ELMO GOONERATNE-2017-09-01 Not too long ago, a 17-year-old girl was raped by a drug addict who lived in close proximity to her home. At the time of the incident, her mother (an estate worker) had gone to work and she was alone at home. Investigations revealed that the drug addict had raped another girl in the past, and had been bailed out just a few hours prior to the incident. If the victim hasn't been killed, the offender serves only part of his sentence and is bailed out. There are rapists and drug addicts scattered all over the country.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe recently said Sri Lanka has become a transit point for drug traffickers and is used to re-export drugs to other Asian countries. There is no age barrier when it comes to drugs. Children as young as 12 have got hooked on drugs.
The Police have found that some schoolchildren have started taking drugs as well. In order to avoid detection, they pour the drug into branded soft drink bottles.
The Police arrest drug addicts almost on a daily basis. Drug addicts are produced before a Magistrate who orders them to pay a fine. If the drug addicts are unable to pay the fine, the Magistrate remands them. The problem is that drug addicts have access to drugs while in prison. The purpose of sending drug addicts to prison is to rehabilitate them. When this does not occur, drug addicts will never reform themselves.
Drug kingpins
Drug kingpins in Sri Lanka are filthy rich and live the high life. Even if they are taken into custody, they are given preferential treatment in prison. Most of the drug addicts are day labourers. They spend around 90 per cent of their earnings on drugs. Then there are rapists. If the victim isn't killed, the rapist gets away scot-free. There are all types of social service organizations in the country which specialize in rehabilitating drug addicts. The question is how many of us are aware of these organizations. Dedicated officials such as Dr. Harsha de Silva and Dr. Hiranthi Wijemanne are doing all they can to get rid of the drug menace and eliminate rape.
Today, drugs and rape go hand in hand. Recently, a four-year-old girl was raped by a well-known drug addict. Not too long ago, a beautiful 17-year-old girl was raped and murdered by a drug addict. Investigations revealed that the culprit was addicted to pornography and had sneaked into the house when she was alone. The girl used to pray in the morning and night. Residents in the area were shocked when they heard about the incident. Her mother demanded that the rapist should be hanged.
Theravada Buddhism
Sri Lanka is the home of Theravada Buddhism, but crimes occur almost everyday. Pornography is freely available in the country.
There is no age barrier when it comes to pornographic films in Sri Lanka. Both foreign and local actors star in pornographic films.
Some people watch pornographic films at home, while others watch them at internet cafes. Schoolboys and schoolgirls avoid attending tuition classes to watch pornographic films. Even though there is a ministry to look into these issues, nothing has been done so far. How many of these places have been raided? It is reported that some law enforcement officers have also been caught patronizing these places. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs used to be very active sometime ago.
Buddhist clergy
Most of the Buddhist clergy live in Asapuwas and preach on television. Some of them dabble in politics. They seem to have neglected their religious duties. They are supposed to guide laymen and help them to become better humans instead they are preoccupied with other matters. Some Bhikkhus have their own security detail too. Most of the Buddhist monks who come to Colombo from villages to study at universities don't return to their temples and live in the city. Bana Maduwas are a rare sight nowadays. People prefer to watch Buddhist programmes on television than attending a Bana Maduwa. How many people are aware of the fact that drugs and rape go hand in hand? Unless the media make them aware of these incidents they don't know.
There are several reasons why children get raped. The mother generally looks after the children when their father is away. When a girl goes to school, the mother accompanies her to ensure her safely. In villages, mothers stay at home, but when it comes to the city, both parents have to go to work if they are to keep the home fires burning. In most homes, boys are involved in extracurricular activities which require them to stay after school. Girls go home after school. Drug addicts observe the movements of the children and wait for an opportunity to fulfil their desires. Children are vulnerable when they are left alone. When a girl tries to resist, a drug addict would not hesitate even to kill her.
Rape victims
Rape victims suffer in silence. They undergo immense emotional trauma. For drug addicts, age does not matter. Girls as young as four years and woken as old as 70 have been raped by drug addicts. The scourge of pornography has destroyed the social fabric. Since there is no proper law that governs pornographic films, anyone can buy them easily. Most rapists are addicted to both drugs and pornography.
The tourism industry in Sri Lanka is booming and many boys and girls have got involved in it. According to the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, tourism is the fourth largest income earner for the country which makes a significant contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has come up with a national action plan. It will help the government to eradicate child sex tourism in the country. According to some reports, an estimated 30,000 children are involved in child sex tourism.
In certain parts of the country which are frequented by tourists, young girls and boys are sexually exploited by foreigners who are hooked on drugs.
Dark side of the tourism industry
The tourism industry might be the fourth largest income earner for Sri Lanka and it might contribute significantly to the GDP, but it has a dark side as well. Child sex tourism is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. Many young girls go to Middle Eastern countries and Singapore seeking employment. Some of the girls look for employment so that they can build a house for their parents. How many of them are actually able to realize their dreams?
Some of the women who go through the Foreign Employment Bureau return home safely with a little money, but over the years the unscrupulous private agencies make huge profits. Many young Muslim girls fall prey to young and old men. Many are lured into traps.
Some of them are not allowed to return home. They are tortured and then released. Some of them vanish into thin air. Most of the monsters are hooked on drugs.
Some of the women are forced to seek employment in the Middle East by their fathers. There have been reports of fathers raping their own daughters. Some of the women are forced to leave home with their mothers because their fathers are either drug addicts or alcoholics.
Not too long ago, a judge sentenced a father to 145 years of imprisonment for raping both his daughters. There have been several instances where grandfathers have raped their grandchildren after a dose of drugs. The judiciary is doing everything possible to bring such fathers and grandfathers to book. The media only reports about these incidents when they think that it is 'sensational.'
Then these social service organizations go to town with statements on sex and drug abuse. Once the publicity dies down, the organizations that make statements to the media vanish and wait for another sensational case to pop up somewhere. The number of incidents where drug addicts abuse children has skyrocketed even though the authorities are attempting to rid the country of this scourge.
The current female labour force participation in Sri Lanka is around 36%. This means that a disproportionate majority of women still remain outside the labour market, with limited or no access to wages, pensions and other benefits tied to gainful employment.
Evidence largely points to several constraints that effectively limits women’s participation in the labour force – ranging from outdated legislation to the lack of access to vocational training and also due to cultural barriers.
It is increasingly evident that social and cultural factors play a defining role in determining women’s inclusion in the labour market. Given that Sri Lanka is short of blue collar workers, increasing women’s access to employment is necessary to increase the female participation in the labour force.
A multiple stakeholder group recently set up at national level to look at providing greater access for women to the labour market recommended that the Government set itself a goal of increasing the Female Labour Force participation to 40% by 2020. Therefore, getting more women into the workforce is not just a human rights issue, but it is a necessity to sustain our economic growth.
Many Sri Lankan women seeking to enter the workplace in Sri Lanka today face a multitude of challenges, including gender discrimination, greater household responsibilities and gender-based disparities in income. Therefore attitudes, both at the office and at home, need to change for more and more women to take their place in the workforce.
One of the most effective ways for Sri Lanka to expand its workforce is simply to get more women to join the labour force. The workforce diversity can also enrich businesses at every level.
Reluctance
Sri Lankan women might be reluctant to enter the workforce mainly due to family commitments. Traditional responsibilities as a woman can affect their choice of employment. Furthermore, educated women even give up on their career to focus on motherhood and their families. Some companies are hesitant to provide career opportunities to pregnant women and mothers. This can contribute for educated married women not to engage in paid employment.
Women may be also discriminated in Sri Lanka at the point of the job adverts that ask only for male candidates. Some companies still continue to look for only male applicants to fill certain vacancies, especially certain top level management positions. This can discourage women to enter the workforce or to limit the opportunities to climb up the organisational ladder. The expectation that men are more capable than women in certain roles still prevails in society.
Another reason is lack of safety. If women are asked to work late hours without providing transportation facilities they might be discouraged to engage in jobs. Also women may face difficulties like violence and sexual harassment at workplace.
Options
Therefore, it is important to provide flexible working hours and assure safe transport and a safe working environment for women by introducing more policies against harassment. Provision of safe childcare and day care for mothers can also encourage women having children to enter the workforce.
For women, being married and having children reduces the opportunity of entering the workforce, whereas being married encourages men to enter paid employment. Because sometimes companies believe that mothers are less committed to work since they have other commitments and that fathers are more committed to their workplace.
Attitudes of people and companies can also affect the rate of women participation in the workforce. For instance, women are believed to be less capable in certain specific roles even though they are equally capable and proficient as men. Also, the attitude of their families towards certain jobs can hinder them from entering the workforce.
Differences in the way that the labour market values skills of men and women can make educated women reluctant to enter the workforce. Therefore offering young females access to career counselling and designing courses of study that create candidates for available jobs while the policy makers work on addressing institutional and legal issues that hamper women’s participation is a good option in the short term.
Despite his name being on the list of cosponsors, Representative Bobby Rush is not supporting the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, his office has confirmed.
The bill, backed by the powerful Israel lobby group AIPAC, has been condemned by the American Civil Liberties Union for violating constitutional free speech rights.
The appearance of Rush’s name on the list of cosponsors caused consternation among activists. The Chicago congressman was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panther Party during the civil rights movement.
He has often been supportive of Palestinian rights, including signing a June letter along with almost three dozen other US lawmakers backing Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights defender in Hebron who is facing a political trial by Israel’s military.
“Congressman Rush does not support the Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” a staffer at Rush’s Washington office told The Electronic Intifada on Tuesday. “He supports the First Amendment.”
The staffer’s statement was confirmed in an email on Friday by Rush’s chief of staff.
According to his staff, Rush’s name has remained on the list of cosponsors because Congress is out of session and once it returns next week his office will ask to have it removed.
Grassroots opposition
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act still has 252 other sponsors in the House and 48 in the Senate, but it has not enjoyed the easy, near-unanimous support that measures backed by the Israel lobby typically garner.
And in a strange moment at a townhall meeting last week, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill claimed, “I don’t know what anti-BDS is,” and quickly skipped over a question about the bill – which targets the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
McCaskill is one of 13 Senate Democrats backing the bill, but is among several lawmakers who told The Intercept they are reviewing it in light of the concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Reject, don’t amend
In face of the sustained grassroots pressure on lawmakers to oppose the bill, its chief Senate sponsor, Ben Cardin of Maryland, has expressed willingness to amend it in order to remove criminal penalties.
But in August, 100 civil and human rights organizations endorsed a statement urging lawmakers to reject the bill outright.
“Despite Senator Cardin’s efforts to insist the Israel Anti-Boycott Act doesn’t target political conduct, the leading lobby group for US support of Israel, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), itself frames it as a measure to ‘Combat the BDS movement,’” the groups say.
“The wave of anti-BDS legislation, promoted by Israel advocacy groups to undermine the movement for Palestinian rights in the United States aims to send a clear signal that support for Palestinian rights is disfavored by our government and is potentially punishable.”
The groups say that amending the legislation would not solve the underlying unconstitutionality of the bill.
“We call on members of Congress who currently support the act to withdraw their sponsorship. And we call on all members of Congress to publicly oppose the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and to affirm the First Amendment right to support political boycotts – including those aimed at achieving justice and equality for Palestinians.”
Eyewitnesses claim that Israeli police assaulted and pushed worshippers during the pre-dawn mosque raid
Yair Revivo vowed to drown out mosque speakers with Jewish prayers after residents complained about noise (Screengrab: Ido ben porat)
Friday 1 September 2017
An Israeli mayor stormed into a mosque in the town of Lod on Friday in a bid to stop its broadcasting the call to prayer and Eid al-Adha prayers through its speakers.
Video footage showed Yair Revivo being accompanied by Israeli police into a mosque in Lod, where the mayor attempted to shut off the speakers.
He accused the mosque of disturbing the local area and claimed that he had been "hit" by worshippers who tried to stop him from shutting down the mosque speakers.
Witnesses told Yaffa 48, a local Palestinian outlet, that Israeli police had assaulted and pushed people during the raid.
They added that Revivo had assaulted one of the worshippers who was filming the incident.
While the raid was taking place, worshippers continued to come into the mosque and perform prayers, according to Maan News.
Revivo last year vowed to drown out the noise from mosque speakers with Jewish prayers after residents had complained to him about the sound.
On Friday, he described the sound from the speakers as a "daily suffering and annoyance" and "clear breach of the law on noise" to Jews who lived near the mosque.
Lod is a city in central Israel near Tel Aviv which has a mixed population of both Jews and Palestinians.
Tawfiq Abu Saleh, an academic who lives in the nearby town of Ramleh, said Palestinians in the area are shocked by Friday's event and consider the Israeli raid to be crossing a "red line".
"In the past few years, we have witnessed an increase in fascist behaviour from right-wing groups, and they have taken the mayoral position," Abu Saleh told Middle East Eye.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has supported and emboldened such acts against Palestinians.
"This mosque witnessed a massacre, an ugly massacre, of 300 women and children in 1948," he continued. "What happened today takes us back to those days."
As many as 700,000 Palestinians were forced to leave the Lod-Ramleh area in the events leading to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, known as Nakba to Palestinians.
Last year, an Israeli ministerial committee approved a draft bill to ban the use of loudspeakers from broadcasting the adhan Muslim call for prayer.
The bill was proposed in a bid to bar the use of loudspeakers from any religious building or "inciting" messages as part of the call to prayer.
Netanyahu had come out in support of the bill.
"I cannot count the times, they are simply too numerous, that citizens have turned to me from all parts of Israeli society, from all religions, with complaints about the noise and suffering caused them by the excessive noise coming to them from the public address systems of houses of prayer," said Netanyahu.
The bill needs to go through several readings in the Knesset before making it into law.
by RSN Singhis- ( September 1, 2017, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Balochistan province of Pakistan constitutes nearly half of country’s landmass, i.e. 347,190 sq km. This province has never accepted the Pakistani framework of nation-state. Most Balochis maintain that they have been Balochis for three thousand years, Muslim for may be thousand years and Pakistani for 70 years, therefore, the Pakistani identity means nothing to them. The Balochis straddle the Iran and Afghanistan border, at least 30 percent are in these countries.
Just as Pakistan is not interested in Kashmiris but the territory of J&K because of its innate desire to control the complete Indus River system, it is also not interested in Balochis but the land of state for its mineral resources and strategic location.
The contrast between Balochistan and Kashmir Valley in geopolitical terms is telling. While Balochistan which is half of country has been in incessant struggle to secede from an artificial nation-state entity, the separatists in the Kashmir Valley that comprises less than seven percent of the geographical area of J&K are clamouring for Pakistan.
Just as Pakistan is not interested in Kashmiris but the territory of J&K because of its innate desire to control the complete Indus River system, it is also not interested in Balochis but the land of state for its mineral resources and strategic location. Pakistan in a way has sold both the Gilgit-Baltistan in POK and Gwadar port in Balochistan to China by way of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
The province has one of the world’s richest copper and gold reserves. 45 percent of Pakistan’s energy needs are met by Balochistan. As per a Baloch activist Dilshad Baloch, Chinese have been carrying away 16 Kgs of Gold every day from the mines under an arrangement with Pakistan. The Sui Gas Field in Balochistan supplies gas to the country’s household in most urban areas. Such is the attitude of the State and of the country’s elite towards Balochistan that a nominal sum of Pakistani Rupees 6 is charged monthly for 24 hours supply of Gas.
Some Punjabis in Pakistan have told this author that they do not even switch off the gas during winters for the to obviate the sacrifice of a matchstick. Pakistan’s three nuclear weapon sites are also located in the province. And yet, 85 percent of the population in the province does not have access to safe drinking water, some 80 percent do not have electricity, 63 percent are below poverty line and 70 per cent of the children do not have access to education.
Chinese have been carrying away 16 Kgs of Gold every day from the mines under an arrangement with Pakistan.
The Baloch are Hanafi Sunnis. A strong group of Zikri Baloch, having a population of about 700,000 inhabit the Makran area. They believe in the 15th century teachings of Madhi Nur Pak – an Islamic Messiah of the 15th century. They have their own prayers and do not fast during Ramadan. Significantly, Hindu Shrines in Balochistan continue to be revered and zealously preserved by the Balochis, the most important being the Hinglaj Mata Temple, one of the major Shakti Peeths in Hindu religion. Despite every kind of exertion by radical organizations like Jamait-ul-Dawa, the Baloch people have fiercely resisted the spread of Wahabi brand of radicalized Islam. Balochistan has so far not produced one suicide bomber. But unabashedly Kashmir Valley has allowed itself to be radicalized by killing Kashmiriyat.
The province comprises four erstwhile princely states of Kalat (largest), Makran, Kharan and Lasbela. In the second half of the 18th century, the Khan of Kalat, Naseer Khan, had unified most of Balochistan. During the British rule, Balochistan was divided into British Balochistan and Native Balochistan, having control over 25 percent and 75 percent of the total territory, respectively.
The British Balochistan primarily constituted the Pathan belt. In Native Balochistan, most tribal leaders paid tribute to the Khan, who in turn paid royalty to the British. The tribal sardars (leaders) continued to exercise overwhelming political, economic and social influence over their tribe. Just after Pakistan came into being, Mir Ahmad Yaar Khan, descendent of Naseer Khan, declared independence in accordance with the three options given to the princely states before partition — independence, accession to India, or accession to Pakistan. To facilitate independence, Yaar Khan had also appointed a Briton, Douglas Fell, as his foreign minister.
In April 1948, the army was deployed in Kalat, and the Khan was forced to accede to Pakistan. The Khan’s brother did not agree to the accession and established himself in the border regions in Afghanistan from where he launched an armed campaign against the Pakistan troops in Balochistan. By June 1948 Balohistan was merged with Pakistan. The rebellion against the merger was not countrywide, but it did add to the serious doubt about the capability of any religion to be the sole cohesive force to hold a nation together.
Even as the Pakistan Army invaded Balochistan, none of the Congress leaders including Gandhi as well as the then Governor General Lord Mountbatten made a whimper of protest or condemnation.
While Indian leaders were busy issuing contradictory statements, Pakistan acted swiftly. According to human rights defender Waseem Altaf in Viewpoint: “On orders emanating from Mr Jinnah,
Balochistan was forcibly annexed to Pakistan on 28th March 1948 when on 27th March 1948, Lt Colonel Gulzar of the 7th Baluch Regiment under GOC Major General Mohammad Akbar Khan invaded the Khanate of Kalat. General Akbar escorted the Khan of Kalat to Karachi and forced him to sign on the instrument of accession while Pakistan Navy’s destroyers reached Pasni and Jiwani.”
The criminality and immorality of Jinnah lies in the fact that he had been hired by the Khan of Kalat to negotiate the ‘Independent Status’ of Balochistan with the British, and indeed three months before partition he mooted an’ An Independent State of Kalat’. As per a communiqué of 11 Aug 47sovereign status was conferred to Kalat. Baloch activists have told this author that the Khan weighed Jinnah in Gold and his sister, Fatima, in Silver for the legal services that he had provided. The same Jinnah by Oct 47 decided to betray and eventually invaded Balochistan. For seven months, i.e. August 1947 to March 1948, Balochistan was a free country. The comparison between Balochistan and J&K is again tempting, i.e. while Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan, J&K acceded to India.
Even as the Pakistan Army invaded Balochistan, none of the Congress leaders including Gandhi as well as the then Governor General Lord Mountbatten made a whimper of protest or condemnation. Maulana Azad, it is said was steeped in Arab version of Islam and therefore considered all other brands like Balochi brand as inferior.
Former R&AW Chief, Vikram Sood, in an article in February 2006 said that the Baloch leaders visited India and wanted to draw attention to the fact that their state was different and wanted to be treated on par with Nepal. He further maintains that the new Indian rulers Delhi were too preoccupied with Kashmir to realize the strategic significance of a sovereign Balochistan.
70 percent of the Pak Army is Punjabi and even in Baloch regiment, Punjabis comprise 80 percent personnel.
The upheaval being witnessed today in the Islamic world is largely due to the struggle between Islam and ethnicity. This has been endemic in Islamic countries right from the beginning. Islam actually encountered some very superior civilizations in Byzantine (present day Syria), Persia (present day Iran) , Central Asia and of course the Indian subcontinent. The Arab forces could impose religion but could never conquer ethnicity, culture and language. Ethnicity in case of Pakistan triumphed over religion and consequently Bengali speaking East Pakistan became an independent country, Bangladesh. The same narrative continues to struggle with Islam in states of Pakistan like Khyber-Pakhtunkawa, Sindh and Balochistan.
To forge national unity on basis of geography and Islam, the rulers of Pakistan introduced the one-unit scheme in West Pakistan, thereby merging Khyber-Pakhtunkawa, Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. It triggered violence throughout Pakistan including Balochistan. The Balochis considered this as a ploy of Punjabi domination. Punjab with 56 percent population, the Punjabis are seriously afflicted with the attitude that they are the sole owners of Pakistan. 70 percent of the Pak Army is Punjabi and even in Baloch regiment, Punjabis comprise 80 percent personnel. Even in POK, the area which Pakistan designates as Azad Kashmir, there are no Kashmiris and the Kashmir narrative is scripted by Punjabi politicians, Punjabi Army and Punjabi jihadi organizations like LeT and JeM.
When under the One-Unit Scheme all the provinces were dissolved in West Pakistan in 0ct 1954, entire Balochistan rose against it. More than 1000 army troops were deployed to quell it. The violence came to an end only after the one-unit scheme was abolished in 1970. After the loss of East Pakistan in 1971, Bhutto considered Balochistan to be the greatest threat to national integrity. A new wave of unrest was sparked off by the dismissal of a non-PPP government by Bhutto. He justified his action on the grounds that there were serious designs to dismember the country, as evidenced by large cache of arms and ammunition (350 Soviet sub-machine guns and 1000 rounds of ammunition), which were recovered from the house of Iraq’s political attaché in Islamabad.
…until 1973 Balochistan did not have an elected body and was ruled by the Governor General. This is the reality of democracy in a Pakistani province which constitutes nearly 50 percent of the territory.
It may be mentioned here that until 1973 Balochistan did not have an elected body and was ruled by the Governor General. This is the reality of democracy in a Pakistani province which constitutes nearly 50 percent of the territory. Even before Pakistan had recovered from the loss of East Pakistan, a full-fledged insurgency broke out in 1973 in Balochistan. The Shah of Iran was highly apprehensive that the Baloch insurgency would encompass the Baloch population in Eastern Iran. He even sent 30 Cobra helicopter gunships with Iranian pilots to help Pakistan.
In the four years (1973-77) that the insurgency lasted more than 80,000 troops were deployed to suppress the rebellion, and 5,300 Balochis and 3,300 army personnel were killed. Ironically, a large number of troops that were deployed against Balochis, their own countrymen, were the ones who had been repatriated from India as POWs in 1971 war. There were 93,000 of them.
At one stage in 1974, Mirage aircraft and helicopters were also used, when some 15,000 rebels took on the army and a pitched battle ensued. The Baloch insurgency did peter out, not only because of the army action, but also due to the lack of coordination among various groups. The most important groups were Baloch Peoples Liberation Front (BPLF) and Baloch Students Organisation (BSO). The leftist elements played a key role in this insurgency, but later split up into pro-Soviet and pro-China factions.
The Zia regime can be credited with bringing a fair degree of stabilisation in Balochistan. He appointed Lt Gen Rahimuddin Khan as martial law administrator and Governor. During the eight years that Gen Rahimuddin presided over Balochistan, he acted like a dictator of the province, almost independent of Islamabad. His authoritarian style of governance, coupled with good administration did bring about social stability to the province.
Nawab Bugti was killed in Bhambore Hills of Balochistan on 26 August 2006 in a military operation, in which helicopter gunships reportedly fired cluster bombs and laser guided missiles to target him.
With the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1988, the Baloch leaders began to participate actively in politics. The two important parties were the Balochistan National Movement of Sardar Akhtar Mengal, and the Balochistan National Alliance of Nawab Akbar Bugti. Gradually, these political outfits began to be ridden with factionalism, and many splinter groups arose. Each splinter group made alliances with one mainstream party or the other like the PPP, PML (N), as well as the JUI.
The Baloch, who in general had supported the overthrow of Bhutto by Zia-ul-Haq, have not actually let their struggle die. Army and Frontier Corps personnel continue to be deployed in large numbers. The insurgency under the leadership of Bugti intensified soon after Musharraf’s coup in 1999. Nawab Bugti was killed in Bhambore Hills of Balochistan on 26 August 2006 in a military operation, in which helicopter gunships reportedly fired cluster bombs and laser guided missiles to target him. The killing was in retaliation to the firing on Musharraf’s helicopter by Bugti’s lieutenants, when the former was carrying out aerial survey of the area a few days earlier.
During the annexation of Balochistan and thereafter the Pakistani military has used every conceivable arsenal against the Balochis, this includes fighter aircraft, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and helicopter gunships. In contrast, India has also tackled many insurgencies including the Pak-sponsored proxy war in Kashmir but has never used such arsenal against its own people.
The Baloch oppose the establishment of army cantonments at Kohlu, Dera Bugti and Gwadar. In Balochistan, with its highly inhospitable landmass, daily subsistence is itself a stark, tough problem.
Quite naturally, they resent its energy supply serving the rest of Pakistan with no real benefits accruing to the Balochis. Nor are they happy about the Centre’s appropriation and gifting of Gwadar Port to China as part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Balochistan under the present military, Islamic and historical narrative will continue to defy the idea of Pakistan.
There was a significant escalation of violence in the region after Musharraf signed a deal with China in March 2002 for the development of Gwadar port. The Baloch people lament that the Gwadar area had been appropriated by the Generals and sold to Karachi and Punjabi business magnets at astronomical prices. The Gwadar city, 650 km from Karachi with a population of 100,000 became part of Pakistan only in 1958.
In the late 18th century the local ruler had ceded Gwadar to the ruler of Muscat, who used its port for trade with Central Asia, which included slave trafficking. The progeny of some African slaves continue to be a part of the ethnic fabric of Balochistan. All the 22 districts of Balochistan have been impacted by insurgency. Gas supplies from Sui, Loti and Pir Koh gas fields have been disrupted on several occasions.So far nearly two lac people have been displaced in Balochistan due to the ongoing insurgency.
The Pakistani establishment has been unleashing suicide bombers to tackle the insurgency in Balochistan. Its actions have become more desperate in view of the pressure to remove obstacles in the implementation of the CPEC. Recently, on 08-August-2017, 54 lawyers became victim of suicide attack in a Quetta hospital. They had gone to the hospital’s emergency ward to lookup one senior lawyer, Bilal Anwar Kasi, who had been killed earlier in a suicide attack. Most Balochis are of the firm belief that the killings were handiwork of the Pakistani State as many of the lawyers were Baloch activists – supporters, and very much vocal against the interference of the Pakistan military in affairs of the state. Thus an entire generation of young Balochi intellectuals was wiped out.
Balochistan under the present military, Islamic and historical narrative will continue to defy the idea of Pakistan. Aitzaz Ahsan in his book, ‘The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan’ writes: “A nation in denial of its national identity is unfortunate, but when it chooses to adopt an extra territorial identity, it becomes a prisoner of propaganda and myths.” He further adds that if Pakistan is to resolve its tortuous identity crisis, it has to accept its non-Muslim history. It is the denial of historical and cultural forces that do not allow Balochistan to integrate with Pakistan. On the other hand, an acceptance of these forces has the potential to kill the idea of Pakistan.
It is therefore a Catch-22 situation, even as the Punjabis and Pak military keep the notion of Pakistan alive. RSN Singh is a former military intelligence officer who later served in the Research and Analysis Wing, or R&AW and author of books Asian Strategic and Military Perspective and The Military Factor in Pakistan. His latest book is The Unmaking of Nepal.
At least 48 corpses have been recovered after Boko Haram terrorists ambushed oil exploration workers in the Lake Chad Basin, ThisDay is reporting.
ThisDay, quoting sources, said 48 bodies of the victims of the attack were deposited at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) mortuary.
It said that 18 soldiers, 15 Civilian JTF members, 5 staff of University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) and 4 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)driver were among the deceased.
The report added that 6 persons who had escaped the ambush with injuries were found dead in Yobe state.
Nigerian Army gives Different Fatality Figure
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, in a statement on Wednesday, said that an officer, eight soldiers and a civilian, died in the incident, a claim that is different from reports in mainstream media.
Usman added that the Nigerian Army had rescued all the NNPC staff kidnapped by the terrorists.
Usman said the corpses had been evacuated to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital.
“Suspected Boko Haram terrorists ambushed the escort and team of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) staff returning from oil exploration at Barno Yasu, Magumeri Local Government Area of Borno on Tuesday.
On receipt of the information, the Brigade mobilised and sent reinforcement, search and rescue party that included the Armed Forces Special Forces and guides that worked and pursued the terrorists throughout the night.
So far, they have rescued all the NNPC staff and recovered the corpses of the Officer, 8 soldiers and a civilian who have been evacuated to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital.
The team recovered 4 vehicles one of which include a gun truck mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun,two white Hilux taken away from NNPC staff and one blue Hilux belonging to CJTF.
The team also recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition, several spare tyres, many jerry cans containing Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant, assorted drugs, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) making materials, reflective jackets and a Motorola handheld radio, among others.
The team also neutralised many of the terrorists,” the army spokesman said.
According to him, the troops are not relenting in the pursuit, search and rescue effort.
Premium Times reports that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)UNIMAID chapter confirmed that 5 of its members died in the attack and 4 others are still missing.
Osinbajo Orders Service Chiefs to return to Maiduguri
On Thursday evening, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo at an emergency meeting in the State House, Abuja, told the service chiefs to relocate to the Command and Control Centre of Nigerian Defence in Maiduguri to monitor operations from there.
NNPC Suspends Exploration Activities
Daily Trust reports that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, & Chairman of the NNPC Group Ibe Kachikwu, has announced the indefinite suspension of crude oil exploration in the region.
Kachikwu, who said that the NNPC was cleared by security agencies to begin exploration in the area, also commiserated with families of the deceased.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, in November 2016 directed that oil exploration begins in the Lake Chad basin region after it was suspended in 2012 due to Boko Haram’s activities. Governor Shettima of Borno condemns Attack Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno, has condemned the attack in a statement issued on Thursday in Maiduguri by his Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy, Malam Isa Gusau.
He said that since he first got information concerning the attack on his way to visit President Muhammadu Buhari in London, he hasn’t been his normal self and is yet to recover from the shock of the attack.
“I haven’t been myself normal self since I received information of that attack. What happened in the first instance was a tragic setback in the fight against Boko Haram and in Nigeria’s effort to expand its economic fortunes. I am deeply pained by this incident especially coming at a time when we were beginning to pick up the pieces of our lives,” Shettima said.
He added: “Even though the attack should never have happened given the successes recorded by the military and multi-national joint forces since 2015, I nonetheless still deem it necessary to commend the military for re-mobilising and countering the initial gains of the insurgents. On behalf of government and people of Borno State, I mourn and salute the soldiers and our sons in the civilian JTF who paid the supreme price by giving their lives in this fight.”
Shettima expressed sadness over the development and commiserated with their families and loved ones.
NAIROBI — In a historic decision on Friday, Kenya’s Supreme Court voided President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reelection last month and ordered a second vote to be held within the next 60 days.
The judges ruled 4-2 in favor of a challenge by veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who claimed the country’s electronic voting system had been hacked and the results tampered with after he was declared the loser.
In announcing the verdict, Judge David Maraga called Kenyatta’s victory “invalid, null, and void,” adding that the electoral commission had “neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution.”
More than 15 million Kenyans voted on Aug. 8, with Kenyatta winning 54 percent of the vote, according to the now-voided official tally.
“It’s a very historic day for the people of Kenya and by extension the people of Africa,” Odinga said of the ruling. “For the first time in history of African democratization a ruling has been made by a court nullifying irregular elections for the president.” Kenyatta’s lawyers called the ruling a “very political decision” but pledged to abide by it, the Associated Press reported.
International observers, more than 400 of whom were on the ground for the Aug. 8 election, had signaled their acceptance of the result, despite the murder of a top election official just days before the vote and a breakdown in the tallying system that saw some of the results reported via text message.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the Carter Center’s observer mission, congratulated the electoral commission on the “extraordinary job” it did “to ensure that Kenya has a free, fair and credible poll.”
“Following the elections, the co-leaders of the Center’s mission, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former Prime Minister of Senegal Aminata Touré, publicly discussed concerns about the transmission of results and encouraged all stakeholders to cross-check results during the tallying process and to use established legal processes to address any concerns, and refrain from violence,” the Carter Center said in a statement Friday, adding that in its initial statements about the vote it had “stressed that the electoral process was not yet complete and that an overall assessment could not be given until its conclusion, including the resolution of any electoral petitions.”
“They are going to have to wipe a huge amount of egg off their faces,” John Githongo, an anti-corruption campaigner and former head of Kenya’s anti-corruption commission, said of the international observer missions. “People here are really feeling very hurt and cheated by the international observers. They did a very sloppy job.
There’s a feeling that these guys came on holiday here and signed off on something that they should not have
There’s a feeling that these guys came on holiday here and signed off on something that they should not have.”
In its petition to the Supreme Court, Odinga’s opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) alleged that close to half of the ballots had been tampered with. Paper forms that were supposed to match the electronic tallies were transmitted late or not at all, and court officials said some of them lacked official seals or had other irregularities.
The surprise Supreme Court decision has thrown the East African country into a period of intense uncertainty, prompting authorities to suspend trading on the Nairobi Securities Exchange for half an hour on Friday even as spontaneous celebrations erupted in opposition strongholds in the capital, along the coast, and in the western city of Kisumu. At least 28 people have been killed in protests and clashes with the police since Odinga claimed the election was hacked and rejected the results.
The ruling sets the stage for a rematch between Kenyatta, the mild-mannered son of Kenya’s first post-independence president, and Odinga, a populist who has run for president unsuccessfully twice before. In 2007, Odinga called for protests after President Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner, touching off weeks of ethnic violence that claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced roughly 600,000 people. In 2013, he lost to Kenyatta but alleged fraud, arguing his case unsuccessfully in court.
The Supreme Court judges did not fault Kenyatta’s government in their ruling on Friday, instead singling out the independent electoral commission for gross malpractice. Analysts say that could lead to a contentious battle over whether the electoral commission should be allowed to oversee the revote.
“If the opposition demands that electoral commission is disbanded, and the government rejects that, there could be a possibility of confrontation,” said Murithi Mutiga, a Kenya analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Both the government and the opposition really need to show some restraint, because it’s a decision that most people didn’t expect, and this is uncharted territory. This has never happened before in Africa.”
We tackled the challenges they face creating potentially controversial material in an environment of mounting oppression as well as the common pitfalls that come along with exposing people to ideas they may not feel entirely comfortable confronting.
After a lengthy discussion about the potential repercussions to come from tackling difficult topics, one director nonchalantly dropped in at the end of the conversation that, “then, of course, there’s the death threats.”
This was accompanied by a little chuckle and a disheartened grin that implied these were all just accepted annoyances of having a voice in today’s society. And that, it appears, is exactly what they are.
When asked to elaborate, she explained, “You know, the usual stuff. It’s normal.”, as if it were as natural as brushing your teeth in the morning.
The writer Anthony Horowitz said in an article this week for The Guardian that people simply don’t disagree anymore, they send death threats. For a person to hold an opinion that differs from your own, these days, is seen as a personal attack of the highest degree.
This severe and knee-jerk reaction has become common place in society. To lash out at someone with threats of death when faced with an opinion or a standpoint we find challenging is almost de rigueur, whether we mean it or not.
Twitter Trolls send 600 rape and death threats to Labour MP in one day http://dlvr.it/PhlBl4
5:27 AM - 26 Aug 2017
It seems large swathes of us Internet dwellers experience such rigidity in the way we think, the information we consume and the way we interact that if something steps outside of those set, pre-determined lines we’ve lost the ability to react in a rational and considered manner.
There was a time when a death threat was the exclusive territory of maniacs and serial killers. The realm of mad men with crazy eyes who sit in dank rooms, meticulously cutting out letters from a magazine and glueing them together while Vivaldi plays in the background and a light bulb flickers in the corner.
It appears this is no longer the case. The death threat has well and truly come out from the dark recesses of society and is now fair game for any person with two thumbs and a keyboard, while the rest of us just accept this as standard.
I suppose our blasé attitude towards them can be partly put down to experience. After all, of the millions of violence-inciting comments that are spewed on the Internet each day, very few of them actually come to fruition. And, while in the early days of the Internet, we may have found them more jarring, in these later years we’re all a little more war-weary on this digital battlefield.
These days, there’s not many of us who have managed to avoid the sting of the ubiquitous Internet troll. Anything from name calling, right up to rape and death threats, litter the comments section of many pages.
While most are ignored, laughed at, or baited further, and only an infinitesimal number actually mean what they say, doesn’t it strike you as crazy that this doesn’t strike us as crazy anymore?
** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not reflect the views of Asian Correspondent
Two dozen corpses believed to be the bodies of Rohingya women and children have washed up on a Bangladesh riverbank as fears grow of atrocities committed by Myanmar forces against the Muslim minority across the border.
In the deadliest violence in decades, nearly 400 people have been killed in a week of fighting in Myanmar’s north-west Rakhine state after Rohingya insurgents attacked security forces and the military responded with a huge counter-offensive.
Close to 38,000 Rohingya have fled their villages and attempted to cross into Bangladesh, according to United Nations estimates. World powers have warned Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to avoid killing innocent civilians.
The latest outpouring of refugees comes amid reports of ethnic violence from an activist group with a presence in the conflict area, accusing Myanmar security forces and Buddhist vigilantes of killing 130 Rohingya in the village of Chut Pyin.
“We were told that the army encircled the village and attacked people when they fled,” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy group set up to work with the Rohingya.
“According to our information from the ground, at least 130 were killed, most of them died from gunshot wounds,” she said of the incident which occurred on Sunday. “The figure is collected from a list of people who have been buried.”
People gather around the dead bodies of Rohingya children who had died after their boat capsized off Teknaf, Bangladesh. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Myanmar has blocked access to the region for journalists, and the Guardian was unable to immediately confirm the report. Video footage passed to the Guardian showed villages on fire and Rohingya with injuries that resembled gunshot wounds.
A government spokesperson was unreachable on Friday. Authorities said Rohingya were burning their own villages and the armed forces were protecting civilians against “terrorist extremists”.
Lewa said security forces had “burned village after village. It is systematic”. However, she added that some Rohingya arsonists had set fire to the Buddhist village of Pyu Ma.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that satellite images showed burning across at least ten areas of the northern parts of Rakhine state, the region that borders Bangladesh.
From the Bangladesh side, plumes of smoke rose from a forest in Myanmar, and UN sources said around 20,000 Rohingya were stranded in no man’s land between the two countries.
The military said on Thursday that about 370 “terrorists”, 13 security forces, two government officials and 14 civilians had been killed in a week of clashes.
Rohingya refugees at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhiya near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images
The latest bout of violence began after Rohingya militants called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked police last Friday, resulting in fierce fighting that killed at least 104 people, including 12 members of the security forces.
Security forces have responded this week with clearance operations which they say are to weed out the militants but that members of the Rohingya diaspora allege amount to ethnic cleansing.
The office of the de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has blamed civilian killings and village burnings on Arsa. Myanmar has evacuated thousands of Buddhists from Rakhine, an area that has seen episodes of bloody sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims for years.
The bodies of 11 Rohingya children and 9 women washed up on the Bangladesh side of the Naf river after their boat overturned, according to Bangladesh border guard commander Ariful Islam. He said the bodies of two women and two children were also recovered after Myanmar’s border guard police fired on their boat.
At the United Nations, the US ambassador Nikki Haley condemned Arsa but added: “As Burmese security forces act to prevent further violence, they have a responsibility to adhere to international humanitarian law, which includes refraining from attacking innocent civilians and humanitarian workers.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s office has accused foreign aid workers of helping “terrorists”, a claim that has prompted fears for their safety and was condemned as dangerously irresponsible.
Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said the humanitarian situation was deteriorating rapidly.
“Many thousands of people are increasingly at risk of grave violations of their human rights,” she said in a statement. “The worsening cycle of violence ... must be broken urgently.”
A burned-out house in Maungdaw, Myanmar. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
In the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, makeshift camps for the tens of thousands of displaced were set up last October when another insurgent attack on border guards resulted in a huge counteroffensive that was internationally condemned as disproportionate.
One arrival, Mohammed Rashid, 45, wore a surgical dressing under his eye, saying bullet splinters injured him after the Myanmar army opened fire on a group of Rohingya.
He said about 100 people made their way to the border together, and he saw explosions and people dying.
“We hid in the forest for two days and then we were stopped at the border, but we got through. We heard that the houses in our village have burned down,” Rashid said.
Communal hatred has simmered in the region for years, with an estimated 1.1 million Rohingya suffering persecution in a country that refuses to grant them citizenship.
In 2012, clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine caused 140,000 Rohingya to flee their homes. Thousands more have died at the hands of people smugglers and traffickers.
The continuing violence against Rohingya has been the most high profile issue for Aung San Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner whose landslide election in 2015 was celebrated internationally as a victory against oppressive military rule.
Bangladesh, where more than 400,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar since the early 1990s still live, is also growing increasingly hostile to refugees and has turned some back.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said while he condemned the violent attacks by militants, “decades of persistent and systematic human rights violations” against Rohingya “have almost certainly contributed to the nurturing of violent extremism, with everyone ultimately losing.”
He added: “This turn of events is deplorable. It was predicted and could have been prevented.”
Not too long ago, a 17-year-old girl was raped by a drug addict who lived in close proximity to her home. At the time of the incident, her mother (an estate worker) had gone to work and she was alone at home. Investigations revealed that the drug addict had raped another girl in the past, and had been bailed out just a few hours prior to the incident. If the victim hasn't been killed, the offender serves only part of his sentence and is bailed out. There are rapists and drug addicts scattered all over the country.
