It is pretty much clear as to who is going to come to power in Pakistan. It is going to be the PPP-PML(Nawaz) combine. The deputy chief of PPP, Makhdoom Amin Fahim will be probably the new Premier as he is experienced. But the real power will lie in the hands of Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. They will be the real players, albeit behind the scenes. The biggest concern for the US will be how the new government deals with the rising militancy problem. Some inkling has been provided by Asif Zardari in that regard. But Zardari is a novice in governance. What he has said reflects his confusion and the lack of cohesion in his thinking on the militancy issue. On the one hand he says the new government favours talks with the militants. This is hardly going to go well with the US. Musharraf tried it once and failed. The Taliban/Al Qaeda only strengthened during the period of truce that Musharraf had agreed upon with the tribal elders. The US is not going to allow the new regime to go in the same direction. Zardari than says slightly juvenile things like using the police against the militants and saving the army only for emergencies. He knows that it was only after the Frontier Corps failed that the army was sent in by Musharraf. The army too has had mixed results in the campaign. Perhaps when he talks of using the police, Zardari refers to an invigorated Frontier Corps. The US has announced that it will finance and train the body to make it more effective. If Zardari is speaking of talks with the militants only for political consumption, then it is acceptable. If he really means what he is saying then either he has not understood fully the actual situation on the ground in the tribal areas or he is extremely naive in the matter. One hopes wiser counsel from Nawaz Sharif and Fahim will prevail and the Pakistani government will not make the same mistake that Musharraf made about the militants in the tribal areas. Source: IHT Image
Asif Zardari appears confused on militants issue
A new incident of rape increases security threat to Okinawa from the US Marines
The US military base at Okinawa in Japan is proving to be a great threat to the local people of the island. The US Marines have become a security threat to the residents of the region. In a recent incident of misdemeanor, a US Marine Tyrone Hadnott has been accused of raping a 14-year old Japanese girl. This incident has brought back memories of a similar brutal occurrence in Okinawa in 1995. However, the US administration was quick to take action against the guilty and a US envoy expressed regret but the people of Japan are unlikely to forgive the US Marines whose misconducts are continuing unabated. Okinawa had been converted to a US military base following the Japan-US Security Treaty after the end of the Second World War. The US military base had significantly changed the economy of the island whose residents mainly survived on agriculture as their chief mean of livelihood. With construction of bases, the main employment of the island changed to base work. The residents also earn money by leasing their lands to the US soldiers. However, with improvement in livelihood the residents of Okinawa, especially women, faced harrowing incidents of crime perpetrated by the US Marines. In 1996 the then Governor of Okinawa tried to urge the government of Japan to remove the US military base in the region by organizing a referendum. However, despite the threats the people of Okinawa faced from the Marines they were divided on the issue of removal of the US military base from the region for financial reasons. Until and unless the governments of Japan and USA decide on whether they would take stringent measures against the misbehaving US soldiers the problems of the residents of Okinawa will not be resolved. Via: Yahoo
US wants Musharraf to stay for now
Anti-Musharraf forces have won the elections in Pakistan. Both Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif have been at the receiving end of Musharraf’s political games. One was thrown into prison, the other was exiled. One can hardly blame them if they now desire to clip the wings of the wily ex-general. Nawaz Sharif has publicly declared that the judges (Justice Iftikhar Chaudhury and co.) who had refused to fall in line at Musharraf’s whims must be re-instated immediately. The country’s powerful lawyers’ lobby has been making a similar demand. The spoilsport is turning out to be the usual favourite whipping boy in Pakistan, the US (and Britain). Both countries are frowning at such demands. Private meetings have taken place to try and persuade anti-Musharraf forces to drop their demands. The Washington Post attributes this US action due a fossilized mind-set in the Bush administration, which is failing to accept new realities. The real answer is more obvious and rooted in reality. The US does not want to rock the Musharraf boat till it finds an alternative to him. In the present situation of flux in Pakistan, things are far from clear yet. Zardari and Sharif may have won the elections, but the real power base in the country lies in the army. The man to watch now is Pakistan military chief, General Kayani. He has adopted a low profile till now. Musharraf had attempted to rig the recent elections so that his favored party, PML (Q), would come back to power, but Kayani had become alarmed at the strong unpopularity of Musharraf and desisted from lending the army for rigging purposes. The US will wait and watch till the situation crystallizes. The moment it finds that Kayani is willing to play ball and accepts the PPP-PML (Nawaz) government and is also amenable to US advice on policy matters, Musharraf will be dropped. Source: Independent Image
Miseries of Afghan women continue even after ousting the Taliban
Despite of the ‘war against terror’ being the moot cause for invading Afghanistan in 2002 by the United States of America and its NATO allies, amongst the litany of criticisms against the Taliban was the social injustice carried out on the women of Afghanistan. Now after six years of occupation of Afghanistan by the allied forces and a democratic Afghan government in control over the greater part of the domain, the plight of the Afghan women has not improved. According to the revelations made in the study titled ‘Womankind, Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On’, 87% Afghan women complained of violent attacks, largely domestic, half of which were sexual abuse. More than 60% of the women in Afghanistan are forced into marriages. Despite of a 2007 law banning marriages under 16, there is rise in child marriages with girls as young as 6 years of age forced into a life of sexual slavery. An economy ravaged by war, rising corruption in the Afghan administration with the aids from international aids agencies being diverted away from developmental projects there has been no improvement in the financial condition of the common Afghans. Grinding poverty is the primary cause of the brutal practice of forced child marriages and denying women right to education and health care. The violation of human rights is not only concentrated on Afghan women belonging to the impoverished class of the society but the minority educated upper class Afghan women are not free from political and social threats. A number of women MPs in Afghanistan have been receiving letters from the government warning them of possible security threats to their lives for speaking against the country’s warlords, the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Despite of the country having a constitution and courts of law, Jirgas or the tribal councils are still deciding the fate of the women in rural areas. With the rise in atrocities, more and more women are committing suicides by either setting themselves on fire or by consuming poison. With the Taliban, country being the hotbed of poppy cultivation a large number of women in the countryside is becoming addicted to drugs as a means of relieving themselves of the regular pain and agony. The paradox of the Afghan women is that in spite of the constitution of the country guaranteeing them rights equivalent to most civilized societies of the world but a male-dominated Afghan society is not allowing them enjoyment of these rights. Via: Independent
US intel top boss says Afghan situation grave
It is official now. The US and NATO are losing ground in Afghanistan. America’s top intelligence official has admitted that security in Afghanistan is ‘deteriorating’ and President Hamid Karzai’s government controls less than a third of the country. Think-tanks have been saying this lately in increasingly strident tones. US intelligence Chief Mike McConnell said that Taliban controls about 10% of the country, while the rest is under the sway of tribal chiefs. If the US had hoped that the fall of Taliban in 2001 and the installation of the Karzai’s government would solve the Afghan problem, it was gravely mistaken. Four reasons can be attributed to the present mess in the country. 1- Karzai has been a failure as a pan-Afghan leader. He does not have the power that comes with having a personal militia. In Afghan politics having the loyalty of a large band of militia means clout. Karzai does not have this. Many other leaders in the present Kabul government have them and naturally they have their own personal agendas. That leaves Karzai powerless and impotent. He is merely the Mayor of Kabul and that too thanks to the US and NATO forces. 2- The Taliban has proved very tenacious. They refuse to die out. In fact, they are on a comeback. Their main strengths are the drug money and a ready heaven in the chaotic tribal areas of Pakistan. 3- Some NATO nations like Germany have been perennial foot-draggers when it comes to sending troops to Afghanistan. The US, already stretched in Iraq, is having to cough up more troops for Afghanistan. But this is proving to be inadequate. The lack of commitment on the part of NATO countries is a big reason for Taliban’s resurgence. 4- Afghanistan is very different from other countries. Tribes and associated tribal loyalties count more than an united Afghan identity. The US had hoped that a strong central government would prevail over all this. But this has not happened. Karzai has not been shrewd enough to sew a new Afghanistan together using and manipulating the myriad tribes. The result is a fragmented country. The US has recently started to recognize the power of the various Afghan tribes and has started to try and win them over with arms and humanitarian assistance. Source: BBC
Will the experiment in Musa Qala work?
The town of Musa Qala in Helmand province symbolizes the new tactics that the US and NATO are trying out in Afghanistan. The town was held by British forces in 2006. But they held talks with the tribal elders and then handed over the town to them. There were many mutual recriminations between the British and the Americans then as the moment the British forces left, the tribal elders had promptly handed it over to Taliban. It was retaken by a joint US-Afghan-British operation last year. Days before Taliban were forced out of Musa Qala, the local Taliban commander, Mullah Salaam, defected to the side of the allies. He was handed control of the town after it was re-taken. The British government is putting in a lot of money to rebuild the town in order to win the minds of the local populace. It is to be seen if the experiment works. It is feared that Taliban will come back as soon as the Brits leave. The strategy of trying to win over the ‘good’ Taliban has been in the minds of US, NATO and Karzai for a long time. The allied forces feel that any Taliban fighters with Al Qaeda links are taboo. They want to wean away lower and middle level Taliban fighters. The Afghan government has always aimed at national reconciliation. Karzai had set up the national reconciliation program, Takhim-E Solh in 2005. Following a deadly suicide strike in Kabul on September 29, President Karzai invited Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s supreme commander, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former prime minister and fugitive terrorist leader for talks. Of course they did not respond. Karzai and his western allies have clashed on the approach to win back Taliban. Some months back Karzai had expelled two European diplomats as they were having secret talks with Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the Taliban’s southern commander, without informing him. Ironically Taliban top boss, Mullah Omar, also threw out Dadullah for talking with the enemy. Via: Independent Image
No Iranian is homosexual but homosexuals are executed in Iran
In Sharia law, homosexuality is sharply condemned and sodomy is punishable by death. Officially, the Iranian government does not acknowledge existence of homosexuality in the Iranian society but nonetheless according to Amnesty International more than 200 homosexuals were executed last year in Iran. According to Boroumand Foundation, there are records of at least 107 executions on charges of homosexuality between 1979 and 1990. Despite of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s statement in the Columbia University last September, that homosexuality did not exist in the Iranian society but in last November, an Iranian MP Mohsen Yahyavi confirmed that the Iranian government executes homosexuals. According to Yahyavi, the gays deserve to be tortured and executed. Often the sexual acts are coupled with other criminal charges that make it difficult for international civil rights organizations to determine executions exclusively due to homosexual acts. Despite of institutional assertions that homosexuality does not exist in Iran there are a large number of Persian literature that explicitly illustrate the existence of homosexuality among Iranians. A few ghazals and texts in Iranian writer Saadi’s works that include his famous works Bustan and Gulistan have references to homosexual love. In Iran, all sexual relations that occur outside of a traditional heterosexual marriage are illegal and no distinction is made between consensual and non-consensual sexual activity. The greatest paradox of the Iranian society is that while homosexuality is considered a sin but the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution passed a fatwa nearly 25 years ago legalizing gender change operations among transsexuals. The Iranian government has been providing ₤2,250 for gender change operations and further funding for hormone therapy. Source: Independent Image: Flickr
Mahapakse’s brute force tactics may harm Lanka in long run
It has been quite evident to the international community that the Sri Lankan government headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse gives two hoots to what the other nations say about it. In the latest development, a panel of international experts observing a Sri Lankan investigation into a raft of human rights abuses and killings said on Thursday it was quitting Sri Lanka, saying the government was hindering the process. This was to be expected. The Sri Lanka government has decided to end the Tamil insurgency with military force. The thinking of Mahapakse seems to be to achieve that goal, whatever may be the cost. It has been repeatedly reprimanded by all major western powers for its pathetic human rights record. Bodies like the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have cried themselves hoarse protesting against the inhuman tactics used by the Sri Lanka security forces, not only against the LTTE fighters, but also against suspected agents of the terrorist organization. Mahapakse, when criticized some months back by the UN, had struck back at the international body and accused it of being biased against smaller nations like Sri Lanka. He had said then that the UN too had many handicaps and needed improvements. He had also said that the UN remained silent when big powers did something wrong, but lifted a reproving finger at Sri Lanka, whenever some human rights abuses were reported. Mahapakse seems to have taken to heart the old Indian saying that iron cuts iron. That the Sri Lankan forces have to act as brutally, if not more, than the LTTE to defeat it. But he should also remember Gandhi had said that an eye for an eye makes the world blind. Mahapakse should understand that complex problems will not be solved by military means alone. He should observe the Palestine problem and that Israel’s military force has solved nothing in more than fifty years. The blind eye turned by the Sri Lanka government on human rights abuses will slowly brutalize the nation’s society beyond repair. Image
Taiwan’s presidential candidates want closer ties with China
With Taiwan going to the presidential polls on 22 March, it seems that who ever becomes the new President of Taiwan will soft peddle the issue of Taiwan’s separate identity from China. The controversy surrounding the political status of Taiwan depends on whether Taiwan should remain the effective territory of the Republic of China (ROC) or be absorbed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or become the Republic of Taiwan. The controversy over the political status of the Republic of China hinges on whether its existence as a state is legitimate and recognized. With the Republic of China being replaced by the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations in 1971, most of the sovereign states have switched their diplomatic relation to People’s Republic of China. The supporters of Taiwan independence say that PRC is the government of mainland China and Taiwan, not being a part of China will remain as the Republic of China (Taiwan) and will maintain its position as an independent autonomous government of Taiwan. In 1999, Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui proposed a two-state theory in which both the ROC and the PRC would acknowledge that they are two separate countries with special diplomatic, cultural and historic relationship and gained immense support from within Taiwan. This however, drew angry reactions from PRC who believed that Lee was covertly supporting independence of Taiwan. The present position of the majority of the Taiwanese is that they do not want any fresh confrontation with Mainland China. Ma Ying-jeou, the presidential candidate of Kuomintang, the party that governed Taiwan for 51years, is willing to improve ties with Beijing as earliest as possible. Compulsion of moving ahead the Taiwanese economy with Chinese help has made Ma explore possibilities of increasing the number of charter and commercial flights between Taiwan and Beijing. He also hopes to increase tourism and investment in Taiwan with help from Mainland China. Ma’s opponent Frank Hsieh, though not as liberal as Ma also wants closer economic cooperation with Beijing. What ever is the outcome of the Presidential election, the political and economic necessities will push Taiwan and Beijing closer. Source: IHT Image: Destination360
Is War an Adventure?
War is an adventure till bullets pass one by. And of course, one has to be on the winning side. The UK Guardian has reported the Mercian Regiment’s encounters with death in a very breezy, devil-may-dare manner. Everything centres on the British and their daring. A Lieutenant Simon Cupples, 25, gushes about events in September, 2007. One does not understand whether Cupples is an adventure hero from the time of Rider Haggard or a real contemporary soldier. He drops place names like “the killing fields”, “Taliban territory” and then in the latter part of the report we have a string of references to men killed in the war. It is needless to say that they all received different honorable medals and all shine as stars in a cooling firmament. Where are the Afghans? How many Afghans died? When the world community is so eager to help Afghans develop, why would it be heroic to die killing Afghans? Most importantly, is there any heroism in war at all? There are a few aspects to this conflict which needs greater looking into. Notice the youth of the British soldiers. They are hardly out of their swaddling clothes and are plunged into war. And the moment that anyone dies, the British Government goes over-board to award the Military Cross. And none hears about the roughened middle-aged guerillas. The Taliban soldiers are middle-aged, ideologically superior and yet technologically inferior. They do not have any advanced media network or machinery working for them to report the inevitability of war. This biased reporting serves only two purposes. The first one is to induct more British young men into the services, by making war heroic. And the second purpose is just blatant wartime propaganda. I cannot help but add that it is for the good that the Taliban are backward. With the British, one at least knows the depths to which they can sink; the Taliban on the other hand, cannot be contained by even hell. Hell is too high for the latter. Source: UK Guardian Image: UK Telegraph