Graphite miners stage underground strikeBy 

W. A. Jayasekera, Dodamgaslanda Corr

September 22, 2014

Seventy workers of the Kolongaha Graphite Mine in Kahatagaha, Maduragoda commenced an underground strike yesterday, demanding solutions to their problems.

The strikers belonging to the SLFP union of the mine descended to 1,132 feet below ground around 7.30 am and informed authorities they would remain there until their demands were granted.

Secretary of the union, Prasanna Fernando told The Island that they had been demanding solutions to their problems since 2012 but in vain.

The strikers demand, among other things, that they be insured and confirmed in service; their working conditions be improved and they be given a salary increment.

"We are not ready for further talks and will give up our strike action only after our demands are granted," Fernando added.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce V. A. D. Lakshman Wasantha Perera, contacted for comment, said that he had contacted his minister, the Chairman of the Kahatagaha Lanka Graphite Ltd (KLGL), and the Secretary of the striking Union. "The strikers demand they be made permanent. They also demand insurance coverage and sacking of two officials who have been accused of frauds. We agree with the strikers that they should be insured given the fact that they work under hazardous conditions.

Graphite...

The Chairman of the KLGL told me that action had already been taken to grant them relief. I promised to forward their demand to the next Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Parliament next week. Even if the committee agrees then we will have to wait till the approval from the Ministry of Finance to grant their demands," the Deputy Minister said.

Sri Lanka accused of trying to gag NGOs

Transparency International claims government letter to groups banning press conferences is an effort to silence them.

Government has maintained a frosty relationship with NGOs that side with the UN [Dinouk Colombage/Al Jazeera]

Dinouk ColombageLast updated: 22 Sep 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka - Activists in Sri Lanka have accused the government of trying to silence the voice of civil society groups by imposing what they call "illegitimate" new regulations. In July, officials wrote to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) prohibiting them from holding press conferences and workshops for journalists and from circulating press releases. "The new orders are an attempt by the government to gag NGOs and stop them from carrying out their work," according to J Chrishantha Weliamuna, the chairman of Transparency International Sri Lanka. "The civil society mandate does not derive from the government but rather from the constitution," he told Al Jazeera. "Attempts to introduce new regulations and laws goes against both the constitution of the country and international law." 'Fight against corruption' Sri Lanka has an obligation under Article 13 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which it ratified in 2004, "to promote the active participation of [civil society] … in the prevention of and the fight against corruption". In its letter to the NGOs, the country's National Secretariat for Non-Governmental Organisations, which operates under the aegis of the defence ministry, wrote: "It has been revealed that certain Non-Governmental Organisations conduct press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate. We reiterate that all Non-Governmental Organisations should prevent from such unauthorised activities with immediate effect." Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya, a spokesman for the ministry of defence, insisted that the letter was not an attempt to silence these groups. He told journalists that it did not signal that new laws were being imposed but merely sought to remind them of their responsibilities under existing obligations. "The NGO sector is being reminded to adhere to the existing laws of the country," he said. "NGOs can continue to operate provided they are within their stated objective at the time of registration." However, Saman Dissanayake, the director of the country's NGO secretariat, confirmed to Al Jazeera that the government was in the process of drafting new laws to monitor NGOs and NPOs (non-profit organisations) but refused to elaborate. "The existing laws in the country provide an adequate framework to ensure NGOs act within the legal system. All registered NGOs are required to provide details of their staff, funding and objectives yearly to the secretariat," Weliamuna said. Weliamuna believes the new laws represent an attempt by the government to curb the autonomy of the NGOs in the country. "There are two types of NGOs operating in the country, advocacy NGOs and developmental organisations," he said. "By curbing their activities the government is attempting to silence defenders of democracy while leaving the people reliant solely on the authorities for development." Nonetheless, Weliamuna believes civil society is unlikely to abide by any new rules: "If a new law regarding NGOs is brought in through a democratic method we will study it and make a decision; until then we will continue to operate as we have been as we are not breaking the law." Attacks and intimidation Since the end of the country's civil war the Sri Lankan government has maintained a frosty relationship with civil society groups and NGOs that have sided with the UN in its calls for credible war crime investigations. The government has continued to oppose any interference by the UN, while accusing civil society groups of unpatriotic acts, and members of the ruling coalition have openly attacked activists for "campaigning against the government". Civil society organisations in Sri Lanka have come under increasing pressure in recent months from attacks and intimidation by mobs, and so far this year, events organised by NGOs have been disrupted by protesters on five separate occasions. In August, a meeting of family members of the disappeared was disrupted by a mob accusing them of being supporters of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Britto Fernando, one of the organisers of the meeting, told Al Jazeera at the time that the event had been a private function and was not open to the public. "We had not invited media to the event as this was a private function," he said. "When the protesters forcibly entered the premises and threatened all who were in attendance the police were notified. They refused to remove the protesters and instead sided with them demanding that we end the meeting." The meeting had also been attended by staff from the US embassy, who later released a statement expressing concern about the disruption of the event. A police spokesman, SSP Ajith Rohana, said that the organisers had not informed them about the meeting and, as a result, they could not provide protection. He denied that the police took the side of the protesters, but added that they had asked that the meeting be stopped as it was a cause of tension. Earlier this year, training workshops organised by Transparency International for Tamil journalists were disrupted on two separate occasions. On the first occasion in Ma,y organisers were informed by hotel staff that orders received from the ministry of defence meant they could no longer host them. Another attempt to conduct the workshop in June was disrupted by a mob. Weliamuna accused the government of attempting to block freedom of expression, especially that of Tamil journalists. "The government fails to see the difference between freedom of speech and national security," he said. Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella strongly denied allegations that the government is seeking to curb the autonomy of NGOs. He denied that the government had been involved in cancelling the May workshop - but said protests against such meetings would not be stopped if they do not break the law. Rambukwella said: "NGOs lend a great deal of assistance to the upkeep of a country. However, they must be governed by laws like every other aspect of our society." Follow Dinouk Colombage on Twitter: @dinoukc

Quick Glance #UvaPC2014; Presidential Polls For MR, Now Suicidal

By Kusal Perera -September 21, 2014 

Kusal Perera

“With all the thuggery and State patronising that reminds one of CBK’s Wayamba PC elections, Uva PC elections ; my forecast is (made on 14 Sept) – Moneragala (03 seats extra this time) : UPFA 08, UNP 05, JVP 01 and Badulla (03 seats less now) – UPFA 10, UNP 07 & JVP 01 – Total UPFA 18, UNP 12, JVP 02 With a majority of just 04, what would be the repercussions to the UPFA IF this comes right ?”

I was almost there, except in Badulla, where a single seat had been swapped in favour of UNP, making it UPFA 09, UNP 08 & JVP 01. That makes the scenario far more gripping for the UPFA. And some one asked me, what would happen at the Presidential elections, if Uva is read as a national indicator ? I would conclude, its suicidal now for this regime to think of an early election, presidential or parliamentary.

Few factors that would help conclude, it would be suicidal for President Rajapaksa to contest presidential polls in a few months or in the near future are -                        Read More

The Uva results and implications for the Presidential Poll

The UPFA barely hung on in Uva. Grimly winning a narrow victory, that saw a significant dent in voter support for the ruling Rajapakse Administration. The UPFA Uva campaign was led by a presidential nephew, incumbent chief minister Shasendra Rajapakse being the son of Speaker Chamal Rajapakse. The decline in voter support was quite marked. Compared to the 2010 general elections, the UPFA saw its support in Badulla District decline from 58% of the popular vote to 47% and in the more Sinhala majority Monaragala District where it fared better, the UPFA still declined from a stratospheric 75% in the 2010 general elections to a more modest 58%. The UNP experienced a resurgence under very trying circumstances to bring about a near photo finish in Badulla with 45% of the popular vote and increased in vote share in Monaragala District from a dismal 18% at the last general elections to a more respectable 32%. The UNP also managed to secure a majority in several constituencies in the Badulla District, the first time in many elections that it has been able to do so.

The credit for the UNP resurgence needs to go firstly to its young Chief Ministerial Candidate former MP Harin Fernando, who had the political courage and foresight to resign a parliamentary seat, shortly before a likely general election and run in a campaign of a giant amongst midgets. He holds himself in good stead for the forthcoming general elections and his stock within the UNP is also at a new level. He broke all Sri Lankan electoral records securing 88% of the UNP’s preference votes in the Badulla District and securing an amazing 173,993 preference votes. By contrast the UPFA’s incumbent chief minister secured a 96,619 votes or 69% of the UPFA vote in the Monaragala District. The JVP basically maintained its 4.5% and 6% vote it secured in the 2010 general elections as the DNA and the Democratic Party failed to make any impression demonstrating that its strength is patchy or in pockets of an urban middle class.

A common program first and not a common candidate

The UNP’s performance was quite remarkable and a start on which they can build if they put in a lot of hard work to create a broad opposition front. The PC results may not necessarily hold for a presidential election, if the candidate fails to capture the imagination. Young Harin resigning from parliament and leading an energetic campaign against a tired UPFA would not be identical to a presidential election narrative.

For a presidential election victory, the UNP must focus more on a common opposition policy platform or minimum common program for the presidential elections rather than the candidate. By swinging the opposition discourse to the candidate and seeking to get opposition support for a Ranil Wickramasinghe candidacy, the UNP is getting the cart before the horse and driving away the other opposition forces of the JVP, the Democratic Party, the ethnic minorities and civil society groups such as trade unions and professional bodies which would all need to come together to mount a serious challenge to the Rajapakse regime at the next presidential elections, likely in early 2015.

A power play loss for the Rajapakse Regime

The Rajapakse Administration besides its core support base, draws quite heavily on a power play of state patronage and coercion to win elections. Accordingly the election campaign witnessed the widespread use, or rather abuse of Samurdhi officials, government vehicles, state media, drought relief, police partiality and election commission impotency in the election campaign. The Sri Lankan State or the system is so fragile (though not failed) it does not provide any check and balance on this abuse, such as the Supreme Court deciding that the government could provide drought relief in the Monaragala District during the campaign, though it did not do so anywhere else in the country.

But this acquiesce by the state is driven and maintained largely by the fact, that the morning after the election, the government will still be standing and that public support holds with the government. Where public support is weak for the government the system does provide some corrective measures. Such as during the Northern Provincial Council elections, the elections commission acted much better to check abuses, it was only Governor Chandrasiri’ s unprecedented and ultimately fruitless campaigning for the government that it was unable to stop. If popular support continues to slip away from the Government, its ability to abuse the process declines, though the prospect for violent campaigning increases but more importantly the floating voter is less coerced since the threat of the loss of patronage becomes less credible. This is a factor that the Regime would be well aware of. It cannot take the security forces for granted either since the previous Southern and Western Provincial Council elections showed that the postal voters of the security forces were going quite a bit towards General Fonseka ‘s Democrats.

The UPFA’s general response is to blame the second string of provincial candidates it featured at the elections for their poor showing and draw solace from the fact that when they field their champion at the presidential election, that Mahinda Rajapakse is the most powerful weapon they have. Undoubtedly so, but as Uva demonstrated the potency of the weapon and the attraction of the brand is declining and the question is by early next year, nationally by how much?

Awaiting ‘big poll’

Editorial-September 22, 2014

Whoever would have thought that a provincial election in a far-flung part of a country like Sri Lanka would ever be of any interest to the international press? One may have thought that only the local media had evinced a keen interest in the just-concluded electoral contest. But, that election has grabbed the attention of no less a publication than The New York Times.

What has really interested the international media or at least a part thereof is the next presidential election where President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to seek a third term. Reading between the lines, one gathers that they seem to think that the results of a provincial election help predict the outcome of a presidential election accurately.

The Uva PC polls results have clearly indicated that the government’s popularity is on the wane and the ruling coalition has to get its act together if it is to prevent a further erosion of its vote bank. A provincial election may help gauge public mood, but a presidential election is a totally different ball game.

The UNP found a person who could take on the UPFA chief ministerial candidate Shashindra Rajapaksa from the ruling clan in the Uva Province. Former UNP MP Harin Fernando, who took up the challenge, did his party proud in the Badulla District, where he did not allow the UPFA to obtain 50 percent of votes vis-à-vis an all-out campaign by the government to score a steamroller majority. The UPFA was left without a majority of seats in that district—it obtained nine seats as against the UNP’s eight and the JVP’s one. That was no mean achievement for a young politician pitted against a powerful government.

Minister Susil Premjayantha has attributed the UPFA’s poor performance to its failure to field young candidates in Badulla. In other words, the UPFA had no one in the fray to overshadow, let alone dwarf, Harin. The same goes for Shasheendra, who was also without a formidable rival in the Moneragala District.

As for the next presidential election, the UNP’s problem, or that of the Opposition, will be to find someone to challenge President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The UNP has already decided to field its own presidential candidate, but whether any of its leaders is confident of taking on the President is the question.

The proponents of a joint opposition front to contest the next presidential election are painting the town red following the government’s poor show in Uva. But, ironically, the revival of the UNP has put paid to their efforts to cobble together a grand opposition alliance. For, unlike in 2010 the UNP’s bargaining power has increased and its performance in Uva has enabled it to demand from a position of strength that the common presidential candidate of the Opposition be one of its leaders and not an outsider. This time around, the UNP does not want to be pushed around.

A possible post-Uva scenario may be that the UNP gains considerable traction in national politics and perhaps succeeds in clawing its way to a position where it can induce defections from the SLFP. That was the method it adopted way back in 2001 to engineer the collapse of the Kumaratunga government. It is no longer smooth sailing for the government; the UPFA has drifted into choppy seas.

However, one shouldn’t be so naïve as to expect the next presidential contest to be evenly poised like the recent PC polls in Badulla. It will be a mistake for the Opposition to believe in its own rhetoric and be lulled into a false sense of complacency.

UPFA voters at Monaragala reject Rajapaksa family

SUNDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2014

44231 who were among those who voted for the UPFA at the Uva PC election have voted against the Rajapaksa family rule. At the PC election in 2009 out of the 159,837 votes polled by the UPFA Sasheendra Rajapaksa received 136,697 preference votes. It was 81% of the number of votes UPFA polled.

This time UPFA polled 140,850 votes from Monaragala District and the number of preference votes Mr. Rajapaksa polled was only 96,619. 44,231 voters for the UPFA have refrained from casting their preference vote to Mr. Sasheendra Rajapaksa. Compared to 2009, 18,987 people have refrained from voting the UPFA this time.

Vasu looking for scapegoats

MONDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2014 

A change in the administrative system and the economic policy should be considered as the vote base of the UPFA has gone down considerably at the Uva PC election says the Minister of National Languages and Social Integration Vasudeva Nanayakkara.

The Minister points out that the  opposition has been able to reap the advantage of the frustration of the downtrodden whose abodes have been destroyed  and their self employment avenues abolished due to the move by Urban Development Authority to remove them from urban areas and grab their lands.

The failure to increase salaries of the state sector and the inability to meet their ends meet have made the working masses oppose government’s policies says one time Trotskyite.

He says the UPFA has been given a strong signal by the fact that the JVP has been able to attract votes of those who are frustrated due to the UPFA policies and new votes.

Mr. Nanayakkara says the ruling party should draw its attention to the fact that its vote base has come down to 55%.

Harin’s vehicle convoy, supporters attacked in Haliela

September 22, 2014

A group of individuals have attacked a UNP election office in Haliela, wounding several party supporters and damaging vehicles parked there, according to UNP Chief Ministerial candidate Harin Fernando.

The former MP said he was at the location when the mob attacked several of his supporters, the office and the their vehicles a short while ago.

He stated that around 9 persons have been hospitalised with injuries following the attack and that no arrests have still been made over the incident.

He further said around 4 vehicles have been severely damaged.

However, the Police Spokesman’s Office, when contacted by Ada Derana, said that such an incident has been reported and that they are still receiving information. 

Harin Fernando, the UNP’s Chief Ministerial candidate at the recently-concluded Uva provincial polls had received the highest number of preference votes in the Badulla District with 173,993 votes.  

Post-election violence sweeps Moneragala

 

Monday, 22 September 2014 

JVP and UNP candidates assaulted – Several houses attacked

Several United National Party (UNP) and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) members who contested for the Uva provincial council elections were assaulted yesterday (21) night and today morning by groups travelling in Defender Jeeps. Number of their offices has also been attacked.

UNP candidate Roy Kalinga, who obtained the 6th highest preferential votes in his party for Moneragala, was assaulted around 1 am today and was admitted to Moneragala hospital with serious injuries. Kalinga has left his house earlier after receiving information that he will be assaulted, however his assailants found him at Etiliyawewa and beat him down with a club. Kalinga, who carried a proactive election campaign, was assaulted by a group travelling in a white Defender Jeep.

Meanwhile the house of JVP candidate Anura Kumara Wickremesingha (Moneragala) was attacked today morning around 1 -1.30 am. JVP candidate Palliyaguruge Wijesisri’s house was also attacked around the same time. His house was targeted four times during the election period and both houses were attacked by those arriving in Defender Jeeps. Meanwhile JVP’s office in Dambagalle has also been attacked.

JVP polling agent Sunil Shantha was attacked in Haputale soon after the elections ended by supporters of UPFA MP Uditha Lokubandara.

UPFA Chairman of Haldummulla pradesheeya sabha, RM Danaratne, stabbed UNP local councilor Nimal Karunaratne yesterday and was admitted to Haldummulla hospital. Danaratne had engaged in several instances of election related violence on September 20 and is also accused of stoning a group of JVP supporters in Halatutenna last night.

Meanwhile JVP candidate for Badulla and former provincial councilor Sudath Balagalle and his family members have left their residence fearing attacks. Although the JVP has requested the police to provide security to Balagalle’s house, nothing has been done so far. Fire crackers were thrown into several houses of JVP supporters in Mahiyanganaya.

Lesson from Nigeria: Discovery of a natural resource by a country without good governance is a curse

September 22, 2014  

The Nigerian news that shocked the world
During the last 12 month period, three pieces of news coming from Nigeria shocked the world.
The first was the sacking of the Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, by Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014 (available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/world/africa/governor-of-nigerias-central-bank-is-fired-after-warning-of-missing-oil-revenue.html?_r=0 ). His crime: Warning the government that billions of dollars in oil revenue due to the Treasury had been stolen at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation or NNPC. Thus, his hint was that culprits who had committed this theft had been associates of the incumbent President.

Lesson From Nigeria Discovery of a Natural Resource by a Country Without Good Governance is a Curse by Thavam

India's Mars mission a step closer to success with engine test

India’s ‘Untouchables’ Are Still Being Forced to Collect Human Waste by Hand

1 OF 2. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientists and engineers monitor the movements of India's Mars orbiter at their Spacecraft Control Center in Bangalore November 27, 2013.--------Devi Lal, a 43-year-old manual scavenger, cleans drains in New Delhi on July 13, 2012

<2 2.="" nbsp="" of="" span="">An Indian security personnel officer walks in front of the India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25), carrying the Mars orbiter, before its launch at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, More...

(Reuters) - Indian scientists successfully tested the main engine of a spacecraft bound for Mars on Monday and performed a course correction that puts the low-cost project on track to enter the red planet's orbit.

The $74-million mission will attempt to enter orbit around Mars early on Wednesday. If successful, it will be the first time a mission has entered Mars' orbit on its first attempt, enhancing India's position in the global space race.

"Main liquid engine test firing successful ... we had a perfect burn for four seconds as programmed," the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on its social media sites.

For GRAPHIC, click here

The engine was tested after being idle for 300 days and will be used with eight small thrusters during orbit entry. Reducing the craft's speed from its current rate of 22 km (13.7 miles) per second would be a key challenge, experts say.

The spacecraft, called Mangalyaan, was launched in November last year.

The project has been embraced by new Prime Minister Narendra Modi who aims to establish India as a bigger player in the more than $300 billion space technology market, even as neighbouring China gives stiff competition with its bigger launchers.

Modi will sit next to scientists at ISRO's command centre in the city of Bangalore on Wednesday during the last phase of the mission, the space agency's scientific secretary V. Koteswara Rao told Reuters.

Rao said a group of about 100 scientists celebrated when the communication signals from craft, that take 12 minutes to reach Earth, showed the engine test was successful.

"It was a joyous moment," Rao said.

Success would make India the fourth space power after the United States, Europe and Russia to orbit or land on the red planet.

"This was a critical test we had to overcome. The mission appears to be near successful now," said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, an expert on space security at the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think-tank.

The Mangalyaan aims to study Mars' surface and mineral composition, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth. It cost roughly a tenth of NASA's Mars mission Maven that successfully entered Mars orbit on Sunday.

Indians have started praying for the mission's success. On Sunday, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an affiliate group of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, offered ritual prayers in the capital, New Delhi.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Robert Birsel)

India’s ‘Untouchables’ Are Still Being Forced to Collect Human Waste by Hand

They face violence, eviction and withheld wages if they do not take on the hazardous job of emptying private and public latrines

• Charlie Campbell @charliecamp6ell

Aug. 25, 2014The practice of forcing low-caste people in Indian communities to removeaccumulated human waste from latrines is continuing despite legal prohibitions and must be stopped, says a leading advocacy group.

In a report released Monday, the New York City–based Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed the practice of “manual scavenging” — the collecting of excrement from latrines by hand. The job is done by those considered to be of the lowest birth. These Dalits, or untouchables, often face threats of violence, eviction and withheld wages if they attempt to leave the trade.

“The first day when I was cleaning the latrines and the drain, my foot slipped and my leg sank in the excrement up to my calf,” Sona, a manual scavenger in Bharatpur, a city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, told HRW. “I screamed and ran away. Then I came home and cried and cried. I knew there was only this work for me.”

Laws exist to curb this form of subjugation, yet it remains widespread across India. Dalit women typically collect waste from private homes, while the men do the more physically demanding, and hazardous, maintenance of septic tanks and public sewers. Many suffer injuries and serious health problems.

“The manual carrying of human feces is not a form of employment, but an injustice akin to slavery,” says Ashif Shaikh, founder of Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan, a grassroots campaign to end manual scavenging. “It is one of the most prominent forms of discrimination against Dalits, and it is central to the violation of their human rights.”

HRW’s 96-page report, Cleaning Human Waste: ‘Manual Scavenging,’ Caste, and Discrimination in India, is based on more than 100 interviews with manual scavengers, and documents how these wretched people are coerced to collect human excrement on a daily basis, carrying it away in nothing more protective than a cane basket.

“People work as manual scavengers because their caste is expected to fulfill this role, and are typically unable to get any other work,” says Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at HRW. “This practice is considered one of the worst surviving symbols of untouchability because it reinforces the social stigma that these castes are untouchable and perpetuates discrimination and social exclusion.”

HRW called on the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to enforce existing legislation aimed at assisting manual scavengers to find alternative, sustainable livelihoods.

“Successive Indian government attempts to end caste-based cleaning of excrement have been derailed by discrimination and local complicity,” adds Ganguly. “The government needs to get serious about putting laws banning manual scavenging into practice and assisting the affected caste communities.”

Syrian Kurdish fighters halt Islamic State advance near Kobani

A Turkish soldier stands guard as several hundred Syrian refugees wait to cross the border. Photograph: Burhan Ozbilici/AP

Reuters in Beirut-Monday 22 September 2014

Syrian Kurdish fighters have halted an advance by Islamic State (Isis) fighters to the east of a predominantly Kurdish town near the border with Turkey, a spokesman for the main armed Kurdish group said.

“Fierce clashes are still under way but the Isis advance to the east of Kobani has been halted since last night,” Redur Xelil, spokesman for the YPG said via Skype.

He said the eastern front was the scene of the fiercest fighting in the offensive launched by Isis last Tuesday on Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab. More than 100,000 Syrian Kurds have fled its advance, many crossing the border into Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence in the Syrian war, said Isis fighters had made no significant advance in the past 24 hours.

The offensive is Isis’s second attempt to take Kobani since June, when it staged a lightning advance across northern Iraq, seizing the city of Mosul and with it Iraqi weapons including US-made hardware that the Syrian Kurds say is being used against them.

The previous attack on Kobani, in July, was fought off with the help of Kurds who crossed the border from Turkey. Xelil said hundreds had crossed the border again to help repel the current offensive.

“There have been no reinforcements apart from some Kurdish youths from Turkey,” he said.

The US has launched air strikes against Isis in Iraq and has said it would not hesitate to attack the group in Syria, but wants allies to join its campaign.

The United Nations said on Sunday the number of Syrian Kurds who had fled into neighbouring Turkey might have topped 100,000 and was likely to go much higher.

“There are still clashes to the west and south of Kobani but not at the same intensity as the eastern front,” Xelil said.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory, said Isis had made “no progress worth mentioning” in the past 24 hours, but that clashes were “at their most intense”.

There were conflicting accounts of how far Isis fighters were from Kobani. Xelil said they were 12-19 miles (20-30 km) away, while Abdulrahman said they were about half that distance from the town.

China Commits More Dissidents To Psychiatric Detention

Soviet-era practice also revived in Russia

Nurses at a Chinese psychiatric hospital in Zouping county / AP

Chinese authorities continue to forcibly commit political dissidents to psychiatric detention, a practice of the former Soviet Union that has been widely condemned by human rights groups and the United Nations.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)reports that two more individuals, a blogger and an activist, have been involuntarily committed to mental hospitals. Xing Shiku, a petitioner and government critic, has been involuntarily detained at a psychiatric hospital since February 2007.

Businessman and online commentator Shi Genyuan was seized from his home in June and placed in the mental health ward of a hospital in the southeastern Fujian Province. Shi was critical of the government in his online posts.

In May 2013, officers arrested Shi and accused him of “inciting subversion of state power”—a charge frequently leveled at dissidents—with his writings. Authorities completed a psychiatric evaluation before releasing him in August of last year, which they apparently used to confine him to a mental institution this year.

Security officers have since refused to release Shi. His family has reportedly stopped pressing for his release and declined to hire a lawyer after receiving threats.

Under China’s 2013 Mental Health Law, involuntary psychiatric detainees are deprived of legal rights and assigned a “guardian.” The guardians assigned to the dissidents are typically local officials, and only they can order their release.

CHRD International Director Renee Xia previously said forced psychiatric detention “violates basic human rights” and should be ended immediately.

“Forced psychiatric commitment of individuals for peacefully expressing their views remains a serious problem in China today,” she said.

The other detained activist, Song Zaimin, has been confined in Pinggu Psychiatric Hospital in Beijing, CHRD says. Song has faced years of persecution after participating in the 1989 pro-democracy movement that was brutally suppressed at Tiananmen Square.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) determined in May that Xing Shiku’s psychiatric confinement was “arbitrary.” Xing has allegedly been tortured during his detention and denied medical care for several health problems.

“In this case, the Working Group considers that Mr. Xing has been deprived of his liberty for over seven years because of the peaceful expression of his views,” the group wrote in its opinion.

While CHRD says some of those detained in recent years might have mental disabilities, the group highlighted 40 individuals in a 2012 report who were committed as a consequence of their petitioning and human rights activism.

Central government rules require local officials to meet a quota of committing two out of every one thousand people who allegedly have “serious mental illnesses,” according to CHRD. That incentivizes police to detain dissidents in psychiatric facilities.

The U.S. State Department previously said it was “concerned about the involuntary commitment of dissidents to psychiatric institutions.”

“We call on Chinese authorities to release all persons detained for peacefully expressing their views, remove restrictions on their freedom of movement, and guarantee them the protections and freedoms to which they are entitled under China’s international human rights commitments, including the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly,” a department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government has also recently revived the Soviet-era practice of using psychiatric confinement to punish political dissidents, according to Russian journalist and democratic activist Vladimir Kara-Murza.