How does harvesting wheat threaten Israel?

Um Hani’s granddaughter displays a photo showing her grandmother with another relative.Shadi Alqarra

Rami Almeghari- 10 May 2016

Zaina Attia al-Amour, known as Um Hani, was harvesting wheat when Israel attacked.

“I heard a loud explosion,” said her brother Tayseer, who was nearby. “I rushed to the farm after I saw smoke in the sky. When I found Um Hami she was covered in blood.”

Tayseer could tell almost immediately how his 54-year-old sister was killed. The Israeli military had fired shells towards the farm. Overcome by grief, Tayseer began screaming and kicking sand in the direction of the troops on the boundary between Gaza and present-day Israel.

Um Hani lived in the neighborhood of al-Foukhari in southern Gaza.

Its people have suffered enormously from Israeli aggression.

Al-Foukhari was one of the areas most severely affected by Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza. Some of the victims of that attack were trapped under the rubble of their homes for days before they could be dug out by rescue teams.

Forgiving

Um Hani displayed a great calm in that very stressful period. As the destruction occurred, her family had to evacuate their homes and seek shelter in a local school. With many people squeezed into its classrooms, it was not surprising that the atmosphere was tense.

“Um Hani helped resolve a row between myself and some other women in the school,” said her sister Fatima. “She was very forgiving and tolerant.”

The two sisters had recently talked about what should happen if Um Hani should die. Um Hani was especially concerned about a son of hers who had not yet married. She stated that what savings she had, including her cattle, should be used to provide her son with a home.

That doesn’t mean that Um Hani had a premonition of her death. The family had not been given any warning that Israel was about to attack her farm last week.

According to Israel’s version of events — reported without being questioned by the Western media — the latest attacks on Gaza were necessary to detect tunnels that Israel regards as threatening to its security. It is hard, though, to imagine what threat a small farmer like Um Hani could have posed to a state with as many weapons as Israel has in its arsenal.

Unimaginable

“We didn’t imagine that the Israeli troops would fire at the farm,” said Fatima. “They know who we are. We are local villagers, who farm our land.”

Um Hani had looked after the farm since her husband died more than a decade ago. She lived a simple life. When not working, she often watched news on a small TV set in her bedroom. She liked to be informed about current affairs. Her bedroom had little more than a mattress and a few cushions.

Earlier on the day she was killed, Um Hani had spent time playing with her grandson. She also joked with her son Ghazi about who exactly owned a new animal on the farm.

“She said to me, ‘Ghazi, the new sheep is mine, not yours,’” Ghazi recalled. “She was teasing us; she wanted to have fun. I didn’t know it was the last time I would see her smile.”

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

Jordanian arms fair hosts Assad's main 

Russian weapons supplier

State-owned arms supplier exhibits at SOFEX in Amman, which promises 'pioneering and ground-breaking' weaponry and equipment

An attendee at the SOFEX arms fair in Jordan gets familiar with a Swiss SIG 516 automatic weapon on display at the event (SOFEX) 
Members of the Jordanian armed forces inspect some Turkish automatic weapons on display at the SOFEX international arms fair in Amman, Jordan (SOFEX) 

Alex MacDonald-Tuesday 10 May 2016

A Jordanian arms fair is hosting a Russian company responsible for the vast majority of weapons supplied to the Syrian government during the five-year war that has left up to half a million dead.

The inclusion of the state-owned Rosonboronexport in an event which is held under the patronage of Jordan's King Abdullah, and chaired by his brother Prince Feisal Bin al-Hussein, stands in contrast to Jordan’s official policy in Syria, which is opposed to the government of Bashar al-Assad and supportive of the opposition.

The four-day Special Operations Forces Exhibition (SOFEX), which was opened on Monday by King Abdullah, takes place every two years in the Jordanian capital of Amman and regularly attracts thousands of visitors flocking to view wares offered by hundreds of defence and security companies.

A host of defence and security technologies are exhibited at the fair, which SOFEX says aims to attract “the world’s leading defence and ancillary companies to present pioneering and ground-breaking equipment, technologies and services in order to consolidate Jordan’s and SOFEX’s enviable position as the ‘Gateway to International Safety & Security'."

Coinciding with the event on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country's military technology had shown its worth during the conflict in Syria.

"Effectiveness and high quality of Russian weapons were clearly demonstrated in Syria... Aerospace Defence Forces and the Navy showed it in the best way," Putin said during a meeting in Sochi with military commanders and defence industry officials.

He acknowledged, however, that their had been some revelation of their "problems and shortcomings" as well.

The Russian state arms company said in a press release that its presence at the arms fair was designed to "showcase advanced Russian defence products designed to counter terrorism".

“At SOFEX, we have always put emphasis on weapons for special operations units," said Valery Varlamov, head of Rosoboronexport’s Security Department, who is leading the company delegation at SOFEX.

"However, given the scale of the regional challenges we face today and increased interest from foreign partners in Russian military hardware, we decided to expand the range of our exhibits. We offer weapons that will assuredly give the national security agencies an advantage over large, well-equipped and trained terrorist groups.”

Among the other events at SOFEX is the Warrior Competition during which a number of global teams take part in a “series of challenging events designed to test their skills and endurance” as a way of testing new equipment and setting a “yardstick for unit performance, and exposes strengths, and/or potential weaknesses, in both unit and individual skill sets,” according to the competition’s website.

Russia’s "Counter Terrorism - Team 1" unit was the winner of the competition in 2015, just beating China and Jordan’s teams.

Andrew Smith, an activist with the UK organisation Campaign Against the Arms Trade, slammed the SOFEX event as a platform for “human rights abusers”.

View image on Twitter

 Follow

jomana karadsheh ‎@JomanaCNN

1 of the main attractions at Special Forces Exhibition #Sofex#jordan was 10 meter tall & 1ton "parabot" #jo

7:32 AM - 10 May 2016

 
•  1616 Retweets
 
•  1212 likes

"Events like Sofex bring some of the worst human rights abusers together with the world's biggest arms companies,” he told Middle East Eye. “They are designed for one reason only, and that is to maximise arms sales to anyone who will buy them.

“Many of the companies in attendance have profited from the destruction of Yemen, Gaza, Syria and beyond."

The presence of a Russian state-back arms company is likely to confuse observers who have seen Jordan and Russia officially supporting opposing sides in the Syrian war. However Jordan's stance regarding the conflict appears to have shifted recently, with fears about Islamic State and other militant groups in Syria apparently a growing concern for Jordan's king, and Turkish officials accusing King Abdullah of siding with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. 

In March, the Russian Kommersant newspaper reported that the “marketing effect” from Russian military involvement in Syria could lead to contracts worth $6bn to $7bn for the country, with Algeria, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan all looking to buy new Russian technologies.

The Rosonboronexport statement said that the companies "hold meetings with representatives of other countries in the region to discuss the prospects for joint projects" in addition to discussing plans with its "Jordanian partners".

Jordan has been heavily involved in sending supplies to opposition groups in Syria and the kingdom has influence over rebel groups in southern Syria, such as the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army based around Daraa.

These groups have been repeatedly attacked by Russian jets and Russian-supplied equipment, with one Southern Front commander accusing the international community of giving Russia a "green light to kill the Syrian people as it pleases".

Russian air strikes have frequently struck targets in Deraa, with many civilians casualties.

View image on Twitter

 Follow

Christian Turner ‎@CombatChris1

Daraa : Demonstration in #Tafas city - "Anger for Aleppo" in protesting #Russia and #Assad's massacres. #حلب_تحترق

10:37 AM - 29 Apr 2016

 
•  77 Retweets
 
•  44 likes

More:
http://tass.ru/en/defense/874745

Rosonboronexport is a frequent presence on the international arms fair circuit - its presence at the Defence Security Equipment International (DSEi) event in London was slammed by British MPs and activists who accused the British government, which is also officially opposed to both Russia's actions in Ukraine and Syria, of "hypocrisy".

Nineteen British arms companies are present at SOFOX, alongside official delegations from China, Turkey, the US, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

Smith noted the irony that arms sales appeared to cross geopolitical divides and apparently disregard official state policies.

“The fact that the Russian state arms company will be sharing space with the Ukrainian delegation tells you everything you need to know,” he said of SOFEX.

Bangladesh hangs Islamist leader for rape and genocide in 1971 war

Moulana Motiur Rahman Nizami, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh's biggest Islamic Political Party and an alliance of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, waves to his supporters during a rally protesting against Western newspapers that published cartoons on...REUTERS/RAFIQUR RAHMAN

 BY RUMA PAUL-Wed May 11, 2016

Bangladesh hanged Islamist party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami on Wednesday for genocide and other crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, the law minister said, risking an angry reaction from his supporters.

Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at Dhaka Central jail just after midnight, Law Minister Anisul Haq told Reuters, after the Supreme Court rejected his final plea against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of top intellectuals during the war.

Nizami, 73, a former legislator and minister during opposition leader Khaleda Zia's last term as prime minister, was sentenced to death in 2014.

Hundreds of people flooded the streets of the capital, Dhaka, to cheer the execution. "We have waited for this day for a long 45 years," said war veteran Akram Hossain. "Justice has finally been served."

But the war crimes tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 has sparked violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians, including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, that it is victimizing Hasina's political opponents.

Thousands of extra police and border guards were deployed in Dhaka and other major cities. Previous similar judgments and executions have triggered violence that killed around 200 people, mainly Jamaat activists and police.

Five opposition politicians, including four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, have been executed since late 2013 after being convicted by the tribunal.

STRIKE CALL

Jamaat-e-Islami, which has said the charges against Nizami were baseless, called for a nationwide strike on Wednesday in protest. Calling Nizami a 'martyr', it said he was deprived of justice and made a victim of a political vendetta.

The U.S. State Department said that while it supported justice being carried out for the 1971 atrocities, it was vital that the trials of those accused are free, fair and transparent and conducted in accordance with international agreements.

"While we have seen limited progress in some cases, we still believe that further improvements to the ... process could ensure these proceedings meet domestic and international obligations," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said in a statement. "Until these obligations can be consistently met, we have concerns about proceeding with executions."

About three million people were killed, the government says, and thousands of women were raped during the 1971 war in which some factions, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, opposed the break from what was then called West Pakistan.

The party denies that its leaders committed any atrocities.

International human rights groups say the tribunal's procedures fall short of international standards. The government denies the accusations.

The execution comes as the Muslim-majority nation suffers a surge in militant violence in which atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers have been killed.

In April alone, five people, including a university teacher, two gay activists and a Hindu, were hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants.

International human rights groups say a climate of intolerance in Bangladeshi politics has both motivated and provided cover for perpetrators of crimes of religious hatred.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and James Dalgleish)

Sadiq Khan and Anne Hidalgo rebuke Donald Trump over Muslim ban

‘Mr Trump is so stupid,’ says Paris mayor on visit to meet new London counterpart
Anne Hidalgo and Sadiq Khan at St Pancras station in London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Ben Quinn-Tuesday 10 May 2016

The mayor of Paris has joined with her newly elected London counterpart, Sadiq Khan, in voicing a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump over his call for a ban on Muslims entering the US and his suggestions that an “exception” could be made in the case of Khan.

Standing alongside Khan at St Pancras railway station after arriving from Paris, Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday that people of all religions, including Catholics and Muslims, did not agree with the US presidential candidate, adding: “Mr Trump is so stupid, my God, my God.”

Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, said he hoped that Trump looked at the lessons from last week’s London’s mayoral elections “and recognises that it’s possible to be western and Muslim and to be friends with a mayor of Paris as well”.

He added: “Our message to Donald Trump is: this is how you work together; this is the best of humanity; this is the best of the west.

“What’s really important is the similarities Paris and London have; they are the most diverse cities in the world. This is an example of the best of our cities – men, women, Muslims, Christians, mayors working together to work for our cities, solving the housing crisis, fixing the air quality, addressing the challenges of integration and making sure our cities are safe.”

The two mayors held talks at the station on a number of issues which were thought to include security. Khan later tweeted images of what he said would be the first of many meetings between the two.

 Follow

Sadiq Khan 

✔‎@SadiqKhan

Huge pleasure to welcome Mayor of Paris @Anne_Hidalgo to London for first of many meetings about our cities' futures

3:02 PM - 10 May 2016

 
•  506506 Retweets
 
•  1,0701,070 likes

Khan has previously said he would visit the US before this year’s presidential elections “in case Donald Trump wins” and Muslims were banned.

The London mayor subsequently rebuffed a suggestion by Trump that he could be an exception to the proposed ban. He said the ban was something that directly affected those closest to him and making an exception was not the answer.

New London mayor: ‘Donald Trump has ignorant views on Muslims’

Trump told the New York Times on Monday that he was happy to see Khan elected as mayor of London last week. “There will always be exceptions,” he said of his proposed temporary ban on Muslims.

Of Khan’s election, he said: “I think it’s a very good thing and I hope he does a very good job because, frankly. that would be very, very good. You lead by example, always lead by example. If he does a good job and, frankly, if he does a great job, that would be a terrific thing.”

A Fight Over Words Strains Burgeoning U.S.-Myanmar Ties

BY HENRY JOHNSON-MAY 10, 2016

The Obama administration has heralded Aung San Suu Kyi’s success in bringing democracy to Myanmar. But a dispute over how to describe the country’s persecuted Muslim population may lowball expectations for what she can achieve.

On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar Scot Marciel said he would refer to the Rohingya, the country’s widely persecuted ethnic and religious minority, by their name rather than referring to them as Bengali, as Aung San Suu Kyi prefers.

“Our position globally and our international practice is to recognize that communities anywhere have the ability to choose what they should be called … and we respect that,” Marciel said. He took up his post in Yangon only two weeks ago.


At the same press conference, Marciel said the United States is weighing its remaining sanctions against Myanmar, which he said had taken an “unintended” economic toll on the fledgling democracy.
Washington’s previous ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, also publicly spoke out in defense of the Rohingya, observing that the intolerance toward them “seemed to be within the society writ large.”
Aung San Suu Kyi assumed a leading political role after her National League for Democracy swept Myanmar’s elections last November. The party circumvented a law that prevented her from becoming president by appointing her “state advisor.” Still, she must balance her reforms with the interests of the military elite, which is constitutionally guaranteed 25 percent of parliamentary seats and control of the three most powerful ministries — Defense, Home Affairs, and Border Affairs.

Much of the country’s Buddhist majority views Myanmar’s estimated 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims as having emigrated illegally from Bangladesh. The government has corralled the Rohingya in squalid camps and denied them basic rights such as marriage and education unless they register for citizenship as Bengali migrants.

“We won’t use the term Rohingya because Rohingya are not recognized as among the 135 official ethnic groups,” Kyaw Zay Ya, a Foreign Ministry official and Aung San Suu Kyi’s spokesman, told the New York Times last week. “Our position is that using the controversial term does not support the national reconciliation process and solving problems.”

The government has disenfranchised Myanmar’s entire Rohingya population under a law that denies full citizenship to descendants of immigrants who arrived after British colonial rule began in 1824. Rohingya community leaders say they descended from Muslims who settled in western Myanmar long before then. Following a military coup in 1962, and after a series of Muslim secessionist movements, the Rohingya lost their status as an indigenous ethnic group.

Since then, Myanmar’s leaders have systematically persecuted the Rohingya, seemingly in an attempt to push them out of the country. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled since the early 1990s.

After a wave of sectarian violence in early 2015, hundreds, if not thousands, of Rohingya refugees died or were sold into forced labor while fleeing the country by boat, according to a report by Amnesty International.

Ambassador Marciel’s insistence on using the term Rohingya could clarify U.S. policy on the politically loaded word. In 2014, an unnamed State Department official told the Associated Press that Washington wants to ensure neutrality by using neither Rohingya nor Bengali as terms for Myanmar’s Muslim population. And when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and State Department human rights envoy Tom Malinowski visited Myanmar that summer, neither mentioned the Rohingya by that name.

Yet Aung San Suu Kyi’s refusal to help the Rohingya — or even acknowledge their plight — could strain her rosy relationship with the Obama administration. In a personal telephone call in November, President Barack Obama congratulated her on a landslide victory at the polls, and in January, his deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, boasted about U.S. policy in a place where “a little bit of presidential attention can make a difference.”

It’s looking like Rhodes may have spoken too soon.

Photo credit: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP/Getty Images

‘Executed’ North Korean army chief actually alive, holding senior posts

10th May 2016 

A FORMER North Korean military chief who was widely reported to have been executed in February is actually alive, according to Pyongyang’s state media.

The former high-ranking army chief was not only reported to be among the living but also in current possession of several new senior-level jobs, a stark contrast to information gathered by the South Korean government.

The news of Ri Yong Gil marks yet another blunder for South Korean intelligence officials, who have often gotten information wrong in tracking developments with their rival.

The latest revelation also points to difficulties even professional spies have in figuring out the goings-on in one of the world’s most closed-off governments.

Ri, who was considered one of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s most trusted aides, missed two key national meetings in February. Seoul intelligence officials later said Kim had him executed for corruption and other charges.

Seoul: N. Korean leader Kim Jong Un had his military chief executed

In February, a South Korean official said Monday Ri’s purported execution was part of Kim’s effort to bolster his grip on power.

The official did not reveal how the information was obtained and spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved confidential intelligence on North Korea.

South Korea has previously claimed that North Korea has staged 70 executions since current leader Kim Jong Un took power in late 2011.

In May last year, People’s Armed Forces Minister Hyon Yong Chol was killed by anti-aircraft gunfirefor talking back to Kim, complaining about his policies, and sleeping during a meeting.

Kim has removed key members of the old guard through a series of purges since taking over after the death of his father Kim Jong Il.

Additional reporting by Associated Press