Defence allocation rises, education up four-fold, President’s budget slashed

By Chandani Kirinde-Sunday, October 11, 2015

The Defence budget will remain high next year also, but most significantly the allocation for education has been increased four-fold. The defence allocation is more than Rs. 306 billion. In contrast, the allocation for the Office of the President has been heavily reduced in comparison to allocations made under the previous administration.

According to the 2016 Appropriations Bill, which will be presented to Parliament later this month, more than Rs. 257.6 billion of the money allocated to the Defence Ministry will go for recurrent expenditure while capital expenditure will be around Rs. 48. 9 billion.

The total allocation made to the Ministry of Defence for 2015 when it was amalgamated with the Ministry of Urban Development was around Rs. 285 billion. Next year, however the Defence Ministry alone will get around Rs. 306 billion, of which close to 85 per cent will be spent on operations activities of the Ministry, the Sri Lanka Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Department of Civil Security and the Coast Guard Department.

The allocation to the President’s office for both operational and development activities is a little more than Rs. 2.3 billion, down from the Rs. 9.6 billion that was allocated in the 2015 Budget. The allocation for the Ministry of Education will see a four-fold increase from the previous year, going up to more than Rs. 185.9 billion from the Rs. 47.6 billion allocated in the 2015 Budget.

The other big allocations are for the Ministries of Local Government and Provincial Councils (Rs. 237 billion), University Education and Highways (Rs. 171 billion), Public Administration and Management (Rs. 156 billion), Finance and Planning (Rs. 107 billion) and Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine (Rs. 174 billion).

The total Government expenditure for 2016 is estimated at around Rs. 1,941 billion, of which Rs. 1,314 billon will be for recurrent expenditure and Rs. 626 billion for capital expenditure.The 2016 Appropriation Bill for 2016 was approved by the Cabinet this week and it is to be tabled in Parliament on October 23.

The Budget speech or the Second Reading of the Budget will be made by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake on November 20.

Death Penalty: from Moratorium towards complete Abolition?

The following statement is issued by the Law and Society Trust

(October 10, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Law and Society Trust acknowledges and appreciates that Sri Lanka has redefined its position with regards to the reintroduction of the death penalty. The Justice Minister Dr. Wijeydasa Rajapakshe stated in Parliament on 6 October 2015, that Sri Lanka will not implement the death penalty temporarily as the country has decided to vote in favour of the UN General Assembly Resolution on “Moratorium on the Use of Death Penalty” in 2015[1].

Although in 2012 Sri Lanka abstained from voting on the afore-mentioned UN General Assembly Resolution, in the years 2007, 2008 and 2010 Sri Lanka had voted in favour of a moratorium on the use of the death penalty[2] and LST appreciates this stance taken even amidst mounting public favour towards reimplementation due to the increased crime rate and the resultant general public perception of the death penalty as a deterrent to crime[3].

The Death Penalty is the ultimate violation of an individual’s most basic rights and in practice is often carried out in a discriminatory and arbitrary fashion with the potential to cause irreparable loss in a flawed criminal justice system. We only have to look at the recent case of the rape and brutal murder of the five year old girl to highlight that our criminal justice system is simply incapable of carrying out investigations and prosecuting offenders. Public outrage and the media too contributed to this. The enraged public response to catch the perpetrators and the call for “revenge” put significant pressure on the law enforcement authorities whose investigation techniques are questionable right from the start as evinced by the “confessions” of several offenders[4] , and the treatment of the 17 year old boy suspected of having committed the act[5] . To date the real perpetrator has not been apprehended. In these circumstances since no system, even an advanced legal system, can ever be hundred percent accurate we really must seek to completely abolish this brutal practice given that even in the situation of a moratorium the decision ultimately always lies at the whims of a policy maker.

In light of this we encourage the government to take a step further and abolish the practice once and for all given that the practice has no place in the 21st Century. We also encourage the government to take steps to ratify the second optional protocol to the ICCPR[6]which calls for the abolition of death penalty.

Currently over 82% have either introduced moratoria by law or in practice or have abolished it. Over the past 12 months alone, Fiji, Madagascar, Suriname, and the state of Nebraska in the United States have abolished the practice of putting people to death. In Burkina Faso and the Republic of Korea, new abolition laws have been submitted to parliament. Togo has ratified the second optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims to abolish the death penalty. China has removed the death penalty for several categories of crimes. Legal bodies in India and Ghana have recommended abolition. Authorities in Afghanistan, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States have announced reviews of the fairness and accuracy of the processes that convict and execute people[7].

These moves by Nations across the globe and in Asia goes on to show that the global practice is indeed towards abolition. Justice is not about vengeance and we as civilized societies must move towards a form of justice system which seeks real and genuine recognition by the offenders for their wrongdoings.

It is not the increase in the severity of the punishment but the certainty of punishment which prevents potential offenders from committing crimes. The deterrent theory also assumes that all human beings are rational creatures who first engage in a process of weighing the pros and cons before acting out. This is not often the case as most crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol or in certain incidences by people with diminished capacities. The Justice Minister had also gone on to state that an interactive dialogue should be held to find out the root causes of crimes and that Parliament should focus attention on strengthening the laws to prevent crimes[8]. This is by no means an easy task and there is a need for a massive overhaul of the system and action must be taken structurally to address the issue at hand with participation at all levels. There is also the need for massive public education be it related to crimes, related laws, sanction risks and consequences, sentencing policies and modifications to it etc.

In the meantime one cannot forget the rights of victims and their families in seeing through effective investigations and proper retribution for crimes and the right to demand redress for the harm suffered through expeditious, responsive, fair, and accessible judicial and administrative mechanisms. A life of dignity for all includes the dignity of victims and their families, who must be acknowledged by all law enforcement and judicial personnel with full compassion and respect with paramount significance given to secure the safety of victims, their families and witnesses from intimidation and reprisal.

[1] “Sri Lanka will not implement death penalty for now-Justice Minister”, Colombo Page, 7 October 2015, available at http://www.colombopage.com/archive_15B/Oct07_1444203786CH.php

[2] Ibid.

[3] “Death on their minds”, Sunday Observer, 27 September 2015, available at http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2015/09/27/sec06.asp

[4] “Now, Kondaya’s DNA doesn’t match”, Ceylon Today,7 October 2015, available athttps://www.ceylontoday.lk/16-105884-news-detail-now-kondayas-dna-doesnt-match.html; see also, “Kondayas brother confesses to killing Seya”, Tony Karunanayake, Daily Mirror, 5 October 2015, available at http://www.dailymirror.lk/89913/kondaya-s-brother-confesses-to-killing-seya-cid

[5]“Seya case: Police handling of teenage suspect draws fire” The Sunday Times, 4 October 2014, available at http://www.sundaytimes.lk/151004/news/seya-case-police-handling-of-teenage-suspect-draws-fire-166760.html

[6] Article 1 & 2, Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at the abolition of the death penalty

[7] “Death penalty”, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/DeathPenalty/Pages/DPIndex.aspx

[8] “Sri Lanka will not implement death penalty for now-Justice Minister”, Colombo Page, 7 October 2015, available athttp://www.colombopage.com/archive_15B/Oct07_1444203786CH.php

‘Wild Ass’ Sirisena Decries ‘Wild Ass’ Journalism

October 9, 2015

President Maithripala Sirisena today lamented, that sections of the media was trying to crush him even after his new government has ensured media freedom.

Delivering the key note address, at the 60th Anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lanka Press Association held at the BMICH today, Sirisena said that his government had ended the era where journalists had disappeared and were harassed.

However Sirisena lamented that the media was using the new found freedom to slander selected politicians and other individuals with scant respect to media ethics.

“Freedom of expression must not de-generate into wild ass freedom” he stressed.

When the Government ensures the freedom of the press the duty of a journalist is to write the truth without giving any space to achieve narrow objectives, the President further clarified.

While accusing the previous Rajapaksa regime of intimidating the media Sirisena added that the era of telephoning the editors to suggest headlines in newspapers has ended.

Without naming the paper, President Sirisena went on to say that one of the English newspapers has published an article which contained fabricated details of his recent visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly,

While noting that he welcomed criticism, Sirisena emphasized that however this should be constructive and not totally one-sided or malignant.                           Read More  

Exploitation of doctors and patients in private hospitals –doctor exposes : Minister must lay down policy

(Lanka-e-News- 09.Oct.2015, 11.00PM)  The  exploitation of patients and plunder raging in leading private hospitals , was exposed by a doctor who took pains to make a complaint  to Lanka e news.

The doctor revealed that  a sum of Rs. 2500.00 to Rs. 3000.00 is  charged by these hospitals as doctor’s fee per day  from indoor patients , and the doctor is paid only a  paltry sum  of Rs. 400.00 per hour , and the balance is  gobbled up by the private hospital.  Though on the face of it , this looks fair, the illegality and injustice in this system was exposed by the Doctor as follows:

If there are 100 indoor patients in the hospital , the total amount collected by the hospital per day from them is Rs. 250,000.00. There are about 10 in- house doctors to treat them. Hence , the  total disbursement made to the ten doctors is :   400X24x 100 =   Rs. 96000.00 only. That is ,the hospital by ‘selling’ the doctors is siphoning over Rs. 150,000.00 per day into its account.This is unfair and illegal because under the guise of fees due to  doctor , the hospitals are resorting to exploitation.

The doctor commenting further said , wither the private hospitals must reduce the fees charged from the patients or the increase the payments  to the doctors.Although  the GMOA was notified of this , and intially the latter voiced its protests  , later it  turned silent. Hence the doctor told Lanka e news that he hoped that the new Minister of health Rajitha Senaratne at least will  address this issue .      

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by     (2015-10-09 20:36:41)

Allegation against Dayananda Warnaweera for match fixing

Oct 10, 2015

Former test cricket player Dayananda Warnaweera who recently quit from the Sri Lanka cricket interim committee has been alleged by the International Cricket Council for acquiring illegal money for match fixing. Due to the reason the latter has been prohibited from participating in any international cricket events.

The latter is believed to be involved in many match fixing events few years before. Further the latter is evading the investigations conducted by the International Cricket Council when the council called him many times to inquire over the alleged match fixing.

However the ICC has able to reveal that there are millions of rupees credited to his bank account.

86 killed after huge explosions in Turkey

SATURDAY 10 OCTOBER 2015

Turkey says dozens of people have been killed and hundreds injured after two explosions outside the train station in the country's capital, Ankara.

Turkish government officials said the blast was a "terrorist attack" and they were investigating claims that a suicide bomber was responsible. A health minister said 86 people had been killed and hundreds more were injured.

The explosions happened as hundreds gathered outside Ankara's main train station for a peace rally to protest against the conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast.

Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10:00 am (0700 GMT). There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack.

"We are faced with a very big massacre, a vicious, barbarous attack," pro-Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas told reporters.

The attacks come three weeks ahead of a parliamentary election in Turkey and at a time of multiple security threats, not only in the restive southeast but also from Islamic State militants in neighbouring Syria and home-grown leftist militants.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu cancelled his next three days of election campaigning and was due to hold an emergency meeting with the heads of the police and intelligence agencies and other senior officials, his office said.

Turkey, a Nato member, has been in a heightened state of alert since starting a "synchronized war on terror" in July, including air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Syria and PKK bases in northern Iraq. It has also rounded up hundreds of suspected militants at home.

Designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, the PKK launched a separatist insurgency in 1984 in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.

The state launched peace talks with the PKK's jailed leader in 2012 and the latest in a series of ceasefires had been holding until the violence flared again in July.

Israel tore Fadi Alloun’s family apart; then it killed him

Fadi Samir Alloun in an undated image posted on Facebook.

 Budour Youssef Hassan- 8 October 2015

Last week, Fadi Alloun celebrated his 19th birthday with friends in Issawiyeh, a village in occupied East Jerusalem. He was thrilled that he had recently obtained a driving license. As a birthday gift, his father promised to help him buy a car.

Fadi had no stable job but was eager to find enough paid work so that he could realize this dream.

Five days later, Fadi was slain by militarized Israeli police in the Musrara neighborhood, beside Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Israeli police claim Fadi had tried to stab an Israeli teenager. But video evidence from the scene of Fadi’s killing on Sunday does not corroborate this claim.

Rather, the videos show the Israeli police executing Fadi in cold blood. A group of Israeli Jews was filmed rejoicing at his death.

Fadi’s family insisted that the stabbing accusation was just an excuse used by Israel to try and provide some “justification” for his slaying.

“If he’d tried to stab a settler, we wouldn’t hide it,” said Haya Alloun, one of Fadi’s eight aunts. “Palestinian youth have every right to resist those who occupy our land. But I’m sure that he didn’t and you can be sure of this by watching the videos.”

Fadi’s experience with Israel’s apartheid system began when he was less than two years old.

His mother, who carried a Jordanian passport, travelled to Amman at that time to visit her sick father, taking Fadi’s younger brother with her.

The Israeli authorities banned her from returning to Jerusalem, tearing the family apart. For nearly 18 years, Fadi was unable to see his mother and brother. He could only talk to them on the phone or via the Internet.

Even after his death, the Israeli authorities have not yet granted his mother and brother a permit to pay Fadi a final farewell.

Because of the ban imposed on his mother, Fadi was raised by his father as an only child. His father, in his turn, refused to marry again, entirely devoting himself to his son, whom he described as “my heart and soul and everything in my life.”

“He was everything to me, the most precious thing in my life,” Samir Alloun, Fadi’s father, told The Electronic Intifada. “I was his father, his mother and his best friend. Our relationship was very special.”

Gifted singer

Fadi was a talented photographer and loved sports, especially running and swimming. As a child, his father took him to swimming pools in Ramallah every weekend where the pair spent some of their happiest moments together.

Fadi was a gifted singer. Not only did he regularly raise the call to prayer in the Issawiyeh Martyrs Mosque, he also recited the Quran and sang during family events.

During trips with friends, Fadi would be the first to take the mic in the bus. He would entertain with both songs and jokes.

“Whenever he saw that I wasn’t feeling well, he tried to do anything that cheered me up,” said his father Samir.

The cruelty of Fadi’s death is compounded by the fact that Israel has not yet handed over his remains to his family.

Initially, the Israeli authorities insisted that the family pay 20,000 shekels ($5,200) to receive his body. Israel also stipulated that no more than 70 people may attend his funeral.

The dispute now centers on where Fadi will be buried. The family wants him to be interred in the cemetery at Bab al-Zahara, a short distance from he was killed. Fadi’s grandmother and other relatives have been buried there.

The Israeli authorities are ordering that the burial takes place in Issawiyeh to avoid clashes near the Old City.

“They killed him twice”

The wait for his son’s body is proving extremely painful for Samir Alloun.

“I will not feel any semblance of relief until I can bury my son’s body with my own hands and honor him according to our religious customs,” Samir said.

“They have killed him twice,” said Haya, Fadi’s aunt. “First, when they brutally shot him on Sunday and now as they continue to delay his funeral and hold his body captive. Every delay is a new violation of Fadi’s body. Is it not enough for them that they unjustly kill him? Why are they still detaining him and torturing his father?”

On Monday, the family was informed that they would be given Fadi’s body and that the burial was to take place in the Shuafat neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Residents set up a mourning tent and waited for hours only to be told by the police that the burial will be delayed.

A few hours after Fadi’s slaying, Israeli forces raided his family’s home in Issawiyeh.

“They smashed the door and vandalized the property,” said Nada, another aunt of Fadi, who was at the home during the attack. They beat the women and broke into Fadi’s room with police dogs.”

Fadi’s father and uncle were also briefly detained and interrogated.

During his short life, Fadi had become accustomed to Israeli harassment.

He was arrested twice for alleged stone throwing. On both occasions he was released without charge.

Fadi’s friends and relatives are trying to console his father.

“Fadi was loved by everyone and this support means a lot to me,” said Samir. “But I have lived my entire life for him. I do not know how I will go on without him.”

Budour Youssef Hassan is a Palestinian writer and law graduate based in occupied Jerusalem. Blog:budourhassan.wordpress.com. Twitter: @Budour48

U.S. Acknowledges Reality and Scraps Failed Syria Training Program

BY PAUL MCLEARY-OCTOBER 9, 2015

On Capitol Hill, it’s been called “a joke,” a “total failure,” and “a biggerdisaster than I could have ever imagined.” And now we have another name for it: dead.

The U.S. Defense Department’s Syrian train and equip program — which sought to raise a 5,000-strong rebel army by the end of this year to take on the Islamic State — was finally scuttled by the White House on Friday, a candid admission that Washington had abjectly failed in its push to find capable allies amid the chaos of a country in the grips of a grinding, multisided civil war.

Just this spring, the $500 million program was being billed as the centerpiece for how Washington would defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, in Syria. But from the start, it stumbled through a number of high-profile disasters, culminating late last month when the head of U.S. Central Command admitted that after six months of planning and training, only “four or five” U.S.-trained rebels remained on the ground in Syria.

In response to the outcry those comments spawned, the White House bluntly distanced itself from the program, with spokesman Josh Earnest taking the remarkable step of arguing that President Barack Obama had essentially been forced into the program by his critics, despite his deep reservations.

“Many of our critics had proposed this specific option as essentially the cure-all for all of the policy challenges that we’re facing in Syria right now,” Earnest said. “[But] that is not something that this administration ever believed, but it is something that our critics will have to answer for.”

Now as Russian jets, helicopters, and cruise missiles continue to poundSyrian rebel positions in a bid to shore up the battered regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States is essentially going back to the drawing board in trying to come up with a new strategy.

On a call with reporters on Friday, Christine Wormuth, the Pentagon’s undersecretary of defense for policy, said the program has switched from recruiting individual fighters to giving the leaders of various rebel groups weapons and supplies to hand out to their troops.

“We have been working with these groups for months,” she said, and the United States will now “build on that and work with groups on the ground who are already fighting ISIL and provide them some equipment.”

She wouldn’t comment on the kinds of equipment specifically, other than to say it will not include “higher-end” weapons like anti-tank rockets and ground-to-air missiles.

Obama’s deputy envoy to the international coalition battling the Islamic State, Brett McGurk, said on the same call that the changes are necessary because groups in different parts of the country require varying levels of support. “This is the most complex situation imaginable, every part of the map is different. We need different tools at different points,” he said.

Even with the new focus on working with rebel leaders as opposed to individuals, there has still been no firm commitment from Washington as to how and when the United States might provide air support or protection for the rebel groups it has backed — and are now being hammered by Moscow.

In July, when the first group of U.S.-trained rebels was attacked by the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front almost immediately upon crossing the border from their training base in Turkey, American warplanes did provide some air cover. The situation on the ground has since changed dramatically. Russian warplanes targeted CIA-trained Syrian rebels in the opening salvos of Moscow’s own air war in Syria earlier this month, and as Washington now looks to expand the number of so-called moderate groups it does business with in Syria, there remains little commitment to them beyond supplying equipment.

The Pentagon training program was further damaged last month by reports that a second group of fighters handed over U.S.-provided weapons, trucks, and other equipment to al-Nusra Front almost immediately upon crossing the border from Turkey.

In a statement released Friday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said, “I remain convinced that a lasting defeat of ISIL in Syria will depend in part on the success of local, motivated, and capable ground forces,” and the changes in the program “will, over time, increase the combat power of counter-ISIL forces in Syria.”

But many on Capitol Hill aren’t quite so sure. Sen. Chris Murphy, (D-Conn.) a longtime critic of the program, called it “deeply problematic” on Friday, saying that “an effective campaign to degrade ISIL does not require the U.S. to become dangerously intertwined into the Syrian civil war.”

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Friday she finds it “somewhat encouraging” that the Obama administration has acknowledged the failures of the program. Still, she said, “it remains clear we have lost valuable time and opportunities waiting to address this situation. I fear our options moving forward are increasingly limited.”

Photo credit: OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/Getty Images

A SHORT HISTORY OF U.S. BOMBING OF CIVILIAN FACILITIES

Jon Schwarz-Oct. 7 2015

On October 3, a U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières in Kunduz, Afghanistan, partially destroying it. Twelve staff members and 10 patients, including three children, were killed, and 37 people were injured. According to MSF, the U.S. had previously been informed of the hospital’s precise location, and the attack continued for 30 minutes after staff members desperately called the U.S. military.

A Short History of u.s. Bombing of Civilian Facilities by Thavam Ratna

North Korea 'ready to respond' to US as it marks 70th anniversary of ruling party

Leader Kim Jong-un receives salutes from honorary guards before inspecting thousands of soldiers taking part in the display

Kim Jong-un: North Korea is ready to fight US

Associated Press-Saturday 10 October 2015 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared on Saturday that his country was ready to stand up to any threat posed by the United States, as he spoke at a lavish military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the North’s ruling party and trumpet his third-generation leadership.

The parade, which featured thousands of goose-stepping soldiers and military hardware including missiles and drones mounted on trucks, kicked off what is expected to be one of the North’s biggest celebrations ever – an attention-getting event that is the government’s way of showing the world and its own people that the Kim dynasty is firmly in control and its military a power to be reckoned with.

Kim walked down a red carpet and saluted his honour guard before walking up to a podium to deliver a speech laced with the fiery rhetoric that is commonly used by the communist regime.

“Our revolutionary force is ready to respond to any kind of war the American imperialists want,” said Kim, flanked by visiting Chinese official Liu Yunshan and senior North Korean officials.

“Through the line of Songun [military-first] politics, our Korean People’s Army has become the strongest revolutionary force and our country has become an impenetrable fortress and a global military power,” he said, interrupted by applause several times.

Kim didn’t specifically comment on North Korea’s nuclear or long-range missile capabilities and also didn’t have anything to say about relations with South Korea. He spent most of his speech arguing that the party has been successfully improving the lives of the North Korean people in face of external threats since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and declared it will continue to do so.

In a military parade that followed, tanks, armored vehicles, rocket launchers and a variety of missiles mounted on trucks rolled by, while military planes flew in formation above the square, forming the symbol of the Workers’ Party of Korea – a hammer, brush and sickle. Another group of planes formed the number 70 in the sky.

An expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis, a security think tank in Seoul, Jin Moo-kim, said North Korea revealed a new 300mm rocket launcher. It also displayed drones and a KN-08 ballistic missile, with an estimated range of 6,200 miles that the country had shown off in 2012. Kim said the presence of Liu might have prevented the North from revealing its most provocative weapons.

Thousands of civilian marchers followed, holding coloured cards to spell out Kim’s name, and he responded by waving to the crowd and holding the hand of Liu, the visiting Chinese official.

The guest list was less impressive.

While no world leaders attended – North Korean ally China sent Liu, the Communist Party’s No5 leader, not its head of state, or even vice-premier – the normally isolated and quiet North Korean capital has been flooded by tourists, international media and delegations ranging from ethnic Koreans living abroad to obscure Russian and Mongolian groups dedicated to studying North Korea’s political ideas.

As the clock struck midnight on Friday, Kim marked the anniversary by paying respect to both his late father and grandfather at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA.

Even though North Korean officials did not divulge details of the celebration plans in advance, open-source satellite imagery has been monitoring large-scale troop activities at the Mirim military air base in Pyongyang. Masses of Pyongyang citizens have for weeks been out in public plazas across the city practicing their roles for a torchlight parade in the evening.

For the finale, a stage was set up on a river running through central Pyongyang for a late-night concert featuring North Korea’s most popular musical group, the all-female Moranbong Band. Tickets for foreigners hoping to attend the concert were going for $114 a pop.

The spectacle promised to be the most elaborate since Kim assumed power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, in late 2011.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Liu told Kim that China was willing to work with North Korea for a quick resumption of six-party nuclear talks. The talks, which aim to end the North’s nuclear program and also involve the US, South Korea, Russia and Japan, stalled seven years ago.

Some foreign analysts believe the particularly strong emphasis this year on making the anniversary of the party’s foundation such a lavish fete is a sign that Kim is trying to build up his own stature along with that of the party relative to the military.

 Vehicles lined up beside the Taedong river before the start of the parade. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Though Kim’s leadership and both institutions are strong, the power balance among various government organs in North Korea is a delicate one and maintaining that balance is a key to keeping Kim’s regime solid and unchallenged.

North Korea maintains its “military-first policy,” which it says is necessary to counter threats from South Korea and the United States, but officials have recently stressed the role of the party in improving the standard of living for the people, who are increasingly aware of how far they lag behind their affluent cousins south of the Demilitarized Zone and in economic giant China.

In the run-up to this year’s anniversary, large-scale construction and development projects have been launched and hailed with great fanfare in the state media.

The projects include new hydropower plants and high-rise apartments, but it is unclear how much of North Korea’s limited financial resources have been put into improving the lot of the majority of its citizens who are not fortunate enough to live in the relatively developed and affluent capital.

Escalation of US Military Involvement in Ukraine. Vietnam 2.0 in the Making?

By John Stanton-October 06, 2015

How involved is the US national security machinery in Ukraine? The answer to that question is contained in a sampling of information available from the US embassy in Ukraine and the Pentagon’s contract awards announcements.  Other publications (links provided below) have also been consulted.

Vietnam 2.0 is in the making in Ukraine. The US civil-military establishment, Republicans and Democrats alike, want a shooting war with Russia, even though it was the US that caused the carnage in Ukraine, not the Russians. Yet, that inconvenient reality has been nullified by the US propaganda campaign which, of course, the Russians have responded to with their own.

Surreptitious escalation of US military involvement in Ukraine is the order of the day.  Consider this comment from US Senator Jack Reid (Democrat): “One step that should be explored, he said, is taking Ukrainian forces outside the country and training them on the provided weapon systems, “so they’re ready.”  “Second is the possibility of transferring some of these systems from other countries into Ukraine, which doesn’t raise quite the visibility of the transfer,” he said.  “And then there’s the possibility of taking some of our systems and beginning to…deploy them to training areas particularly so that they can train on them and have them ready to move into areas of conflict,” he said… He also said Ukraine has an extensive military industrial base that could be used to produce the weapons, but that would take time and financing.”

It’s becoming apparent that the US Army, US Air Force and US Navy want, respectively, the 21st Century versions of the Battle of Prokhorovka, Hiroshima/Nagasaki, and the Battle of Midway. Maybe the plan is to make proxy wars so hot that world war will follow with Russia (and China). It’s doubtful that the US Marines want another Iwo Jima or that US special operations warfighters want to be dropped into no-win situations (they are smarter than that).

No matter, Americans shoot up war like a junkie shoots up heroin. Destroying Syria and Iraq as functioning states did not provide the high, nor did the War on Terror, or the War on Drugs, or Afghanistan (10,000 US soldiers remain there). The next score needs to be higher-dose, longer lasting, “real man, you know what I’m saying.”

California-Ukraine (US Embassy website)

So California is Ukraine’s buddy? Just great.

California–Ukraine State Partnership Program: SPP Mission is to promote democracy, free market economies and military reform, by establishing long-term institutional affiliations and personal relationships at the state and local level. The California – Ukraine partnership directly supports both the goals of the US Ambassador to Ukraine and Commander, U.S. European Command. As part of the Governor’s Cabinet, the Adjutant General of the California National Guard facilitates partnerships throughout the state and local governments in California as well as the private sector.  Recently, a tuberculosis clinic in Odessa was renovated with funds provided by this office

Defense Cooperation between US and Ukraine (US Embassy website)

Joint Contact Team Program-Ukraine (JCTP). The mission of the Joint Contact Team Program (JCTP) is to deploy US military teams to Ukraine to acquaint the Ukrainian military with various aspects of western militaries. The program was developed in 1992 to assist the armed forces of Ukraine, as the military of one of the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe.

International Military Education and Training (IMET): The IMET Program provides training in the United States to selected foreign military and related civilian personnel. The overarching security cooperation objective is to promote stability, democratization, military professionalism, and closer relationships with NATO.

Foreign Military Sales/Foreign Military Financing: The FMF program assists the Ukrainian military in conducting defense reform by providing funds for Ukraine to purchase US military equipment and services.

Defense Contracts for Ukraine (Pentagon Website)

September 2015: Aerovironment Inc., Monrovia, California, was awarded a $9,049,306 firm-fixed-price foreign military sales contract (Ukraine) for the small UAV RQ-11B Raven analogy system.  Work will be performed in Monrovia, California, with an estimated completion date of May 11, 2016.  One bid was solicited with one received.  Fiscal 2010 other procurement funds in the amount of $9,049,306 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Natick, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (W911QY-15-C-0102).

September 2015: Harris Corp., Rochester, New York, was awarded a $65,669,054 firm-fixed-price, incrementally funded foreign military sales contract (Ukraine, Lithuania, Lebanon, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia) with options for Harris Radio Systems, (multiband (AN/PRC-152A: AN/PRC-117G), high frequency (HF) and dismount), antennas, BMS software, data terminals, touch tablets, field service representatives, and training for installation, operation and maintenance.  Work will be performed in Rochester, New York, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2016.  One bid was solicited with one received.  Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $38,950,534 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen, Maryland, is the contracting activity (W91CRB-15-C-5029).

July 2015: AM General, South Bend, Indiana was awarded a $372,936,476 firm-fixed-price multi-year foreign military sales contract (Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Ukraine, Tunisia) with options for 2,082 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs) and contractor unique spare parts. Work will be performed in Mishawaka, Indiana with an estimated completion date of April 29, 2016. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Fiscal 2015 other procurement funds in the amount of $372,936,476 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command is the contracting activity (W56HZV-15-C-0155).

Training the Ukrainian Military

July 2015 (from Defense Industry Daily): Ukraine will receive external link an additional $500 million from the US government to finance the training of Ukrainian military personnel. The Obama administration modestly increased US training to include Defense Ministry forces in June external link, after US personnel were first deployed to train Interior Ministry troops in April. The announcement comes several days after a report external link published by the Center for New American Security identified several strategic deficiencies with US policy on defense assistance.

Propaganda Generates Profits: Bellicose Neighbor=Joint Procurement

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are discussing external link the possibility of collaborative defense procurement. The NATO states border an increasingly belligerent Russia and may also seek to join the development activities of the Nordic Defence Cooperation’s external link (NORDEFCO) Military Cooperation Areas in a bid to maximize rising defense investment. Estonia already meets NATO’s target defense spend of 2% GDP, with Latvia and Lithuania planning to meet this target by 2020. Lower per-unit costs through larger equipment buys are likely to drive joint investment, with air defense systems specifically mentioned. The US and Poland have been keen to develop the Baltics’ air defense systems, with Sweden also planning a revamp of its capabilities.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer. Reach him at captainkong22@gmail.com