The decision by the US tobacco company Altria Group to prohibit growers in its supply chain from hiring children under 16 could protect children working on US tobacco farms, Human Rights Watch said today.

Altria Group – parent to three US tobacco companies, including Philip Morris USA, the largest cigarette company in the US – announced on December 11, 2014, that its new child labor standard will take effect beginning in 2015. Prior to this change, Altria Group deferred to US labor law for the minimum age to work, which allows children as young as 12 to work unlimited hours outside of school on a farm of any size, and has no minimum age for children to work on small farms.

“Altria Group has taken an important step toward protecting younger children from the dangers of tobacco farming,” said Margaret Wurth, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The company should continue updating its child labor policy to protect all children from nicotine exposure and other serious health and safety risks.”

Human Rights Watch in a May 2014 report found that child tobacco workers on US farms are exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, extreme heat, and other dangers. Most of the children interviewed reported nausea, vomiting, headaches, and dizziness – all symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning.

Altria Group will also require parental consent for children under 18 working in tobacco farming. Both changes to the company’s child labor standards will not cover children working on family farms.

The changes will be contractual requirements for all growers selling tobacco to Altria Group in 2015.

Reynolds American, parent of R.J. Reynolds, the second-largest US tobacco company and one of Altria Group’s main competitors, does not have a child labor policy.

Human Rights Watch has urged 10 of the world’s largest tobacco companies, including Altria Group and Reynolds American, to strengthen their child labor policies to protect all children under 18 from hazardous work on tobacco farms in their global supply chains, including any work involving direct contact with tobacco in any form.

The post US: Tobacco Company Bans Hiring Children Under 16 appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Dr. S. Chandrasekharan.

It looks almost certain that the self-imposed deadline of 22nd January to get the new constitution ready cannot be adhered to.

It was in April 2008 that elections were held to have an interim constituent assembly to formulate a new constitution. Despite many extensions, the task could not be completed. Another election took place in November 2013, once again for another constituent assembly ( called CA II) to complete the constitution making. According to the calendar made by the Assembly, the contentious issues should have been resolved and a draft was to have been placed before the CAII by October 10 and even here the deadline was extended more than once.

October 10 passed and the squabble continued. Finally this week, the committee formed to resolve the contentious issues called the CPDCC chaired by Baburam Bhattarai of UCPN (M) having 71 members gave a kind of a descriptive report without resolving any of the contentious issues placed before them or even taking a stand on such issues. The contentious issues remained contentious after many months of discussions! The Chairman in using his “prudence” had reported weakly – I repeat-“ Although attempts for consensus are at the final stage, consensus is yet to be forged and the panel has not been able to prepare a questionnaire . . . the committee needs more time for discussions.” Deadlines have had no respect in the past and will not be so in future too.

This shows utter helplessness of Bhattarai, the chairman of the CPDCC ( Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee). For this he has to blame only his Party Chief Dahal who had been found to be opportunistic at every turn and not allowing any forward move in finalising the constitution. At one point recently as part of a deal, the three parties consisting of the Nepali Congress, the UML and the UCPN (M) agreed on 23rd November to forward the joint proposal given by the NC and the UML to the Assembly for discussions. But the very next day Dahal reneged and said that the constituent parties of his Alliance had opposed the proposal!

The contention of these minor parties was that this could be the “beginning point of voting in the Assembly of all outstanding issues.” The point is -so what? How long are the Maoists are going to continue to obstruct the completion of the draft of the new constitution? Where consensus cannot be forged what is the alternative? To say repeatedly that the proposals are against the 12 point agreement reached between them does not make sense now in the changed situation.

The proposal placed by of the two main stream parties on 3rd November had many drawbacks, particularly on the configuration of provinces ( Pl. See my last update 302). But this could have been discussed in the Assembly and perhaps after discussions some solution could have been found. But to keep the proposal pending at the committee level at the CPDCC indefinitely was not the right thing to do. At one point Bhattarai had deferred the convening of the meeting “until further notice.”

What finally worked was a memorandum signed by 43 of the 71 members of the CPDCC to forward the proposal given by the Nepali Congress, the UML and some others to the Constituent Assembly. This was done after an assurance obtained from the Speaker Nembang by the opposing parties that there will be no “voting” on the proposals!

One of the writers in the media tried to justify the delay in constitution making by saying that in Nepal “the constitution is difficult to formulate with multiple actors with diverging or even conflicting ideologies, interests and constituencies involved” in the writing. But have the issues been discussed threadbare in the Constituent Assembly?

There appears to be four areas of protracted dispute. These relate to

1. The judiciary
2. Electoral System
3. The Form of government
4. Restructuring of the State.

The first three disputes are not insurmountable. But it is the last one that has been delaying the writing of the constitution. It is not the number or the name of various states within the constitution that is intractable but only the configuration of various provinces.

We see a series of articles by various well-meaning analysts in the media extolling the virtues of having only geographical divisions of four or five provinces with each province structured vertically with a slice of the plains, the hills and the Himalayas. This was similar to the development regions of the Panchayat days that did not work. Historically the interests of the marginalised people in the country- the janajathis and the Madhesis had been ignored and the division into vertical divisions on a similar pattern does not appeal to them even now.

In a moment of exasperation, K.P.Oli Chairman of the UML even suggested that one could do with an “updated” current constitution but this ignores the very purpose for which the new constitution had to be drafted!

The question is what next? What would the Speaker do with the report given by the CPDCC that has made no recommendation. It is said that the report will not be returned to the CPDCC for further discussion. The proposals cannot be put to vote as he had already given an assurance to that effect. A new CPDCC could be formed but this would only prolong the agony! Efforts to form a “unity government” with representatives of the Madhesi and other marginalised groups were of no avail and were rejected by the MJF (D) of Gachhadaar.

The alternative to voting in the assembly would be to go for a referendum on specific issues of dispute and this may finally be only on the configuration of the provinces.

Better would be, for the present, to discuss the contentious issues in the assembly and try to arrive at a consensus. The self imposed dead line of January 22nd 2015 need not be adhered to either.

The post Nepal: Slim Chance Of Adhering To January 22 Deadline – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Michael Cunningham

It was nothing short of a landslide. As polls closed at 4:00 PM on November 29, Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang (KMT) saw 9 of its existing 15 mayoral and county magistrate posts fall to the pan-green coalition led by the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The biggest upsets included blowout losses in traditional KMT strongholds such as Taipei and Taichung.

Previously, the only time the KMT lost Taipei, it had been due to a split in the pan-blue vote in 1994. Not so this time, as DPP-aligned independent Ko Wen-je thrashed the KMT’s Sean Lien by a margin of over 16%. Even where the KMT managed to hold onto power, it did so barely scraping by. By the time DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen retired for the night, her underdog coalition was set to govern 60% of Taiwan’s population.

The elections produced a media storm around the globe. No sooner were the winners announced than Western media outlets such as Reuters, CNN, and The New York Times began analyzing the opposition’s blowout victory. The contemporary wisdom promoted by Western journalists holds that this election was a referendum on current president Ma Ying-jeou’s signature policy of appeasement toward Beijing. Others more familiar with the situation inside Taiwan have refuted the China factor as being an oversimplification, reminding readers that these were local elections focused on local issues rather than foreign policy.

One the one hand, these analysts are right. While the China threat looms large in the minds of the Taiwanese public, the debates during this electoral cycle centered mostly on local issues such as food safety and rising property prices. On the other hand, a significant portion of Taiwanese voters see increased integration with China as a leading cause of many of their current hardships, making this election precisely about Ma’s China policy, though not necessarily for the geopolitical reasons explained by Western journalists.

A Verdict Against Ma’s China Policy

The KMT’s pounding in last month’s local elections reflects growing distrust in the new generation of Taiwanese voters towards the ruling party. Nowhere is public disillusionment more evident than in the conciliatory China policy that Ma Ying-jeou has pursued over his six years as president. Taiwan-China ties have improved markedly since 2008, as Ma has redefined cross-strait relations by signing more than 20 agreements with China.

Nevertheless, the next generation increasingly views these agreements as benefiting only the rich at the expense of the average citizen. Furthermore, they fear that the agreements have led to an over-reliance on China economically that could eventually give Beijing sufficient leverage to force the island, which it claims as part of its territory, into unification.

Nowhere is the economic salience of the China factor better showcased than in the Sunflower Movement this past March, in which activists occupied the legislature for 17 days to stall the ratification of a deal promoting cross-strait trade in the services sector. While Western analysts viewed the event mostly through the lens of politics, at the protest site it was clear that economic concerns trumped the sovereignty issue among many, if not most, protesters.

Though not all the public’s frustrations relate to China, the sweeping policy changes and the widespread belief that they only benefit the wealthiest Taiwanese contribute to the KMT’s image among many as an elitist rich man’s club that is uninterested in the livelihood of the average citizen.

A Lasting Trend

The shock and awe with which the DPP swept to victory show that this election was probably no fluke. Rather, it implies that pan-green dominance may have just become the new mainstream, at least for the foreseeable future. This means that a pan-green president and possibly even a majority DPP legislature are likely to emerge from the general elections in 2016.

Today’s KMT is a broken party. President Ma’s approval ratings have languished since shortly after his re-election in 2012, and the latest election results show that his fellow party members are not faring much better. Following Ma’s resignation on Wednesday as party chief, the KMT finds itself with no leader and a politically bankrupt policy that the public is no longer buying.

The DPP, on the other hand, has never been stronger. Fresh off the party’s most sweeping electoral wins ever, momentum is on its side. Its new-found pragmatism and ability to do what is needed to win is nowhere more evident than in the Taipei mayoral race, where the DPP wisely decided not to field a candidate and instead threw support behind popular independent Ko Wen-je, who handily defeated Sean Lien, son of former vice president and KMT honorary chairman Lien Chan.

The KMT will eventually manage to reconstruct itself, but the process will likely take years. The DPP fell into a similar predicament leading up to the 2008 general elections, due to the unpopularity of then-president Chen Shui-bian. The DPP lost those elections in a landslide to Ma and the KMT, and the shadows of Chen’s corruption and failed China policy continued to follow DPP candidates through the general elections of 2012.

In an effort to regain its historical dominance, the KMT will have to find a leader and an ideology that can unify a shattered party and address the concerns of the modern voter. Doing so will require it to reassess certain key policies, particularly the unpopular aspects of its outreach to Beijing. Thus, when the KMT manages to regain voter confidence, it will do so partially at the expense of its China policy. Going forward, it is hard to imagine cross-strait integration continuing to develop at the current pace.

Consequences for Cross-Strait Relations

The effects of last month’s elections on Taiwan’s cross-strait policy may begin to be felt immediately, with KMT legislators up for re-election in just over a year becoming less enthusiastic about pursuing unpopular agreements with China. The effect will likely be more profound following the general elections, assuming the DPP fares as well as expected.

This changing political tide will frustrate China and most likely increase tensions between Beijing and Taipei. This will be all the more probable if the DPP gains control of the presidency or legislature in 2016 as expected. China’s leaders make no secret of their distaste for the DPP, which they believe still seeks formal independence for the island that Beijing claims as its own.

However, the idea that scaling back today’s uber-friendly China policy will bring as much strife as Chen Shui-bian’s threats to declare formal independence a decade ago seems out of touch with the current state of cross-strait relations. Tempers may flare, and nasty words may be exchanged from time to time, but the overall constructive nature of today’s cross-strait relationship is poised to continue.

The greatest reason to expect continued stability across the Taiwan Strait is that each of the parties involved recognizes peaceful coexistence as essential to their political legitimacy. In Taiwan, essentially all mainstream political figures now favor some form of cooperation with Beijing, as it is difficult to get elected otherwise. Talk of declaring independence has become so taboo following Chen Shui-bian’s polarizing presidency that DPP candidates now go out of their way to emphasize their support of the status-quo. The DPP has followed the KMT’s successful example of reaching out to Beijing, and recent years have seen China visits by former premier Frank Hsieh and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu, as well as offers by DPP chair Tsai Ing-wen to meet with Mainland officials in Taiwan. Indeed, today’s DPP understands that, in order to get elected, it must maintain a proper balance of engaging with China while protecting the political sovereignty and economic interests of the people of Taiwan.

On the other side of the Strait, the political legacies of Presidents Hu Jintao and now Xi Jinping are so deeply tied to this engagement policy that Xi’s government will do all it can to portray the policy as a success. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) pragmatism in shaking hands with their historical nemesis the KMT shows that they are willing to partner with sworn enemies when doing so is in their interest. And Beijing’s calm yet cautious response to the latest round of elections indicate that it is at least open to the idea of working with a relatively China-friendly DPP government as well. Of course, this assumes that the DPP does not pursue formal independence, a well-recognized red line that DPP politicians continually strive to prove they will not cross.

To be sure, disagreements, threats, and periodic setbacks will result from the policy shifts emerging from this election. Yet policy shifts such as these are not by themselves likely to reverse the trend of stability across the Taiwan Strait. While Taiwan’s stance toward China will likely harden to a degree in the coming years, it is reasonable to assume that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, stability, security, and a degree of cooperation will continue to prevail for the foreseeable future.

This article was published at Geopolitical Monitor.com.

The post Green Wave In Taiwan: The DPP’s Election Win And Cross-Strait Relations – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

In this week’s address, the President thanked the men and women in uniform who serve and sacrifice to protect the freedom, prosperity, and security that we all enjoy as Americans. On Monday the President will visit troops at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and voice his appreciation in person for their incredible service. These troops, as well as the many who are still overseas, have met every mission they have been tasked with, from bringing a responsible end to our war in Afghanistan, to working to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, to saving lives by fighting to contain the spread of Ebola. During this holiday season, a time of blessings and gratitude, the President reminded everyone to find a way to thank and serve the members of the military who serve us every day.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
December 13, 2014

Hi, everybody. It’s the holidays—a season to give thanks for our many blessings. The love of family. The joy of good friends. The bonds of community. The freedom we cherish as Americans. The peace and justice we seek in the world.

As we go about our days, as we gather with loved ones and friends, it’s important to remember: our way of life—the freedom, prosperity and security that we enjoy as Americans—is not a gift that is simply handed to us. It has to be earned—by every generation. And no one sacrifices more to preserve our blessings than our extraordinary men and women in uniform.

That’s why, on Monday, I’ll be visiting our troops at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey—to salute them for their service and thank them for their sacrifices. Since our nation was attacked on 9/11, these men and women, like so many others in uniform, have met every mission we’ve asked of them. They deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. In more than a decade of war, this 9/11 Generation has worked with the Afghan people to help them reclaim their communities and prevent terrorist attacks against our own country.

Now, many of our troops are returning from Afghanistan, and on Monday, I’ll be proud to help welcome them home. That’s because, this month, our combat mission in Afghanistan will be over. Our war in Afghanistan is coming to a responsible end.

Of course, the end of our combat mission in Afghanistan doesn’t mean the end of challenges to our security.We’ll continue to work with Afghans to make sure their country is stable and secure and is never again used to launch attacks against America. The troops I’ll visit on Monday have been part of our mission to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL in Iraq and Syria. They’ve been supporting our efforts in West Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic and save lives. Because in times of crisis and challenge, the world turns to America for leadership. And when the world calls on America, we call on the brave men and women of our armed forces to do what no one else can.

So this holiday season, as we give thanks for the blessings in our own lives, let’s also give thanks to our men and women in uniform who make those blessings possible. Even as some are coming home for the holidays, many more will be far from their families, who sacrifice along with them.

There are so many ways we can express our gratitude to our troops, their families and our veterans—everyone can do something. To find out what you can do, just go to JoiningForces.gov. As a nation, as Americans, let’s always keep striving to serve them as well as they have always served us.

Thanks, have a great weekend, and God bless our troops and their families.

The post Obama: Giving Thanks For Our Troops – Transcript appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Chris Rickleton

Kyrgyzstan’s problems probably featured pretty low on Vladimir Putin’s to-do list when he traveled to Tashkent this week.

Some in Kyrgyzstan believe the Russian president, and only he, can end their country’s intractable disputes with its neighbor. There was hope, for example, that Putin could get Karimov to resume gas supplies to southern Kyrgyzstan.

Though Putin had a nice package of goodies for his Uzbek counterpart on December 10 – he wrote off most of Tashkent’s debt and showed support only a few months before Karimov is expected to stand for reelection – it is unclear what he got for Russia.

Per usual, Karimov ducked a press conference. And he did not publically opine on the elephant in the room: Tashkent’s future role, if any, in relation to Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union.

One of the items supposedly on the agenda, however, was gas.

The standoff in the Fergana Valley directly involves Russia. Russia’s Gazprom had just taken control of Kyrgyzgaz in April when UzTransGaz said it had no obligation to supply Gazprom. Kyrgyzstan’s second-largest city has been without gas ever since.

The meeting failed to produce a breakthrough, Kyrgyz media reported.

Many analysts assume Uzbekistan is using gas to gain leverage over its poverty-stricken upstream neighbor as well as that neighbor’s benefactor—Russia.

The three parties disagree over the hydroelectric dams Moscow is building in Kyrgyzstan. Tashkent fears the dams could mean less water for Uzbekistan’s strategic cotton sector. Russia says nonsense.

Deutsche Welle, citing an anonymous source “close to the Russian delegation,” said Karimov requested Moscow cease building the dams. Putin “let it be known [to Tashkent] that it does not intend to do that because the Kyrgyz position in this conflict has a basis and the Uzbek [position] has not been justified.”

Kyrgyz officials will be relieved to hear that. But they might wonder when Moscow is going to get around to starting the largest dam it has promised to build on the Naryn River, the billion-plus-dollar Kambarata-1.

Uzbekistan’s opposition to upstream hydropower projects is doggedly consistent. Tashkent also remains vehemently opposed to Tajikistan’s Rogun Dam project, to which the World Bank gave a green light earlier this year. By his own count, Karimov has been fighting the “stupid project” for over nine years now, and seems unlikely to give in any time soon.

The post Putin-Karimov Meeting Yields Nothing For Kyrgyzstan – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy

Today, with the increasing threat of Islamist terrorism due to the rise and reach of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, sections of societies in Central Asia, South Asia, and West Asia are getting increasingly radicalised. Will China succeed in pushing forward in its economic agendas via the Western Development Strategy – the New Silk Route project and the energy corridors between Central Asia and China – if the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the region that borders all the aforementioned areas is constantly under unrest?

Understanding the Unrest in the XUAR

Contrary to the misrepresentation and/or misinterpretation that unrest in the XUAR is purely terrorism, terrorism and religious fanaticism, the unrest in the region is rather complex and specific.

The oversimplification of the issue is what has resulted in the turmoil that exists today. The Uyghur region has witnessed several socio-political and economic changes since the time of the Silk Road trade. Since its inclusion into the Chinese State in 1949, the Communist Party of China’s (CPC’s) policies – that it borrowed from the erstwhile Soviet model – of making the country a Unitarian state with a singular identity across all regions, has created problems of several kinds, and the XUAR unrest is one such consequence.

The restrictions on the expression of religious and cultural heritage and choices; the increased migration of the Han Chinese into the XUAR – that has resulted in the Uyghurs getting a sense of minoritization; branding of any dissent and/or protest of policies as terrorism and separatism; the heavy-handed measures used to crack down on opposition; the misinformed strategy of using economic means to solve a socio-political problem; and more importantly, viewing all Uyghurs as the same – i.e. separatists –has pushed the Uyghurs to a brink causing them to resist even resiliently.

Beijing, thus, knowingly and/or unknowingly fuels the very unrest it has been trying to put an end to. Furthermore, China has, over the past few years, begun to equate Islam (the religion followed by most Uyghurs in the XUAR) to extremism – a regressive approach that will not only not resolve the unrest, but also further frustrate any effort towards the resolution of the issue.

The Core of Beijing’s Misinformed Strategies

The CPC’s lack of nuanced understanding of the history of the region and/or its deliberate unwillingness to admit to the actual socio-political history of the region will only prove detrimental to the strategies towards the successful implementation of its domestic and international agendas.

Beijing’s approach – using economic incentives to resolve a socio-political issue – has not worked elsewhere, and is likely to fail in the XUAR as well, and for the same reasons. The overlapping of the socio-cultural and socio-political elements in the CPC’s strategies in the region since 1949 have thus resulted to a certain degree, an overlap in terms of the pushback that is generated as a consequence.

Turning Liabilities into Assets

In order to ensure sustainable stability in the XUAR, Beijing must take a fresh look at the Uyghurs and view and treat them as potential stake-holders who have shared interests in ensuring stability and peace in the region. Co-opting the Uyghurs by genuine means will automatically bring down the level of unrest drastically.

Today, the Uyghur region is in the exact geopolitical and geo-economic situation it found itself in, a few centuries ago, when trade on the Silk Route was still fully functional. A case in point is that in 2012, the GDP of the XUAR stood at $122 billion, a $94 billion rise from $28 billion in 2004. In fact, the role of the Uyghurs and the Region too is exactly the same: a buffer zone for the ruling entity that sat in the mainland, yet strategically important for trade and security.

Furthermore, China could harness the rich history of Islam in the region and build on the narratives to reap comprehensive overall benefits.

If the CPC leadership makes a genuine attempt to understand the history of Islam in china, it would know that there was a potent mix of peaceful actors throughout the ages. That Islam of various kinds, including Sufi Islam, spread to and settled in China as early as during the Tang Dynasty – that ruled China from 618-907 AD – means that the religion has a rich and long history in the country. Therefore, viewing the Uyghurs’ demands of cultural rights should not be misinterpreted as a new phenomenon that is a result of hard-line Wahhabi indoctrination. On the contrary, the Uyghurs have historically detested the hard-line interpretations of Islam. A case in point is the strong opposition to the rigid Hanafi policies imposed by Tajik Commander of the then Khanate of Kokand, Yakub Beg, who briefly conquered the region in 1867.

China would do well to address the Uyghur issue by focusing separately but simultaneously on three areas: social freedoms, security, and inclusiveness.

Only those individuals that actually carry out violent attacks must be viewed from a security lens. Those who criticise CPC policies will have to be engaged instead of being labelled simply as separatists. Once the socio-economic concerns are genuinely addressed, any sympathies and/or support for the violent extremists such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and/or separatism will reduce considerably.The remainder can easily be tackled using its own security apparatus as well as with a little help from the governments of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy
Research Officer (IReS), IPCS
rajeshVvari@gmail.com

The post China And Uyghur Issue: Can New Silk Route Really Help? – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The Obama administration should increase detainee transfers from Guantanamo Bay following passage of a defense bill on December 12, 2014, that preserves fewer transfer restrictions, the Human Rights Watch said. President Barack Obama obtained loosened transfer restrictions from the US Congress in the December 2013 defense measure, but has not fully taken advantage of them in the past year.

“President Obama should move towards closing Guantanamo by accelerating detainee releases,” said Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Congress hasn’t made closing Guantanamo any easier but, by not enacting new restrictions, it has left the door open for the administration to act.”

For years, Congress has imposed restrictions on the transfer of detainees from Guantanamo, which the Obama administration said prevented it from closing the detention facility. The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the first time eased those restrictions, requiring only that the secretary of defense determine a transfer is in the national security interest of the United States and show that he weighed specified factors prior to making that determination.

The 2014 bill, the NDAA for fiscal year 2015, preserves those changes. One version of the bill included a ban on transfers to Yemen, but the final version approved by Congress did not. However, it renews the ban on moving detainees to the US against Obama administration wishes. While Obama has repeatedly pledged to close the Guantanamo detention facility, it is not clear that he is prepared to use his authority vigorously to do so, Human Rights Watch said.

Despite the loosened transfer restrictions during 2014, the rate of transfers from Guantanamo has not increased significantly. In 2013, 11 detainees were released, while so far in 2014, 19 detainees have been released, 13 of them since October. Some 136 detainees remain at Guantanamo, 67 of whom have been cleared for transfer, most back in 2009 by an interagency task force and some even earlier by the Bush administration. Of the remaining 69, only 7 face formal charges in the fundamentally flawed military commissions system, including 5 co-defendants in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Another 3 have been convicted. And 23 others are slated for prosecution but have yet to be charged. The Obama administration asserts the remaining 36 are “too dangerous” to release, yet concedes it has insufficient evidence to prosecute them.

International law bans prolonged, indefinite detention without trial. If there is evidence that detainees have committed crimes, they should be charged in courts that comport with international fair trial standards. If not, they should be released, Human Rights Watch said.

“The US has held many of the Guantanamo detainees for nearly 13 years without charge or trial, flouting international law and basic principles of justice,” Pitter said. “If Obama is going to close Guantanamo as he promised, he should act before Congress enacts any new restrictions.”

The post Calls For US To Speed Transfers From Guantanamo appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The Hamas movement condemned Saturday an explosion targeting the French Cultural Center in Gaza City on Friday.

Hamas leader Ahmad Yousef told Ma’an that the movement condemns the attack and that such an action does not serve the Palestinian cause.

“Why at this specific time at which France has a generous stand toward Palestine?” Yousef added.

A Palestinian was injured late Friday in the explosion near the French Cultural Center in western Gaza City.

Gaza police spokesman Ayman al-Batneiji told Ma’an that the Gaza police, explosives engineering and the criminal investigations department arrived to the area and opened an investigation into the incident.

It was the second explosion that occurred at the same site in less than a month.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack, saying that “the side responsible for such a criminal action does not belong to Palestinians as culture is a major part of the Palestinian identity.”

The statement added that those responsible for the explosions are “ignorant and do not appreciate the role of culture in the Palestinian national fight.”

The ministry said the “attack on the French Center was an attack on the Palestinian culture as well.”

The target of this attack was the recent strong stand by the French as a government, Senate, and people, the statement added.

The ministry, and on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, pledged to follow up investigations on the incident to identify those responsible for the attack and hold them accountable.

The Gaza Ministry of Internal Affairs said Saturday that an investigation to look into the details of the explosion was opened.

Iyad al-Buzm, ministry spokesperson, said in a statement that the explosion targeting the wall surrounding the center caused damage.

Al-Buzm added that security services surrounded the area and started investigation procedures.

The post Hamas Condemns Attack On French Center In Gaza appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Hindus are supporting Catholics upset over the controversial Our Lady of Guadalupe painting currently exhibiting in a Santa Fe (New Mexico) art gallery.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, stressed that artists should be more sensitive while handling faith related subjects. Casual flirting sometimes resulted in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and revered symbols and hurting the devotees.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged “Eye on the Mountain Art Gallery”, and its owner Rachel Houseman to immediately remove the controversial painting “The Three Goddesses in One” from its “Guadalupe Group Art Show” which opened on December 12 and scheduled to continue till February 12, described as “12 artists, one sacred icon…Guadalupe”.

Rajan Zed further said that religious symbols and concepts thrown around loosely in reimagined versions for dramatic effects or other selfish agendas with no scriptural backing could be disturbing to the devotees.

Moreover, necklace of skulls worn by Guadalupe in the painting taken from Hindu goddess Kali (as stated by its artist Paz Winshtein) was trivialization of the Hindu goddess who was highly revered and widely worshipped in Hinduism personifying Shakti or divine energy and was considered the goddess of time and change, Zed noted, and added that it was highly inappropriate.

Rajan Zed indicated that besides removing the said painting from display, gallery owner and artist should offer formal apology also for such absurd depiction of religious icons.

Religions welcomed artists to immerse in religion but taking it seriously and respectfully and not just for indecorous showing of symbols and concepts to advance their selfish agenda. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at, Zed stated.

Eye on the Mountain Art Gallery, which claims to be “Santa Fe’s Premier Sacred and Visionary Fine Art Gallery” featuring “Sacred & Visionary Art” founded in 2004 in Prescott (Arizona), features “unique art” from a collective of over 20 artists. “A Gallery with Soul”, its mission includes “to provide a unique experience of the sacred for all beliefs” and its purpose includes “art that centers on the spiritual experience”. Houseman, with a Master’s in Art Therapy, describes herself as an “artist, visionary, healer and gallery owner”. Award winning California artist Paz, whose other paintings include “Saint Making Machine”, believes that “art is a way of bringing new ideas into the world”.

The post Hindus Back Catholics Upset Over Guadalupe Artwork In Santa Fe appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Yemeni troops shot dead five Al-Qaeda suspects disguised as women who fired at a soldier during a checkpoint inspection of their Saudi-bound bus, AFP reports.

Another suspect was wounded along with the driver in Harad, a town 15 kilometers from the Saudi border, officials said. Two of the suspects killed were Saudis.

All six suspects were dressed in black robes and wore the niqab, a face covering veil commonly worn by women in Yemen, AFP reports.

A suicide belt and weapons were also found on the bus. The wounded suspect and driver were questioned. An official told AFP that “the men are suspected of affiliation with Al-Qaeda and were heading north toward Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia.”

Yemeni security forces rarely inspect vehicles carrying women.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) seized swathes of southern and eastern Yemen after the 2011 uprising.

The United States considers AQAP to be the most dangerous affiliate of Al-Qaeda.

Original article

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By William Rurode

On December 22, Nicaragua will begin construction on a $50 billion USD canal that once in operation will open a new link between the Atlantic (via the Caribbean Sea) and the Pacific oceans. However, domestic opponents from all political parties and social classes are gathering to oppose this ambitious undertaking. At the core of their concerns is the fact that the canal project will lead to the forcible removal of almost 300 communities in protected indigenous zones. The project is the brainchild of President Daniel Ortega of the ruling Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN, Sandinista National Liberation Front). Ortega and the FSLN led the revolution throughout the 1900’s that overthrew the often cruel and pervasively harsh Nicaraguan Somoza dictatorship in 1979, replacing it with a government that championed the interests of the nation’s poor. But now it appears that Ortega is ready to brush aside the interests of some 30,000 Nicaraguans who would lose their homes and their communities as the canal project presses forward.

The canal will be a massive undertaking, running more than 172 miles from Venado Island in the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific port town of Brito. The route makes use of Lake Nicaragua, Central America’s largest lake, but elsewhere would cut a path up to 1,700 feet wide and 90 feet deep.[1] President Ortega is the canal’s largest advocate, he claims that the project will, “create 250,000 jobs, lift Nicaragua out of poverty and make it the maritime capital of the world.”[2] Ortega has taken his nation into an agreement with the Hong Kong-based HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Company, which would oversee all aspects of construction. There is undeniable promise with the project, as Nicaragua is a logical, geographical route and today, is the safest country in Central America. If and when the canal is completed, it would secure Ortega’s legacy, placing him in the history books as the leader of Nicaragua that finally gave the country an interoceanic canal.

Canal Aspirations

The relative locations of the Nicaragua and Panama Canals

Nicaraguans have dreamed of a canal for several centuries; the current proposal is the 72nd in 450 years.[3] In the 1500’s, conquistadors from Spain were the first to formally investigate the possibility of building a canal through Nicaragua. Their lack of an effective technology, engineering expertise, and a range of financial hurdles made it impossible for them to build the canal. The United States first showed interest in a canal in the 1820s, but the idea was not taken seriously until the California Gold Rush of 1848 and 1849 when thousands of people on the Eastern Coast of the U.S. flocked to San Francisco and the West Coast in hopes of finding riches. At the time, there were no trans-continental railroads, and those who wanted to move west had to travel via steamboat to the Central American isthmus, travel overland and board another boat to get to California. U.S. steel and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt traveled to Nicaragua multiple times to scout and plan routes for a canal, and in 1849 he was granted exclusive rights to construct a canal in 12 years.

Unfortunately, no bankers were willing to fund the project. As the project languished, William Walker, an American soldier of fortune, complicated the situation more in the mid-1850s when he brought a band of mercenaries into the nation and staged a coup. Walker briefly seized the country, and by the time he was captured and executed by combined Central American forces, the American Civil War had broken out; with this the U.S. had lost its interest in the canal. After the war, the U.S. transcontinental railroad reduced the need for building a canal through Nicaragua. Still, U.S. interest picked up again at the close of the century after the French effort to build a sea level canal through Panamá was defeated by yellow fever and falciparum malaria. French national, Philippe Bunau Varilla, who owned what remained of the French assets in Panamá, convinced several U.S. senators that the 40 plus volcanoes in Nicaragua made the nation too risky a place to build a canal.[4] The U.S. then chose to throw their backing behind Panamá, and after the canal opened there in 1914. Nicaragua would have to wait.

Chinese Investment

In June 2013 President Ortega and the FSLN-controlled legislature approved a canal building accord with Chinese investor and telecommunications magnate Wang Jing. As part of the deal, Ortega handed Wang and his conglomerate a 100-year concession to build and manage the waterway. Wang has reportedly gathered a coterie of private investors; Wang maintains that the Beijing government is not behind the project. Even if the canal is never finished, the terms of the project alone gives China an important presence in Central America. Chinese trade with Latin America as a whole has skyrocketed in the last decade, in 2000 totaling $12 billion USD but rising to $250 billion USD by 2012. Total foreign direct investment (FDI) flowing into Latin America from China reached $87.8 billion USD in 2012, approaching half of total FDI in the region.[5] Between the increasing investment from China and the steady decrease in the overall level of U.S.-Latin American trade, China seems poised to become the predominate trading partner with Latin America.[6] China is also extremely interested in natural resources, buying oil from Venezuela, copper from Perú and Chile, and vast quantities of Brazilian iron ore. A Nicaraguan Canal would only help this trade. Super tankers – vessels that can carry over two million gallons of oil – that are too large to travel through the Panama Canal, even after the current expansion, would be able to slide through the planned Nicaraguan passage.

It is hard not to wonder if Beijing, and not enigmatic Wang, is floating the bill for this project. A recent investigation by Confidencial, a Nicaraguan online newspaper, suggested that a complex web of fifteen companies from all over the world were involved in funding, with one in Nicaragua, five in the Cayman Islands, seven in the Netherlands, one in China and one in Hong Kong. For his part Wang has steadfastly denied any connections to the Chinese government, military or ruling Communist Party.[7]

Opposition

Canal opponent, Nicaraguan Congressman Eliseo Nuñez, has been outspoken in his denunciation about the project. It is, he said, “a propaganda game, a media show to continue generating false hopes of future prosperity among Nicaraguans.”[8] Critics have lashed out at President Ortega, arguing that the project is simply a new way for those high up in the administration to further enrich themselves. The proposed canal has provoked a good deal of opposition on both sides of the political spectrum. A small, left-wing splinter group of the FSLN, the Movimiento Renovacion Sandinista (MRS, Sandinista Renovation Movement) is up in arms over the canal. An article published on the party’s website on June 6 outlined three major concerns regarded the concession granted to Wang:

• President Ortega has continually avoided answering questions about the Chinese company that is largely unknown to the Nicaraguan citizens;[9]
• President Ortega and the FSLN have not permitted municipal government to participate in the project deliberations;[10]
• The concession grants Nicaraguan public space to a little known foreign company.[11]

The MRS’s main concern is with those communities scheduled to be displaced by the construction of the canal, accusing Ortega of “robbing the Nicaraguan towns of their right to decide on the construction of an interoceanic canal.” The president was a “vendepatria,” (traitor or sell-out), the MRS concluded.[12]

The leading opposition party, Partido Liberal Independiente (PLI, Independent Liberal Party) holds an exceptional distrust of the Ortega administration. Carlos Langrand, Assembly Deputy and member of the Infrastructural Commission of the National Assembly, raised questions about the constitutionality of the concession, saying that because “the canal is important to the country, it is necessary that the government consult the persons whose lives will be impacted by the project.”[13] Opposition politician Victor Tinoco, a former FSLN member expelled in a party purge by Ortega, argues that building the canal is against agrarian reform, which was at the centerpiece of Ortega’s Sandinista revolution. They protest that the canal that will cost almost four times as much as the entire annual GDP of Nicaragua.[14] It is too expensive, they say. The canal deal with Wang, Law 800, was approved in a record seven days with no public consultation, no feasibility or environmental studies presented and no parliamentary debate.[15] The concession agreement gives Wang carte blanche to build and manage the 172-mile long canal, as well as multiple deep-sea ports, a free trade zone, an international airport, cement and explosive factories, an electricity plant and elite hotels.[16]

Anger, however, is not restricted to the national level. Citizens have formed locally based groups and coalitions, and have taken to the streets. María Duarte, a 72-year-old former Sandinista who fought in the revolution as well as against U.S backed Contra insurgents, said at a recent protest, “it’s all over between us and Daniel. He was like a son to us but he’s betrayed us, sold us out to the Chinese! Que Barbaridad! It’s outrageous.”[17] Protestor José Jesus Ramirez agreed, adding that he might be willing to use weapons and violence against those in support of the canal. Ramirez stood ready to begin “begging the international community to send its arms to defend ourselves, like before.”[18] Some citizens have started mockingly calling their country “Chinaragua.”[19]

Opposition leaders are also wary of corruption in this most massive of undertakings. The matter of corruption has been a persistent problem for Managua for decades and a report released in early November by Transparency International, a global anti-corruption watchdog, listed Nicaragua as the third most corrupt country in Latin America, falling behind Venezuela and Haiti[20]. Another study, “Diagnosis of Corruption in Nicaragua” carried out by the Joint Donor Anti-Corruption Trust Fund, revealed that one in four interviewees said they had been given bribes to expedite public and private red tape, and that three out of ten citizens said they had been asked for kickbacks at public institutions between 2006 and 2009. Miguel Peñailillo, the Chilean researcher who led the project simply claimed, “corruption has not disappeared, but has simply changed form.”[21] With corruption as widespread and endemic as it is, the question of whether or not the Nicaraguan government accepted bribes in order to build the canal must be answered and a clear, concise report detailing the financial backing of the project ought to be released to the public.

Environmental Repercussions

While Francisco Telemaco Talavera, the leader of Nicaragua’s national Agrarian University and a strong advocate for the canal, says the project will lift 400,000 out of poverty and create 250,000 jobs, the environmental impact will be massive.[22] National Geographic experts who have studied the proposal estimate that the canal would transform environmentally sensitive wetlands into denuded dry zones, remove hardwood forests, and destroy habitants of vulnerable animals.[23] Lake Nicaragua is the largest drinking-water reservoir in Central America and could face numerous environmental catastrophes such as oil spills and dirty salt water infecting pristine biological ecosystems. In addition, the proposed canal would cut through two UNESCO biosphere reserves that are home to jaguars, sea turtles, great green macaws and other endangered species.[24] Experts claim that the canal could destroy up to 400,000 hectares of rain forest and wetlands.[25]

In order for the canal route to reach the desired 90 feet depth, millions of tons of dynamite will be used to carve a path through the lake. The use of dynamite is an incredible risk that could easily destroy large areas of protected land and species in the lake and on Ometepe, the island home of many protected species of monkeys and other wildlife.

President Ortega would be well advised to slow down and listen to the alarms being sounded. Some Nicaraguans, like canal opponent Lombardo Fonseca, are calling on the people to militantly resist the project. Already armed and taking to the mountains, Fonseca said, “Together, we will do everything humanly possible to stop this canal.”[26] In light of the legitimate constituent concerns about building the canal, perhaps it would be best for the government to take more time to deliberate in a more inclusive manner and address the clearly justifiable objections.

William Rurode, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

References

[1] http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/24/opinion/ghitis-nicaragua-canal-project/

[2] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/30/china-s-nicaragua-canal-could-spark-a-new-central-america-revolution.html

[3]ibid

[4] ibid

[5] http://www.cepal.org/en/publications/chinese-foreign-direct-investment-latin-america-and-caribbean-china-latin-america-cross

[6] http://ivn.us/2014/02/12/u-s-losing-latin-america

[7] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/25/us-china-nicaragua-canal-idUSBRE95O0PA20130625

[8] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28206683

[9] http://www.partidomrs.com/index.php/2012-03-28-02-53-51/2012-03-28-02-54-59/comunicados/117-pronunciamiento-sobre-la-propuesta-de-ley-especial-para-otorgar-una-concesion-canalera-a-una-empresa-china

[10] ibid

[11]ibid

[12]ibid

[13]http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2013/06/11/poderes/150338

[14]https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nu.html

[15]ibid

[16]ibid

[17]http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/30/china-s-nicaragua-canal-could-spark-a-new-central-america-revolution.html

[18]ibid

[20] http://globalgeopolitics.net/wordpress/2009/11/19/nicaragua-despite-efforts-corruption-still-a-problem/

[21] Ibid

[22]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hazel-guardado/nicaraguas-proposed-inter_b_6083274.html

[23]Ibid

[24] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140220-nicaraguan-canal-environment-conservation/

[25]ibid

[26] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/30/china-s-nicaragua-canal-could-spark-a-new-central-america-revolution.html

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Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas that doesn’t receive as much notoriety as carbon dioxide or methane, but a new study confirms that atmospheric levels of N2O rose significantly as the Earth came out of the last ice age and addresses the cause.

An international team of scientists analyzed air extracted from bubbles enclosed in ancient polar ice from Taylor Glacier in Antarctica, allowing for the reconstruction of the past atmospheric composition. The analysis documented a 30 percent increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide concentrations from 16,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. This rise in N2O was caused by changes in environmental conditions in the ocean and on land, scientists say, and contributed to the warming at the end of the ice age and the melting of large ice sheets that then existed.

The findings add an important new element to studies of how Earth may respond to a warming climate in the future. Results of the study, which was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation, are being published this week in the journal Nature.

“We found that marine and terrestrial sources contributed about equally to the overall increase of nitrous oxide concentrations and generally evolved in parallel at the end of the last ice age,” said lead author Adrian Schilt, who did much of the work as a post-doctoral researcher at Oregon State University. Schilt then continued to work on the study at the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

“The end of the last ice age represents a partial analog to modern warming and allows us to study the response of natural nitrous oxide emissions to changing environmental conditions,” Schilt added. “This will allow us to better understand what might happen in the future.”

Nitrous oxide is perhaps best known as laughing gas, but it is also produced by microbes on land and in the ocean in processes that occur naturally, but can be enhanced by human activity. Marine nitrous oxide production is linked closely to low oxygen conditions in the upper ocean and global warming is predicted to intensify the low-oxygen zones in many of the world’s ocean basins. N2O also destroys ozone in the stratosphere.

“Warming makes terrestrial microbes produce more nitrous oxide,” noted co-author Edward Brook, an Oregon State paleoclimatologist whose research team included Schilt. “Greenhouse gases go up and down over time, and we’d like to know more about why that happens and how it affects climate.”

Nitrous oxide is among the most difficult greenhouse gases to study in attempting to reconstruct the Earth’s climate history through ice core analysis. The specific technique that the Oregon State research team used requires large samples of pristine ice that date back to the desired time of study – in this case, between about 16,000 and 10,000 years ago.

The unusual way in which Taylor Glacier is configured allowed the scientists to extract ice samples from the surface of the glacier instead of drilling deep in the polar ice cap because older ice is transported upward near the glacier margins, said Brook, a professor in Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

The scientists were able to discern the contributions of marine and terrestrial nitrous oxide through analysis of isotopic ratios, which fingerprint the different sources of N2O in the atmosphere.

“The scientific community knew roughly what the N2O concentration trends were prior to this study,” Brook said, “but these findings confirm that and provide more exact details about changes in sources. As nitrous oxide in the atmosphere continues to increase – along with carbon dioxide and methane – we now will be able to more accurately assess where those contributions are coming from and the rate of the increase.”

Atmospheric N2O was roughly 200 parts per billion at the peak of the ice age about 20,000 years ago then rose to 260 ppb by 10,000 years ago. As of 2014, atmospheric N2Owas measured at about 327 ppb, an increase attributed primarily to agricultural influences.

Although the N2O increase at the end of the last ice age was almost equally attributable to marine and terrestrial sources, the scientists say, there were some differences.

“Our data showed that terrestrial emissions changed faster than marine emissions, which was highlighted by a fast increase of emissions on land that preceded the increase in marine emissions,” Schilt pointed out. “It appears to be a direct response to a rapid temperature change between 15,000 and 14,000 years ago.”

That finding underscores the complexity of analyzing how Earth responds to changing conditions that have to account for marine and terrestrial influences; natural variability; the influence of different greenhouse gases; and a host of other factors, Brook said.

“Natural sources of N2O are predicted to increase in the future and this study will help up test predictions on how the Earth will respond,” Brook said.

The post No Laughing Matter: Nitrous Oxide Rose At End Of Last Ice Age appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Political language is a vast preserve of euphemism. Energy security, one of more appropriate candidates of euphemistic consideration, has been on the lips of policy planners from Moscow to Washington for decades. The very idea does little to mask the titanic tussles over energy supplies, who controls, not merely the assets, but the means with which these will be delivered. Where there is an energy reserve, be it natural gas, oil, or some other usable commodity, there will be money and blood.

The cancellation by Moscow of the South Stream project in preference for an agreement with Turkey can be read in several ways. The South Stream route was touted as an alternative, adding to the North Stream counterpart that would bypass troublesome Ukraine as a transit point for delivering energy.

The energy game rarely has heroes, but it is certainly has various villains. While the European Union stresses going green and reducing traces of its considerable carbon footprint, it has also sought, over the years, a greater liberalisation of energy markets, one of them being Russia. (Liberalisation can be measured in terms of which companies are allowed a slice of the export pie, rather than any moral value.)

The Russian government’s stranglehold over natural gas supply has been unchallenged, with such gargantuan entities as Gazprom ruling the roost. Such government monopolies jar with European preferences towards energy competition, though it should be noted that the South Stream project had, on the books, additional European partners in the form of Italy’s ENI (20 percent), France’s EDF (15 percent) and Germany’s Wintershall, subsidiary of BASF (15 percent).

A key reason cited by Putin in focusing on Turkey and cancelling the South Stream project lies in the European Commission’s insistence in its “Third Energy Package” that no single company control the full process of extraction, transportation and sale of energy (Asia Times, Dec 8).1 That has been a vital, and misguided weapon, in the European Commission’s broader game.

Other considerations may well be operating, not least the continued insistence on sanctions over the Ukraine crisis, something which is having its own detrimental effect on European markets. Germany has fared particularly poorly with the loss of Russian business. Brussels keeps insisting on bruising and biting the state-owned hand that feeds it.

Bulgaria has also come out poorly, with Sofia being accused by Putin of being unduly tardy. “Considering that we still have not received a [construction] permit in Bulgaria, we believe that Russia cannot continue the implementation of this project in these circumstances” (Sofia Globe, Dec 1).2 While there had been much backing for the project in Bulgarian political circles, Sofia has also been heckled by the European Commission’s insistence that EU member states renegotiate bilateral agreements on South Stream to conform to the Third energy package.3

What it, and Brussels has gotten, is a grand Eurasian power play centred on Turkey as the new transit point for energy and raw materials. (It already is one for Azerbaijan oil via the Baku-Tblisi-Ceysan pipeline.) To become a true energy “hub”, however, Ankara’s lawyers will have to read the fine print as to whether the country has such important items as resell rights (Voice of America, Dec 11).4

The deal between Moscow and Ankara is more than just an energy deal over a rerouting of the project. There will be no net loss for Gazprom, which can focus on Turkey, the company’s second business customer after Germany, while also giving a boost to other parts of Turkish industry. Bulgaria, for all of that, seemed small beer, though its project losses at around 400 million Euros will be felt.

The negative impact in the Balkans has been notable, and replays in several ways the delicate politics between Russian interests in the region, its tiptoeing with Turkey, and European demands that various EU “rules” be complied with. Always caught between in the vice of history and the powers of expediency, the Balkan states have rarely made it to the winners’ podium. Several countries on route were posed to benefit, both directly and incidentally. Instead, the South Stream has been exited in favour of a Turk Stream. “This is what the New Great Game in Eurasia is about,” posed the Asia Times (Dec 8, 2014).

Serbia has felt the cancellation keenly, more so for the fact that Belgrade sold a majority stake in its own state oil and gas company, NIS, to Gazprom in 2008 hoping to get something in return. As early as November 21, one of Gazprom’s subsidiaries issued a call for builders, welders and mechanics to assist in construction of its Serbian leg of the pipeline. As Branko Tasevski of the Veco Welding Company located in Zrenjanin explained, “We thought we’d earn enough to sustain us for the next five to six years. We lost not only potential profits but also references for future deals” (Moscow Times, Dec 12).5

Such a deal suggests the parlous nature of energy politics. Deals done one day may be neutered the next. The 2008 NIS-Gazprom deal might have been seen as having fraternal freight on future energy construction passing through Serbia, but it was not to be. “We sold them the family jewels, as brothers,” argues Misa Brkić of the Serbian weekly Novi Magazin, “without asking for any guarantee that they would make good their promise.” Lack of clarity has always been the case when making concession over such jewels.

While the Balkans and the EU fall on heavy days over the latest energy manoeuvrings, the hardened regimes in Ankara and Moscow have made a critical outflanking move – and it is one stashed with economic importance.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

Notes:
1. http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/CEN-01-081214.html
2. http://sofiaglobe.com/2014/12/01/russia-shelves-south-stream-gas-pipeline-plans-blames-bulgaria/
3. http://sofiaglobe.com/2013/12/05/ec-asks-south-stream-countries-to-renegotiate-deals-with-russia/
4. http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-turkey-pipeline-has-economic-and-strategic-motives/2554995.html
5. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/eastern-europe-licks-its-wounds-after-russia-cancels-south-stream-gas-pipeline/513251.html

The post Cancelling South Stream Project: The Woes Of Energy Insecurity – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

With the Syrian army deep inside Aleppo’s old city

This observer has long sought an extended visit to the old city of Aleppo which is also one of this cradle of civilizations cultural and educational centers. Despite being in a continuing war zone, the visit materialized when security authorities granted permission and assistance to this observer to complete research finalizing more than two years of research across Syria on the subject of Syria’s Endangered Heritage: The Story Of A Nations Fight To Preserve Its Cultural Heritage.

Several visits to damaged archeological sites and quality briefings soon turned a few days into more than a week with more than a two dozen detailed evaluations and analyses during meetings with Syrian nationalists among them, M.B. Shabani, Director of the Aleppo National Museum. Another was with Professor of Islamic Science, Bouthania Chalkhi and a group of her faculty colleagues and researchers at Aleppo’s 80,000 plus student university. Aleppo University, like nearly all of Syria’s institutions of higher learning has paid a bitter price for keeping its classrooms open. On January 15 2013 the School of Architecture was shelled and more than 90 students and visitors on campus were killed. By shocking coincidence, Damascus University’s School of Architecture was similarly shelled only five weeks later on March 28, 2013, killing more than 15 students.

Two military commanders, currently with their troops deep inside the old city near the ancient Citadel, seemed more like college philosophy instructors than military men, as they discussed the massive destruction inside the old city including more than 1,600 khans and souks.

This observer and another American, a special young man from Maryland who is studying Arabic in this region, was guided along with two colleagues on a long nighttime tour and briefing among alleys inside the ancient burned out and blasted medina souk. Sometimes as we paused our army guide would comment on how parts of the souk might be salvageable and how he felt anger at what was wantonly inflicted in the area now under his command. Our military escort advised us that our tour of the remains of this UNESCO World Heritage site was the first such visit allowed since its destruction more than 18 months ago. He even joked that nearly a month ago a team with the BBC was offered a more limited tour but that a famous female BBC Middle East correspondent, one of this observers favorites, turned back after penetrating the warrens by less than 50 yards.

Surely not the first or last time that Yankees have followed up Brits to complete a task, our interpreter from Damascus giggled.

For hours we trudged through the widely reported massive destruction observing the burned detritus of what were formerly historic “khans” which for centuries traded and sold specialty items as noted below. The tour left one in numbed disbelief over the extent of the destruction.

Among the most historic souks in Aleppo’s old city, verified by this observer as having been destroyed on 9/29/2012, all within the burned out covered alleyways of Souk al-Madina, include, but are not limited to the following. This partial list is presented as a condolence to Syrian artisans and citizens whose lives have been deeply, negatively, and irreversibly damaged. Wanton destruction of a significant part of the shared global heritage of us all.

• Khan al-Qadi, one of the oldest khans (specialized souk areas) in Aleppo dating back to 1450;
• Khan al-Burghul (Bulger), built in 1472 and the location of the British general consulate of Aleppo until the beginning of the 20th century;
• Souk al-Saboun (soap khan) built in the beginning of the 16th century was the main center of the soap production in Aleppo;
• Souk Khan al-Nahhaseen (coppersmiths), built in 1539. The general consulate of Belgium was at this location during the16th century. Before its destruction it including more than 80 traditional and modern shoe-trading and production shops;
• Khan al-Shouneh, built in 1546 was a market for trades and traditional handicrafts of Aleppine art;
• Souq Khan al-Jumrok or the customs’ khan, was a textile trading center with more than 50 stores. Built in 1574, Khan Al-Gumrok was considered to be the largest khan in ancient Aleppo;
• Souk Khan al-Wazir, built in 1682, was the main souk for cotton products in Aleppo;
• Souk al-Farrayin was the fur market, is the main entrance to the souk from the south. The souk is home to 77 stores mainly specialized in furry products;
• Souk al-Hiraj, traditionally was historically the main market for firewood and charcoal. Until its destruction it reportedly included 33 stores mainly dealing in rug and carpet weaving and products;
• Souk al-Dira’, was perhaps the main center for tailoring and one of the most organized alleys in the souk with more than 60 workshops;
• Souk al-Attareen for more than a century was the vast herbal market and in fact was the main spice-selling market of Aleppo. Before its destruction it was a textile-selling center with more than 80 stores, including spice-selling shops;
• Souk az-Zirb, was the main entrance to the souq from the east and the place where coins were being struck during the Mamluk (18th century) period. All of its 72 shops featured textiles and the basic needs of the Bedouins;
• Souk al-Behramiyeh, located near the Behramiyeh mosque had more than 20 stores trading in foodstuffs;
• Souk Marcopoli (derived from Marco Polo), was a center of textile trading with 29 stores.
• Souk al-Atiq specialized in raw leather trading with 48 outlets;
• Souk as-Siyyagh or the jewelry market was the main center of jewelry shops in Aleppo and Syria with more than 100 outlets located in 2 parallel alleys.
• The Venetians’ Khan, was home to the consul of Venice and the Venetian merchants.
• Souk an-Niswan or the women’s market, was an area where accessories, clothes and wedding equipment’s of the bride could be found;
• Souk Arslan Dada, is one of the main entrances to the walled city from the north. With 33 stores, the souk is a center of leather and textile trading;
• Souk al-Haddadin, is one of the northern entrances to the old city. Located outside the main gate it was considered to be the old traditional blacksmiths’ market with more than 40 workshops;
• Souk Khan al-Harir (the silk khan) was another entrance to the old city from the north and was buiit in the second half of the 16th century. The silk souk hosted the Iranian consulate until 1919.
• Suweiqa (small souk) consisted of 2 long alleys: Sweiqat Ali and
• Suweiqat Hatem, located in al-Farafira district which contained markets mainly specialized in home and kitchen equipment.

One is left distraught over the seeming futility of even contemplating rebuilding this world heritage site. Would it require half a century to reconstruct, as was required in Dresden Germany following three days of firebombing by British and American planes, which began on February 13, 1945?

There are many questions to be answered whether rebuilding would ever authentically restore Aleppo’s old city to what it had been for centuries.

Would “restoration” render it a sterile or glitzy place with the main focus on the tourist dollar? Which countries would help rebuild it and where would the money come from, and could Syria and her experts influence and oversee the reconstruction? One professor of Archeology at Aleppo University asked, “Could a rebuilt Medina souk ever again be ‘my neighborhood, the cherished neighborhood of my youth and of my family over preceding generations?” Many of the individual souks, maybe 12 feet by 10 feet were valued at close of one million dollars and restoration would cost hundreds of millions.

Locating experts in areas amidst fairly intense government security concerns and measures which are much greater than in Damascus was not always easy. It was compounded by the fact of 2 hour per day electricity and water shortages, yet one still had the opportunity to discuss and learn from a cross section of this community including academic, governmental, business and citizen activists.

Three tentative conclusions arrived at by this observer from fascinating and heart felt discussions include one from Professor Lamis Herbly, Chairperson of the Archeology department of Aleppo University. This warm and elegant lady’s eyes welled with tears, being the mother of two youngsters and who worries daily about the safety of her children while insisting that they stay in school despite the dangers, described her and her communities losses. She also expressed the concerns of her academic colleagues that if and when reconstruction begins in the old city of Aleppo that it must be done with utmost care and under Syrian experts control. She explained what she meant was that reconstruction in Syria not mirror what was done in Beirut to renovate the ‘downtown’ area which separated Muslim and Christian militia along the ‘green line’ during Lebanon’s 15 year (1975-1990).

One professor declared the reconstruction of downtown Beirut and the filling in of Beirut harbor with thousands of years of antiquities as Saudi financed, behemoth Mercedes Benz earth movers shoved much of Lebanon’s history into the sea to make way for upscale fancy tourist attracting shops catering to rich Gulf tourists (of whom there are very few these days). “So they can buy yet more jewelry and Paris fashions?” she asked. Someone else joined in saying what happened in Lebanon was a cultural crime.

“Downtown Beirut is an obscenity,” one PhD candidate, a young lady who formerly lived near the old city insisted. This student is among those who joined efforts that began nearly two decades ago to preserve and protect one of Aleppo’s two remaining synagogues in the Samoua neighborhood. She vowed that citizens of Aleppo must not and will not allow what happened in Beirut to happen here in Aleppo.

Another concern, discussed with citizens in Aleppo is the often expressed worry over whether other countries that unfortunately had, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, a hand in the destruction of much of Syria cultural heritage would be willing to help with its preservation and reconstruction. This observer, who has studied the subject over the past two years in Syria shared this concern, but sought to assure Aleppo interlocutors that indeed many governments acknowledge with gratitude the work of the Syrian people in protecting our mutual global heritage, in the custody of country’s people for millennia, share their horror over what has happened and indeed want to help as soon as a lasting ceasefire can be achieved. This subject was one of the most frequently raised by both experts and average citizens in Aleppo.

Archeological and restoration experts in Syria tend to agree with international research findings that estimate that despite the vast heartbreaking destruction, looting, politically motivated desecration of countless mosques and churches as well as thousands of years of pagan artifacts, that approximately 96 percent of our shared cultural heritage in Syria can be repaired, restored, or even replicated when no other option in available. What is urgently needed before more damage is infected is a ceasefire or freeze in place and is being discussed by UN mediators. Objects that have been blow up in a frenzy of ignorance and malevolence are lost and irreplaceable. The tens of thousands of illegally excavated and looted priceless antiquities now scattered to private collections and speculators have been routed through, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, Iraq and Jordan. They must be returned as part of a massive international antiquities retrieval campaign that should include an expanded role for Interpol, auction houses and governments as well as international institution of the UN. One student at Damascus University told this observer recently that she and fellow students have started an international campaign focusing on auction houses and governments seeking the return of stolen Syrian antiquities. They have named their student led organization: “I’m Syrian and I need to go home. Please help me.”

One of life’s seeming wonderful incongruities is experienced by visitors all across Syria these days. It has to do with the human spirit. Examining and contemplating just the one example of damage to our shared global heritage in Aleppo, as depressing and discouraging as any of the damage done to our shared global culture heritage one might be excused for becoming cynical and even somewhat catatonic as one observes and studies the desecration and destruction here in Aleppo and in so many other areas.

But not the Syrian people. Rather than slump and becoming crestfallen, this observer finds Syrians resolute and even somehow inspiring in their determination to preserve, protect and restore our cultural heritage. Space allows for one example.

This observer, spent an afternoon this week next to the glowing fireplace on a cold rainy day in the warm and cozy office of Mohammad Kujjah, Director of the 1924 founded Archeological Institute of Aleppo. I was joined by some of his staff, all experts on preserving archeological treasures. One taciturn scholar sitting next to me, who I thought appeared to be on the verge of nodding off, saddening perked up and squeezed my arm to get my undivided attention. He then proceeded to further light up the bookcase lined office by presenting a brilliant lecture that, were he asked, this observer would entitle something like:

The Germans rebuilt Dresden and the Syrians will rebuild Aleppo!

He began with fascinating comparisons between what was and what was done to Dresden beginning on February 13, 1945 and what happened to Aleppo’s old city on September 28, 2012. Dresden was carpet bombed by 722 RAF and 527 USAAF bombers that dropped 2431 tons of high explosive bombs, and 1475.9 tons of incendiaries. The high explosive bombs damaged buildings and exposed their ancient wooden structures, while the incendiaries ignited them. The massive wooden structures, like in Aleppo, burned to the ground. The resultant firestorms killed an estimated 50,000 to 200,000 people, although the total number is disputed. Dresden, an historic center held no strategic value. The war in Europe was coming to an end, and the city was packed with refugees fleeing the advancing Red Army. It is widely believed that the bombing was a revenge attack for the German bombing of Coventry as well as a show of force.

As he spoke the professor displayed for his guests a large photograph of Dresden taken in early March of 1945. The high explosive bombs damaged buildings and exposed their wooden structures, while the incendiaries ignited them. The massive wooden structures of Aleppo’s old city also burned to the ground.

The archeologist lectured his rapt American audience, seemingly also to the delight of his Aleppine colleagues on how Aleppo reconstruction could be achieved and he spoke of the Syrian peoples will that it shall be done.

All people of good will who accept their personal duty to join the people of Syria in preserving, protecting and restoring our shared global heritage can take solace from what this observer witnessed an exhilarating demonstration of the sublime capacities of our shared human spirit as we help to salvage our cultural heritage.

The post Germans Rebuilt Dresden And Syrians Will Rebuild Aleppo – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

No-one quite knows where Turkey stands in relation to the brutal and bloodthirsty Islamic State (IS), but there are reasons for fearing the worst. The worst, from the point of view of the West generally, as well as much of the Middle East, is that Turkey’s antagonism towards Syria’s President Bashar Assad outweighs any opposition it may have to IS, and that its current foreign strategy is postulated on that premise.

Underlying this position is the long-standing aim of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to deny Kurdish aspirations for full independence, and crush the militant Kurdish organisation, the PKK – a stance which has the full support of Ankara’s political establishment. As demonstrated last autumn in the fight for Kobane, the town on the Syrian-Turkish border, rather than have the Kurds prevail the Turks would have preferred to see it overrun by IS. In the event, due to determined efforts by the US-led anti-IS alliance, Kobane has not fallen, but the Turks have sat on their hands while the battle raged.

The Western powers can perfectly well see what game Turkey is playing – standing by while IS slogs it out with its traditional Kurdish enemies, and using the humanitarian disaster thus created to pressure the US into helping remove Assad and his Shia-supported Islamic government. In pursuit of replacing the Assad regime with one in the Sunni tradition, many fear that the Turks are actually supporting IS fighters with arms and training, as well as facilitating the flow of foreign fighters across its borders to join IS – something that Turkey strongly denies.

Perhaps this explains the recent influx of foreign visitors to the court of Turkey’s new president. First to arrive early in December was Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. He was followed by a high-powered delegation of top officials from the European Union. Hard on their heels came the UK’s prime minister, David Cameron. Each was seeking to pull Turkey closer to its own political interests.

Putin’s visit highlighted a major disagreement between Russia and the EU involving the supply of gas to southern Europe. The South Stream pipeline project, announced in 2007, was a plan to transport natural gas from the Russian Federation through the Black Sea to Bulgaria, then through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia  to Austria. The project fell foul of EU competition and energy legislation, and the difficulties could not be resolved. Putin made his trip to Turkey in order to announce that Russia was scrapping South Stream, and to name Turkey as its preferred partner for an alternative pipeline. The proposed undersea pipeline to Turkey, with an annual capacity of 63 billion cubic metres, would face no EU competition problems, since Turkey remains outside the EU.

No doubt Putin hoped that Turkey would respond by agreeing to retain its neutral stance as regards Russia’s activities in Ukraine, and continue to refrain from imposing Western-style sanctions.

Facing the prospect of a new Russo-Turkish entente, and clearly fearing the worst as regards Turkish intentions in the anti-IS battle, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, together with other top EU officials, flew to Turkey on December 8 to urge its full participation in the fight against IS militants in Syria, and to persuade Turkey to stop the flow of foreign fighters across its borders.

Underlying the visit was Turkey’s long-standing application, dating back to 1987, to join the EU. The visit by these top EU officials was one of the highest-profile in years and, said Mogherini, is a symbol of: “…our desire to step up the engagement.”

The EU apparently hopes that the coincidence of a new president and prime minister in Turkey, and a new European Commission in Brussels, can mark a fresh start in EU-Turkey relations. This could at least pave the way for regular high-level talks to discuss common strategic interests, if not lead to granting Turkey’s long-standing wish to join the EU.

One issue up for discussion during the visit was surely the fact that Turkey has not joined in with the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia over Ukraine. The proposed Russian-Turkish gas project clearly renders such a possibility even more remote, though EU officials doubtless pressed Turkey to join in sanctions, or at least not to take advantage of the situation by exporting affected products to Russia.

The EU officials had barely left Turkish soil before the UK’s prime minister, David Cameron, flew into Ankara to try to persuade Erdogan to bend his policies in Britain’s direction. In particular IS poses a direct threat to Britain’s national security, both through its brutal beheadings of Western hostages and because of the growing number of British jihadists who are seeking to return home from fighting in Syria to carry out acts of terrorism.

Cameron hoped to persuade Erdogan to help track the movements of British and other foreign jihadists crossing Turkey’s border with Syria. At a joint press conference with Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Prime Minister, Cameron was able to announce: “The prime minister and I have agreed that we should exchange even more information, we should cooperate more in terms of intelligence.” This is understood to include requiring all Turkey’s airlines to share timely and accurate information about airline passengers flying from Turkish airports direct to the UK.

As for Turkey’s EU aspirations, Cameron said that he discussed Turkey’s accession to the EU during talks in Ankara on December 10 with Davutoglu. “In terms of Turkish membership of the EU,” he said, “I very much support that. That’s a longstanding position of British foreign policy.”

Cameron’s difficulty is that Turkey, though a member of Nato, has a very different take on the Syrian conflict, and persuading Turkey’s leaders to alter their focus from overthrowing Assad to defeating IS is a task probably beyond Cameron, let alone the high-powered EU delegation that preceded him in Ankara.

In fact, Erdogan has already announced the terms on which he might be persuaded to be more active in supporting the anti-IS alliance. His most specific demand is the creation of a buffer and no-fly zone along the Turkish-Syrian border, protected from Assad’s troops and aircraft. This would represent a serious escalation of the conflict, since establishing a no-fly zone could involve destroying a good chunk of Assad’s air defence system. Moreover, artillery within the range of the buffer zone might also have to be targeted.

There is also the implication for relations with Iran. Creating a buffer zone would be seen by Iran as an invasion of a key ally, and it might well scupper any hope the US may have of linking the on-going nuclear talks with securing Iran’s support for a managed political transition that removes Assad but preserves much of the Syrian state.

All in all, the chances of persuading Turkey to abandon its somewhat equivocal approach to the Syrian conflict seem somewhat remote.

The post Turkey And The Islamic State – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon  on Friday about coalition efforts to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby.

In a statement summarizing the conversation, Kirby said the two discussed a range of regional issues and reaffirmed the strength of the US-Israel security relationship.

Friday’s phone call followed the seventh meeting between Hagel and Yaalon, which took place at the Pentagon in October.

The post Hagel Talks Regional Issues With Israeli Minister appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Elise Harris

Pope Francis addressed the increasing challenges caused by violence in the Middle East with members of the Syriac Catholic Church, urging them to work alongside other churches to find solutions.

“Many have fled to seek shelter from an inhumanity that throws entire populations out into the streets, leaving them without any means of survival,” the Pope observed in his Dec. 12 address.

Together with other churches, he said, “seek to coordinate your efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs, whether of those who remain in their homelands or of those who have sought refuge in other countries.”

Pope Francis gave his speech to His Beatitude Ignace Youssif III Younan, Patriarch of the Syro-Catholic Church, as well as the other syro-catholic bishops gathered in Rome for their Dec. 8-10 annual synod.

In the meeting, which took place in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the Pope greeted the entire Syro-Catholic community, and offered his particular support for those coming from Syria and Iraq.

These communities, the Pope noted, “are living moments of great suffering and fear in the face of violence. And I accompany these sentiments of solidarity and compassion with remembrance and prayer.”

He commended the bishops and patriarch for their ongoing efforts to reform their Divine Liturgy, which he said requires an “intense appreciation” for tradition, as well as a great amount of thoughtful discernment.

“The difficult situation in the Middle East provoked and continues to provoke in your Church the displacement of faithful to eparchies in the diaspora, and places you before new pastoral demands,” Pope Francis observed.

It is a challenge, he said, to on the one hand remain faithful to their origins, and at the same time insert themselves into different cultural contexts in order to save souls and work for the common good.

By moving to other countries considered to be safer, the Christian presence in the Middle East is “impoverished,” the pontiff noted, explaining that it has always been a “land of the prophets, of the first preachers of the Gospel, of the martyrs and of many saints, cradle of the hermits and of monasticism.”

This history requires each of them to reflect on their own eparchies, the Pope observed, “which need zealous pastors, as well as courageous faithful, capable of witnessing to the Gospel when in discussions – sometimes not easy – with people of different religions and ethnicities.”

He encouraged them work together with other churches of the Middle East in addressing and finding solutions to the current humanitarian crisis, and urged them make a pastoral commitment to serving in “the ministry of hope.”

“I invite you to bring to all the expression of my closeness and of my prayer to the Lord,” Pope Francis said, and entrusted the Syro-Catholic Church to the protection of Mary, the Mother of God, St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Ephrem.

The post Pope Francis Pleads With Middle East Churches To Address Crisis Together appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Iran has lambasted as interfering the stance adopted by Persian Gulf Arab states regarding the country’s ownership of three Persian Gulf islands, reiterating that the islands are an inseparable part of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Rehashing the same meddlesome position on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s sovereignty over the three Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and the Lesser Tunb has no bearing on the existing legal and historical realities,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said.

A central plank of Iran’s foreign policy is to ameliorate friendly relations with neighbors based on mutual respect and non-interference in one another’s internal affairs, Afkham said.

She further said that the Islamic Republic sees no limit to the enhancement of friendly ties with its neighbors and welcomes constructive interaction as well as all-out cooperation in that respect.

Afkham’s remarks came in reaction to a statement issued at the end of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council’s Tuesday meeting in the Qatari capital, Doha, which raised unfounded allegations about the ownership of the three Iranian islands.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has also called a US Senate report on the CIA’s torture program “shocking”.

“The content of this shocking report shows violence, extremism, and secrecy as institutionalized in the US security system,” Afkham said in a statement.

She voiced concerns that the “illegal processes and inhumane measures” presented in the report “still continue and there has been no guarantee from the US government to prevent the repetition of such disasters.”

Iran expects the report to pave the way for the prosecution of those responsible for the “criminal” measures, Afkham added, citing the fact that a significant number of those tortured are non-US citizens.

She has also condemned the killing of senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein by Israeli troops during a protest rally near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

“This act is another clear piece of evidence proving that the Zionist regime [of Israel] is criminal,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, offering condolences to the Palestinian nation and officials.

The recurrence of Israeli crimes undoubtedly motivates the Palestinian people to demonstrate steelier determination to stand up to the Tel Aviv regime and further cements unity among the Palestinians, she said.

The post Iran Insists On Ownership Of Three Persian Gulf Islands appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Iran says it has renewed the visas of 450,000 Afghan nationals for another six months while talks over their residency status continue with the Afghan foreign ministry.

On Friday, the Iranian foreign ministry announced that following a direct request issued by the Afghan president and head of administration to the Iranian president, which invoked “brotherly relations between the two countries”, the Afghan migrants will be given a six-month reprieve while issues around their residency status are sorted out.

Earlier it was announced that 760,000 non-status Afghans whose residency visas had expired would be deported to Afghanistan.

An Afghan delegation travelled to Iran in order to discuss the situation, aiming for a one-year renewal of their residency. It is not clear at this point whether the remaining 310,000 are to be deported or not.

The post Iran Renews Visas For 450,000 Afghans appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Habibou Bangré

The murders of more than 250 men, women and children in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Beni Territory in recent weeks have widely been blamed on an insurgency of Ugandan origin known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces-NALU (ADF-NALU). But several armed groups and racketeering gangs are active in the area and the culprits of these killings have not been incontrovertibly identified.

The killings were carried out, in various episodes between 2 October and 7 December, using knives, machetes and hoes, in parts of Nord Kivu Province, on some occasions in close proximity to positions held by the national army (FARDC) and bases of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUSCO).

Just in the 48 hours leading up to the night of 7 December, 50 people were killed in two parts of Beni Territory, according to Civil Society in North Kivu, a local organisation.

The attacks have led more than 88,000 people to flee their homes, according to a statement released on 9 December by the humanitarian coordinator in DRC, Moustapha Soumare.

“People are now living in abject fear of further attacks. In this climate of generalized insecurity, the reduction of humanitarian access to vulnerable people in affected areas has only increased their distress,” he said.

A report published by a parliamentary delegation in late October after a tour of affected areas, namely Beni, Oicha Eringeti and Ngadi, detailed the brutality of earlier killing sprees:

“There were smashed and burned houses; fabrics and bednets were used to bind the victims before slaughtering them, disembowelling them and cutting them up… The exceptionally violent killings were perpetrated in urban areas between 6.00pm and 8.30pm. The attackers used machetes, axes, hammers, knives, hoes, large stones and firearms… These attackers killed and looted (goats, chickens and food) at the same time.”

“The attackers were dressed in military uniforms, in cassocks, and some were disguised as women (cloths, blouses, scarves) in Ngadi,” the report said.

Civil Society in North Kivu appears to share some government officials’ belief that ADF-NALU – an insurgency of some 800 to 1,400 fighters of Ugandan origin but based in DRC since 1995 – is behind the violence. FARDC, with support from MONUSCO, launched an offensive, code-named Operation Sokola – the Lingala word for “clean” – against the ADF in January 2014.

ADF-NALU itself has no spokesman or social media presence.

“It is really the terrorist group ADF because there is no other armed group operating in this part of the country between Kayinama and Mwalika. They recruited people in DRC, Uganda and Rwanda,” said Teddy Kataliko, chairman of Civil Society in South Kivu.

Kataliko said this explains why several witnesses told the parliamentary commission that the attackers were speaking in languages identified by survivors as Swahili, Kiganda and Kinyarwanda, which are spoken in DRC, Uganda and Rwanda respectively.

Kataliko also said the army had been infiltrated and that some soldiers were involved in racketeering and selling uniforms.

“There must be an investigation and an internal audit of the army to understand the extent of the complicity,” he said.

Enemy still unidentified

The parliamentary report mentions “an enemy still unidentified, although it might loosely be described as ADF”.

Dozens of people were arrested after different killing sprees, in circumstances that were not made clear. Once, three men were paraded on TV, together with the machetes they were alleged to have used to kill civilians.

“The perpetrators of the killings are the ADF,” North Kivu Governor Julien Paluku insisted.

“Of 53 rebels arrested, 30 are Ugandan and 23 are Congolese who fought in RCD/KML,” he said, referring to a rebel group involved in DRC’s second (1998-2003) civil war led by Mbusa Nyamwisi, who is alleged to have business ties with the ADF.

Among those detained “there are also residual elements of the M23 [a Tutsi-led insurgency which was defeated in late 2013] and former disgruntled rebel chiefs,” said Paluku.

He said the massacres were designed to traumatize the local population so that a nascent new rebellion could emerge and style itself as a liberation force.

In late November, government spokesman Lambert Mende told a news conference that investigations had shown that “several hitherto unsuspected national and regional actors have played a decisive role in this terror offensive.”

“Among those arrested we even have some compatriots belonging to certain active political formations,” he said.

When asked if any DRC officials, notably within the security services, had any involvement, Mende said: “Yes, some Congolese people, at all levels, are implicated.”

Many plausible suspects

For Thierry Vircoulon, International Crisis Group (ICG) director for Central Africa, the “ADF has always been very brutal and non-communicative. Previously, they used to establish a security perimeter around their area by terror, including killing villagers who did not respect the perimeter, and displaying their bodies on the roads. The Beni attacks are a very clear message to the Congolese government which launched an operation against them at the beginning of the year: ‘You have not defeated us and we are able to spread terror where and when we want.’”

But some are wary of pointing the finger unquestioningly at ADF-NALU. Caroline Hellyer, a British journalist and political analyst who has written extensively about the group and Beni Territory, noted in an article published in mid-October that there were many other plausible suspects.

In Oicha, for example, she wrote, there are “large groups of unemployed young men hanging around aimlessly with little or nothing to do. These young men are the fodder for the fragmented local Mai Mai groups that are often formed by disgruntled ex-soldiers and manipulated by local politicians.

“Sometimes these groups of young men organise to protect their villages but too often economic necessity and the entangled politics of the region suck them into the networks of militias that shift and change sometimes on a weekly basis.

“All the hallmarks are present, including the type of weapons used – machetes – that indicate it was one of these networked Mai Mai groups that has been responsible for the recent attacks. They operate between Lubero and Rwenzori and right across the Grand North. They function as a call-out service for local politicians, bigger Mai Mai groups and local gangsters,” she wrote.

Soumare’s statement did not mention any group by name, warning “all those who are implicated one way or another in these atrocities” that their crimes would not go unpunished.

ADF embedded in society

The army resumed its offensive against the ADF in December. But there are doubts as to its chances of success – previous attempts in 2005 and 2010 failed – and even as to the very wisdom of a military solution.

“This armed Congolese-Ugandan group has demonstrated extraordinary resilience in maintaining its geostrategic position, its involvement with cross-border trade and its corruption of the security forces,” ICG wrote in a 2012 paper.

Hellyer explained that “while the ADF has a very solid nucleus… like a set of Russian dolls it is highly compartmentalized. This enables the rebels to maintain a multi-level network that provides it with sources of finance and support that extend to the transnational.

“Despite having a Command Group that operates outside DRC, for over 25 years the ADF has been locally embedded and a provider of employment via its various semi-legitimate business operations.

“While we know the ADF shifted a gear in the last few years into a hardened, well-financed and regulated outfit, these local businesses – taxis, shops and so on – continued. This is where the logic of a military solution collapses,” she wrote.

Some among the local population certainly seem to have lost faith in both FARDC and MONUSCO.

On 21 October in the settlement of Mbau, 25km from Beni town, a patrol comprising troops from both entities came under attack by youths carrying machetes, one of whom was shot dead in the fracas.

The following day, in Mavivi, about 10km from Beni, hundreds of citizens marched on a MONUSCO base singing (in Swahili), “We don’t want you here any more. You are doing nothing for us.” The entrance to the base was damaged, and some looting was reported.

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