Burma: Journalist killed while reporting on illegal logging in Monywa

A BURMESE (Myanmar) journalist has been killed while reporting on illegal logging in the north-west of the country, a government official said.

13th December 2016

The journalist, Soe Moe Tun, was a local-based reporter in Monywa in the Sagaing region where he was killed early Tuesday. He had worked for the Daily Eleven Newspaper, part of Eleven Media Group, since early 2015.

The government official, who declined to be named, did not immediately provide any details. The local police say they are investigating the death.

The Myanmar Press Council says threats against journalists are common and that five journalists have been killed in the country since 1999.

SEE ALSO: Euro supplier charged with selling illegal Burmese timber used on super-yachts

Eleven Media issued a statement urging the police and local government to quickly investigate the case.

According to The Myanmar Times, police said Soe’s body was found near a golf course in Monywa.

Police Lieutenant Thein Swe Myint was quoted by the local paper as saying that the victim was found with bruises and wounds on his head.

The authorities said the reporter was most likely murdered but had yet to identify a suspect or motive for the killing.

“The victim was a reporter from Eleven Media. We are still investigating the reason for the killing and what the motives are. Our police are at the site of the incident. The case will be handled by the Monywa Central police force,” Thein said.

SEE ALSO: Cambodia’s environmental activists: Internationally awarded, but murdered at home

Eleven Media’s Mandalay bureau chief and colleague of the victim, Ko Min Thant said the dead reporter had been working on a story on illegal logging activities and wood smuggling in the region.

“He was a quiet man and on good terms with everybody. Before he was killed, he had not written any articles which could cause serious trouble. In the past, he wrote about wood smugglers,” Ko said.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press

Israel dismisses 1,000 complaints of torture

Relatives of Arafat Jaradat mourn at his funeral in the occupied West Bank village of Sair, 25 February 2013. The father of two died after an interrogation at Israel’s Megiddo prison, and an autopsy found evidence he had been tortured.Oren ZivActiveStills

Ali Abunimah-12 December 2016

Israel has failed to launch a single criminal investigation for torture despite more than 1,000 complaints by victims since 2001.

Last week, the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz revealed that the justice ministry unit responsible for investigating torture complaints, known by its Hebrew acronym Mivtan, employs only one investigator.

Mivtan “has never launched a single criminal investigation against a Shin Bet agent, even though it has examined many hundreds of complaints,” Haaretz reports, referring to the Israeli secret police agency also commonly known as Shabak, the Israel Security Agency or the General Security Service.

The fact that there is only a single investigator means “it’s unlikely that complaints can be thoroughly examined,” Haaretz states. “In practice, then, the unit does not interfere with the Shin Bet’s work, even though complainants have reported harsh and prohibited forms of torture – including severe beatings and extensive sleep deprivation.”

From 2001 to 2008, nearly 600 complaints were submitted to Mivtan, but every single one was dismissed. During that period, the investigations were carried out by a Shin Bet employee, meaning in effect that the agency that was accused of torture was in charge of investigating itself.

In 2013, the justice ministry named an ostensibly more independent person to head the unit, but with no impact: none of the approximately 300 inquiries conducted since the appointment resulted in a single criminal investigation either, according to Haaretz.

The impunity extends to circumstances where there is strong evidence that torture led to the death of a detainee, such as Arafat Jaradat, a 33-year-old father of two who died after an Israeli interrogation in Megiddo prison in 2013.

Mivtan only reports the numbers of inquiries it conducts, not the total number of complaints received. However Efrat Bergman-Sapir, an attorney with the nonprofit group Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, told Haaretz her organization has submitted more than 1,000 complaints since 2001.

No exception for torture

In several cases cited by Haaretz, Mivtan ruled that the interrogation techniques used against Palestinians and in at least one instance against a Jewish Israeli were “necessary” – making such methods as sleep deprivation, beatings or tying a prisoner in painful positions legal under Israeli law.

In May, Israel sent a 13-member delegation to the 57th session of the Convention Against Torture at the United Nations to respond to questions about its record on human rights.

In his introductory remarks, Eviatar Manor, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, stated that “the composition of our delegation here today, reflects the importance we attribute to the UN HR [human rights] conventions.”

“They did all their efforts to come out as perfect as possible. They didn’t dismiss the questions, they were polite,” Andrea Barsony from Physicians for Human Rights–Israel told The Electronic Intifada at the time.

But after studying Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners, the UN Committee Against Torture issued an unsparing report.

The body recommended that Israel must “ensure that all instances and allegations of torture and ill-treatment are investigated promptly, effectively and impartially and that alleged perpetrators are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, punished with sentences that are commensurate with the gravity of their acts.”

Noting that the international prohibition on torture “is absolute and non-derogable and that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked by a State party to justify acts of torture,” the UN committee called on Israel to “completely remove necessity as a possible justification for torture.”

The facts and figures revealed by Haaretz indicate that Israel is making no serious effort to investigate and punish torture by its personnel, let alone to end it, while it undertakes an elaborate international campaign to burnish its human rights image.

Notably, Israel’s efforts to carve out a legal exception for torture, despite the absolute international prohibition, have been cited by the United States to justify its own use of torture.

Torture tolerance

The revelations about the scale of impunity Israeli interrogators enjoy come as a new survey from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has found that world opinion is becoming more tolerant of torture.

In September, the ICRC surveyed 17,000 people in the five nations that are members of the UN Security Council, as well as in Switzerland and in 10 countries “affected by war” – including Israel and Palestine (the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip).

Overall, 66 percent of those surveyed said that torture is “wrong,” while 27 percent said that it was “part of war.”

In Israel, just 44 percent said torture is wrong and 38 percent accepted it as part of war.

Perhaps reflecting the fact that they have lived under Israeli military occupation for decades, Palestinians were the most inured to torture, according to the survey: just 35 percent – the lowest for any country – said it was wrong, while 52 percent said it is part of war.

But when it came to specific circumstances for using torture, Israelis are among the most enthusiastic. 

When asked if a captured enemy combatant could be tortured to obtain important military information, just 25 percent of Israelis answered “no” while half said this would be acceptable.

By contrast, 53 percent of Palestinians rejected torturing an enemy combatant, while a third said it would be acceptable. According to the survey, Palestinians are more opposed to torture of an enemy combatant than the publics in the UK, US, Nigeria and Ukraine.

The ICRC found that internationally, tolerance for torture is rising. In a similar survey in 1999, 66 percent rejected torture of enemy combatants, compared with just 48 percent today.

But it is the public in Yemen – who for two years have been subjected to a catastrophic Saudi-led starvation siege and bloody bombing campaign directly assisted and armed by the United States – who today express the strongest rejection of torture: 100 percent oppose it in any circumstances.

Deal reached to evacuate rebels and civilians from Aleppo

Turkish intelligence and Russian military negotiate Syria deal allowing moderate rebels to flee to Idlib province
 Syrians leave a rebel-held area of Aleppo to go to the government-held side. Photograph: Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images

Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul-Tuesday 13 December 2016 

An agreement has been reached to evacuate civilians and opposition fighters from the besieged eastern districts of the city of Aleppo, a senior Turkish official and rebel officials have told the Guardian.

The deal will offer some hope of survival to the people of east Aleppo, who the United Nations said on Tuesday had endured a brutal “meltdown of humanity” as forces loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, rampaged through newly reclaimed districts reportedly carrying out extrajudicial killings.

The agreement, which has effectively ended the battle for Aleppo after four years of fighting, capped weeks of immense suffering and violence that have left residents in total despair and increasingly angry at the international community for abandoning them to their fate.

The reports of killings by the advancing regime forces, who are led by Iranian-backed militias, raised grave concerns over the fate of tens of thousands of civilians, doctors and activists who have remained in the shrinking rebel enclaves, and who faced death if they stayed there or being tortured and killed in regime-held areas if they fled over government lines .

Under the terms of the deal, negotiated between Turkish intelligence and the Russian military, a ceasefire went into effect at 6pm local time.

Soon afterwards, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N, Vitaly Churkin, said that fighting in the east of the city had ended. “According to the latest information that we received in the last hour, military actions in eastern Aleppo are over,” he told reporters in New York.

The senior Turkish official said Ankara and Moscow would act as guarantors of the agreement, which would allow “civilians and moderate rebels with light weapons” to leave Aleppo for Idlib province.

“Once they reach Idlib, they will be free to relocate,” the official added.

The United Nations said it had received reliable reports from multiple sources that pro-Assad forces, including the Iraqi Shia militia Harakat al-Nujaba, had carried out summary killings of at least 82 civilians, including 11 women and 13 children in four different neighbourhoods of east Aleppo that had fallen under government control.

“Civilians have paid a brutal price during this conflict, and we are filled with the deepest foreboding for those who remain in this last hellish corner of opposition-held eastern Aleppo,” said Rupert Colville, the UN’s human rights spokesman, before the ceasefire deal emerged.

A senior western diplomat said: “The last days have been a brutal assault on Aleppo, Syrians and the international system. Condemnable that Russia and Iran abetted this dictator in meting out such suffering. This is the path to yet more war. Not peace.”

“The sky is crying for Aleppo with soft tears,” said one teacher in the city, referring to the rainfall that had slowed down the relentless aerial bombardment of recent days, in a text message. “The sky is much kinder than human beings. For this we will stay there finally. There is no justice but in heaven.”

The UN children’s fund said earlier in the day that 100 children were reportedly trapped inside a building under attack in besieged Aleppo.

“According to alarming reports from a doctor in the city, many children, possibly more than 100, unaccompanied or separated from their families, are trapped in a building, under heavy attack in east Aleppo,” Unicef said in a statement. “We urge all parties to the conflict to allow the safe and immediate evacuation of all children.”

Rebel officials from Nour al-din al-Zenki and Ahrar al-Sham, two powerful opposition groups with a presence in the city, confirmed the deal to evacuate, but there was confusion over exactly where the opposition would have to go, with rebels saying they would be transported to the western Aleppo countryside.

Aleppo civilians paying brutal price, says UN – video

“An agreement has been reached to evacuate the citizens of Aleppo, the wounded, and the armed opposition with their light weapons from the besieged districts of east Aleppo,” said Yasser al Youssef, a spokesman for Nour al-din al-Zenki.

A spokesman for Ahrar al-Sham said the evacuations could occur as early as Tuesday night. A Syrian military official said the evacuations would begin at 5am on Wednesday.

“I really, really hope this deal will materialise because the suffering of civilians on both sides has been immense,” said Pawel Krzysiek, head of media at the International Committee of the Red Cross, who was in Aleppo. “There is a human tragedy happening all over the city. People who lost everything are suffering here enormously.”

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, addressing the security council on the situation in Aleppo on Tuesday evening, said it was wishful thinking to believe that military advances would solve Syria’s crisis, and called for an immediate end to violence by all sides.

The evacuation of east Aleppo means the opposition will cede the entire city, Syria’s former commercial capital, to the Assad regime, surrendering the last major urban stronghold where it maintained an active presence.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said there were corpses abandoned in the streets with residents too terrified by the shelling to bury them. Real massacres were taking place in the city, the war monitor said.

Jens Laerke, a UN spokesman, said it looked like there had been a “complete meltdown of humanity” in the city.

The Red Cross had urgently appealed for civilians in east Aleppo to be protected “before it is too late”, adding that it was ready to help with evacuations if an agreement could be reached as Assad’s forces closed in on remaining opposition enclaves and a key victory in the civil war after an offensive supported by Russian air power.

People in east Aleppo issued distress calls and appeals to the international community to rescue them from retribution, continuing to post farewell messages on Monday night and into Tuesday morning, predicting they would either die in the ongoing bombardment or be tortured and killed if they surrendered.

“Please just tell our stories to the world, please let my son be proud of his father,” said one resident of east Aleppo in a text message.

A doctor described the situation as “beyond a tragedy”, with corpses in the street and people attempting to flee to government-held areas to escape hunger and cold.

“I’ve sacked people for sitting down”: Undercover inside JD Sports

 13 DEC 2016

An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News inside a JD Sports warehouse in Rochdale reveals:

• Staff say conditions “worse than a prison”
• Punitive “3 strikes and you’re sacked“ policy “twice as bad as Sports Direct”
• Staff threatened with the sack if they sit down
• Rigorous security sees airport-style checks and random searches
• Agency workers effectively paid below minimum wage
• Investigation shows workers “exploited” and treated “like cattle” and “like scum”, says Iain Wright MP, Chair of the Business Select Committee

The undercover Channel 4 News investigation — to be broadcast on Wednesday 14th at 7pm — has revealed a litany of harsh practices at the vast JD Sports warehouse in Rochdale, including punitive disciplinary procedures, intense surveillance and security, heightened job insecurity amongst agency workers and intimidation.

The temporary workers at Britain’s biggest sportswear firm claim conditions at the company are “worse than prison”, with many effectively earning less than the minimum wage and threatened with being sacked if they sit down during long shifts.

The practices are taking place despite public uproar about working conditions at warehouses operated by other large retailers, including Sports Direct, Amazon and Asos.

Iain Wright MP, who led the damning inquiry into Sports Direct said he was “disgusted” by the findings and said he would like the company to explain itself in front of MPs.

The Kingsway Business Park facility in Rochdale, which supplies all of JD Sports’s stores in the UK and abroad, as well as its thriving online business, currently employs 1500 workers and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In September, JD Sports was named Britain’s biggest sporting goods retailer, and announced record profits that have surged by 66% in the first 6 months of the year. Meanwhile Sports Direct, which has been criticised for its own working practices, has seen first half underlying profits plummet by 57%.

The company operates more than 800 stores in the UK and Europe and claims it is “a great place to work”.

“Sacked for sitting down”

The investigation found many new staff taken on at the warehouse are employed through an employment agency called Assist Recruitment, which says it has been working with JD Sports for 12 years.

The agency recruits are given “zero hours contracts” with no guarantee of work and are paid the minimum wage of £7.20 per hour. The contracts allow the agency to dismiss them instantly without notice.

After 12 weeks of work, the agency then guarantees just 7.5 hours of work per week.

The investigation found staff were routinely threatened by supervisors. Undercover footage shows a team leader boasting of sacking workers on the spot, for as little as sitting down through exhaustion.

One supervisor told the undercover reporter they could be disciplined if they slowed down, despite having met relentless targets set by the company.

JD Sports told Channel 4 News: “our people are never ‘sacked on the spot’. In any cases of serious misconduct, thorough investigations take place. We take the overall treatment and wellbeing of our employees very seriously and we are extremely disappointed to be faced with allegations of line managers behaving in an offensive and bullying manner.”

“Twice as bad as Sports Direct”

The Channel 4 News investigation found JD Sports and Assist Recruitment are operating a “three strikes and you’re out” policy at Kingsway, which can lead to staff being fired for minor infractions.

An induction booklet produced by Assist Recruitment and given to all new workers refers to “strikes” as part of their disciplinary procedure.

Staff and supervisors confirm that so-called “strikes” can be issued for offences including being caught with chocolates or lighters in the warehouse.

Other offences include lateness, “attitude”, absenteeism and having chewing gum.

Workers are told that other offences, such as having a mobile phone, can result in instant dismissal.

One security officer is recorded explaining “get three strikes and you’re sacked.”

Sports Direct was roundly criticised for operating a “six strikes” policy at its warehouse.

“It’s twice as bad as it was at Sports Direct, it’s as simple as that,” said Mr Wright, who chairs the Commons’ Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee.

“If the supervisor doesn’t like the look of your face you could get a strike. It seems to be as a means to controlling the workers, and a means of coercing people into doing quite undignified things,” said Mr Wright.

After viewing Channel 4 News’ exclusive footage, Mr Wright, who is heading up a Commons’ inquiry into pay and conditions for low-paid workers, said he believed workers at JD Sports were being “exploited”.

“I think they are treated like scum,” he said.

“I can produce a strike as a supervisor to you as a worker on any whim that I want. I can get rid of you at a moment’s notice. I’m just treating you like cattle, you are a commodity that just helps me make more money and I think that’s disgraceful.”

JD Sports told Channel 4 News: “We dispute that we operate anything other than a normal business disciplinary process at Kingsway. No member of security or supervisory staff should be using the emotive language of ‘strike’. Assist are responsible for the disciplinary process of their own staff.”

Assist Recruitment said JD Sports spoke on their behalf.

Pay effectively below the minimum wage

The JD Sports facility operates a high security system involving CCTV cameras, electronic fingerprinting, metal detectors and constant searches by security staff.

Agency workers are advised to arrive early before their shift begins in order to clear the long security checks needed to get into the site. Over a five week period Channel 4 News filmed lines of workers waiting in the cold to enter the site. Workers are not paid for this time.

Assist staff told Channel 4 News’s reporter that workers who begin shifts even a minute after their allocated start time because of the delays had their records marked.

“Lateness, lateness, lateness. It goes against you,” a senior Assist Account Manager told our reporter.

Delays can be even longer at the end of shifts, which for many workers comes at the end of a 12 hour day.

 Agency workers are told to clock out and then join long queues to go through security checks. It can take up to 15 minutes to exit the building.

Staff go through airport-style metal detectors and are randomly selected for more extensive searches. 

Assist recruitment told Channel 4 News’s undercover reporter that the time spent going through this process is unpaid.

Channel 4 News has calculated that agency workers are queuing to enter and leave the site for up to 30 minutes each day unpaid. These workers are effectively being paid less than the minimum wage.

“If you’re not being paid for the end of your shift and walking out through security and your pay is somehow being deducted for that, you could be being paid less than the minimum wage. That is an absolute disgrace and that needs to be investigated further,” said Mr Wright.

JD Sports insists waiting times to leave the building is on average just 3 minutes and JD’s staff were paid for their time. The company said: “our people are paid for the period of security checks on exiting the building. Our time and attendance system records attendance in a manner which ensures that all time worked, which includes exit out of the security checking area, is paid for.”

However JD Sports did not state whether that applied to agency workers taken on by Assist Recruitment.

Assist Recruitment declined to comment independently.

“Worse than a prison”

In their own words, workers employed at JD Sports’ Kingsway Warehouse are heard remarking the facility is “worse than a prison.” “Prisoners get more frigging respect,” one worker says.

On another occasion workers are discussing a number of zero hours agency staff who have come from Manchester only to be told “there’s no work go back home”. Speaking of Assist Recruitment a worker says “they’re son of a b******.”

A female worker tells our reporter she “hates” her job and wants to work elsewhere.

“I had an interview with Sports Direct,” she says. “I’m just waiting for them to ring.”

Parliamentary scrutiny

Iain Wright MP, Chairman of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee told Channel 4 News he would be calling JD Sports to appear before the Committee.

“I would like to see JD Sports in front of us. But what really worries me if i’m honest, this is getting to be a longer and longer list. The number of company bosses that have to explain their actions and explain their working practices, and explain why they use agencies that exploit, that abuse, is really getting longer. And we really have to deal with that.

I think there is a real problem. I think there is a cultural and structural issue in Britain. We treat our low paid workers in this country like scum. We don’t give them any dignity or respect. And I think it is an absolute disgrace that in this country you are on minimum wage and struggling to make ends meet, that you’re frightened you might lose your job and that you might not have an opportunity to go to another job. And yet you are shouted and barked at like a dog.”

JD Sports told Channel 4 News: “We fully accept that the conditions and environment in which people work are matters of public interest. We believe that the Kingsway site is a first class facility with inherently good practice in its operations. We are proud of the Kingsway facility, its workforce, and its operation.”

In a statement issued on behalf of JD Sports Fashion Plc and Assist Recruitment they added: “We are deeply disappointed and concerned by the allegations being made which we believe are misleading and not an accurate reflection of our culture, the vast majority of our people or our standards of practice and procedures. Indeed, we believe a large number of the allegations put to us by Channel 4 are plainly untrue.

Our employees are vital to our business and their welfare is an utmost priority, so we take any such allegations very seriously. Once Channel 4 allow access to the footage and we understand the precise nature of any allegations that do prove to be accurate, we are ready and willing to investigate them fully at the earliest opportunity. Where there have been individual failures or breaches of our policies we will take appropriate action, and learn for the future.

We are sensitive to the recent scrutiny of employment conditions in the retail sector, but we absolutely refute any suggestion that we are similar and we would readily open our doors to any appropriate independent body wishing to scrutinise our operations at Kingsway.”

Merkel and Whose Army?

A German military that practices with broomsticks isn't in a position to become the new “leader of the free world.”


BY HANS KUNDNAN-DECEMBER 13, 2016

In Germany, Angela Merkel is known as “mommy” — and judging from the desperate global reactions to the election as U.S. president of Donald Trump, it won’t be long before the rest of the world starts calling her that, too. With Trump having indicated an intention to abdicate America’s role as “leader of the free world,” a chorus of commentators have pointed to Germany under Merkel’s leadership as the most obvious replacement.

However, as Merkel herself has been quick to acknowledge — including on Nov. 20 when she announced she would run for a fourth term as chancellor — the idea is absurd. First, German power has always been regional, not global, which means it has little to offer vulnerable Western allies in Asia; Germany could therefore at most replace the United States as the “leader of a free Europe.”
But even that notion is a fantasy. If the leadership in question were purely a question of moral symbolism, Germany might qualify for it — though even that is questionable. But it also describes a set of concrete military responsibilities, stretching back to the Cold War, to defend the security of other democracies. These are responsibilities that Germany — which has only minimal military power and deep-seated reluctance, both political and cultural, to deploy what power it has — is singularly unable to fulfill.

Carol Giacomo of the New York Times suggested shortly after the U.S. election that Germany “replace America in leading NATO.” But any country either obliged or inclined — as Germany was, during a 2014 NATO exercise — to have its soldiers paint wooden sticks black and attach them to armored vehicles in lieu of heavy machine guns is not in a position to claim military leadership.

A simple comparison of the military budgets of Germany and the United States serves to illustrate the problem. In 2015, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the U.S. defense budget was $597.5 billion. Germany’s was $36.7 billion — about one-twentieth the size of America’s. Germany’s military budget is small even in comparison to that of France ($46.8 billion) and the United Kingdom ($56.2 billion), which are also, like the United Sates and unlike Germany, nuclear powers. In that sense, despite the political challenges they currently face, the heads of the French and British governments have a greater claim to be the “leader of the free world” than the chancellor of Germany.

Germany’s level of defense spending looks even more inadequate when one considers it in relation to the size of the German economy. NATO members collectively commit to spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, but only four members apart from the United States (Greece, Estonia, Poland, and the United Kingdom) actually do so. For years, Germany had spent 1.3 percent — at the lower end of the scale of NATO members. But it has fallen further in the last couple of years and is now under 1.2 percent. This year, Merkel finally committed eventually to reach the 2 percent target — after the election of Trump, she has simply restated this position — but has not specified when she will do so. Berlin’s only hard commitment is an 8 percent uptick in defense spending in 2017, which will bring it to 1.22 percent of GDP.

A similar picture emerges when one goes beyond the figures on defense spending and considers capabilities. During the Cold War, the Bundeswehr, the Federal Republic’s armed forces, was a sizable force focused on slowing a Soviet advance west through Europe, with around half a million soldiers and 2,500 Leopard 2 main battle tanks. It has now shrunk to 176,752 active military personnel — less than a seventh of the 1.3 million the United States has — and just 200 Leopard 2s. The Luftwaffe, the German air force, has 109 Eurofighter Typhoons and 89 aging Tornados, compared with America’s vast numbers of F-35s, F-22s, F-16s, and F-15s. The gap in naval capabilities is even bigger: Whereas the United States has 12 aircraft carrier groups, Germany has nothing more formidable than frigates (of which it has 10).

This year, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced a plan to increase spending on equipment by 130 billion euros (about $140 billion) over 15 years. Some of the extra spending will go toward buying new kit. But much of it will be allocated for repairing existing equipment that — a series of reports in recent years have revealed — are no longer deployable as a result of cuts in spending on maintenance since 2010; in other words, it will simply go toward maintaining existing capabilities rather than increasing them. For example, it emerged that only 42 of the Bundeswehr’s 109 Eurofighter jets and only two of its NH90 helicopters were operable. Then there was that disastrously embarrassing black-broomstick-wielding 2014 NATO exercise, which, according to a confidential Bundeswehr report leaked to the German public service broadcaster ARD, resulted from a shortage of available heavy machine guns.

Germany’s low level of defense spending and limited capabilities are a function of its strategic culture. The usual explanation given by Germans and non-Germans alike is that this is a reaction against the country’s disastrous militarist past. There is some truth to that. But it also obscures some of the shifts that have taken place over the last 25 years. In the first decade after reunification in 1990, Germany seemed to be converging with France and the U.K. on the question of the use of military force. This incremental shift culminated in Germany’s participation in the Kosovo War in 1999. “Never again Auschwitz” seemed to have replaced “never again war” as a fundamental principle of German foreign policy. But in the 2000s, against the backdrop of the deployment of the Bundeswehr to Afghanistan and the perceived failures of military interventions elsewhere, Germans seemed to revert to the principle of “never again war.” Germany refused to participate in the military intervention in Libya in 2011 — a decision that many Germans feel has been vindicated. And even the strategic shock of the Ukraine crisis hasn’t changed German attitudes about the use of military force. This summer, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described NATO military exercises — in which Germany was itself participating — as “saber rattling.”

Germany has increasingly come to see itself as a Friedensmacht, or “force for peace.” The term was originally used by the East German state to describe itself during the Cold War and was applied to the Federal Republic in 1993 by Alfred Mechtersheimer, a former German air force colonel who joined the Greens in the 1980s and later moved to the far-right of the political spectrum. The general public does not honor soldiers in the way the American public does. For example, it is impossible to imagine German soldiers being spontaneously applauded as American soldiers are when they walk through airports in the United States. This, in turn, means the Bundeswehr struggles to recruit. The Defense Ministry’s latest gambit to attract new soldiers is a reality TV show. In May, von der Leyen announced a planned increase in size of the Bundeswehr by 7,000 soldiers by 2023, but it’s not clear how she intends to achieve even that goal.

There has been some change in attitudes since the start of the Ukraine crisis. In a recent study by the government’s Military History and Social Sciences Center, half of Germans polled said they thought the defense budget should be increased, and, for the first time since the study began in 2000, a majority said they supported increasing troop numbers. But even now Germans still do not feel threatened by Russia — even if people in the Baltic states and Poland do. The refugee crisis — which affected Germans much more directly — might turn out to be more of a game-changer: It may be the fear of being overwhelmed by refugees rather than being attacked by Russia that prompts Germans to take security policy more seriously. According to the recent government study, a majority of Germans now support training and “stabilization” operations — though it’s worth noting that only a minority support combat operations.

Of course, it can be argued that in the 21st century economic power is more important than military power. But such arguments look a little less convincing in the context of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and territorial conflicts and an apparent arms race in Asia. In any case, Germany’s extreme reliance on exports — and thus dependence on foreign markets — means its economy is as much a source of vulnerability as a source of power.

Germany’s lack of hard power in the world beyond Europe, whether military or economic, means that Merkel can at most be a kind of “moral leader of the free world.” Given her approach to the euro crisis, it’s not clear she deserves even that title — no shortage of Greeks, Spaniards, and Italians would dispute it. But even if she does preside over the free world as a figurehead, it shouldn’t be reassuring for anyone who worries about a resurgence of authoritarianism. Rather, it brings to mind Joseph Stalin’s famous question about the pope: “How many divisions has he got?”

Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Afghan First Vice President denies abusing rival, West urges investigation

Afghan General Abdul Rashid Dostum speaks during an interview with Reuters at his Palace in Shibergan, in northern Afghanistan August 19, 2009. REUTERS/Caren Firouz/File Photo-Ahmad Ishchi, who is reported to have been beaten and detained by Afghanistan's vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum last month, speaks during an interview at his home in Kabul, Afghanistan December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Ahmad Ishchi, who is reported to have been beaten and detained by Afghanistan's vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum last month, displays an injury on his leg during an interview at his home in Kabul, Afghanistan December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani-Ahmad Ishchi, who is reported to have been beaten and detained by Afghanistan's vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum last month, speaks during an interview at his home in Kabul, Afghanistan December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Wed Dec 14, 2016

Afghanistan's First Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum denied on Tuesday accusations that he had beaten and abducted a political rival and threatened him with sexual violence, in a case that sparked Western calls for a full and fair investigation.

Dostum, a former warring faction commander with a fearsome reputation and a lingering power base in northern Afghanistan, was witnessed by hundreds of people, according to The New York Times, beating and then ordering his men to detain Ahmad Ishchi at a public sporting event in late November.

Ishchi was once a member of the same political faction as Dostum but later fell out with him.

Reuters has been unable to confirm independently the accusations made by Ishchi against Dostum.

"He (Ishchi) was detained by Afghan security forces for allegations of funding the opposition and having a hand in repeated security issues," a spokesperson for Dostum said in a statement, denying any physical or sexual abuse had taken place.

"For some time there has been a destructive movement by some unknown circles against the First Vice President," it added.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office promised a thorough investigation of Ishchi's accusations.

While imprisoned by Dostum's men, Ishchi told Reuters he was repeatedly beaten, including by rifles, and threatened with sexual violence.

After being held by men loyal to Dostum for five days, Ishchi said he remained for another 10 days with security forces who provided medical aid.

"NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW"

Pledging an investigation into Ishchi's claims, Afghan presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansori said: "For the Afghan government nobody is above the law. Rule of law and accountability begins in the government itself and we are committed to it."

Western embassies in Kabul expressed concern over the accusations.

"The unlawful detention and reported mistreatment of Mr Ishchi by the First Vice President raises serious concerns," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement. 

"We would welcome the Afghan government’s move to swiftly investigate these allegations."

The European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway echoed its call.

Dostum joined Afghanistan's National Unity Government in 2014 in a bid by Ghani to attract the support of his mostly ethnic Uzbek constituency, but has been dogged by accusations of past human rights violations.

Warring factions brought bloody chaos to Afghanistan after they forced the withdrawal of Soviet occupying forces in 1989.

In the 1990s, many Afghans initially welcomed the rise of the Taliban who defeated and largely banished the "warlord" factions.

But some old faction commanders have made a comeback to positions of influence since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, to the dismay of many ordinary Afghans.

(Writing by Josh Smith,; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Donald Trump 'will violate US Constitution on first day of presidency' due to business interests

President-elect's refusal to give up ownership of business empire is contrary to very first constitutional clause

• Ben Kentish-Monday 12 December 2016

Donald Trump is on course to violate the US Constitution on day one of his presidency after insisting he will not relinquish ownership of his businesses while in office.

The US President-elect confirmed during a Fox News Sundayinterview that he will hand the management of his companies to his children but will not give up ownership of the businesses. 

Mr Trump said: “When I ran, everybody knew that I was a very big owner of real estate all over the world.”

“I’m not going to have anything to do with management of the company.”

Retaining ownership of his companies was not necessarily a conflict of interest, he added.

It means Mr Trump is likely to violate Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution, which says no holder of public office can “without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state”.

Mr Trump is thought to profit from foreign states through their use of his businesses. The state-owned Bank of China is reportedly a tenant in Trump Tower, New York, and the Bahraini Government last week held a reception at Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C, where hiring a room can cost many thousands of dollars. 

In addition, sources have suggested overseas countries will  use Mr Trump’s hotels when he is President - something that could be interpreted as gift-giving. One diplomat from an unnamed Asian country told the Washington Post: “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?”

Another diplomat from a Middle Eastern country added: ““Believe me, all the delegations will go there”.

One possible way around the constitutional regulation could be for the President-elect to seek congressional approval to retain his businesses and be provided with permission to profit from foreign governments. 

The rule is so strict that Barack Obama had to seek official advice on whether he could legally accept the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Justice Department lawyers concluded that he could because the award is privately funded - but that accepting it would have been forbidden had it come from a foreign state.

Mr Trump has repeatedly come under fire over claims that retaining ownership of his companies while serving as president constitutes a major conflict of interest. 

He has responded by saying his children will be managing the businesses and he is “not going to be doing deals at all”. 

However, questions have been raised over the fact Mr Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has been closely involved in planning for the Trump presidency while she is also in charge of the family's business empire.

Ms Trump was present at a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and during a phone conversation with Mauricio Macri, the President of Argentina - both countries where the Trump family have business interests.

The Trump transition team responded by insisting no business matters had been discussed during the conversations.

Bangladesh has two good hands for China and India

China is the country of Confucius, so it is easy to reach for them to this goal.

by Swadesh Roy

( December 13, 2016, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Bangladesh has two good neighbours, one is China and the other is India; on the other hand, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh has two very good hands to catch these two friends; with her good left hand she has made a good handshake with China and the same thing, her right hand has done with India.

Once Bangladesh was a part of Indian subcontinent, so Bangladesh and India carry same cultural heritage and in the same way, total Asian hearts belong to a unified culture, this is why a common hopes, aspirations, and love go with Asia along with Bangladesh and China. However, a big difference exists between Bangladesh and China; the society of China is regimented but the society of Bangladesh is very much argumentative. The Indian society is same argumentative. There are a huge number of beauties go with argumentative society. An argumentative society must be a knowledge-based society. Nowadays technology is dominating over the high thinking knowledge, so a high thinking mental-demography is not the only main indicator for the development of the present world. Although Technological indicator is now the main index number of development, it is not a permanent indicator; it is for the time being.

However, once Confucius was the main identity of China but now Alibaba. By the magic of Alibaba, China is taking the business in all over the world including Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, not only the consumer market but also everyone in the investment market can see, China is taking the lion part because of their () sound economy and technological power. India wants to do business in Bangladesh and they are the closer neighbour than China, so they can get more facilities comparing to China; but they cannot take the total opportunity because of their less powerful economy. In Bangladesh both China and India have credit investment facilities, in the mean time, China has taken 30 billion but on the other hand, India has taken only two billions. In () near future, China will get more business opportunity in Bangladesh, so many businessmen of China are now trying to shift their factories to Bangladesh because of their wage policies. Moreover the present president of China has declared the minimum wage of the labour of their country which is hundred times more than previous salary.

A huge number of Chinese businessmen made factories in () new suburb, their plan was that they would start it one after another within five to ten years but after this new wage declaration, they are calculating that if they go for starting those factories, it will be their loosing concern due to high wage of the workers. In the East and South Asia, only Bangladesh is the country which is able to give cheap and skill labour next ten years, so Chinese businessmen are now rushing towards Bangladesh. If you go any five star hotel in Bangladesh, you will get at least sixty to seventy chines businessmen out of hundred businessmen. Even some of them are searching lobbyist for getting business permission in Bangladesh. Not only in the produces goods but also in infrastructure development, Chinese are investing their money. One European investor, who is a MD of a company, confessed that their working quality is good but China is now a new kind of demon, they can do anything at any type of less profit; sometimes to wipe out the other countries’ company, they do business without profit. That is why; the opinion of that MD, within very short time, Europe may lose their investment capacity in Bangladesh. Despite, whatever happens in the economy sector in Bangladesh, Europe has no way to cut or leave the market of Bangladesh. Now Europe cannot think of a happy Marry Xmas without the manufacturing clothes of Bangladesh, and that will not confine to garment forever. In very near future, the European office will be run by Apple computer as well as iPhone which will be manufactured in Bangladesh. Chinese businessmen are trying to create that business hub in Bangladesh using the young labour and other economy favourite circumstances of Bangladesh.

If China goes in that way, somebody may think India will lose its all stakes in Bangladesh but reality is not like that. First, Chinese stakes will help india first because, if China wants to continue its economic activities in Bangladesh, it is more necessary a politically stable Bangladesh; all the neighbours of this delta, only India can help to run Bangladesh with a stable politics, it is not because that India is the regional super power, it is because () Bangladesh and India both are democratic country and argumentative society. If Bangladesh runs with a political stability, obviously China will invest more in Bangladesh but as a friendly neighbour, India will get its result too. Besides India, the good neighbour of Bangladesh, west will get also more benefit from Bangladesh. Like Bangladesh and India -the western democratic countries are with argumentative society. So there is another social and political rapport lies with India, Bangladesh, and west. And it is true if you want to make a sustainable social and economic development, you must have to build a society of divers. A regimental society and a dictatorial government can take an economy at least to a certain stage, after that it needed to build up a society and a government which will be run by flourishing of different opinion. When a society get a natural opportunity of making hundreds of thousands of opinions, then the society become a live society. Without a live society, a cultural and knowledge based society is impossible. If a society is not being cultural and knowledge based, it cannot save their economy. China has understood that, this is why, the present government of China has taken decision, they will reach to a society of different opinions within 2040. Though it is 25 years more, but china has to make that society, which is belonged to India, west and Bangladesh. China has seen the fate of the formers of Soviet Union, so they will not continue long time an autocratic government. Even before the fall of Soviet Union, China has started to change their society to reach a coca cola and now they have reached Ali Baba. Coca cola to Ali Baba is mainly the path of changing free economy, not the society of open sky of knowledge. So within 2040 China wants to open the society for sky of knowledge. China is the country of Confucius, so it is easy to reach for them to this goal. So, when China will open its sky for knowledge, then automatically this three country will get a same harmonic society and then they can run with a harmony like west. All the European countries don’t belong to same powerful economy, they do not get the same facilities from all countries but they run friendly because of cultural harmony. Within thirty to fifty years, China, India and Bangladesh will reach on that path.

Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh he can be reached swadeshroy@gmail.com