Unfortunately, in the 24/7/365 media age, fearmongering has never been easier. The around the clock cable news coverage of an extremely rare event—a co-pilot’s alleged mass murder of passengers aboard one of 40 million flights worldwide annually—is a case in point. But the cynical use of fear happens with more mundane things too—for example, in advertisements for mouthwash and filtered water. To stay alive all of these millennia, the human race became susceptible to fear baiting, even when that fear is quite irrational.

As happened after the fiasco that was the Vietnam War—when the “Vietnam Syndrome” led to Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter being wisely chary of U.S. foreign interventions—the American public and even potential Republican presidential candidates became less interventionist after the long quagmires in Afghanistan in Iraq. Unfortunately, this second round of preference for overseas restraint didn’t last very long. After the radical Islamic State group lopped off a few American heads on video, the public has increased its support for U.S. military intervention, the Obama administration went back into Iraq to help battle what is more of a threat to the Middle East region than to the United States, and Republican presidential candidates—even Rand Paul—have become more hawkish.

Yet at the same time, foreign policy “experts,” such as Fareed Zakaria and the Republican-leaning Richard Haass, have finally seemed to land in the camp for more U.S. restraint overseas. On his program GPS (Global Public Square), Zakaria recently discovered that most of the Islamist terror groups are mainly threats to their region, but when the United States supports autocratic regimes against them, only then do they start attacking the United States. Zakaria then quoted George W. Bush as having said that decades of supporting authoritarian governments hadn’t improved U.S. security. Hurray for Fareed; he finally gets it! Unfortunately, as Zakaria pointed out, Bush may have gotten this part right, but his solution—invading a country to attempt to eliminate the autocrat—went terribly wrong, only generating terrorism, chaos, and civil war.

On the same show, Haass announced that United States, from now on, would need to intervene less directly overseas and instead help one side or the other in conflicts with money or arms. He also opined that Iraq was no more and was in fact effectively now three partitioned entities—the south controlled by the Shi’i government (really Iran-backed Shi’i militias), the northeast controlled by the Kurdish pesh merga militias, and the northwest controlled by the Sunni Islamic State group. He further said that the United States might need to accept this states of affairs, including an Iranian-dominated south.

A few of us have been making the points of these newly converted luminaries for years and have gotten very little credit for being right. It has long been apparent that Americans prefer to remain ignorant to the fact that their own government has had a big role, stretching back to the Cold War, of facilitating the rise of Islamist radicalism in one way or another. As for the devolution of Iraq, I counted only four analysts—including myself and Joe Biden before he became vice president—who thought the United States could extricate itself from Iraq by helping the three groups—Shi’a, Sunni, and Kurds— peacefully devolve into a loose confederation of autonomously governed entities or even and outright “soft” partition by negotiation. In my book, Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq, written some years ago but never more relevant now, I said that if Iraq was not partitioned peacefully, it would be divided by war. Unfortunately, the latter has occurred.

Yet, the U.S. government and other governments—with their own restive minorities, which give them an interest in preventing the disintegration of foreign countries—still haven’t faced this reality. Some argue that even if some form of partition occurred, the groups would fight anyway over the new borders, such as they did in the bloody partition of South Asia into India and Pakistan in 1947. Carefully drawing the boundaries between groups would be necessary but is not impossible. Academic research shows that the bloody partitions of South Asia and Northern Ireland and Ireland resulted from boundary creation that left a large minority population inside the line, thus threatening the majority populace. The research shows that if the boundary lines are drawn so that 10 percent or less of the population is of the minority group, the majority group will not be fearful and peace has a greater chance. For example, when Northern Ireland and Ireland divided, about a third of Northern Ireland was Catholic and the rest was Protestant, leaving the majority fearful and leading to decades of strife. In contrast, Ireland has a Protestant minority that makes up less than 10 percent of the population, and much less violence among the groups has occurred there than in the North.

In Iraq, the idea would be to draw boundaries close to ethnic or sectarian lines—which the British and French failed to do after World War I in the Middle East—but perfection is not necessary. When creating autonomous regions or even new countries, the central government is thus dissolved or weakened so that the groups don’t fight over control of it. The history of Iraq has been one group controlling the central government and using it to oppress the other groups. Although historically, it was the government of a Sunni minority oppressing the others, since the U.S. invasion and occupation, it has been a majority Shi’i government oppressing the others as payback.

The brutal Islamic State group gets support from Sunni areas of Iraq, because the Sunnis fear it less than they do oppression by the Shi’i government and its militias. If Sunnis were allowed to govern themselves in an autonomous area or as a new country, they would no longer fear the Shi’i central government and would be more likely to throw out the Islamic State group, as they did its predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, during the U.S. occupation.

Since much of the conflict in the Middle East now is rooted in the Shi’i-Sunni divide, partitioning in some form—so that state borders more accurately reflect ethno-sectarian boundaries—may be a good solution elsewhere as well. It is an urgent need in Iraq now.

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

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INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock has highlighted the need for a concerted international effort to prevent the illicit trade in cultural heritage by terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.

Attending a high-level meeting convened by UNESCO regarding implementation of a recent United Nations Security Council resolution on the safeguarding of Iraqi and Syrian cultural items, Secretary General Stock underlined INTERPOL’s ongoing role in centralizing information on stolen cultural heritage and assisting member countries in identifying, locating and repatriating trafficked items.

“Preserving the rich history of the Middle East, which is increasingly threatened by the actions of terrorist groups, is a global responsibility which requires a coordinated global response to
raise awareness and bring an end to the destruction and looting of our priceless cultural heritage,” said the INTERPOL Chief.

In February, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2199 which calls on INTERPOL, UNESCO and other partners to support the efforts of member countries to prevent the trade in stolen Iraqi and Syrian cultural items.

Addressing the meeting, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said: “Violent extremists are showing fierce determination to destroy heritage, to vandalize culture, to attack museum visitors. This is why we have gathered today, bringing together all key partners for safeguarding humanity’s shared heritage, to craft new ways to fight these crimes.”

Central to INTERPOL’s role as a global platform for collecting and sharing information on stolen cultural heritage is its Works of Art database, which contains details of more than 45,000 objects accessible by users in law enforcement, customs authorities, international organizations and the private art industry.

In addition, INTERPOL coordinates training for law enforcement and customs officials on how to detect and counter the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage, and maintains an operational network of national police agencies and specialists from partner organizations through the INTERPOL Expert Group on Stolen Cultural Property.

The meeting at UNESCO headquarters brought together representatives from key international organizations including INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), World Customs Organization (WCO), the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) to strengthen cooperation and draft a roadmap for implementation of the Security Council resolution.

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International condemnations from citizens and governments have reached near fever intensity as most of us are horrified and disgusted at what jihadi militants are smashing and decimating in Syria. And also in places like Mosel and Nimrud in Iraq and increasingly in Africa and Asia from Somalia to Timbuktu in Mali on to Pakistan and beyond.

Officials and citizens in Syria continue organizing grass roots heritage campaigns and workshops to save our shared global heritage which has been in their protective custody for thousands of years. But never has our heritage faced more ravaging and serious threats than today and an intense international debate is happening on the subject of how best to preserve artifacts from the ancient world in the midst of war and religious extremism.

Subjects being examined include whether international collectors and museums-and even international institutions and police agencies should stop returning or repatriating suspected stolen artifacts to the lands from where they originated, including thousands from Syria. Some Museum directors, archaeologists, collectors argue in favor of the proposition that favors retention or partage of endangered artifacts unlawfully removed from source countries. In this context “partage” means sharing of a country’s antiquities which was the colonialist- even orientalist- system put in place mostly in Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan to divide up ownership of excavated artifacts during the beginning of the 20th Century. The advocates of partage usually are quick to point out that developed countries would hold the treasures of countries at risk for safe keeping but not in perpetuity. But at least keep them in lockup until a conflict is over and security for the irreplaceable heritage objects can be substantially assured.

According to the New York Times this week, given the violence in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and northern Africa, the former director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, is advocating that museums become much more circumspect about rushing to return antiquities. His reasoning is based on a claimed fear for the safety of the antiquities once they arrive back in the source country.

This observer has to date detected no widespread support for this argument in Syria which if adopted could seriously delay repatriation of Syria’s looted and smuggled antiquities. Syrian officials and scholars interviewed me overwhelming reject this point of view as does the Syrian public. Some have noted that using the destructive frenzy by Islamic State extremists to lobby against repatriation seeks to justify discredited practices and reeks of neo-colonialism.

In point of fact, support for repatriation-immediate return has gained ground in antiquities circles in recent years and this is the position of antiquities officials in Syria. The above noted argument is also opposed UN Specialized Agencies including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which strongly opposes museums and collectors acquiring ancient objects if the items left their countries of origin after 1970.

The widely shared UNESCO policy is focused on impeding archaeological smuggling by curtailing demand while upholding the sovereignty of source nations. Repatriation is also enshrined in international treaties, international customary law and the laws of many nations including the European Union countries and the United States and Canada.

The current trend is that museums and art dealers are agreeing to send back or repatriate vaguely documented or disputed artifacts to Syria, items often obtained under dubious circumstances. Ricardo L. Elia, an archaeologist at Boston University who believes the Western market for antiquities spurs the plundering of global archaeological sites was quoted this week in the NY Times as declaring “It was only a matter of time before some in the art-collecting community tried to turn this cultural nightmare to their own advantage by advocating retaining antiquities looted elsewhere.”

But some antiquities experts say pillaging by jihadists and radical groups in Syria challenges UNESCO orthodoxy because irreplaceable antiquities ought to be considered the common property of all mankind and that wholesale repatriation endangers the cultural heritage of the very countries it supposedly benefits. This argument claims that the sources country may not be able to protect and preserve its antiquities particularly during periods of violent conflict like those raging in Syria and Iraq. A former vice chairman of the American Bar Association’s Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee, Mr. Peter Tompa stated this week, “If the people of these lands are indifferent and even hostile to their ‘cultural heritage,’ what’s the point in reserving it for them to ignore or destroy?”

But this argument has to date been largely rejected. The Association of Art Museum Directors, which circulates guidelines for some 250 museums in the US, urges its members to cooperate fully when their antiquities holdings are challenged and the association supports immediate repatriation of Syrian looted and smuggled antiquities. This practice is preferable so as not to weaken or obscure the right of Syria to possess and protect its stolen antiquities and increasingly, according to UNESCO, the Syrian Ministry of Culture and its Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums are very capable of safeguarding and preparing for their exhibition and the return of tourists once the crises is over.

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Australia’s plans for new submarines have run into major difficulties with political controversy and a failure to define the type of submarine required and the systems it might carry.

By Sam Bateman*

Australia’s submarine acquisition programme to replace 12 ageing Collins class vessels is locked in political controversy. Some six years after the Defence White Paper in 2009 endorsed it, no decision has been made to acquire these submarines. Instead the programme, mired in political brouhaha, is facing ongoing uncertainty about just what is the requirement.

In broad terms, the requirement is for a large conventional-powered submarine capable of travelling from bases in Australia to the East Asian seas. The idea of a nuclear-powered vessel has been set aside due to the lack of a nuclear power industry in Australia although the benefits of acquiring such a vessel regularly surface in the great submarine debate in Australia.

What’s on offer?

While initially it had been assumed that a European design would be the likely choice, all this changed in 2014 when Australian Prime Minister Abbott entered into a handshake deal with Prime Minister Abe of Japan to explore joint submarine development. However, this deal became a political ‘hot potato’ in Australia as it was seen as likely that a Japanese solution would involve less involvement of Australian ship builders than a European choice.

Abbott then backed off from his Japanese deal (a so-called ‘Captain’s pick’) when the matter became a source of discontent in his parliament leadership that threatened to unseat him as prime minister. There is strong political support in Canberra, including within Abbott’s own party, for a maximum level of Australian industry involvement in the project.

The main contenders under consideration are from Japan, Germany and France. These countries have now been invited to participate in a competitive evaluation process to assess their ability to partner with Australia to develop a submarine that meets Australia’s capability requirements. Sweden which had been seen as an outside possibility has not been invited perhaps for what some members of the political Opposition in Canberra have seen as a faulty appreciation of Sweden’s submarine-building capabilities.

The Japanese option is an enhanced next generation submarine based on the existing Soryu class vessel. It would reflect the considerable experience of Japan in the design and building of submarines but concerns have been expressed about the likely size of the crew of this option and whether the required long range will be achievable.

The German option is a Type 216 Class submarine which will be an up-sized version of the popular Type 214 submarine which has been built for Greece, Portugal and South Korea with possible sales to Pakistan and Turkey. With extensive German experience in building submarines, there is confidence that the option will meet Australia’s requirement for long range and endurance.

The French option is a conventional-powered version of the planned nuclear-powered Barracuda-class submarine. Significant alterations will be required for the vessel to meet Australian requirements. However, like the Germans and unlike the Japanese, the French have significant experience in building submarines overseas in conjunction with foreign builders.

Stumbling blocks

There are four main ‘stumbling blocks’ to reaching a way ahead. The first is that Australia’s requirement for a ‘big’ conventional submarine is unique. All the options on offer are going to require substantial modification to meet Australia’s requirements with a commensurate level of technical risk. A nuclear-powered vessel would meet the requirements but this is not on the cards.

The second ‘stumbling block’ is that Australia is likely locked into American weapons and systems, particularly the combat data system – Australia has already sunk over AUD$500 million into the joint development and management of the system used in the existing Collins-class vessels and preferred for the new vessels. While American systems may be available with the Japanese offer, they may not be approved for the European options.

European builders build for the global submarine market and the Americans may assess that this could involve an unacceptable risk of leakage of highly classified data associated with the combat data system in particular. This may have been the consideration that led Tony Abbott to opt for the Japanese solution.

The third difficulty is trying to make an accurate assessment of the future strategic environment in which the new submarines will be employed. Who is to say what that might look like? The new submarines will probably not enter service for up to ten years and may then remain in service for a further 30 years. Credible scenarios for the future must include a significant decline in American power and influence within the region, as well as conflict between China and Japan in which Australia may not take sides.

In these regional circumstances, the Japanese option may involve some loss of long-term strategic independence for Australia. The European options bring with them greater strategic flexibility.

The last ‘stumbling’ block is provided by developments in submarine detection systems and signal processing. The seas are becoming more transparent. Over the life of the new submarine, it may become more difficult, if not impossible, for Australia to deploy its submarines covertly through the archipelagos to its North and into the East Asian seas.

What does all this mean?

Consideration of these ‘stumbling blocks’ suggests that Australia could well be better off accepting an existing design of a smaller and cheaper submarine from a European builder. Such a vessel would be capable of the required tasks in Australia’s maritime approaches and defending sea lines of communication.

The submarines could be built in Australia with low technical risk and a saving of billions of dollars to the Defence budget. If Australia went down that path rather than persisting with the big and expensive solution, the delays of the last six years may well turn out to be fortuitous.

*Sam Bateman is an adviser to the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is a former Australian naval commodore who has worked in force development areas of the Department of Defence in Canberra.

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Fighters associated with the Islamic State group in Syria stormed the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus on Wednesday, a local Palestinian official said.

IS fighters were reportedly in control of large areas of the camp south of the Syrian capital, which is one the largest population centers for Palestinian refugees in Syria.

“Fighters from IS launched an assault this morning on Yarmouk and they took over the majority of the camp,” Anwar Abdel Hadi, director of political affairs for the Palestine Liberation Organization in Damascus, told Ma’an.

The takeover marks another blow to refugees in the camp who have paid a heavy toll as a result of the conflict in Syria.

The camp has seen heavy fighting in recent years, including numerous sieges that have lasted months and led to widespread starvation.

Although originally home to around 160,000 Palestinian refugees as well as Syrians, the camp’s numbers are thought to have dwindled below 20,000 as a result of the fighting.

Rebel groups took up positions in the camp more than a year ago. Over 200 camp residents have been killed since the army siege began, non-governmental groups say.

A partial truce in place since June had eased the siege to some extent.

The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 230,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.

Palestinians living in Syria have represented a high proportion of the thousands of people who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe so far this year in effort to escape the conflict.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported last week that life for Palestinian refugees in Syria is becoming increasingly unsustainable, revealing that nine refugees drowned in March trying to reach Europe by boat.

UNRWA said that the nine believed killed were part of a group of over 59 Palestinians, the majority fleeing conflict in Syria. Some of the refugees were also from Gaza and Lebanon, the statement added

Prior to the conflict, up to 600,000 Palestinian refugees lived in Syria, though the UN’s Palestine refugee agency UNRWA estimates that more than half have been forced to leave their homes in Syria due to violence in the country.

Palestinians in Syria are among the five million decedents of the 700,000-800,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes inside Israel during the 1948 conflict that led to the creation of the State of Israel.

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The Soviets matched the US only by spending up to 20% of GDP on the military during the Cold War. This column argues that, in stark contrast to this example, China has the potential to match the US in certain military spheres with similar burden on its economy. Using exchange rates comparisons significantly understates the Chinese military spending. A much more realistic assessment is obtained using PPP terms. If both countries spent the same fraction of their GDP on the military, the relative size of China’s military machine would be more than 90% of the US one.

By Peter E. Robertson*

China’s rapid economic growth has led to a spate of comparisons between the sizes of the economies of China and the US. Authors wishing to make China look big use exchange rates adjusted for local prices.

Frankel (2014) argues that GDP converted at market exchange rates is a better measure of economic power since international spending power but not local spending power is what matters. Specifically, comparisons based on market exchange rate are appropriate for measuring the importance of a country in the world economy, such as the national share of world demand, the impact on financial markets, and international voting rights.

• As Frankel notes, since the market exchange rate is approximately half the value of the purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rate, the US remains the world’s largest economic power by a substantial margin.

But another aspect of China’s rise is its rising military strength. Its military budget has grown at double digit rates for 20 years. The wider political economy implications of China’s rise also depend on this military muscle (Mearsheimer 2006, Friedberg 2011, Kaplan 2014). As evidenced by Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’, this is already changing the balance of power in Asia, and the US foreign policy response (Clinton 2011, The Economist 2012).

But how should we compare this spending in RMB to the US military budget? Will market exchange rates or PPP exchange rates give a more accurate comparison of relative real military spending in each country?

Military spending in China and the US

In a recent paper, (Robertson and Sin 2015), we show that China’s military budget was 18% of that of the US using market exchange rate comparisons, but 33% of the one of the US using PPP exchange rates. In addition, China spends only around 2% of its GDP on the military, compared to 5% by the US. If China raised its military spending to GDP ratio to the US level, it would be close to par with the US in PPP terms, but still far behind it in terms of market exchange rates.

Such large differences due to exchange rate choices cause anxiety in the Pentagon. It is a ‘known unknown’ that has been flagged many times by, for example, the Rand Corporation, the US Department of Defence, and military statistical abstracts such as the IISS and SIPRI (Crane et al. 2006, US Department of Defence 2011, IISS 2012, SIPRI 2012).

Frankel also points out that the market exchange rate matters for military power. He gives the example of China’s ability to project power in the South China Sea, which depends on its ability to purchase naval capacity. Likewise, China imports the latest generation anti-ship missiles from Russia.

But military spending more generally has a large domestic component. Around 1/3 of China’s military budget is spent on personnel – all of whom are paid substantially lower wages than their US equivalents – even after adjusting for differences in training. So, in this case it is not obvious whether market exchange rates or PPP exchange rate comparisons give a more accurate perspective.

A military unit cost exchange rate

The correct exchange rate with which to compare military spending would be a price or unit cost ratio of military services in each country. We, therefore, tackle this problem by developing Tornqvist and Fisher price indices applied to data on broad military budget shares for personnel, equipment, and operations spending.

In accordance with Frankel’s arguments above, we use market exchange rates as a measure of relative military equipment costs facing each country since most equipment, or close substitutes, is tradable. For relative operations costs, however, we use PPP exchange rates as a reasonable proxy since the operations budget represents a bundle of traded and non-traded goods and services.

Finally, relative personnel costs are obtained using manufacturing wages, either gross or net of on-costs, since this represents the social opportunity cost of military employment.

Even after adjusting for differences in average schooling, we find that these differences in personal costs are very large. Because of this, our resulting relative military cost (RMC) exchange rates are very low. Thus, while the market exchange rate in 210 was around 6.8 RMB per dollar, and the PPP exchange rate was 3.7 RMB per dollar, we obtain a relative military cost exchange rate of 2.9 RMB per dollar.

This low relative military costs exchange rate implies a real value of China’s military spending of 40% of the US in real terms – larger than the level implied by using PPP rates of 33%, and much larger than the market exchange rate based figure of 18%. Moreover, if both countries spent the same fraction of their GDP on the military, the relative size of China’s military machine is over 90% of the one of the US.

One strength of our method is that it allows for the fact that the US uses more equipment-intensive techniques and China uses labour-intensive techniques. Thus, it avoids substitution bias associated with fixed basked approaches. Moreover, it can also be readily calculated with minimal data.

One caveat is that the method assumes the technology for combing inputs –but not the inputs choice – is the same in both countries. But even allowing for say, a 10%-20% productivity advantage in the US due, for example, to less corruption and better procurement practices, it would still leave a very large estimate of real spending that would be closer to the PPP estimate of China’s military spending.

Conclusion

We find that converting China’s military spending in RMB to dollars using market exchange rates will dramatically understate its real size. A more realistic assessment shows that China’s real spending is closer to the value implied by PPP exchange rates.

This economic measure of military strength is important because it shows that China has the potential to match the US in certain military spheres with a similar burden on its economy. This is in stark contrast to the Soviets’ cold war strategy, where they matched the US only by spending up to 20% of GDP on the military.

So, in terms of military spending, China is ‘number 2’ but only by a small and shrinking margin. This will matter a great deal in terms of its ability to enforce territorial claims and achieve its foreign policy objectives. In these terms, China’s ability to wield international political power would seem to be very close to that of the US.

Editor’s note: The author gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of St Anthony’s College, Oxford and the CSAE, Oxford University.

About the author:
*Peter E. Robertson
Professor of Economics, University of Western Australia

References:
Clinton, H (2011), “America’s Pacific Century”, Foreign Policy, 189, (1): 56-63.

Crane, K, R Cliff, E Medeiros, J Mulvenon, and W Overholt (2005), Modernizing China’s Military, Opportunities and Constraints, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, California.

Frankel, J (2014), “China is Not Yet Number One”, VoxEU.org, 9 May.

Friedberg, A L (2011), A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia, WW Norton, New York.

International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) (2012), The Military Balance 2012, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London.

Kaplan, R D (2014), Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific, Random House.

Mearsheimer, J J (2006), “China’s unpeaceful rise”, Current History, 105, (690): 160-162.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) (2012), SIPRI Yearbook 2012: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Oxford University Press.

The Economist (2012), “China’s military rise: The Dragon’s New Teeth. A Rare Look Inside the World’s Biggest Military Expansion”, 403, (8779): 27.

Robertson, P E and A Sin (2015), “Measuring Hard Power: China’s Growth and Military Capacity“, Defence and Peace Economics (forthcoming).

U.S. Department of Defense (2011), Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Annual Report to Congress.

The post Mismeasuring China’s Military Spending – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

US Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Wednesday the people of Nigeria and the Nigerian Government on the historic and largely peaceful elections that were held this past weekend.

Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner of Nigeria’s presidential election, defeating incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

“We especially applaud all voters who showed patience and demonstrated their commitment to participate in the democratic process,” Kerry said.

Kerry said the US commends Nigeria’s Independent National Election Commission (INEC) and its Chairman, Attahiru Jega, on the generally orderly vote, on the use of technology such as card readers to increase the credibility and transparency of the electoral process, and on prompt communication of the results.

Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari. Photo Credit: Chatham House, Wikipedia Commons.

“While we note reports of logistical problems, such incidents did not undermine the overall outcome of the election,” Kerry said.

Kerry noted that in January he traveled to Nigeria and met with both President Jonathan and now President-Elect Buhari.

“At that time, I emphasized that for the United States, Nigeria is an increasingly important strategic partner and that Nigeria has a critical role to play in the security and prosperity of this continent and beyond,” Kerry said, adding that at that time he had also said “that it was imperative that these elections are an improvement over past elections and that they need to set a new standard for this democracy. That means that Nigerians needed to not only reject violence but actually promote peace.”

Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan. Photo credit: World Economic Forum, Wikipedia Commons.

Kerry said that the US lauds both President Jonathan and General Buhari for their public commitments to the Abuja Accord signed in January and reaffirmed March 26, respecting the official results, and encouraging their supporters to do the same.

“We commend President Jonathan for his years of service and for having acted in the best interest of his country,” Kerry said, adding, “We welcome President Jonathan’s calls for unity and calm during this transition period.”

Kerry said the US extends, “our congratulations to President-elect Buhari. The United States reiterates its commitment to working with the newly elected government that emerges from this democratic process.:

The post Kerry Congratulates Nigeria On Elections, Buhari Win appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The marketing strategy by Sri Lanka Tourism aiming at the China market for the year 2015 was launched in China under the theme of ” Sri Lanka – beauty in my eyes”.

Speaking at the event Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau said that “Today is unique as we have the key stakeholders from the private sector who operate the market China at the launch where together, we will firm up the Marketing Plan for China and continuously work together to make an impact to the market place.”

“I like the aggressive, but focussed strategy of the Sri Lanka Tourism, Tourism in the China market. It is well thought through and more over accountable for delivery of results, Already you are having access to 5 key markets and now that you are focussing on testing a market development programme on the Shi-shuan province is commendable given the accessibility for direct air travel between Chengdu and Colombo” said the Chinese embassy of Sri Lanka Deputy head of mission Ren Faqiang.

The chairman SLTPB Rohantha Athukorala voiced ” if we can build the new markets in china like Sichuan province, which has 90 million people and 2 million who travel overseas to come to Sri Lanka, we operate 7 flights a week from the current 5 will be ideal so that specific hotels can be targeted in line with the interests and requirements of the target group. As at end February the tourist arrivals from China registers a growth of 85.7% over last year and is poised to be at the number 2 market in the Sri Lankan portfolio, he further said.

Founder of ASMET vetaran tourism expert Mervin Fernandopulle mentioned that the need for translators is key and it must be fast tracked if we are really going to make the experience positive to a Chinese traveller. Respected tourism personality and Managing Director for Jetwing Hotels Shiromal Cooray mentioned that ” for the first time we see the detail marketing plan for the Chinese market and as the GSA for Air China in Sri Lanka I am pleased at the focussed development strategy that we are working to build the business in China”.

The market head for China at the Sri Lanka tourism promotion bureau Chinthaka Liyanarachchi stated in the Marketing Plan that a combination of above the line and below the line advertising, travel trade meets ups, focussed one to one meetings with the travel trade and media visits by Chinese journalists to current and new tourism products in Sri Lanka will be highlighted so that focussed deals can be linked to the private sector participants. Separately, join promotions with Air China and screen based marketing will also be implemented quipped the Director Marketing for Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Madhubani Perera.

Earlier during the year Sri Lanka tourism launched the one million tree stories project with Miss World Rolene Strauss that reached one hundred million Chinese.

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The European Union has re-imposed a ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after Sri Lankan government intervention.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ajith P Perera said on Tuesday that the government had written twice to the EU requesting it to re-impose the ban on the LTTE.

On March 26, the EU Council placed the LTTE back on its list of groups banned under anti-terrorism measures.

“The new government intervened with the EU to get this victory for the country because during the former government an EU court had lifted the ban on the LTTE,” Perera told ucanews.com.

Last year, the ban — which imposes sanctions on and freezes the funds of the LTTE — was lifted on procedural grounds.

The LTTE fought for a separate Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka during a 25-year civil war that ended in 2009. The group has been banned by 30 countries and the 27 member nations of the EU.

“This is very good news for all the peace-loving people of the country and a more concrete and constructive way — through diplomatic channels — to ban activities of the LTTE diaspora,” said Ervin Rodrigo, a member of Api Sri Lanka, a patriotic group.

Separately, the government said it was considering removing 16 Tamil organizations and hundreds of individuals from its own watchlist in a move to advance reconciliation.

“The new government has considered lifting the ban on some diaspora groups, which were listed by former governments, but has not made a final decision yet,” said Perera.

“Some groups and individuals have no firm evidence linking them with the LTTE organization,” he said. “All our actions are to expedite the reconciliation process.”

Anandhi Sasitharan, wife of former senior LTTE member, said the watchlist had long been a political tool.

“The former government wanted to ban organizations to build up hysteria about the LTTE regrouping and the new government needs to show to the international community that it is for reconciliation,” she said.

“Tamils are not happy about the EU ban because the government has already announced that the LTTE is no more, but they appealed to re-impose the [EU] ban,” she said. “No one has been brought to justice for all the killings, therefore the Tamils have not received justice.”

The UN Human Rights Council carried out a probe into alleged war crimes committed during the final days of the country’s civil war but deferred its release earlier this year after receiving assurances the government would investigate. An estimated 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed during the final battle between government forces and the LTTE.

Chandrapala Kumarage, chairman of Human Rights Committee of the Bar Association, agreed that more needed to be done in the name of reconciliation. Apart from a truth commission, he urged the government to address the economic disparity between Sinhalese and Tamils.

“The ban is not the answer; you must look into the root cause of the problem. More or less it is due to the socio-economic disparity and we must address this burning problem of Tamils,” he said. “If the root cause is not being properly addressed, problems can crop up again.”

The post EU Re-Imposes Ban On LTTE After Sri Lanka Protest appeared first on Eurasia Review.

Officers from Special Central Unit Nº 2 and the Intelligence Squad of the Catalonia Region of the Intelligence Department of the Spanish Guardia Civil arrested four people in the early hours of Tuesday morning in Badalona (Barcelona), suspected of having ties to the dispatch of Jihadis to Syria.

The operation was overseen by Central Criminal Investigation Court Nº 5 of the Spanish National High Court and coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Spanish National High Court.

Two children under 16 are among those arrested, who were preparing their imminent departure for Syria via Morocco. In recent days, the investigation has revealed that the two children were planning to leave on Tuesday morning from Badalona to Morocco and had already contacted members of the recruitment and dispatch networks to facilitate their journey through Turkey.

The two children arrested, who had abandoned their academic training in Badalona to undertake Koranic studies at a madrasah in Tetuan (Morocco), where immersed in a process of radicalization and were about to travel to the Syria-Iraq conflict zone.

According to the Spanish government, their immediate family and friends were fully aware of their plans, especially the mother, who had another child who was killed in the same conflict as part of the terrorist group Harakat Sham al-Islam.

The individuals arrested were under investigation due to the high degree of radicalization present in their immediate social surroundings. In fact, a brother of the children had already been dispatched to Syria following recruitment by Jihadi groups and died in 2014. It is believed he joined the ranks of terrorist groups aligned with DAESH.

The post Spain: Four People Arrested For Links To Network Dispatching Jihadis To Syria appeared first on Eurasia Review.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter called Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani to thank him for his long-term support and to discuss the upcoming major events in the U.S.-Japan alliance, according to a Defense Department statement issued today.

Carter reaffirmed commitment to the U.S.-Japan alliance and to the Asia-Pacific rebalance, the statement said, and both leaders highlighted the upcoming revision of the guidelines that define the U.S.-Japan defense relationship as a major milestone in modernizing the alliance.

Carter and Nakatani noted that they look forward to meeting during Carter’s upcoming visit to Japan, the statement said.

The post US Reaffirms Commitment To Asia-Pacific Rebalance With Japan appeared first on Eurasia Review.

The airstrikes by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that hit a displaced persons’ camp in northern Yemen on March 30, 2015, raised grave concerns about violations of the laws of war, said Human Rights Watch.

The airstrikes killed at least 29 civilians and wounded 41, including 14 children and 11 women. They hit a medical facility at the camp, a local market, and a bridge, according to initial reports from the World Health Organization.

All government forces participating in the attack should impartially investigate whether there were violations of the laws of war and take appropriate action, Human Rights Watch said. The United States, by providing intelligence to the Saudi-led air campaign, shares the obligation to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property in the fighting.

“The deaths of so many civilians in a camp with no apparent military target heightens concerns about laws-of-war violations,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “All sides in Yemen’s conflict need to do what they can to avoid harming civilians.”

Sometime before 11 a.m. on March 30, one or more warplanes of unidentified nationality struck multiple sites at one of the three camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mazraq, in Hajja governorate of northern Yemen, about six kilometers from the border with Saudi Arabia.

Khaled Mareh, one of the camp managers, told Human Rights Watch that at 10:50 a.m., as he was standing at the camp gate, an explosion knocked him back: “I first heard the sound of a distant plane, then the deafening explosion. I saw body parts scattered in front of me, charred bodies, torn tents, and a large amount of shrapnel that hit the gate and charred the cars.” He said he saw a second explosion hit a section of the camp about 500 meters away, which he later learned killed several children from the camp who were walking to school. From a distance, he saw a third explosion at the western gate of the camp, and a fourth that hit the market.

A local aid worker present at the time said that he saw one aircraft carry out a strike at the camp: “I saw the plane strike 500 meters from the International Organization for Migration office. It shook the building and rattled the windows.” The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator to Yemen, Johannes Van Der Klaauw, stated on March 31 that all the structures hit constituted civilian infrastructure.

Reuters reported that an aid worker said that a warplane had struck a truck at the gate to one of the camps carrying fighters from Ansar Allah, the Houthi armed wing. The Guardian reported that some aid workers believed the attack was targeting a nearby base for Houthi fighters, a claim that Human Rights Watch could not confirm. Even if several Houthi fighters or a military truck were present at the camp, the attack was still probably unlawfully indiscriminate or disproportionate, Human Rights Watch said.

Mareh, the camp manager, said that Ansar Allah has a security office at the camp, near the market, but that it had been empty for three days, since the guards left to join military operations at the border. He said he did not hear any artillery or other fire in the area before the strikes, and that the camp authorities never allow armed people to enter the camp, including that morning. Another witness told Human Rights Watch that he did not see any armed men at the camp prior to the strikes, nor did he hear any fire.

None of the countries participating in the coalition have provided information that the camps are a legitimate military target. When asked about the strikes, a Saudi military official, Brig. Gen. Ahmad al-Assiri, said, “It could have been that the fighter jets replied to fire, and we cannot confirm that it was a refugee camp.”

Medecins Sans Frontieres, which supports a hospital in the vicinity, confirmed that its staff treated dozens of people wounded by the airstrikes that day, and received the remains of some people who had been killed. An aid worker at the hospital told Human Rights Watch, “We received a number of charred bodies, truncated limbs and others with very severe wounds.”

A full investigation is needed to determine whether the airstrikes on the camp violated the requirement under the laws of war for attacks to be directed at a legitimate military target, Human Rights Watch said. The laws of war, which apply to the armed conflict in Yemen, prohibit attacks that target civilians or civilian property, that do not or cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants, or that cause harm to civilians or civilian property that is disproportionate to any anticipated military advantage. All parties to the conflict have an obligation to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians from harm, and not to deploy forces in densely populated areas.

Following the attack, over 400 residents fled the camp and are seeking refuge elsewhere, Mareh said.

The three camps, two of which are still operating, have been housing about 12,500 people, according to the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which established them in 2001. Most of those living there had been displaced by fighting in Saada governorate between Houthi and Yemeni government forces between 2004 and 2010.

In January 2015, the Houthis effectively ousted the government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led airstrikes, which started on March 26, killed at least 11 civilians and possibly as many as 34 in Sanaa on the first day. Saudi and other aircraft also struck targets in other cities, including Saada, Hodaida, Taiz, Lahj, al-Dale`a, and Aden. On March 29, officials of the Ansar Allah-controlled Health Ministry said that the civilian death toll the previous night was 35. According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, since March 27, the fighting in Yemen has killed at least 93 civilians and wounded 364.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan said that their aircraft are participating in the airstrikes. Pakistan and Egypt said they are providing naval support. The United States has confirmed it is sharing intelligence and providing targeting assistance as well as logistical support, including air refueling of warplanes.

Human Rights Watch earlier raised concerns about Saudi Arabia’s possible use of cluster bombs in the operation, given credible evidence of past use of cluster bombs by Saudi Arabia in Yemen in 2009. At a news conference in Riyadh on March 29, Brig. Gen. al-Assiri responded to a media question about the issue, saying, “We are not using cluster bombs at all.” Saudi Arabia should make clear that it will not use cluster munitions under any circumstances, Human Rights Watch said.

“All countries participating in the camp attack, and that could include the US, have an obligation to investigate possible laws-of-war violations,” Stork said. “The US needs to make sure that the coalition it is supporting is taking the necessary precautions to avoid civilian loss of life and property.”

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By Ghazanfar Ali Khan

Saudi Arabia and the US are working to broaden military cooperation as the Saudi-led Operation Decisive Storm against Houthi militants in Yemen enters a second week, said reports from Washington on Wednesday.

“The US coordinates closely with Saudi Arabia and our Gulf Cooperation Council partners on issues related to their security and our shared interests,” said Stewart Wight, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Riyadh, when asked to comment on the reports.

Wight said President Barack Obama had already earlier authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the GCC-led military operations.

“While US forces are not taking direct military action in Yemen in support of this effort, we are establishing a joint planning cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support,” said Wight.

Reports quoting American officials said the US military is preparing to aid Saudi Arabia in its air campaign in Yemen by providing more intelligence, bombs and aerial refueling missions for planes carrying out airstrikes.

“The US has announced that it is increasing support for the Saudi-led attack on Yemen,” said a report.

The post US Increases Logistics Support For Saudi-Led Operation In Yemen appeared first on Eurasia Review.

According to Yemeni officials, Houthi militants seized the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden after clashes, reported AFP.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi resided in the palace before fleeing to neighboring Saudi Arabia last month.

Houthi rebels have claimed a district in central Aden despite the Saudi-led coalition’s best attempts to stop their advances, reports Reuters.

This was the first time fighting on the ground had reached so deeply into central Aden.

The victory is a major blow to the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis, who have rapidly expanded their sphere of influence after having taken control of Yemen’s capital city, Sanaa.

Original article

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Waiting on Israeli society to change from within is a colossal waste of time, during which the suffering of an entire nation – torn between an occupied home and a harsh diaspora – will not cease. But what are Palestinians and the supporters of a just peace in Palestine and Israel to do? Plenty.

Those who counted on some sort of a miracle to emerge from the outcome of the recent Israeli elections have only themselves to blame. Neither logic nor numbers were on their side, nor the long history laden with disappointing experiences of “leftist” Israelis unleashing wars and cementing occupation. Despite a few differences between Israel’s right and the so-called left on internal matters, their positions are almost identical regarding all major issues related to Palestine. These include the Right of Return and the status of occupied Jerusalem to the illegal settlements.

Equally important, most sectors of Israel’s political classes that are dominated by Zionist Jews are also in concord regarding the status of Israel’s Palestinian Arab population (1948 Palestinians). Don’t let the racist fearmongering of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – terrifying Israeli Jews of Arabs voting in “droves” – blind you to the fact that the Zionist Labor bloc is equally racist, although, in a less vulgar fashion.

But Palestinians are not without options. Sure, the odds against them are great, but such is the fate of the oppressed as they are left between two options: either a perpetual fight for justice or unending humiliation and servitude.

1. Abbas, Oslo Must Go

First, the most difficult obstacle to overcome is the stronghold of Mahmoud Abbas and his corrupt circle on Palestine’s political discourse at home. This is not an outcome of Abbas’s particular savvy or the genius of his class. The post-Oslo circle only exists to maintain the status quo: US interests and involvement as a mediator in the conflict, Israel’s security – thus the constant crackdown on Palestinian opposition and resistance – and ensuring that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has a reason to exist for the sake of ensuring the many privileges that come with the job.

This whole apparatus must be overcome and eventually removed entirely from the Palestinian body politic if Palestinians are to have any chance at formulating an alternative strategy.

2. Factionalism Must Be Defeated, Crushed

But for that to take place, the very ailments that have afflicted Palestinian society for years, leading to the creation of the ineffectual PA in the first place, would have to be confronted heads on. One such condition is factionalism, which has to be overpowered by a collective that defines itself first and foremost as Palestinian.

Factionalism, in its current form, has destroyed much of the social fabric of Palestine. It has divided the already divided people into fragments making them easy to be controlled, manipulated, suppressed – and when necessary – besieged. 67 years are just too long a period for a nation that lives mostly in exile, trapped or confined behind walls, to sustain its political identity and remain unified around the same “constants” without proper leadership.

Yet somehow many Palestinians persisted, insisting on one Palestine, one people, one identity, one goal. For these energies to be streamlined into a meaningful push against Israeli colonial designs, factionalism would have to be put to rest. Additionally, the Palestinian flag must occupy every public place currently occupied by red, yellow, green or any other factional colour or symbol.

3. But the Transition Must Be Smooth

Such seismic change cannot come easily. It must be gradual and part of a national initiative. It must be a conversation that brings friends and rivals not to divide material perks, useless “ministries” and worthless “government” posts, but rather to mend the broken unanimity that once existed. In fact, once upon a time, Palestinians were not united or disjointed around the frivolous “peace process,” but instead around “national constants,” where the Right of Return took central stage.

The transition from disunity and chaos into something visionary and not confined by short-term political interests, must be smooth, calculated and led by respected Palestinian figures, not those with hands soiled by blood and corruption.

4. Right of Return Must Be Brought Back to Center of Discourse

One major issue that must dominate the new political discourse is the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees, guaranteed by international law. The issue is not only essential in its centrality in the lives of millions of Palestinians suffering in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, but is also essential to any sensible understanding of the conflict and its resolution.

The struggle in Palestine doesn’t date back to the war of 1967, but the Zionist takeover of Palestine between 1947-48 that resulted in nearly a million refugees, the expropriation of their land, homes, rights and the attempt at erasing any evidence of their existence.

By marginalizing the Right of Return, one diminishes the very roots of the conflict, and any serious attempt at reconciling the painful past with the equally agonizing present.

5. Palestine 48 Must Be Fully Incorporated into National Agenda

Not all Palestinians became refugees. Some remained in Palestine as it was being transferred to some other entity before their own eyes.

The Palestinians of 1948 have always, and will remain a major component of the Palestine question and the Palestinian struggle for freedom and human rights. The fragmentation between the communities were imposed by calculated political realities, enforced by Israel or circumstances. That said, the issues have never been truly separated: the plight of Palestinians in Israel, those under military occupation in the occupied territories, and refugees in the diaspora all go back to the same historical point of reference – the Nakba of 48. These common struggles continue to be sustained by Israel, its racist laws, its military occupation and its refusal to adhere to international law.

Without the Palestinians of 48, the Palestinian national identity will remain politically fragmented and scarred. The persistence and collective strength of that population is an important asset, and their struggles are part and parcel of the struggle and resistance of Palestinians in the occupied territories and those in the diaspora.

6. Resistance Must Be Respected

However, fuel is needed to urge that new collective awareness forward, and nothing can possibly achieve such an end but the insistence on resistance, in both the real and cerebral sense.

The term “resistance” once dominated references made by Palestinian leaders in yesteryears, but was purposely marginalised following the signing of Oslo in 1993. That was driven by two subtle understandings that resistance was ineffective, and that to achieve a degree of validity and stateliness in the eyes of their US benefactors, the new rulers of Palestine needed to abandon seemingly unsophisticated references to a bygone era.

Yet without resistance there is only submission and defeat, which is precisely what took place. Only popular resistance in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the steadfastness of 48 Palestinians, crowned by the legendary resistance of Palestinians in Gaza under a harsh siege and repeated wars, continue to frustrate Israel. Yet, the harsher Israel tries to destroy Palestinian resistance, the more emboldened Palestinians become, for resistance is a culture, not a political choice.

Without resistance, Palestinians may as well raise white flags and sign on whatever dotted line is dictated by Israel. And then, they would simply be agreeing to perpetual subjugation.

7. BDS Must Continue to Grow, Bridge Gaps

Resistance is part and parcel of the ongoing global campaign, to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel. The outcome of the Israeli elections, and the rise of a more self-assertive Palestinian political collective by 48 Palestinians, would mean that BDS must enlarge its mission, not just rhetorically by practically as well.

The BDS movement had already emphasised equality for 48 Palestinians as a main objective that is as vital as all other objectives. The Joint List Arab party which won 13 seats in the Knesset solidified the relationship between Palestinian Arab communities within Israel as the BDS movement has to a large extent solidified the rapport between Palestinian communities across political and geographical divides. But more is needed. The new self-assertive Palestinian community in Israel deserves greater engagement. By doing so, BDS would defeat Israel’s constant attempt at diminishing the collective aspiration of the Palestinian people.

8. One State Must Become Rally Cry for Equality and Freedom

There is no need or time for despair. In fact, the opposite is true. The more empowered and racist Israel becomes, and the deeper it digs into the roots of its Apartheid and racist institutions and walls, the more obvious the answer becomes: a state for two peoples with equal rights. Both Palestinians and Jews exist in that very space, but they are governed by two sets of laws that make peaceful co-existence impossible. In order to speed up the achievement of that moment and lessen suffering, Palestinians have some urgent work to do.

It is time for Palestinian communities everywhere to surmount ideological, factional and political divides, reach out to one another, unite their ranks, and harness their energies, for no matter how deep the divide, Palestine is, should and will always be one.

The post Eight Urgent ‘Musts’ Needed For Palestinians To Defeat Apartheid – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By C. Raja Mohan*

Islamabad is under pressure from Saudi Arabia to join the military operations by the Sunni coalition that Riyadh is leading against the Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen. But there is little popular support in Pakistan for jumping into a war that has acquired such a sharp sectarian edge.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was summoned a few weeks ago to Riyadh as King Salman considered muscular options to reverse the Houthi advances in Yemen. Besides Pakistan’s longstanding special relationship with Saudi Arabia, Sharif personally owes much to the House of Saud that saved him from the wrath of General Pervez Musharraf after the army ousted him in a coup at the end of 1999.

After the Saudis launched air strikes on Yemen last Thursday, Riyadh put out the word that Pakistan has agreed to join the campaign. In Islamabad, the foreign office would neither confirm nor deny the reports. It merely stated that the government of Pakistan was “considering” the Saudi request.

After King Salman picked up the telephone to call Sharif on Saturday, the official Saudi news agency said the PM had offered to put the full services of the Pakistan army at the disposal of Riyadh. The question was probably never about whether Pakistan would join the operations. It was related to the nature of Pakistan’s contribution and how it should be presented to its public.The defence minister of Pakistan, Khawaja Asif, told the National Assembly that Pakistan has made no promise to Saudi Arabia on joining the coalition. As the government of Pakistan dissimulated in public, there were reports in the Saudi media that 10 Pakistani jets were taking part in the air operations in Yemen and that its navy might be joining the operations.

Domestic scepticism

Amidst the growing tensions between the Shia and Sunni at home, many in Pakistan argue that it is utterly unwise for Pakistan to join the sectarian strife in the Middle East. Others point to the dangers of being drawn into the proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran that are unfolding in the region.

Although supporting Riyadh will certainly bring some rewards for Pakistan, it also complicates relations with Iran, with which it shares a long and increasingly restive border. Further, Pakistan’s borders with India and Afghanistan are unstable and the army has enough on its hands countering the Islamist insurgency at home. A military adventure far from the borders, many in Pakistan argue, makes little strategic sense.

Finally, there is Pakistan’s self-perception as a leading force in the Islamic world. Much like India’s notions of third-world solidarity, Pakistan’s “Islamic Internationalism” opposes taking sides in the conflicts between Muslim countries and demands that Pakistan promote reconciliation. But the multiple reservations being expressed in public might have no policy consequence for Pakistan. The issue is too big for the civilian government in Islamabad to decide. It will be the Pakistan army, headquartered in Rawalpindi, that will take the call.

Raj legacy

The civil war in Yemen and the Saudi demand for military support bring into sharp relief Pakistan’s longstanding security role in the Gulf and the Middle East. Pakistan and its army figured prominently in the plans of Britain and America for securing the (oil) “Wells of Power” in the Gulf after World War II.

Pakistan was drafted into the Central Treaty Organisation (Cento), also called the Baghdad Pact, in the mid-1950s. Although the Cento did not last long, many Gulf kingdoms turned to India and Pakistan for defence cooperation. After all, it was undivided India under the Raj that was the security guarantor for the Gulf and the Middle East for nearly two centuries.

As India consciously limited its military role in the Middle East, Pakistan’s army became a valuable option for many countries in the region in providing security against internal threats, manning and training of military forces and guarding the national borders. Pakistan, of course, is not the Raj. It has a vantage location next to the Middle East and an Islamist ideology, but not the military and economic weight to protect the Gulf regimes on its own. The political equation between Rawalpindi and the Gulf rapidly altered as the kingdoms became rich and Pakistan remained poor.

If the Raj defined the terms of regional security in the Middle East, Pakistan increasingly became dependent on the financial support of the Gulf kingdoms. In the name of Islamic solidarity, Pakistan allowed the Gulf regimes, especially Saudi Arabia, to trample on its national sovereignty. Above all, it had to provide a variety of military services that they demanded.

With Saudi Arabia now so fearful of a rising Iran, it is quite clearly Pakistan’s payback time. And Yemen could mark the beginning of a new and more significant phase in Pakistan’s involvement in the security politics of the Gulf.

*The writer is a Distinguished Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi and a Contributing Editor for ’The Indian Express’

Courtesy: The Indian Express, March 31, 2015

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A resolution by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to postpone until November a decision to investigate Qatar on charges of violating the Forced Labour and Labour Inspection Conventions is likely to boost the Gulf state’s ability to defeat any attempt to strip it of the right to host the 2022 World Cup at next month’s congress of world soccer body FIFA.

If the vote in the ILO’s Governing Body is any indication, African, Asian and Latin American FIFA members like their labour counterparts will oppose moves by Western federations to significantly increase pressure on Qatar to reform its controversial kafala or sponsorship system that puts workers at the mercy of their employers.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on a visit to Qatar last month said the Gulf state had progressed on the labour issue but needed to do more. At the same time, FIFA, according to media reports, has taken the unusual step of inviting Qatar to compete for qualification in the 2020 Euro tournament to expose the Gulf’s state’s national team to high-level international competition and give European squads a chance to meet their Qatari counterpart on the pitch.

Outgoing FIFA executive committee member Theo Zwanziger, a long-standing opponent of Qatar’s hosting of the World Cup, has nonetheless warned that FIFA members could table a resolution at the group’s congress in Zurich to deprive the Gulf state of its hosting rights if Qatar by then had not created an independent commission to monitor its progress toward labour reform. The oversight body was proposed in a report on labour reform by law firm DLA Piper that was commissioned by the Qatari government.

With human rights groups and trade unions frustrated at Qatar’s slow implementation of lofty promises of change, Qatari officials, in a reference to the legislative process, said the Gulf state needs time to reform if not abolish its sponsorship system. More time consuming than the legal process is the government’s need to allay domestic concerns about the fallout of changes to the kafala system.

Many Qatari fears that changes, which would effectively involve granting rights to foreign migrant workers who constitute the majority of the population, could open the door to demands for political rights that would cost Qataris who account for only 12 percent of the population control of their state, society and culture.

Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been more sensitive to Qatari concerns than trade unions who have insisted not only on improved working and living conditions for workers in Qatar but also on granting political rights like the right to form independent unions and to bargain collectively.

In response to the ILO decision, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Secretary General Sharon Burrow, one of Qatar’s harshest critics, effectively accused members of the United Nations’ labour agency of having been bribed by Qatar.

“Qatar used its financial muscle over other governments to buy yet more time, after years of empty promises to bring its system of slave labour to an end. Worst of all, governments from Asia and Africa, where most of the 1.5 million migrant workers in Qatar come from, refused to stand up for their own people. A further six-month delay will cost scores of lives as workers are forced to work through the incredibly hot summer months without basic protection and at the mercy of kafala employers,” Ms. Burrow said.

A majority of Asian, African and Latin American FIFA members would have a variety of reasons to oppose increased pressure on Qatar ranging from not wanting to open the door to criticism of their own labour and human rights records to close ties that federations may have not only with Qatar but also other Gulf states.

While Qatar may be winning rounds in international organizations and associations, it is failing in part as a result of continued criticism of its labour system to achieve its public diplomacy goals associated with the World Cup. Sports is one pillar of Qatar’s soft power strategy that aims to project the Gulf state as a cutting edge 21st century nation that is worthy of support in the case of an emergency much like the world did in the case of Kuwait in 1991 when it was invaded by Iraq.

As a result, activists have sought to keep the labour issue in the public eye. French human rights group Sherpa filed a widely reported legal case asserting that French construction giant Vinci had violated the rights of migrant workers who were building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. Vinci, whose second largest shareholder is Qatar, has vigorously denied the allegation and said it was countersuing Sherpa.

Sherpa Managing Director Laetitia Liebert was quoted by Reuters as saying its legal claim was based on a one-week visit to Qatar in November by one of the group’s lawyers who collected “signed” testimonies of ten to 15 witnesses about their work conditions. In an email to this writer, Sherpa’s legal advisor, Tamsin Malbrand, said the legal complaint it had filed against Vinci was “strictly confidential.”

Qatar’s public diplomacy and soft power efforts are further undermined by at times ill-conceived attempts to impress by excelling as the biggest or the greatest. Al Sadd Sports Club, a club founded by high school students and chaired by a member of Qatar’s ruling family, Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Thani, recently hoped to attract 50,000 people to participate in a marathon that would have earned it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records as the organizer of the largest such event. To achieve its goal, the club in a reflection of the country’s demographic dilemma bussed in large number of most South Asian workers who lacked the proper kit for the marathon.

“There was a large mass of labourers wearing jeans, flip-flops and no proper running equipment. Some labourers tried to leave but were turned back and were yelled at that they need to stay and cross the line,” one participant told Doha News.

A club spokesman admitted that workers were bussed in but insisted that participation in the marathon had been voluntary and that none of the workers had been prevented from bowing out during the event.

In the end Al Sadd failed to achieve its goal. Rather than securing a world record, it has sparked one more incident of alleged abuse of foreign workers to bolster spectator attendance or participation in sports events in a botched effort to enhance Qatar’s image. Similarly, an image of a banner raised at the Cricket World Cup denouncing slavery in Qatar went viral on the Internet.

What is true for Qatar’s clumsy efforts at public diplomacy, could become true for the World Cup itself. Said Human Rights Watch researcher Mustafa Qadri on a recent visit to Doha: “Unless urgent steps are taken, when people marvel at all the buildings and developments in 2022, (they’ll see structures) built on the backs of a lot of misery.”

The post ILO Victory Boosts Qatari Hopes Of Defeating Efforts To Deprive It Of World Cup – Analysis appeared first on Eurasia Review.

On March 19, a girl named Farkhanda (27) was burnt alive in Kabul by a bunch of Muslim fanatics who called themselves the custodians of Islam, and her charred body was thrown away in Kabul river. They claimed that the girl insulted the holy Quran by setting it on fire.

On the contrary, the girl’s brother Najibullah Malikzada and her father rebut these claims. Farkhanda’s relatives say that she was a religious girl who performed Namaaz five times a day. She also possessed a diploma in Islamic studies. Not only this, she also regularly used to recite the holy Quran and had high regards for the holy text. Therefore, they say, the above charge is absolutely false and baseless and Farkhanda had nothing to do with the incident of burning of the holy Quran. The UN in its report has found that Farkhanda was mentally unfit. This incident of brutal killing of Farkhanda by a mob of fanatics has sent shock waves across Afghanistan. The liberal section of Afghan society and women have expressed indignation against the above incident.

Another sad aspect of this unfortunate incident was that the Afghanistan police personnel stood as mute spectators while Farkhanda was being hacked to death. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the incident and called it a barbaric act. He has ordered the constitution of a commission to investigate the incident. President Ghani also admitted that Afghan police which has played an important role in combating Taliban, is not trained enough to handle such incidents. He also accepted that the main focus of Afghan police remains fighting the Taliban, which is not their constitutional role.

According to sources, 21 people, including 8 policemen, have been arrested in connection with the brutal killing of Farkhanda. The fury of Afghan women against the incident can be gauged from the fact that they participated in the funeral procession of Farkhanda in large numbers and also performed her last rites. Otherwise, women are not even allowed to participate in any funeral procession along with men. They chanted Allah-o-Akbar during the procession and raised slogans against the murderers of Farkhanda, demanding the strictest punishment for them from Afghan government. This incident has also raised question mark over the capability and willingness of the police. It only shows that police is ill-prepared to handle such situations.

The incidents involving the burning of the holy Quran and the reaction of fanatics towards it have also been witnessed earlier in other countries as well. In 2012, such an incident in Bagram Jail, operated by the US, took a violent turn when the desecration of the holy Quran in the premises was reported. It led to violence across Afghanistan for the next five days, leaving 30 dead. Similarly in 2014, a Christian couple was brutally killed and their corpses thrown in brick kiln by a mob of Muslim fanatics in Pakistan, for allegedly burning the holy Quran and throwing it in the dustbin. This incident also created a lot of hue and cry. Later on, it was reported that a Maulvi (cleric) had accused the Christian couple of this ‘blasphemy’ because of some personal enmity. Such incidents make us think that what right do these fanatics have to make innocent people the target of mob violence by falsely accusing them of such offences? Even assuming for a while that they desecrated the holy Quran, does the Islam permit such barbaric treatment of the people who insult the holy book?

Such mob violence by Muslim fanatics is not new. It has happened earlier too, sometimes for ‘insult’ of Quran and sometimes for the ‘insult’ of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Certainly, the fundamentalists and radical elements among the Muslims are responsible for these incidents. They try to provoke and mislead their followers by delivering incendiary speeches and writings. Such nonsensical clerics might think that they are serving the Islam or paving the way to heaven for themselves by such hate mongering; rather these are the people who are bringing a bad name to the Islam by promoting such incidents. This poisonous ideology led to assassination of Pakistan’s Punjab governor Salman Taseer by his own bodyguard, just because Taseer favoured the removal of notorious anti-blasphemy law in Pakistan. Does Islam allow for the killing of the person whose security is your responsibility? Which religion was the assassin Malik Mumtaz Husssain Qadri was following? And the most unfortunate moment came when he was welcomed with garlands by a group of headless fanatics, which included some advocates, on his first hearing in the court.

To stop such incidents, the Muslim clerics need to come together and preach tolerance among their followers. Even if such an incident of ‘blasphemy’ is reported from anywhere, it needs to be dealt through legal and constitutional means available via laws of the land. The Holy Quran is undoubtedly the most sacred text of Islam. Its insult results in anger among the Muslims. But the same Islam and the Quran also teaches humanity. They prohibit attacking the unarmed. Torturing women, burning people alive or their corpses is certainly not a part of Islamic tenets. Neither any Muslim nor a cleric could claim to secure a place in heaven by committing such heinous crimes against humanity. Such acts are completely against Islam and humanity!

The post Barbarity In The Name Of Religion – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

By Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino*

In 1992, I was just approaching the end of my sixth year as permanent observer to the United Nations in New York. The then-secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, wanted to transfer me to Brazil.

The Holy See’s Diplomatic Service, like those of most countries, seeks to move its ambassadors after an established period of time to stop them from “‘going native.” Cardinal Sodano, therefore, quite properly wanted me to start packing my suitcase.

Pope St. John Paul II, however, had something to say on the matter: “Martino stays in New York!”

And in New York I stayed … for a further 10 years.

Some people think that Pope John Paul II didn’t take a great deal of interest in ecclesiastical appointments, but my own experience indicates the opposite. What is true is that he didn’t habitually micromanage affairs: He preferred instead to appoint people he trusted, and then delegate to them, trusting in their judgment.

I need to go back a bit in time to show why John Paul kept me in New York. I would routinely be in Rome for various consultations with Rome-based colleagues, and every time I was back, the pope made a point of summoning me to a private lunch (perhaps more accurately described as a one-on-one interrogation). He took a huge interest in international politics and would give me rapid-fire questions, one after another. He was extremely well-briefed and well-informed: What is this I hear about X? Who is this person Y? What will happen at this vote on Z? Which countries are leading the campaign on such and such? Who is working against us on this and that? So it would go on for an intense few hours.

Therefore, when my time was up in New York, the Holy Father was intimately aware that, in 1994, the U.N. was holding its International Conference on Population and Development, in Cairo; and in 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Woman, in Beijing. The Pope was well-aware that there is a strong population-control agenda at the U.N. and that certain countries – under the more domestically acceptable cover of “women’s rights” – wanted to see abortion promoted as a method of family planning.

The Africans especially were coming under the most immense pressure – with threats of the withdrawal of desperately needed financial support – if they supported the Holy See’s position. On the one hand, they needed international development aid. On the other hand, they knew that they were the target of the Malthusians’ agenda: too many poor black Africans – better if they weren’t born at all. In the end, many of these poor countries chose life, and I will always admire and remember their underacknowledged heroism.

John Paul was not naive about these dynamics, in part by temperament; in part because of his personal experiences growing up under a regime where words were well known to be diametrically opposed to reality; in part also due to those interrogations he submitted me to at the lunch table in the apostolic palace.

So in New York I stayed, and against all expectations, the Holy See led the opposition to the population-control agenda; and, to this day, the U.N. still does not admit abortion as a method of family planning. This astonishing victory for life – in defense of the poor and a human being’s most basic human right – was only possible with the pope’s proactive support. In fact, without his constant pushing and promoting this message in his constant diplomatic meetings with heads of states and ambassadors in Rome, this result would never have been possible.

This took everybody by surprise. But not me: I knew that when Pope John Paul II had the unborn in his sights he would never give up. He knew that it must fall to the Catholic Church to speak up without compromise for the most vulnerable and voiceless in our society, because, often, there is no one else.

John Paul led the charge at Cairo in ’94 and again at Beijing in ’95. With Cardinal Sodano making sure that everyone understood what was at stake in Rome – and me in New York. I often think there are probably hundreds of millions of children who are alive today due to the difference this one man’s conviction had on the rest of us to do our best.

In 2002, John Paul called me to say that my work in New York was done: I was to come to Rome to lead the work of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace (and in 2006, Pope Benedict added to my responsibilities the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants).

When John Paul told me of my move to Rome, he made sure to tell me that I was to bring my experience fighting for human dignity in the international arena with me: He wanted me to take charge of the publication of the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching.

When the tome was finally finished (the pope’s one-word comment when I handed him the copy: “Finally!”) I was invited to lunch. The pope, whom I remember normally didn’t rest from mercilessly interrogating me at the dining table, was for the first time totally silent: He was studying the compendium, looking up entries in the index and then checking them in the body of the book. Every time one of the waiters would diplomatically push his plate of food in front of him as a gentle hint to eat something, he would impatiently brush them away. His final word at the end of the lunch: “Ottimo!” (Excellent!). John Paul, the former actor, was a great showman who never lost his actor’s eye for a good image. I don’t suppose I truly realized until that moment just how important it was to him that this first-rate philosopher was possessed by a pastoral heart deeply concerned that after the revised Catechism the contents of the Church’s social doctrine also be readily available to all. And it all had to be perfect!

John Paul’s direct influence on me continues to this day in my continuing work: Since my Curial retirement, I have sought to synthesize these three great roles he entrusted to me in my guidance of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute (which my friend and colleague, Cardinal Raymond Burke, calls “the most important organization promoting human dignity in the world today.”): the pro-life, pro-family work at the U.N., my direction of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace and the production of the Compendium of Catholic Social Teaching. Soon The Dignitatis Humanae Institute hopes to launch a new lay community here in Italy with the special charism of spreading the Gospel in the public square through the promotion of human dignity, bringing together young people from all over the world. I think that the saint young people affectionately call “JP2″ would approve!

Talking of saints brings me to my final reflection that I wanted to share with Register readers: I had originally thought to call this article “My memories of working with a saint.” When I was a boy, the idea of actually knowing someone who was canonized seemed disconcertingly strange. Saints were those people alive centuries ago! But it’s not so strange anymore.

John Paul was amazingly driven by the Second Vatican Council’s universal call to holiness, popularizing the idea that we are all called to be saints. Of course, it’s a very Catholic idea, and always has been, but perhaps we needed to be reminded of it.

And reminded of it we certainly were: John Paul canonized 482 saints – more than all the canonized saints put together since the precursor of today’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints was created by Pope Sixtus V in 1588.

So, in many ways, thanks to him, it doesn’t really seem so exceptional anymore to say, “I knew a saint.” John Paul rather prophetically wanted us to see that sanctity was possible – and achievable – in the modern age. And I think he was successful in this ambition!

Perhaps that’s the greatest, and the most underappreciated, legacy that he left us.

Pope St. John Paul II, old friend, pray for us!

About the author:
*Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino was permanent observer to the United Nations (1986-2002), president of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace (2002-2009) and president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants (2006-2009).

Since 2010, Cardinal Martino has served as honorary president of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute and in 2014 was nominated by Pope Francis cardinal protodeacon.

Source:
This article originally appeared in the National Catholic Register and distributed by Dignitatis Humanae Institute.

The post St. John Paul II Taught Us That Sanctity Was Possible In Modern Age – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review.

At least two people were killed in an attack this morning at the University in Garissa town, in north-east Kenya. According to the Kenyan Red Cross, some 30 others were injured in the attack and transported to the hospital.

Based on a reconstruction by local media, gunmen stormed the complex this morning at 5:30am and are still holed up in the dorms holding students hostage.

The University is situated around 150km from the Somali border. No group has claimed the attack, but suspicions point to the Somali al Shabab insurgent group, already responsible for a series of attacks in Garissa and other areas of Kenya.

The Somali Islamist group claimed responsibility for the September 2013 attack against the Westgate Mall of Nairobi that left 67 dead.

The post Kenya: Garissa University Under Attack, Students Taken Hostage appeared first on Eurasia Review.