Terrorism Watch

Watch: Full length 'Inshallah, Kashmir: Living Terror'

2012-01-28T18:00:00.000+05:30

New Delhi: Oscar-nominated director Ashvin Kumar has released his film 'Inshallah, Kashmir: Living Terror' online, that too free of any charge. It has happened after two of his earlier movies courted controversy and failed to get the censor board and court nod.
According to Kumar, 'Inshallah, Kashmir: Living Terror' is a documentary in which Kashmiris 'recount how their freedom is conceded and replaced by fear and institutionalized oppression'.(With inputs from PTI)
Here is the link to the complete film.

watch trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoy5926-D1A&feature=player_embedded
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/watch-full-length-inshallah-kashmir/224781-8-66.html

Reds torch passenger bus

2012-01-28T17:30:00.000+05:30

CAMP Guillermo Nakar, Lucena City -- Suspected New People’s Army rebels commandeered and torched a Manila-bound passenger bus in Bgy. Cagbacong, Legazpi City in Albay Thursday night.

Col. Generoso Bolina, spokesman of Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) based here, said the Silver Star bus was traversing the national highway from Bulan, Sorsogon when stopped by a group of rebels who pretended to be passengers at around 7:30 p.m.

Bolina said the rebels, while pointing their pistols at the bus driver and passengers, introduced themselves as communist guerillas. They then commandeered the bus to a forested portion of the village where three other rebels armed with rifles were waiting. They ordered all its passengers to alight without harming them.

Bolina said one of the rebels poured gasoline on the bus and lighted it using a lighter, before they fled on foot.

He said the rebels were already gone when responding authorities arrived.

No one among the passengers was reported hurt in the incident.

Quoting Col. Felix Castro, the commander of Army’s 903rd Infantry Brigade based in Sorsogon, Bolina said, “Extortion was the primary motive for the burning.”
Source: http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/news/provincial/22642-reds-torch-passenger-bus

The Influence of the Inquisition

2012-01-28T17:00:00.000+05:30

Illustration by Jonathon Rosen

¶In the moral atlas of Cullen Murphy, the road to Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the secret “black sites” of the war on terror begins in Montségur, a fortress in the foothills of the Pyrenees. There, in 1244, a French army assembled at the behest of the Roman Catholic Church besieged several hundred Cathars. Their sect’s heresy was dualism, a belief in both a beneficent God and an equivalent evil deity. Enticed into surrendering by the promise that their followers would be spared, the Cathars were burned alive on a pyre.

GOD’S JURY

The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

By Cullen Murphy

310 pp. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $27.

¶From the run-up to this massacre, Murphy dates the start of the Inquisition. By this, he means not only the Spanish iteration with its concentration on Jews converted to Christianity (Marranos) but several sequential inquisitions that over 700 years convulsed Europe, Central America and parts of Asia in pursuit of a wide variety of theological deviants. Even this expansive history, in turn, functions for Murphy as a kind of prologue, for the goal of this lucid, learned and ultimately predictable book is to present the Inquisition as the template for America during the “global war on terror” declared by President George W. Bush and still being fought.

¶An editor at Vanity Fair and previously The Atlantic, Murphy has done this sort of political time-traveling once already, in a 2007 book neatly distilled by its title: “Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America.” And he is not alone in parsing history to find the antecedents for the panic and intolerance he associates with post-9/11 America. In Louis Begley’s 2009 book “Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters,” the lawyer-author likened the persecution of a French army officer in the 1890s to the assault on civil liberties in the name of national security in the contemporary United States.

¶All three of these books share an aura of knowledge, a tone of refinement and a sensation of bracing insight that, in a volume of modest length, loses rather than gains power through repetition. For all its fascinating detail and immensely readable prose, “God’s Jury” essentially delivers the single point of a potent op-ed essay. That point comes early, when Murphy characterizes the Inquisition not as a primitive, atavistic undertaking but a presciently modern one.

¶“Looking at the Inquisition,” Murphy writes, “one sees the West crossing a threshold from one kind of world into another. Persecution acquired a modern platform — the advantages afforded by a growing web of standardized law, communications, administrative oversight and controlled mechanisms of force. It was run not merely by warriors but by an educated elite; not merely by thugs but by skilled professionals. And in its higher dimensions it was animated not by greed or hope of gain or love of power, though these were never absent, but by the fervent conviction that all must subscribe to some ultimate truth.”

¶At his best, Murphy assays Inquisition history both by smoothly synthesizing secondary sources and by describing his encounters with active scholars in the field. Strange as the comparison may seem, Murphy’s passages about his visits to the Vatican’s Inquisition archives bring to mind the mordant wit and curious eye of Paul Theroux in his travel memoirs. Every sentence in “God’s Jury,” and I mean every sentence, reads as if it had been chiseled and etched. And in his concise way, Murphy provides a thorough overview of the Inquisition’s motives, methods and effects.

¶Murphy, though, has larger ambitions, and in pursuing them he becomes tendentious. Point by point, he shows the precise manner in which the Inquisition anticipated the Bush administration’s war(s) on terror. Murphy traces the rendition of suspected terrorists to third countries, generally ones that practiced unrestrained torture, back to the Catholic Church’s policy of turning over convicted heretics to secular armies or governments for punishment. He explains that one of the Spanish Inquisition’s favored techniques — “toca,” a word for “cloth” — referred to “the fabric that plugged a victim’s upturned mouth, and upon which water was poured . . . to induce the sensation of asphyxiation by drowning.” Waterboarding 101: got it. And should a reader not get it, Murphy heavy-handedly applies the modern antiterror lexicon to the Inquisition — “chain of command,” “enhanced” interrogation, “mission creep.”

¶You can be appalled by America’s willing adoption of torture, a process exposed and chronicled by Jane Mayer in her 2008 book “The Dark Side,” and still feel hectored and preached at by Murphy. Moreover, he can let his critique grow so wide-ranging as to include what would seem to be permissible modes of interrogation during wartime. In citing a medieval guide to inquisitors written by the Dominican cleric Nicholas Eymerich, Murphy notes that the manual suggests ruses for the interrogators to use with their quarry, like feigning compassion, providing food and water, pretending to already know the answers being sought. A recent United States Army manual, Murphy informs us, recommends similar tactics.

¶Is this to say that in the present context, nonviolent, psychologically astute interrogation is as heinous as torture? Unless I misread him, Murphy appears to be saying so. Yet isn’t the lesson of the former F.B.I. agent Ali Soufan in his recent memoir, “The Black Banners,” that precisely such methods obtained accurate information from prisoners, as opposed to the desperate fictions that captives offered to stay a torturer’s hand? It is to America’s shame that our nation swept up so many innocent people in its hunt for terrorists. But that sweep also did capture some of the guilty, a reality that Murphy mentions only belatedly and almost backhandedly.

¶“Moral certainty ignites every inquisition,” he writes late in the book, “and then feeds it with oxygen.” “God’s Jury,” while no inquisition, abounds in moral certainty of its own.

¶Samuel G. Freedman writes the “On Religion” column for The Times and is the author of six books.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/gods-jury-the-inquisition-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world-by-cullen-murphy-book-review.html

Two suspected rebels arrested in Quezon province

2012-01-28T16:30:00.000+05:30

MANILA (Xinhua) -- Two suspected leftist New People's Army (NPA) rebels, including a high-ranking official, were arrested Friday night in Quezon province.

Fidel Holanda, a member of the executive committee of the South Quezon-Bundoc Peninsula, Southern Tagalog Regional Party Communist, and a certain Erwin Casino were apprehended along diversion road Lucena City by the joint police and military personnel, said Colonel Generoso Bolina, spokesman of the military's Southern Luzon Command (Solcom).

The two rebels were arrested by virtue of warrant of arrest issued by the Regional Trial Court in Gumaca town.

Bolina said authorities recovered from the suspects eight pieces of improvised explosive device, an anti-personnel explosive, four pieces of cellular phones, a laptop, subversive documents, and personal belongings.

He said the two were brought to Solcom Hospital for medical examination prior to custodial debriefing at Quezon Provincial Police Office in Camp Nakar, Lucena City.

Bolina said the apprehension was based on long surveillance.

The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, was formed on March 29, 1969. Latest military estimates placed the NPA's strength at more than 4,000.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/article.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=772127

Arrests made to reduce security threat at Olympics – London Olympics 2012

2012-01-28T15:30:00.000+05:30

Arrests made to reduce security threat at Olympics – London Olympics 2012

It has been recently communicated that a total of 100 people have been arrested in an effort to reduce the terror threat that the upcoming London 2012 Olympic Games is facing.

The city of London is taking all measures to make sure that the Olympic Games taking place this year are one of the safest that the world has yet seen. However, that involves taking severe and urgent measures in order to cater with the building terror threat that is associated with the Games.

According to the orders given by the Home Secretary of the country, Theresa May, no tents or encampments will be allowed during the time of the Olympic Games as they can potentially put the events under threat.

May expressed herself on the matter of security at the Olympic Games in the following words, “Like all Western countries we face a number of ongoing threats to national security. We face a real and enduring threat from terrorism and the Games, as an iconic event, will represent a target for terrorist groups. Our Olympic security plan has been developed against the assumption that the terrorist threat level will be severe. The terrorist threat has developed and evolved over the past few years and we have specifically designed a plan that is flexible and everything is under regular review. We are ready to take on the challenge of delivering a safe and secure Games, which uphold Olympic values and their ethos.”

The arrests that have been made as a precursor to the Games include people who have been involved in ticket frauds as well as those who had put up fake websites to come off as the official website of the Olympic Games.

Not only that, the people who have been arrested include those who have been found guilty of selling out hotel rooms that do not exist to the Olympic visitors.

The Olympic Games are scheduled to start from July 27 and last until August 12. The Games will make London the first city in the world which has been able to host the Games for a total of three times.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Arrests-made-to-reduce-security-threat-at-Olympics-London-Olympics-2012-a125465

Kuwait: E-mails contain hidden text on terror activities

2012-01-28T14:30:00.000+05:30

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 25: The citizens have been receiving e-mails and messages through the social networking websites urging them to remain committed to ethics but it is widely believed these messages contain a hidden message to engage in terrorist activities, reports Al-Shahed daily quoting reliable security sources.
The daily added the concerned authorities have warned parents to keep a watch on their children because most of these messages are the handiwork of a group of anonymous persons who have largely succeeded in brainwashing young "men" to join organizations in Iraq and Afghanistan to fight what they call "infidels."

In fact the messages which are sent in the name of religion contain a hidden message to engage in criminal activities and terrorist acts, the daily added quoting sources.

The sources explained the security authorities have spotted some religious figures in Kuwait who have been inciting young people to take part in "fights" inside the country.
Source: http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20120126115039

loss to Saudibanks in 2 yearsfrom e-crimes

2012-01-28T14:23:00.000+05:30

JEDDAH — Banks in the Kingdom have sustained losses of $1 billion over the past two years because of electronic crimes, Dr. Jibril Al-Araishi, member of the Shoura Council and Deputy Chairman of the Transportation, Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee, said here at the weekend.
“The year 2012 will be the year of e-crimes,” he added.
His revelation coincided with calls at World Economic Forum in Davos for international action to snuff out cyber crime. Officials and business leaders warned that criminals move at Internet speed while countries drag their feet.
“Many countries don’t have laws to criminalize cyber crime, they don’t have means and tools to investigate, to share information,” said Yury Fedotov, who heads the United Nations office on drugs and crime.
Cyber crime is “interconnected in terms of crime, but not interconnected in collaboration” against it, he added, noting that there is not even an agreement on what constitutes cybercrime.
According to Kaspersky Company’s classification, the Kingdom is a country with a high risk of being a victim of e-crimes, Dr. Al-Araishi pointed out. There are over a million hackers or e-criminals in the Kingdom, he said.
Kaspersky Lab is a Russian computer security company, co-founded by Natalia Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky in 1997
Dr. Al-Araishi is finalizing a law on personal information protection which will be discussed by the Shoura Council and then sent to King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
He said the law seeks to address the lack of regulations to fight cyber crimes. Absence of proper rules and regulations to combat cyber crimes have caused the Kingdom to sustain great losses, he added, claiming that although the current laws envisage deterring penalties, they need to be enforced strictly.
Cyber crimes in the Kingdom range from stealing information about credit cards and blackmailing their owners to illegally accessing certain websites to destroy them, Dr. Al-Araishi explained.
The Kingdom has a cyber crime law which was issued in 2007 and it’s a good law but needs to be amended to keep up with new cyber crimes and impose deterring penalties on violators, he added.
“The law needs to be amended every time a new type of cyber crime comes to light.”
Most cyber crimes or attacks that take place in the Kingdom are launched from Internet cafes in public places and it is difficult to track down perpetrators because most of them use a proxy to hide their identity, the Shoura Council member said.
The amended law will provide protection and justice to all members of society, which is the main goal of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, he said
Source; http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20120128116466

Annual financial damage to the world economy from drug money equals $2 trillion

2012-01-28T13:59:00.003+05:30

MOSCOW: Annual financial damage to the world economy from drug money equals $2 trillion, Russia's Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov said.

"Narco-dollars form a market with a volume of over $500 billion annually, while negative consequences for the real economy exceed this amount two or three times over. The annual damage to the world economy amounts to $2 trillion," Ivanov said in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, late Thursday.

"This amount equals the levels of gross domestic product in such countries as France and the United Kingdom," he added quoting UN experts' information.

Drug money has become a necessary part of the international monetary system and one of the sources of the financial crisis. The world's largest banks depend on "dirty" but liquid money from drug sales and indirectly encourage the further production of drugs.

As for drug trafficking from Afghanistan, Ivanov said that criminals receive $65 billion from Afghan drug sales per year which leads to $200 billion in annual damage to the world economy.

"A key point to liquidate international drug production is to reform the current economy and turn to an economy without drug money with guarantees for clear liquid assets, in other words, to the economy of development," the drug service head also said.

'Third Jihad': Muslims demand NY police chief's head

2012-01-28T13:46:00.001+05:30

NEW YORK: New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly is under fire from civil rights group, who are demanding his resignation over his appearance in an inflammatory anti-Muslim film shown to his department's officers during training.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said Kelly and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne should immediately resign from their positions for taking part in the production of the 'Third Jihad', "a blatantly bigoted and hate-filled film vilifying the American-Muslim community".

The 72-minute film shows Muslims shooting Christians in the head and conveys a message that the community cannot be trusted. It also shows a doctored photo of an Islamic flag flying over the White House, car bombs exploding, executed children lying covered by sheets.

Its message is that the true agenda of much of Islam in America is to "infiltrate and dominate America".

The group said Kelly had "lied" to the community by initially denying any involvement in the film.

"The decision to take part in the film, as well as show the film to nearly 1,500 NYPD cadets raises serious concerns about Kelly's ability to serve and protect minority groups in New York City," the group said.

ADC President Warren David said the residents of New York deserve "transparency, honesty, integrity" and not a leader like Kelly who lacks all these qualities.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations along with the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC) and other minority and civil liberties groups said the revelation about the use of the video during police training comes following a year-long series of "misstatements and retractions" from Kelly and Browne that indicates a total disregard for the civil rights of American Muslims and a complete lack of respect for one of the city's largest religious communities.

"This controversy has moved beyond an issue of poor judgement in the use of an Islamophobic training film to an issue of the integrity of public officials," said CAIR-NY Civil Rights Manager Cyrus McGoldrick.

"The lack of truthfulness exhibited by Commissioner Kelly and Deputy Commissioner Browne means New Yorkers must now question the credibility of every statement they make. This situation necessitates their immediate resignations".

As leaders of the nation's largest police department, Kelly and Browne's actions set a tone for relations with law enforcement that impact American Muslims nationwide, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.

"It's time for change".

Privatizing the war on terror

2012-01-28T13:35:00.000+05:30

America’s soldiers might be returning from Iraq, but we’re far from done paying the costs of war.
In fact, at the same time President Barack Obama is reducing the number of soldiers in Iraq, he’s replacing them with military contractors at far greater expense to the taxpayer. In this way, the war on terror is privatized, the American economy is bled dry, and the military-security industrial complex makes a killing — literally and figuratively.
The war effort in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan already has cost taxpayers more than $2 trillion, and could go as high as $4.4 trillion before it’s finished. At least $31 billion — and as much as $60 billion or more — of that $2 trillion was lost to waste and fraud by military contractors, who do everything from janitorial and food service work to construction, security and intelligence. Those jobs used to be handled by the military.
During the past two decades, America has become increasingly dependent on military contractors to carry out military operations abroad.
According to the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. can no longer conduct large or sustained military operations, or respond to major disasters, without heavy support from contractors. As a result, the U.S. employs at a minimum one contractor to support every soldier deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. For those signing on for contractor work — many of whom are hired by private contracting firms after serving stints in the military — it is a lucrative career path, albeit a dangerous one.
Incredibly, while base pay for an American soldier hovers somewhere around $19,000 per year, contractors reportedly are pulling in between $150,000 to $250,000 per year.
The exact number of military contractors on the U.S. payroll is hard to pin down, thanks to sleight-of-hand accounting by the Department of Defense and its contractors.
But according to a Wartime Contracting Commission report released in August, there are more than 260,000 private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan — more than the number of ground troops in both countries.
Unfortunately, fraud, mismanagement and corruption have become synonymous with the government’s use of military contractors.
McClatchy News “found that U.S. government funding for at least 15 large-scale programs and projects [in Afghanistan] grew from just over $1 billion to nearly $3 billion despite the government’s questions about their effectiveness or cost.”
One program started off as a modest wheat program and “ballooned into one of America’s biggest counterinsurgency projects in southern Afghanistan despite misgivings about its impact.”
Then there was the $300 million diesel power plant that was built despite the fact it wouldn’t be used regularly “because its fuel cost more than the Afghan government could afford to run it regularly.”
RWA, a group of three Afghan contractors, was selected to build a 17.5-mile paved road in Ghazni province. They were paid $4 million between 2008 and 2010 before the contract was terminated with only two-thirds of a mile of road paved.
Mind you, with the U.S. spending more than $2 billion per week in Afghanistan, these examples of ineptitude and waste represent only a fraction of what is being funded by American taxpayer dollars.
But what most Americans fail to realize is we’re funding the very individuals we claim to be fighting. The war effort has become so corrupt that U.S. taxpayers not only are being bilked by military contractors, but also are being forced to indirectly fund insurgents and warlords in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the Taliban, which receives money from military contractors in exchange for protection. This is rationalized away as a “cost of doing business” in those countries.
Furthermore, the boon in contracting work in the war zones isn’t necessarily aiding U.S. employment, given large numbers of contractors actually are foreign nationals.
Despite the high levels of corruption, waste, mismanagement and fraud by military contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. government continues to shield them — resisting any attempts at greater oversight or accountability. War, after all, has become a huge moneymaking venture, and America, with its vast military empire, is one of its best customers.
Indeed, the American military-industrial complex has erected an empire unsurpassed in history in its breadth and scope and dedicated to conducting perpetual warfare throughout the earth.
What most Americans fail to recognize is these ongoing wars have little to do with keeping the country safe, and everything to do with enriching the military-industrial complex at taxpayer expense. It’s the military-industrial complex (the illicit merger of the armaments industry and the government) that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us against more than 50 years ago, and which has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation’s fragile infrastructure today.
Unfortunately, Americans have been inculcated with a false, misplaced sense of patriotism about the military that equates devotion to one’s country with supporting the war machine. So any mention of cutting back on the massive defense budget is immediately met with outrage. But the military-industrial complex is engaged in a deadly game, one that all presidents — including Obama — foster.
And the consequences, as Eisenhower recognized, are grave.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. ... This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
John Whitehead is president and founder of the Virginia-based Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization. He can be reached at johnw@rutherford.org.
Source http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/article/20120127/OPINION/701279688/1065/privatizing-the-war-on-terror&template=fairfaxTimes

Kidnapped Norwegian UN worker freed in Yemen

2012-01-28T13:30:00.000+05:30

SANAA — A Norwegian UN employee kidnapped by tribesmen in Yemen earlier this month was back in the capital Sanaa on Friday after being freed by his captors in the restive east.

“I am very pleased and relieved that the Norwegian who was kidnapped in Yemen has been released and that he is unharmed,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said in a statement.

The 34-year-old, identified by Norwegian media as Gert Danielsen, was “freed around midnight (2200 GMT) on Thursday following tribal mediation,” said Sheikh Sultan al-Arada, a tribal chief in Marib province, who was involved in the negotiations.

The Sanaa office of the United Nations Development Programme said in a statement that the staffer arrived on Friday in a “UN safe haven” in the capital.

“I am happy to be free again and I wish to thank all those who have worked hard for my release,” commented the freed staffer in the statement.

“I am relieved that this experience is over,” he added.

UN resident coordinator in Yemen Jens Toyberg-Frandzen said the team was delighted to have their colleague back “unharmed.”

The UNDP statement said Danielsen, who has worked as a governance team leader, will travel home for a short holiday before resuming his duties.

Interior Minister Abdulqader Qahtan welcomed the freed hostage at his home in Sanaa early on Friday, after the tribal mediators brought him to the capital from Marib, ministry staff said.

The hostage had been seized off the street in Sanaa nearly two weeks ago by armed men aiming to put pressure on the Yemeni government to release members of their tribe being held for, among other things, killing four soldiers.

His abductors took him to Marib, where their tribe is based.

“In light of the circumstances, (Danielsen) is doing well. He has been treated relatively well,” foreign ministry spokesman Frode Overland Andersen told AFP.

The man is “safe” in Sanaa and will fly home to Norway as soon as possible, he said.

In his statement, Stoere said: “I would like to thank the Yemeni authorities for the determination they have shown in negotiating the Norwegian’s release.

“I also greatly appreciate the close cooperation we have had with the UN, both in Sanaa and in New York.”

The release was secured after the captors received “tribal guarantees to answer their demand” for the freeing of a relative jailed on a criminal conviction, a tribal source said.

The UN employee spent the night in the main military base in Marib before tribal mediators brought him to Sanaa on Friday morning, tribal sources said.

Yemen’s powerful tribes often kidnap foreigners for use as bargaining chips with the authorities. More than 200 foreigners have been abducted over the past 15 years. Almost all were later freed unharmed.

Marib is one of several areas of Yemen where the authority of the central government is weak and traditionally challenged by strong tribes. It is also a region where Al-Qaeda is active.

Over the past year, the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation has been the scene of nationwide protests against veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which have resulted in deadly violence.

Hundreds were killed before Saleh finally signed a transfer of power deal with the parliamentary opposition in November under which he agreed to hand his powers to his deputy.

He left the country on Sunday after MPs passed a law giving him blanket immunity against prosecution, as protesters remained on the streets demanding that he face trial.

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2012/January/middleeast_January732.xml&section=middleeast&col=

Somali Pirate Threat Concerns Minn. Aid Workers

2012-01-28T13:29:00.001+05:30

Just days after the United States rescued two kidnapped humanitarian aid workers in Somalia, pirates in the country are saying: don't try it again They're telling the American government that if it tries to rescue another American being held hostage they'll kill him in the process.

The threat has raised concerns for all aid workers in Somalia, and that includes some who work there with the Minnesota-based nonprofit American Refugee Committee. It has a paid staff of more than 75 people in Somalia and dozens more volunteers--many of them from Minnesota. This new threat isn't changing the way they operate--at least not yet--but they say it does create concern.

"It's the most dangerous place in the world right now for for humanitarian workers," said Tyler Zabriskie. He has just returned from three days in Mogadishu, Somalia in his role as an international programs leader. "I would typifiy it as a large city that once was grand, that has now crumbled to almost rubble. You have to be very careful about security--bombs are sometimes placed in the rubble that's on the street."

So how worried was he about his safety? How concerned was he that he too could become a target of pirates? "I would be, if we didn't have a very good team that's thought through carefully the security issues," Zabriskie said. "I'm actually not so much in danger because my travel is unpredictable. It's the people that are there day to day. It's our staff that are there that have to be very careful about how they move through the city. They don't want to move regularly at the same time."

After the special forces unit that killed Osama Bin Laden rescued an American woman in Somalia earlier this week, Somali pirates began threatening to kill another hostage, a California journalist and author. They've been quoted as saying, "If they try again, we will all die together."

Explained Zabriskie, "You're in a culture where there's not a functioning government and where people are trying to find some kind of livelihood and there's massive unemployment. Piracy is kind of the lottery for them, as if they're saying 'I'm going to earn ten million dollars a year (by doing this).' It's a crazy thing to do but when people are desperate enough they're grasping at straws."

He continued, "I think it's imperative to be there because people are in such need. It's hard to describe it but we'll pull staff out if we think we can't keep them safe."

The California man being held by the Somali pirates has been moved several times in the last few days. It's rare for pirates to kill hostages because they're in it for the ransom cash, but the U.S. is taking these new threats extremely seriously.

Source: http://kstp.com/news/stories/S2472411.shtml?cat=1

Somalia pirates threaten to kill hostage in wake of Navy SEAL rescue

2012-01-28T13:26:00.001+05:30

Pirates have moved American hostage three times in 24 hours after Wednesday's rescue
'If they try again, we will all die together,' a Somali pirate connected to the gang holding the hostage
Rescued hostages are now at US. Naval Air Base in Sicily

Somali pirates have threatened to kill an American hostage after a daring night-time U.S Navy SEAL mission to rescue two foreign aid workers.
The pirates have moved the hostage at least three times in 24 hours in reaction to the rescue of the U.S. woman and Danish man.
Their response has now raised questions about whether other Western captives are now in greater danger.

Danger: The pirates have moved the American hostage at least three times in 24 hours after U.S. Navy SEALs parachuted into Somalia to rescue a US woman and Danish man earlier in the week (graphic)

Mission: Two teams of U.S. Navy SEALs rescued the hostages after a gun battle with the pirates in the middle of the night (file picture)

'If they try again, we will all die together,' warned Hassan Abdi, a Somali pirate connected to the gang holding the American, who was kidnapped on Saturday in northern Somalia.

'It's difficult to hold U.S. hostages, because it's a game of chance: die or get huge money. But we shall stick with our plans and will never release him until we get a ransom,' Abdi said.
Overnight on Wednesday, U.S. Navy SEALs parachuted into Somalia and hiked to the base where the pirates were holding 32-year-old American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane.
A gun battle ensued and nine of the pirates were killed. The hostages were freed unharmed. No casualties have been reported among the U.S. forces.
In response the gang holding the American kidnapped in the northern town of Galkayo have moved him three times, Abdi said.
'Holding hostages in one place is unlikely now because we are the next target,' he told The Associated Press by telephone.
He also expressed concern that the U.S. has pirate informants.
'Itwasn't just a hit-and-run operation, but long planned with the help of insiders among us,' Abdi said, noting that the Americans struck at a time when the pirates were least on their guard.
U.S.State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said officials have been in contact with the family of the latest American kidnapping victim.

Night-time rescue: The pirates kidnapped 32-year-old American Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane in October

Held captive: Ms Buchanan, left, of Virginia, and Mr Thisted, right, are seen speaking in a hostage video

'We are also working with our contacts in Kenya and in Somalia to try to get more information,' Nulandtold reporters in Washington.
'Obviouslywe condemn kidnapping of any kind and call for the immediate release ofthe victims - any victims. We also would note that our travel warning for Somalia does caution U.S. citizens about the risk of travel.'
After their rescue, Miss Buchanan and Mr Thisted were flown to the U.S. Naval Air Base at Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily to undergo medical screenings and other evaluations before heading home, a U.S. defense official said.
Miss Buchanan's family was meeting her at the base, which is the hub of U.S. Navy air operations in the Mediterranean.
The pair had been working for the Danish De-mining Group, part of the Danish Refugee Council, when they were abducted by gunmen near the north-central town of Galkay in October.
Danish Foreign Minister Villy Sovndalsaid Miss Buchanan's poor health had led the U.S. to take action andthe operation did not necessarily pave the way for further missions

An ailing Frenchwoman kidnapped by Somali gunmen died in captivity last year after not having access to her medication.

Message: Barack Obama, who authorised the rescue mission, called Miss Buchanan's father John to say: 'All Americans have Jessica in our thoughts and prayers, and give thanks that she will soon be reunited with her family'

There is mixed opinion on the effect the U.S. raid will have on the situation with other captives, with one pirate warning that other U.S. hostages might suffer as a result.
However a Western official in Kenya said that the killings of the nine captors might make pirates think twice about taking more captives.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
On Wednesday evening, hours after the U.S. military raid, the gang holding the American hostage started circulating false rumours that they had executed him.
Another security official who has years of experience in the region said it was likely the men holding the American would move him onto a ship with other foreign hostages, because ships were easier to defend and planning rescue operations is more complicated when hostages from other countries are involved.
At least one pirate agreed with his analysis.
'I think land captivity is going to end now. Sea is much safer,' pirate Mohamed Nur said by phone from the coastal town of Hobyo. 'Even ships are not very safe, but you can at least hit back and resist.'
Other hostages held in Somalia include a British tourist and two Spanish aid workers seized in neighboring Kenya, a French military adviser and 155 sailors of various nationalities hijacked at sea.

Saudi to recognise Syrian National Council

2012-01-28T12:30:00.000+05:30

KUWAIT CITY — Saudi Arabia will recognise the Syrian National Council as the “official representative” of the Syrian people, a senior member of the opposition group said in remarks published on Friday.

“Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told an SNC delegation he met in Cairo last week the kingdom will recognise the Council as the official representative of the Syrian people,” SNC executive council member Ahmad Ramadan told Kuwait’s Al-Rai newspaper.

He did not say when Riyadh will make the move or whether it will be joined by its five partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which this week announced that it was following Saudi Arabia’s lead in pulling out its representatives from a widely criticised Arab League observer mission to Syria.

Ramadan, who attended the meeting, quoted Prince Saud as saying that Arab governments are convinced that it was the Syrian government that caused the observer mission to fail.

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2012/January/middleeast_January728.xml&section=middleeast&col=

Timely warning as film breaks taboo on Germany’s neo-Nazis

2012-01-28T11:35:00.002+05:30

A still from 'Combat Girls', a film about right-wing extremists in Germany.

GERMANS have been packing into cinemas to see an uncomfortable film about modern-day neo-Nazi violence.
Kriegerin (Combat Girls) is the first movie to deal with the taboo theme of far-right violence that mainstream society often ignores. But its release could not be more timely.
It has come in a week when a survey of young people found more than 20 per cent of them had not heard of Auschwitz or the crimes committed there, and as a new government report said antisemitism was continuing to blight German society.
Kriegerin tells the story of a gang of hard-drinking, heavily tattooed, Hitler-worshipping racists in eastern Germany who listen to Third Reich marching songs, in between harassing immigrants and buying weapons.
Marias, the main character, drifted into the embrace of extremism through the influence of her grandfather, who told her Jews had been the root of all Germany’s problems in the 1930s.
Covered in swastika tattoos, Marias runs down a pair of Afghani brothers riding on a motorcycle, only to become gripped by remorse, and she eventually helps one of them to escape asylum life to travel to relatives in Sweden.
David Wnendt, the director, said he had been pleased with the feedback that audiences feel unsettled by the story unravelling on the screen, and the violence against immigrants.
He decided to research the film after travelling to blighted eastern towns where youth feels left behind and gravitates towards the politics of the extreme.
He chose to call it Combat Girls because women are assuming increasing importance in the hierarchy of the Nazi gangs.
“Recently, the number of women involved in the far-right organisations has grown extensively. Women are no longer onlookers; they’ve taken on important positions within these organisations,” he said.
The film, for all its graphic violence, also highlights the disconnect between the youngsters and their parents, in much the same way as the Baader Meinhof generation lost all sense of roots to its elders back in the 1970s.
“The film is meant to educate without being too obvious. It should be provocative and entertaining and make its point without resorting to stereotypes or cheap visual effects,” Wnendt said.
“The extreme right’s issues and views are finding their way more into mainstream society,” he said, adding that he believes people are losing their faith in government; a view underlined by statistics that show nearly every second person in eastern Germany believes democracy is no longer the best form of government.
The backdrop to the film is stark. On Thursday, a survey was released showing 21 per cent of people aged 18-30 who were quizzed about the most infamous extermination camp of all had not heard of it.
Fewer than 70 per cent could name the country it lies in.
Berlin, which is concerned about a rising tide of neo-Nazi crime and sentiment in Germany, is dismayed by the survey, which highlights the belief that ignorant youth, in particular, is vulnerable to the far-right propaganda that the Holocaust is a myth. A study sponsored by the German parliament officially showed this week that some 20 per cent of Germans harbour “latent” antisemitic views.
Dana Schoenberg, a social worker who has seen Kriegerin, said: “We still have some way to go as a society to recognise this danger to society.
“We stick our head in the sand and pretend it isn’t there, but it is growing.
“I felt uneasy watching the movie and I hope that my countrymen do too.”
Source: http://www.scotsman.com/news/international/timely_warning_as_film_breaks_taboo_on_germany_s_neo_nazis_1_2083516

Some slam Nazis; others gather for right-wing ball

2012-01-28T11:32:00.001+05:30

VIENNA (AP) — Austrians gathered in memory of the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis condemned plans to hold a ball of extreme rightists later in the day Friday, saying the event's timing transformed it into a macabre dance on Holocaust victims' graves.
Friday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, celebrated each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Ball organizers insisted the fact that their event coincided this year with the 67th anniversary of the death camp's demise was coincidental and denied suggestions that those attending were extremists.
But opponents vehemently criticized both the day chosen to hold the WKR ball and the political views of those attending it, suggesting it regularly attracts elements from the neo-Nazi fringe. The ball is to be held in Vienna's ornate Hofburg palace, less than a minute's walk away from the memorial event.
The dispute reflects both the distance Austria has come in acknowledging its role in Nazi atrocities and stubborn rightist sentiment among some here, who see themselves as Germans and Germans as the superior race — a common regional building block of anti-Semitism.
Some of the most bitter comments came from the crowd that converged on Vienna's Heldenplatz, or Heroes' Square, to lay wreaths for the victims of the Holocaust.
"You, who will dance and celebrate here; we remind you of the murder of two-thirds of Europe's Jews," proclaimed death camp survivor Rudolf Gelbard. Insisting that Nazi atrocities must never be forgotten, Greens' Party head Eva Glawischnig declared, "It is all the greater perfidy that there will be dancing today on the graves of Auschwitz."
Organizers point out that the ball traditionally takes place on the last Friday in January, but federal government minister Gabrielle Heinisch-Hosek scoffed at their insistence that the timing this year with international Holocaust commemorations was coincidence.
She called the timing "a big provocation" in comments to The Associated Press, while Greens' Party member Niki Kunrath said the fact "that right-wing extremists can still assemble in the most magnificent halls of the country" was a national shame.
Formally, Austria has moved from a postwar portrayal of being Nazi Germany's first victim to acknowledging that it was Hitler's willing partner. Most young Austrians reject Nazi ideology and condemn the part their parents might have played in the Holocaust.
At the same time, the rightist-populist Freedom Party — whose supporters range from those disillusioned with the more traditional parties to Islamophobes and Holocaust deniers — has become Austria's second-strongest political force.
The party, a strong defender of the ball, confirmed Friday that Marine Le Pen, head of France's National Front, planned to attend the event, along with Belgium's Philip Claeys of the Vlaams Belang party and other European far rightists.
The Freedom Party itself went on the offensive, saying the real threat to society came from leftists planning to demonstrate against the ball and warning Austrian Jewish leader Ariel Muzicant that it might press charges of incitement against him for encouraging the protests.
The ball is staged mostly by dueling fraternities including far-right members who display saber scars on their cheeks as badges of honor and mix on the dance floor with other guests of various ideological hues. Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache described the event as "an academic ball, not a political ball."
He accused "extreme-left" opponents of trying to sabotage his party and warned that the protests being organized outside the venue were being organized by anarchists backing "the rule of the street."
But demonstrations that began as the ball guests started to converge on the Hofburg were generally peaceful, with most of the approximately 2,500 demonstrators respecting police lines separating them from the venue.
In the only reported incident, some of the guests were delayed when the two buses carrying them were briefly blocked by sitting protesters who were quickly removed by police.
"I find this is wrong because today is the liberation day of Auschwitz," said demostrator Michael Wolfram of the event. "And I think it's impudent that the right-wing fraternities chose this day to celebrate."
Although the ball regularly comes under criticism, its overlap this year with the Auschwitz liberation anniversary had increased pressure on organizers and attendees
Because it was listed among other annual champagne-laced Viennese balls, an Austrian committee reporting to UNESCO, the U.N.'s culture organization, struck all the balls from its list of Austria's noteworthy traditions last week.
While some of the more opulent Vienna balls are criticized as a showcase of the rich, most are devoid of direct political controversy. For centuries, the city's high society has waltzed blissfully through wars, recessions and occasional firebomb-throwing anarchists opposed to the moneyed decadence they think such events represent.
But the WKR ball started drawing flack as Austrians began to come to grips decades ago with the fact that their country was one of Nazi Germany's most willing allies instead of its first victim through its 1938 annexation by Hitler.
Bowing to the pressure, the Hofburg palace announced late last year that the ball will have to move elsewhere as of 2013.
Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ge38GFt3hFeAQxv5VF1jICKKgeMg?docId=8a8f73a5cd9740b29af8e93cbf30d2c3

Dutch plan ban on face veils next year

2012-01-28T11:30:00.000+05:30

The Dutch minority government plans to ban face veils such as burqas and other forms of clothing that cover the face from next year.

The ban would make the Netherlands, where 1 million out of 17 million people are Muslim, the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, and would apply to face-covering veils if they were worn in public.

“People should be able to look at each other’s faces and recognise each other when they meet,” the interior affairs ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ban will also apply to balaclavas and motorcycle helmets when worn in inappropriate places, such as inside a store, Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Verhagen told reporters, denying that this was a ban on religious clothing.

Few Muslim women in the Netherlands wear the Arabic-style niqabs which leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid. Academics estimate the numbers at between 100 and 400, whereas Muslim headscarves which leave the face exposed are far more common.

The coalition has agreed to submit a new law to parliament next week stipulating that offenders would be fined up to 390 euros, the ministry said.

Verhagen said the ban was intended to ensure that a tradition of open communication cherished in Dutch society was upheld, and to prevent people from concealing their identity in order to do harm.

Maurits Berger, professor of Islam in the contemporary West at Leiden University, said only a few hundred women wear the full face veil in the Netherlands.

“This is highly symbolic, it’s part of the deal made with PVV,” Berger said. “We are in the middle of a crisis. There are worse things to tackle.”

The minority coalition is at odds with the Freedom Party over where to make further budget cuts, and the scale of the cuts needed.

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/January/international_January1033.xml&section=international&col=

Gardai seize cache of dissident arms in apartment raid

2012-01-28T11:26:00.000+05:30

Gardai dealt a body blow to dissident terrorists in Dublin last night after seizing a haul of plastic explosives and grenades.
The find was made in an outbuilding in an apartment block on the northside of the capital during a planned search.
An Army bomb disposal team carried out a three-hour operation to make the haul safe before it could be removed for forensic examination.
A senior garda officer said last night: "This is a significant find and it could have resulted in a loss of life in the hands of subversives".
The cache included some plastic explosive components, a live grenade and an inert one, several replica rifles and a large quantity of ammunition.
It was found in a number of bags, boxes and a suitcase that had been hidden in the outbuilding at the Distillery Loft apartments, off Distillery Road in Drumcondra.
Gardai said last night that it appeared that the cache had only been in the outbuilding for a short period and had probably been dropped off there for collection by dissidents.
Follow up inquiries were under way last night to establish the identity of those involved in the haul.
Officers hope that a detailed examination of the haul will yield fingerprint and other evidence linking it to known terrorists.
A number of small groups of dissident activists, from both the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA, are operating in the north city and are mainly involved in extortion and racketeering to raise funds.
The thugs have been targeting pubs and clubs to gain a slice of their profits in return for "protection", while the terrorists have also clashed with organised crime gangs.
Last September members of the Real IRA murdered a major gangland figure, Michael 'Mica' Kelly in Clongriffin, Dublin, in a row over money.
Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gardai-seize-cache-of-dissident-arms-in-apartment-raid-3002556.html

Newspaper dismisses HRW's Tibet relocation allegations

2012-01-28T10:45:00.004+05:30

The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, ran an article on Friday in response to criticisms made against the country's relocation policy in the Tibet autonomous region (TAR).

Earlier this week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its annual World Report, criticizing the Chinese government for "relocating and rehousing up to 80 percent of the TAR population, including all pastoralists and nomads."

The People's Daily article, jointly published by two Tibetology experts, said the HRW's conclusion was groundless and contradictory to basic facts.

The two authors, Zhang Ming, or Lorong Dramadul, with the China Tibetology Research Center and Professor Yang Minghong with Sichuan University, hoped that their experiences and observations from over 20 years of field research in Tibet could help clarify the misunderstandings.

They cited official statistics and said that in 2011 1.85 million Tibetans, or 61 percent of the total population, had settled in permanent residences. Most of them had never left their original communities, but had their new homes built on the same sites as their original homes.

"No more than 150,000 people, or less than 5 percent of the Tibetan population, had left their original residence," the experts wrote.

They said the housing program was introduced in 2006 in order to offer Tibetans better housing and living conditions through massive government subsidies and support.

They also responded to allegations regarding the policy's role in changing the living patterns of nomads.

The experts noted that nomads used to live in tents while searching for pastures in chilly winter and making long-distance travel in summer, leaving them with little access to health care or education services.

By 2010, comfortable houses had been built for 30,000 nomad families in Tibet, the two experts said. Most of the new homes were built along the path linking those winter pastures. Therefore, the nomads could maintain their traditions while children and the elderly don't need to suffer from the travel, they added.

Moreover, the housing program also brought better infrastructure, public services and jobs to those traditional communities, the experts said.

Source: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2012-01/28/content_24490276.htm

Mindanao Declaration: repeal Mining Act, enact new law, declare moratorium

2012-01-28T10:43:00.002+05:30

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/27 January) — The two-day International Conference on Mining in Mindanao ended Friday with calls to repeal the 1995 Mining Act, enact a pro-Filipino, pro-environment alternative mining law and declare a mining moratorium.
The “Mindanao Declaration: Defending the Dignity of Life, Securing our Future” called for the “promotion of sustainable, responsible and equitable management and utilization of our natural resources, toward the conservation and protection of the environment and rehabilitation of mined areas,”
It also called for the repeal of RA 7942 or the Mining Act of 1995 and the revocation of Executive Order 270-A issued by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the revitalization of the mining industry, for being “anti-Filipino, anti-environment and violative of human rights.”
The Declaration also called for the enactment of the consolidated alternative Minerals Management Bill pending in the House of Representatives and an “immediate mining moratorium and suspension and cancellation, if applicable, of all mining operations, licenses and applications, while the relevant mining policies are being reviewed; and concerned government agencies be held accountable.”
The Declaration was issued on the same day the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) caused the publication of a one-page advertisement in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the exclusion of its representatives in the conference.
“It has become clear that the International Conference on Mining in Mindanao was organized with the end in view of stopping mining all over the country,” COMP said.
COMP said it expected conference organizers to “echo the call of the Ateneo School of Government (ASOG) for a blanket moratorium on mining based on a report described by former ADDU President Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ, as ‘ivory tower theorizing on the mining industry.’”
The COMP advertisement also criticized conference speakers Dr. Catherin Coumans, Dr. Robert Goodland and Mr. Clive Wicks, describing them as “staunch opposition” to mining in the Philippines and that their works are “based on perfunctory visits to mine sites in the country and on extensive consultation with anti-mining organizations – without due diligence and verification with firms these speakers have accused of wrongdoings.”
It noted that Goodland was given the chance to talk about the environmental and social impacts of Sagittarius Mines, Inc.’s (SMI) Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in South Cotabato but Ateneo de Davao University President Fr. Joel Tabora turned down “repeated requests “ to allow SMI’s request to present its Enviromental Impact Assessment findings.
But COMP, the Coalition for Responsible Mining in Mindanao (Coremin) and the Mindanao Business Council, were not without an audience on Thursday. They held a media forum from 3, to 5 p.m. at the University of Southeastern Philippines while the international conference was going on at the ADDU, to deliver the same message contained in Friday’s one-page advertisement.
David vs Goliath
The COMP’s full-page ad lamented that ADDU , like ASOG, “is hosting a mining conference without the mining industry.”
The international conference was organized by ADDU and the Catholic Educators Association of the Philippines which represents 1,345 Catholic member-schools nationwide.
Asked during the open forum Friday morning on what he thought of COMP’s one-page advertisement, Tabora said, “I think we will just thank SMI for calling attention to this conference.”
“If it is David and Goliath, recall that David won. We are an academic institution. No one outside academe has the right to determine our academic agenda. We operate in academic freedom. As far as the reason why we did not invite them, I told them several times we wanted to have a meeting where we can listen and dialogue with each other. We wanted to avail of the expertise of foreign experts,” he explained.
At the press conference on Thursday noon, Tabora admitted SMI sent him letters asking to be invited but “I have told them over and over again (that) for this conference, you are not invited. I think it is part of academic freedom to be able to pursue truth on our own agenda and I don’t think it has to be dictated by outside people.”
He said this does not mean they would not engage the miners themselves, but not in this conference.
“Personally, I see that the mining establishment really has an agenda and often the agenda militates against people coming into deeper understanding of issues involved and this is what we we wanted to provide: an opportunity for them to listen to experts who have taken great pains to know the issues,” Tabora told the Thursday press conference.
Tabora told the participants Friday morning, that in the Philippines, mining firms are “not at a loss. Their opinions are heard. They can pull out full page ads very, very easily. Most of our people do not have this ability.”
He said the conference is an opportunity for like-minded people “to be able in friendship and in shared commitment, to listen to our friends from the other side of the world. .. There is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing unethical about that.”
“So we certainly will give them (mining firms) an opportunity within the next 50 years to listen to them,” .Tabora said, adding, “we really know what they are about. They are about destroying our environment, hurting our people, rivers, streams, killing our forest. It is very clear what they are all about.”
Mindanao Declaration
The two-page “Mindanao Declaration” noted that the current state of the mining industry is “driven by corporate greed and the existing policy framework” promoted by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and inherited by President Benigno Simeon Aquino.
It cited, among other issues, that the harsh effects of mining on water systems, biodiversity, air, land and island ecosystems “lead to environmental destructions and disasters aggravating the impacts of hydro-meteorological hazards and threatening agriculture and food security;” that mining firms in collaboration with some government agencies have been “grossly violating human rights of communities and advocates through threats, extra-judicial killings, Investment Defense Force, mining militias, fabricating ‘free, prior and informed consents,’ dividing and exploiting indigenous peoples communities and perpetuating other acts degrading human dignity.”
It added that small-scale miners and workers “have been blamed for various environmental disasters by COMP in favor of large mining companies,” even as the Mines and Geosciences Bureau and other agencies “failed to fulfill its mandate to provide technical and, when displaced, extend immediate sustainable economic assistance.”
The Declaration also noted the increasing number of local government units that are “standing up to oppose mining in their respective jurisdictions” but are hardly recognized by the national government and mining companies.
It invoked “constitutional right to a balanced and healthful ecology in the spirit of precautionary principle and inter-generational responsibility.” (Carolyn O.Arguillas/MindaNews)
Source: http://www.mindanews.com/environment/2012/01/28/mindanao-declaration-repeal-mining-act-enact-new-law-declare-moratorium/

Arab League mission in Syria sets precedent for future action

2012-01-28T10:42:00.000+05:30

EVEN BEFORE the Arab League observers arrived in Syria last month, they found themselves the butt of jokes and widespread scorn. Syrian opposition expressed skepticism that the unarmed, untrained observers - dressed in bright orange vests that resemble lifejackets - would stop President Bashar al-Assad’s forces from killing civilians. Human rights activists pointed out that the group’s leader - Mustafa al-Dabi, a Sudanese general with close ties to a regime that has been accused of genocide in Darfur - hardly boosted its credibility. Indeed, the estimated death toll in Syria over the past month is one of the highest since violence in Syria began.
Still, it would be a mistake to declare their mission a failure. The fact that they were sent in at all represents an important accomplishment for the Arab League, which has long been unwilling to play a role in the internal affairs of its member states. As recently as last April, Arab diplomats shied away from votes at the United Nations condemning Assad for attacking his own people. Their decision to send a group of observers - and to put forth a plan that calls for Assad to step down - is an unprecedented sign of a greater willingness to take responsibility for stabilizing their tumultuous region.
There is reason to hope that the Arab League will get better at this over time. While it is true that the observers were ill-equipped for their mission - for instance, they lacked secure communication devices by which to report abuses without being overheard by Syrian intelligence - many nonetheless performed bravely.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer writes that some of the delegation - particularly the lawyers, military officers, and doctors - served as human shields for reporters, courageously leading “the way into opposition areas that would otherwise have been too dangerous or off-limits.’’

Critics of the mission should realize that no matter how well-equipped or experienced observers are, they can’t stop atrocities in places where combatants are bent on committing them. All they can do is document what they see happening and raise the alarm. More than 1,400 observers deployed to Kosovo in 1998 could not end attacks on Kosovar Albanians. But their discovery of mass killings helped build support for the air campaign that followed.
If the Arab League observers are able to document what is happening in Syria, then their continued presence there serves a purpose. If they are not granted the freedom to do that, then it is time for their mission to end. Either way, their presence in Syria has helped lay the psychological groundwork in the Arab world for more forceful actions to protect the lives of civilians.
Source: http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2012/01/28/arab-league-mission-syria-sets-precedent-for-future-action/cszaRmJjMnUMDfmaMUzeVI/story.html

Bulgaria, Turks and the politics of apology

2012-01-28T10:35:00.000+05:30

During the 'Restoration of Names' process, many ethnic Turks in Bulgaria were forced to assimilate [EPA]

London, United Kingdom - In 1989, under the last Communist government, nearly five per cent of the population in Bulgaria left the country as a result of the forced ethnic assimilation policy for Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish population. Soon after, Communism collapsed.
The action, cynically called "Restoration of the Names" or "Revival Process", did not contribute to the end of Communism in Bulgaria. It was more like a sign of the agony of a rotten regime resorting to the shock of populist nationalism to defibrillate its dying heart. It took the Bulgarian parliament 22 years to adopt a declaration apologising to its own citizens for the suffering inflicted on them.

The declaration was not adopted as a result of diplomatic pressure, or in order to pave the way for a gas interconnector or trade agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey. Neither was it pushed by Bulgaria's Turkish party nor by the European Commission - a usual spur to good deeds by new EU member states. It was a result of a painful internal process and political maturity.

But why so late? Apologies often come with great delay and are usually offered not by the people directly responsible.

Only in 1990 did East Germany apologise for its Nazi crimes. This 45-year delay is hard to understand when you realise that the country was effectively occupied by the Soviet Union - which had the largest number of victims in the WWII. In 1993, Russian President Boris Yeltsin apologised for sending 600,000 Japanese prisoners of war to Siberia after World War II.
In 1993, Pope John Paul II apologised for the Catholic Church's role in the African slave trade. The British prime minister apologised for the slave trade only in 2007 (it was abolished in 1833) and the US Senate apologised for their history of slavery in 2009 - nearly 150 years after it was finally abolished in 1865. Apology seems never to be too late, as shown in 1992 when the Catholic Church begged pardon for putting Galileo Galilei under house arrest in 1633.
Collective amnesia
However, sometimes timely apologies can achieve near miracles. On August 29, 1993, South African President de Klerk apologised for apartheid. Two days later, Nelson Mandela apologised for the atrocities committed by the African National Congress against suspected enemies. These two apologies probably saved the country.
Likewise, the lack of appropriate apology can ruin the relationship between two countries: such as the case with Turkey and Israel at the moment. Following the raid on a Turkish boat, attempting to break the Gaza blockade in which nine Turkish citizens were killed, Israel said that it was "willing to consider an apology over problems that arose during the operation on the Marmara, if there were any". That was not enough for Turkey, and it expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara.

After 1989, Bulgaria sunk into a collective amnesia about the "Restoration of the Names". A few books and documentaries appeared, but were usually met with mumbled accusations that "now is not the time for this" and "why do we have to ignite healed ethnic tensions?"
The Socialists, who inherited the Communist party, as well as the confusion over its guilt, did not take up the initiative. The anti-communist spectrum, which started ageing and fading soon after its conception, got into a tactical war with the Turkish party and also did not push hard enough.

During the 'Restoration of Names' process, nearly one miillion Muslims were humiliated, 350,000 people left the country and names were even removed from gravestones [EPA]

In 1998, when the incumbent Bulgarian president, Petar Stoyanov, did apologise to Turkish President Suleyman Demirel for the Bulgarian atrocities, it was an enlightened personal act rather than an expression of collectively recognised responsibility. Political parties were also cautious not to alienate voters with nationalist sentiments. Bulgaria entered into "we don't talk about this in the family" mood.

In that sense, the apology was surprising. The Balkans is not a particularly apologetic place. Apology equals weakness. If somebody ever discovers "a Balkan gene", it would be the gene for blame. The second Balkan gene would be that of denial. Maybe this unapologetic nature of the Balkans stays in the centre of countless Balkan conflicts, mistreatment and atrocities.
When you read textbooks lovingly written by Balkan historians you will see that most of them are based on the premise that throughout history "everybody was against us". The Balkan self-victimisation obsession and the view that "all neighbours are bloodthirsty enemies" is deeply embedded in the public discourse.
A deadly cocktail

Often, it is virtually impossible to research the past simply because the effort to understand what had happened might go against a popular poem written by a second-rate poet, but is perceived as an unquestionable source of a sacred truth. The popular perception of the Ottoman Empire is that it was five centuries of darkness, coloured only by the rivers of blood of brave men and women who chose death over forceful Islamisation.
After WWII, the militantly secular Communists preserved this line, mainly because Turkey was, by then, a member of that other bloodthirsty empire - NATO. The term for the Ottoman period was shifting all the time. Depending on the state of the relationship between Turkey and Bulgaria (which closely followed the level of Soviet obsession with NATO), the term used varied from "Turkish Slavery" to "Osman Slavery" to "Ottoman Rule".

The Bulgarian independence (of sorts) from the Ottoman Empire, which came as a by-product of the 1878 Russian-Turkish war, was compared with the Bulgarian occupation by the Soviet Union (which in turn was a by-product of the second World War). The two events produced the daft phrase "Uncle Vanya - our double liberator". Translated, that would mean something like "The Russians, who are brothers Slavs, have liberated us from Muslim Turkey and then from Fascist Germany".

"Bulgaria's unexpected apology ... sets an unusual precedent for relations in the region."

Unfortunately, they didn't manage to liberate the whole of Europe, or even the whole of Germany. In that way, the Fascists, Turks, Washington, Ottomans, London, Muslims and Catholics were mixed into a deadly cocktail of past and present. Our land was regularly purified by the elements of this propaganda mix.

That was the background on which the twisted mind of the Communist government devised the Orwellian theory of "the Restoration of Names". The changing of names was a collective favour by the state which gave back Bulgarian names to people whose ancestors were forcefully assimilated during centuries of cruel Turkish slavery. The "Restoration" was executed by police, uniformed and secret, party officials and the army and Bulgarian National Television (the only station). The station was showing villagers in national costumes carried away by national Bulgarian dances with which they expressed the joy of their rediscovered identity and their gratitude to the Communist Party which had facilitated the journey to their genuine roots.
Along with the celebrations, more than 350,000 people left the country.
An unexpected apology

Nearly a million Muslims were humiliated, thousands of families were terrorised - and those seen as more influential in their communities were in fact forced to leave the country. People had to abandon their homes and many were swindled out of their property in forced sales as they escaped to safety in neighbouring Turkey. Medical records were destroyed and names were even removed from gravestones.

Bulgaria's unexpected apology is not just a necessary act to atone for a disgraceful episode in its history, but also sets an unusual precedent for relations in the region. If all Balkan countries decide to apologise for all the atrocities they have committed to their citizens and against each other, they will have to spend a year doing so.
But the ability to recognise not just mistakes, but also sins, and to be able to assume collective responsibility on behalf of others is not only a political and diplomatic gesture, but also an act of purification which opens the door for the establishment of trust. It liberates people who would otherwise stay stuck in the past, handcuffed by prejudices and vulnerable to atavistic political campaigning. An apology opens a way forward and an opportunity for politicians to offer policies rather than protection to their supporters.

Beyond Bulgaria it suggests something more. Apology should be recognised as a key instrument for building a safe and prosperous future - especially in the Balkans and the Middle East. In cases such as Armenia and Turkey, Palestine and Israel, Kosovo and Serbia the past might be extremely complex. The politics of apology, however, may be more powerful than the politics of retribution.
Julian Popov is a journalist, consultant, director of the UK charity organisation Friends of Bulgaria, and chairman of the Board of Directors at the Bulgarian School of Politics.
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/2012122102331935532.html

Norway apologises for deportation of Jews during Second World War

2012-01-28T10:30:00.000+05:30

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said it was time the nation acknowledges that politicians and other Norwegians took part and expressed "our deep regrets that this could have happened on Norwegian soil."

"Today I feel it is fitting for me to express our deepest apologies that this could happen on Norwegian soil," he said, according to the BBC.

"It is time for us to acknowledge that Norwegian policemen, civil servants and other Norwegians took part in the arrest and deportation of Jews."

During the war, 772 Norwegian Jews and Jewish refugees were deported to Germany. Only 34 survived.

Mr Stoltenberg spoke at a ceremony in Oslo marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was also attended by the last surviving Jew in a group of 532 who were deported from Norway in 1942. It is believed to be the first time a Norwegian leader has been so explicit about Norway's collaboration under Nazi occuptation.
Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany in April 1940. The occupation lasted five years.
The country acknowledged its role in the Holocaust in 1998 and paid £38 million to Norwegian Jews and Jewish organisations in compensation for property seized, but it fell short of a full apology.
Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/9045269/Norway-apologises-for-deportation-of-Jews-during-Second-World-War.html

UN urges support for refugees at Davos summit

2012-01-28T10:27:00.000+05:30

The head of the UN refugee agency has called on leaders meeting at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland to keep sight of humanitarian crises around the world as they seek solutions to economic troubles in other parts of the globe.
Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said on Friday that economic turmoil was fueling conflicts around the world and hurting those already hard-hit.
"When prices go up and unemployment goes up, tensions increase and more conflicts are triggered, more people are victims of war in different parts of the world," he told The Associated Press news agency.
"These people suffer enormously."

Guterres was speaking on the sidelines of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, where about 40 heads of government and leader's from the world's biggest companies have gathered to discuss issues ranging from the eurozone crisis to Iran's nuclear programme and other issues.
Guterres, who is at the Davos summit to ask for further financial aid for the UN's aid effort, has asked for "massive support" from the international community to assist hundreds of thousands of refugees, particularly in Sudan and South Sudan.
More than 350,000 people have been forced to abandon their homes in three states in Sudan and South Sudan, according to the UN agency.
Two of the states - South Kordofan and Blue Nile - are in Sudan, while the third - Jonglei - is in the world's newest nation.
'Humanitarian emergency'
In Blue Nile and South Kordofan, 100,000 people each have been forced out of their homes. Jonglei, in South Sudan, remains the worst affected, with inter-tribal violence having driven 150,000 from their homes.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Friday, Guterres said the issues facing the three states are ultimately political, about borders, oil, and citizenship status after the formation of South Sudan last summer.

"There is never a humanitarian solution for humanitarian problems. The solution is always political," Guterres said, referring to the situation as a "massive humanitarian emergency".
In the six months since the independence of South Sudan, 360,000 people have arrived in the newly formed nation but Guterres said, "there is almost no economy, no infrastructure", leaving those arriving to the south with little in terms of integration into the young state.
He said the UNHCR is doing all it can do to move the refugees further in-land and farther from the border regions where they could be subject to air raids and inter-community conflicts.
It is "essential to preserve the civilian and humanitarian character of these camps", Guterres said.
Further complicating the status of refugees in the two states is Sudan's announcement on Thursday that starting from April 8, all South Sudanese will be treated as foreigners by the state.
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/01/2012127174545453984.html