Gaza economy 'on verge of collapse', with world's highest unemployment

World Bank report says Israeli blockades, war and poor governance have left 43% of people out of work and the strip facing dangerous financial crisis
Gaza has received only a quarter of the funds pledged by the international community for its reconstruction following last year’s 50-day war between Israel and Hamas. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

 
Smuggling tunnels have been the lifeline of the Gazan economy during the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/Antonio Olmos

Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem-Friday 22 May 2015

The economy of Gaza – assailed by war, poor governance and a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade – has reached the “verge of collapse” with the coastal strip suffering the highest rate of unemployment in the world.

Gaza Economy 'on Verge of Collapse', With World's Highest Unemployment by Thavam Ratna

Provoking Beijing in the South China Sea Will Only Backfire on Washington

When China declares an Air Defense Identification Zone in the South China Sea, the United States will have only itself to blame.

MAY 21, 2015
• BY FENG ZHANG-

Bizarrely, the United States military is trying to assert freedom of navigation by dispatching U.S. ships to sail within 12 nautical miles of China-controlled territories in the South China Sea, and by flying military aircraft over those territories. On May 16, during his visit to Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly claimed that this plan is not official U.S. policy. Yet, according to a May 20 CNN report, the Pentagon is flying the P8-A Poseidon, America’s most advanced surveillance aircraft, over the artificial islands Beijing is constructing on Chinese-controlled reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. Publicizing the mission by allowing CNN onboard shows that the Pentagon is serious about their plan — and wants to shame China by exposing it to international castigation.

By confronting China’s over its land reclamation projects, the Pentagon is making clear that the United States does not recognize Chinese claims, and that it opposes Beijing’s alleged militarization of the South China Sea. Many American strategic thinkers seem to believe that so long as the United States applies enough military pressure, China will back down. But China today is no longer susceptible to U.S. coercion or bullying. Under President Xi Jinping, the more confrontational stance Washington takes, the more assertive Beijing will become in response. That’s the new reality of Chinese foreign policy.

And the Pentagon’s plan, if it were to become policy, would have the opposite effect of its intention — as happens often with ill-conceived strategic thinking. It would give China justification to regularly send naval units to the surrounding waters; to speed up the construction and installation of military facilities on the artificial islands; and to establish an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over its territory in the South China Sea.While the Pentagon intends to prevent China from militarizing the South China Sea, its plan would instead harden China’s determination to develop its military presence in the region.

Before the Pentagon’s plan went public, China had no intention of declaring an ADIZ over the South China Sea anytime soon, said Zhou Fangyin, a professor at the Guangdong Research Institute for International Strategies. (An ADIZ extends a country’s airspace, allowing it more time to respond to foreign and possibly hostile aircraft.) The East China Sea — over which Chinadeclared an ADIZ in November 2013 — is already the site of a great power competition among China, Japan, and the United States. In April 2014, the United Statescommitted itself to defending Japan’s claim to the Diaoyu Islands, thus officially embroiling itself in a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo. But in the South China Sea, where Beijing faces several small powers, the United States is officially neutral. China is trying to manage competing claims and prevent diplomatic disputes with countries like Vietnam and the Philippines from degenerating into military conflicts.

In that sense, the involvement of the United States (and increasingly Japan) in the South China Sea is doing the region a disservice: it is changing the South China Sea into a region of great power competition between China and the United States and its allies. If Washington determines to get militarily involved in the South China Sea, Chinese planners are likely to adopt a similarly assertive logic and establish an ADIZ over territories in the region that it claims.

Of course, Chinese policymakers understand that there are many negative consequences that would come from establishing an ADIZ in the South China Sea. The scale and speed of China’s land reclamation projects have created widespread anxiety internationally, and many in the West already see China as a regional “bully.” Beijing does not want this perception to persist or grow; it cares about the reputational costs of land reclamation. As a result, Beijing has been reluctant to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea, which the international community will surely perceive as another provocation.

But the Pentagon’s current plan and posture leaves Beijing few options. It will compel China to leave reputational considerations aside and adopt straightforward strategic assertiveness. Beyond the ADIZ designation, which China will almost certainly announce soon, Beijing will formally station naval units on it reclaimed artificial islands — which will soon be fit for military purposes, particularly Fiery Cross Reef. This probably would have happened anyway; but U.S. military involvement has considerably quickened the process — triggering a dangerous strategic competition that could have been avoided.

It’s worth asking the big question: What American interests are served by dispatching military assets to Chinese-controlled islands in the South China Sea? U.S. ships will sail around the 12-nautical mile line; U.S. aircraft will fly over the islands. China will condemn such behavior without doing anything dramatic. No one seriously expects China to attack U.S. ships or shoot down American aircraft; nor vice versa. But Beijing will be forced to consolidate its military presence over the South China Sea to please a nationalist domestic audience.

Is that really what America wants?

TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images

India’s roads are among the deadliest in the world. Can new laws tame drivers?

People gather at the site of a bus accident in Panna, Madhya Pradesh, India, 04 May 2015. At least 21 people were burnt alive and 13 injured after a bus fell from a bridge and caught fire in central India, police said. (Str/EPA)

By Rama Lakshmi- May 22

CHENNAI, India — When it opened in 2001, the East Coast Road in southern India gave drivers a smooth, modern link to coastal resorts and an open stretch of highway to gun their engines on weekends.

The 425-mile road also is a glaring example of why, with just 1 percent of the world’s automobiles, India accounts for 15 percent of global traffic deaths, according to the World Bank.

In 2013, there were 174 accidents on the East Coast Road, and 24 people died. So many men from the villages flanking the road have been run over by speeding vehicles and drunken drivers in the past decade that their bereaved wives are called “ECR widows.”

[Map: These countries have the world’s deadliest roads]

India has some of the deadliest roads in the world, with more than 200,000 fatalities every year, according to the World Health Organization. The nation’s supreme court calls India’s roads “giant killers.” Experts say that many of the accused go free because of weak and outdated motor vehicle regulations, routine corruption, lagging investigations and painfully slow court trials.

 

Amid rising middle-class anger and activism, the government began overhauling road safety rules last year, adding stiff penalties such as a roughly $4,600 fine and seven years in prison for reckless driving that results in the death of a child. But two months ago, officials rewrote the proposed legislation to lower the penalties, saying India cannot imitate the developed world. In the most recent revision, the penalty for reckless driving involving the death of a child, for example, was lowered to a $780 fine and a one-year prison term.

“It is not possible to replicate 100 percent of the road safety laws of America, England or Canada in Indian conditions,” Nitin Gadkari, India’s minister of road transport and highways, said in an interview. “We have to look at our local conditions like density of population, road congestion, road quality, socioeconomic profile of our people. I do not want to impose such high penalties that it ruins poor people’s lives.”

As a result, critics say a watered-down version of the Road Transport and Safety Bill, which probably will be introduced in parliament in July, will do little to improve safety. Punishments for speeding and drunken driving have been reduced, a limit has been set on compensation for accident victims, and the powers of the proposed road safety regulator were shrunk.

This week, some workers’ unions even urged Gadkari to cancel the mandatory level of education required for getting a driver’s license.

“I want to cut the number of road accident deaths by half by 2019, but it is not easy,” he said. “Some say go, others say stop, some put up obstacles or pull you backward.”

With rising affluence, owning a car in India has become easier. But bad driving habits, poor regulatory oversight and flawed road design are quite common. Speeding, running lights, drunken driving, riding motorcycles without helmets, and lane violations are rampant. According to officials, 25 percent of driver’s licenses in India are procured fraudulently.

“What began as an effort to bring a strong road safety law has slowly turned into a farce,” said Piyush Tewari, founder of Save Life Foundation, a public advocacy group that works on road safety. “Everybody is lobbying to dilute the law as much as possible. The government has buckled under pressure.”

 

The truckers union threatened to protest. Automobile manufacturers objected to new vehicle recall rules — even though the best-selling new Indian cars failed a global crash test last year.

“If you keep the penalties high, then it opens the room for negotiations with policemen on the ground and will increase corruption,” said Naveen Gupta, secretary general of All India Motor Transport Congress. “You are opening up a Pandora’s box.”

In one of the most talked about cases, Indians were outraged earlier this month that a court granted bail to Bollywood star Salman Khan, who was convicted of driving over five homeless people sleeping on a sidewalk in Mumbai in 2002, killing one of them. Khan had originally been sentenced to five years in prison.

In his ECR neighborhood, Kabali Saravanan’s family watched the news on TV with horror. His wife, a seamstress, was killed by a speeding car in January while on her daily morning stroll along the edge of the road.

“There is one law for the poor people and another for the rich in this country,” said Saravanan, a rickshaw driver. The driver of the car, he said, was an 18-year-old son of a rich leather businessman who lives in a fancy beach house nearby. “What justice can I realistically expect in this country?”

The accused’s family declined to give an interview. Police said they have applied for suspension of his driver’s license, but the trial has not begun.

As India tried to bolster inadequate infrastructure by building new highwaysacross rural areas in the past decade, very little money has been invested in driver education, road behavior, emergency response and trauma care. Many new roads do not have medians or reflectors.

The East Coast Road is dotted with weekend holiday hot spots such as amusement parks, crocodile preserves, ancient coastal temples and beach resorts. On Sundays, biker gangs from the city turn the road into a dragstrip.

“The city partygoers think the road belongs to them. They drive as if there are no villages and no people on either side of the road,” said Sumati Ravichandran, 35, an ECR widow in Vada Nemmeli village. Her husband lay there without any help for more than an hour.

Medical experts say that half of those who died in road accidents could have been saved if they were admitted to a hospital in the first hour. Fearing long court cases and police harassment, bystanders often hesitate to help accident victims. Last year, the supreme court ordered the government to pass a law to protect good Samaritans who rush accident victims to the hospital. But the government has not delivered.

Saravanan said the courts cannot bring his wife back. And he has little hope for justice.

“They will use every trick they know to keep their son out of jail. But what about my 7-year-old daughter who has been left motherless?” Saravanan said, sitting by his wife’s motionless sewing machine.

Bay of Bengal and Central Asian crises provoke re-examination of ‘security’

May 20, 2015

A group of rescued migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, passengers of the first migrants boat, temporarily housed at a government sports auditorium in Lhoksukon, Aceh province, on May 11, 2015 (AFP)

All things considered, the onus is more on Myanmar and Bangladesh to see the ‘Boat People’ as presenting a grave humanitarian crisis which needs to be resolved on the basis of human values. The latter task would prove easier if a human dimension is introduced into the concept of security. That is, what is needed to be provided by states for their citizenry is human security and not the kind of security that is forged by governments through the use of tough law and order measures. The latter methods could make a country ‘safe’ for its citizens but without the much needed human warmth that is emotionally gratifying for people.

Aggravating crises in the Bay of Bengal and Central Asia should be seen by the perceptive observer of international political developments as bringing to the fore the concept of security in its many dimensions. While both crises feature displacement of people and attendant hardships, it is open to question whether the human is being strongly focused on by the numerous actors purportedly handling these crises.

Nevertheless, the developments in question ought to provoke a re-examination of the adequacy or otherwise of the concept of security as it is commonly understood. While the Bay of Bengal crisis with its emphasis on the travails faced by the ‘Boat People’ from Myanmar and Bangladesh, has an obvious human dimension, this not so much the case, apparently, in the current tensions affecting the Central Asian states bordering Russia, such as, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Belarus. Through these seeming contrasts, these crises highlight the most important facets of the concept of security, which are now beginning to receive the attention of the world community, although inadequately highlighted by the latter.

Refugees in their thousands from Myanmar and Bangladesh are braving the hazards of the seas to reach the seemingly safer and more stable climes of the wealthier South East Asian states, such as, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. But these displaced cannot expect a ‘warm welcome’ on account of their being seen as a huge material liability and the validity of this viewpoint cannot be disputed too much.

All things considered, the onus is more on Myanmar and Bangladesh to see the ‘Boat People’ as presenting a grave humanitarian crisis which needs to be resolved on the basis of human values. The latter task would prove easier if a human dimension is introduced into the concept of security. That is, what is needed to be provided by states for their citizenry is human security and not the kind of security that is forged by governments through the use of tough law and order measures. The latter methods could make a country ‘safe’ for its citizens but without the much needed human warmth that is emotionally gratifying for people.

So, states and publics need to look well beyond the ‘peace of the graveyard’. The years when the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration held sway in Sri Lanka would prove instructive in this regard. The MR government did bring about some law and order by militarily defeating the LTTE but it could not provide all sections of the local people with any emotional security worth speaking of. For instance, the minority communities of Sri Lanka were left with the sense that they were not being integrated with the rest of the Lankan public. Consequently, the MR government did not receive the minority communities’ vote at the last presidential poll.

Accordingly, it is up to the Myanmarese and Bangladeshi states to provide for all sections of their publics security with a human dimension, if this is not being done adequately. The people factor could never be taken out of ‘security’ and it is the responsibility of governments to ensure that this is so. In short, governments are duty-bound to treat their publics humanely by recognizing the dignity of all humans.

Besides, governments are now obliged to protect their citizens under the UN-sanctioned R2P principle, which is an integral part of International Law. No section of a country’s populace could be abandoned to hardships and hazards, whatever the circumstances.

On the other hand, the purely law and order approach to providing security is illustrated currently in Central Asia. Russia has deployed some of its troops in the Central Asian countries earlier mentioned to bolster their security in the face of perceived law and order threats by the Taliban and its allies, which are at present in a major offensive against the Afghan security forces. Apparently, the fighting in Afghanistan is expected to spill over into Central Asia, which acts as buffer between Russia and Afghanistan.

There is likely to be a fear on the part of Russia and its one time Central Asian Republics that a security vacuum is opening-up in Afghanistan, now that NATO forces are in the process of pulling out of it. Hence, Russia’s current military drills in Central Asia.

It would not be irrelevant to point out that it was the fear on the part of the USSR in 1979, that the Afghan Mujahedin would over-run Afghanistan, that compelled the USSR to deploy its forces in Afghanistan at that time. It was also, apparently, believed by the USSR that in the event of a Mujahedin take-over of Afghanistan, Islamic fundamentalism would penetrate Central Asia and cause instability on the USSR’s borders.

However, the USSR military intervention in Afghanistan lasted nearly a decade, causing bloodshed and suffering of immense proportions. That was the price paid by the USSR for approaching security in highly conventional terms. It made a cataclysmic blunder on the lines of the US military involvement in Vietnam in the sixties and early seventies of the century past.

It should be plain to see that war and conflict is made possible, to a considerable extent, by states’ continuous adherence to a conventional understanding of security. If the human costs of war are closely considered by states and other actors and the perpetration of human suffering is seen by them as running contrary to the establishment of even a degree of peace, the possibility of war breaking out could be minimized.

In fact, countries would not rush to wage wars against each other if the concept of security is linked to humanity and the practice of core human values. All security is human security; this needs to constitute states’ approach to local and international security. This consensus has thus far evaded the human race. The idea of human security must be adhered to acted upon, come what may, if a degree of world peace is to be achieved. This needs to guide the actions of all relevant global actors.

Nepalis return to quake epicentre to rebuild stone by stone

An earthquake victim, carrying wood recovered from a collapsed house, walks along a street near the debris of the collapsed houses at Barpak village at the epicenter of the April 25 earthquake in Gorkha district, Nepal, May 21, 2015.

REUTERS/NAVESH CHITRAKAR

Earthquake victims carry wood recovered from a collapsed house at Barpak village at the epicenter of the April 25 earthquake in Gorkha district, Nepal, May 21, 2015.-REUTERS/NAVESH CHITRAKAR

BARPAK, NEPAL | BY TOMMY WILKES-Fri May 22, 2015

Dressed in his brother's old British army fatigues, Mohan Ghale is rebuilding his mother's home stone by stone, after returning to Barpak village, high in the Himalayas, which was demolished by last month's earthquake.

Ghale had been working as a plumber a full day's journey away in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, but with his brother overseas and father away for work, it fell to him to remake the family home at the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake that killed 8,633 people nationwide.

"I came back to rebuild and to help my mother. I had to," said the 30-year old, who put off the promise of a job in Japan to return to the rubble of his childhood home.

Ghale is one of tens of thousands of his countrymen to have returned - including many of the more than 2.2 million Nepalis living abroad - to remote villages to help with reconstruction.

On the reopened dirt track that takes a tortuous 60-kilometre (37-mile) climb to Ghale's home at 6,235-feet (1,900- metres), one village after another lies in ruins in the forested mountains. Here, in the sparsely settled Gorkha region, 440 people died in the country's deadliest natural disaster.

Women are clearing debris to retrieve belongings, men are fixing makeshift iron roofs ahead of the monsoon rains, and the army is constructing a school in Barpak to replace the skeleton of a building remaining on the site of the old.

About half a million homes were destroyed in Nepal by the April 25 quake and a series of aftershocks. The government has estimated reconstruction costs of $7 billion, a third of the country's GDP.

In the villages, the sheer number of absentees working in Kathmandu or overseas - remittances account for nearly 30 percent of the economy - was keenly felt after the quake, in the struggle to rescue loved ones and begin rebuilding.

Nepal's labour ministry does not know how many have returned to the country since the quake, but the numbers going abroad to work have fallen to a daily average of 950, down from 1,500 before the disaster.

    

OUTSIDE HELP

In Barpak, famed for its fearless Gurkha soldiers, the head of the armed police force's rescue operation, Sudan Acharya, said more than 60 men had returned to the village to help.

It is difficult to know how many are away, but almost every family Reuters spoke with in the village, where 90 percent of the 1,200 houses were levelled, a male member was away serving in the army or working overseas.

"This village has had a lot more help than other villages," Acharya said. "Ninety percent of our work here is done."

Further up the mountain, where the road ends, help has been more limited, and some "lower caste" villagers, those at the bottom end of a centuries-old social hierarchy that classifies people by bloodline, complain of getting too little relief. Aid organisations are scrambling to fly in supplies before the incoming rains trigger fresh landslides.    Not everyone in Barpak is getting the help they say they need.

Seventy-year old Maya Ghale and her husband lost their small stone house in Barpak when the earthquake shattered the walls and the roof caved in.

Ghale, who is not related to Mohan Ghale, said she needed help because all but one of her children were away in Britain, Korea and India. Her priority now is to build a food stockpile to last the monsoon after the quake ruined supplies.

"We want them (our children) to come back, but they are very far away. Maybe we will make a wood house," she said.

Back in the ruins of his mother's home, Mohan Ghale plans to stay for three months before following millions of his countrymen into a life overseas, a trend the International Organization for Migration has warned would accelerate if more local jobs were not created once reconstruction is complete.

"After, I will go back to learning Japanese in Kathmandu. I still have plans to work there," Ghale said.

(Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Will Waterman)

A year of Narendra Modi: What has he achieved?

Narendra Modi. Pic: AP.

By Mocking Indian May 22, 2015

Narendra Modi has completed one year in office and traveled to more locations around the world than most Indians would in a lifetime. A robust foreign policy no doubt is a big plus of his tenure so far. Does India need a foreign minister with Modi at the helm, is one question.

Also, judging by his high pitched electoral rhetoric prior to assuming power, India should have been heaven on earth by now. That was never possible. I am writing this piece sitting by the window of a swanky hotel where I frequently stay for work. Across the potholed road is a slum cluster where an army of kids, babies, pigs and piglets happily wallow in the filth and dirt. Pigs will be pigs, kids will be kids.

The view was the same a year back though the road has thankfully been repaired, which has nothing to with Modi.

I believe the local residents took up the matter strongly with the authorities. Going by Modi’s cleverly worded electoral promises, the broader landscape from my hotel window should have also changed. It has not. And will probably not alter anytime soon, unless a mall or a hotel is built and the slum cluster demolished overnight. The pigs and the kids will find another unoccupied space to survive, die or play. Lets be realistic. India cannot change overnight, any more so than a Salman Khan blockbuster movie unexpectedly starting to make any sense.

Many apprehensions about Modi have been proved untrue, though it was a bit of a shocker when he turned out in an expensive monogrammed suit to meet Barack Obama.

Till then, most sartorial comments about Modi centred around his resplendent pugree’s trademark half jacket and refusal to wear a skull cap. Modi is not a fascist, as some loudly feared, who would destroy Indian democracy and jail every leftist liberal that has dared to take him on from his or her cosy office in South Delhi. Judiciary, media, Parliament, CAG, defence forces, continue to play their role. Thankfully, pseudo secularism is dead for now and has not been substituted by hounding of minorities as some predicted.

There is a subtle and perhaps more acceptable emphasis on emblems of Hindu culture and traditions such as yoga, Gita or Ayurveda. Baba Ramdev has never been so politically relevant, though it would be nicer if he stuck to just yoga and promoting his popular Patanjali products.

Modi and his creative team’s clever play of catchwords and slogans persists:  Swachh Bharat, Make in India, Nari Shakti, smart city, fastest train, to name some. Honestly, creating such consciousness does help change mindsets. Recently, my elder daughter, in class IX, spoke passionately about the practical measures that can be undertaken by individual households to make our neighbourhood clean. She is presenting a paper on it for a school debate. A healthy mix of ideas in a young mind can only be for the good. Too many events impinging imaginations are far removed from reality, such as Zayn Malik quitting the boy band One Direction or Taylor Swift’s latest hairdo.

Ultimately, Modi will be judged by his promise to deliver on development. The change has to be real and not a mishmash like ‘Bombay Velvet’ that only satisfies the director Anurag Kashyap’s creative side, whatever that may mean. He needs to think of the paying audience as well. In the last one year, Modi has underlined his growth strategy — push infrastructure, cut down or target via direct cash transfers often wasteful welfarist expenditure, reform power, help business and hope that the resulting economic recovery benefits the people of India.

No doubt there is a sense of purpose in the government that wants to deliver, whether it is proposed tax reforms or land bill that balances interests of both industry and farmers.

Modi slogs and he makes sure others under him do too during holidays and weekends. Such is the work pressure that some bureaucrats, usually inclined towards honing golfing skills at Delhi Golf Club, have reportedly installed beds in their office. This can only be good for the country.

Consider also for a moment Modi’s potential competitors — Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal. The Delhi government headed by Kejriwal really needs to introspect and reassess its future course of action, rather than entangle itself in issues that are irrelevant, like a dog trying to bite its own tail. Gandhi disappeared on a holiday for two months. He has reappeared and looks refreshed, no doubt, but woefully inadequate to take on a wily, street-smart, driven contender like Modi. Holidays cannot make a person intelligent, working hard can.

This article by Siddarth Srivastava first appeared on his Mocking Indian blog. Siddharth has just released his first novel, ‘an offbeat story’. It is available to buy here.

105,000 gallons of oil may have spilled in Santa Barbara County

Panzar and Barboza reported from Santa Barbara and Serna from Los Angeles.
MAY 21, 2015

The operator of an underground pipeline that ruptured and released up to 105,000 gallons of crude oil in Santa Barbara County -- and tens of thousands of gallons into the ocean -- said Wednesday that the spill happened after a series of mechanical problems caused the line to be shut down.

105,000 Gallons of Oil May Have Spilled in Santa Barbara County by Thavam Ratna

This One Fruit Repairs DNA and Oxygenates Cells

by DAVID BENJAMIN

Limes are an amazing addition to water. Simply cut them open, squeeze some lime juice into water and you have a refreshing beverage. They have a simple nutritional profile, but still very beneficial because of the importance of the nutrients contained in them. They are a rich source of vitamin C, which is a very important antioxidant-based vitamin for healing and repairing the hair, skin, nails, organs, and other tissue within the body. Vitamin C is also very beneficial for boosting immunity to keep bacteria and other foreign invaders from overtaking the body. 

Limes are also a rich source of folate, otherwise known as folic acid. Folate is also known as vitamin B9. It’s important for nearly every aspect of human health. It’s responsible for creating red blood cells which are the most abundant blood cells in the human body. Red blood cells are responsible for transporting oxygen to the body from the lungs through blood capillaries. Folate is also responsible for making and repairing your DNA.

Folate also plays a role as a catalyst in metabolism, and protein production as well! So limes help to build muscle and trim your waistline. It’s a delicious beautifying fruit that can be added to any beverage in a refreshing way in the summertime.

Here’s a video explaining the health benefits and why you should include limes in your diet:

Post-war Sri Lanka: 6 years and still an open wound

by Ingeborg Vinding 

- on 05/21/2015 

On May 19 six years had passed since the war ended. Six years ago former president Mahinda Rajapaksa spoke to the people of Sri Lanka commenting the final battle of the war: “Our troops went to this operation carrying a gun in one hand, the Human Rights Charter in the other, hostages on their shoulders, and the love of their children in their hearts.” In Colombo people were singing and dancing in the streets. The war was over and so were an everyday life in fear of suicide bombs and public attacks. Meanwhile in the Northern province, few were celebrating. Some people call Sri Lanka the divided island – separated on May 19, 2009 between the so-called winners and the losers.

The Rajapaksa-government faced a huge challenge in the post-war years uniting a country so badly torn apart. Six years has now gone by and it’s time to evaluate how far Sri Lanka has gone in relation to reconciliation and re-building – physically and mentally. Groundviews visited the Northern Province and talked to citizens. Here are their stories and through them, an insight into the post-war realities in an area still very much affected by the aftermath of the war.

Access the new photo story here.

A related Google Photosphere can be accessed here.

Views: Jaffna, Sri Lanka by Ingeborg Lohfert Haslund-Vinding

The Myth of Humanitarian Aid and U.N. Human Rights Abuses

From Sri Lanka with “Love”

No Fire Zone Sinhala language version 2015 from NoFireZone on Vimeo.

by JULIAN VIGO-MAY 20, 2015

On 16 May, 2009, the Sri Lankan military announced its defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Two days later the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed and the military insurgency was over. The Sri Lankan Civl War was officially declared over on 19 May, 2009 having taken the lives of between 80,000 and 100,000 people. Aside from leaving a legacy of human rights violations that are still being addressed within and outside the country, this conflict resulted in many former UN workers coming forth to report egregious violations by two agencies of the United Nations, UNICEF and UNHCR.

The Myth of Humanitarian Aid and U.N. Human Rights Abuses by Thavam Ratna

Maj Gen Dias promotion 'major setback' for peace-building in Sri Lanka - NGOs

20 May 2015

The promotion of the accused war criminal Major General Jagath Dias to Chief of Staff of Sri Lanka's army is a major setback for peacebuilding on the island, a group of NGOs has charged, calling on the government to revoke the position.

The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and TRIAL (Track Impunity Always), condemned the promotion.

“The promotion of a suspected war criminal to the post of the Army Chief of Staff is a serious setback for the Sri Lankan process of reconciliation announced by President Maithripala Sirisena on taking office in January”, the NGOs said in a joint statement released on Wednesday.

"ECCHR, TRIAL and STP call on the Sri Lankan government to revoke the new position of Dias, to start a process towards an independent investigation, in line with international legal standards, into alleged crimes under international law in relation to all involved parties and to bring the suspected perpetrators to trial," the statement said.

See full statement here.

The major general was in command of the 57th division during the armed conflict against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He is suspected to be directly responsible and hold command responsibility for mass atrocities committed by his troops, especially during the final phase of the war.

He also served as Sri Lanka's ambassador to Germany and Switzerland, before he was recalled as pressure over his involvement in war crimes mounted. Sri Lanka denied at the time it recalled him due to the war crimes allegations.

In 2011, Switzerland's Federal Attorney General, said Mr Dias would face a criminal investigation if he were to re-enter Swiss territory for his "personal involvement" in the mass atrocities.

Mr Dias was last year refused entry into Australia over his role in the final stages of the armed conflict and allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Sri Lanka's promotion of accused war criminal is a 'slap in the face of victims' - HRW (17 May 2015)

Accused war criminal Jagath Dias made Chief of Staff of Sri Lanka’s Army  (14 May 2015)

Suspected war criminal Jagath Dias opens school in Vanni (31 Mar 2015)

Suspected war criminal appointed Bank of Ceylon chairman (11 Mar 2014)

Major General Dias refused Australian visa over war crimes allegations (06 Dec 2013)

US rejects Sri Lankan military officials (21 Aug 2013)

Sri Lankan Army war criminal apprehended in Florida (27 Aug 2011)

Dias faces arrest if he returns (23 September 2011)

Dias 'recalled'? (13 September 2011)

Criminal complaint against Major General Jagath Dias - BBC (04 Aug 2011)

PR_SriLanka_Dias_ECCHR_Trial_GFBV_20150520-Major Setback for Peace-Building Process in Sri Lanka.pdf by Thavam Ratna

Screaming At Gota & Silent On Fonseka, Why?

By Granville Perera –May 21, 2015

A war winning decorated military hero, who was court marshaled, stripped of his medals and humiliated by the Rajapaksa brothers regained his honour with the election of Maithripala Sirisena to the Executive Office. He was acquitted of all charges, his medals returned, pension and other retirement benefits restored. He was later promoted to the rank of Field Marshall, the first military officer to rise to this rank in Sri Lankan military history. Yesterday, he along with his wife Anoma (who was reappointed by President Sirisena as the Chairperson of the Ranaviru Seva Authority) participated in the military celebrations opposite the parliament in Battaramulla commemorating the military victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). During the Rajapaksa regime, Sarath Fonseka was denied even the opportunity to participate in the grandiose victory celebrations that was the hallmark of the Rajapaksa administration.

While he along with the commanders of the other forces should have been given the credit of defeating terrorism, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa have continued to deny it and claim credit for themselves to the extent that all records of Filed Marshall Sarath Fonseka had been erased from the war history. Gotabaya had selected and worked with field commanders like Shavindra Silva, Jagath Dias, Kamal Gunaratne etc. who probably reported to the political/ administrative leadership directly and not to the commander of the army. The international community and the Tamil Diaspora accused all of them including Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka of committing war crimes and excesses during the war.Read More