Germany’s flagship airline Lufthansa said Monday that 150,000 passengers are expected to have their travel plans disrupted as a result of a pilot union strike.

Nevertheless, despite the extensive strikes called by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union, Lufthansa said that its special flight timetable for Monday and Tuesday included around 1,450 of the 2,800 scheduled flights – more than 50 percent.

Lufthansa said that all long-haul flights from Germany will take off as scheduled this Monday, adding that Lufthansa Cargo will even be able to operate 100 percent of its scheduled flights.

The airline said that Germanwings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti are not affected by the strike and that flight operations should largely return to normal when the strike comes to an end this Wednesday.

Earlier Monday, Lufthansa said it informed 56,000 customers by SMS and 30,000 customers by email about the changes to their flights.

“We are extremely sorry that we have to disappoint more than 150,000 of our customers today and tomorrow. At the same time, we are happy that we managed to operate half of our scheduled flights on the two strike days despite the call for strikes made by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union”, said Karl Ulrich Garnadt, member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa German Airlines.

Lufthansa said it is convinced that sustainable solutions will only be found at the negotiation table.

“The two sides have got a lot closer over recent weeks. Lufthansa remains open to negotiation and calls on the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union to return to the negotiation table,” the airline said in a statement.

The post Lufthansa Says Strike To Affect 150,000 Passengers appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Venezuela should conduct prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations into the deaths of 35 inmates in the David Viloria Prison (known as Uribana prison), in Lara state, Human Rights Watch said Monday. The government should overhaul its penitentiary system to improve prison conditions and address violence within prisons.

On November 24, 2014, inmates at the Uribana prison went on a hunger strike over prison conditions and mistreatment of prisoners and their family members. A group of inmates reportedly took control of the institution’s medical facilities during the protest and, according to official sources, 35 inmates died and 145 became ill from drinking alcohol and ingesting drugs stolen from the prison pharmacy. Twenty are in a coma, officials said. However, the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, a local nongovernmental organization, reported that family members said many inmates were allegedly poisoned by food and water prison guards gave them during the protest.

“Thousands of inmates have died in Venezuelan prisons in recent years, including dozens in the Uribana prison since 2013,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “How many more need to die for the government of Venezuela to effectively address the crisis in its penitentiary system.”

In 2011, then-President Hugo Chávez created the Penitentiary Affairs Ministry to improve prison conditions, which he described as a “very big” problem.

In January 2013, according to official reports, at least 56 prisoners and one member of the National Guard were killed during a clash between members of the National Guard and inmates of the Uribana prison. Forty-six prisoners were hospitalized with serious injuries. In 2007, the Inter American Court of Human Rights had ordered Venezuela to adopt precautionary measures to “prevent loss of life and harm to the physical, mental, and moral integrity of all persons deprived of liberty in the Uribana Prison, all persons who might be interned in this penitentiary center in the future, those who work there, and all visitors.” The court’s order remains in force.

In November 2014, after reviewing Venezuela’s compliance with the Convention Against Torture, the UN Committee Against Torture expressed concern over a disparity between official and unofficial statistics about prison overcrowding. They cited concerns over violence and poor conditions, including a lack of adequate medical treatment, food, water, and ventilation.

The Committee Against Torture “expressed alarm in light of reports that describe high levels of violence in penitentiary centers, which registered that 4,791 people died and 9,931 were injured [in Venezuelan prisons] since January 2004,” including 140 deaths in 2014. At least 1,400 people have died in prisons since the Penitentiary Affairs Ministry was created, according to the Venezuelan Prison Observatory.

Impunity for violations of prisoners’ rights is the norm in Venezuela, Human Rights Watch said. As of November, authorities were still investigating the “high number” of violent clashes registered in Venezuelan prisons in recent years, according to the Committee Against Torture.

On November 27, the Attorney General’s Office created a “multidisciplinary group” to investigate the “irregular situation” in the Uribana prison, and appointed three prosecutors to work on the case. The prison director was reportedly detained during the investigation.

“In addition to thoroughly investigating this case, the government of Venezuela should accept the outstanding request by the UN special rapporteur against torture to visit Venezuela and grant him full access to conduct an independent investigation of prison conditions in the country,” Vivanco said.

The post Calls For Venezuela To Investigate 35 Deaths In Prison Protest appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Russia is forced to withdraw from the South Stream project due to the EU’s unwillingness to support the pipeline, and gas flows will be redirected to other customers, Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“We believe that the stance of the European Commission was counterproductive. In fact, the European Commission not only provided no help in implementation of [the South Stream pipeline], but, as we see, obstacles were created to its implementation. Well, if Europe doesn’t want it implemented, it won’t be implemented,” the Russian president said.

According to Putin, the Russian gas “will be retargeted to other regions of the world, which will be achieved, among other things, through the promotion and accelerated implementation of projects involving liquefied natural gas.”

“We’ll be promoting other markets and Europe won’t receive those volumes, at least not from Russia. We believe that it doesn’t meet the economic interests of Europe and it harms our cooperation. But such is the choice of our European friends,” he said.

The South Stream project is at the stage when “the construction of the pipeline system in the Black Sea must begin,” but Russia still hasn’t received an approval for the project from Bulgaria, the Russian president said.

Investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the pipeline, which would have to stop when it reaches Bulgarian waters, is “just absurd, I hope everybody understands that,” he said.

Putin believes that Bulgaria “isn’t acting like an independent state” by delaying the South Stream project, which would be profitable for the country.

He advised the Bulgarian leadership “to demand loss of profit damages from the European Commission” as the country could have been receiving around 400 million euros annually through gas transit.

The South Stream was intended to transport Russian gas through the Black Sea to Bulgaria – and through Serbia, Hungary, and Slovenia, further to Austria.

Russian gas giant Gazprom began construction of the onshore facilities for the pipeline back in 2012.

But the €23.5 billion project ran into difficulties, as it violated European Union regulations which state that the same company cannot both own the pipeline and the gas which is transported through it.

The crisis in Ukraine has turned the legal debate over the pipeline into a political issue, affecting the EU’s willingness to find a solution to the deadlock.

The EU Commission has been pressuring member states to withdraw from the project, with the new Bulgarian government saying it will not allow Gazprom to lay the pipeline without permission from Brussels.

Putin said that Russia is ready to build a new pipeline to meet Turkey’s growing gas demand, which may include a special hub on the Turkish-Greek border for customers in southern Europe.

The post Russia Forced To Withdraw From South Stream Due To EU Stance – Putin appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Nigeria’s politics is sliding dangerously towards violence before, during and after the February 2015 elections, notes the International Crisis Group, adding that with only three months to the polls, mitigating bloodshed requires urgent improvements in security and electoral arrangements, as well as in political mindsets.

Nigeria’s February 2015 general elections, essentially between the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), will be a fierce contest. The Boko Haram insurgency, competing claims to the presidency between the majority Muslim north and majority Christian south, inadequate electoral arrangements and apparent bias by security agencies all point toward a very perilous contest whose results may also be disputed.

“Boko Haram’s insurgency makes these elections particularly fraught, but it is only a microcosm of the country’s deepening political, religious and ethnic divides” said Nnamdi Obasi, Nigeria Senior Analyst for the International Crisis Group. “With only three months to the polls, a sense of urgency is more than ever imperative, particularly on the part of the government and the election-management and security agencies”.

In its latest report, Nigeria’s Dangerous 2015 Elections: Limiting the Violence, the International Crisis Group examines the volatile environment in which electoral preparations are taking place and outlines measures that need to be taken urgently to curb the looming violence.

The report notes that the electoral environment is highly destabilised by insecurity, particularly in the North East.  According to the International Crisis Group report, the federal government must strengthen its security apparatus; work closely with relevant state governments toward achieving better results from its counter-insurgency operations; collaborate much more effectively with neighbouring countries, bilaterally and through regional platforms, and ensure elections are held in all states.

The report also says that preparations for the elections suffer from a deficient legal framework and lack of confidence in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies.

According to the International Crisis Group report, the National Assembly needs to prioritise amendment of the electoral law, particularly establishing an election offences tribunal. INEC needs to build confidence, including by speedily producing a credible voter register. Security agencies need to demonstrate neutrality in their relations with all parties, the report said.

Additionally, the report notes that leaders of political parties and of regional, ethnic and religious “pressure groups” are significantly influencing electoral preparations and voters’ expectations of their outcomes. Party leaders and candidates should comply with the code of conduct their parties signed voluntarily and hold their supporters accountable to its provisions. Regional, ethnic and religious leaders must also refrain from inflammatory rhetoric and ensure their followers pursue their political aspirations peacefully.
Nigeria’s international partners should engage all major political actors toward preventing or mitigating violence before, during and especially after the polls.

“As Africa’s most populous country and largest economy, Nigeria would pose a very real security threat if it were destabilised by election violence”, said EJ Hogendoorn, Africa Program Deputy Director. “Salvaging the situation requires concerted efforts by all national actors and international partners”.

The post Concerns Over Nigeria’s 2015 Elections And Need To Limit Violence appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday that due to a funding crisis it has been forced to suspend a critical program providing food vouchers to more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries.

According to the WFP, the program allowed poor Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt to use vouchers to buy food in local shops. Without WFP vouchers, many families will go hungry. For refugees already struggling to survive the harsh winter, the consequences of halting this assistance will be devastating, the WFP said.

“A suspension of WFP food assistance will endanger the health and safety of these refugees and will potentially cause further tensions, instability and insecurity in the neighbouring host countries,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin, in an appeal to donors. “The suspension of WFP food assistance will be disastrous for many already suffering families.

The WFP said that Syrian refugees in camps and informal settlements throughout the region are ill prepared for yet another harsh winter, especially in Lebanon and Jordan, where many children are bare foot and without proper clothing. Many tents are drenched in mud and hygiene conditions are growing extremely precarious, the WFP said.

Cousin said that WFP’s Syria emergency operations are now in critical need of funding with many donor commitments remaining unfulfilled. WFP said it requires a total of $64 million immediately to support Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries during the month of December.

The WFP said that if new funding arrives in December it will immediately resume assistance for refugees who use electronic vouchers to buy food in local shops.

Since the start of this operation, WFP’s voucher programme has injected about US$800 million dollars into the economies of refugee hosting countries which border Syria, the UN organization said.

The post UN Food Program Forced To Suspend Food Vouchers For Syrian Refugees appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Saudi Arabia is considering stopping financial support to Yemen, a move that could tip the country further towards economic collapse, Yemeni, Saudi and Western officials have said.

Since rebels from the Houthi movement took hold of the capital Sana’a in September, Saudi Arabia, which has provided an estimated US$4 billion to keep the Yemeni economy afloat since early 2012, has been reviewing its economic support for its southern neighbor. Among the key disbursements put on hold is $700 million in military aid.

The deliberation comes at a time when fears of an impending economic collapse have risen, with UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar warning it was unclear “whether [Yemen] would be able to continue to pay its civil servants after the end of the year”.

The ghost of 2011

Yemen’s economy, already fragile before the country’s 2011 uprising, was decimated by the unrest and elite infighting of that year. The transitional administration of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi has struggled to restore growth or provide basic services, and the poverty rate has remained stubbornly above 50 percent since early 2012.

The only reason the government has been able to stay afloat since 2012, officials and analysts say, is the largesse of Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s northern neighbor. While the donations have never been made official, in 2012 Riyadh is believed to have deposited $1 billion at the Central Bank of Yemen and given the country a further $2 billion in oil and fuel products to help shore up its finances. In July 2014, Riyadh again bailed Sana’a out, providing $1.2 billion in cash to help pay for fuel and another $435 million to help the government make welfare payments.

Part of the issue has been the failure to trim fuel subsidies. Yemen heavily subsidizes fuel in the local market, costing the government more than $3.3 billion – about a quarter of all spending – in 2013.

In August, the government cut subsidies, leading to a price increase of up to 95 percent for fuel at the pump. It partly reversed the decision less than two months later, decreasing fuel prices by 25 percent after the takeover of Sana’a by rebels from the northern Houthi movement, a Shia group with whom the Saudis have fought in the past.

Since the Houthi takeover no new Saudi funds have been disbursed, including $700m in military aid agreed as part of the bailout package in July. A number of diplomatic and government sources told IRIN that although there is unlikely to be a formal announcement that funding is being frozen, Riyadh will at the very least take a “go-slow” approach to transferring further funds to Sana’a until it is clear that the money will not financially benefit the Houthis.

“In conversation with [Yemeni] officials, they have been saying that they are not going to bring money to Yemen just to reinforce the Houthis,” said a senior Yemeni official, part of whose responsibilities is to report on government spending and finances. “And whatever Saudi Arabia does, you know the other GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries will do.”

Two other Yemeni government and Western diplomatic officials confirmed that the $700 million had been expected but had not as yet been delivered.

This has exacerbated other trends towards financial collapse. Attacks on an important oil pipeline and electricity infrastructure in restive Mareb Province have cut off revenues and forced the government to import expensive fuel from abroad.

Thus the government is running short on dollars. Foreign currency reserves fell from $4.4 billion to $3.8 billion between September 2013 and September 2014, pushing the country towards a currency crisis. With the remaining reserves the bank can only afford to cover 4.8 months of imports, a record low.

Estimates of when the government would run out of money vary from the end of 2014 until early March 2015, but government officials and advisers make it clear that fiscal collapse is imminent. “If there is no intervention, it is not a question of if, it is a question of when,” said the Yemeni official.

In line with other GCC officials, a senior Saudi diplomat said no formal decision had been made to halt aid or funding to Sana’a, but added that Riyadh is reviewing the situation in Yemen. “We will see how the new government [formed in early November] does,” he said. “If they can act independently [of the Houthis], then maybe we can work with them.”

Saudi officials are also said to be frustrated that the $435 million they gave Sana’a in July has not been distributed to the Social Welfare Fund (SWF), the state body tasked with overseeing welfare payments to 1.5 million of Yemen’s poorest people. According to people familiar with talks that took place earlier in the year, the funds had been touted as the first in a series of payments to be used to underwrite the Fund’s costs.

A source at SWF told IRIN the government did not disburse the funds needed to make the first quarterly payment of 2014 – which had been due in January – until August. The second tranche followed in September, but SWF is yet to receive payments for the third or fourth quarters, both of which should have been made by this point in the year. “In the past, we paid at fixed times,” the source said. “Now we don’t know if or when we will be able to pay.”

Humanitarian crisis

The economic crisis is having an impact on the humanitarian suffering and any further collapse could be disastrous. More than 15.9 million people – 60 percent of the population – require some form of humanitarian assistance.

“Yemen remains one of the major humanitarian crises in the world and the outlook for 2015 shows that the humanitarian crisis in the country has gotten worse,” said Johannes van der Klaauw, Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“A large number of poor people in Yemen rely on welfare payments. Late [payments] make it difficult for them to meet their obligations including basic expenditure like buying food for their families… There are expenditures that a human being cannot postpone like buying food or medicine for a sick child.”

“Yemen is experiencing new waves of increased conflict, while the risk of an economic meltdown cannot be ruled out,” he added.

Hanalia Ferhan, country director at international NGO ACTED, said there would be a significant impact if the government were unable to pay salaries. “The financial and economic situation has affected the country across the board,” she said, highlighting the high prices of food imports and severe fuel shortages as key concerns for poor Yemenis.

“The communities we work with are in the most rural, hard-to-reach parts of the country. They were already in a dire situation a year ago… and the situation has not improved.”

Abdulfatteh, a 47-year-old bus driver who would only give his first name, pointed to a mounting queue of trucks and cars at a petrol station on the outskirts of Sana’a’s Old City. “It’s very bad now,” he said. “No electricity, no [petrol], no diesel… There is no work and there is no security. I think it will only get worse.”

The post Yemen Could Face Economic Collapse If Saudi Arabia Pulls Financial Support – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The prevalence of obesity has tripled in many countries of the WHO European Region since the 1980s, and the numbers of those affected continue to rise at an alarming rate. Obesity is already responsible for 2–8 % of health costs and 10–13 % of deaths in different parts of the Region.

However, obesity is not restricted to humans – our canine companions are also at risk of the disease. In fact, two-thirds of veterinary professionals believe that pet obesity is the single biggest health issue facing domestic animals throughout Europe, and early death is the sad and most serious consequence of the condition.

A new study has found that human and canine obesity share some similarities. As Science magazine reports, ‘Obese people have a less diverse array of bacteria living in their guts than do thin people—and the same holds true for dogs.’

According to the study abstract, which was published this month in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, seven Beagle dogs were fed commercial food over a period of six months to increase their weight and seven other Beagle dogs were fed a restricted amount of the same diet to maintain optimal body condition over a period of six months. Researchers found that the seven Beagles in the first group gained an average of 4.93 kilograms—about 67 % of their initial average weight.

Science magazine elaborates: ‘When the researchers examined the fecal samples collected from both groups after six months, they found that the guts of obese beagles contained a smaller diversity of bacteria than those of the other dogs. What’s more, microbes from the phylum Firmicutes were the predominant group in the lean dogs, whereas Gram-negative bacteria called Proteobacteria were prevalent in the obese group.’

As Science reports, ‘The researchers speculate that an abundance of Proteobacteria may lead to an increase in lipopolysaccharide, a major component of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria, which has been linked to weight gain in mice.’

The study concludes that decreased serotonin levels in the obese group might increase the risk of obesity because of increased appetite, and that microflora enriched with gram-negative might be related with chronic inflammation status in obese dogs. However, according to the authors, more research is needed to examine what role gut bacteria may play in the development of obesity, the authors tell us.

Source: CORDIS

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(EurActiv) — European Council President Herman Van Rompuy passed the baton to Poland’s former prime minister Donald Tusk on Monday, during a handover ceremony in a packed Justus Lipsius building, seat of the ministerial meetings.

“I come here with a strong sense of purpose,” the centre-right, 57-year old Tusk said. “In these difficult times, Europe needs success.”

Tusk listed his four ingredients for success, putting the emphasis on the crucial relationship between Europe and the United States, which is the ‘backbone’ of the community of democracies.

“We are both responsible for the future of our relations. The year ahead will be crucial,” he added, hinting at the negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment partnership.

Tusk was not shy in emphasizing that politics has returned to Europe. “History is back. In such times we need leadership and political unity,” he added.

In this context, protecting Europe’s fundamental values – solidarity, freedom and unity – becomes paramount against threats coming from both outside and inside the EU.

“Not only there are Eurosceptics questioning the EU’s values, but we have also enemies,” he stressed.

Tusk insisted that the EU be strong internationally, secure its borders, and protect those in the neighborhood who share our values.

Last but not least, he spoke about the need for “ruthless determination” to end the economic crisis. “It is our responsibility to complete a genuine economic and monetary union,” he added.

Tusk was chosen by EU leaders on 30 August to be the next President of the European Council. His main priorities over the next two and a half years, the length of the Council presidency, will be to get Europe out of the financial crisis, deal with the situation in Ukraine, and keep Britain in the EU.

After his nomination, the Polish former PM said he intended to be a unifying figure, stating “We need to prevent Europe from dividing into euro and non-euro camps. I wouldn’t have taken job if it involved (a) new institutional split.”

In appointing the experienced Polish prime minister, the decade-long divide between ‘old and new member states’ should finally cease. Tusk has been a strong prime minister and achieved something most of his peers have failed to do, namely winning re-election at home.

The Pole has shown he has a clear ability to forge compromises and a determination to push through necessary but unpopular policies. Tusk also has considerable experience in eastern Europe, which should prove invaluable in light of the current conflict with Russia over Ukraine.

He also has a good relationship with Angela Merkel, and most of his colleagues in the European Council, including Hollande and Cameron. A spat with Cameron over welfare migrants has been forgotten, as Tusk said he could not imagine a European Union without the UK. He will have a crucial role to play in charting a reform path that keeps the UK and others on board during the next five years.

During the handover ceremony, Tusk thanked the outgoing Herman Van Rompuy, by giving him a Polish amber stone – symbol of good luck. “It will be a tough one to follow him,” he noted, adding he is a great admirer “not only because you supported my appointment – he said jokingly – but also because you helped to get Europe out of the storm.”

The new EU council chief will face his first test on the 18-19 December when the 28 EU leaders will discuss an agreement on a European investment fund aimed to revive jobs and growth by pulling private money into transport, energy and digital network projects, and debate economic reforms and fiscal discipline.

The post Donald Tusk Takes Over As European Council President appeared first on Eurasia Review.

More than 150 delegates from 40 countries have gathered in Addis Ababa to take part in the 19th INTERPOL Training Symposium, which will focus on the latest innovations in law enforcement training, and equipping officers to meet the challenges of policing in the twenty-first century.

Delivered in partnership with the Ethiopian Federal Police, the theme of the three-day event (1-3 December) is ‘Enhancing the efficiency of law enforcement learning activities’.

The Symposium brings together Heads of Police Training Academies and Colleges and other relevant academic institutions from across INTERPOL’s member countries, as well as experts on police training from international organizations.

These include the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centre (FLETC), John Abbott College, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Institute for Security Studies.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Assefa Abiyu, Commissioner General of the Ethiopian Federal Police, underscored Ethiopia’s desire to demonstrate leadership in developing effective international training standards by hosting the Symposium.

“Ethiopia recognizes the importance of police training in order to better equip police with the tools to combat emerging and existing threats on a national, regional and global scale,” said Mr Abiyu.

Dale Sheehan, Director of INTERPOL’s Capacity Building and Training Directorate, reaffirmed INTERPOL’s commitment to enhancing police capacity through strengthening networks of innovative trainers.

Addressing the delegates at the opening ceremony, Mr Sheehan underlined “the need to develop solutions and partnerships to combat any existing or emerging threat and to develop strong training solutions to ensure operational police officers have all the tools they need”.

During the three-day Symposium, delegates will be briefed on INTERPOL’s current and future capacity building activities in its 190 member countries, including the activities of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore.

The post INTERPOL Holds Training Symposium In Ethiopia appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Clément Doleac

In the past five decades, Haitian people have suffered systematic human rights violations that were rarely condemned, thus preventing any state from having real democratic institutions and impeding any democratic political regime to exist.

From 1957 to 1986, the Duvalier family exerted a harsh dictatorship in Haiti without respect for fundamental human rights, such as rights of association, social rights, of economic rights and cultural rights. These dictatorships received millions in U.S. government aid under various security and humanitarian reasons because of their role as a bulwark against communism (such as the Trujillo dictatorship in Dominican Republic).[1]

After being elected in 1957 and having served in office for seven years, Francois Duvalier proclaimed himself President for life in 1964. When he died in 1971, his son Jean-Claude dynastically took office, whom was strongly supported by the U.S. as part of an anti-communist shield in the country.[2] Jean-Claude fled the country due to mass protests and political opposition against the authoritarian rule.[3] He departed on February 7, 1986, flying to France in a U.S. Air Force aircraft, illustrating how he consistently benefited from the intrusive behavior of neo-colonial powers.[4]

During the Duvalier dictatorship, thousands of recalcitrant opponents of Duvalier were murdered, directly or indirectly by the military and the Tonton Macoute, while abductions, extra-judiciary execution, rape, and torture were also common practices as well. The State and its agents were responsible for humiliating treatment, thefts, extortions, and expropriations.[5] Around 100,000 Haitians sought asylum in foreign countries, such as the Dominican Republic, the U.S. base of Guantanamo, Florida, as well as Europe and other Latin American countries. Nearly 300,000 persons sought refuge from Port-au-Prince to more remote parts of Haiti.

After a transition period, the democratically elected popular priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide came to office. In a constitutionalist acting, his ascension happened against a background of right-wing death squads and the threat of military coups. As Haiti expert Paul Farmer once stated, “Aristide was seen as a threat in the U.S.” The New York Times wrote, in one of is more pathetic moments, pictured Aristide as “a cross between the Ayatollah and Fidel”.[6] The Haitian economic elite shared this dislike. As one Haitian businessman put it: “If it comes to a choice between the ultra-left and the ultra-right, I’m ready to form an alliance with the ultra-right”.[7] Nonetheless, Aristide was elected on December 16, 1990, by an overwhelming 67 percent of the vote in a field of 12 candidates.[8] No run-off was required.

In fact, the Haitian elite allied with high-ranking members of the Haitian army and Haitian National Intelligence Service (SIN) to conspire against the elected president. They were able to successfully overthrow Aristide in a military coup the following year.[9]

Return to Democracy and Interference Into the Hopeful Elected Presidency of Haiti

After three years of terror, Mr. Jean Bertrand Aristide came back into office in 1994 for a short amount of time in order to finish his term as elected President. During his two years in office, Aristide abolished the Haitian army, and in 1996 became the first elected civilian to see another elected civilian, René Préval, succeed him as president. Préval himself had the distinction of becoming Haiti’s first president ever to serve out his term, neither a day more nor less than was his due.[10] In November 2000, Aristide was reelected again for a four-year term.

Aristide’s second term, however, was undermined by the governments of the U.S. and France. U.S. government hostility had been no secret since 1991, and the historical support that Washington had for the Haitian military was clearly evident. Rebel leader Guy Philippe, for example, had received training during the last coup at a U.S. military facility in Ecuador. Philippe was known to have executed several pro-democracy activists, including Louis-Jodel Chamblain. Philippe had fled Haiti in October 2000, when the authorities discovered him plotting a coup with a group of security forces officials.[11]

For its part, the French government was insulted by Aristide due to his ongoing claims about a debt France owed to Haiti. Aristide stated that France “extorted this money from Haiti by force and should give it back to us so that we can build primary schools, primary healthcare, water systems and roads”.[12] He had done calculations, adding in interest and adjusting for inflation, “to calculate that France owes Haiti $ 21,685,135,571.48 USD and counting”.[13] In 2002 and 2003, several incidents occurred in the countryside during by the US-backed right-wing militia. These included the killing of a number of Aristide’s supporters and members of the far left-wing militia (the so-called chimeres, “chimeras”). A raging civil war was soon underway. In 2003, the Canadian government hosted the Ottawa Initiative for Haiti in Montreal in order to determine the future of Haiti’s government. Officials from Canada, France, the U.S. and various Latin American countries were present, yet no Haitian officials attended. The conference resulted in an expressed preference for regime change in Haiti in less than a year.[14]

The right-wing militia took over control of several cities in 2003 and Cap-Haitien, the second most important city in the country, in February 2004.[15] The militia received support from sectors of Haiti’s elite as well as from sectors of the Dominican military and government cohorts at the time. It is also believed that they had contact with U.S. and French intelligence.[16] Despite massive protests supporting Aristide in Port-au-Prince and the acceptance of an international peace plan by President Aristide on February 21, the U.S. and French governments, “invited” Aristide to leave the country in order to bring peace and security again to the country. In fact, the U.S. military “accompanied for his own security” the constitutionally elected President on a U.S. Air Force flight. The Dissident Voice reports that since then “a quasi UN trusteeship had begun. Since that time the Haitian National Police has been heavily militarized and steps have been taken towards recreating the military”.[17] With the end of Aristide’s second presidential term, human rights violations have begun to rise again. [18]

Impunity in Haiti under United Nations’ MINUSTAH presence

In 2005, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations stated that the human rights violations that were being found in Haiti still exist but did not derive from the state or government but the system. More specifically they emanated from two antagonistic and elderly armed sectors of the population. The first consisted mostly of paramilitaries and ex-militaries (the Army had been disbanded in 2005) with the objective of destabilizing the leftist government. The second was composed of Aristides’s supporters rebelling against him through the creation of the Front de Resistance Nationale (FRN, “National Liberation Front”). The resulting insurrection had led to the interposition of a United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, also known as MINUSTAH, over the last nine years.

Twenty-two lawsuits dealing with crimes against humanity were filed against Jean-Claude Duvalier regarding the crimes perpetrated during his dictatorship when he returned to Haiti in 2011. Nonetheless, Judge Jean Carves waived every lawsuit against him within a short time. In 2014, an appellate court declared that the lawsuits for crimes against humanity were valid, but Duvalier died in October 2014, which was before the statement was made. As for the violations committed by private groups and Aristide’s supporters and opponents, most cases still go unpunished but his estate of many millions remains an irresistible lure.

From “Yes, We Can” to “No, You Can’t”: U.S. Military Occupation after the 2010 Earthquake

The election of President Obama led to high hopes for a dramatic change in U.S. foreign policy in Haiti, but these were crushed by the harsh reality of the continuity of American foreign policy, which has proven not to roam from their grim past.

In January 2010, just after a major earthquake shook the country, president Obama sent the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) to Haiti in order to “secure” Port-au-Prince’s airport. After three days, SOUTHCOM’s deployed around 22,000 members of the U.S. military throughout the country and a U.S. Navy and Coast Guard flotilla surrounded the island as if perhaps Haiti had decided to declare war on the United States, an unsheathed memory of a troubled past.[19] The United States took full command of Haiti’s airport and airspace without any regards to questions of national sovereignty, and the U.S. government restricted all entry and exit from the country. The actions did little to improve the country’s recovery efforts.[20]

The heavy U.S. military presence in Haiti after the earthquake turned out to be but a part of Obama’s larger strategy of containment of Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were chosen to lead the U.S. civilian response, and the U.S. government established an Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission with Clinton as co-chair in order to effectively control every aspect of Haiti’s economics and politics.[21]

The Violation of Democracy in the Name of Stability: The 2011’s Elections in Haiti

Additionally, one of the priorities of the Obama administration was to effectively hijack the Haitian electoral process in 2011. The Center for Economic and Policy research (CEPR) released a report after the 2011 elections displaying many of the problems that had occurred with the election.[22] The Organization of American States (OAS) concluded that the elections represented a political decision rather than an electoral one. Many citizens displaced by the earthquake were not allowed to vote, and fewer than 23 percent of registered voters had their vote counted.[23] In addition, numerous electoral violations were reported including ballot stuffing, destroyed ballots, and intimidation. Former First Lady Mirlande Manigat won the first round of the election and had to run off against a second opponent. OAS election observers chose to “examine the results”, which led to the removal of the governing party’s candidate Jude Celestin of the Inite (“Unity”) party in favor of a pop musician candidate Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly who, in the end, was elected President.[24]

Ricardo Seitenfus, a special representative for the OAS in Haiti, states that a secret ‘core group’ of foreign dignitaries sought to force the president of Haiti out of office in a clean-cut coup. He stressed that this core group also “engineered an intervention in Haiti’s presidential elections that year that ensured that the governing party’s candidate would not proceed to a runoff.”[25] It appears then that this disruption was backed by illegal foreign intervention against the Haitian government as well as by a series of human rights violation in which the U.S. government, the United Nations Secretary, and the OAS all shared responsibility.

When Aristide tried to return to his country in 2013 after nearly 10 years in exile in South Africa, President Obama personally called South African President Jacob Zuma twice in order to block Aristide’s return.[26]. President Obama also effectively persuaded the French government and U.N. Secretary Ban Ki Moon to join efforts in order to prevent further “threats.” Even after the return of former Haitian President Aristide (thanks to South Africa’s resistance to American imperialism), the U.S. government all but installed the neo-Duvalierist Michel Martelly as president as a mere puppet to defend U.S. interests. Bill Clinton’s former aide, Mr. Garry Conille, was later named Haiti’s Prime Minister.[27]

After 10 Years of Military Occupation, Human Rights in Haiti are in a Much More Deteriorated State

These political intrigues and this spoliation of democracy by the U.S. government has not served the best interests of the Haitian people. One of the most emblematic cases is the Cholera epidemic in the country. Even Despite the fact that the United Nations constantly negated its responsibilities, many families of victims have launched lawsuits against the U.N., stating that the epidemic were prompted mainly by some U.N. soldiers from Nepal. The result of Ebola epidemic was the killing of around 10,000 Haitians in the past four years.[28]

Furthermore, several natural disasters such as the earthquake in January 2010, Storm Isaac in August 2012, and Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, have led to the displacement of two million people who have since been installed in refugee camps.[29] More than one year later, in December 2013, there were still nearly 150,000 persons housed in these camps. Only 72 of these camps were built on public spaces while 229 were built on private property. Around 18 percent of these camps were eventually closed because of governmental orders and 10 percent were closed due to evictions. The evictions, carried out by police or military force without secured alternative housing options, were a human rights violation. Most of those evicted still have yet to find new accommodations and are still living in the street or in miserable camps.

The institutional fragility of the Haitian State has clearly led to unstable an undermining of economic, social, and cultural rights of the Haitian people. The authorities are not able to provide the deserved rights in respect the availability of fields such as alimentation, housing, education, health or and access to jobs which are all but ignored.

An extreme example is that child exploitation continues to remain a reality in Haiti. Since the earthquake, some poor families have “given” their children to rich families. The children receive education, food, and housing in exchange for domestic tasks. In full daylight, these children, called the “restaveks,” are exploited, deprived of their rights, exposed to physical and verbal abuses, and are obligated to engage in forceful and painful work under conditions slightly better than slavery. UNICEF reported in January of 2012 that there are around 225,000 “restaveks” in Haiti.[30] Sexual violence is also a big issue in Haiti, with around fifty cases each year, many likely to go unreported[31].

Furthermore, the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the U.N. has reported that human rights defenders have been prosecuted throughout the country.

Civil and political rights remain fragile due to weakness of governing state and institutions. The poor access to the judiciary system and high crime rates in Haiti are evidence of this. The murder rate have risen from 5.6 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2009 to more than 14.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012. Cases of public lynching have become more prevalent with more than 100 a year occuring between 2010 and 2012, illustrating the low confidence in the judicial system.

Moreover, the local and legislative elections initially scheduled for 2012 have yet to occur and there is still no date for these elections to be staged.

The Haitian president has sought to appear as to be the one fulfilling his duty by purposing a new draft electoral law, which members of the Senate refuse to ratify citing the unconstitutionality of the process leading to this draft.

In addition, the situation of the Haitian people living abroad is also of concern because they represent a very high level risk of dangerous statelessness. In fact, many Haitian people abroad are victims of the denial of their rights to identity, nationality, and personal dignity. For example, in September 2013, the Dominican Republic Supreme Court declared that the people born from illegal immigrants in the Dominican Republic would be subject to nationality “degradation”. This Supreme Court statement was made retroactive, since 1929, meaning Haitian descendants born in Dominican Republic since then were being deprived of their nationality, being neither Haitian nor Dominican.[32],[33]

Conclusion

As stated by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Haiti, the situation of human rights in the country is very serious. The Independent Expert presented five ways for improving the situation: “a strong political will, civil society active participation, a consensus on prioritized problems to solve, a congruent coordination and concentration of efforts, and a strong perseverance of these efforts in order to achieve these goals.”[34] The statement may be a bit naive considering the unremitting history of a plague of sadness, which now haunts Haiti.

The current situation in Haiti is a result of the foreign policies of the French, Canadian, and American governments and their allies’ (U.N., OAS, etc.) with the ongoing illegal military intervention in the country. These interventions have brought about human rights violations, state destabilization and massive suffering. With the current illegitimate president inducted by the U.S. government with the support from the OAS, how can the situation be any different? Military invasion, occupation, and foreign intervention has not helped to return the country to democracy or to uphold human rights. In fact, it has been a disaster. Today those responsible don’t want to accept accountability for this situation and choose instead to criticize Haitian political actors for the current condition without no regard for these crimes. True solutions lie in respect for fair elections, popular will, democratic life, and putting an end to military occupation.

Clément Doleac, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

References

[1] “François Duvalier, 1957–1971″, The Library of Congress, Country Studies, December 1989.

[2] ABBOTH, Elizabeth. Haiti: The Duvaliers and Their Legacy, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988,

[3] [3] Report of the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/1987/61, August 5th 1987, par. 1 to 3, 18 and 87.

[4] MOODY John “Haiti Bad Times for Baby Doc, ss violent protests grow, a besieged dictator imposes martial law” in Time Magazine, Feb. 10, 1986

[5] Report of the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, E/CN.4/1996/94, January 24th 1996, par. 8.

[6] FRENCH Howard W. “Front-Running Priest a Shock to Haiti” in The New York Times, December 13, 1990. Consulted on http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/13/world/front-running-priest-a-shock-to-haiti.html

[7]FARMER Paul “Who removed Aristide” in the London Review of Books, Vol. 26 No. 8 · 15 April 2004 pages 28-31, on the following link: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide

[8]  FARMER Paul “Who removed Aristide” in the London Review of Books, Vol. 26 No. 8 · 15 April 2004 pages 28-31, on the following link: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide

[9] FRENCH, Howard W.; Time Weiner (14 November 1993). “C.I.A. Formed Haitian Unit Later Tied to Narcotics Trade”. New York Times. Retrieved 6 May 2010.

[10] FARMER Paul “Who removed Aristide” in the London Review of Books, Vol. 26 No. 8 · 15 April 2004 pages 28-31, on the following link: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide

[11] FARMER Paul “Who removed Aristide” in the London Review of Books, Vol. 26 No. 8 · 15 April 2004 pages 28-31, on the following link: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide

[12] MACDONALD Isabel “France’s debt of dishonour to Haiti” in The Guardian, Monday 16 August 2010

[13] FARMER Paul “Who removed Aristide” in the London Review of Books, Vol. 26 No. 8 · 15 April 2004 pages 28-31, on the following link: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide

[14] The details of the meeting were reported by Michel Vastel in “Haiti put into trusteeship by the United Nations?” L’Actualité, 15 March, 2003 or in ENGLER Yves, “Media Cover-up of Canada’s Role in the Overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide”, Part 1 of a 4 Part Series, Dissident Voice, January 30th, 2014 consulted on http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/01/media-cover-up-of-canadas-role-in-the-overthrow-of-jean-bertrand-aristide/

[15] SDA-ATS News Service, 29 février 2004 “La Maison blanche appelle Jean-Bertrand Aristide à quitter le pouvoir” in Interet General, on February 29, 2004, Consulted on : http://www.interet-general.info/article.php3?id_article=543 on November 17, 2014.

[16] SPRAGUE Jeb, Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti, Monthly Review Press, 2012.

[17] ENGLER Yves, Media Cover-up of Canada’s Role in the Overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Part 1 of a 4 Part Series, Dissident Voice, January 30th, 2014 consulted on http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/01/media-cover-up-of-canadas-role-in-the-overthrow-of-jean-bertrand-aristide/

[18] [18] For more information regarding the role of US and French government in Aristide destitution, see Paul Farmer, “Who removed Aristide” in the London Review of Books, Vol. 26 No. 8· 15 April 2004 pages 28-31: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n08/paul-farmer/who-removed-aristide

[19] As stated by the US Secretary of Defense : http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=59423

[20] BAR editor and columnist JEMIMA Pierre “Don’t Blame Republicans for Obama’s Actions in Haiti” in Black Agenda Report (Information Blog), on the following link: “http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/don%E2%80%99t-blame-republicans-obama%E2%80%99s-actions-haiti

[21] BAR editor and columnist Jemima Pierre “Don’t Blame Republicans for Obama’s Actions in Haiti” in Black Agenda Report (Information Blog), on the following link: “http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/don%E2%80%99t-blame-republicans-obama%E2%80%99s-actions-haiti

[22] JOHNSTON Jake and WEISBROT Mark “Haiti’s Fatally Flawed Election” in CEPR, January 2011. Consulted on http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/haitis-fatally-flawed-election

[23] As stretched by a US Secretary of State report “Although turnout was higher than in 2009, it was only about 22 percent in the first round of the current election process.” http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/159331.pdf

[24] JOHNSTON Jake and WEISBROT Mark “Haiti’s Fatally Flawed Election” in CEPR, January 2011. Consulted on http://www.cepr.net/index.php/publications/reports/haitis-fatally-flawed-election

[25] In an interview with Dissent Magazine, with information cited again by CEPR here: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/haitis-doctored-elections-seen-from-the-inside-an-interview-with-ricardo-seitenfus and here http://www.cepr.net/index.php/press-releases/press-releases/oas-insider-reveals-details-of-illegal-foreign-intervention-against-haitian-democracy

[26] WEIBSROT Mark, “Haiti must decide Haiti’s future “ in the Guardian, on March 17, 2011. Consulted on : http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/17/haiti-usforeignpolicy on November17, 2014.

[27] ENGLER Yves, “Media Cover-up of Canada’s Role in the Overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide”, Part 1 of a 4 Part Series, Dissident Voice, January 30th, 2014 consulted on http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/01/media-cover-up-of-canadas-role-in-the-overthrow-of-jean-bertrand-aristide/

[28]  PILKINGTON Ed “Haitians launch new lawsuit against UN over thousands of cholera deaths” The Guardian, March 11 2014

[29] GALLON Gustavo, Independent UN expert report on the situation of Human Rights in Haiti, A/HRC/25/71, February 2014, Human Rights Council.

[30]  GRUMIAU Samuel, «UNICEF aids restavek victims of abuse and exploitation in Haiti», Port-au-Prince, Haïti, 31 janvier 2012 (www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_61518.html).

[31] GALLON Gustavo, Independent UN expert report on the situation of Human Rights in Haiti, A/HRC/25/71, February 2014, Human Rights Council.

[32] According to his data, the number of Haitians living abroad would be about 4.5 million people. In 2007, the International Crisis Group estimated that a population of more than 3.71 million Haitians and descendants of Haitians residing abroad. The reference is International Crisis Group, “Construire la paix en Haïti: inclure les Haïtiens de l’extérieur”, Rapport Amérique latine/Caraïbes no°24, Port-au-Prince/Bruxelles, December 14 2007.

[33] GALLON Gustavo, Independent UN expert report on the situation of Human Rights in Haiti, A/HRC/25/71, February 2014, Human Rights Council.

[34] GALLON Gustavo, Independent UN expert report on the situation of Human Rights in Haiti, A/HRC/25/71, February 2014, Human Rights Council.

The post Human Rights In Haiti – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

As U.S. forces withdraw from parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban is making gains in several areas of the country. The Afghan police and army are slowly giving way, despite the United States spending 13 years and tens of billions of dollars training those forces. When the United States completes its withdrawal from ground combat at the end of this year, this unfavorable trend will undoubtedly accelerate—that is, if the Afghan security forces don’t collapse altogether, as did similarly U.S. trained Iraqi forces in that country. Thus, in the longest war in American history, the U.S. military has failed to pacify Afghanistan—as had the mighty British Empire three times in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the Soviet superpower more recently in the 1980s. In fact, an outside force has not pacified Afghanistan since Cyrus the Great of Persia did it in ancient times.

Why did the United States have the hubris to think it could succeed in taming Afghanistan, when all of these other strenuous efforts had failed? Because many in the American foreign policy elite, media, and citizenry believe in “American exceptionalism.” As propounded by politicians of both parties—for example, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright in the Democratic Party and people such as John McCain and his sidekick Lindsay Graham in the Republican Party—America is the “indispensable nation” to a world that cannot do without its solving most major problems using military power. Yet despite the current public fawning over military personnel and veterans of American wars, the U.S. military has been fairly incompetent in most major engagements since World War II that required significant ground forces—with only Desert Storm in 1991 being an unvarnished success in recent years. The U.S. armed forces are probably more powerful than any other military in world history, both absolutely and relative to other countries, yet their battlefield performance has not been that great, especially against irregular guerrilla forces in the developing world.

In the post-World War II era, the U.S. military managed to fight the then-poor nation of China to only a draw in the Korean War (1950-1953); lost the Vietnam War (1965-1973) to ragtag Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese; and made the same mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq and Afghanistan—initially using excessive firepower and alienating the population, the allegiance of which is key to fighting guerrillas.

Even in lesser ground operations against small weak foes, the U.S. military has not performed all that well. Although successful, the invasions of Grenada and Panama exhibited embarrassing snafus, such as friendly fire casualties caused by the inability of U.S. services to adequately communicate and coordinate and the wanton destruction of civilian areas and excessive casualties in what was supposed to have been a surgical operation, respectively. The hostage rescue mission conducted in Iran in 1980 had to be aborted. Finally, U.S. interventions in Lebanon and Somalia under the Reagan and Clinton administrations, respectively, led to ignominious cutting and running from those countries after successful enemy attacks—inspiring Osama bin Laden to believe he could compel U.S. withdrawal from overseas interventions by launching terrorist attacks against U.S. military forces (the U.S.S. Cole) and facilities overseas and even American territory.

Whenever the U.S. military has a setback, it usually hints around that the civilian leadership of the country was more to blame. And civilian leaders are partly to blame in most of these instances, but the military should not escape public scrutiny for these disasters—which it largely has. The problem is that the American public feels guilty for the alleged abuse of returning Vietnam-era veterans and for the fact with an all-volunteer Army, it doesn’t have to sacrifice much during all these American military adventures overseas.

Of course, if the public really wanted to do something to support American service personnel, it should put a stop to them fighting and dying in faraway developing nations to allegedly combat much exaggerated threats to the United States. However, sufficient public outrage needed to end the conflicts was not evident for either Afghanistan or Iraq.

But what exactly went wrong in Afghanistan? As in Vietnam and Iraq, the U.S. military has not been fighting conventional armies, such as Iraqi forces during Desert Storm, which it is best at. Instead, in all three places, it was conducting what amounts to military social work. U.S. armed forces are fighting guerrillas that melt back into an all-important supportive indigenous civilian population. In Vietnam, initially, U.S. forces used excessive firepower, which alienated civilians; in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. military, forgetting the lessons of Vietnam, did the same thing.

But American citizens ask, “Aren’t our forces more benevolent than the brutal Taliban? Why does the Taliban still get so much support in Afghanistan?” The answer: because they are Afghans. As my book, The Failure of Counterinsurgency: Why Hearts and Minds Are Seldom Won, notes, when fighting indigenous insurgents, the foreign invader never gets the benefit of the doubt. This central point makes it difficult for great powers to win wars against insurgents, no matter how nice they try to be to the civilian populace. And the U.S. military is usually fairly unfamiliar with the language and culture of distant lands in which they intervene, thus making it difficult to get good information about who is a guerrilla and who is not. Often the only way to win a counterinsurgency is to annihilate the entire country with indiscriminate and potent violence; yet the Soviets used such scorched-earth policies in Afghanistan and didn’t win. Furthermore, the U.S. military would have difficulty selling such a morally bankrupt policy, which amounts to “destroying a country in order to save it,” in a republic.

America is exceptional, however in a way the nation’s founders realized but has long been forgotten. Being far away from the centers of world conflict, the United States has probably the best intrinsic security of any great power in world history. Thus, the founders had the luxury of being suspicious of standing armies in a republic. Furthermore, as in any other public bureaucracy, when people are spending other people’s money, things often go awry. Thus, sending the military to war should only be done in the most dire cases of national security. Military restraint was the founders’ vision, but we have drifted far from it into a militaristic society in constant war.

This article was also published at The Huffington Post and is reprinted with permission.

The post Afghanistan: A Similar Pattern Of Military Incompetence – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

A Hindu group is asking all universities in the US to declare Diwali, a popular Hindu holy day, as a university-wide holiday.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, pointed out that it would be a step in the right direction in view of presence of a substantial number of Hindu students at US universities, as it was important to meet the religious and spiritual needs of these students.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that universities should make efforts to accommodate the religious requirements of Hindu students and employees and show respect to their faith by not conducting regular business and scheduling classes on Diwali. “We do not want our students to be put at an unnecessary disadvantage for missing tests/examinations/papers, assignments, class work, etc., by taking a day-off to observe Diwali.”

If universities have declared other religious holidays, why not Diwali, Rajan Zed asked. Holidays of all major religions should be honored and no one should be penalized for practicing their religion, Zed added

Zed urged US universities, both public and private, to seriously look into declaring Diwali as a holiday, recognizing the intersection of spirituality and education. Zed noted that awareness about other religions thus created by such holidays like Diwali would make all students well-nurtured, well-balanced, and enlightened citizens of tomorrow.

Rajan Zed further says that Hinduism is rich in festivals and religious festivals are very dear and sacred to Hindus. Diwali, the festival of lights, aims at dispelling the darkness and lighting up the lives and symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Besides Hindus, Sikhs and Jains and some Buddhists also celebrate Diwali, which falls on November 11 in 2015.

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By Michael Lelyveld

China’s pledge to halt the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 has raised questions about when it will cut its consumption of coal.

On Nov. 12 in Beijing, Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping issued a landmark joint statement, setting new goals for the United States and China to fight climate change.

Under the agreement, U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would drop 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025.

The goal would require the United States to double the pace of average annual CO2 reductions from its previous projections for 2020, made in 2009, the White House said.

For its part, China agreed to hit a peak in CO2 emissions “around 2030,” making “best efforts” to reach a plateau before then.

China would also raise the share of non-fossil fuels in its energy mix to “around 20 percent” by 2030, the presidents said.

In 2013, the country derived 9.8 percent of its energy from “zero-emission” sources, including solar, wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power, The New York Times estimated.

China’s earlier goal set in 2009 called for cutting 40-45 percent of CO2 emissions from 2005 levels by 2020, but that reduction was to be measured per unit of gross domestic product (GDP).

The standard was widely criticized because total volumes of emissions were still allowed to grow as China’s economy expanded at high annual rates.

Last week, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) planning agency, said China’s per-unit carbon emissions had dropped 28.56 percent as of 2013, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Tough targets

The new targets are deliberately tougher on both sides, recognizing the importance of curbing emissions in the two countries, which accounted for 42 percent of the world’s CO2 last year, according to the Global Carbon Project, an international research organization.

Regardless of the challenges, advocates have been heartened by the coordination between the United States and China after years of mutual blame.

“If the two biggest players on climate are able to get together from two very different perspectives, the rest of the world can see that it’s possible to make real progress,” said Timothy Wirth, vice chairman of the United Nations Foundation, as quoted by Reuters news agency.

But the pledges have raised a host of questions, since they only provide partial information on policy endpoints without critical details on how they can be achieved.

On the U.S. side, the trend may already be putting emissions on track with policies including higher mileage requirements for new vehicles, tougher rules for power plants and energy efficiency standards.

Although more must be done to reach the new goal of 2.3-2.8 percent annual reductions after 2020, the United States has already lowered emissions by 10 percent from 2005 as of last year, as charted by Global Carbon Project data.

Over the same period, China’s volume of CO2 has climbed 72 percent to a level 90 percent higher than that of the United States, although its emissions are still 56 percent lower on a per capita basis.

One hopeful sign is that the two leading emitters now appear to be downplaying arguments about whether developed or developing nations are more at fault for global warming, while their joint statement cites “the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.”

Missing numbers

Even so, a number of unanswered questions may determine the value of the diplomatic breakthrough.

While China’s new pledge is seen as significant, it begs the question of how high its peak emissions will be and whether their growth will swamp reductions in the United States and perhaps the rest of the world.

Michael Levi, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said that key numbers for the climate crisis are missing from China’s target.

China has yet to quantify its goal for future CO2 emissions in absolute terms, measured in millions or billions of tons.

“What we have now is, we have a peaking year, which people have been asking for, for a long time, but we have no idea at what level the Chinese envision peaking,” Levi said in a call-in session for reporters.

“You can peak in 2030 at 15 percent above current levels. You can peak in 2030 at 30 percent above current levels,” he said.

The difference is crucial to what China’s pledge really means.

The world may get a clue when China announces new “carbon intensity” targets in preparation for an international climate conference in Paris next year.

But even then, the intensity index, which tracks carbon content per unit of GDP, would only suggest how much CO2 may be released if the amount of GDP growth is known for the next 15 years.

Another major missing piece of information is when China will reach a limit on its consumption of coal, the single largest source of CO2 in the world.

China now relies on coal for 65.7 percent of its energy, the National Energy Administration said. The share is more than twice the global average for coal.

The country consumed 3.61 billion metric tons of coal last year, the China National Coal Association said in January, but other estimates range from over 3.7 billion to 4 billion tons.

The huge volume was over four times higher than U.S. coal consumption and more than the rest of the world combined, according to BP Statistical Review of World Energy and U.S. Department of Energy figures.

Timing questioned

A Tsinghua University study released two days after the joint announcement said China’s coal use should be “stabilized by around 2020″ in order to meet the 2030 emissions goal.

“An absolute decline in coal consumption should then occur as soon as possible,” said Teng Fei, a Tsinghua professor and study author, in a Xinhua report.

The 2020 date is a decade earlier than the peak coal demand forecast of the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) in the “new policies scenario” of its annual World Energy Outlook.

The study, which has been in the works for the past year, was released within hours of the joint announcement, giving it little chance to reflect the new targets or policies.

But the 10-year difference between the IEA forecast and the Tsinghua study may be indicative of the challenges ahead for China in meeting its peak CO2 goal.

Although the IEA sees the annual growth rate of coal demand slowing markedly from the boom years of the previous decade, it projected a 13-percent increase in 2030 compared with 2012, implying consumption of some 4.3 billion tons.

Under the forecast, China’s CO2 emissions would peak only in 2035 after rising 21 percent above 2012 levels.

On Nov. 19, China’s State Council, or cabinet, announced a 2020 coal consumption limit of 4.2 billion tons as part of a five-year “energy development strategy action plan,” but it was unclear whether the cap could be raised after that.

Forecasts for peak coal timing and volume have varied widely, raising doubts about when China will stem the rise of CO2.

“To date, recent predictions have ranged from a period between 2015 and 2030 and at the level of 3.9-4.8 billion tons, an unbelievably broad range,” said Li Zhidong, a professor at Japan’s Nagaoka University of Technology in a report last month for the Seattle-based National Bureau of Asian Research.

In his paper, Li argues that demand for raw coal will top out at 3.9 billion tons as soon as next year, citing factors including slower economic growth, greater anti-smog efforts, higher energy efficiency, cleaner fuels and a shift from manufacturing to the service sector.

Such a pace would help China meet its 2030 goal for peak CO2, but it assumes progress on all fronts, and emissions would still remain high.

“Peak coal by 2020 may be possible, provided economic growth stays at current level or below, and they succeed in building all the dams, gas pipelines and nuclear plants that are planned,” said Philip Andrews-Speed, a China energy expert at National University of Singapore.

Global effect

Most experts doubt that meeting the targets would keep the rise in global warming below the limit of 2 degrees Centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) urged by the United Nations to avoid the more serious effects of climate change.

But the best efforts of the United States and China could keep the damage from getting even worse.

“We need to eventually get CO2 emissions down to zero, but in the meantime it’s the exponential growth that’s our main enemy, since that boxes us in and leaves little time for decarbonizing the economy,” wrote University of Chicago professor Raymond Pierrehumbert on Slate.com.

Much may depend on how much China will reduce its coal burning after it reaches a peak.

Even under Li’s projections for peaking in 2015, the country’s raw coal demand in 2020 would be about the same as its level last year.

There are also signs that some of China’s biggest energy consuming industries are trying to meet government demands to cut overcapacity by boosting production outside the country, essentially exporting their pollution overseas.

On Nov. 18, Xinhua reported that heavy industries in northern Hebei province plan to transfer excess capacity abroad, shifting production of steel, cement and flat glass to regions including Africa, Southeast Asia and South America.

The strategy may curb the rise of home-grown emissions from coal-burning factories, but it may do little to reduce global totals of CO2.

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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has reiterated his government’s total support for the on-going military Operation Zarb-e-Azab in the tribal areas of the country, till its logical conclusion.

Operation Zarb-e-Azb was launched by the Pakistan Armed Forces last June in North Waziristan following the June 8 attack on the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, for which the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) claimed responsibility.

Pakistan’s Waziristan

It has been reported that up to 30,000 Pakistani soldiers are involved in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which the government claims is a “comprehensive operation” to flush out all foreign and local militants hiding in North Waziristan, including not only the TTP and IMU, but also the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jundallah, al-Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and the Haqqani network.

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By Michael Akerib*

India is the world’s largest democracy, and one of the few legitimate democracies in Asia showing that, contrary to statements of certain pundits, that democratic concepts can be successfully applied outside the West.

Contrary to what is happening in China, India’s population of 1.2 billion, according to the latest census, continues to grow in spite of the fact that it has the world’s highest infant mortality rates. Its working age population is expected to add another 125 million in the next 10 years. This translates in large capital needs for additional infrastructure, making it dependent on foreign investments to a much larger extent than China. Unless it invests massively in infrastructure, its development will be very much hindered.

There is a large imbalance between the genders with a ratio at birth of 914 girls for 100 boys. Life expectancy at birth is of 65 years. Half the population is younger than 18, a quarter is rural and a third lives in extreme poverty.

A large proportion of the population is poor, with 50% having no access to electricity. Poverty is not evenly distributed geographically, with some states considerably poorer than others – a gap widening ever more thus creating the threat of social movements. A Maoist insurgency has already taken hold.

Nevertheless, the middle and upper class is forecast to grow from its present figure of 200 million to 1 billion by 2050.

Its economy, the world’s third largest and second-fastest growing, should reach USD 25 to 30 trillion by 2050 and could be the world’s third largest after that of the US and China. Some analysts even believe it will be the world’s largest on a PPP basis, reaching USD 86 trillion, in that time horizon.

In as much as, contrary to China, its economy is not geared to exports, it is less sensitive to global economic crises. However, it does rely on foreign direct investments to fund its large trade deficit.

India’s development hinges on its ability to carry out a number of reforms, and in particular improve its infrastructure and the educational level of its citizens with a concomitant evolution of the population’s mentality away from a mindset embedded in traditions that forbid it from developing into a modern country, and clean up the environmental damage created by an unruly development.

The country’s interaction with the other Asian countries remains, however, weak as Pakistan acts as an effective geographical barrier. It fears the strengthening of the China-Pakistan alliance; has no direct access to Central Asian energy producers and mistrusts the US. One of its main oil suppliers is Iran.

In spite of these shortcomings, it has been successful in attracting businesses, particularly from Europe, to outsource their manufacturing and services or even to acquire Indian corporations.

The country became a nuclear power in the 1990s and is continuing to develop its delivery capacity. Its agreement with the Atomic Energy Agency has created a precedent of allowing the country to have access to nuclear technology without signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is thus able to divert uranium from civilian to military programs.

Military spending makes it the world’s largest buyer of weapons, with Russia as its main supplier. It is believed to have budgeted USD 100 billion for purchases over the next 10 years. It is expanding its naval power, acquiring aircraft carriers and planes to secure shipping lanes for hydrocarbons, just as China is doing.

*Michael Akerib, Vice-Rector SWISS UMEF UNIVERSITY

This article was published by Modern Diplomacy

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Al Shabaab militants have killed 36 quarry workers in northern Kenya – all of the victims are believed to be Christian.

Local residents told the BBC that the militants separated the group from Muslim workers before shooting them dead.

Al Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Al Shabaab said in a press release issued Tuesday that “nearly 40 Kenyan crusaders met their demise” in the attack, adding that it was “part of a series of attacks planned in response to Kenya’s occupation of Muslim lands and their ongoing atrocities …such as recent airstrikes on Muslims in Somalia.”

Kenya’s military has said the airstrikes were a response to Al-Shabaab’s November 22 attack on a bus that was traveling to Nairobi,  and in which 28 people were killed. In that attack, the militants isolated non-Muslims because they couldn’t recite the Shahada, an Islamic creed. Those who failed the test were asked to lie down before gunmen shot all but one of them dead. George Ochwodho, a school teacher, survived and later described the attack to Associated Press.

Today at the stone quarry, Peter Nderitu, who works there, told CBC News that a group of about 50 heavily armed people walked into their camp next to the quarry at 12.30am as the men were sleeping, and fired warning shots.

Nderitu said when he heard the shooting he ran and hid in a trench, from where he could hear his colleagues being asked to recite the Shahada. Gunshots followed. He said he rose from hiding two hours later and found the bodies of his colleagues were in two rows with nearly all having been shot in the back of the head.

Other reports suggested the workers’ tents had been sprayed with gunfire. A source told World Watch Monitor that an unknown number of workers had been abducted. The source added that there was ‘lots of gunfire near the Kenya-Somali border so we cannot venture out just yet’.

Other witnesses confirmed the attack took place early on Tuesday. They said the victims were caught after midnight, while sleeping in their tents at the quarry in Kormey, nine miles (15km) from Mandera town, which is on Kenya’s border with both Somalia and Ethiopia.

Many of the quarry workers killed are reported to have come from the south of Kenya where Christians are predominate. A witness told World Watch Monitor that the stone quarry employed about 200 people, adding that most came from ‘down country’ – a reference to southern Kenya.

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(RFE/RL) — Lebanese security officials say the Lebanese army has detained a wife of and a son of the leader of the militant group Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The officials, who spoke on December 2, did not give the name or nationality of the woman they described as one of Baghdadi’s wives.

They said she and one of Baghdadi’s sons were detained in recent days as they crossed into Lebanon from Syria.

Lebanese newspaper As-Safir said the army had detained them in coordination with a “foreign intelligence apparatus.”

Islamic State militants have seized large amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria in a brutal offensive and murdered many victims, prompting a U.S.-led campaign of air strikes and other tactics targeting the group.

Islamic State militants released a defiant audio statement by Baghdadi following reports last month that he had been wounded in an air strike.

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In all the media coverage of the riots in Ferguson, an annoying false premise has been allowed to stand as though it were an unquestionable truth. Talking heads on the left and right are saying while rioting is not the way, there is a need for change in America. What the heck change are they talking about?

By embracing the “need for change” premise promoted by Al Sharpton and company, the media is complicit in spreading the lie that America is racist and blacks are mistreated. For crying out loud, folks, look around. Blacks are thriving in every area of the American experience. The real need for change is for blacks to stop voting for Democrats in exchange for just-enough-to-get-by handouts and endless failed big government spending programs that make problems worse; the death of the black family. That is what desperately needs to change in America.

I take offense at these snooty, arrogant TV talking heads declaring my country and my fellow Americans guilty of something they are not. The talking heads are simply pandering to ignorance and beating up on my country and I do not like it. These elites are also poking a finger in the eye of the majority of Americans of all races who play by the rules to achieve their American dreams — working, playing, and crying together when necessary.We have also heard from the media and Obama that police must deal with blacks differently. Obama said a better job must be done in training law enforcement “to be sensitive to the concerns of minority communities”. Hogwash! Why isn’t standard police training sufficient for dealing with all criminals? Should extra tolerance be allowed by police when dealing with minorities? Absolutely not. The call for police special training is nothing more than liberal pandering.

Location of Ferguson, Missouri within St. Louis County and St. Louis County within Missouri.

I also fought to control my gag reflex every time I heard a media elite praise the Ferguson police for their great restraint during the looting and destruction of property and lives after the grand jury decision and earlier riots back in August. Such comments feed the notion that blacks have a right to be angry and behave badly because America is racist.

So as Americans watched footage of police cars burning, thugs gleefully running with stolen goodies and mayhem in the streets of Ferguson, we were told that while violence is not the way, we must understand their rage. Every opportunist thug wreaking havoc in Ferguson should be arrested. Period!

<> on August 15, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.Despite all the media accusations of an overmilitarized Ferguson police department and despite Ferguson police walking on eggshells in an attempt not to further anger protesters and appease the MSM, black and white businesses were destroyed; apparently deemed acceptable collateral damage.

Even some conservatives contributed to the destructive pandering by subscribing to the narrative that special concessions must be made for blacks because they are still suffering the negative effects of slavery. This is absurd.

American blacks are suffering the negative effects of decades of Liberalism; liberals controlling our schools, controlling Hollywood and controlling the news media. Liberals have infected the hearts and minds of blacks, conditioning them to believe blacks are suppressed in America because of racism, while ignoring all facts, in plain sight, which prove otherwise.

If white America’s agenda is to suppress blacks, what backroom deal was struck to allow Oprah, Obama, Beyonce, Dr Ben Carson, and others to break through the Great White American Glass Ceiling? Is there an annual restriction on the number of blacks permitted to achieve success in America?

Interviewed on TV, a young black male said the grand jury decision proves that America is systematically racist. I thought, there you have it. Al Sharpton and company have won. From the first reports of the shooting, Sharpton and the Democrats’ purpose was to exploit Brown’s death to further their narrative that America is racist and cops murder blacks with impunity.

Insidiously, Sharpton and company successfully turned Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown’s deaths into evidence of America’s injustice in the minds of many; solely for the purpose of creating fear and hate against white America. Their messaging is vote for Democrats and we will keep the handouts coming, redistribute whitey’s wealth, and keep whitey off your back.

America is the greatest land of opportunity on the planet for all who choose to go for it. And yet, Sharpton and company are relentless in their efforts to hide this truth from black Americans, the very people they claim to champion. Why? The answer is the Left’s agenda is to transform America into a socialist nation. They need government-dependent blacks voting for Democrats to make it happen. This is why Democrats, liberals, and the MSM are celebrating Obama, in essence, granting amnesty to over 5 million illegals, despite them taking jobs from blacks; further exacerbating black unemployment. By embracing Obama’s lawless amnesty decree, the Democrats are throwing black Americans under the bus.

Watching the Ferguson riots on TV was deja vu all over again. For decades, Democrats have been feeding blacks the same old excrement and we are witnessing the same results; angry frustrated blacks — a majority of black kids in fatherless households, high school dropouts, high unemployment, high black on black crime, high incarcerations, high abortion rates, and so on.

Bottom line, far too many blacks are mentally stuck, infected with victim mindsets which prevent them from pursuing their American dreams.

Shepard Smith on Fox News said the protests in Ferguson bring up the larger issue that large numbers of people (blacks) across America do not feel that the system is working for them. The unfortunate mindset of such blacks is the result of brainwashing by liberals and Democrats; pure and simple. As I stated, all of black America’s real issues stem from decades of them willfully living on the Democrat’s liberal plantation.

The American system works great! Only in America could a barefoot cotton-picking little black kid in the 1940s dare to have a dream; grow up to become one of the most powerful black men in the world, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Without Affirmative Action, Justice Thomas achieved success the old-fashioned way. He earned it via education, hard work, and the right choices.

America is great because America is good. May God continue to bless America.

The post Enough With The Ferguson Pandering – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

France’s Socialist-led parliament has passed a symbolic vote to recognize Palestinian statehood, despite staunch objections from Israel. MPs in Britain and Spain have already passed similar motions.

The proposal was passed with 339 votes in favor and 151 against, meaning that it was supported by more than two-thirds of French lawmakers.

Israel immediately responded, saying that the motion would “harm the peace process,” AFP reported.

The vote is non-binding, but sends a signal that Israelis and Palestinians must return to the negotiating table, following the collapse of US-mediated statehood talks in April.

Palestine

“We don’t want a symbolic recognition that will only lead to a virtual state. We want a Palestinian state that is real so we want to give a chance to negotiations,” Europe Minister Harlem Desir told lawmakers after the votes were tallied.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has supported the vote, setting a two-year deadline for the creation of an independent Palestine. He said that if no resolution had been found by then, France would officially recognize Palestine anyway.

So far, Sweden has been the only country to diplomatically accept the existence of Palestine, despite similar symbolic votes across Europe.

But not everybody accepted Tuesday’s motion as a “gesture of peace and friendship,” as it was described by its supporters.

“It will add fuel to the fire in a region that doesn’t need that at all,” said Christian Jacob, leader of the conservative UMP Party, which voted against the initiative.

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The EU and Africa on Tuesday doubled research efforts to develop new and better medicines for poverty-related diseases affecting sub-Saharan Africa such as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hookworms and Ebola.

Building on the success of the first program, the second European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership program (EDCTP2) will work with a budget of €2 billion over the next ten years to fight infectious diseases in developing countries. For this, the EU will contribute €683 million from Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation program, and around €1.5 billion will come from European countries. EDCTP2 heralds a new era of cooperation between Europe and Africa in medical research with countries from both continents working as equal partners.

Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said, “Infectious diseases like AIDS, Ebola or malaria are a major global threat, but they hit poor communities hardest. The latest Ebola outbreak reminds us that more research is needed to find new medicines and vaccines that will help save millions of lives. Today, Europe and Africa are stepping up their efforts to fight the spread of infectious diseases together. With the investment of EUR 700 million from Horizon 2020, the EU will boost research efforts to prevent new epidemics in the future.”

According to Prof. John Gyapong, Board Member of the EDCTP Association, “The birth of EDCTP2 is very timely. Neglected Infectious Diseases and Implementation Science Research are now covered. This presents a great opportunity for African countries to improve their health care delivery systems through good science. The prospects are indeed very bright.”

The EDCTP Association now includes 13 European countries (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and 11 African countries (Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia). Mali, Burkina Faso, Sweden and Switzerland are about to join as well.

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