the capital of the South Sudanese state of Jonglei. The city is currently held by the rebels, but it has changed hands three times since the beginning of hostilities last December. The clashes have also spread to the oil producing state of Upper Nile.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Army is one of the best trained in Africa and it is prepared to press on in the conflict against the rebels, who insist that no ceasefire will be possible unless the central government releases their 11 allies who were arrested before the fighting began. The fighting has already left hundreds dead and produced some 200,000 refugees according to the UN. More than 30,000 people have fled the country, finding refuge in Uganda in particular. Because the conflict has taken a tribal dimension – between President Salva Kiir’s Dinka tribe and Riek Machar’s Nuer – it will be more difficult to quell, and organized sectarian killings remain a threat in the year to come.

Alessandro Bruno is a contributor to Geopoliticalmonitor.com

The article Forecast 2014: Africa – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.


Rekindle Indo-Iran Ties – Analysis

0
0

By Observer Research Foundation

By Manoj Joshi

On Monday, the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 nations —the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China —kicked into the first phase of its implementation. The deal, which has the potential of changing the geopolitics of the South-west Asian region, if not the world, is as of now a series of steps through which Iran will begin the process of stopping and rolling back its nuclear programme, in exchange for the western countries easing sanctions that have crippled its economy. The whole process will be confirmed through a final agreement which will be negotiated over the next six months by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Given the history of the long and tortuous negotiations between Iran and the western countries over its nuclear programme in the past decade, fingers are crossed in respect to the final agreement. Some hardliners in Iran have actually hailed the deal, but there are many naysayers in the US, especially in its powerful Congress who are skeptical.

Israel and Saudi Arabia are unhappy for their own reasons. The White House, for its part, is also playing it cautious and its statement noted “With respect to the comprehensive solution, nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.”

Put simply by the end of the six month period, Iran’s uranium stockpile would have been diluted to an enrichment cap of 5 per cent, though it will continue to hold the stockpile it has and have the capacity to enrich uranium to the 5 per cent level. It will have stopped work in the Arak reactor and desisted from building reprocessing facilities which could enable it to also obtain plutonium to make nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons require a core of plutonium, or uranium enriched to above 90 per cent. 5 per cent is what is sufficient for reactors that generate power.

The P5+1 and EU will commit themselves to temporarily shelve the sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and material imported for use in its motor industry, suspend efforts to block Iranian crude purchases around the world, allow trade in bullion and return $4.2 billion seized from Iran in tranches over the next six months.

Iran has had nuclear ambitions ever since it was ruled by the Shah of Iran. But following the revolution of 1979 that brought its current Mullah-led regime into power, Iran had formally abjured from chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In any case, Iran was a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state.

However, in the 1980s, the Iran-Iraq war probably brought a re-think in Teheran. The country suffered grievously in the war, losing hundreds of thousands dead. Further it could not but have been aware that the Iraqi aggression, including chemical weapons attacks had the passive support of the West.

The mullahs began thinking of getting some nuclear insurance and probably authorised a clandestine programme.

From the mid-1990s, the Iranians asked the Russians to resume work in the Bushehr nuclear plant which had been damaged by Iraqi attacks. But Iran obtained technology from multiple sources, including the notorious A Q Khan network.

In 2002, an Iranian dissident organisation revealed the existence of a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz and a heavy water plant at Arak, subsequently in 2009, Iran itself admitted to building another enrichment plant at Fordow.

Iranian offers for a “Grand Bargain” failed when the Bush Administration refused to accept Iranian bona fides. Later the EU took up negotiations with Teheran. But the negotiations failed and the IAEA, though it said it could not definitively say Iran was making nuclear weapons, formally reported the country to the UN Security Council which has imposed as many as six sets of sanctions on Teheran.

The P5+1 negotiations have been going on since 2009, but recent developments have led to its success. First, the United States directly entered into the negotiations instead of cold shouldering Teheran. Second, the change from the abrasive Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presidency to that of the pragmatist Hasan Rowhani has aided the process. Third, the sanctions have bitten deeper than Teheran thought they would and the Iranian economy has been devastated by them. Because of the sanctions, Iran not only has difficulty in getting customers for its oil, but also finds it difficult to get either technology or finances to develop its considerable oil and natural gas assets. Fourth, not only is the US no longer dependent on Persian Gulf oil, but it has learnt that Sunni extremism is a far greater danger than the essentially conservative Iranian mullah regime. Fifth, in the Obama administration, Iran has an interlocutor which is willing to do business in contrast to the Bush administration.

The developments have vindicated India’s position which is that Iran had the right to enrichment, but not to make nuclear weapons. Further New Delhi resisted efforts to block oil imports from Iran. India needs Iran for its energy needs as well as access to Afghanistan and Central Asia via Chah Bahar port.

India’s decision in 2009 to vote with the US to censure Iran in the IAEA is still resented by Teheran. India and Iran are, in their own way, natural allies, a fact underscored by the increasing anti-Shia nature of Pakistan. We need them more than they need us and so we must begin the process getting Teheran off its great sulk against us.

(The writer is a Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi.)

The article Rekindle Indo-Iran Ties – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Snowden Says He Acted Alone In Leaking US Spy Documents

0
0

By VOA

Former U.S. national security contractor Edward Snowden is rejecting suggestions he is a Russian spy, saying he acted alone in leaking details about the American government’s clandestine surveillance programs.

Snowden told the New Yorker magazine in an interview conducted by encrypted means from Moscow that “This Russian spy push is absurd.” The 30-year-old Snowden stressed that he had “no assistance from anyone, much less a government.”

In recent days, some U.S. lawmakers have suggested, without offering direct evidence, that Snowden had help from a foreign government. The U.S. says Snowden took 1.7 million documents from a National Security Agency outpost on the Pacific island state of Hawaii before fleeing to asylum in Russia.

One lawmaker who oversees U.S. intelligence operations, congressman Mike Rogers, said it is no coincidence that Snowden is living in Russia.

“I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands, the loving arms of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

In rejecting the suggestion, Snowden noted that he first traveled to Hong Kong and was held in a Moscow airport for 40 days, with the intention of leaving for Latin America before the U.S. revoked his passport.

He told the magazine, “Spies get treated better than that.”

The article Snowden Says He Acted Alone In Leaking US Spy Documents appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Geneva II Syrian Peace Conference Begins In Montreux

0
0

By JTW

By Gökhan Avcı

The Geneva II peace conference began in the Swiss resort city of Montreux on Wednesday. The Geneva II peace talks, in which foreign ministers of countries and delegates of international organizations are participating, aims at finding a political solution to end the three-year conflict in Syria.

In the opening remarks, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that Syrians bear the primary responsibility for ending the conflict in their country.

Syria’s government and main political opposition have traded bitter accusations with each other and oppose the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement, “Bashar al-Assad will not be part of that transition government. There is no way, no way possible, that a man who has led a brutal response to his own people can regain legitimacy to govern.” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem responded by saying that no one outside Syria has the to right to remove the president.

In response, the head of the Syrian National Coalition, Ahmed al-Jarba, said that any discussion of Assad’s continued hold on power would effectively end the talks.

The Geneva II peace conference will continue in Geneva till Friday.

The article Geneva II Syrian Peace Conference Begins In Montreux appeared first on Eurasia Review.

EU Cash Enriches Macedonia’s Shady ‘Youth’ NGOs – Analysis

0
0

By Balkan Insight

By Zorana Gadzovska Spasovska and Kristina Ozimec

Brussels has turned a blind eye to complaints about the way Youth in Action funds are distributed in Macedonia.

Youth NGOs from Macedonia, some of which are practically invisible to the public, have been receiving significant sums of EU funds for five years.

Most have no permanent address, no office and no website but are still regularly winning cash from Brussels under the Youth in Action programme.

While suspicions have repeatedly been raised that the distribution of European grants for youth projects in Macedonia has unfairly favoured relatives and friends, neither European nor Macedonian institutions have fully investigated the claims.

In a BIRN investigation, we focused on 11 Macedonian youth NGOs, as this is the number of NGOs that on average receive grants from Brussels at one time.

The investigation confirms that the recipients of grants from Brussels for youth programmes, worth thousands of euros, have often been relatives or friends of employees in Macedonia’s National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility, NAEPM.

Questions put to institutions about these NGOs by BIRN concerning the results of their work were dismissed on the grounds that this information was secret.

The sums involved are not small. Over five years, local NGOs have received almost 2 million euro from the Youth in Action programme.

Most of this money came directly from Brussels. The rest was distributed by the National Agency in Skopje.

No known address:

BIRN focused on the following organizations: Jasna Idnina (Clear future); the Fund for Interregional Development; the Youth Creative Centre; Kvantum (Quantum); Denica (Morning Star); the Centre for Rural Development of South East Europe; the Fund for Youth Development; the Council of Youth NGOs; the Volunteer Centre; Macedonian Youth Press; Youth Forum – OKO.

It is hard to locate most of the NGOs that have received funds under the Youth in Action programme because two-thirds of them have no website or registered offices, or are registered at private addresses.

It is hard to find any information on the Internet about Jasna Idnina, the Council of Youth NGOs, Macedonian Youth Press and the Fund for Youth Development.

A similar problem occurs if one wants to find the central address of these organizations.

For example, the Council of Youth NGOs, which had implemented eight EU projects by 2011 worth 158,000 euro, registered each project at a different address.

The Centre for Rural Development has no website, no contact telephone number and, according to the Central Registry of Macedonia, no clear address, either. It is given as a “settlement without street system – Struga.”

Using data from the Central Registry, we tried to find some of these NGOs and talk to them about their formula for success in obtaining grants from Brussels.

We started in Struga, where several are supposed to be based. The smell of barbecued meat coming a small kebab house was the first thing confronting us when we found the address listed in the Central Registry for Youth Forum-Oko and the Fund for Interregional Cooperation.

Youth Forum-Oko has been one of the main recipients in Macedonia of funds from the Youth in Action programme. In recent years, it received at least 330,000 euro for 16 projects.

Oko and the Fund for Interregional Cooperation are both listed at 86, Marshal Tito St, Struga, but when we knocked at this address, an elderly woman told us that Oko had not been renting a small room in her home for over a year.

She believed that Oko now worked elsewhere, but did not know, even though her own children were activists in the organization.

“They left a year-and-a-half ago and are now located either near the local bus station or at the place known as the swimming area,” the woman said.

Strolling through Struga, other residents told us to look near at a cake shop near the bus station.

Above the cake shop, we found a nameplate over a locked door that read “Centre for NGOs – Struga”, including a landline telephone number. According to the Central Registry data, no association under this exact name exists.

Disappointed by our failure to locate the NGOs in Struga, we spoke to the owner of the cake shop, who said: “You are looking for these people in vain. They are not in the country and when the cat is away, the mice will play, so no one comes to the office anymore.

“Shemsedin is not here, he went to Afghanistan,” he added. “The office of the NGO is up there, but they are not there. They either went to Spain or to Italy.”

When we telephoned the NGO “centre”, using the number posted on the door, a male voice answered that no such NGO centre was based there. However, once we explained that we had visited the site and seen this number posted on the door, he told us to call back in five minutes.

When we returned the call, we got through to Zlatko Shurdoski, president of Youth Forum-Oko, who told us that their organization was still working on projects approved by Brussels.

“What I can tell you is that we are currently working on projects, and, when we send them, they (Brussels) evaluate them and call us,” Shurdoski told BIRN.

Regarding the Centre for NGOs – Struga, he said this was an informal umbrella name for the Youth Forum-Oko, the Centre for Rural Development and Youth Press.

He knew nothing of the Fund for Interregional Cooperation, which had also listed the previous address as the address of the Fund.

Confusion over addresses is equally evident with the Struga-based Youth Press, which provided no less than three different addresses when applying for projects in Brussels.

Organizations from Skopje that have received money from Youth in Action are no better in terms of visibility and transparency than those in Struga.

Kvantum, a Skopje-based organization that has received funding for at least four projects, worth almost 70,000 euro, is presented on the Internet in only one statement, released by the Agency for Youth and Sport.

This stated that the organization had conducted a study visit entitled “Unemployed vs. Employed tour” within the Youth in Action programme back in 2010.

Jasna Idnina is another association whose activities aimed at young people are hard to identify.

The name of this association has occurred only at the press conferences of the opposition Social Democratic party, SDSM. The party claimed that it had paid for campaign adverts targeting its former leader, entitled “Resistance to Crvenkovski”, through this NGO.

Friends and relatives:

What is also alarming about the funding of youth projects in Macedonia – apart from the apparent non-existence of some beneficiaries of EU money – are evident links between employees in the National Agency, which part-distributes EU cash, and the organizations that receive grants.

Applying for European project funding involves serious administrative commitment and a working knowledge of the criteria set in Brussels.

Receiving funding from Brussels is manifestly less difficult, however, if contacts in the National Agency provide key information about priorities, objectives and other useful indicators concerning the receipt of grants.

Igor Domazetovski, who was once on the steering board of the National Agency, was an authorized signatory of the Struga-based Youth Press.

When BIRN asked him “whether his organization received grants when he was part of the agency”, the phone line went dead and repeated attempts to contact him drew no response.

The Council of Youth NGOs, founded by Katerina Stankoska, was awarded 158,000 euro for eight projects by 2011. The NGO closed after she later was employed at the National Agency as head of the Department of legal and line operations.

However, the Stankoska family home was not only used to register the Council of Youth NGOs but also the Volunteer Centre from Skopje in 2006 whose founder, Nikola Stankoski, was her brother. Violeta Stankoska, their sister, also worked in the Agency, until 2010.

The Volunteer Centre has received almost half a million euro in total of European funds, for 23 projects.

In 2012 alone, it received funding for four projects as part of the Youth in Action programme from central funds in Brussels worth 72,000 euro.

The Volunteer Centre, which has a network of over 200 young volunteers, is one of the few youth NGOs that we contacted that regularly publishes information about its activities on a website.

Still, the existence of relationships between the founders of NGOs who are beneficiaries of EU funds and employees of the National Agency inevitably raises questions about whether these NGOs received information that privileged them in obtaining grants when they applied for cash.

Nikola Stankoski, founder of Volunteer Centre, confirmed that one of his sisters is still employed by the Agency, while the other, Violeta worked there earlier.

However, he maintained that no conflict of interest had occurred in terms of funding because he had applied directly to the Youth in Action programme, and his sister had had no impact and could not have supplied him any privileged information.

“No one from the National Agency can call to lobby for a project in Macedonia. It is absolutely impossible,” he said.

“We have not received such privileges so far, and we were recipients of EU youth grants even before the Agency was established,” he added.

Shemsedin Iljazi was registered in the Central Registry as an authorized representative of the Centre for Rural Development of SEE, from the village of Jablanica, near Struga in 2010.

By 2011, this organization had received EU funding for five projects worth 92,000 euro, while in 2012 it received another 23,922 euro from the National Agency.

Shemsedin’s sister, Lulesa, works for the National Agency as head of Vocational Education and Training.

She said the award of funds in October 2012 to her brother’s organization had not involved a conflict of interest because she had no influence on who obtained grants because she was responsible for implementing another programme in the Agency.

“As of first of December 2012, Shemsedin is no longer representative of the organization,” she answered shortly.

Regarding questions of conflicts of interest, the National Agency said in writing that all project evaluators and employees in the Agency involved in the selection and awarding process for the Youth in Action programme had signed statements on conflicts of interest, and anyone contravening the rules would be excluded from further processing.

The Agency noted that Lulesa Iljazi was employed as departmental head of the “Lifelong Learning” and “Leonardo da Vinci” programmes. She was not an evaluator or a member of the commission for the selection of projects in the Youth in Action programme in 2012, and had not been involved in the selection of projects and awarding of grants at any time.

On being asked whether the kinship ties of these people raised questions about a conflict of interest, and how the National Agency ensured that Katerina Stankoska, for example, had not directly influenced the award of funds from Youth in Action, the Agency answered that over the past five years the organizations in questions were not grantees of decentralized funds managed by the Agency.

According to a report concerning this issue published in April 2013 by the Macedonian Centre for European Education, “The existing relations of some employees of the National Agency with NGO-grantees are still maintained”.

The report also said that NGOs whose founders are related to employees of the Agency “were put into favoured position compared with other NGOs from Macedonia, significantly reducing the possibility of competition under fair and equal terms”.

Secret results:

The National Agency has considerable power when it comes to projects directly approved by Brussels.

One of its responsibilities is to evaluate the operational capacity of an applicant organization for proper implementation of the proposed project, as well as to monitor and evaluate the end-users of European grants. These tasks are performed by the Agency and by external assessors.

Based on the Law on Access to Public Information, we asked about the results of the monitoring of projects implemented by the 11 selected NGOs that had benefited from European funds.

In each case, we received an almost identical response, which is that our request had been rejected because the disclosure of information could adversely affect the future work of the NGO as well as the Agency itself.

The Agency added: “The European Commission i.e. the Directorate General for Education and Culture which signed contracts would disagree with such documents being exposed in public.”

Commission turns blind eye:

The European Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency declined to comment on any claims associated with the Youth in Action programme and directed us to the European Commission, which it said had “been dealing with these issues”.

The European Commission told BIRN that National Agency staff were not involved in the selection process of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.

As to alleged links between employees of the National Agency and organizations that have won grants under the programme, they said the rules on prevention of conflicts of interest were clear.

“Provided that the rules are properly followed, nothing excludes relatives of staff of the Agency from applying for grants.

“In such cases, EU rules require the Director of the National Agency to ensure that such candidates do not receive any additional information or support from the staff, and that relevant members of staff are not involved in decision-making in any selection or evaluation phase of the relevant project,” the Commission said in response to BIRN.

Asked for a response to the specific allegations contained in the report of the Macedonian Centre for European Education, that abuse of funding for youth projects in Macedonia has continued, the Commission said it had “no concrete evidence of misuse of EU funds”.

Sources in civil society organisations familiar with EU project operations believe one reason for this apparent indifference may be that the Youth in Action programme is ending this year.

“It mutually benefits all stakeholders not to raise a clamour about the issue,” one civil sector activist in Macedonia told us under conditions of anonymity.

All is well:

The division of European funds for youth projects in Macedonia has already attracted criticism that prompted the resignation of the then director of the National Agency, Bosko Nelkoski.

Nelkoski was the subject of a public outcry after Nova Makedonija newspaper reported in 2010 that, as Director of the Agency, he had awarded European money to an NGO in Struga that he himself had previously ran.

The newspaper wrote that senior officials of the Agency managing EU funds, along with their relatives and associates, were involved in the questionable allocation of funding.

Following the reports, the European Commission started an investigation into whether Nelkoski illegally allocated European money to organizations based on kinship ties and “friendly relations”. It meanwhile suspended the allocation of decentralized funds via the National Agency for two years.

Nelkoski resigned, still denying the allegations, however, and claiming he was a victim of a witch-hunt based on fabrications. He said an audit report of the Ministry of Education would establish that nothing contentious had occurred in his work.

In January 2011, Macedonia’s state-run Anti-Corruption Commission said it had asked the public prosecutor’s office to prosecute Nelkoski for misconduct.

It said that there was reasonable suspicion that, over 2008–2009, he had abused his official position and conducted reckless operations.

“When selecting the final beneficiaries of the programmes of the National Agency, the State Commission established that violations of the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest [had occurred],” it said.

“In his actions, financed by the European Commission and on the basis of agreements on co-funding, [he] had a discretionary right to select legal and physical entities and people close to the president and members of the Steering Board of the National Agency to benefit from programme funds,” the Commission added.

More than two years on from these contentious findings, BIRN contacted the Anti-Corruption Commission to ask about the progress of legal proceedings against Nelkoski.

They told us that the procedure was underway and the case was now with the public prosecutor’s office.

But when we asked the public prosecutor’s office whether any proceedings had started on the initiative of the Anti-Corruption Office, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption in the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office all maintained that no such initiative had been filed with any of them in 2011.

Cash keeps flowing:

In 2013, meanwhile, the Youth in Action programme made half a million more euro available to Macedonia.

The Minister for Education and Science, Spiro Ristovski, recently announced that 22 decisions had been adopted last year and 317,000 euro had been used.

Regarding allegations about the allocation of this money, he said the only important question for him the evaluation of the European Commission.

“We shall consider and check any objections, but as long as our communication and evaluations from EC are positive, I think that we should not be concerned in that part,” Ristovski said.

The article EU Cash Enriches Macedonia’s Shady ‘Youth’ NGOs – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Rwanda: Investigate Anti-Corruption Campaigner’s Murder

0
0

By Eurasia Review

Official investigations into the murder of a Rwandan anti-corruption activist appear to have ground to a halt six months later. The case has received surprisingly little public attention, and the victim’s family is still awaiting justice. Human Rights Watch has visited the town of Rubavu where the body was found and interviewed witnesses and the police.

Gustave Makonene, coordinator of Transparency International Rwanda’s Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre in Rubavu, northwestern Rwanda, was last seen leaving his office in Rubavu on the evening of July 17, 2013. Residents of Nyiraruhonga found his body on the morning of July 18 just off a road along the shore of Lake Kivu. A police medical report indicates he was strangled.

As part of his work for Transparency International, Makonene had handled allegations of corruption, some of which reportedly involved members of the police.

“Corruption is a sensitive issue in Rwanda, as in many countries,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The murder of Makonene should have raised alarm bells. Instead there has been a disturbing silence.”

In the days following the discovery of Makonene’s body, local police arrested four people in connection with the murder, but they were released in August for lack of evidence. Since then, investigations by the police and the prosecutor’s office appear to have stalled.

In discussions with independent witnesses and with the police, Human Rights Watch learned that a man in civilian clothes, who introduced himself as an employee of the national utilities company but was later identified as a police officer, visited the Transparency International Rwanda office in Rubavu three times before the murder of Makonene, including two days before he was killed.

On each occasion, the officer tried to ascertain what Makonene looked like and what his movements were. He asked for and obtained Makonene’s personal phone number, but apparently did not call Makonene or talk to him directly, even though Makonene was in the office during one of his visits. On the day of Makonene’s murder, the man phoned a person close to Makonene to try to confirm his location.

The police questioned this police officer and sent the statement to the prosecutor’s office. The police told Human Rights Watch that the officer had been asking questions about Makonene in a personal capacity.

“The fact that Makonene may have been looking into police corruption and that a police officer was seeking to confirm his identity just before his murder raises questions, at the very least,” Bekele said. “The police should explore all potential leads, including by interviewing people around the site where Makonene’s body was found.”

Human Rights Watch spoke with numerous residents of Nyiraruhonga, including some who discovered Makonene’s body. One of them described how Makonene was found slumped against a tree, with a rope around his neck. The witness said that when the rope was taken off, a deep bruise was visible on Makonene’s throat.

Makonene’s body was found just off a road leading out of Rubavu, past the BRALIRWA brewery.The only practical way to reach this road is to drive through the brewery gates. The brewery monitors access to its gates at night, except in the case of police or military vehicles. Multiple witnesses confirmed to Human Rights Watch that Makonene left his office on July 17 after 8 p.m.

The location of Makonene’s body makes it likely that police could determine how the body came to be there, and possibly who brought it, Human Rights Watch said.

Two people were identified to Human Rights Watch as witnesses who saw Makonene’s body dumped from a vehicle. But they declined to speak to Human Rights Watch, even confidentially, illustrating the extreme sensitivity of the case.

After the police arrested four men in connection with Makonene’s murder, the prosecutor’s office ordered the release of two of them and argued for preventative detention for the other two. However, the Rubavu Court of Higher Instance ordered their release on August 5 on the basis that the prosecutor lacked evidence against them. The Musanze High Court upheld that decision on August 29.

On December 7, Major Vita Hama, the spokesman for the Rwanda National Police, Western Province, told Human Rights Watch that there had been no significant progress in the case and that the prosecutor’s office had not asked the police to investigate further. Damas Gatare, spokesman for the Rwanda National Police at the national level, told Human Rights Watch on December 16 that the case had been handed to the prosecutor’s office and that Human Rights Watch should contact it for details.

The Rubavu prosecutor referred Human Rights Watch to the spokesman for the National Public Prosecution Authority, Alain Mukuralinda, who confirmed on December 18 that the case had not progressed. However, Justice Minister Johnston Busingye told Human Rights Watch on December 24 that the file was still open.

Makonene’s murder received very little public attention. The silence illustrates the weakness of independent organizations and media in Rwanda. As a result of years of government intimidation, threats, and infiltration, few Rwandan nongovernmental organizations carry out detailed investigations or publish reports on politically sensitive issues or human rights abuses by government agents. Even fewer carry out in-depth work on corruption. Most Rwandan journalists also avoid investigating or reporting on sensitive cases.

Rwandan authorities should revive their investigations into Makonene’s murder, Human Rights Watch said, both to deliver justice and to reassure anti-corruption and human rights activists that the police and prosecuting authority treat such cases with the seriousness they deserve. Transparency International said that it was continuing advocacy to press law enforcement authorities in Rwanda for a conclusion to the police investigations.

“In most other countries, the unresolved murder of an anti-corruption campaigner would have made the headlines, and independent groups would be clamoring for justice,” Bekele said. “Instead, it seems everyone is just hoping the issue will go away. This sends a chilling message to those campaigning for accountability in Rwanda.”

The article Rwanda: Investigate Anti-Corruption Campaigner’s Murder appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Assad’s Forces Shell, Barrel Bomb Rebels Across Syria Despite Geneva II Peace Talks

0
0

By Al Bawaba News

Syrian government troops shelled rebel positions and dropped barrel bombs on opposition strongholds on Wednesday as the Geneva II conference on Syria opened in Switzerland, a monitoring group said.

President Bashar al-Assad’s troops shelled rebel areas near the Saydnaya area north of Damascus, while vicious fighting in nearby Zabadani killed some 10 soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Agence France Presse reported.

Meanwhile, regime helicopters dropped the highly destructive “barrel bombs” in the central Hama province, the Observatory reported.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights uses a network of activists – including lawyers and doctors – on the ground in Syria to garner information on the conflict.

The Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs – named so due to their anatomy, which is made up of filling barrels with explosives – has been widely condemned by human rights groups as they fail to distinguish between rebel fighters and civilians, AFP reported.

In Syria’s western city of Homs, where rebel-held areas have been held under a brutal siege for nearly 600 days, government troops shelled the Waar neighborhood, home to thousands of Homs residents forced to leave their homes in other parts of the city, the Observatory said.

Wednesday’s wave of violence came despite the world’s major powers – including two parties representing the opposition and government in Syria – sitting down in Switzerland in a bid to find a resolution to the nearly three-year-old conflict.

“The situation on the ground has not changed at all despite the talks opening in Switzerland. All the main frontlines are still extremely violent, just like yesterday,” said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, according to AFP.

In Syria’s north rebels faced infighting as battles were waged by opposition fighters against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an Al Qaeda linked militant group accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing rival rebels and activists.

According to the Observatory, a young child was killed in the crossfire between ISIL and rebels in Idlib province.

Earlier in January, three leading rebel alliances comprised of moderate and Islamist opposition fighters began a major offensive against ISIL jihadists across Syria.

While rebel fighters battling Assad’s forces initially supported the jihadists, the Al Qaeda group’s “quest for hegemony and its horrific abuses against rebels and civilian activists have angered much of the rest of the opposition”, AFP reported.

Syria’s war, which began in March 2011, has killed more than 130,000 people and forced millions more to flee their homes and become displaced across Syria and the region.

Original article

The article Assad’s Forces Shell, Barrel Bomb Rebels Across Syria Despite Geneva II Peace Talks appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Does The US Ever Get Its Foreign Policy Right?‏ – OpEd

0
0

By Eurasia Review

By Bill Nicholov

How many times has the United States, in its “noble” goal to “spread freedom and democracy throughout the world” chosen the wrong side in a dispute that it had no business getting involved with in the first place, and subsequently wreaked havoc for decades afterward?

Well, consider the debacle that is the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece. In an interview with CNN on January 16, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said that “Greece is not ready to make a compromise … so we cannot solve the issue.” Who in their right mind would even consider a discussion about changing their country’s name? Well, thanks to immense pressure by the United States, every Macedonian politician has done so since the beginning of the UN-sponsored name negotiations over 20 years ago.

Now who deserves more blame is debateable, Macedonia for negotiating its own name, the United States for holding it hostage and demanding that Macedonia change its name, or Greece for creating this mess in the first place? If Macedonia withdraws from the name negotiations, the United States has threatened everything from pulling economic and military support to claiming that a civil war would erupt with Macedonia’s Albanian minority.

What possible benefit could there be for the U.S. if Macedonia changes it name? Other than, of course, to continue appeasing Greece in their perverse romanticized relationship.

The myth of Ancient Greece was created by the West, as was modern Greece in 1830, and the propping up of Greece continues to this day. Greece was allowed to blatantly lie about its economic position, get into the Eurozone, cause the global economy to plummet, then get a huge bailout. It was permitted to use its veto power to deny Macedonia entry into NATO, despite every other member-state voting in favour of it. Greece loses a countless number of European Court of Human Rights cases, but there are no repercussions when it continues to persecute its ethnic minorities. Greece was the first country since Nazi Germany to elect members of a neo-Nazi party to parliament. And to make a splash, they elected 21 of them. Greece is the most openly racist country in the Western world, yet, it is celebrated as the “cradle of civilization” and “birthplace of democracy” at a time when even the idea of “Greece” as a unified entity didn’t exist.

The coddling of Greece continues with the nonsensical name negotiations. Former Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis admitted in 1995 that Greece initiated the name dispute as an excuse to keep denying the existence, and persecution, of its large Macedonian minority and the Macedonian people as a whole. It has been stringing the world along in the claim that Macedonia is trying to usurp an “historically Greek” name. But, until 1988, Greece’s well-documented policy was that Macedonia did not exist. Yet it’s complete 180 degree turn on this issue goes unchecked. Greece annexed half of Macedonia’s territory after its partition in 1913 and tried to eradicate its very existence, then decided to claim that Macedonia’s land belongs to them, but the people still do not exist. It is, in fact, Greece that is trying to usurp Macedonia’s name, but God forbid anyone exposes this propaganda reversal.

Instead of dangling the “prizes” of NATO and EU membership if Macedonia changes its name, Western Europe and the United States should actually practice the ideals of basic human rights that they preach, and support Macedonia in ending the name negotiations. Especially considering that the vast majority of the world has recognized Macedonia using its proper name including, of course, the United States.

Bill Nicholov, President
Macedonian Human Rights Movement International

The views expressed are the author’s own.

The article Does The US Ever Get Its Foreign Policy Right?‏ – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.


Putin Says Russia Has Too Many Banks

0
0

By Ria Novosti

President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that there are too many banks in Russia, Prime business news agency reported.

“We have just under a thousand banks. That is, of course, a large quantity of financial institutions for our economy,” Putin said during a meeting with a group of Moscow students.

Dozens of Russian banks have been shut down in recent months after the financial regulator pulled their banking licenses in a campaign to tighten oversight of the country’s lenders.

Putin compared Russia to Germany, where he said there were just 250 banks.

“Some [Russian] financial institutions should increase their capital and their assets in order to feel secure and be in a position to fight for a quality credit portfolio,” Putin said.

Elvira Nabiullina, a former economic development minister and advisor to Putin, was appointed chairwoman of Russia’s central bank in June, and has made a push to rein in shadow banking a key part of her agenda for the regulator.

Experts have predicted that a drive for consolidation in the sector could precipitate a flood of new customers for the large state-owned banks that dominate Russia’s financial system.

The article Putin Says Russia Has Too Many Banks appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Georgia Condemns Violence In Ukraine

0
0

By Civil.Ge

(Civil.Ge) — Georgian government condemned and expressed “concern” over violence in Kiev, where, reports say, three protesters died in clashes with police on January 22.

“We are watching with alarm developments in our friendly and partner country, Ukraine,” PM Irakli Garibashvili said in a written statement. “We are deeply concerned that developments in the streets of Kiev resulted in casualties. We express our deep sorrow over this fact.”

“We condemn any violence and hope that the Ukrainian government and the society as a whole will show wisdom and will not allow further violent developments. We believe that our Ukrainian friends are capable of solving political issues pertinent to the country’s democratic development through peaceful negotiations,”

The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Tbilisi “respects each and every country’s right to choose its foreign policy priorities, but it is necessary to protect the principle of freedom of expression and assembly.”

“The Georgian Foreign Ministry calls on the Ukrainian government and participants of the demonstration to refrain from use of force and expresses hope that Ukraine, which is Georgia’s traditionally friendly country… will be able to resolve the situation through dialogue,” reads the statement.

“We sincerely wish to see Ukraine in future, together with Georgia, in a large European family, as the country sharing common European values,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

Speaking at a parliamentary bureau session on January 22, parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili said that increased tensions in Kiev “cause our common concern.”

“Political forces in the Parliament have expressed for number of times our unequivocal support towards the Ukrainian people. We hope that Ukrainian leadership, people, opposition will be able to avoid worse [scenario]… It is very important for the Ukrainian people, Georgia and for the entire region,” Usupashvili said.

Expressing concern over “dramatic developments” in Kiev, the United National Movement (UNM) opposition party said in a statement: “The main reason behind escalating violence is pressure exerted by Russia on Ukraine ahead of the Vilnius Summit aimed at deterring Kiev from signing the Association Agreement with the European Union.”

UNM also said that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych also shares responsibility for these developments because of his “ignorance of opinion of the hundreds of thousands of the Ukrainian citizens and inability to engage in dialogue.” UNM also condemned newly passed laws limiting the right to protest in Ukraine.

“Together with the international community, it is our duty to express full solidarity to the Ukrainian people’s aspiration towards the family of European nations founded on freedom, rule of law and human rights. Georgia should do its utmost to resist any attempt of dragging Ukraine into Putin’s Eurasian Union. Ukraine’s freedom is our freedom,” said UNM, which is a partner party of the Ukrainian opposition UDAR party, led by Vitaly Klitschko.

The article Georgia Condemns Violence In Ukraine appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Georgia PM Garibashvili Comments On NATO MAP

0
0

By Civil.Ge

(Civil.Ge) — If NATO refuses to grant membership action plan to Georgia now, it will happen later, it is not “a principle” issue, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said on January 16.

Comments are in contrast to those of parliament speaker Davit Usupashvili, who said on January 13 in Tallinn that failure to grant MAP to Georgia at NATO summit in Wales in early September will “ruin and undermine” political stability in the country and may also pose a threat to country’s EU integration.

Asked about these remarks of Usupashvili, PM Garibashvili said at a news conference on January 16: “I do not share that assessment.”

Garibashvili also said that he had not seen those remarks of Usupashvili and suggested that they might be misinterpreted. “I will meet and speak about it with Usupashvili,” he said.

“As far as the issue of MAP is concerned, several years ago the previous authorities created unheard of high expectation in the public and then we were left… disappointed. We are not going to do the same; we are working and we will show our results by our deeds. So, I want to say unequivocally that our foreign vector remains unchanged,” Garibashvili said.

“If there is no MAP now, it will be later – it is not a principle [issue]. If the question is whether we want it or not, of course, we want it. But if there is no MAP, it will not pose a threat to and change our European integration,” the PM said.

At the news conference Garibashvili also said that after his visits at Davos World Economic Forum and then to Israel and Munich Security Conference in late January and early February, he will travel to Brussels for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

The article Georgia PM Garibashvili Comments On NATO MAP appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Iranian-American Indicted For Espionage Involving American Fighter Jet – OpEd

0
0

By Jim Kouri

An engineer who was arrested earlier this month for allegedly attempting to ship stolen documents regarding a high-tech U.S. military fighter jet to the Iranian government was officially indicted by a federal grand jury in Connecticut on Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.

Mozaffar Khazaee, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen but also retains his Iranian citizenship, is charged with transporting stolen goods after he was arrested attempting to surreptitiously deliver stolen property to Iran’s military.

The 59-year-old suspect was arrested on Jan. 9. 2014 for his attempt to smuggle thousands of pages of classified documents regarding the U.S. military’s high-tech F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

If convicted, the suspect is facing a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Khazaee was indicted Tuesday for transporting, transmitting and transferring in interstate commerce goods obtained by theft, conversion or fraud, according to court documents.

He is said to have stolen the sensitive materials from defense companies — where he was employed — that were contracted by the Pentagon, Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly told members of the news media on Tuesday.

Khazaee is a former employee of military contractor Pratt & Whitney where he performed strength tests on jet plane engine parts, Daly reported.

The investigation began in November, when customs officers and agents with the Department of Homeland Security intercepted a shipment Khazaee shipped from Connecticut to a cargo ship in Long Beach, Calif., that was ready to sail to Hamadan, Iran, according to court records.

The cargo sent by the suspect was listed on the manifest as being “household goods,” but the customs and DHS agents discovered that the shipment was cartons containing of documents including technical manuals and proprietary information related to the F-35 fighter jet program.

Khazaee was arrested on Jan. 9, 2014, at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, with a plane ticket to Iran.

According to the Defense Department, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the result of the most expensive defense project in history, costing upwards of $400 billion.

“Just think about this case: the U.S. spent almost a half-trillion dollars developing the F-35 and one Iranian almost gave all that technology to a terrorism-supporting radical Muslim nation. This incident should be investigated and all those concerned should be held accountable besides just the suspect,” said former military intelligence officer and police detective Mike Snopes.

The article Iranian-American Indicted For Espionage Involving American Fighter Jet – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Narendra Modi: India’s Saviour Or The Devil In Saffron? – OpEd

0
0

By Nikhil Vaish

At the outset I want to be very clear that I hold no love for the Congress Party. Under Sonia Gandhi, it has raped and looted India like no other party or single-entity since our Independence; of that there is no question. I for one cannot wait to see the back of the UPA and am also desperately looking for an alternative to lead India.

Today, the Congress party comes across as apathetic, complacent, autocratic and blind to the day-to-day hardships and realities of the majority of our country. I will give the Congress credit for liberalising the Indian economy and ushering in a hitherto unseen era of wealth and prosperity. But it now feels like the only beneficiaries of this economic largesse have been the politicians themselves and the politically connected classes.

The majority of Indians have not seen any returns from the economic boom other than vote buying sop’s and poorly distributed government handouts that appear around election time. Meanwhile, all the ruling politicians have become shameless in their own pursuit of ill-gotten gains, behave like they are all above the law and have also deluded themselves into believing that we are deaf, dumb and blind to their looting and selling of our country. This government has also routinely used their reach and powers to protect their own while persecuting anyone who disagrees with them.

Manmohan Singh, our Prime Minister and father of the original economic reforms, has been totally ineffective and, frankly, more compliant than a well-trained lapdog. Now Sonia Gandhi and her Congress cronies are threatening to replace Dr. Singh with a man who not only makes wallpaper look sexy, but also has the ability to make watching paint dry feel like an invigorating experience. Rahul Gandhi may be many things but he is no leader. He lacks charisma, vision, gumption, and a capacity for original thinking. What India needs is a leader who has balls, one who offers a vision for India’s future and is not deaf to the needs of the majority. So far the Congress party has failed to put forward such a candidate.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party, offers the only other alternative at this time. They are the political arm of the Rashtriya Sang Samaj (RSS) which was started in 1925 as a Hindu Nationalist movement that gained fame when one of its members, Nathuram Godse, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 1948; after which it was declared a terrorist group by the Indian government and banned for two years. Since then the RSS has expanded vastly and grown more powerful, even though the BJP has only been in power at the center for eight of India’s sixty-six years since independence.

One reason for the BJP’s lack of national following and political clout has been their ties to the RSS and their extreme right-wing philosophies and fundamentalist views, that includes combat training camps across the country for Hindu youth (Source: “RSS combat training camps to woo youth” – Indian Express article). The BJP last came to power a decade ago, after working hard to soften their image and champion leaders within the party with moderate views.

However, now they sense a real opportunity based on the Congress’s inability to govern and rampant corruption. They see that the vast majority of the country is beyond sick and tired of the never ending scams, the endless vote buying handouts and institutional bullying tactics. So confident is a resurgent BJP (and RSS) that they were willing to put forth an extremely polarizing figure for their Prime Ministerial candidate. Narendra Modi is a man with a chequered past including his ties to the RSS and the 2002 communal riots that happened under his watch in Gujarat, where many Muslims were massacred by retaliating Hindus as the police and state apparatus turned a blind eye. So polarizing is Modi that even within his own party, there was a lack of consensus on his elevation. The announcement caused much consternation within the leadership and rank and file. The BJP also lost some close political allies in the process of elevating Mr. Modi, but given the sheer hatred for the Congress that prevails, they believed it worth the gamble. So far they seem to be right, judging by the recent walloping the Congress took in mid-terms Polls in four different states.

Unlike Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Modi comes from humble beginnings. He was the son of a tea seller who grew up poor and had a very hard life by his own admission: “I had a lot of pain because I grew up in a village where there was no electricity and in my childhood we used to face a lot of hardships because of this.”(*). Mr. Modi was drawn to the RSS at an early age and it was at their camps that his ideas about the world were formed (*). His brother says, “[Modi] was always greatly impressed by the fact that only one person gave all the orders in the [RSS camp] and everyone followed the command.” (*Source: “The Man Who Doesn’t Wear Dark Green” – Boston Review article).

Today, he has grown to have a cult-like status as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He is known for his take no prisoners attitude and for being an autocratic head of state. He is also known to trust just a handful of people and insists on making every decision himself. He has also shown scant loyalty to his own people and party and a great savvy for self-promotion, even ahead of his party. You could not have two more polar opposite choices in party and candidates. The Congress is old, slow, incompetent, corrupt, turning a deaf ear to the needs of India’s basic infrastructure development and willing to sacrifice our pride for their own corrupt means.

The BJP is resurgent and confident; riding on the wings on Mr. Modi’s growing popularity. Even though is he is known to have an authoritarian style, he is seen as incorruptible, and has effectively championed the economic development of this state; building infrastructure, creating tax incentives and favorable business conditions to successfully woo the biggest and best companies from across India. There is no doubt he has India Inc.’s vote, all of whom are tired with the Congress indecision, constant changes in policy and graft without any results.

I can understand why Mr. Modi makes an attractive candidate for many Indians; especially among the youth and in the corporate sector. The current frustration and open hatred for the Congress over the past decade have almost started to make Mr. Modi’s status messianic, because people are so desperate for change, for some semblance of leadership that demonstrates courage on the world stage, once more. As Indians, we were all sold the story of India shining, told that it was the dawn of a new era as a world economic powerhouse, but our current government never delivered on any part of this promise. Indians are tired of being pushed around and mocked because our government only cares about filling their Swiss bank accounts, while our Prime Minister becomes the laughing stock of the world. Nobody wants another four years of the Congress led UPA.

Yet, there is something unsettling about Mr. Modi’s brand of nationalism and his seeming apathy towards the merciless slaughter of Muslims in his state in 2002. I have no problem with his autocratic style of leadership. God knows we can use a little decision-making right now. Nor am I concerned with the fact that the BJP, as a party, is also corrupt (as they have shown in the past and in states they currently govern). What troubles me greatly is Mr. Modi’s outright refusal to apologise for the 2002 riots in his state and under his leadership. In fact, he has been known to refuse to answer any questions relating to the riots and at times even removed his microphone and walked off camera when asked about his role. Just this week a local court upheld an earlier report by a special investigation team, clearing Mr. Modi of any criminal wrongdoing. Yet, a “number of leaders and senior state officials have already been convicted and sentenced for inciting mobs and committing mass murder during the riots.” (Source: “Court Clears Narendra Modi in Riots Case” – Wall Street Journal article). Nobody denies that state officials and senior policemen were complicit in inciting mobs and in some cases even leading them to kill Muslims. A landmark Human Rights Watch report published in 2002 said that the RSS that was responsible for passing out lists of Muslim-owned business and homes to mobs at the start of the violence.” (Source: “We Have No Orders to Save You” – Human Rights Watch).

Mr. Modi was the leader of the state when the riots occurred. Even if he did not personally direct officials to incite or seek revenge and there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on his part, it is hard to believe he was unaware of what his senior state apparatus was doing. Especially for a leader who takes pride in making every decision and without whose authority we are told nothing can happen in his state. The issue to me is less about criminal culpability and more about moral responsibility. As the Chief Minister, if he can take full responsibility for the growth and economic development of Gujarat, then he must also do the same for any tragic event that occurs under his leadership. He did issue a statement on his blog, after the court verdict was announced in late December, which the BJP claims is a personal and heartfelt apology from Mr. Modi. To me it reads more like a PR release written by a man hoping to soon hold the highest office in the land, and clear the one great blemish on his otherwise seemingly perfect record. There is also the question of why a man who felt so much guilt and anguish (as Mr. Modi states he does) waited more than a decade to speak from the heart, and apologise to families of the thousands of innocent victims, most of whom were Muslims. And why does he never once use the word Muslim in his entire apology?

I too want to believe in Mr. Modi and his vision for a corruption-free and super developed India. But his roots are from deep within the RSS; it was in their Hindu nationalist brainwashing camps that he formed his world-view at an early age — in the context of this fact alone, his seeming lack of remorse, his refusal to wear green and his lack of genuine outward warmth towards Muslims scare me in a country that is more than two-thirds Hindu, and looking for someone to blame for their current woes. Satyameva Jayate!

The article Narendra Modi: India’s Saviour Or The Devil In Saffron? – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

India’s Northeast 2013: A Year Of Peace And Violence – Analysis

0
0

By IPCS

By Rani P Das

India’s Northeast saw new twists and turns in so far as its conflicts and peace processes were concerned. If peace appeared to be knocking at the doors with most of the major rebel groups coming to truce mode, the emergence of many smaller groups and break-away factions and continuing bloodshed, mostly because of internecine turf wars, painted the year with warnings of more violent conflict amidst the perceived calm.

The year ended on violent notes of ethnic turmoil between the Karbis and the Rengma Nagas in southern Assam. On 28 December 2013, Naga Rengma Hills Protection Force (NRHPF) executed the cold-blooded murder of ten Karbis, nine of them near Nagaland’s commercial hub Dimapur. This was, however, a retaliatory action against the killing of nine Rengma Nagas by the KPLT (Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers) in the Chokihola area in Karbi Anglong on 27 December 2013. The stage was set for intra-tribal feuding. Altogether, 3,131 people (1,033 women and 911 children), about 1,600 of them Rengma Nagas and the rest Karbis, Adivasis and Nepalis, have since been displaced from their homes and are taking shelter in nine camps. Describing the cause of the attack, Assam Home Secretary G D Tripathi said, “The KPLT had issued a quit notice to Rengma Naga community sometime back, and had also fixed a deadline, which the latter ignored.” The community was targeted earlier in June 2013.

Behind the conflict, there could be livelihood issues, land encroachment, and insecurity created by the Nagas among the non-Nagas. However, the conflict between the two communities reveals a clear attempt at ethnic cleansing of the minority Nagas from the area. And such attacks always bear retaliatory measures by rebel groups representing the injured party, no matter how small the community is. The ethnic divide created by such conflicts between various communities cohabiting in the same area leads to continued ethnic conflict – a situation that seems to become unmanageable for the authorities. The government’s flawed policy while trying to meet the aspirations of different tribal communities on ethnic lines could be blamed for this. The conflict between the Garos and Rabhas in the Assam-Meghalaya border areas, for instance, is due to the fact that the minority Garos do not seem to accept the arrangement to stay within the Rabha Autonomous Council – the nomenclature itself implying that it is meant for the majority Rabhas. Here and in similar cases, the government should reflect upon their policy of granting autonomy and consider granting of regional autonomy in place of ethnic autonomy in the region, which is home to 220 ethnic groups.

On 21 November 2013, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that agitation for separate states by various groups had made western Assam and Karbi Anglong “vulnerable to ethnic and communal” tensions. Actually, ethnic mistrust and communal tension among the Bodos, Karbis and Dimasas in Assam, Garos in Meghalaya, and tribals of Tripura increased dramatically with the raising of statehood demands after the Congress Working Committee announced its decision to create a separate Telangana state on 3 October 2013.

The silent spread of the Maoism (Communist Party of India-Maoist) in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh is becoming a worrying factor. On 22 November 2013, the Union Home Minister said, “Maoist presence in Assam and border areas of Arunachal Pradesh have been noticed, in areas like Golaghat, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur and Tinsukia Districts of Assam and Namsai area of Lohit District in Arunachal Pradesh.” Seven Maoist-related incidents were reported in 2013, in addition to 10 incidents in 2012, three in 2011 and one in 2010. Maoist activities in the region have been taken seriously by the Centre and the 27 September 2013 notification declared Tirap, Changland and Longding Districts of Arunachal Pradesh as ‘Disturbed Areas’ under AFSPA for a further period of six months with effect from 1 October 2013.

Nevertheless, positive developments were visible in the government’s peace negotiations with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-Progressive). On 12 September 2013, a Suspension of Operations agreement was signed between the Ranjan Daimary faction of NDFB, the central government and the state government, raising the number of insurgent groups talking peace with the government to 13 in Assam. However, facts presented in the State Assembly on 16 December 2013 by the Assam Forest Minister presented a disturbing picture. The Minister said that six new militant outfits had emerged in the state in the last two years. These include the Karbi National Liberation Army (KNLA), United Peoples Liberation Front (UPLF), Dima Halam Daogah-Action (DHD-A), Dima Jadi Naiso Army (DJNA), National Liberation Front of Bengalis (NLFB) and United Dimasa Kachari Liberation Front (UDKLF). On the other hand, in July 2013, in a tripartite meet, the government agreed to the ULFA’s demand for ST status for five tribes – Moran, Motok, Chutia, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tai-Ahom – thus pushing the peace process a step forward. The 8 October 2012 Memorandum of Settlement among the central government, government of Assam and the factions of Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) & DHD-J (Jewel group) is another significant development.

In Manipur, on 13 February 2013, three Meitei insurgent groups (The United Revolutionary Front, Kangleipak Communist Party Lamphel and Kanglei Yawal Kanna Lup) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of India and the state government and joined the peace process. Earlier, on 17 July 2013, the United Tribal Liberation Army (UTLA) (SK Thadou Group) surrendered while a Suspension of Operation (SoO) Agreement was signed on 30 August 2013 between the United Revolutionary Front (URF), United Peoples Front (UPF), government of India and government of Manipur at New Delhi.

Talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) have not moved much during the past year. “The group has given up the demand for sovereignty. It has also given up the Naga integration demand for the time being,” said Sambhu Singh on 9 December 2013, stating that the list of demands, which were negotiable, was submitted before the Centre only in July 2011 although the Naga peace talks began way back in 1997. “The real negotiation started after that. Demands that had been raised before were not negotiable,” he said. Then there are two more groups, the NSCN Khaplang and Khole-Kitovi, which will have to be brought around, so it is a long haul for peace in Nagaland. The Naga peace talks reached a deadlock on 13 December 2013 with the interlocutor RS Pandey joining a political party and, therefore, relinquishing his job as New Delhi’s peace envoy.

At present, most of the outfits in the region have small cadre strengths ranging from about thirty to three or four hundred only, except the NSCN-IM, which has over 2500 cadres. In Assam, the most violent outfit in the state, the Songbijit faction of the NDFB, has 300 members and the Paresh Baruah faction of the ULFA has 240.

Rani P Das
Senior Research Associate, Centre for Development and Peace Studies (CDPS), Guwahati

The article India’s Northeast 2013: A Year Of Peace And Violence – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Typhoons And Tigers: Why Taiwan Has Outpaced The Philippines – Analysis

0
0

By FPIF

By Scott Charney

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines last November, killing thousands and leaving a vast swath of injury, displacement, and devastation in its wake, it also laid bare just how vulnerable the country is to such natural disasters.

Plagued by vast inequality, the Philippines is not without modern infrastructure, but at the same time a great many impoverished Filipinos live and work in highly precarious settings, be they rural villages or urban slums. In fact, had the storm hit the crowded informal settlements in the Manila area, the toll of death and destruction could have been far worse.

This vulnerability is particularly striking when contrasted with the situation in Taiwan, one of the Philippines’ neighbors. Both nations achieved their nominal independence within a few years of one another, and yet Taiwan is far wealthier and fairly economically egalitarian, with most of its infrastructure much more capable of withstanding and responding to typhoons and other natural disasters.

What explains the disparity? As it happens, the modern history of each country is vastly different, and should serve as a lesson about the lasting impacts of colonialism and conflict.

From a Convent to a Brothel

Filipinos have been known to summarize their country’s history as “400 years in a convent and 100 years in a brothel” (with variations in vocabulary and number of years). The former span of time refers to the years of Spanish colonization, while the latter refers to the subsequent American occupation and heavy post-independence influence. Indeed, the Philippines has been shaped to an overwhelmingly degree by Spain and the United States (and briefly Japan) since 1521, when the ill-fated Ferdinand Magellan first walked ashore.

The archipelago formally became a Spanish colony in 1565. Though few Spaniards settled there (at least compared with Latin America), their impact was momentous: Spanish authorities peacefully converted the vast majority of the Filipino population to Catholicism and remade Filipino society from one with much communal usage of land into a feudal system. The village chiefs thus became a prosperous land-holding class, wielding immense power (together with the clergy) over most of the rest of the population. These tensions have roiled Filipino society ever since.

And here’s the short version of “100 years in a whorehouse”: After defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States took possession of the Philippines, enraging Filipino nationalists who thought their liberation was at hand. U.S. colonial authorities and their Filipino collaborators then viciously and indiscriminately crushed a rebel movement (whose own brutality cost them the support they needed to win), leaving hundreds of thousands dead, most of them civilians. The pattern after that was always largely the same, through the Philippines’ time as an American colony (1898-1933), an American commonwealth (1934-1946), an independent-but-undemocratic country (1946-1986), and finally as a nominally free and democratic country (1986-present): the same basic neoliberal paradigm of welfare for the rich and “free market” discipline for the rest.

In the years following the failed uprising, the U.S.-backed Filipino elite looted many billions of dollars through widespread corruption while violently repressing any attempt by the Filipino masses to improve the situation. First under a banner of naked colonialism, and later under the rationale of “anti-communism,” U.S. business interests profited from Filipino resources, while the U.S. military controversially constructed bases on Philippine land.

Social tensions that simmered under U.S. rule erupted during the Japanese Empire’s brief but sadistic 1942-1945 occupation of the country. The most prominent Filipino resistance force in those years, the communist-inspired Hukbalahap (or the Huks for short), launched an outright rebellion, attacking the Japanese and their Filipino collaborators while simultaneously attempting to redistribute the feudal estates. They won the sympathies of U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, who remarked that “if I worked in those sugar fields, I’d be a Huk myself.” Subsequent attempts, peaceful or armed, to redress the injustices in the Philippines were brutally repressed in the years following the country’s post-World War II independence, with consistent U.S. support.

Only Nixon Could Go to China

What a different story in nearby Taiwan! Brief periods of small-scale European settlement gave way to Chinese annexation in the 17th century, with Taiwan remaining under Beijing’s control until 1895, when the Japanese took over after defeating the Chinese in the First Sino-Japanese War. Japanese rule was definitely politically repressive, but at the same time the Japanese saw Taiwan as a “model colony” that could soon be integrated as a cultural and economic peer with the rest of Japan. Towards this end, they poured funds and effort into modernizing and uplifting Taiwan’s economy and infrastructure. After Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, Taiwan reverted to Chinese control, and not five years later, Chiang Kaishek’s defeated Nationalist/Kuomintang (KMT) faction had fled there to form a government-in-exile after their defeat by Mao’s Communists.

From that moment on, Chiang and his successors guided Taiwan’s path to prosperity, conspicuously beginning with a highly successful land reform program. Taiwan’s government gradually evolved into a “developmental state” that played an active role in marshaling the island’s natural and human resources towards a more prosperous future. This same chain of events played out successfully in all of the “Asian Tigers,” among other places, but too few people mention today that this path to prosperity was only possible because nobody forcibly stopped it from happening. In other words, land reform, resource-financed social spending, and other deviations from neoliberal orthodoxy (or even the potential thereof) usually elicited an aggressive response, covertly or overtly, from the United States, European countries, and their local satraps (like those who ruled the Philippines.)

How did Taiwan et al avoid this miserable fate? As the old saying goes, “Only Nixon could go to China” to thaw relations between Washington and Beijing, because it was impossible to credibly call him “soft on Communism.” Similarly, it was impossible to credibly Red-bait anti-Communist warriors like Chiang and the leaders of the other Tigers-to-be, even when they did things that, when they happened in other countries, set off alarms in Washington.

The Cold Warriors of yesteryear might have argued that the interventions that plagued the Philippines and so much of the developing world—but from which Taiwan was mercifully spared—were justified as a means to check the Soviet Union. But that raises the question for Cold War hawks—and advocates of the Obama administration’s Asia-Pacific “pivot” today—which country makes a better ally? The prosperous, well-armed Taiwan (which seems to be demonstrating Sun Tzu’s maxim that “to win without fighting is best”), or the militarily weak Philippines, beset by poverty and insurgencies fueled by the country’s perennial inequality?

All is not lost for the Philippines. As I wrote last winter, migration is one of the strongest mechanisms for reducing poverty, and not only do huge numbers of Filipinos work all around the world (including in Taiwan), their numbers are only likely to increase in the future. Filipinos widely speak English, and Spanish is making a comeback, adding to their attractiveness to international employers. Remittances have powered the growth of a sizable middle class, in a situation analogous to Mexico’s recent history.

Much work remains to be done, but the point is that it never had to be this way. If its people were left to their own devices, and not mistreated for so long, the Philippines would likely have joined the Asian Tigers years ago, making it stable, prosperous, and hardy in the face of natural disasters.

Scott Ryan Charney received an M.A. in U.S. Foreign Policy from American University.

The article Typhoons And Tigers: Why Taiwan Has Outpaced The Philippines – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.


Bangladesh: Disproportionate Sanctions Against Pro-Islamist Newspaper

0
0

By Eurasia Review

Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday it is concerned about all the sanctions taken against the pro-Islamist newspaper Dainik Inqilab. In the space of a few hours last week, its print edition was suspended, all of its printing equipment was seized or sealed, and three of its journalists were arrested.

“It is wrong for a newspaper to publish false information but the sanctions must not be disproportionate,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The application of the Information and Communication Technology Act to this case and the measures taken against the newspaper are totally excessive”.

“There are alternatives to such measures. The newspaper could, for example, keep publishing its apology in its print edition for a certain period. We urge the authorities to release these journalists and to lift the publication ban.”

The measures were prompted by a report in Dainik Inqilab’s 15 January issue that Indian forces had carried out a joint operation with the Bangladeshi authorities in the Satkhira district of southwestern Bangladesh with the aim of eliminating a group of underground Islamist militants.

The police raided the newspaper the next day, seizing computer equipment, placing seals on its printing presses and arresting editor Rafiullah Robi, deputy editor Rafiq Mohammad and one of its reporters, Ahmed Atik.

The authorities said they were acting under the 2006 ICT Act, which prohibits the publication of “fake, obscene or defaming information in electronic form” and which Reporters Without Borders has described as “draconian.” It allows the police to carry out arrests without a warrant and prevents release on bail.

The newspaper, which is accused of publishing “false news that damaged the image of the country and created doubt in citizens’ minds,” withdrew the offending report from its website and posted an apology.

A Dhaka court nonetheless yesterday rejected a request for the release of all three journalists on bail and instead gave the police permission to continue questioning Atik for two days and to hold Robi and Mohammad for the duration of the investigation.

Ranked 144th out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Bangladesh is currently being rocked by protests about the way the government held the 5 January parliamentary elections.

The article Bangladesh: Disproportionate Sanctions Against Pro-Islamist Newspaper appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Kazakhstan: Criminal Trial Begins For 67-Year-Old Pastor

0
0

By F18News

By Mushfig Bayram and Felix Corley

Eight months after his arrest and despite his failing health, 67-year-old retired Presbyterian Pastor Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev was brought from prison in handcuffs today (22 January) for the first hearing in his criminal trial in a court in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. He faces three charges of harming health, inciting hatred and leading an organisation that harms others, Forum 18 News Service notes. The charges carry a maximum penalty of eight, seven and six years’ imprisonment respectively. He denies all wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, the criminal investigation of atheist writer Aleksandr Kharlamov in the town of Ridder in East Kazakhstan Region on charges of “inciting religious hatred” continues. Prosecutors have commissioned further “expert analyses” of his writings on religion extracted from his computer after it was confiscated from him in February 2013 (see below).

Trial begins

Retired pastor Kashkumbayev’s trial is taking place under Judge Gulzhakhan Ubasheva at Astana’s Almaty District Court No. 2. He is being represented by his lawyer, Nurlan Beisekeyev.

About 70 people were present in court to support retired pastor Kashkumbayev, among them foreign diplomats, one person present in Court today (22 January) told Forum 18.

Svetlana Glushkova, Astana correspondent of Radio Free Europe’s Kazakh Service noted that Lyazzat Almenova – the main “victim” being presented by the prosecution – is being represented in court by her sister Guldana Almenova. Lyazzat Almenova has repeatedly told Forum 18 and others that she is not a victim and that she does not agree with her sister on this (see below).

The observer told Forum 18 that the Lawyer made several objections to the Court that the trial is “not fair”, that Kashkumbayev is being kept in custody in “torturous conditions”, and that he should have been operated on his ear already in November 2013 but the authorities did not allow this. The Court dismissed his objections.

The Court adjourned the trial until after 31 January, the deadline given to Lawyer Beisekeyev to study the case materials. Forum 18 could not reach the Lawyer on 22 January for comments. The observer said that Beisekeyev was not satisfied with time given for study of the case and told the Court that it was “too short”.

When the 17 volumes of case materials were presented to retired pastor Kashkumbayev in late December 2013, he was forced to study them alone to prepare himself for the trial, Glushkova of Radio Free Europe noted on 2 January. Beisekeyev had been unavailable in hospital.

Criminal charges

Retired Pastor Kashkumbayev is facing serious charges under three Criminal Code articles, according to case documents seen by Forum 18:

- Article 103, Part 2, Point a punishes “Intentional inflicting of serious harm to health” in relation to “two or more persons”. Punishment is between four and eight years’ imprisonment.

The main person whose health the state claims has been harmed has strongly rejected the charge and has stated in writing to Astana Prosecutor’s Office that Kashkumbayev is innocent (see below).

Article 164, Part 2 punishes “Deliberate actions aimed at the incitement of social, national, clan, racial, or religious hatred or antagonism, or at offence to the national honour and dignity, or religious feelings of citizens, as well as propaganda of exclusiveness, superiority, or inferiority of citizens based on their attitude towards religion, or their genetic or racial belonging, if these acts are committed publicly or with the use of the mass information media” when conducted “by a group of people or more than once, or when accompanied by violence or the threat of its use, or by a person using their official position or by a leader”. Punishments range from a fine to imprisonment of up to seven years.

The alleged “religious extremism” is possession of two books entitled “Healing the Broken Family of Abraham” and “New Life for Muslims”, his lawyer told Forum 18.

The Russian translation of “Healing the Broken Family of Abraham” by American Protestant Don McCurry is the only religious book known to have been banned as “extremist” in Kazakhstan. On 22 November 2012 Almaty’s Almaly District Court No. 2 banned its publication, import and distribution in Kazakhstan. It found that the book contains “elements of incitement to religious hatred and discord”.

Atheist writer Kharlamov is being investigated under Article 164 Part 1, which punishes the same actions committed by an individual in a personal capacity (see below).

- and Article 337, Part 1 punishes “creation or leadership of religious or social organisations whose activity involves violence against citizens or the causing of other harm to their health, or the incitement of citizens to refuse to carry out their civil obligations or to carry out other illegal activities, as well as the creation or leadership of parties on a religious basis or political parties and professional unions financed from sources banned by the laws of Kazakhstan”. Punishments range from a fine to imprisonment of up to six years.

Earlier defence arguments rejected

On 10 January another judge at Astana’s Almaty District Court No.2 rejected retired Pastor Kashkumbayev’s suit to disqualify Judge Ubasheva of the same Court from hearing the trial, according to the decision seen by Forum 18. Under Article 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code she cannot do this as in 2012 she ordered the only person whose heath the state claims was harmed to psychiatric examination, and thus became a party to the case. A September 2012 “expert assessment” of church member Lyazzat Almenova claimed regular attendance at church had led her to develop “paranoid schizophrenia”. She herself and Church members have vigorously rejected such claims.

The Court also rejected the defence’s plea to release Kashkumbayev from custody as he is old and, Beisekeyev told Forum 18 on 21 January, “needs an urgent operation on his ears. One has become totally deaf, and the other one hears with great difficulty”. Kashkumbayev also has chronic heart problems.

An assistant to Nurlan Aben, the head of Astana’s Investigation Prison where retired pastor Kashkumbayev is being held, dismissed any concerns over his health. While admitting that the retired pastor is not well, the assistant – who did not give his name – insisted to Forum 18 on 3 January that “he is under medical supervision of our staff”. “He will not die,” the assistant added.

Retired Pastor Kashkumbayev’s prison address is:

Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev

SI-12 (ETs 166/1)

Alash Tas Zhol street 30/1

010000 Astana

Kazakhstan

“The family is being on purpose isolated from Kashkumbayev”

Family members, including Kashkumbayev’s wife Alfiya Kashkumbayeva, have seen Kashkumbayev only twice since 7 October 2013. On the second time, the 10 January 2014 hearing, family members and some international observers were expelled from the Court as defence arguments on the suitability of the Judge allegedly needed to be examined behind closed doors.

A person close to the family, who does not wish to be named for fear of state reprisals, and Kashkumbayev’s lawyer Beisekeyev told Forum 18 that they do not think that the case is being tried fairly. “How can I believe that the authorities have good intentions? Kashkumbayev is old and in ill health, needs a medical operation, and is still kept behind bars”, Beisekeyev observed. “The family is being on purpose isolated from Kashkumbayev to break him down”, the family friend said.

Long-standing state hostility

Like atheist writer Kharlamov, retired Pastor Kashkumbayev has also been subjected to arrest, detention and forcible psychiatric examination. Despite facing criminal charges of allegedly harming a congregation member’s health, the only person whose heath the state claims was harmed told Forum 18 that Kashkumbayev is “totally innocent and has not harmed my health at all”.

On 17 May 2013, Kashkumbayev was arrested and subsequently ordered to be held for pre-trial detention on unclear charges, apparently including praying and singing . While in pre-trial detention Kashkumbayev spent just over a month undergoing enforced psychiatric examination, from 5 August to 2 September, before being transferred back to pre-trial detention in Astana.

Just minutes after he was freed from Investigation Prison on 8 October 2013 to be transferred to house arrest, three police (or possibly KNB secret police) agents re-arrested Kashkumbayev on new criminal accusations of being an “extremist” or “terrorist”. The police investigator Captain Vyacheslav Glazkov also forcibly – and illegally – deprived Kashkumbayev of his lawyer.

Raids part of same case

The authorities have long been seeking to punish the leaders of his Presbyterian Grace Church, but the reason or reasons for this remain unclear. Masked police searched the Church on 3 October 2012 and seized computers, valuables and religious books they insisted were “extremist” (though they could not explain what was “extremist” or who had declared them so).

As part of the same criminal case against retired Pastor Kashkumbayev, the same day prosecutors raided two other Protestant organisations in Astana. During the raid on the Bible League of Kazakhstan, they seized the computer belonging to its head, Igor Voronenko. During the raid on one of the city’s Baptist churches, they seized copies of five books. Voronenko and Baptist pastor Gennadi Vrublevsky were accused of distributing “extremist” literature and on 7 December 2013 fined nearly four weeks’ average wages each.

Nine days later the unrelated New Life Church in Oral (Uralsk) was raided in the same case.

“Hallucinogens” smear

Police requested church members to give blood specimens to see if the Church uses “hallucinogenic” substances for Communion. The alleged “hallucinogens” were a commonly drunk local red tea used as a non-alcoholic communion wine. Police questioning at that time ranged far beyond the alleged “harm” they were supposedly investigating.

After the October 2012 raids, detentions and confiscations, police told church members that a case had been opened on the complaint of a church member’s mother on 21 July 2011 – almost 15 months earlier. The mother alleged that her daughter had suffered psychological harm after attending the church. Church members strongly denied these claims and noted that police displayed a curious lack of interest in the allegations they were supposedly investigating.

Atheist writer still under criminal investigation

The “extremism” criminal case against atheist writer Kharlamov continues. “I have to report to police, but I don’t need to do this every day,” he told Forum 18 from his home in Ridder on 21 January. He must remain in the town and “should behave properly in public”. But, he observed, “the release agreement does not specify what ‘proper behaviour’ is”.

“Religious expert assessment”?

On 15 October 2013 Captain Alikhat Turakpayev of Ridder Police, who leads the investigation, gave Kharlamov a scanned copy of yet another “religious expert assessment” of his writings, Kharlamov told Forum 18. This claimed that his “views of the Christian religion can incite hatred, and thus can be described as extremist”.

Kharlamov said that he immediately filed complaints against the “expert assessment” to the regional Police and the Prosecutor’s Office, and asked for the criminal case against him to be closed. He told Forum 18 that he also wrote in his complaint that the “expert” employed by the state is not independent and can only produce results which will suit the state.

East Kazakhstan Regional Prosecutor’s Office has not responded. Kadyrbek Nurgaliyev, Deputy Head of East Kazakhstan Police, responded to Kharlamov on 13 January 2014 in an official letter that “the case cannot be closed as it still is in the stage of judicial psychological expertise”.

Captain Turakpayev refused to comment on the case. Asked by Forum 18 on 22 January why Kharlamov is being prosecuted for expressing criticism of religion, he replied that “I will not make any comments until the case is over”. He refused to say when the case will be over, and whether there is any chance of Kharlamov being acquitted. Turakpayev then put the phone down.

Deputy Head of East Kazakhstan Police Nurgaliyev on 22 January claimed to Forum 18 the criminal case against Kharlamov was suspended until the end of the “religious expert assessment” of his works. He added that the 15 October 2013 “religious expert assessment” was “not final” and that there will be more “religious expert assessments”.

“Kharlamov should not worry, we are not intending to put him in prison,” Nurgaliyev claimed to Forum 18. “We just want to complete the case.” He said that he does not know when the case will be closed. “The investigation will decide that.”

“No-one suffered from what he wrote on religion”

Like retired Pastor Kashkumbayev, atheist writer Kharlamov has also been subjected to arrest, detention and forcible psychiatric examination. He was freed from prison on 4 September 2013 after nearly six months’ pre-trial detention, having been arrested on 14 March. During that time he was held for a month in a psychiatric hospital.

While being held in psychiatric hospital, Kharlamov was not allowed to wear glasses or even have toothbrushes, allegedly on grounds of safety. He was therefore unable to read anything or clean his teeth.

One doctor told Kharlamov that he had been sent to the psychiatric hospital “because you are an inconvenient person for the authorities”. The criminal investigation against the 63-year-old continues under Criminal Code Article 164, Part 1 for allegedly “inciting religious hatred.

Despite the state’s criminal charge and continued “expert examination” of Kharlamov’s writings, the police investigator responsible for the case, Captain Turakpayev, admitted to Forum 18 in April 2013 that “no-one suffered from what he wrote on religion”. But Turakpayev refused to explain on what, if any, medically-relevant evidence he ordered two psychiatric examinations of Kharlamov.

Systemic violations

The arrests, detentions and forcible psychiatric examinations of retired Pastor Kashkumbayev and atheist writer Kharlamov are part of a wider pattern of systemic Kazakh government violations of freedom of religion or belief and other human rights.

Two laws imposing severe restrictions on freedom of religion or belief and breaking the country’s human rights obligations came into force in October 2011. A new Religion Law among other restrictions imposes a complex four-tier registration system, bans unregistered religious activity, and imposes compulsory state censorship of religious literature and objects. An expanded Administrative Code Article 375 (“Violation of the Religion Law”) – replacing the previous Article 375 – was introduced at the same time in an Amending Law. It punishes a wide range of often unclearly defined “offences” with possible fines for individuals and groups with state-registration, and bans on the activity of “guilty” religious groups.

Since then, all mosques outside state control are being closed down. The imam and members of one of the independent mosques denied re-registration after intense state pressure – who asked not to be identified – told Forum 18 that when they met to discuss applying for new registration, officials “came out of nowhere” and threatened them with punishment.

Two Baptists were imprisoned for 48 hours each from 9 January 2014 in the northern Akmola Region, for refusing to pay fines handed down in 2013 to punish them for exercising freedom of religion or belief without state permission. Numerous fines continue to be imposed under Administrative Code Article 375 for this “offence”. In 2013 alone, more than 150 people are known to have been fined for exercising this internationally-recognised human right.

Among the many targets of state censorship of religious literature and objects, including bans on bookshops selling of such items without state permission, have been Russian Orthodox icons. After 12 icons and three Bibles were seized from a commercial bookseller in Oral (Uralsk) in West Kazakhstan Region, the bookseller is due to face an administrative court where he may be fined several weeks’ average wages and the icons and Bibles might be ordered destroyed. “Everything is OK now – he has agreed not to sell religious materials,” Salamat Zhumagulov, the state religious affairs official who seized the items, told Forum 18. Saktagan Sadvokasov, spokesperson for the state Agency of Religious Affairs claimed that “the Kazakh state must defend our citizens from harmful materials”. Asked by Forum 18 whether he has known icons which are harmful, he replied that “we have experts to check icons”

The article Kazakhstan: Criminal Trial Begins For 67-Year-Old Pastor appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Obamacare’s Many Loopholes: Forcing Individuals And Taxpayers To Fund Elective Abortion Coverage – Analysis

0
0

By The Heritage Foundation

By Sarah Torre

Obamacare requires that, as of January 1, 2014, all individuals obtain qualified health insurance through their employer, on an exchange, or elsewhere. Consequently, millions of Americans have been looking to purchase health plans through state and federally run health insurance exchanges.

In order to avoid a hefty fine, individuals must purchase a plan that satisfies minimum federal benefits requirements. Because of legislative loopholes and onerous mandates, Obamacare will entangle taxpayer funds in abortion coverage offered on the exchanges and force many Americans to pay an abortion surcharge with private dollars.

Circumventing the Hyde Amendment

For decades, Congress has upheld a policy preventing the use of federal tax dollars to fund elective abortion. Specifically, every year since 1976, Congress has attached the Hyde Amendment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding of abortion or health benefits plans that cover abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.[1] Other provisions of current law, like the annual Smith Amendment governing insurance plans available to federal workers under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), bar the government from incurring any costs in connection with administering a health insurance plan that covers abortions beyond the limits established by the Hyde Amendment.

However, because Congress failed to apply Hyde amendment or similar language to the totality of the health care law, Obamacare potentially allows large taxpayer subsidies to flow to health plans that cover elective abortion.

Federal Dollars for Health Plans that Cover Elective Abortion. For the first time, the federal government will provide an “affordability tax credit” to millions of low-income and middle-income individuals and families to help subsidize the purchase of health plans on the exchanges.[2] By allowing health insurers that sell plans on many state exchanges to cover abortion while remaining eligible for federal subsidies, Obamacare opens new avenues for federal funding of abortion coverage. These federal tax credits could facilitate the purchase of health plans that cover elective abortion for millions of Americans who did not have such coverage previously.

Some proponents of Obamacare argue that the affordability tax credit does not amount to a federal subsidy for abortion because it is a tax break and not a federal payment. Others argue that the requirement under Obamacare that elective-abortion plan subscribers pay a separate “surcharge” of not less than $1 per month for abortion coverage ensures that only private dollars are expended for this purpose. Both arguments, however, are flawed.

The tax benefits conveyed under Obamacare are not aimed at tax relief but at steering individuals and families toward the purchase of heavily regulated, federally approved health plans.[3] Structurally, the credits offered to individuals and families are refundable and advanceable, and payments are made not to the individual tax filer but to the health insurer. In fact, during consideration of the Affordable Tax Credit in 2009 and 2010, opponents and advocates of the bill alike acknowledged that this first-of-its-kind health insurance credit was in fact a targeted subsidy.[4]

In response to this legislative sleight-of-hand, some states have passed legislation barring health plan coverage of elective abortion on their exchanges. To date, 24 states have passed such “opt-out” laws, while 26 states and the District of Columbia have taken no final action to prevent insurers from covering elective abortion.[5]

  • In the 24 states that prohibit health plans offered on an exchange from covering elective abortion, taxpayer subsidies used to purchase insurance in these states will not go to abortion coverage.[6] Likewise, individuals residing in these states can be assured that they will be able to choose a health plan for themselves and their families that does not include coverage of elective abortion.
  • For the remaining 26 states and the District of Columbia, issuers selling health insurance will be allowed to include coverage of elective abortion in their health plans. Not every plan offered on those exchanges will necessarily include such coverage, and Obamacare provides that at least one of the plans in each exchange must exclude elective abortion coverage.[7] The decision to include coverage should ultimately be left to the insurer.[8] But federally subsidized tax credits will remain available even for the plans that do cover elective abortion, potentially sending taxpayer funds to pay for health coverage that includes elective abortion.

All-but-Invisible Abortion Surcharge. Individuals and families who live in states that allow abortion coverage in their exchanges could end up paying for elective abortions through a separate premium—possibly without their knowledge.

In passing Obamacare, Congress made one additional attempt to allay concerns about abortion funding in the insurance exchanges. It established a mechanism that proponents say ensures that only private funds are used to purchase elective abortion coverage. Thus, Section 1303(b)(2)(A)-(C) of the Obamacare law mandates that insurance companies must “segregate” any federal affordability tax credits that they receive from the individual premiums used to pay for abortions.

According to regulations finalized last year, every individual enrolled in a plan that includes coverage of abortion will be forced to pay an additional abortion premium of at least $12 a year with private dollars.[9] The insurer will then “segregate” those payments into a separate account, used solely to pay for elective abortion procedures for enrollees in the plan.

This abortion surcharge comes in addition to the federal subsidy or other premiums that cover the overall cost of the health plan coverage. Everyone, regardless of sex or age, who enrolls in a federally subsidized plan that includes coverage of elective abortion will be forced to pay the separate abortion surcharge.

By 2017, every insurance exchange is required to have one plan that excludes coverage of elective abortions, but the law provides no opt-out for individuals or families who may want to buy a particular plan but without abortion coverage. Indeed, individuals’ and families’ “choice” of one plan that excludes elective abortion coverage could be overwhelmed by an array of plans that they would otherwise prefer and that more closely meet their overall health needs.

Limited Transparency and Restrictions on Consumer Choice. It is also possible that many individuals and families who would otherwise object to paying for abortion coverage may not even be aware of the surcharge on their insurance. Specifically, Obamacare regulations allow insurers to disclose the existence and amount of the abortion surcharge only at the time of enrollment—a warning that may constitute but a single sentence in a massive plan document.[10] The rules also prohibit issuers from itemizing the additional charge for abortion coverage on premium bills.

For those living in the 26 states and D.C without opt-out laws, individuals and families that wish to avoid health plans with abortion coverage could have few or no options in their state’s exchange until 2017. In general, they could:

  • Enroll in a health plan that includes abortion coverage. Individuals and families enrolled in such a plan will be forced to pay an additional abortion surcharge, with limited disclosure of the additional payment’s existence.
  • Enroll in an exchange plan or private plan that does not include abortion coverage—if one is available. Some issuers participating in the exchanges could choose not to cover elective abortion. Individuals and families ostensibly could also enroll in private coverage outside an exchange that does not include abortion, but there is no guarantee that those abortion-free plans will provide overall benefits comparable to the plans that include abortion coverage.
  • Enroll in the federally run multi-state plan that will not include abortion coverage. One of the multi-state plans sponsored by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is required to exclude abortion coverage. However, OPM is only required to offer those plans in 60 percent of state exchanges in 2014, eventually offering coverage in every state by 2017.[11] There is no guarantee either that this option will be available in every state during the first few years of Obamacare’s implementation or that it will be an attractive option thereafter.

This system could place many Americans in an unwanted and unnecessary dilemma, forced to choose between violating their values by directly subsidizing abortion or forfeiting the health care coverage that meets their family’s unique needs.

Multi-State Plans: The Other Non-Option. While the minimum, one multi-state plan that will exclude coverage of elective abortion could provide an option for individuals and families wishing to avoid such coverage, the federally sponsored health insurance is not without serious concerns.

Starting in the fall of 2013, the Office of Personnel Management will contract with private insurers to sponsor at least two multi-state plans on each insurance exchange. According to regulations finalized in March 2013, at least one of those plans offered in each state will not cover elective abortion. Likewise, none of the OPM-sponsored plans will be allowed to include abortion coverage in the 24 states that prohibit it in their exchanges.[12]

But all other multi-state plans could—and likely will—cover abortion procedures.[13] Those multi-state plans, like all plans offered on state exchanges, will still be eligible for the federally subsidized affordability tax credits, potentially sending additional taxpayer dollars to the coverage of elective abortion.

Moreover, the multi-state plans, by virtue of being sponsored by the federal government, will be offered according to a separate set of rules and conditions that are less stringent than those of other plans in state exchanges while still competing nationally against private insurance. In effect, these OPM-sponsored plans could become a virtual “public option,” benefiting from a government-backed monopoly in the insurance market.[14] If the vast majority of these preferred multi-state plans include abortion coverage, the amount of taxpayer funding of such coverage could be much greater.

Entangling Taxpayers in Abortion Coverage and Compromising Conscience Rights

Even if individuals and families successfully navigate the labyrinth of abortion-funding provisions in the exchanges and avoid covering elective abortion in their own plans, taxpayer funds will unavoidably go to fund some health plans that include such coverage. Whether through tax credits to private health plans in a state that allows abortion coverage in its exchange or through subsidies to the multi-state plans that include such coverage, taxpayers will be supporting access to plans that cover elective abortion.

According to analysis by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a pro-life research organization, this flood of new funding for health plans that include elective abortion coverage could have a significant impact on the number of abortions that are covered by publicly subsidized plans. “If only one-third of the girls and women who are newly privately covered for elective abortions proceed and file for them,” explains the institute, “an additional 18,397 abortions will be paid for each year under ObamaCare’s exchange expansion.”[15] Although insurers ostensibly will pay for those procedures with money collected from the additional abortion surcharge, it is the taxpayer-funded subsidies available for all exchange health plans that will allow such coverage in the first place.

All Exchanges to Include Coverage of Abortion-Inducing Drugs and Devices. All health insurance offered on state exchanges must meet new federal standards for “qualified health plans.” The law’s preventive services mandate requires that all qualified health plans cover—without co-pay, deductible, or other charge to the enrollee—abortion-inducing drugs and devices, contraception, sterilization, and related education and counseling. All individuals and families obtaining health care coverage on any state’s exchange will participate in and pay for plans that include coverage of those drugs and services.[16]

Individuals and families purchasing qualified insurance have no way to avoid this coercive mandate—even if they hold deep moral or religious objections to contraception or potentially life-ending drugs and devices. Moreover, the rule provides no opt-out for parents or any requirement for parental notification or consent before such drugs, devices, and services are provided “for free” to their minor adolescent children.

Worse, many of Obamacare’s federal health benefits mandates have yet to be defined. In the coming months and years, government agencies will be dictating what other services qualified health insurance plans must cover.[17] Since some of those mandated services could relate to prenatal testing, in-vitro fertilization, and other controversial health care services, conflicts between Obamacare and individuals’ and families’ values are very likely to continue.

Potential Funding for Abortion Providers

In addition to entangling taxpayer and private funds with abortion coverage, Obamacare opens potential new funding streams for abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood Affiliates to Act as “Navigators” and “Assisters.” Fears of low enrollment in Obamacare exchanges have prompted both the federal and state governments to begin funding an army of taxpayer-compensated community groups—including Planned Parenthood affiliates—that will market the health care law and facilitate entrance into the health plan marketplaces.[18]

For example, in mid-August, the Obama Administration awarded over $655,000 in taxpayer grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates in Iowa, Montana, and New Hampshire to act as “navigators,” helping to enroll Americans in federally facilitated insurance exchanges.

While federal navigators are helping to aid enrollment in the federally facilitated exchanges across 34 states, more than a dozen states that have set up their own state-based exchanges plan to spend tens of millions in taxpayer dollars to fund community group “assisters” to promote their marketplaces. Many of those “assisters” could also include local Planned Parenthood affiliates, providing additional streams of Obamacare funding to the largest abortion provider in the nation.

The District of Columbia awarded $375,000—one of the largest “assister” grants in the District—to Planned Parenthood Metropolitan D.C. to help enroll citizens in the District’s state-based health care exchange. Likewise, California, Minnesota, and Vermont have awarded a total of over $700,000 to local Planned Parenthood affiliates to aid individuals’ enrollment in their state exchanges, and many more states will likely follow suit.[19]

Planned Parenthood Affiliates Listed as “Essential Community Providers.” Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics could also benefit from an Obamacare requirement that qualified insurance plans cover a sufficient number of “essential community providers” (ECPs),[20] defined as health care providers and hospitals that predominantly serve “low-income, medically underserved individuals.” These organizations include federally qualified health clinics, hospitals, and Title X family planning centers, among other providers.[21]

In order to sell a qualified health plan on an exchange, insurers must cover a minimum of 10 percent to 20 percent of the ECPs in a plan’s coverage area.[22] Insurers must also offer contracts to providers in each ECP category in each county covered, including at least one family planning clinic or Title X “look-alike” clinic. According to a non-exhaustive list of essential community providers released by the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year, those family planning providers could include more than 400 local Planned Parenthood affiliates.[23]

To be clear, the ECP requirement on insurers is not a mandate to cover abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood affiliates. An insurer could offer contracts to a family planning center that does not perform abortions and still meet the law’s standards for network adequacy. Nor are issuers in federally facilitated exchanges required to cover all of the services that an essential community provider might offer, like elective abortion.

Nevertheless, Obamacare has established a concerning precedent in federal law that the Administration can require insurance companies to offer contracts to certain health care facilities like family planning centers. Through additional rulemaking or administrative guidance, the Obama Administration could require insurers to contract with all essential community providers in a given area, including all Planned Parenthood affiliates. Indeed, the Administration has reserved the right to revise the ECP standards in the future.[24]

Moreover, states establishing their own exchanges have the ability to set higher standards, including requiring insurers in their state to cover all available ECPs and the covered services they provide.

Minnesota, for example, requires state health plans to offer contracts to all state-recognized essential community providers in the insurer’s coverage area. Once under contract with an ECP, insurers are required to pay for all covered benefits offered by the provider, including elective abortion services. Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, the largest affiliate in the state, admits it has benefitted from the state’s mandate.[25] Minnesota will maintain that requirement for health plans sold on its exchange, forcing participating insurers to offer contracts to Planned Parenthood affiliates and other abortion providers.[26]

Enduring Problems for Individuals’ Values and Choice in Obamacare

The case against Obamacare includes an ever-expanding list of government dictates that restrict freedom, increase costs, and create serious conflicts of conscience for individuals, families, and employers. Entangling taxpayer dollars in new coverage for abortion and forcing some individuals to subsidize abortion procedures with private dollars is just another reason why Obamacare is broken from the start.

The health care law’s ability to create complex abortion-funding provisions and use taxpayer funds for health plans that include coverage of abortion rests in Obamacare’s power to control. Specifically, by requiring the establishment of health insurance exchanges in all states, Obamacare creates a mechanism for the federal government to dictate what the health plans offered on those exchanges cover. Federal benefits mandates—like the requirement to cover abortion-inducing drugs and devices—are devised by unelected bureaucrats and enforced on all qualified health plans sold on and off state exchanges.

Obamacare then forces every citizen to obtain this government-approved insurance—through his or her employer, through a private insurer, or on an exchange—or risk federal fines. To assist individuals in complying, the law funnels large federal subsidies to millions of Americans entering the exchanges, entangling taxpayers in the provision of government-determined health benefits.[27]

This one-size-fits-all regime will only increase conflicts of conscience in health care by severely restricting the ability of consumers to purchase and enroll in health coverage that is consistent with their values. All taxpayers will be made complicit in the provision of drugs, treatments, and health care services that some may consider immoral but that are deemed essential by bureaucrats and mandated by the government.

Protecting Life and Conscience in Health Care

The state and federal governments can still protect taxpayers from being forced to subsidize health plans that include abortion coverage and protect Americans’ freedom to choose health care coverage that does not violate their beliefs.

  • States should prohibit abortion coverage on their exchanges. The 26 states and the District of Columbia without “opt-out” laws should pass legislation prohibiting insurers from offering coverage of elective abortion on their exchanges. Such reform would prevent taxpayer subsidies from flowing to these plans and protect individuals and families from being forced to pay a separate abortion premium if they should find themselves enrolled in a plan that covers abortion.
  • Congress should permanently prohibit federal abortion funding. At the federal level, Congress can enact broad protections against taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion coverage. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 7), for example, would ensure that “no funds authorized or appropriated by federal law” could be used to pay for abortion or health benefit plans that cover abortion.[28]
  • Congress should protect the right of conscience. Congress can also enact protections for individuals, employers, and issuers from being forced to offer, provide, or pay for coverage of drugs and services that violate their deeply held moral or religious beliefs. Likewise, Congress should codify across federal law protections for the rights of conscience of health care insurers, providers, and personnel who decline to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
  • Defund and repeal Obamacare. To truly protect taxpayers, individuals, and families, Obamacare must be repealed in its entirety. Until then, Congress should focus on defunding, delaying, and dismantling the health care law to make room for real reform.

Americans deserve health care reform that increases access to insurance, decreases costs, and allows individuals and families to choose health care that meets their needs without violating their beliefs or subsidizing life-ending drugs and procedures.[29]

—Sarah Torre is a Policy Analyst in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

Notes:

[1] Similar language is applied to annual funding bills across federal law, including foreign operations, the Peace Corps, and the federal prison system, among others.

[2] Brian Blase and Paul L. Winfree, “Obamacare and Health Subsidies: Expanding Perverse Incentives for Employers and Employees,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 3112, January 20, 2011, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-health-subsidies-expanding-perverse-incentives-for-employers-and-employees (accessed November 10, 2013).

[3] Paul L. Winfree, “Obamacare Tax Subsidies: Bigger Deficit, Fewer Taxpayers, Damaged Economy,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2554, May 24, 2011, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/05/obamacare-tax-subsidies-bigger-deficit-fewer-taxpayers-damaged-economy.

[4] Families USA, a leading advocate of premium tax credits, defended them in May 2013, arguing that they operated more like a subsidy. “Individuals who don’t owe taxes can still receive the subsidy, and they will receive the subsidy when they buy private health insurance—not as a reimbursement after filing taxes,” they said. UPI, “Almost 23 Million of Working Families to Get Health Care Credit,” May 2, 2013, http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/05/02/Almost-23-million-of-working-families-to-get-healthcare-credit/UPI-14171367470453/ (accessed November 10, 2013).

[5] “Update on Abortion Coverage Limitations: States Take Action,” Charlotte Lozier Institute Factsheet, September 11, 2013, http://www.lozierinstitute.org/abortion-coverage-limitations/ (accessed November 10, 2013); Paige Winfield Cunningham, “Michigan Joins States Banning Abortion in Obamacare Plans,” Politico, December 11, 2013, http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/michigan-obamacare-affordable-care-act-abortions-100985.html?hp=l9 (accessed December 17, 2013).

[6] Most states prohibit abortion coverage except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.

[7] The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148, Section 1334(a)(6).

[8] Note, however, that an e-mail communication from unidentified federal officials to the Roll Call newspaper on July 22, 2013, indicated that it was the intention of the Obama Administration to “ensure” that each exchange includes at least one insurance plan that does cover elective abortion. The Affordable Care Act does not require the inclusion of such a plan, and other provisions of law make plain that insurers enjoy rights of conscience with respect to the provision of induced abortions. See, for example, Section 507 (d) of Division F of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012, Public Law 112-74, known as the Hyde–Weldon amendment, which outlaws discrimination by federal officials against, among others, insurance plans that do not “provide coverage of” abortions. Rebecca Adams, “The Question of Abortion Coverage in Health Exchanges,” Roll Call, July 22, 2013, http://www.rollcall.com/news/the_question_of_abortion_coverage_in_health_exchanges-226547-1.html?pg=2 (accessed November 10, 2013).

[9] 42 CFR § 156.280.

[10] 42 U.S.C. § 18023(E)(3)(A). According to the statute: “A qualified health plan that provides for coverage of the services described in paragraph (1)(B)(i) [elective abortions beyond those allowed for coverage under the Hyde amendment] shall provide a notice to enrollees, only as part of the summary of benefits and coverage explanation, at the time of enrollment, of such coverage.”

[11] Robert E. Moffit, “Obamacare and the Hidden Public Option: Crowding Out Private Coverage,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 3101, January 18, 2011, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-the-hidden-public-option-crowding-out-private-coverage (accessed November 10, 2013).

[12] 45 CFR § 800.602 (2013).

[13] Adams, “The Question of Abortion Coverage in Health Care Exchanges.”

[14] Moffit, “Obamacare and the Hidden Public Option: Crowding Out Private Coverage.”

[15] Charles A. Donovan, “Multi-State Health Plans: A Potential Avenue to Tens of Thousands of Publicly Subsidized Abortions,” Charlotte Lozier Institute On Point, September 2013, http://www.lozierinstitute.org/multistateplan/ (accessed November 10, 2013).

[16] The same rule applies to all qualified health plans, whether offered on or off a state exchange. Because a separate Obamacare mandate requires all non-grandfathered employer health plans to meet federal benefits mandates, those plans must also include coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization. Over 200 family businesses, schools, charitable organizations, and other employers have filed more than 70 lawsuits related to the mandate, claiming that complying with the rule will violate their deeply held religious or moral beliefs. Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, “HHS Mandate Information Central,” http://www.becketfund.org/hhsinformationcentral/ (accessed November 10, 2013).

[17] Edmund F. Haislmaier, “Obamacare and Insurance Benefit Mandates: Raising Premiums and Reducing Patient Choice,” Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 3110, January 20, 2011, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/01/obamacare-and-insurance-benefit-mandates-raising-premiums-and-reducing-patient-choice.

[18] Alyene Senger, “The Cost of Educating the Public on Obamacare,” Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 3983, July 1, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/07/public-outreach-on-obamacare-cost-of-educating-the-public-on-health-care-reform.

[19] News release, “Outreach and Grant Program Reward Recipients,” Covered California, August 20, 2013, http://www.healthexchange.ca.gov/Documents/Grantee%20Booklet_Updated.pdf (accessed November 10, 2013); news release, “Outreach and Infrastructure Grant Recipients Announced,” MNSure, August 23, 2013, http://mn.gov/hix/news-room/news/newsdetail.jsp?id=387-76678 (accessed November 10, 2013); news release, “Vermont Health Connect Selects 18 Navigator Organizations: Navigators to Provide Vermonters with In-Person Assistance When Applying for Health Coverage,” Department of Vermont Health Access, May 21, 2013, http://healthconnect.vermont.gov/sites/hcexchange/files/Press_Release_Navigator_Organization_Grant%205_21_13.pdf (accessed November 10, 2013).

[20] Paul Bedard, “Obamacare Demands Insurers Cover Planned Parenthood Clinics,” Washington Examiner, June 6, 2013, http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamacare-demands-insurers-cover-planned-parenthood-clinics/article/2531277?custom_click=rss (accessed November 10, 2013).

[21] 45 CFR § 156.235 and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, letter to Issuers on Federally-facilitated and State Partnership Exchanges, April 5, 2013, p. 7, http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Regulations-and-Guidance/Downloads/2014_letter_to_issuers_04052013.pdf (accessed November 10, 2013). Specifically, ECPs are defined as health care providers as defined in section 340B(a)(4) of the PHS Act and section 1927(c)(1)(D)(i)(IV) of the Social Security Act.

[22] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, letter to Issuers on Federally-facilitated and State Partnership Exchanges. At least for the first year, some insurers that run their own network of health care clinics and hospitals may also be allowed to waive the ECP requirement by certifying that those entities predominantly serve low-income, medically underserved individuals.

[23] Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, “Non-Exhaustive List of Essential Community Providers—ECPs,” https://data.cms.gov/dataset/Non-Exhaustive-List-of-Essential-Community-Provide/ibqy-mswq (accessed November 10, 2013).

[24] The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services admits that it could require insurers to contract with more than 10 percent or 20 percent of the ECPs in a plan’s coverage area in coming years: “CMS will continue to assess QHP provider networks, including ECPs, and may revise its approach to reviewing for compliance with network adequacy and ECPs in later years.” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, letter to Issuers on Federally-facilitated and State Partnership Exchanges, p. 10.

[25] “Our own Minnesota experience prior to the enactment of the Minnesota ECP statute illustrates that without a state mandate Planned Parenthood could not get the majority of health plans to contract for family planning services[.] “Sarah Stoez, Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, letter to Commissioners of DHS, MDH, and Commerce, p. 138, http://www.mn.gov/hix/images/CMT-Regulations-Resp.pdf (accessed November 10, 2013).

[26] Adam Sonfield, “Vigilance Needed to Make Health Reform Work for ‘Essential Community Providers,’” Guttmacher Policy Review, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Spring 2013), http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/gpr/16/2/gpr160217.html (accessed November 10, 2013).

[27] Robert E. Moffit and Edmund F. Haislmaier, “Obamacare’s Insurance Exchanges: ‘Private Coverage’ in Name Only,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 2846, September 26, 2013, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/09/obamacares-insurance-exchanges-private-coverage-in-name-only (accessed November 10, 2013).

[28] No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, H.R. 7, 113th Cong., 1st Sess., http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d113:hr7 (accessed November 10, 2013).

[29] Nina Owcharenko, “Saving the American Dream: A Blueprint for Putting Patients First,” Heritage Foundation Issue Brief No. 3628, June 6, 2012, http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/06/saving-the-american-dream-a-blueprint-for-putting-patients-first (accessed November 10, 2013).

The article Obamacare’s Many Loopholes: Forcing Individuals And Taxpayers To Fund Elective Abortion Coverage – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

WRI Gently Criticises EU’s 2030 Climate Goals – Analysis

0
0

By IDN

By Jaya Ramachandran

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has greeted the European Commission’s announcement of a climate and energy package, which the 28-nation European Union (EU) heads of state would consider at their meeting on March 20-21. But the Institute points out that “the proposal does not yet ensure a clear pathway to a low carbon economy”.

The package announced on January 22 includes a domestic 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, below 1990 levels, a binding target of at least 27 percent renewable energy across the EU, and measures to improve the functioning of the Emissions Trading System. In addition, a series of measures were proposed to improve the functioning of the EU internal energy market and increase security of supply.

The Washington-based WRI says: “The move comes as countries all over the world are just starting to put together their ‘national offers’ in the lead up to an international climate agreement in 2015. The European Union is the first to deeply engage in considering its post-2020 target, consulting the public and stakeholders in the decision-making process.”

Highlights of the Commission’s 2030 policy framework are:

A binding greenhouse gas reduction target: A centre piece of the EU’s energy and climate policy for 2030, the target of a 40% emissions reduction below the 1990 level would be met through domestic measures alone. The annual reduction in the ‘cap’ on emissions from EU ETS (Emissions Trading System) sectors would be increased from 1.74% now to 2.2% after 2020. Emissions from sectors outside the EU ETS would need to be cut by 30% below the 2005 level, and this effort would be shared equitably between the Member States. The Commission invites the Council and the European Parliament to agree by the end of 2014 that the EU should pledge the 40% reduction in early 2015 as part of the international negotiations on a new global climate agreement due to be concluded in Paris at the end of 2015.

An EU-wide binding renewable energy target: Renewable energy will play a key role in the transition towards a competitive, secure and sustainable energy system. The EU Commission says in a press release: Driven by a more market-oriented approach with enabling conditions for emerging technologies, an EU-wide binding target for renewable energy of at least 27% in 2030 comes with significant benefits in terms of energy trade balances, reliance on indigenous energy sources, jobs and growth.

It adds: “An EU-level target for renewable energy is necessary to drive continued investment in the sector. However, it would not be translated into national targets through EU legislation, thus leaving flexibility for Member States to transform the energy system in a way that is adapted to national preferences and circumstances. Attainment of the EU renewables target would be ensured by the new governance system based on national energy plans.”

Energy efficiency: The Commission expects improved energy efficiency to contribute to all objectives of EU energy policy. In its view, no transition towards a competitive, secure and sustainable energy system is possible without it. “The role of energy efficiency in the 2030 framework will be further considered in a review of the Energy Efficiency Directive due to be concluded later this year. The Commission will consider the potential need for amendments to the directive once the review has been completed. Member States’ national energy plans will also have to cover energy efficiency,” says the press release.

Reform of EU ETS: The Commission proposes to establish a market stability reserve at the beginning of the next ETS trading period in 2021. The reserve would both address the surplus of emission allowances that has built up in recent years and improve the system’s resilience to major shocks by automatically adjusting the supply of allowances to be auctioned, says the Commission. “The creation of such a reserve – in addition to the recently agreed delay in the auctioning of 900 million allowances until 2019-2020 (‘back-loading’) – is supported by a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Under the legislation, proposed today, the reserve would operate entirely according to pre-defined rules which would leave no discretion to the Commission or Member States in its implementation,” says the press release issued on January 22.

Commenting on the European Commission’s package, Jennifer Morgan, Director of the Climate and Energy program at the World Resources Institute says:

“This is a critical moment, and year, for climate action. The science behind climate change is clear and irrefutable. Governments, businesses and citizens have the responsibility to act. Countries should be looking to raise their level of ambition to reduce emissions and expedite the shift to clean energy.

“The European Union has made an important first step by setting a clear post-2020 target, which was developed through a transparent process. On both process and substance, the EU has the opportunity to be a leader. While there are some positive signals around bringing integrity back into the carbon market and a focus on domestic GHG targets, the package announced today does not yet meet that test. The proposal does not yet ensure a clear pathway to a low carbon economy, nor is it clear that the Emissions Trading System reforms will create a high enough price on carbon to shift away from carbon-intensive sources of energy.

“WRI’s analysis finds that binding national targets and policies are required to drive further renewables development. The European Commission’s proposal replaces national targets with a regional target – leaving implementation open to chance – a risky proposition as other countries forge ahead on renewables development.

“Leaders in Europe can continue to strengthen this proposal and demonstrate they truly understand the stakes for people and planet. There will be opportunities this year to inject greater ambition into their offers.

“This year will lay the groundwork for a strong, universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015. The EU can play a critical role in raising the bar and inspiring other world leaders to step up to this challenge.”

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso appeared to be concurring with that view, when he said: “Climate action is central for the future of our planet, while a truly European energy policy is key for our competitiveness. Today’s package proves that tackling the two issues simultaneously is not contradictory, but mutually reinforcing. It is in the EU’s interest to build a job-rich economy that is less dependent on imported energy through increased efficiency and greater reliance on domestically produced clean energy. An ambitious 40% greenhouse reduction target for 2030 is the most cost-effective milestone in our path towards a low-carbon economy. And the renewables target of at least 27% is an important signal: to give stability to investors, boost green jobs and support our security of supply.”

Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger explained: “The 2030 framework is the EU’s drive for progress towards a competitive low-carbon economy, investment stability and security of energy supply. My aim is to make sure that energy remains affordable for households and companies. The 2030 framework sets a high level of ambition for action against climate change, but it also recognises that this needs to be achieved at least cost. The internal energy market provides the basis to achieve this goal and I will continue to work on its completion in order to use its full potential. This includes the ‘Europeanisation’ of renewable energy policies.”

EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard said: “In spite of all those arguing that nothing ambitious would come out of the Commission today, we did it. A 40% emissions reduction is the most cost-effective target for the EU and it takes account of our global responsibility. And of course Europe must continue its strong focus on renewables. That is why it matters that the Commission is proposing today a binding EU-level target. The details of the framework will now have to be agreed, but the direction for Europe has been set. If all other regions were equally ambitious about tackling climate change, the world would be in significantly better shape.”

The article WRI Gently Criticises EU’s 2030 Climate Goals – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Kenya Achieves Significant Results In Health Services Delivery

0
0

By Eurasia Review

An estimated 39.5 million Kenyans have benefited from better health and nutrition services being provided by the Government with the support of the World Bank and other development partners. More than half of these beneficiaries were females, according to the Ministry of Health’s health management information data.

“The joint efforts of the Government and the Bank through the Kenya Health Sector Support Project have enabled us to make significant progress towards achieving universal health coverage, with priority focus on the needy population,” said James Macharia, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, during a joint media briefing today. “This nation-wide project has strengthened the capacity of health systems in all the 47 counties and shifted attention to results which will help Kenya achieve the “health Millennium Development Goals.”

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $100 million for the project in June 2010 and an additional $ 56.8 million in December 2011. The Board approved further additional financing of $41 million in December 2013. The additional International Development Agency (IDA)* credit is accompanied by a US$20 million grant from the Health Results Innovation Trust Fund, which is supported by the United Kingdom and Norway and helps countries to sharpen their focus on health results.

The initial funding has supported reforms for improving the delivery of essential health services, especially to poor Kenyans, and to increase the efficiency of planning, procurement and the management of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. With the additional credit, the Government will sustain health and nutrition services to as many as 35 million people by 2016. It is expected that half of the beneficiaries will be women, about 16 percent of them living in drought-prone areas.

“The health sector reforms being implemented by the Government will move Kenya closer to universal health coverage, so that all Kenyans benefit from decent health services, regardless of where they live and how much they earn,” said Diarietou Gaye, World Bank Country Director for Kenya. “Our support will help ensure that counties develop the capacity to deliver quality health services to the poor and vulnerable people, who most urgently need these services.”

The project will scale up an approach known as Results-Based Financing which pays frontline health facilities based on the quality and quantity of services they provide. This approach has helped deliver rapid improvements in several other African countries.

There have been promising early results for women and children in Samburu County, where the Results-Based Financing approach was first tested. The approach will soon be extended to 20 more counties in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid areas, where access to quality health services is generally weak, and public-private partnership is key.

“As Kenya’s counties adjust to the decentralized way of working, the project will build their capacity to identify and manage key priorities at the county level, which can vary depending on the particular challenges in each county,” said Ramana Gandham, the World Bank’s Lead Health Specialist for Kenya.

The project will also support health insurance subsidies for poor people during the first phase of Kenya’s universal health coverage. High out-of-pocket expenses currently prevent more than half the country’s poor households from accessing services they need, lowering their income and productivity. It will also support improved county capacity for delivering effective health services.

The article Kenya Achieves Significant Results In Health Services Delivery appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Viewing all 73339 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images