Presidential media mud plastered mud slinging villain identified !

(Lanka-e-News -31.Oct.2015, 4.30PM)  In a country it is  the presidential media division that should be exemplary and stand out from the rest  when it comes to maintaining its reputation . However in Sri Lanka it is this very division that seems to be least concerned about that reputation, with mud plastered ‘buffaloes’ which were wallowing in the mud now ruling the roost ,based on reports reaching Lanka e news. 

From the moment the president appointed a most unqualified , inexperienced and inefficient Director General to the  media division owing to pressures brought to bear on him by Kili Maharaja its entire future was plunged into doom and gloom. One instance of the many to illustrate the debacles that were  faced is : at a time when the president was stymied in his efforts  to express and explain to the media , these buffaloes that wallow in mud went into hiding under it, instead of coming forward and speaking in defense.

The latest drama now staged by the presidential division using the play acting talents of those in that division is, mudslinging at individuals one by one. 

What is most reprehensible and abominable  in this drama with key roles played by these mud plastered castrated buffaloes is : the mudslinging is directed at those patriotic individuals who were contributory to the ousting of the corrupt brutal Rajapakse  regime. Their first play acting was aimed at slinging mud at the Director of the social media chain of the presidential media division who resigned. Now their venom and vengeance are turned against a media division chief of the UNP, and a media expert who committed himself to enthroning this government and dethroning the corrupt brutal Rajapkse regime , even risking his life. 

Unfortunately for a (madakariya)  mud plastered ‘buffalo’, and fortunately for the masses   despite his hiding himself under  mud , he has been identified by Lanka e news. The name of this villain is Sameera Silva. Now that this mud plastered scoundrel is identified , may we warn , it is best he stops these sordid activities , and uses his time and energy towards the benefit of society , and those who are patriotically  working for its good , rather than against them, for presidents only come and go, and moreover younger brothers of presidents can come under an axe attack suddenly and die prematurely. In the circumstances if Sameera Silva is trying to be ‘Villain Silva’ in order to attack  others under the evil influence of president and his brother,and basking in their vainglory, his days are numbered , and his fate is writ large on the wall. 

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by     (2015-10-31 11:33:30)

Marapana and Kiriella should resign after the Brutal Attack on Female Students

Oct 31, 2015

The Brutal attack on the Higher National Diploma inAccountancy by the Yahaplana Government sent shock waves around the country and the international community.

The immediate reaction was that there was no difference between MS and the MR government.

The NFF MP Jayantha Samaraweera was quick to say that this government is trying to suppress the demands of the people with force. The problem with this government is that the wrong people who have no clue of a particular subject is given important positions.

Lukshman Kiriella is the Minister of Higher Education and Highways. What is the connection between these two ministries? What does Kiriella know about higher education and furthermore he does not spent sufficient time on the more important issue, our future knowledge capital of our country.

His solution seems to be to unleash the police to attack female students and hoping the problem will go away. Marapana and Kiriella must be not having Children of their own to order such a brutal attack on female students.

Both have gone to decent schools in the city, won't they taught the values that their schools so proudly protect? As UNP sources say Thilak Marapana has no moral right to be in Parliament, he deserted the UNP for years and even appeared for the notorious Nissanka Senadthipathy for a big fee, was put on the national list by the Prime Minister ignoring many others who stood by the party for years.

On the other hand Minister Kiriella has no time for higher education, given that he is holding a portfolio that half of the cabinet wants to get hold of for obvious reasons.

This attack is a shame on the Prime Minister and his wife, a university Professor who talks about women's rights all over the place.

Good for her to teach her husband and his colleagues how to treat women decently, before she preaches on the academic stage about women's rights.

The way this government is going it won't be too long before people start saying there is no difference between the Rajapakse and the Sirisena Government.

It is time for FUTA to get tough with the government and get them to address their issues without resorting to brutal force. If not they have only themselves to blame.

If Sarath Amunugame' was the Minister like before, nothing like this would have been tolerated. President Sirisena without being a hapless bystander should intervene.

As MP Badula Gunawardana MP pointed out recently there is something radically wrong with this UNP government, that he cannot understand. They have simply got lost.

Very Disappointing Sir.

For Good Governance

Israelis execute injured Palestinian — video and eyewitness

Mourners in Qabatiya, near the West Bank city of Jenin, carry the body of Ahmad Kamil, shot dead by Israeli forces after allegedly trying to stab one of them at Jalameh checkpoint, during his funeral on 30 October.

Nedal EshtayahAPA images

Warning: This article contains graphic video and images of violence.

Charlotte Silver and Ali Abunimah-30 October 2015
The Electronic Intifada
Israeli occupation forces executed an injured Palestinian in Hebron on Thursday, an eyewitness has told The Electronic Intifada.

Israelis Execute Injured Palestinian — Video and Eyewitness by Thavam Ratna

Russian jet carrying 224 people crashes in Sinai. No survivors found.

A Russian-operated Airbus A321 carrying more than 220 passengers and crew crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday, Oct. 31. (Reuters)

By Erin Cunningham-October 31 at 12:49 PM

CAIRO — A Russian airliner carrying more than 200 passengers crashed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday morning, Egypt’s government and Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency said. No one survived the crash, the Russian Embassy in Egypt said.

Egyptian military planes first spotted the wreckage in a mountainous area in the central part of Sinai, about 180 miles east of Cairo, Egypt’s cabinet said in a statement Saturday. Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Hossam Kamel said the cause of the crash had not been determined, according to the statement.

An Islamic State affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula claims to have brought down the plane in a statement circulated online on Saturday. The statement did not specify how the militants claimed to have caused the plane to crash.

The northern part of Sinai is rife with militancy, and local jihadists have fired on Egyptian aircraft with surface-to-air missiles in the past. But Egyptian officials and aviation experts said on Saturday that there was no indication the Russian airliner had been shot down.

And Russian officials say they have opened an investigation for gross negligence and safety violations that may have led to the crash. In a statement released Saturday afternoon, Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was searching the Moscow offices of the airline, Kogalymavia, which flies under the brand Metrojet, and the airline’s facilities at Domodedovo International Airport. Airline employees would be interviewed and the quality of fuel used by Metrojet on its flights would be looked at.

Still, Air France-KLM and German carrier Lufthansa both said Saturday that they would avoid flying over the Sinai Peninsula due to the unclear circumstances of the crash, the Reuters news agency reported.

The Metrojet airliner “disappeared” over Sinai shortly after takeoff, the Russian aviation agency said. Egyptian authorities said the plane was in the air for about 25 minutes and had reached 31,000 feet before it went down just after sunrise.

The Airbus A320 was carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members, and had taken off from the airport at Egypt’s Red Sea resort at Sharm al-Sheikh. The plane was bound for St. Petersburg, according to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Civil Aviation carried by the official state news agency.

Airbus said in a statement that the plane was built in 1997 and had accumulated more than 56,000 hours of flight time. Metrojet acquired the plane in 2012, the statement said.

Fifteen bodies had been recovered and were being airlifted to Zeinhom Morgue in Cairo. According to the cabinet, the passengers included three Ukrainian nationals, 138 women, 62 men and 17 children.

The Egyptian prime minister’s office said it was forming an emergency crisis cell to “follow up on the situation.” An employee of the ministry reached by telephone said there was an order not to respond to inquiries from journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “his deepest condolences” to the families of those who died in the crash, the Kremlin press service reported.

A Russian aircraft carrying 224 people crashed about 20 minutes after taking off. There were no survivors.

Putin ordered that Russian rescue workers be sent to the site of the crash and that a government review of the crash be established in Moscow. Putin also spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi by telephone, a statement from Sissi’s office said on Saturday. The two leaders agreed to coordinate investigation efforts, the statement said.

Russian tourists flock to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula every year, where temperatures remain warm throughout the winter. Tourism is one of Egypt’s main sources of foreign currency, but the industry has suffered from political violence and turmoil in the wake of the Arab Spring. Earlier this year, Egyptian Tourism Minister Khaled Abbas Rami said about 3 million Russian tourists traveled to Egypt in 2014, mostly to visit resorts along the Red Sea.

The Russian charter flight crashed in the area of al-Hasana, south of the North Sinai city of al-Arish, Egypt’s state-run MENA news agency said. The usual duration for the flight is 4 hours 42 minutes, authorities said.

Heba Habib in Cairo and Andrew Roth in Moscow contributed to this report.

Dozens killed in fireworks accident at Bucharest nightclub

At least 27 people died and another 180 were injured after pyrotechnic display sparked blaze during concert at Colectiv venue in Romanian capital

Emergency services work outside the Colectiv nightclub in Bucharest where at least 26 people died after an explosion. Photograph: Reuters

Kit Gillet in Bucharest and agencies-Saturday 31 October 2015
A fire sparked by stage pyrotechnics at a nightclub in the centre of Bucharest has left at least 27 people dead and 180 injured.

There were 300 to 400 people in the Colectiv Club in the Romanian capital on Friday night. Some remained unaccounted for on Saturday morning.

According to one witness speaking to Romanian media, a fireworks display around the stage set nearby objects alight. Another witness told Reuters that a pillar and the club’s ceiling caught fire, then there was an explosion and heavy smoke.

“There was a stampede of people running out of the club,” a man who escaped without shoes told Reuters.

A young woman who sustained minor injuries described the club bursting into flames. “In five seconds the whole ceiling was all on fire. In the next three we rushed to a single door,” she told television station Antena 3.

The victims were admitted to 10 hospitals in Bucharest, said Raed Arafat, the head of emergency response at the interior ministry.

“The situation is slowly stabilising ... we have many people with burns, intoxicated with smoke and people squashed,” he said.

Arafat, who was visiting each of the hospitals to console families and check on the situation, told the Guardian: “This incident is unprecedented in Romania. All of the wounded have now been identified, and those who died are being examined by the medical examiners.”

Media reported that clubgoers initially thought the flames were part of the show and did not immediately react.

Victor Ionescu, who was at the club with his girlfriend, told Antena 3 TV by telephone that there were huge flames.

“People were fainting, they were fainting from the smoke. It was total chaos, people were trampling on each other,” he said.

A young man filmed by Antena 3 said that fire engulfed clubgoers, burning their skin and hair.

Some people were initially treated on the streets outside and others taken to hospitals. Two of the band playing on stage were said to be in a critical condition.

Early on Saturday morning at one of the main hospitals, the Universitar, crowds of poeple waited for news about friends and loved ones. Inside orderlies call the names of families to come forward.

A man in his mid-20s waiting at the hospital told the Guardian: “I found out two of my colleagues were there tonight. They are doing badly. They are currently in intensive care, with severe burns.

“Doctors keep giving numbers of how badly burnt they are but it is hard to tell. I wasn’t there but live nearby and heard the fire trucks and ambulances. I checked with my friends and colleagues to make sure everyone was all right and found out about the two.

“Around 10 of us have come down to the hospital. The families have seen them but now we won’t know more until the morning. Tomorrow is probably going to be the hardest day.”

Romanian media reported that a code red was declared, with off-duty doctors and nurses at nearby hospitals being called in to help deal with the emergency.

Romania’s health minister, Nicolae Bănicioiu, said that “every effort is being made to save those who can be saved. The victims are being transported to emergency hospitals. Doctors and nurses have been called in from home, ventilators have been redistributed from other hospitals.”

Many of the victims did not have identification on them. The government set up a hotline for people who might have known someone at the club.

President Klaus Iohannis said he was shocked by the deaths. “It is a very sad day for all of us, for our nation and for me personally,” he said in a statement published online. “I am deeply grieved by the tragic events that happened this evening.

“I assure the families affected by this terrible event of the full support of those involved in the rescue operations and I ask them to trust that the responsible institutions are doing their best to limit the effects of the catastrophe. I urge you all to stand together by the grieving families and prove our solidarity and compassion.”

One line of inquiry being pursued by investigators, according to local media, was whether the club had the necessary fire safety permits.

Romania’s interior minister, Gabriel Oprea, went to the nightclub, along with emergency services. An emergency meeting of cabinet ministers was set for early on Saturday.

The British Foreign Office said it was not aware of any Britons involved in the incident.

Several major nightclub fires have been blamed on pyrotechnics igniting foam used for soundproofing, including The Station nightclub fire in the US that killed 100 people in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in 2003 and the Kiss nightclub fire in Brazil, which killed 242 people in the university town of Santa Maria in 2013.

Kashmiri Muslims struggle for freedom 

Continues unabated

by Latheef Farook :    3o/10/2015

Kashmir, bleeding under Indian atrocities, has often been described as “Emerald set in Pearls”, “Jewel of Asia “and “Heaven on Earth”. Kashmir’s enchanting beauties provoked the famous Persian poet Urfi Shiraz to say that” if roasted fowl is brought to Kashmir not only shall it come to life, but shall be on its wings again”.

Kashmiri Muslims Struggle for Freedom Continues Unabated by Thavam Ratna

Factcheck Q&A: Kids Company

Factcheck Q&A: Kids Company

By Georgia Graham-October 29, 2015

What is Kids Company?

Founded in 1996 it helped children affected by poverty, abuse and trauma in London and Bristol. It was founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh. Originally a single drop-in centre in Camberwell.

By 2015 the charity claimed to have been reaching 36,000 children, however this number is disputed.

Factcheck Q&A Kids Company by Thavam Ratna

Canada pension fund ready to invest $2 billion in Mumbai housing - official

 

Maharashtra's chief minister Devendra Fadnavis speaks to his staff at his official residence in Mumbai, India, July 9, 2015.

Sat Oct 31, 2015 

Canada's pension fund is ready to invest $2 billion in affordable housing in Mumbai, a top Indian official said, in a move that would boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of providing cheap housing to millions of people.

"A week back, the Canadian ambassador... informed me that the Canadian pension fund is ready to invest $2 billion in Mumbai for affordable housing," Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra, told reporters.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board opened an office in Mumbai this month and has already committed to invest more than $2 billion in India.

(Reporting by Suvashree Dey Chodhury; Writing by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Can Burma Save Buddhism From the Politicians?

An unholy alliance between the government and extremist Buddhist monks is threatening to derail the transition to democracy.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL-OCTOBER 30, 2015

There’s a specter haunting Burma. It’s the specter of politicized religion.

On Nov 8, Burmese voters will head to the polls to choose members of a new parliament. It will be the country’s first national election since it started opening up four years ago, and the first relatively democratic one in 25 years.

Preparations for the poll have been rocky. Election monitors are alreadywarning about cases of intimidation, sporadic violence, flawed voter lists, and a whole host of other concerns. And even if the authorities get those kinks straightened out, there’s a broader problem: the entire process is taking place in an environment that has been skewed against the opposition. The ground rules for the vote are based on a constitution created under the auspices of the then-ruling military junta back in 2008. The constitution stipulates, for example, that at last a quarter of the members of the lower house have to be appointed by the military. That means that the old political establishment is putting a pretty heavy thumb on the political scales even before the vote gets under way.

All of this poses serious risks to Burma’s nascent political transition. Yet even these problems pale into insignificance compared with the biggest threat of all: the cynical exploitation of powerful religious sentiments for political ends.

Earlier this month, the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha, staged a political rally in a sports arena in Rangoon, the country’s biggest city. At least 10,000 Buddhist monks, nuns, and their supporters crowded in to celebrate their recent success at lobbying parliament to pass four discriminatory laws aimed at the country’s minority Muslims. (One of the measures gives the government the power to decide when Muslim women are allowed to have children.) “These laws are needed by our country and our people and to protect them,”declared Bhadanta Tilawka Bivamsa, the head of the organization. “We want to urge people to protect them and stay away from those who want to destroy them.”

Ma Ba Tha’s most prominent member, the monk Ashin Wirathu, is famous for describing the average Burmese Muslim as a “mad dog” intent on destroying Buddhists.When a United Nations representative dared to challenge his policies earlier this year, he called her a “whore.”

It’s bad enough that Burma has such a vocal extremist Buddhist movement. But many countries — perhaps all — have some religious extremism. What’s really ominous is how effective this movement has been at ingratiating itself with the authorities — and how willing they have been to exploit it. Ma Ba Tha staged its stadium rally with the explicit support of the authorities, who, in a virtually unprecedented move, broadcast the proceedings on state TV (a favor never extended to any other private organization in recent memory). The group was able to hold their event in the arena thanks to the personal intercession of President Thein Sein, who granted them special permission to use the facility. Small wonder that Wirathu wound up the proceedings by giving his endorsement to the president.

Over the past few years Ma Ba Tha has enthusiastically intervened in Burmese politics, and with time it’s become increasingly clear that the group is in close cahoots with the government. Lately Ma Ba Tha activists have been putting opposition candidates on the spot by publicly quizzing them on their support for the laws the group has promoted. Perhaps it’s an odd coincidence, but it turns out that pretty much all of the candidates the group favors come from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which consists mainly of military officers or their friends. Ma Ba Tha members have been actively campaigning for its members.

It’s gotten so bad that, last month, nine Western embassies felt compelled to issue an unprecedented joint statement expressing concern “about the prospect of religion being used as a tool of division and conflict during the campaign season.”

For their part, USDP members and government officials have repeatedly attacked opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) by accusing them of undue sympathy for Muslims. (The NLD, clearly on the defensive, has refrained from including Muslims, who make up between 4 and 10 percent of the population, in its candidate list. The USDP list doesn’t have any either, needless to say.) The powerful head of the military has urged voters to choose “correct candidates” who can “protect race and religion” and who are free of foreign influence — a coded reference for Aung San Suu Kyi, whose late husband was a UK citizen, and whose children hold British passports).

This trend towards the exploitation of religion for political ends is problematic for several reasons. First, it’s illegal. The current constitution, as flawed as it is, explicitly prohibits religious-based discrimination and contains several provisions that clearly outlaw direct religious interference in politics. The government has made it clear that it regards the 2008 constitution as sacrosanct, and has strongly resisted the opposition’s campaign to change it. Yet at the same time the government blithely ignores the very same ground rules it professes to defend.

Second, the conflation of officialdom and religious extremism lowers the bar for state-sanctioned violence against religious minorities. Tens of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have already been interned in squalid detention camps since an outbreak of sectarian violence three years ago. The continuing drumbeat of racist invective against them has prompted international organizations to warn of the risk of outright genocide.

Third, Ma Ba Tha’s coziness with the government poses a palpable risk that Burma could morph into a sort of religious dictatorship. If current trends continue, it’s easy to imagine a scenario in which the more extreme parts of the Buddhist religious establishment gain real political power. This could provide the pretext for a new form of autocracy (based on a coalition between the old establishment’s nationalists and the religious populism of the extremist monks). That, in turn, could enflame internal conflict in a country that is trying to emerge from the world’s longest-running civil war.

What we do know, from theocracies past and present, is that the fusion of government and faith can ultimately be damaging to both.The worst way to protect religion is by installing it in the halls of power.

There’s still a chance this movement will burn itself out. Some anecdotal evidence suggests that may Burmese are starting to question its coziness with the same regime that oppressed them for so long.

Burma has a rich and diverse religious tradition, and Burmese Buddhism is at its heart. I may be an ignorant foreigner, but I see Buddhism as a vibrant and beautiful faith – not least because it preaches profound respect for all living things. Let’s hope that tolerance wins.

In the photo, Ashin Wirathu attends a meeting of Buddhist monks at a monastery outside Rangoon on June 27, 2013. Buddhist monks met in Yangon to discuss the proposed nationality law to restrict marriages between Buddhist women and men of other faiths.

Photo credit: Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images

Apple and China: Is the bittersweet love affair over or just beginning?

by Graham Land-31st October 2015 

CUPERTINO, California-based Apple Inc. is the embodiment of the corporate American Dream. What began in the mid 1970s, as a quirky personal computer company, is now the world’s largest publicly traded corporation in terms of market capitalization, the largest music retailer and the largest tech firm in terms of assets (though Samsung generates more revenue).

Apple and China is the Bittersweet Love Affair Over or Just Beginning by Thavam Ratna

3 Ways to Get Rid of Unwanted Facial Hair Naturally Without Any Chemicals or Pain

Womans Vibe

October 29 at 7:31pm

Most women would only consider painful and expensive ways of removing facial hair, as they are mostly unaware of natural ways to obtain the desired results. Certainly, some methods such as laser treatment are very effective, however, there is always a chance of side effects, not to mention the high cost of undergoing such a treatment.

Here we would like to offer some natural and traditional ways of removing facial hairs at home. These will be much cheaper to you and the effects should be equally good. There are ways to remove the hair from your face permanently by doing it naturally.

BAKING SODA

This kind of treatment must be done before going to bed.

Add 1 tbs of baking soda in 200 ml of boiling water, mix in and leave to cool. Soak in this tincture a little piece of cotton or gauze, dry it a bit and put it on the place(s) where the unwanted hair grows. Stick into with a snippet and leave it all night.

In the morning, you can remove the wrapper, but be sure to put some nourishing cream on the problematic places.

After 2-3 treatments the result is positive: the facial hair will start to fall.

PHARMACY IODINE

To prepare this folk medicament you will need: 40 ml of 70% alcohol, 1.5 ml of ammonium, 2 ml of iodine, 10 ml of castor oil, hydroxide (10%).

Stir well all the necessary ingredients and leave until the mixture becomes colorless.

This composition should be scrubbed into the problematic areas in the morning and evening.

The hair will start to knuckle down after a few days of use. There are appeals that this is a return to permanently eliminate hair off your face.

NETTLE OIL

This recipe of the effective method has been known since long – time, it has been used by the beauties in the 17th century, and reads as follows:

On 3 tablespoons of nettle seed put 100 ml of any vegetable oil. Leave it for two weeks in a warm place.

Hereafter, strain it through strainer and place it into a glass jar and close the plug.

Put a piece of cotton or gauze soaked in nettle oil every evening, on the problematic parts of the face and leave it for ½ an hour (you can place a patch to secure it from falling). Later, wash the face with warm water and soap.

This kind of treatment is different for every woman. Do the treatment until the hair does not fall.

GARLIC

Scrub the problematic areas of the face with freshly juice of garlic, a few times a day.

Leave the juice of garlic on the face for ½ an hour, to achieve maximum results.

Later, wash it with warm water and apply cream.

No graves for Sri Lanka's disappeared

For relatives of the missing, All Souls' Day a reminder of unanswered questions

A Tamil woman cries after offering a floral tribute to relatives who disappeared during Sri Lanka's civil war. (Photo by Quintus Colombage)

• Quintus Colombage, Raddoluwa-Sri Lanka-October 30, 2015

S.M. Premasilee commemorates All Souls' Day but is not sure whether she should or not. That's because she doesn't know if her husband and two brothers are still alive or dead.

No Graves for Sri Lanka's Disappeared by Thavam Ratna

Panel report falls short of justice”

Oct 30, 2015

The Maxwell Paranagama Commission Report on the Sri Lankan conflict had fallen short of truthfulness and justice, said S.P. Udayakumar, Convenor of the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) and member of the Steering Committee of Pachai Thamizhagam here.

In a letter addressed to the General Secretary of the United Nations, Mr. Udayakumar said that the report appears to be a ploy to circumvent the charges of genocide of the Tamil minority in that country and to avert a possible international inquiry into the “war crimes” by the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces.

How to Counter Rape During War

By ELISABETH JEAN WOOD and DARA KAY COHENOCT. 28, 2015

Last year, at a global conference on sexual violence during war, many speakers agreed that the best way to deter such crimes was prosecution, and they called for more of it. But prosecutions are not enough. We must work to reduce sexual violence by armed groups during wars — not just act afterward.

First, we have to better understand it. Although rape during war is an ancient crime, it’s only in the last decade that social scientists have begun to study the patterns in which soldiers and rebels rape. The findings may be surprising: It’s not more likely to occur in particular regions, countries with greater gender inequality or during ethnic conflict; men may bevictims, and women can be perpetrators.

But while rape is tragically common in war zones, it’s not an inevitable part of war. In fact, we have found that a significant percentage of both armies and rebel groups in recent civil wars were, surprisingly, not reported to have raped civilians. That’s because commanders have options: They can choose to order, tolerate or prohibit rape. A deeper understanding of their behavior offers the hope of mitigating the problem.

Some commanders order rape as a military or political strategy, and specify the target. As the Soviet Army marched toward Germany in 1945, generals ordered soldiers to take revenge on all Germans, not just soldiers. Guatemalan soldiers systematically raped indigenous Mayans during the civil war from 1960 to 1996. Today, the Islamic State forces Yazidi women and girls into marriages and sexual slavery, which they wrongly believe is legitimate under Islamic law.

Other commanders, even when they don’t order rape, implicitly or explicitly tolerate it. And rape can become extremely widespread, although it’s not ordered. In these cases, we have found that the motivation to rape often comes from soldiers’ interactions with one another.

It may reflect soldiers’ frustration in fighting an enemy that is difficult to engage, as it was for those units of American troops who raped Vietnamese civilians in the 1960s. It can also be a form of self-pay, as it is for Congolese soldiers who say that they rape out of anger that their meager salary prevents them from achieving masculine ideals, like providing for a family. Gang rape, in particular, may allow soldiers who were conscripted by force to create bonds of friendship and loyalty, as male and female members of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone reported.

Finally, some commanders prohibit rape by their soldiers. In Sri Lanka the Tamil Tigers, while otherwise very violent during their insurgency in the 1980s and ’90s, closely monitored their troops and brutally punished the few soldiers who raped. In El Salvador in the 1980s, commanders of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front required their fighters to attend classes that emphasized that the group’s Marxist ideology prohibited the abuse of civilians. Rape was already infrequent, but after classes started, it virtually ended. Although both the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian militant groups commit other acts of violence, rape has been extremely rare in recent years.

Unlike a stray bullet, rape is always intentional — whether it’s ordered from above or emerges from below. That simple fact means there is a lot that military officers and leaders of insurgent groups, NGOs and government agencies can do to mitigate it.     FULL STORY>>>