Indian election campaigner alleges gang-rape by more than a dozen men

Muslim woman in Jharkhand files complaint with police, claiming she and teenage daughter attacked over her BJP work

Agence France-Presse in Patna

Tuesday 29 April 2014 

Indian people queue for election officials at a polling station in Jharkhand state, where the woman was allegedly gang-raped. Photograph: Strdel/AFP/Getty Images

A Muslim woman in eastern India has alleged she was gang-raped by more than a dozen men because of her work helping the Hindu nationalist opposition in ongoing elections, police have said.

The woman from Jharkhand state filed a complaint with police that a mob attacked her in her home on Monday and also assaulted her 13-year-old daughter. Her husband was allegedly handcuffed during the attack.

Anurag Gupta, a senior officer and spokesman for Jharkhand police, said an investigation had begun and it was too soon to confirm the woman's allegations of a political motive for the attack.

"An investigation from all angles is on and it is very difficult at present to say the exact reason behind the incident," Gupta told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The victim, in her 30s, was part of a minority wing of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) designed to attract Muslim voters to the party, which is expected to sweep the polls.

Few Muslims are expected to vote for the BJP, which is being led by the hardliner Narendra Modi, who remains tarnished by religious riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002.

Modi, forecast by voter surveys to become prime minister after results are announced on 16 May, was chief minister of Gujarat when the riots broke out. More than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

Despite criticism that he failed to contain the violence, he has been cleared of any personal wrongdoing. A woman he later appointed to his cabinet has been jailed for life for directing rioters.

Women's issues are high on the agenda in the parliamentary elections after the fatal gang-rape of a student on a Delhi bus in December 2012, which sparked a national debate about sexual violence.

Fewer than a fifth of the candidates standing for the BJP or the ruling Congress party are women, according to an analysis by AFP. In the current parliament women hold 11% of seats in both houses.

The victim in Monday's assault alleged that the attackers fled with 30,000 rupees (£300) in cash, and jewellery worth more than 200,000 rupees.

The inspector at the police station closest to the victim's home confirmed the gang-rape complaint to AFP. TN Singh said villagers had used the loudspeaker of a mosque to alert others to the assault, after which the attackers fled.

US tornado outbreak leaves 17 dead

Severe thunderstorms spawned a number of tornadoes across the US Plains on Sunday, killing at least 17 people and leaving a trail of damage.

MONDAY 28 APRIL 2014

Arkansas was the worst hit state, with the Little Rock suburb of Mayflower seeing an 80-mile path of destruction carved through the area.

The tornado hit the east side of Mayflower around 7.30pm, local time, ripping down trees, bringing down power lines, which made it difficult for emergency services to find the worst hit areas in the dark.

Will Elder, an official in Mayflower said: "It's extremely hazardous here right now. The power lines are down, roads are blocked and they will have to proceed with caution."

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said on its website 10 deaths had been reported in Faulkner, five in Pulaski county and one in White county.

Scenes emerged of mangled, overturned cars, some with people still inside, lining miles of Interstate 40 near Mayflower, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of state capital Little Rock.

Authorities closed the route, with some motorists helping to search for victims, whilst others stood at the side of the road, dazed.

Another person was killed in a tornado in the small town of Quapaw, in the northeast corner of neighbouring Oklahoma, according to Ottawa County Sheriff's Department.

The storm system on Sunday produced tornadoes that struck several other states, including Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

Up until the weekend, the US had seen its quietest start to tornado season in 60 years, with the first tornado death not recorded until Sunday, when a North Carolina infant who was injured by a twister on Friday died at a hospital.

On average, around 1,200 tornadoes affect the US each year, with peaks occurring along the Gulf coast earlier in spring, shifting to the southern plains from May to June, before reaching the northern plains and Midwest in June and July.

Although they can occur anywhere, tornadoes are most prevalent in tornado alley in the US, where the flat low-lying central plains offer an ideal breeding ground for severe storms to form and roam for mile after mile.

The risk of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes is expected to transfer eastwards on Monday, stretching from the Gulf coast, through the Mississippi valley, towards the Great Lakes.

Venezuela’s Peace Talks Are a Scam — And the U.S. Is Buying It

• BY JOSÉ R. CÁRDENAS  APRIL 25, 2014 

After more than two months of street protests in Venezuela, the Obama administration has placed its hopes on a spurious “dialogue” between the government and members of the organized opposition. As the Obama administration stands by, however, the chances that the crisis can lead to any positive change in Venezuela are fading.

The government and members of the opposition have just agreed to sit down for another round of negotiations, ostensibly to end the protests, which suits President Nicolás Maduro just fine. Though opposition representatives continue to plaintively seek some sort of meaningful redress for their grievances, the government has other ideas: While the talks drag on, security forces and armed militants, known as “colectivos,” wage a low-intensity war of attrition to wipe out the last of the protestors that have vexed the it since mid-February. After that, if all goes to plan, it’s back to the business of building “21st century socialism.”

So far, the negotiations have only produced nebulous agreements on a Truth Commission, improving citizen security, and returning to constitutional procedures in electing certain government officials.
That the government was intent on blocking any meaningful agreement was evident from the start. It refused to release opposition leaders who had been jailed sans due process following the outbreak of protests —including Leopoldo López of the Popular Will party — to join in the talks. The government has also dodged any responsibility for the maraudingcolectivos, who have been brutally attacking citizens protesting in the street. Instead, Maduro claimed the opposition was initiating the violence and his “supporters” had a right to defend themselves.

Maduro set this tone for the talks at the outset, proclaiming, “The bourgeoisie will never regain political power in the homeland.”

Certainly, the opposition is aware they are being taken for a ride. But it is not surprising that those opposition figures who are wary of confronting the regime have submitted to this political theater. The international community has been scolding them for the past decade to work within the system to effect positive political change, despite the “system” having been rigged against them in every conceivable way for 15 years, first under Hugo Chávez and now under his hand-picked successor Maduro.

What observers need to be aware of is that the opposition representatives arrayed around the negotiating table and those protesting in the streets are not one and the same. As I have written before, the protests began as spontaneous, organic eruptions of student discontent over street crime and economic hardship under chavismo. They were neither called for nor led by the organized opposition forces. As such, the latter does not have the power to turn them on or off depending on which crumbs the government decides to dole out.

All of this means that negotiations will not end Venezuela’s crisis — only real reforms will. Effective reforms would arrest the economic freefall wrought by the hare-brained statist policies of Maduro and his Cuban advisors, and re-establish credible institutions to channel discontent and foster real debate about the future of the country. The problem with that scenario is that to Maduro, all opposition is illegitimate and deserves no voice in the country’s affairs.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, has held to its position that the negotiations could actually bear fruit. In fact, it has pressed that line on Capitol Hill, stalling sanctions legislation in both the House and Senate that could “upset” the negotiating process.

The irony, of course, is that pressure from sanctions is the only way the Venezuelan government will enact meaningful change. It has paid no price for unleashing its paramilitary thugs against protestors, so why would it alter its approach? Either we care what happens in Venezuela, or we don’t. If we do, then at least let’s act like it.

JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images

Mystery surrounds move of Afghan ‘torturer in chief’ to U.S. amid allegations of spy agency abuse

Tomas van Houtryve/ASSOCIATED PRESS - Haji Gulalai, then an Afghan intelligence chief, is in sunglasses to the right of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2002. Gul Agha Sherzai, governor of Kandahar, is on the other side of Karzai.

By Greg Miller, Julie Tate and Joshua Partlow, Published: April 28 E-mail the writers

In Afghanistan, his presence was enough to cause prisoners to tremble. Hundreds in his organization’s custody were beaten, shocked with electrical currents or subjected to other abuses documented in human rights reports. Some allegedly disappeared.

Mystery Surrounds Move of Afghan ‘Torturer in Chief’ to U.S. Amid Allegations of Spy Agency Abuse by nelvely

MA Sumanthiran speech on the Casino Bill - 25th 

April 2014

TNA leader Sampanthan says 'not aware of any arrests'
27 April 2014
The leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), R. Sampanthan, reportedly said he was "not aware of any arrests" when asked by the Sri Lankan newspaper, Nation, about the Sri Lankan military's widespread arrests of Tamils alleging 'LTTE links' over recent weeks. 

"When asked about arrests of LTTE suspects in the North, Sampanthan said he was not aware of any arrests and he was not aware of any incidents," the paper wrote, in an article published on Sunday. 

“What I’m saying is that there is a view that these incidents could have been orchestrated because the Government is overreacting to the resolution passed in Geneva," Mr. Sampanthan reportedly said, before adding, "I’m not a witness to any of those things. And as far as I’m concerned, The Tamil civilian population doesn’t want to return to any violence."

Stating that he was "unaware as to whether the LTTE was in fact regrouping", Mr. Sampanthan added "the Government should take action if there was anything illegal happening", the paper said. 

“There were reports of a clash. Whether in fact a clash occurred, I do not know. There is a view amongst the Tamil people in particular and also shared by others, that the government is overreacting to the resolution in Geneva. That the government is trying to intimidate the Tamil civilian population, who could provide vital evidence in regard to the matters contained in the resolution, into silence, and that some of these events have been orchestrated with that purpose,” the paper further quoted him as saying. 

Responding on twitter, the TNA's media office later clarified that Mr. Sampanthan was "not aware of arrests of particular persons", adding that "he has himself complained of mass arrests". 

Tamil Guardian @TamilGuardian NEWS - @TNAmediaoffice leader, R. Sampanthan: 'not aware of any arrests' - http://www.tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=10767 … #lka #Tamil #SriLanka TNAMedia @TNAmediaoffice Follow @TamilGuardian #TNA leader #Sampanthan not aware of arrests of particular persons. He has himself complained of mass arrests. 7:58 PM - 27 Apr 2014

Making The Best Of The Second Best Solution

By Jehan Perera -April 28, 2014

Jehan Perera

Five years after the end of the war, Sri Lanka remains a post-war society that has yet to make the transition to a post-conflict society.  While the violence has ceased, the political roots of the conflict that gave rise to war remain to be addressed.  There continues to be extreme political polarization between the government and the Tamil and, more recently, the Muslim polity.  The government has in recent weeks being talking in terms of the revival of the LTTEand Tamil separatism.  In recent months, a new front has opened up with therenewed targeting of the Muslim minority, which shows that the build-up of extremist Sinhalese animosity against them, has not stopped.  The attacks against the Muslims have not enjoyed popular support, but they are becoming regular enough to sow seeds of fear and apprehension within the Muslim community.

The anticipation that presidential elections will be held early next year, or sooner, has received a boost after a government minister made an announcement to this effect in parliament.   However, this announcement does not bode well for those who wish to see more devolution of power or a focus on the rights of the ethnic minorities.  The recently held provincial council elections made it starkly evident that the ethnic minorities are not voting for the government.  This will strengthen the resolve of the government to look to its Sinhalese voter base to prevail at the forthcoming elections.  This may account for the lack of deterrent and punitive action against those who attack the ethnic and religious minorities.  But there is a danger here.  The government’s policy is to gather all Sinhalese under the banner of ethnic nationalism.  It may lose out with more moderate Sinhalese who have spoken out against the actions of the nationalists who attack the minorities.

Instead of politically addressing the grievances of the ethnic minorities, the government has preferred to follow a conflict management strategy.  At its heart is to co-opt the opposition parties, by offering them positions in the government and thereby seeking their acquiescence.  A second strategy is to use the military to suppress any possibility of public agitation.  The third, and most benign, is to emphasize its achievements in terms of economic development.  The government has been able to show macro level statistics which show unceasing progress in per capita incomes, high rates of economic growth, especially in the North, and visible infrastructure.   This has led the population at large, especially those living in the South of the country, to believe that the needs of the war-affected people are being adequately taken care of by the government.

Positive Signs                                                             Read More

அரசாங்கம் பாரிய விளைவுகளை எதிர்கொள்ள நேரிடும்:சுமந்திரன்

 Mon, 04/28/2014

யுத்த குற்றங்கள் தொடர்பில் அரசாங்கம் சுயாதீன விசாரணைகளை நடத்த ஒத்துழைக்காவிடின் பாரிய  விளைவுகளை எதிர்கொள்ள நேரிடும். போரின் போது பாலியல் கொடுமைகளை ஆயுதமாகப் பயன்படுத்தியமை சாதாரண விடயமல்ல என தமிழ் தேசியக் கூட்டமைப்பின் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் எம்.ஏ. சுமந்திரன் தெரிவித்தார். 

வடக்கில் தொடர்ந்தும் இராணுவ முகாம்களை வைத்திருப்பது ஜனநாயக செயல் அல்ல. இராணுவத்தை வெளியேற்ற அரசாங்கத்திற்கு அழுத்தம் கொடுக்க வேண்டும் எனவும் அவர் தெரிவித்தார். 

 

போரின் போது இராணுவம் பாலியல்  வல்லுறவை ஆயுதமாக பயன்படுத்தியுள்ளமையென ஐ.நா. தெரிவித்துள்ள அறிக்கை தொடர்பில் வினவிய போதே அவர் மேற்கண்டவாறு யுத்தத்தின் போது இராணுவத்தினர் தமிழ் பெண்கள் மீது பாலியல் கொடுமைகளையும் செய்தனர் என்ற குற்றஞ்சாட்டி 2009ஆம் ஆண்டில் யுத்தம் நிறைவடைந்த காலத்திலேயே முன்வைக்கப்பட்டது. இதனை அரசாங்கம் விசாரணைகளுக்கு உட்படுத்தி நியாயமான தீர்வொன்றினையும்  காண்பதாக  நம்பிக்கையளித்தும் இன்று ஐந்து ஆண்டுகளாகியும் அவை தொடர்பில் கவனத்திற் கொள்ளவில்லை.

 

ஐ.நா. செயலாளர் நாயகம் வெளியிட்டுள்ள அறிக்கையானது வெறுமனே இலங்கையை மாத்திரம் சுட்டிக் காட்டியதல்ல. இலங்கை உட்பட 21நாடுகள் இப் பட்டியலில் உள்ளடக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. எனவே பாலியல் வல்லுறவை ஆயுதமாக பயன்படுத்தி பெண்களை சீரழித்தமையினை சாதாரணதொரு சம்பவமாகக் கொள்ள முடியாது. இக் குற்றச்சாட்டுக்கள் தொடர்பில் அரசாங்கம் இப்போது எக்காரணங்களை குறிப்பிட்டாலும் அதை எவரும் நம்பப் போவதில்லை.  

Rajapaksa asked Zuma for help with peace – South Africa’s Special Envoy
Cyril Ramaphosa addressing crowds at Mount Edgecombe. Photograph Tamil Guardian

28 April 2014
South Africa’s Special Envoy to Sri Lanka said his government agreed to become involved in the island’s “struggle for peace” after President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s requested President Jacob Zuma’s assistance when he visited Colombo last year.

South Africa's Special Envoy on initiative in Sri Lanka

Cyril Ramaphosa Tamil Guardian 28 April 2014

Speech by South Africa's Special Envoy to Sri Lanka, and Deputy President of the African National Congress (ANC), Cyril Ramaphosa, on April 18th at an event organised by Shri Mariammen Temple in Mount Edgecombe, KwaZulu-Natal.

I am extremely honoured and overjoyed to have been given this very rare opportunity of saying a few words to all of you. 

Rajapaksa Asked Zuma for Help With Peace – South Africa’s Special Envoy by Thavam Ratna

Rajapaksa Duplicity

| by Robinhood

( April 28, 2014, Berlin, Sri Lanka Guardian) To cover the heaping religious and racial extremism and from the disaster of the country and the people is heading, the authoritarian Rajapaksa regime has sponsored and created an external force by the name of Bodu Bala Sena has now proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Terrorist Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC). In order to divert the attention of the attack launched targeting the opposition MP’s in Hambantota and to the culpable tax free casino bill which is presented to the parliament few days ago the regime once again influenced its external force which is run by Gotabaya Rajapaksa to surround the Trade and Commerce ministry and indulge in hooliganism.

Rajapaksa Duplicity by Thavam Ratna

Repression of Dissent in Sri Lanka - January - March 2014, INFORM report

Repression of Dissent in Sri Lanka - January - March 2014, INFORM report

Monday, April 28, 2014 

A key focus of the human rights discourse in Sri Lanka during this period was the UN Human Rights Council sessions in March 2014, where a resolution on Sri Lanka was passed, condemning the ongoing human rights violations, impunity for past violations and asking the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to undertake an international investigation and monitor domestic accountability processes. The government of Sri Lanka had strongly opposed the resolution and engaged in public campaigns to discredit and portray all those promoting and supporting the resolution as traitors and supporters of terrorism. Tamil politicians, human rights defenders and Tamil Christian clergy inside Sri Lanka bore the brunt of such attacks,.... Read the full report below or as a PDF here

Repression of Dissent

in Sri Lanka

January – March 2014

Repression of Dissent in Sri Lanka - January - March 2014, InFORM Report by Thavam Ratna

5 years today - Carnage ensues in No Fire Zone


27 April 2014

28 April 2009 - Carnage ensues in No Fire Zone 
Unprecedented levels of shelling and aerial bombardment were reported by medical facility workers within the No Fire Zone, who said that the wounded were left to die as shelling was so intense that people could not move out of their bunkers to retrieve bodies. 

The LTTE told TamilNet that over 5,600 shells had been fired into the No Fire Zone within the space of 15 hours, in what was the most intense day of shelling the No Fire Zone had seen to date. 

27 April 2009 - Aerial bombardment of No Fire Zone, UK politicians warn of carnage of unimaginable magnitude

The Sri Lankan Air Force continued the onslaught in the No Fire Zone, dropping at least 23 bombs and countless shells into the civilian population, reported TamilNet.   
   
Earlier assurances to stop using heavy weapons around the No Fire Zone by the Sri Lankan government proved futile as hundreds of Tamil civilians were injured and several killed by the areal bombardment.  

The LTTE Director of the Peace Secretariat, Puleedavan, speaking to TamilNet, said that Sri Lanka was “attempting to deceive the International Community.”
 
Meanwhile the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT),a cross-party committee of MPs in Britain, called on the international community to prevent the ‘final onslaught’ of the Sri Lanka Army which would result in “carnage of unimaginable magnitude.” 

See full APPGT statement here.   


26 April 2009 - Relentless bombing of No Fire Zone, Sri Lanka rejects LTTE ceasefire announcement, British Tamil enters 20th day of fast
Over 200 civilians were injured and several died after the Sri Lankan air force indiscriminately bombed the No Fire Zone 39 times, reported TamilNet.

Sources in the No Fire Zone also reported an increasing number of military personnel  around the borders of the No Fire Zone, spreading fears of an imminent aerial and ground assault into the No Fire Zone. 

In a statement that acknowledged international concerns, the LTTE political division announced a unilateral ceasefire.

See full statement here.

The Sri Lankan government responded immediately, rejecting the idea of a ceasefire as a ‘joke’ reported The Guardian.

Meanwhile a British Tamil activist, entered the 20th day of his hunger strike in Parliament Square, calling for an end to the genocide of Tamils. Protests in Parliament Square continued day after day, calling for international intervention to stop a genocide. 

25 April 2009 - Sri Lankan government denies vital aid to the No Fire Zone
A 1.5 Mega Tonne World Food Programme (WFP) shipment that was scheduled to arrive at the coastal region of the No fire Zone, Mullivaikal, was diverted to Jaffna at by the Sri Lankan government, reported Tamilnet.

The diversion came as earlier reports from the No Fire Zone suggested that 165000 Tamil civilians were about to face a humanitarian disaster.

25 April 2009 - Jayalalitha concludes independent Eelam is only solution

The Tamil Nadu opposition party leader, Jayaram Jayalalitha, after seeing evidence of mass atrocities in the No Fire Zone, concluded that an independent Tamil Eelam was the only solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

“Till today, I have never said that a separate Eelam is the only solution. I have spoken about political solution this and that. But, now I emphatically say, a separate Eelam is the only permanent solution to the Lankan conflict,” she said.

See full statement here.

[more]

Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations

5 years today - UN confirms at least 20000 casualties, LTTE calls for international aid, Sri Lanka rejects aid envoy

2 Years after ‘Not In My Name’ campaign

by Groundviews 

- on 04/28/2014 

Exactly two years ago to date, Not In My Name (NION) – Sri Lanka’s first web based campaign against violent religious extremism – was created and launched, just under a week after a violent attack on a mosque in Dambulla, led by rabid Buddhist monks. At the time, the situation in the area was very volatile. Despite appeals for calm, there widespread concern whether communal violence would arise in and around Dambulla, as well as elsewhere in the country.

NION was an attempt to showcase that the violence in Dambulla, and any religious extremism, was simply unacceptable. Two years hence, the rise of violent Buddhist extremism looks not just unstoppable, it is very much part of the mainstream and no longer just fringe lunacy.

Over 1,400 citizens signed up to NION, including a former President, leading academics, diplomats, activists, artists, singers, cartoonists, journalists and editors, writers, actors, bloggers and photographers.

All the signatures, with all the comments by each signatory, was printed and delivered to the President with a signed letter, with copies to relevant departments and line ministries as well as the monk at the centre of the violence in Dambulla, Ven. Inamaluwe Sumangala Thero. The President’s Office acknowledged the receipt of the over 300 page document, but never got back as to what it intended to do in order to address the extremism.

Leading political commentators call the prevalence of Sinhala-Buddhist extremism today a ‘theocratic proto-fascism’, with the likes of the BBS as the de facto ‘ayatollahs and cultural police’ in Sri Lanka. Garbed in saffron, monks today storm into Ministries for completely illegal man-hunts, violently break up press conferences, routinely issue warnings and threats against other communities and religions and moreover, enjoy the blessings of the Mahanayakes as well as government.

As noted recently by Kalana Senaratne, a leading columnist on Groundviews,

“Also, the sense of fear and terror spread by groups such as the BBS is not something felt by the Sinhala-Buddhists alone; rather it applies to all ethnic and religious communities. This is irrespective of the claim made by some that many there are certain sects within the different religious groups that are not targeted by the BBS.

Therefore, in short, the BBS needs to be stopped, not primarily because it is destroying the Sinhala-Buddhists but because it is a menace to the Sri Lankan polity and its constituent peoples. The BBS and such groups need to be stopped because they are generating such hatred that people will come to view violence as the only practical option available in the face of the marauding monks approaching them.”

NION and the madness in Dambulla seems ages ago in light of the violent Buddhism extremism Sri Lanka’s witnessed over the past two years, across the island. Whereas it is entirely clear that this rabid and twisted religiosity benefits from State patronage, what is uncertain is whether the same forces that, on-demand, unleash this violent extremism can ultimately control and contain it over the long-term.