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Jakarta Fisheries University Promotes Shift In Indonesia’s Renewable Energy Policy – OpEd

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By Nia S. Amira

After a series of general lectures in leading Universities of Jakarta, Indonesia, Cesar Esteban Grillon a man with genuine smile and a familiar face in the academic world and known by everyone as the Ambassador of Paraguay in Indonesia has recently accomplished with great success his fourth general lecture at the Jakarta Fisheries University on January 14, 2015. Amb. Grillon, accompanied by his son, Stephen Grillon were surprised to see the students, called cadets dressed up in their outstanding uniform as if they were Navy officers.

After the hospitality and welcoming ceremony offered by Mr. Tatang Taufiq Hidayat and Mr. Subroto, Rector and Vice Rector of the Jakarta Fisheries University, this open-hearted Paraguayan motivation speaker begun his presentation in the big auditorium, dominated by the blue color as symbol of the oceans, Grillon was assisted by the Director of Post Graduate Studies, Dr. Suharyanto and I. Ketut Sumandiarsa, M.Sc. as moderators who succeeded to make the audience feeling comfortable and listening carefully to the guest speaker. Hundreds of student with a big enthusiasm addressed him with smart questions and laughed when he shared jokes to cheer up the session.

Grillon was happy to have the general lecture at this well-known campus that has been creating thousands of young generations to become experts in the field of maritime studies, fisheries & environment and Dr. Ita Junita Puspadewi, A.Pi, M.Pd (44) is the first female Doctor at Jakarta Fisheries University specialized in Fisheries and Environment since the campus was established in 1962. Under the supervision of the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime and Fisheries and in anticipation of the importance of Indonesian Maritime and Fisheries sectors, the stakeholders expanded the campus in two other areas which are situated in Kerawang campus, West Java, with a focus on factory building and campus research and in Wakatobi islands, South-East Sulawesi with a concentration in conservation.

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world spanning over 1,860,360 sq. km. with 17,508 islands, 250 million people with 300 ethnic groups who speak 365 different languages and dialects. It is without a doubt that the country needs to take comprehensive steps on its national development; particularly those areas focused on human resources, knowledge & information technology, maritime sciences, preservation of culture while considering its strategic position located in the cross roads of South East Asia and in the middle of many important deep water commercial routes.

In Indonesia 2/3 of its territory is covered by water where indigenous people live and do their daily activity as fishermen. They are not so lucky like their brothers living in the mountain areas where facilities are available and provided by the government, the fisherman family still depends on the generator that has a high cost even by using it 6 hours per day and have limitations to watch regularly their favorite football match and TV drama. Electricity is a really big issue in the remote islands and the magic square box that is called TV rarely comes to introduce today’s news program, local soap opera and info-entertainment to their loyal customers due to the lack of electricity power.

Then how to make these things happen when there is a demand of electricity of 207 TWh at the end of 2014 and to reach 386 TWh by 2020?

There is no other choice except to use carbon mining or to empty the reserves of geothermal sources for having sufficient electricity. It would be wiser for the Indonesian government to start the implementation of Renewable Energy Projects across the nation, while using massive resources of ocean water for the benefit of the country’s future renewable energy potential as well for the welfare of the Indonesian people in the entire archipelago. On the other hand the surrounding ocean would be happy to give the wave that shall be used as the power of energy to work on the electricity that will cost nothing but the technology and as a result it will decrease the cost significantly from time to time, plus making satisfying the families in the remote area by giving them the chance to see the world through the famous smart glass box.

Ambassador Grillon’s lecture was finished by answering the questions raised by two cadets who expressed a deep interested in the relations between Indonesia and Paraguay, and Anita Kurniati Hasibuan (a cadet) quickly responded to Amb. Grillon when the latter asked her to provide the name of the capital city of Paraguay. The other cadet, Putra Yudha Pamungkas raised his hand when the second question posed by Amb. Grillon in reference to the best goal maker in Paraguay’s National Soccer Team. Both cadets of this prestigious university were happy to receive the Paraguayan National Flag from the Ambassador.

Great people in a great country with abundant natural resources, it is necessary to invest for the future and handle the present challenges, even more so when Indonesia will place its position as the stream of world maritime resources and become a leading nation in the region especially in a dynamic environment that the Asean Economic Society is currently living. The glory of Indonesia’s maritime resources in the archipelago and the welfare of its people will soon return as it has been in the past. The target is there and a good government team is poised to address these challenges.

The post Jakarta Fisheries University Promotes Shift In Indonesia’s Renewable Energy Policy – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.


US Green Light For War In Ukraine – OpEd

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By Finian Cunningham

US top diplomat John Kerry has announced his refusal to meet with separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine. In the context of fraught peace talks between the warring sides, that’s an American green light for more ethnic cleansing of the pro-Russian population carried out by the neo-Nazi Kiev regime.

Kerry’s snub to the people of east Ukraine, who are fighting heroically for their political autonomy from the Western-sponsored Kiev junta, is Washington code for the following: these pro-Russian people in the east are not equal to the Kiev regime; their rights and aspirations for independence can therefore be dismissed with contempt.

That official Washington attitude only reinforces the hate-filled bigotry of the Kiev regime, which views the ethnic Russian population in the eastern regions as detritus to be trampled on and discarded.

The US puppet-president in Kiev, Petro Poroshenko, may be calling for an immediate “ceasefire” as of today. But that is only a cynical maneuver to stop the pro-Russian rebels from gaining the military upper hand against the Western-backed regime and to give the latter some breathing space to regroup and continue its criminal offensive.

Since the CIA-installed Kiev regime launched its military offensive on the eastern regions last April nearly 5,000 people have been killed, more than 10,000 injured and over one million turned into refugees.

Most of the victims have been civilians. This carnage would not have happened if it were not for the crucial support afforded to the Kiev junta by Washington and its European minions. Billions of dollars of Western taxpayers’ money have been handed out in financial and military aid to prop up the Kiev cabal even as it is proceeding to commit mass murder.

Kiev’s Orwellian-named “anti-terror operation” was launched days after CIA director John Brennan made a secret visit to the Ukrainian capital in mid-April last year, when he held behind-closed-door meetings with the junta’s leadership. The fact of his visit only leaked out by chance, otherwise it would not have been known of. Brennan’s clandestine meeting strongly suggests the Kiev onslaught against eastern Ukraine was US-inspired and is being coordinated from Washington.

The subsequent slaughter in the eastern Donbas regions has been met mostly with a criminal silence from Washington and Brussels, and in the Western corporate media. That silence is tantamount to complicity in the crimes against humanity committed by the Kiev regime forces.

Distortion of reality

Perversely and audaciously, the West has distorted the reality of what is really going on in Ukraine, and has sought to blame the violence on the pro-Russian separatists (the victims) and on Moscow. No mention of the illegal coup against an elected government last February, no mention of patent Nazi glorification by the new regime, no mention of who actually launched military operations in April, no mention of the thousands of civilians, including families and children, killed in indiscriminate shelling with cluster bombs and Grad rockets fired by the Western-backed regime.

The massacre in the southern port city of Mariupol on January 24 is classic. Some 30 civilians were killed and over 100 injured when several Grad rockets were fired into a civilian area. Typically, the Kiev regime, Washington, Brussels, NATO and the Western media rushed to blame the “Russian-backed rebels.” Only later did it emerge that the rockets were actually fired from army positions outside the city held by the Western-backed Kiev regime.

All the West articulates is the unproven and tedious narrative of Russia “annexing” Crimea and Russian troops covertly aiding the separatists. NATO and Western governments claim that there are 9,000 Russian troops in east Ukraine, which Moscow has consistently denied. Whatever help is coming from Russia is in the form of humanitarian aid convoys and diplomatic support for the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Some Russian citizens have gone to fight as volunteers in solidarity with people whom they share centuries of kinship with. So what?

No satellite images are presented as proof for Western claims of a Russian invasion; strangely, there are no dead Russian soldiers being recovered or military prisoners paraded. Just Western assertions stacked up on more teetering assertions. This irrational, tenuous logic by Western elites and their dutiful media has led to economic sanctions being ratcheted up on Russia and a rapid deterioration in East-West relations that threaten to ignite an all-out global war.

Everything about this crisis smacks of inequality. Washington and its European allies can level wild, unsupported allegations and sanctions; while Russia and the rest of the world have to stoically bear the consequences; the West can install an illegal neo-Nazi regime that openly avows anti-Russian hatred; while the people of Crimea and the east Ukrainian regions are debarred from expressing their legitimate opposition to the unlawful Western interference in the internal affairs of their country; and when Russia offers diplomatic support to the ethnic Russian people in Ukraine who are being massacred by the Western-backed Kiev regime, then that is “proof” of Russian “subversion.”

Vladimir Putin’s government, unlike Washington, has made every effort at brokering a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine conflict, going back to the Geneva accord last April and up to the ceasefire first announced in the Belarus capital, Minsk, in early September. Moscow has rightly emphasized the need for the Kiev regime to respect the wishes of the ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, from being able to use their own native Russian language, to being able to form autonomous republics. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

With outrageous arrogance, the Kiev regime, which forcibly seized power unconstitutionally, refuses to acknowledge the rights of the ethnic Russian population. The latest peace talks in Minsk at the weekend broke up acrimoniously, with the separatists accusing the Kiev delegation of behaving “dictatorially.”

The Kiev regime is comprised of self-styled neo-Nazis who adulate the crimes of the Third Reich and its collaborationist Ukrainian death squads during World War II when millions of ethnic Russians were exterminated. Today, Kiev’s so-called prime minster Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who was handpicked for the job by the US State Department, refers to the ethnic Russian population in his country’s eastern regions as “sub-humans” and “terrorists.”

Kiev’s military forces are composed of paramilitary National Guard units which openly wear Nazi insignia dedicated to the mass murder of Russian people. Last week, the Pentagon announced that it was sending military trainers to Ukraine in the coming weeks to support these same National Guard units, which have been shelling civilian centres in Donetsk and Lugansk indiscriminately over the past 10 months.

So, when John Kerry says he is not willing to meet with the separatist leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk he is reinforcing the mentality of inequality that is fuelling the conflict in Ukraine. Of course, that is consistent with Washington’s own supremacist thinking that it is the “exceptional nation” superior to everyone else on the planet. It is also consistent with the underlying fact that Washington does not really want peace in Ukraine; it wants a proxy war on Russia’s borders for its grand scheme of harassing Russia and eventually trying to precipitate regime-change in Moscow.

The post US Green Light For War In Ukraine – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Yemen: Rebels Give Political Parties Deadline

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The powerful Shiite Ansar Allah (or Houthi) militia gave political parties a three day deadline to find a negotiated solution to the political crisis of the past months, escalating last week with the resignation of the government and president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The group warned that if a deal is not reached, the Houthis will decide on the future of Yemen, reports MISNA.

At the closing of a three-day meeting in the capital Sanaa, attended by the party of former president Ali Abdallah Saleh but boycotted by other large political groups, the militia released a statement read in front of a crowd of thousands of people, including fighters and tribal chiefs. The statement doesn’t specify what measures will be taken.

The Houthis, from northern Yemen, entered Sanaa at the end of September, then expanding their influence also in Sunni-majority central and western areas. On January 20 they seized government buildings, forcing the government and president to step down.

The group’s leader, Abdel Malek al-Houthi, called the meeting in Sanaa to hold discussions with the political forces, only however obtaining the participation of Saleh’s General People’s Congress, forced from office in 2012 amid popular protest and now accused of backing the Shiite militia. The main protagonists of the crisis were instead absent, such as the influential Sunni Al Islah movement and Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP).

Amid growing uncertainty, the UN envoy Jamal Benomar warned that renewed unrest could break out.

The post Yemen: Rebels Give Political Parties Deadline appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Spain Approves Strategic Plan To Combat Violent Radicalization

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The Spanish government has approved a plan is designed to create the necessary structures and work plan to prevent and neutralize the threat of violent radicalization, particularly from Jihadi terrorism.

According to the Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the National Strategic Plan to Combat Violent Radicalization, “is a framework plan for the different public authorities to detect and act against potential outbreaks of radicalization, in a timely and coordinated fashion”.

The Minister for Home Affairs, Jorge Fernández Díaz, asserted that the main risk in this area at present comes from Jihadi terrorism.

Jorge Fernández Díaz highlighted the efforts being made to combat this threat at an international level, quoting the recent examples of the summit called by the French Home Affairs Minister following the attacks in Paris and the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the EU held on Thursday in Riga (Latvia).

At a national level, Fernández Díaz mentioned the agreement “reached with the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party] that is pending formalisation” to provide the democratic State and rule of law with the legal instruments necessary to combat this type of terrorism.

“Our current Criminal Code enabled us to provide our judges, public prosecutors and law enforcement agencies with the instruments necessary to defeat ETA and Grapo terrorism; and now we need to provide them with others to combat different forms of terrorism, such as Jihadi terrorism, which is of a different nature and with other characteristics”, Fernández Díaz explained.

According to Fernández Díaz, the plan approved last Friday, following two years of work, will be “a key instrument in terms of prevention”, with the aim of “avoiding the emergence and, as the case may be, the development of violent and extremist radicalization processes and their potential evolution towards terrorism, through early detection and subsequent neutralization”.

The Minister for Home Affairs recalled that, between 1992 and 2012, seven out of ten individuals sentenced for Jihadi activism in our country had been either totally or partially radicalized in Spain.

Fernández Díaz underlined that this is a global and comprehensive initiative; it has been drawn up by an inter-ministerial work group with the participation of civil society and vulnerable groups and those at risk of radicalization with the involvement of different public powers and social institutions. Moreover, it is a national and strategic plan – it establishes a general framework that will be built up in successive annual plans – and falls within the security and counter-terrorism strategies of the European Union and of Spain.

In terms of areas of action, the plan distinguishes between internal, external and cyberspace, “fundamentally over the Internet through open sources”, specified the minister.  Díaz pointed out that since 2012, 80% of radicalization processes have taken place over the Internet and the aim is to now generate a “counter-narrative” that counteracts the radical messages principally being spread in this way.

The plan establishes a unique national structure, coordinated by the National Group to Combat Violent Radicalization, under the Ministry of Home Affairs and which will comprise various ministerial departments, the National Intelligence Centre, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, as well as other institutions, bodies and associations. This group will coordinate with those located in each municipality. Moreover, the plan contains a specific section to combat radicalization in correctional facilities.

By doing this, “the necessary structures and work plan to detect and intervene in pockets of potential radicalization are created, with the aim of breaking up the chain of transmission of radicalization that makes individuals take the decision to become violent and, in the worst-case scenario, become terrorists”, pointed out the minister.

The post Spain Approves Strategic Plan To Combat Violent Radicalization appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Europol Supports EU Project To Fight Payment Card Fraud

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Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) has supported an 18-month EU-funded project against payment card fraud, initiated by UK authorities, which has resulted in the arrest of 59 individuals, 32 prosecutions and 17 convictions as well as the disruption of five organized crime groups misusing electronic payments.

During the final meeting for Project Sandpiper in London, it was stressed that a total of 52 812 compromised card numbers were recovered during the operations, with estimated savings to the banking industry of over GBP 23 million. The EU-based criminals were misusing financial credentials in mainly remote overseas destinations.

Head of the European Cybercrime Centre, Troels Oerting, said, “The criminal networks involved in this sophisticated electronic payment crime have been taken down as a result of many months of hard work by police officers and prosecutors in the European Union. Through the international cooperation of law enforcement authorities, the European Commission and Europol, as well as cooperation with the financial industry, European customers’ payment transactions are safer. We continue our fight against this crime. The criminals continue to develop new methods for stealing our identities, money and ideas online, and we have to continue and further develop operations like Sandpiper and Skynet.”

The phenomenon of card-not-present (CNP) fraud is on the rise, accounting for 60% of all fraud losses on cards issued in the European Union, according to card fraud statistics published by the European Central Bank (ECB) in February 2014. A new EU-funded project, codenamed Skynet, is launched this month and focuses on international cooperation to combat online CNP fraud. Six EU Member States are involved in the project.

EC3 at Europol provided analytical support and organized regular coordination meetings on the project at its headquarters. In addition, Europol’s information and analysis systems were used to exchange and cross-check the intelligence received from Member States. Operations and projects such as Sandpiper and Skynet demonstrate the crucial role of the exchange of information and intelligence through Europol’s channels and the importance of international coordination of such operations.

The post Europol Supports EU Project To Fight Payment Card Fraud appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Sri Lanka’s Sirisena: ‘I Don’t Want To Lead Luxurious Life At Expense Of Public’

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Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday requested that the honorary title Athi Garu (His Excellency) or Uthumanan (Your Highness) which were commonly used over the past years to address Presidents, not be used with reference to him.

Sirisena also asked not to use the term Aryawa when referring to his wife. He made these observations participating in the Maithri Pilisandara interview conducted by veteran writer Upul Shantha Sannasgala and telecast over Rupavahini and ITN on Saturday.

Viewers said President Sirisena expressed valuable opinions on how he would act in his position as the President, the nature of his political journey suffused with challenges and difficulties, the nature of the recent election campaign and how he faced it, the content of his manifesto, the new positive political culture that is enforced and what needs to be done to protect it, the nature of national government, rule of law and culture and aesthetic appreciation etc., during the one and half hour interview.

Sirisena said he does not intend to lead a luxurious life at the expense of the public.

Sirisena said the existing Presidential palaces built around the country would be used for some other meaningful purposes, adding that the Presidential Palace in Colombo would be used only for state functions.

Making a special revelation on the super-luxurious plane valued at approximately Rs. 2,080 million to be brought down to Sri Lanka for the use of the President as per directive of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, President Sirisena said the deal was immediately cancelled by him after discussions with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, adding that the money would be used to buy spare parts needed for the civil aviation sector of Sri Lanka. He said he totally objects to the helicopter culture that wasted the country’s money, adding that neither he or his family members would use helicopters except for very important official work.

Sirisena also instructed not to line up schoolchildren at ceremonies that he attends.

Sirisena also recalled how schoolchildren were inconvenienced during the state ceremonies over the past years. President Sirisena said he had instructed that publishing advertisements in the print and electronic media spending public money on the President’s birthday and various other occasions be terminated.

Sirisena also requested not to exhibit cutouts and digital screens containing his images on road sides, or in cities. The President also underscored the fact that his victory was made possible thanks to all groups of people who cast their vote for him.

“Some are of the wrong opinion and are attempting to show that I did not get the support of the Buddhist majority. This is false,” Sirisena  said.

President Sirisena analyzing the votes cast in the majority Buddhist election, observed that the vote base of his opponent drastically eroded and was in his (President Sirisena’s) favour. “People belonging to all ethnic groups spread throughout the country favoured my political manifesto which assured good governance, democracy and good moral society. Various goods were distributed and people were bribed to obtain their votes. Despite thuggery and political and use of military power by the opposition camp, the people cast their vote for trust and confidence favouring what was said in my manifesto,” he said.

President Sirisena also paid tribute to Dr. Pandit W.D. Amaradeva for his contribution to keep the Sri Lankan flag flying high in his chosen field.

Sirisena also appreciated the roles played by artists and musicians. He highly valued the musical knowledge, language skills, the talent and the ability of singers and artistes who kept their fans entertained.

President Sirisena said he was also impressed the way Rathnadeepa Janma Bhoomi was sung by Pandit Amaradeva for which the lyrics were by the late Mahagamasekera.

The President, while recalling his love and affection for his mother, referred to the song Adaraye Ulpatha Wu Amma sung by Victor Rathnayake.

President Sirisena also said, bestowing on him the SLFP leadership was a victory for his government and the state.

“This was something needed for the stability of my government and the state,” Sirisenasaid responding to a question by Sannasgala.

“If we are to successfully complete the 100 day programme, we need the majority in Parliament. That comes to the government provided the Alliance led by the SLFP supports the government. I understood this well and I assumed the SLFP leadership to ensure stability of the government,” the President said.

Sirisena said to make this a reality, he had a brief but a straightforward discussion with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was also the former Party President.

“He agreed to hand over the SLFP leadership to me at the discussion. I also informed him that I would have officials of my choice to take the SLFP forward,” Sirisena said.

President Sirisena referring to his assuming Presidency on January 9 as the new President, taking oaths before a senior member of the Judiciary, Justice Sripavan, assuming SLFP leadership on January 16 at the SLFI, appointing Justice Sripavan as the Chief Justice and he taking oaths before him on January 30, said they were all a new chapter of the political culture and had nothing to do with fate. “It is undoubtedly a political miracle,” he added.

Sirisena pointed out that the removal of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranaike was illegal and now the Supreme Court has been back on the right track.

Sirisena said steps would be taken to severely deal with those who plundered and embezzeled state funds and misused state lands without giving any consideration to their status or party affiliations.

The post Sri Lanka’s Sirisena: ‘I Don’t Want To Lead Luxurious Life At Expense Of Public’ appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Creating Responsive, Energy Efficient Computing Cloud

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A recent symposium on software performance gave IT researchers the opportunity to discuss progress made on the EU-funded CACTOS project. Over 40 researchers and practitioners from across Europe attended the symposium in Stuttgart, Germany to share results and practical experience.

The key objective of CACTOS, due for completion in September 2016, is to enable data centre operators to deliver cloud-based applications – using current and future hardware – as energy efficiently as possible. The project, which will receive a total of EUR 3 450 000 in EU funding, plans to deliver a set of tools and methods to help data centre operators analyse hardware and software behaviour and overall infrastructure performance.

One of the tools highlighted during the symposium was CactoSim, which is designed to enable users to simulate optimisation models, predict the behaviour of applications on different resources and validate and improve models. By enabling users to model and adopt the best configuration for their needs, the tool should help data managers to lower costs and achieve greater energy efficiency.

Cloud computing is a little like an electricity grid in that it is fundamentally about sharing resources in order to achieve economies of scale. In cloud computing, different services — such as servers, storage and applications — are delivered to an organisation or individual’s computer or device through the Internet, like, for example email. Many people now rely on cloud computing for a majority of their applications.

The current availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualisation, service-oriented architecture, and autonomic and utility computing have led to a growth in cloud computing. In order to keep up with this rapid expansion and still operate efficiently and cost-effectively, data centres handling all this cloud computing data have had to make significant investments in energy efficient buildings, server racks and facility management technology.

Given the scale of their operations, it is critical that business decisions such as these are made with as much information as possible. This then is the key objective of the CACTOS project. All operations carried out in a cloud environment are being mapped, so that workloads can be attributed to the most appropriate resources. This means in effect that information can be sent to the best fitting data centre at a given time. In case of failure, the next best matching place will be automatically detected and the workload relocated.

Currently ongoing research concerns power consumption analysis of software systems, and the accurate sizing of data centres. The consortium also plans to collect data on the actual use of cloud infrastructure, in order to help prioritise resources.

The final CACTOS toolkit – which will include the CactoSim tool – will be validated against three distinct scenarios for business analytics, enterprise applications and technical computing use cases. The end result will be the creation of a cloud computing environment that is more energy efficient, intelligent and responsive to user needs.

Source: CORDIS

The post Creating Responsive, Energy Efficient Computing Cloud appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Japan-South Korea: Antagonism Despite Alignment – Analysis

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By Sandip Kumar Mishra*

On 29 December 2014, Japan and South Korea concluded a military intelligence-sharing agreement related to the North Korean nuclear and missile programmes. It is a three-way pact in which the US is the connecting party. The negotiations between South Korea and Japan on a similar but bilateral pact got into controversy two years ago when the information about it became public in South Korea. The recent agreement, even though limited in scope and trilateral in character, was considered to be the right note for the beginning of the new year. This year is the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II. Just as former Japanese Prime Ministers Tomiichi Murayama and Junichiro Koizumi expressed remorse over wartime atrocities on the 50th and 60th anniversaries, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also expected to at least reiterate the old Japanese position.

In another move in early January, a high-level economic consultative meeting between the two countries happened in Seoul in which both agreed to boost their economic relations despite politically strained ties. It is interesting to note that despite the acrimonious verbal exchanges, which both countries have quite frequently, their bilateral trade is almost US$90 billion and neither tries to hamper their bilateral economic exchanges with their political disputes.

Furthermore, in the second week of January, a parliamentary delegation from South Korea visited Japan with South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s message to improve bilateral relations. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly responded that he would like to make this year “a year to improve Japan-South-Korea relations.” These moves indicate that Japan and South Korea may be able to forge a cordial relationship with each other and would move forward in resolving their differences. The top leaders of both countries who apart from a few awkward encounters such as in November 2014 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum have not met each other after assuming their positions – Shinzo Abe in 2012 and Park Geun-hye in February 2013 – might finally have a direct dialogue in 2015.

But amidst these positive moves there have also been the old acrimonious murmurs that seem to be straining the attempts to move forward in the bilateral relationship. On 27 January, South Korea expressed concern that Shinzo Abe may backtrack from the Japanese apology on the comfort women issue, which was expressed by former Japanese Chief Secretary Yohei Kono in 1993. China also expressed similar doubts because Abe recently made a statement that he might change the terms of apology which was used in 1995 and it would reflect his government’s present position. The Japanese government has also not announced any specific date about the release of Abe’s statement on the 70th anniversary which would be in August this year.

Japan considers that it has put in ‘maximum efforts’ to address the comfort women issue and South Korea should therefore not put any precondition for a summit meet between the two leaders. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshidhide Suga made this statement in reaction to the South Korean President Park Gue-hye’s remarks on 13 January in which she asked for a more sensitive response from Japan on the comfort women issue before expecting direct talks between the two countries.

On 18 January, South Korea also protested to Japan against the distribution of the Korean version of Japan’s Defense White Paper, which claimed Takeshima as a Japanese territory. The islands, which South Korea calls Dokdo, have been in Seoul’s possession for more than six decades, and Korea has a historical claim over it.

The long trajectory of Japan and South Korea relations indicates that even though both countries share a common friend in the form of the US and a common threat in North Korea (also China during the Cold War), their bilateral relations have always been complicated. There have been impressive economic, cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries for the normalisation of relations since 1965, but they continue to have negative political postures against each other because of historical disputes related to textbooks, Yasukuni Shrine visits, comfort women and also territorial disputes such as Dokdo/Takeshima.

Basically, it is politically convenient for leaders of both the countries to continuously use the controversial issues for their vested political interests. Common people in South Korea are more interested in economic opportunities and their daily lives. While they do not seek another Japanese apology, Japanese political provocations may sometimes induce them to behave otherwise. Similarly, Japan’s common people are not eager about these controversial issues but when there are huge politically motivated emotional outbursts from Korea, Japanese people also become more adamant. This vicious cycle does not allow Japan and South Korea to move forward towards a future-oriented relationship and it seems that the trend of antagonism despite alignment in their bilateral relations would continue in the near future.

*Sandip Kumar Mishra
Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, Delhi University

The post Japan-South Korea: Antagonism Despite Alignment – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.


The Share-The-Scraps Economy – OpEd

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How would you like to live in an economy where robots do everything that can be predictably programmed in advance, and almost all profits go to the robots’ owners?

Meanwhile, human beings do the work that’s unpredictable – odd jobs, on-call projects, fetching and fixing, driving and delivering, tiny tasks needed at any and all hours – and patch together barely enough to live on.

Brace yourself. This is the economy we’re now barreling toward.

They’re Uber drivers, Instacart shoppers, and Airbnb hosts. They include Taskrabbit jobbers, Upcounsel’s on-demand attorneys, and Healthtap’s on-line doctors.

They’re Mechanical Turks.

The euphemism is the “share” economy. A more accurate term would be the “share-the-scraps” economy.

New software technologies are allowing almost any job to be divided up into discrete tasks that can be parceled out to workers when they’re needed, with pay determined by demand for that particular job at that particular moment.

Customers and workers are matched online. Workers are rated on quality and reliability.

The big money goes to the corporations that own the software. The scraps go to the on-demand workers.

Consider Amazon’s “Mechanical Turk.” Amazon calls it “a marketplace for work that requires human intelligence.”

In reality, it’s an Internet job board offering minimal pay for mindlessly-boring bite-sized chores. Computers can’t do them because they require some minimal judgment, so human beings do them for peanuts — say, writing a product description, for $3; or choosing the best of several photographs, for 30 cents; or deciphering handwriting, for 50 cents.

Amazon takes a healthy cut of every transaction.

This is the logical culmination of a process that began thirty years ago when corporations began turning over full-time jobs to temporary workers, independent contractors, free-lancers, and consultants.

It was a way to shift risks and uncertainties onto the workers – work that might entail more hours than planned for, or was more stressful than expected.

And a way to circumvent labor laws that set minimal standards for wages, hours, and working conditions. And that enabled employees to join together to bargain for better pay and benefits.

The new on-demand work shifts risks entirely onto workers, and eliminates minimal standards completely.

In effect, on-demand work is a reversion to the piece work of the nineteenth century – when workers had no power and no legal rights, took all the risks, and worked all hours for almost nothing.

Uber drivers use their own cars, take out their own insurance, work as many hours as they want or can – and pay Uber a fat percent. Worker safety? Social Security? Uber says it’s not the employer so it’s not responsible.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turks work for pennies, literally. Minimum wage? Time-and-a half for overtime? Amazon says it just connects buyers and sellers so it’s not responsible.

Defenders of on-demand work emphasize its flexibility. Workers can put in whatever time they want, work around their schedules, fill in the downtime in their calendars.

“People are monetizing their own downtime,” Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University’s business school, told the New York Times.

But this argument confuses “downtime” with the time people normally reserve for the rest of their lives.

There are still only twenty-four hours in a day. When “downtime” is turned into work time, and that work time is unpredictable and low-paid, what happens to personal relationships? Family? One’s own health?

Other proponents of on-demand work point to studies, such as one recently commissioned by Uber, showing Uber’s on-demand workers to be “happy.”

But how many of them would be happier with a good-paying job offering regular hours?

An opportunity to make some extra bucks can seem mighty attractive in an economy whose median wage has been stagnant for thirty years and almost all of whose economic gains have been going to the top.

That doesn’t make the opportunity a great deal. It only shows how bad a deal most working people have otherwise been getting.

Defenders also point out that as on-demand work continues to grow, on-demand workers are joining together in guild-like groups to buy insurance and other benefits.

But, notably, they aren’t using their bargaining power to get a larger share of the income they pull in, or steadier hours. That would be a union – something that Uber, Amazon, and other on-demand companies don’t want.

Some economists laud on-demand work as a means of utilizing people more efficiently.

But the biggest economic challenge we face isn’t using people more efficiently. It’s allocating work and the gains from work more decently.

On this measure, the share-the-scraps economy is hurtling us backwards.

The post The Share-The-Scraps Economy – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Jordan Confirms Death Of Pilot Who Was Burned Alive, Vows Revenge

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Jordan’s national news agency confirmed the death of Lt. Mu’ath al-Kasasbeh.

A Jordanian government official has said that al-Kasasbeh was executed on January 3rd, 2014, exactly one month from the release of the video late Tuesday.

In a television statement the Jordanian government has stated that it will seek revenge “hard and strong”.

Sources suggest that Daesh prisoners in Jordanian custody will be executed in the near future, and may already be in Swaga jail where Sajida al-Rishawi is being held.

King Abdullah II will end his visit to the US early to return to Jordan.

Daesh had earlier released a video purportedly showing the gruesome death of the captured pilot, who was burned alive. Kasasbeh had been in captivity for more than a month since his F-16 went down over Daesh-controlled territory.

Negotiations to free him in a prisoner swap were reported to have collapsed a few days ago. The Jordanian government has threatened to execute Daesh prisoners in its custody if Kasasbeh was harmed.

Original article

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ISIS: Inside The Army Of Terror – Book Review

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ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror
Michael Weiss & Hassan Hassan
£5.99, 1169p. (I-Phone Reading).

Reviewed by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi for Syria Comment

The rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS, subsequently calling itself just “The Islamic State” since the Caliphate declaration of  29 Jun 2014) across Iraq and Syria will naturally provoke much questioning as to how this phenomenon came to such prominence. Overall, this book ably accomplishes the task in a concise manner, and is a valuable, compelling read for anyone- general reader or specialist- interested in ISIS. While minor errors exist here and there and one might disagree with some of the authors’ analysis in the detail, the book is extremely well-researched, drawing on an array of sources including much original interview testimony, and the overall conclusions that emerge are hard to contest.

The authors begin by tracing the history of the most important forefather of ISIS: Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, including his early years in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) area in the closing days of the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan, his journey home to Jordan by 1992 and relationship with jihadi intellectual Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi that culminated in his imprisonment, and his subsequent return to Af-Pak in 1999 that first saw signs of tensions between Zarqawi and al-Qa’ida leader Osama bin Laden (OBL), where he nonetheless secured an alliance of convenience and ran a training camp in Herat, Afghanistan.

Following the invasion of Afghanistan, Zarqawi forged another alliance of convenience with Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan, moving there and throughout the region via Iran before his firm establishment on the scene of the Iraq War in 2003 with his Jamaat al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad and subsequent allegiance to OBL as the affiliated al-Qa’ida in Mesopotamia/Iraq. Where appropriate, Weiss and Hassan are keen to draw analogies in Zarqawi’s history and strategy with the present-day approach of ISIS, such as the same genocidal attitudes towards Shi’a designed partly to provoke murderous counter-responses and draw Sunnis further still towards the notion of Zarqawi/ISIS as ‘protector of Sunnis’, so to speak.

Indeed, one cannot really overstate the link between Zarqawi and ISIS, but it might also be worth noting that the tensions between OBL and Zarqawi (despite OBL’s acceptance of Zarqawi’s allegiance) and ISIS’ break from al-Qa’ida do not stop ISIS today from attempting to appropriate OBL as one of their own, as well as the likes of Abdullah Azzam.

Another analogy drawn is the issue of tactical alliances between Zarqawi’s men and Ba’athists and between ISIS and the latter today in the form of the Naqshbandi Army (JRTN). While JRTN and ISIS did cooperate in events such as the fall of Mosul in 2014, a significant difference now as opposed to the years of the Iraq War is the much greater dominance of ISIS, which meant that JRTN was in effect more trying to ride the wave of the ISIS-spearheaded offensives rather than there being a relationship of essential co-dependence between the two groups. This is why ISIS very quickly asserted itself as the dominant power in areas such as Mosul at the expense of the likes of JRTN, able to impose its most draconian measures and establish its ‘diwans’ (government departments) despite JRTN’s objections. Indeed, the concept of “tactical partnering” with JRTN that is mentioned elsewhere is something liable to be overplayed.

A more original contribution deserving great credit is the rightful attention drawn to the jihadist text Idarat al-Tawahhush (“The Management of Savagery”) by Abu Bakr Naji in 2004 and its importance to both Zarqawi’s ilk and ISIS today as a means to justify acts of brutality in the context of jihad.

The authors then trace the local sparks in areas such as al-Qa’im (on the border with Syria in Anbar province) in 2005-6 where Zarqawi’s AQI had overplayed its hand that would help give rise to the coordinated Sunni Sahwa movement in Iraq by 2007 against what had by then become the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), which had emerged after Zarqawi’s death as an official umbrella including the AQI front-group Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) in early 2006 that had been created in a bid to give Zarqawi’s outfit a more Iraqi face. At the same time, the problems that had been created by sectarian Shi’a militias and their human rights abuses as well as Iran’s not stopping the flow of al-Qa’ida operatives and funds through Iranian territory are not disregarded.

The authors also correctly identify traces of what would become the formal split between ISIS and al-Qa’ida in the deliberately ambiguous relationship maintained by ISI with al-Qa’ida during the years of Abu Ayyub al-Masri/Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (2006-2010). For al-Masri, who officially subsumed the MSC under Abu Omar al-Baghdadi’s ISI, “was indeed trying to have it both ways: to remain the amir of AQI while also flirting with outright secession from it to command his own independent operation” (p. 291), bolstered by the pretensions to statehood in the name of ISI and its self-declared ministries.

Much of what follows on the U.S.-troop surge and the rolling back of ISI by the Sahwa in coordination with coalition forces is history that has been extensively discussed and need not be reproduced in too much detail, along with the marginalization of the Sahwa movement and Iraq PM Maliki-led crackdowns on Sunni politicians in the face of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq that sparked the Sunni Arab protests in 2013, going right up to the fall of Fallujah at the beginning of 2014. One could argue for some differences in interpretation here. For instance, while it’s certainly true Iran played an important role in bringing together the second Maliki-led government as the authors note, it is questionable whether Ayad Allawi and his Iraqiya-bloc could really have engaged in successful outreach to the other Shi’a political blocs to form a coalition. Further, the coverage of Maliki’s response to the 2013 protests does not mention that he allowed for political concessions to be drafted by deputy premier Saleh al-Mutlaq and to be put to the parliament. The fact these reforms died in the parliament points to a broader failing on the Shi’a political spectrum to address Sunni grievances such as de-Ba’athification.

The book- now at chapter 7- then reverts in chronology to discuss in detail the Assad regime’s extensive collaboration with jihadis during the Iraq War in facilitating the influx of foreign fighters into Iraq via Syria, as well as the regime’s complicity in terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing the first Maliki government. Chapter 8 discusses key personalities in ISI and its successors under the tenure of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, including a profile of the leader himself. Usefully correcting press reports that suggested Abu Bakr was released from the U.S.-run Camp Bucca prison facility in 2009, the authors rightly note that his time in Camp Bucca was only in 2004, while also citing journalist Wael Essam who points out Baghdadi’s stint in the Salafi group Jaysh al-Mujahideen (which would be in 2005, besides founding his own Jaysh Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama’at in 2003) prior to his involvement with ISI.

Other figures profiled include Abu Ayman al-Iraqi and Abu Ali al-Anbari, both former officers in the Saddam regime’s armed forces, and Abu Omar al-Shishani. On the subject of Shishani, some corrections need to be made. He did not first emerge in Syria in 2013 (p. 535) but 2012. Further, Shishani actually pledged allegiance to ISIS in May 2013 and thus became ISIS’ ‘northern’ amir for Syria, which is why his Jaysh al-Muhajireen wa al-Ansar (JMWA) outfit over the summer of 2013- including the fall of Mannagh airbase- was described as affiliated with ISIS. A split occurred in the ranks in late November 2013, whereby some in JMWA would not pledge allegiance to Baghdadi because of a prior oath to the Caucasus Emirate, marked the split whereby Shishani and his loyalists dropped JMWA labels and solely became ISIS, while the remnants continued the JMWA name and banner under a new leader. All that said, the authors are right to point out the way in which Shishani’s persona has been hyped somewhat by sensationalist Western media coverage- something that can be said for coverage of ISIS more generally.

Chapter 9 onwards deals with ISIS and the history of the Syrian civil war, and it is in these parts where the authors’ most original contributions shine, relying on testimony from an array of ISIS members undoubtedly thanks in good part to Hassan’s extensive connections in eastern Syria, much of which is now under ISIS control. The authors draw a particularly nuanced and insightful picture in their various categories of ISIS recruits: for example, one category are those “who already held Islamist or jihadist but had limited themselves to only orbiting takfiri ideology [NB: the practice of declaring other Muslims apostates to be killed]. The final gravitational pull…differed depending on circumstance” (p. 667). Thus some joined because ISIS overran their territories, thus being the only horse to back, others were impressed with ISIS’ resilience and successes against rival rebel groups, while others had disputes with their original group affiliations and found ISIS a better organized, disciplined and capable body.

Contrary to what might be supposed, this tendency to defection was already under way during ISIS’ early months inside Syria, most notably when Islamist groups issued a statement rejecting the opposition-in-exile (the text puts this as September 2014; actually 2013- a simple typo- p. 669). The authors also note in this context of ISIS recruitment how ISIS’ emphasis on global conquest takes a sharp swipe at other Salafi-Jihadi and Islamist brands, including Jabhat al-Nusra (JN: Syria’s al-Qa’ida affiliate), that try to steer clear of the notion. Indeed, in agreement with Weiss and Hassan, it must be noted how little JN has until 2014 talked about notions of establishing the transnational Caliphate, with hints of it generally coming from unofficial footage and testimonies from its foreign fighters. In light of that, the authors’ characterization of JN as having positioned itself somewhat “as a ‘nationalist’ outcropping” (p. 673) makes perfect sense.

Other subtle categories of ISIS recruits noted by the authors range from those supporting ISIS as a political project- such as Arabs in Hasakah province who see ISIS as a bulwark against Kurdish expansionism (a serious dynamic often overlooked)- to opportunists such as Saddam al-Jamal, who originally commanded the local Supreme Military Council affiliate in the town of Albukamal on the border with Iraq before defecting to ISIS.

Weiss and Hassan further document in considerable and revealing detail how ISIS has been able to co-opt tribes in eastern Syria. Everyone by now knows of the Shaitat tribal uprising in Deir az-Zor province against ISIS in August 2014, but less observed is the fact that ISIS got members of the same tribe to put down the rebels by brute force (p. 842). ISIS’ divide-and-rule strategies for individual tribes- together with its ability to act as mediator between other tribes- severely complicate efforts to stir a tribal backlash to roll back ISIS in the heart of its territories.

The final chapter (ch. 14) deals at great length with ISIS’ running as a supposed state, with much new information to contribute. For instance, the “separation of powers” where those with various specialties affiliated with ISIS (whether a cleric, military commander, those in public services) do not know precisely what the others do or know, helping to protect against infiltration (pp. 865-6). The authors do not gloss over ISIS’ harsher aspects of governance such as torture of detainees but in the case of the town of Manbij in Aleppo province- currently controlled by ISIS- it is clear there has been much local sympathy for ISIS as its rule stamped out lawlessness and corruption. This is one big advantage ISIS has in competing with other rebel groups: in offering a single-party model of governance in the context of years of ongoing civil war that will, inter alia, promptly answer complaints from a local about another person, apply its laws to its own members, disarm local communities etc., ISIS can bring a sense of order that Syrian rebel groups can’t. Indeed, as the ISIS Ajnad Media nasheed “The Shari’a of Our Lord” puts it, ISIS’ rule can indeed bring a “life of security and peace.”

In the realm of public services and economics too, ISIS’ public advertisement of itself- at least in Syria- has not been wholly divorced from reality, such as in forcing municipality personnel to work in contrast to prior groups that allowed them to receive salaries from the state while doing nothing (p. 952), while also introducing price controls on commodities such as oil by-products (p.954).

The book’s epilogue offers a number of spot-on conclusions. First, one must be wary of Iran and the Assad regime’s presentation of themselves as the solution to the ISIS phenomenon, as their own repressive approaches towards the original Syrian uprising especially have helped contribute to the problem. Iran in particular, with its ongoing strategy of cultivating sectarian proxy militias in Syria and Iraq that employ brute force, can only be seen as aggravating the situation, even as notions of cooperation with Iran amid the context of striking a grand bargain over the nuclear deal become ever more prevalent. Second, the ISIS split from al-Qa’ida, far from being a case of a ‘let them fight each other and engage in jihadi blood-letting’ bonus, actually presents a threat to the West as the two brands may look to compete as to who can pull off the better attack on Western soil.

Finally, when all is considered in the analysis, recent reported local gains against ISIS, such as in pushing the group out of the city of Kobani, or scoring hits with killing prominent members or destroying convoys in coalition airstrikes on ISIS, do not change the fact that ISIS has been ruling for quite some time the heartland of its territories and most important strongholds, from Manbij and al-Bab in Aleppo province to Mosul and Tel Afar in Ninawa province, without any significant local rivals to challenge its power. There is no extensive ground force analogous to the U.S. troop presence at the height of the Iraq War to help coordinate local Sunni forces to ‘roll back’ ISIS this time around.

ISIS has a well-known official slogan: baqiya wa tatamaddad (‘remaining and expanding’). ISIS may not be tatamaddad so much these days, but it is certainly baqiya now and for the foreseeable future.

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Pope Paves Way For Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero To Be Beatified

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Pope Francis on Tuesday authorized the promulgation of decrees recognizing the martyrdom of Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero, paving the way for his beatification, as well as the martyrdom of three priests in Peru.

The decision was the fruit of a Feb. 3 audience between the Pope and Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The theologians of the congregation for saints had unanimously recognized Archbishop Romero’s 1980 assassination as a martyrdom on Jan. 8.

The Pope’s approval was the last step needed before Archbishop Romero could be beatified.

Oscar Romero y Galdamez was Archbishop of San Salvador from 1977 until March 24, 1980, when he was shot while saying Mass. He was a vocal critic of the human rights abuses of the repressive Salvadoran government, and he spoke out on behalf of the poor and the victims of the government.

No one has been prosecuted for his assassination, but right-wing death squads are suspected.

Archbishop Romero’s cause of canonization was opened in 1993, but was reportedly held up in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2000 to 2005; as part of the inquiry in a cause of sainthood, the doctrinal dicastery is charged with reviewing the subject’s writings to ensure they are free of error.

Pope Francis also recognized the martyrdoms of Fr. Michal Tomaszek and Fr. Zbigniew Strazalkowski, both of whom were Conventual Fransicans; and of Fr. Alessandro Dordi, an Italian diocesan priest.

All three were martyred in Peru in 1991 by Shining Path, a Maoist guerilla insurgency officially known at the Communist Party of Peru.

The heroic virtues of Fr. Giovanni Bacile, an Italian priest who died in 1941, were also recognized.

Both Pope Francis and Benedict XVI hold Archbishop Romero in high regard.

En route to Brazil on May 9, 2007, Benedict told journalists that the Salvadoran “was certainly an important witness of the faith, a man of great Christian virtue who worked for peace and against the dictatorship, and was assassinated while celebrating Mass. Consequently, his death was truly ‘credible’, a witness of faith.”

During his Jan. 7 General Audience address, Pope Francis quoted Archbishop Romero’s saying that mothers experience a “martyrdom of motherhood,” and went on to quote extensively from one of the archbishop’s homilies, for the funeral of a priest assassinated by death squads.

And while on his flight to South Korea on Aug. 18, 2014, Pope Francis said it is “very important” to “quickly” move forward Archbishop Romero’s cause, adding that “for me Romero is a man of God, but the process has to be followed, and the Lord too has to give his sign… If he wants to do it, he will do it.”

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After Eurasian Deal, Free Expression Fears In Armenia

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By Arpi Harutyunyan

Supporters of free speech in Armenia fear that the country’s accession to the new Eurasian Economic Union could restrict the free flow of information.

Armenia joined the union when it came into being at the beginning of January. The other members are Russia, Belarus and Kazakstan, with Kyrgyzstan expected to join shortly.

According to a copy of Armenia’s accession agreement posted on the economy ministry’s website, member states cannot import, export or distribute material prohibited in other bloc states. Furthermore, the agreement bans the “distribution of printed, audio and visual materials liable to harm the political and economic interests of member states, their national security, or the health and morals of their citizens.”

This wording is part of the terms of trade and customs regulations that bind the new economic grouping.

Before Armenia joined, its own customs rules determined what could or could not be brought into the country.

Under the Eurasian Economic Union agreement, restrictions include the loose concept of member states’ “political interests”.

Suren Deheryan, head of Journalists for the Future, an Armenian press freedom organisation, is concerned that the restriction will be used to silence critics.

“This implies that imports of Western press and literature to the Eurasian Economic Union should be prohibited, since such material often contains criticism of the [bloc states’] political elite,” Deheryan said.

Even before Armenia joined the union, critics said accession could undermine the country’s sovereignty. President Serzh Sargsyan insisted there was “no danger” to Armenia’s independent status. (See Armenia’s Eurasian Deal: Sell-Out or Fair Trade? )

For some, those fears have now been realised.

In December, Armen Martirosyan, head of the Antares printing company, attended a conference on the Eurasian Economic Union in St Petersburg, where he raised questions about what membership would mean for the publishing industry.

“I was told that the Eurasian Economic Union was a purely economic union and that cultural matters were unrelated,” Martirosyan said. “But in reality they are connected. It turns out that the Eurasian Economic Union is not purely an economic union; it is gradually expanding into other areas.”

The editor of the Yerevan Press Club, Heriknaz Harutyunyan, believes that the Eurasian treaty violates basic human rights and may have significant consequences not only for dissemination of information but also on the freedom of movement across borders.

“The ban on the distribution of such prohibited information may prevent any one of us from leaving the country, for example to travel Yerevan-Moscow-London,” Harutyunyan told IWPR. “Any absurd pretext may be cited as a breach of the ban, for example, carrying an ordinary music CD.”

Not everyone thinks the restrictions will go that far. Deheryan believes it unlikely that things will reach a point where people travelling in and out of Armenia need authorisation to carry a book or a magazine in a suitcase. But he thinks the agreement could still have far-reaching consequences, particularly as it might pave the way for moves to muzzle voices critical of the government.

“If we talk about dissent, Russia has already started blocking websites and blogs that offer alternative opinions, and it has done so unashamedly, using dozens of amendments to existing legislation as well as new laws adopted in 2014,” Deheryan said. “Since Russia has taken control of the content of Runet [Russian domain names] and feels at liberty to shut down any content that for some reason is inconsistent with or contrary to law, then why not do the same at customs controls?”

An annex to the Eurasian agreement also bans other kinds of content, including Nazi propaganda and symbols, justifications of terrorism, pornography and even election campaign materials deemed illegal in any of the four states.

Martirosyan said the ban was unconstitutional and would have major ramifications for his company and the material it publishes. He gave the example of a book about the 2008 Russian-Georgian war by former US State Department staffer Ronald Asmus, called A Little War that Shook the World.

“We have published Asmus’s book and it is now on sale, but according to the new restrictions we cannot export it to another country because this runs contrary to the interests of Russia,” he said. “That’s absurd.”

Martirosyan also questioned the ban on Nazi symbols, particularly as the ancient swastika remains a common symbol of eternity or God in Armenia, and appears in several churches such as the 13th-century Noravank Monastery.

“If someone in Italy publishes a book about Noravank, will it be impossible to import it to Armenia?” Martirosyan asked.

Ara Shirinyan, director of the Yerevan-based television company Shoghakat, said the restrictions were comparable to those of the Soviet era, although in the modern internet age they were by and large meaningless and could not be enforced. However, he is concerned that the new law has implications for wider political freedoms in Armenia.

“It may give the authorities an additional lever to persecute political opponents and individuals,” Shirinyan said.

Arpi Harutyunyan is a freelance journalist in Armenia. This article was published by IWPR in CRS Issue 766.

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Chad Troops Fight Boko Haram In Nigeria

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“Chadian troops entered Nigeria in an aim to advance toward Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, still surrounded by Boko Haram fighters,” said MISNA sources from the border area where the operations are underway, launched from the Cameroonian town of Fotokol.

According to the sources, “Chadian troops freed the bridge of sand-bags that had been placed six months earlier to impede Boko Haram armoured vehicles from entering Cameroon”.

Based on reports received by MISNA, “Chad’s troops, backed by Cameroonian soldiers, are conducting sweep operations” in the border town of Gambaru, around 100km north-east of Maiduguri.

The sources indicate that the advance of Chadian troops comes after days of airstrikes starting over the weekend. The offensive is part of a joint military campaign with Nigerian armed forces against Boko Haram. A Nigerian army spokesman last night announced that the Islamist fighters were forced to abandon Malam Fatori, Abadam and Marte, all situated on the banks of Lake Chad. According to the Daily Trust, hundreds of Chadian troops participated in the operation, which is part of a massive offensive engaging at least 2,000 men just in the Gambaru area.

According to MISNA sources, there is wide uncertainty and fear among the people: “There is a psychosis that causes people to see Boko Haram members everywhere. This suspicion and fear comes from reports on attempts by the Islamists to steal identity papers of victims to use them and operate as infiltrates”.

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Jordan Executes Two Prisoners After Islamic State Burns Pilot To Death

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Jordan has executed two prisoners, including the Al-Qaeda would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, after promising a lethal response to the brutal murder of a Jordanian pilot who had been captured by the Islamic State.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani identified the second prisoner as Ziad al-Karbouli, AP reported, adding that both executions took place early on Wednesday.

The executions were carried out by hanging, Reuters reported.

Al-Rishawi was sentenced to death after unsuccessfully attempting to detonate herself during the Al-Qaeda attacks on Jordan a decade ago which killed 60 people, and has been awaiting her death sentence since the subsequent trial ended. Meanwhile, al-Karbouli was identified as a senior Al-Qaeda prisoner sentenced to death for planning attacks against the kingdom.

Earlier, Jordan vowed to execute failed suicide bomber Al-Rishawi “within hours”, as revenge for the execution of hostage pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh by Islamic State, a security official told AFP. Amman offered to swap the two prisoners, but the talks eventually failed.

“The revenge will be as big as the calamity that has hit Jordan,” army spokesman Colonel Mamdouh al Ameri said in a televised statement.

King Abdullah II had to cut his visit to the US short, as the country declared three days of mourning for the “martyr and hero”, al-Kasasbeh.

On Tuesday, the Islamic State released a video, purportedly showing al-Kasasbeh being burned alive. According to national television, Jordan now believes he was executed as far back as January 3, exactly one month ago, though the government has refused to directly confirm this to Western news agencies.

Al-Kasasbeh was captured after his plane crashed over an IS-controlled part of Syria, following a bombing mission on December 24. Jordan has been participating in the US-led air strikes in the region, which have helped stem IS expansion through Syria and Iraq.

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Cambodia: Party Extends Control Of Security Forces, Says HRW

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Cambodian security force commanders should no longer also be officials of political parties, said Human Rights Watch on Tuesday. On February 1, 2015, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) greatly enhanced the party’s centralized political control over the county’s security forces by adding at least 80 commanders and other officials with security duties to the CPP Central Committee.

The leaders of the army, gendarmerie, and police have long been CPP officials. Cambodia’s donors should call for an end to this practice and urge the creation of genuinely nonpartisan and professional security forces, Human Rights Watch said.

“Security force personnel can be ordinary party members, but as soon as they take a leadership role, they are crossing the line,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Cambodia won’t have impartial, rights-respecting security forces so long as their commanders are beholden to the ruling party.”

The CPP convened an Extraordinary Nationwide Representative Congress from January 30 to February 1. The congress dropped the names of 29 persons on the existing 268-person Central Committee who had either died, resigned, or been expelled from the body before the congress, but otherwise kept veteran party leaders in place. It also added 306 new names, expanding the number of people in the Central Committee to 545. Most of these are well-known CPP veterans, although they also include the politically emergent sons of Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior party leaders.

The party congress appointed virtually every important national, regional, and provincial officer and official with command authority over security forces as members of the Central Committee. An analysis of the old and added members reveals that the number of persons with operational command over Cambodian security forces has more than tripled—from 36 on the previous committee to at least 116.

The new Central Committee members include officers of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces, Royal Khmer Gendarmerie, and the police. Also now in the Central Committee are all provincial and municipal governors, who are appointed to office but are almost all heads of the CPP in their areas of administration. Cambodian laws on security force personnel and civil servants, who include provincial and other governors, require them to perform their official functions with political neutrality. The governors play a security role by chairing provincial and municipal “unified command committees.” These committees exercise command authority over “mixed forces” comprising local army, gendarme, police, and public order para-police, whose heads are subordinated to the governor as members of these committees.

Details of the security force command authority of previous and added CPP Central Committee members are provided in an appendix below.

Cambodia’s Law on Political Parties stipulates that security force personnel must not act in favor of or against any political party, and furthermore that political parties “must not set up organizational structures” in security force institutions. However, military officers have told Human Rights Watch that covert CPP cells normally headed by commanding officers exist in military units. The existence of a hierarchy of CPP cells in the police and in provincial and municipal civil services is openly reported by CPP and pro-CPP media.

Adhering to both Cambodian law and CPP rules would create a conflict of interest for security force commanders, Human Rights Watch said. The CPP Statute and Internal Rules requires that Central Committee members “effectively organize and implement” party policies and decisions in the realms for which they are responsible.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that many of the new members of the Central Committee, such as Deputy Supreme Commissioner of National Police Mok Chito, Deputy Navy Commander Srun Saroeun, Deputy RCAF Supreme Commanders Hing Bunheang and Chhin Chanpoar, Deputy National Gendarmerie Commander Rat Sreang, and Deputy Supreme Commissioner of National Police Chuon Sovan and Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatevong, have been implicated in serious human rights abuses.

Many of the units for which the new Central Committee members are responsible have long histories of violating human rights, such as national Intervention Division 2, navy and regional infantry Brigades 21, 31, 41, 42, 51, 52, and 53, constituent units of Police Regions 3 and 4, the Phnom Penh gendarmerie and police, and other “mixed forces” in provinces throughout Cambodia. The violations for which they have been responsible include use of excessive force to kill protesters or forcibly evict people from their land or homes, political assassinations and other murders, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, rape, and human trafficking.

“Holding a senior post in Cambodia’s ruling party has proven to be a handy way for human rights abusers to escape justice,” Adams said. “Lower level police officers, prosecutors, and judges are afraid enough of the security forces, but now they also have to worry about retaliation from the CPP if they do their jobs.”

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Indian Ocean: Exploring Maritime Domain Awareness – Analysis

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By Vijay Sakhuja*

Attacks on maritime targets such as the USS Cole and MV Limburg off Yemen by al Qaeda, the 2008 Mumbai attacks by the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and the 2014 attempt on Pakistan Navy ship by al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) have exposed the weaknesses of surveillance systems and intelligence agencies of the Indian Ocean littorals. Likewise, the rise in piracy attacks in Southeast Asia and Gulf of Aden/Somalia have highlighted the sophistication of pirate communication networks, which the naval and maritime forces could not penetrate. Security agencies concur that a robust intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communication network is the key to robust counter-terrorism and anti-piracy operations and can effectively reduce the risk of attack by the perpetrators.

In the Indian Ocean, three wide-area CISR networks have been set up to respond to threats and challenges posed by non-State actors such as terrorists and pirates. These networks receive vital information from multiple systems such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), the long-range identification and tracking (LRIT), satellites and shore based Electro-optical systems and radars to enable real-time data of ships operating in the oceans.

The Information Fusion Centre (IFC) is a Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) initiative, and was established in 2009 at the Changi Command and Control Centre (CC2C) in Singapore. It is a 24/7 regional maritime focal point and undertakes a number of activities to enhance maritime situation awareness. The IFC is a symbol of effective mechanism of ‘multi-agency co-operation and interoperability amongst national and regional maritime agencies’ and an enabler for technological and operational interoperability among maritime forces which ensures timely regional responses to crisis. The IFC is linked to nearly 45 agencies from 28 countries and manned by the RSN personnel and 30 multi-national staff called International Liaison Officers (ILOs) from 12 countries who work together to generate a maritime situation picture.

Likewise, the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurgaon in India is an Indian Navy initiative and connects national coastal radar stations and other maritime systems and collates, fuses and disseminates critical intelligence and information about ‘unusual or suspicious movements and activities at sea’ for use by Indian agencies. It is part of the National Command Control Communication Intelligence (NC3I) network and was commissioned in November 2014.

The Piracy, Maritime Awareness and Risks (PMAR), a European Union initiative for capacity-building of Eastern and Southern African/Indian Ocean (ESA-IO) region, aims to enhance maritime situational awareness and counter-piracy capability of the regional States. It provides a real-time Maritime Situational Picture (MSP) of the Western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden to the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (RMRCC) under the control of Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) in Mombasa and the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) in the Seychelles. The PMAR is a roll on project and will be operational for fifteen months (July 2014 and October 2015); earlier, it had focused on the Horn of Africa (2010- 2012) and Gulf of Guinea (2011- 2013).

In the past, a number of multilateral information-sharing and intelligence exchange mechanisms such as the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction (SHADE), the Contact Group for Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) and the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCoC) were set up in the Indian Ocean to counter piracy in the Gulf of Aden, and maybe wound up given that only 11 incidents of piracy were reported during 2014.

While these are noteworthy initiatives, there are at least three challenges for a robust MDA in the Indian Ocean. The IFC and IMAC lack institutional and technological networking to generate a common maritime picture for the Indian Ocean countries. Further, given that maritime security is transnational and transoceanic, these are not linked to similar agencies/systems in other regions such as the MARSUR, an initiative of the European navies. Second, the PMAR is temporary in nature and would be withdrawn/shifted to another region by the EU on completion of the stipulated fifteen months. Third is the necessity of obtaining and sharing additional information about shipping given that AIS is prone to data manipulation.

As far as a pan-Indian Ocean MDA is concerned, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) is a useful platform to explore the above idea. After all, the idea of the IFC may have had its genesis in the 18th International Seapower Symposium at Rhode Island, US, where Chiefs of Navy of the participating countries acknowledged that information-sharing is critical for maritime domain awareness, and since then it has become a ‘common thread championed at various security dialogues and forums’.

The IMAC could consider inviting ILOs from Indian Ocean countries and enhancing multi-national naval cooperation. It is also a good idea to explore if IMAC can support regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, and augment environmental surveillance through situational information.

* Vijay Sakhuja
Director, National Maritime Foundation (NMF), New Delhi

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Worst Case Scenario: The Criminal Use Of Drones – Analysis

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By Alejandro Sanchez and Cameron McKibben*

If 2014 was the year of the drone in Latin America, 2015 is looking to be very much the same.[i] However, the proliferation of drone usage may become a concern throughout the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Mexico and the United States, as drones have found a new investor south of the U.S. border: drug traffickers. But what is the potential for drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) to acquire drones capable of effectively smuggling and eluding authorities? As one of the most popular Christmas gifts this past year, civilian drones are readily available to the public. [ii]

The Rise of the Terror Drone?

In the U.S., the worst possible scenario of how drones can be utilized for violent outcomes in sensitive locations took a new turn on January 26, when a small drone crashed on the lawn of the White House. While this incident (involving an inebriated government employee) seems to have just been an accident, it begins to illuminate just how easily drones can fly into restricted areas. The event also provokes worries over how destructive these machines can be if they were to be used as “terror drones,” and loaded with some sort of explosive. Additionally, it is important to remember that this is not the first time that drones have entered no-fly zones. Over the past year, unauthorized drones have flown close to other sensitive targets, like nuclear power plants in France and Belgium. So far, no one has been detained for these incidents, and these could have been staged by some harmless environmental group.

Nevertheless, given the recent attacks against the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in France and the terrorist attacks in the UK and Spain over the past decade, one major concern is that terror drones could be use by an extremist Islamic militant organization for some kind of terrorist operation.

The idea that terrorist movements will begin to utilize drones is no longer a hypothetical scenario, but a grim reality. For example, the global media has reported that ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has procured a drone and is using it to conduct reconnaissance and aid in launching ground attacks on the Syrian military.[iii] Likewise, it is believed that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah also possess drones.

A word of caution is necessary. The drones used by the aforementioned militant movements are generally believed to be very crude models, nothing more than a small plane or helicopter with a video camera and GPS attached. Such aircraft cannot be compared to the capabilities of US or Israeli drones like the NightEagle or ScanEagle, much less armed drones like the Predators. Nevertheless, even the most rudimentary drone can serve as an effective “eye in the sky” that would provide invaluable intelligence information to a terrorist movement. Moreover, in the case of Israel, one genuine fear is that Hezbollah’s drones can be adapted as “suicide drones” – namely that they can be loaded with explosives so they would cause maximum damage if they collide against an Israeli military (or civilian) facility.[iv]

Even criminals that do not necessarily belong to some major terrorist or criminal network can use drones for smuggling. This has already been the case in the U.S. and Australia. [v] For example, individuals have already used small drones to try to smuggle marijuana, cell phones, and other contraband into prisons in South Carolina and Georgia. These attempts were discovered because the drones failed to cross over the fence line and crashed (one likely reason being that they were carrying too much weight for the machine to fly properly), but there could certainly be other instances when drones were able to fly over a prison fence, were unloaded by prisoners, and then managed to fly back unnoticed.

As UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are now coming into the hands of criminals and terrorist movements across the world, either for transportation of contraband or surveillance purposes, it should come as little surprise that drones are now beginning to be utilized by Latin American DTOs. At this point we must ask ourselves, what are the implications for the use of drones by these Latin American illicit groups?

Drones in Latin America

Drug smuggling across the U.S.-Mexican border via drones has been recorded since 2010. This raises the question of what the potential for their expanded use by DTOs to smuggle their cargoes across borders may be. Not only does this affect Mexico and the U.S., but the use of drones should also be a concern for areas in which Mexican DTOs operate, notably in Central America.

So far, there have been limited reports regarding drones being utilized for criminal or terrorist activities in Latin America, but such use seems like a realistic development in the near future. Case in point, there is now the serious concern over drone usage by Mexican DTOs. A crashed UAV, a type of helicopter, was recovered in Tijuana, Mexico, carrying about six pounds (over three kilograms) of methamphetamine.[vi] It is likely that drones will continue to be utilized for moving small quantities of drugs (or other contraband) within Mexican territory or over the U.S. border. Nevertheless, given the fact that Mexican cartels have significant wealth stemming from an almost endless supply of drugs (ranging from cocaine to meth to marijuana), it is not shocking to assume that these DTOs may continue to resort to drones in the future as cheap vehicle to thwart border security measures.

As for drones being used to smuggle contraband into prisons, this is a particularly worrisome development given that prison conditions in countries like Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and throughout Central America are notorious for internal violence and almost routine escape attempts.

The use of drones extends beyond mere transportation of drugs over the border. There are also the aforementioned reports of using drones to smuggle materials into prisons. This can be especially disconcerting in Mexico, where (attempted) prison breakouts are fairly common. The judicial systems in these countries are already weak regarding convictions and penal overpopulation. Moreover, throughout Latin American prisons, it is often the inmates that actually control the prisons, while correction guards mainly focus on controlling the walls to keep the inmates from escaping.[vii]

While regional penal security forces have made progress in cracking down on smuggling, the examples of Georgia and South Carolina raise concerns that criminals might utilize drones to penetrate Latin American prisons. Such a scenario could end in the smuggling of more drugs, cell phones, and more dangerous cargoes like weapons to the inmate population, prompting further violence, either between prisoners or to facilitate mass escape attempts.

Finally, it is necessary to explore whether Latin American DTOs or terrorist movements could utilize terror drones for further types of aerial attacks (as Israel fears vis-à-vis Hezbollah) in countries besides Mexico. Due to space limitations, we will focus on the current major insurgent movements and drug cartels that already operate in the region.

  1. Shining Path (Peru). The group has around 300 members, which are split into two factions and operate out of the Peruvian highlands. The group has suffered the loss of all of its senior leadership thanks to recent operations by the Peruvian military.[viii] At this point, it is unlikely that Shining Path has the capability or resources to acquire or deploy terror drones.
  2. Paraguayan People’s Army (Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo- Paraguay). This group is rumored to have around 50 members, with its modus operandi revolving around kidnappings, attacking isolated police posts and low-scale bombings. The group’s most recent attack on January 28 involved the kidnapping and murder of two cattle ranchers in the Concepcion department.[ix] Like Shining Path, it is unlikely that the group has the capability or resources to obtain drones.
  3. FARC and ELN (Colombia). Both groups are still strong, militarily speaking. The FARC, for example, is thought to have around 8,000 troops, and the group certainly profits enough from drug trafficking, extortion and racketeering to obtain some crude drone models for surveillance operations. With that said, both the FARC and ELN are currently involved in peace negotiations with the Colombian government. In spite of the possibility that negotiations between the groups, as well as the FARC’s unilateral ceasefire, will be successful, it is realistic to believe that these groups could reorganize themselves should negotiations fail. Drones could be utilized the event that this worst-case scenario occurs.[x]

The Future: The Flight of the Terror Drone

Based upon the tactical practicality of drones to execute terrorist and illicit operations, the proliferation of UAV use by such organizations should be regarded as a realistic possibility in the near future. Additionally, given the illicit wealth and political capital (through corruption) that these groups can mobilize, a significant risk is manifested in their ability to surpass the technology of early rudimentary designs and models. This is particularly true in regards to the Latin American drug trade, a profit-maximizing environment, in which the DTOs have a history of gaining exorbitant wealth, allowing them to penetrate all levels of government (including security agencies) with relative ease.

The Mexican DTOs have already invested in and utilized drones in order to smuggle drugs, and these UAVs could potentially be utilized to conduct surveillance. It is likely that the FARC could develop similar capabilities. These entities certainly have the funds to acquire them, as exemplified by the construction of miniature narco-submarines, costing around $5 million USD, which have been utilized to transport hundreds of kilograms of drugs up the Caribbean coast.[xi] If nothing else, the existence of narco-subs exemplifies the interest of drug cartels in new technologies to avoid detection while smuggling drugs.

On the potential for terror drones, it is certainly alarming and should not be dismissed. Radical movements like Shining Path and the FARC have a history of utilizing explosive devices to carry out terror attacks. For example, Shining Path’s use of “car bombs” in the 1980s and early 1990s during Peru’s civil war (like the car bomb that exploded in Tarata Street in downtown Lima in 1992, killing 25 and injuring over 200).[xii] Thus, there is certainly no lack of precedent of these groups utilizing technology to carry out attacks. Thus, it is not unthinkable that these, or new groups, could attempt to construct a “terror drone.” Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, Shining Path is currently a defunct (or at least dying) entity, so it is unlikely that the Peruvian insurgents have the expertise to fabricate a “terror drone.”

At the time of this writing, there have been no reports of UAVs being utilized to commit violence. Still, this analysis would argue that if any Latin American criminal organization could attempt to build a terror drone in the near future, it would be the Mexican DTOs or the FARC. Mexican DTOs operate in a deteriorating security environment in which violence has become commonplace, and for the FARC, in the event of failed peace negotiations, terror drones could be useful to a revival of their goals.

Revolutionary and organized crime groups are commonplace throughout Latin American countries, and it would be unreasonable not to consider the potential for new groups to emerge. However, groups that are linked to state sponsorship or can penetrate state-based development programs have the highest potential for technology to transfer to them. The use of UAVs by illicit and non-state actors is already occurring, and will likely expand in the near future – to aid in drug smuggling, intelligence gathering, or committing violence. Terror drones and UAVs used for more conventional illegal purposes may prove to be a new security threat in the future, and sooner rather than later, they may fly over Latin American airspace.

Alejandro Sanchez, Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, and Cameron McKibben, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

References:
[i] W. Alejandro Sanchez, “Lift Off: Drone Usage in Latin America Takes Flight,” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, accessed January 23, 2015, http://www.coha.org/lift-off-drone-usage-in-latin-america-takes-flight/.

[ii] Alex Renton, “Christmas gift: attack of the drones,” The Guardian, accessed January 30, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/23/toy-drones-christmas-present-hobby.

[iii] Geoff Earle and Bruce Golding, “ISIS using surveillance drones to target Syrian military,” New York Post, accessed January 26,2015, http://nypost.com/2014/08/26/isis-using-surveillance-drones-to-target-syrian-military/.

[iv] Peter Bergen & Emily Schneider, “ Now ISIS has Drones?” CNN.com, Opinion, accessed January 30, 2015, http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/24/opinion/bergen-schneider-drones-isis/.

[v] “Australia: Drone ‘used to carry drugs near prison,’” BBC News, accessed January 23, 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26511740; Harriet McLeod, “Crashed drone carried contraband aimed at South Carolina prison,” Reuters, accessed January 26, 2015,http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/31/us-usa-southcarolina-drones-idUSKBN0G002020140731.

[vi] “Drone carrying drugs crashes near US-Mexico border,” BBC News, accessed January 23, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30931367.

[vii] “Investigan cárcel ‘controlada por presos’ en Brasil,: BBC Mundo, accessed January 30, 2015, http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/america_latina/2010/08/100804_brasil_carcel_controlada_por_presos_lav.shtml – Also see: “Mas de la mitad de las cárceles en Mexico es controlada por los presos,” RT Actualidad, accessed January 30, 2015 http://actualidad.rt.com/sociedad/view/111860-carceles-mexico-controlada-presos – also see Dario Mizrahi, “Las cárceles en America Latina, autenticas escuelas del delito,” Infobae.com, accessed January 30, 2015 http://www.infobae.com/2013/11/17/1524235-las-carceles-america-latina-autenticas-escuelas-del-delito.

[viii] W. Alejandro Sanchez, “Peru: Shining Parth’s Last Major leader, Artemio, has been Captured,” Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Report, accessed January 30, 2015 http://www.coha.org/peru-shining-path%E2%80%99s-last-major-leader-artemio-has-been-captured/.

[ix] “EPP strikes again in Paraguay with kidnapping and murder,” Latin News, Main Briefing.

[x] “FARC demands Colombia stop ceasefire ‘abuse,’” AFP, accessed January 30, 2015, http://news.yahoo.com/farc-demands-colombia-stop-ceasefire-abuse-224933015.html.

[xi] Dane Schiller, “Experts reveal secrets of narco sub,” Houston Chronicle, accessed January 30, 2015, http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Experts-reveal-secrets-from-captured-narco-sub-1691587.php.

[xii] Rachel Chase, “Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman on trial for 1992 Tarata bombing,” Peru This Week, accessed January 30, 2015, http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-shining-path-leader-abimael-guzman-on-trial-for-1992-tarata-bombing-102033.

The post Worst Case Scenario: The Criminal Use Of Drones – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Economic Interests Attract China To Russia, Not Edgy Policies – Analysis

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China pursues a non-alliance policy, in no way obliged to follow Russia on confrontation with the West.

By Wang Yiwei*

Many observers ponder Russia’s international isolation following its annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine and the increasing dependence on China – and are puzzled over not only Russia’s behavior but also about how close Russia and China could become. Will China continue to assist Russia? Could China follow Russia’s path in Crimea to handle Taiwan and other territorial issues?

China does not have to pick a side in the Ukraine crisis. But China should take such questions and comparisons seriously – making it clear through public diplomacy that the country is not like Russia.

Just as the Russian intervention was intensifying, European countries worried about China’s historic territorial claims. During his first visit to Berlin in March 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping received a special gift from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the first precise map of China made by esteemed French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville in 1735. That year was the height of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when the Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne. The map of China includes the Island of Sakhalin to the northeast, now Russia; Taiwan to the southeast, independent of China since 1950; Ili River to the west, shared by China and Kazakhstan; Lake Baikal to the north in Siberia; and Hainan to the south.

Perhaps Russia’s annexation of Crimea gave rise to Merkel’s concern about the possible consequences of China’s rejuvenation or recall China the Russian expansion threat. She conveyed complicated information by presenting an antique map depicting ancient China with all its inseparable parts in ancient times.

Merkel’s concern is understandable as once war-ravaged European nations remain sensitive toward boundary-related issues. Border changes have always been a worry in Europe, posing a lethal threat to its peace and stability and dragging regional stakeholders into frequent battles.

Europeans could not have missed the allusion to historical claims in official Chinese pronouncements. Soon after receiving the gift from Merkel, Xi delivered a keynote speech at the College of Europe in Bruges on April. 1, 2014: “For any country in the world, the past always holds the key to the present and the present is always rooted in the past. Only when we know where a country has come from, could we possibly understand why the country is what it is today, and only then could we realize in which direction it is heading.”

Xi argued, “The relationship between China and the EU has become one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. To move the relationship forward, China needs to know more about Europe, and Europe needs to know more about China. For that, we need to build four partners for peace, growth, reform and progress of civilization, so that the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership will take on even greater global significance.”

Three factors show the differences between Russia and China on territorial issues:

First, consider their respective cultural conditioning – the culture shaped during the development of the two nations distinguishes China from Russia. Russia began in the medieval state of Kievan Rus and then expanded from Europe to Asia to Siberia in the Far East, stretching across Eurasia, making it the world’s largest country in terms of territory.

In contrast, the vast grassland to the north, tributary states to the south, boundless sea to the east and the cloud-kissing Himalayas to the west have endowed China with a mentality of being a “Middle Kingdom.” As Xi noted in his address for the College of Europe, “Of the world’s ancient civilizations, the Chinese civilization has spanned over 5,000 years and continued uninterrupted to this day.”

Therefore, it is temporal logic, not spatial, that has dominated China’s culture. The nation values the natural appeal of its own culture, rather than geographical expansion, and this has historically suggested that China will not follow Russia’s path.

Secondly, from the perspective of their current economic positions, China and Russia differ in dependence on the rest of the world.

As the second largest economy in the world and a major participant in, beneficiary and builder of globalization, China relies on two engines, export and investment, to beef up economic growth. China’s external dependence prompts it to cooperate with other nations in a peaceful way.

China’s economy is fundamentally different from Russia’s, the world’s sixth largest, which mainly relies on energy and arms exports. Half of Russian national income comes from the export of energy. The top three trade partners for Russia are China, the EU and Ukraine while China’s are the EU, the US and ASEAN. With less economic reliance on the West, Russia can offend the West, some of whose members though, must seek Russia’s energy and diplomatic clout.

Finally. China and Russia differ on expectations for the future.

Though Russians also yearn for bright prospects, the Chinese are more optimistic about their future according to various opinion polls. And affected by the mentality of changing oneself and influencing the world, the Chinese people firmly view the Chinese dream as consistent with the dream of other peoples. The Chinese will not ruin the country’s opportunities for strategic development with reckless ventures.

China has signed border agreements with almost all 14 countries it shares a land border with, the exceptions being India and Bhutan. Of course, maritime territory, rather a modern concept, has emerged as a major bone of contention with China’s Asian neighbors.

M. Taylor Fravel, an expert on Chinese strategy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has pointed out that China, which embraces political compromise over the use force, tends to solve border disputes through negotiations.

Thus China does not need to emulate Russia.

The Chinese people have learned from their experience in modern times that peace, development, cooperation and win-win progress are the most significant values in getting along with the rest of the world. Besides whether China will follow the path of Russia, another concern is how China took advantage of Russia’s isolation to strike a favorable bargain in the long-term gas deal and how it is in a driver’s seat as far as such economic cooperation is concerned. As the long-time negotiation of the gas deal was signed in Shanghai last June, the question emerges over whether Russia’s isolation gives China greater leverage?

China is in no way obliged to follow Russia in confronting the West. Considering the historic memory of Russia’s annexation of China’s 3 million kilometers of territory, China’s leaders undertake a non-alliance foreign policy that prohibits China from coming too close to Russia. In particular, China is seeking to build a new type of great-power relations with the United States. The West, and not Russia, is the major partner for China in overall opening of the economy and reforms. The West, not Russia, represents the future for most Chinese. How close China can come together with Russia depends not on Russia’s need for China, but China’s need for the West. The “one belt, one road” – China’s new Silk Road initiative – will bind China and Russia together and not the sanctions from the West.

*The author is director of the Institute of International Affairs and professor with the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China and senior research fellow at Chongyang Institute of Finiancial Studies, Renmin University . He was a Yale University Fox Fellow in 2000-2001 from Fudan University.

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Spain: Govt And PSOE Sign Agreement To Tackle Terrorism, Radicalization

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Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the General Secretary of the main opposition party PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, have signed the ‘Agreement to Step Up Unity in Defence of Liberties and to Combat Terrorism’. According to the government, the text contains the firm will of both leaders to maintain the maximum unity of democrats against terrorism.

Rajoy argued, in an institutional declaration, that unity “is necessary to tackle all those who threaten our system of rights and liberties, and cooperation and a spirit of consensus are essential for defending the way of life of an open society like Spain’s”.

Rajoy underlined that, as a result of this agreement, Spain is providing itself with “one of the best legal and operational tools to guarantee the liberty and security” of our citizens against the threat of Jihadi terrorism. Moreover, a clear message is being sent out to radicals: “Spanish society is united in terms of its freedom, democracy and values that go beyond mere ideological overtones,” the Prime Minister said.

Rajoy recalled that the government and the opposition have always been united “against terrorism and in favor of liberty” and will always be so. Renewing this agreement, he added, “is key to being more effective in our shared goal: that no Spaniard sees his liberties threatened or his security compromised”.

The Prime Minister argued that while terrorism transforms, our consensus is maintained. “Today a renewed determination is born to maintain the unreserved unity of democrats against terrorism which is willingly laid down in the commitments taken on by the PP, the Government of Spain and the PSOE and which we open up to the consensus of the rest of the parliamentary forces”.

Legal reforms

Rajoy specified that the agreement is shaped, firstly, in an amendment to the Criminal Code on matters of terrorism offenses through a constitutional law that is open to support from the rest of the parliamentary forces.

This means that phenomena such as the ‘lone wolf’, the use of the Internet to share terrorist content, new methods of financing criminal activities and deployment to regions of armed conflict become criminal offenses or are aggravated. The reform of the Criminal Code “will continue to guarantee the maximum custodial sentence for crimes of terrorism, leading to the loss of life”, pointed out Rajoy.

Furthermore, those legislative reforms that are necessary will be promulgated and the human and material resources necessary will be guaranteed so that the fight against terrorism carried out by the justice system, the State law enforcement agencies and the armed forces on missions overseas can be carried out as effectively as possible.

International cooperation and dignity of victims

Other commitments contained in the text include the implementation of initiatives designed to eradicate all manifestations of violent radicalization and intolerance and boosting international policies to combat terrorism, both within the framework of the EU and on the UN Security Council (of which Spain is a non-permanent member). “Because, whilst unity is necessary, international cooperation, particularly at a European level, is essential to defeat terrorism”, stressed Rajoy.

The Prime Minister highlighted the determination of the signatories to “keep the memory of victims of terrorism alive, honour their memory with dignity and foster the testimony of gratitude that we will always owe them”.

According to Rajoy, the consensus reached on Monday “shows that we are one of the most consolidated democracies in the world, a serious and responsible country that can be trusted”.  Rajoy thanked the PP and the PSOE for their responsible attitude, particularly that of the General Secretary of the Socialist Party and Leader of the Opposition, Pedro Sánchez.

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