Re: MYANMAR: Demand open trial, retrial and dropping of contempt proceedings in case of Phyo Wai Aung

Dear Chief Justice,

I am writing to you concerning the case of Phyo Wai Aung, the young man whom the Myanmar Police Force have falsely accused of conducting a bombing at the traditional New Year festival during 2010. I have been closely following this case since the beginning, and have observed multitudinous miscarriages of justice throughout the investigation and trial proceedings.

The latest of these miscarriages occurred on Monday, 20 February 2012 when the judge in the closed court in the central prison where the trial has been going on ordered that contempt of court proceedings begin against the defendant and his two lawyers and curtailed the defendant’s testimony. According to the information that we have received, the lawyers, U Kyaw Hoe and Daw Thinza Hlaing had been examining their client concerning the taking of advance testimony from a witness before the actual trial had begun.

When the defendant cast doubt on the manner in which the judge responsible for taking this advance testimony had conducted the inquiry and the defence lawyer asked if it appeared that evidence had been deliberately withheld–since the purpose of the advance testimony was evidently to deny the defendant a witness who could provide him with an alibi–the prosecution claimed that the defence had intentionally insulted the judicial and legal officers involved in the case and asked for legal action to be taken against the two defence lawyers and the defendant. The defendant’s lawyers objected that no legal ground existed for action against them as they were just rebutting the evidence brought against their client, but Judge U Aung Thein ordered that charges be laid against the lawyers and their client either under section 228 of the Penal Code, for intentionally causing an insult to a judicial officer or under the Contempt of Courts Act section 3, 1926.

The order to charge the defendant and lawyers not only demonstrates the utter lack of credibility of the trial process in this case but also raises serious questions about the rights of any defendant in a Myanmar court to issue a defence on the facts of the case. Phyo Wai Aung and his lawyers were doing no more than submit a defence testimony in response to the facts alleged by the prosecution. They did not raise questions concerning the evidence submitted by the judge in order to cause insult or do anything else in contempt of the judiciary, but merely as part of the defence of the accused, as is his legal right.

If doing no more than attempting to rebut prosecution evidence submitted to court through a judicial officer constitutes an act of contempt, then woe to all accused in Myanmar, since in any case where anyone attempts to cast doubt on the evidence presented by a judicial officer in order to rebut the prosecution case, he or she could be charged with committing a criminal offence. The logic of this order to prosecute for contempt of court is nothing other than that a judicial officer’s evidence cannot be subject to cross examination. As this logic is clearly nonsensical, a decision needs to be made from higher up in the judiciary to suspend these meaningless criminal actions against the two lawyers and their client without delay.

The question of the criminal charges being brought against the lawyers and Phyo Wai Aung is of course by no means the only one pertaining to this case with which we are concerned. On the contrary, it is just the latest in a long line of persistent gross injustices and abuses of fundamental human rights that have been on display from the moment of the defendant’s arrest in April 2010.

The most glaring among those features is the holding of the trial behind closed and locked doors in the Insein central prison, where the defendant has been held since his arrest. After on some occasions even the family of the defendant was not allowed inside to hear the trial, the presiding judge recorded in his diary that whoever was allowed into the court or not was not his concern and was a matter for the prison officials. A lawyer took this matter of access to the court all the way to the Supreme Court.

In January 2011, Judge Myint Thein of the Supreme Court ruled that he saw no cause to interfere in the proceedings, noting that the order for the trial to be heard in a closed courtroom was justified because the case was “not an ordinary criminal case but a well-known case”. In other words, for the very reason that the case would attract onlookers, it apparently has to be held behind closed doors. This preposterous reasoning, like the reasoning that a defendant who does no more than legally defend himself may be subject to a charge of contempt, which goes completely against the claims of the government of Myanmar to be implementing principles of justice in the holding of criminal trials, including open court. Therefore, we take this opportunity to call for a review of the case against Phyo Wai Aung and for it to be transferred to an open court without delay, where members of the public, his family and legal advocates may assemble without interference and peaceably hear the proceedings against him.

The case against Phyo Wai Aung is fatally flawed for other reasons too. Just to mention one or two, the current judge hearing the case is the fourth judge since the case began. Both the Criminal Procedure Code and the Courts Manual make clear that where new judges take up cases, the defence has a right to request that the trial be reheard. Although Phyo Wai Aung’s defence lawyers have repeatedly submitted requests at all levels for the trial to be reheard, this has not happened. From the point of view of William’s Desk, in a complicated and important case of this sort, it would be inconvenient although perhaps unavoidable that the presiding judge might be changed once in the course of trial, but that four judges in a row hear proceedings makes the prospect of justice remote indeed.

Other persistent flaws in the case include the refusal of the court to allow the defense to cross-examine prosecution witnesses fully; the resistance of the prosecution to give evidence to the defense to which the latter is entitled; the failure to call prosecution witnesses to the court, instead receiving from them “advance” testimonies made in another court, and thereby denying the right to cross-examine them, and a wide variety of procedural defects. These failures are procedural. The lack of any solid evidence against the accused, the failure of the court to admit evidence in his, the use of torture to extract confession, and many other elements in the case all contribute to our finding that the case ought never to have gone to court. For these reasons, I call for a retrial or for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that it is fatally flawed and evidence-less.

To reiterate, we are calling on the Supreme Court to:

(1) Stop the pressing of contempt charges against Phyo Wai Aung and his lawyers, U Kyaw Hoe and Daw Thinza Hlaing.

(2) Transfer the case against Phyo Wai Aung to an open district court.

(3) Order a retrial of the case, or if possible, take steps to have the case dismissed as groundless, fruitless, illegal and unjust.

I observe that not only these lawyers but also others handling other types of cases have also been imprisoned and lost their licenses in cases of contempt. We construe that a pattern of behavior exists in Myanmar courts whereby judges use the threat of contempt or section 228 proceedings to intimidate lawyers and thereby prevent them from performing their legitimate tasks of defending their clients, as in the case of Phyo Wai Aung.

I note that at present the new legislature in Myanmar is undertaking to review many old laws, and accordingly we call for a thorough review of the law on contempt so that it not be systematically abused, as at present, so as to prevent lawyers from undertaking their legitimate tasks, and thereby to deny defendants their legal rights.

Yours sincerely,

AUTHOR: William Nicholas Gomes
URL: www.williamgomes.org
E-MAIL: williamgomes.org [at] gmail.com

The world must heed Khader Adnan’s call: Make Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2012, A Day of International Action.

“I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on,” Sheikh Khader Adnan wrote from the bed that Israeli soldiers chained him to in the Ramleh prison hospital on 11 February.

“It is time the international community and the UN support prisoners and force the State of Israel to respect international human rights and stop treating prisoners as if they were not humans.” (Ma’an News Agency, “Hunger-striking prisoner not backing down,” 11 February 2012)

As we mark the 65th day of an ongoing hunger strike by Sheikh Khader Adnan, whose struggle has inspired millions and infused the Palestinian national and solidarity movements with new energy, we must reflect on his call to the world and prepare a meaningful international strategy to support Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.

Khader Adnan is fighting for rights that should be guaranteed to all prisoners, including due process, fair and equal treatment, and freedom from torture and other coercive methods. Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank face a military justice system that is entirely separate from that for Jewish Israelis, including settlers, who are instead part of the Israeli civil justice system; this military justice system for Palestinian political prisoners includes systematic and arbitrary detention without charge, the acceptance of torture, an almost complete lack of due process, vague charges, very low standards of evidence including the use of secret evidence, and widely disparate and harsher sentencing than the civil justice system.In Israel’s domestic criminal justice system exists a system of apartheid Palestinian citizens of Israel charged with political offenses are deemed ‘security prisoners’ and treated very differently from Jewish citizens. Palestinians are subject to unjust and unequal trials using secret evidence, gag orders, and evidence obtained through torture. (Please see this comprehensive analysis by Addameer for further details.)

As of January 2012, 4,417 Palestinian political prisoners are held in jails in Israel, including 170 children and 6 women. Just like Khader, 310 prisoners are held – without charge or trial – under administrative detention including over 20 lawmakers. In solidarity with them, and to broaden Khader’s struggle, we will actively oppose their imprisonment and any detentions without fair trials.

We demand the immediate release of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. They have been targeted by an unfair and unequal legal system. Their imprisonment reflects Israel’s inherent system of injustice and racism. In addition, Israel must immediately halt its practices of:

• Administrative detention.
• Torture and ill-treatment of detainees.
• Solitary confinement and isolation.
• The use of military courts in the occupied Palestinian territory that illegally try civilians.
• Undermining a fair trial by using secret evidence against the accused.
• Arresting vulnerable groups, such as children, disabled, elderly and ill people.

On Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, Tuesday, April 17, we ask that all supporters of the Palestinian political prisoners’ movement bring Khader Adnan’s spirit of resistance to the doorsteps of his captors and would-be killers:

• Organize a protest in front of your local Israeli embassy, consulate or mission.
• Write letters to protest the violations of rights of Palestinian political prisoners and to call for an intervention to the International Committee of the Red Cross, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and your government or parliamentarians.
• Raise awareness on your University campus or in your community about Palestinian political prisoners
• Picket and protest G4S, Motorola, the Volvo Group, and the Israeli Medical Association – all providing services to Israel’s prisons – as well as other targets of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which challenges the Israeli policies of occupation, colonization and apartheid these repressive institutions maintain.
• Write letters to Palestinian prisoners expressing your support.

We must not allow Khader’s struggle to pass, like so many before his, as one more brave stand crushed by the armed might of the Israeli apartheid regime, unremarkable and inconsequential. Rather let this historic moment mark the beginning of a revitalized global movement for Palestinian prisoners, their rights, their families, and their struggle. Together, we can make it so.

Khader lives.

Sign on now!

Initiating Signatories:

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section
UFree Network
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Free Ameer Makhoul Campaign
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
Al-Awda New York, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
CAPPJPO-EuroPalestine
Coalition for a Free Palestine – South Africa
Existence is Resistance
Frantz Fanon Foundation, France
French Jewish Union for Peace
Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Labor for Palestine
Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
National Lawyers Guild International Committee/Free Palestine Subcommittee
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK)
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Siegebusters
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
US Palestinian Community Network
Vermonters for a Just Peace

Click here to add your endorsement.

First published at The Electronic Intifada.

AUTHOR: Adri Nieuwhof
URL: http://www.samora.org
E-MAIL: a.nieuwhof [at] samora.org

In this article suggestions have been given to the government of India in context to its draft National Water Policy 2012 towards water resource planning, development and management in the Mountains of India. This policy document talks about national level water related issues like; legal, usage, climate change adaptation, availability, management, pricing, infrastructure, planning, R & R policies, disaster preparedness, institutional arrangements, among others.  It has been advised that the national Policy needs to be constructed considering various ecological principles in terms of judicious use and equitable development.

The Government of India intend to revise the National Water Policy (Link: Draft National Water Policy India Feb 2012 ) after almost ten years and asked for comments. After reading the national water policy 2012, I am proposing specific comments in regards to mountain states of India.

The mountain regions of India need enough attention due to their very different topography and geomorphological settings. Mountains occupy 24% of the surface area on Earth and have ecological, aesthetic, and socioeconomic significance, not only for the people who derive their daily subsistence from mountain resources, but, also for the estimated 40% of the global population depending indirectly on these resources for water, hydroelectricity, timber, biodiversity, and other niche products (A. Schild 2010). Himalayan glaciers are the source of the great Asian rivers on which about 2 billion people depend for drinking water and irrigation for their crops.

In 2008, the UN General Assembly adopted the Resolution 62/196 on sustainable mountain development, which specifically emphasized on sustainable development of the mountain region regions by recognizing the global importance of mountains as the source of most of the Earth’s freshwater.

Of the total 50,000 glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region the Indian Himalayan region contains 9575 glaciers and feeds 19 river systems, which includes the major rivers like Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra. The glaciers in the Indian Himalayan region are spread across above 1 million Sq. km of mountain area with a total of about 23 thousand Sq. km glacial area.

In the above context, though the present Water Policy discusses coastal the regions of India (covering 11 Indian states) and the impact of climate change, but, equal importance has not been given to the 12 Indian mountain states. We need to think about this in terms of mountain specific water resource planning and budgeting. Our mountains store water in the form of snow, glaciers, permafrost, wetlands, and rivers, and they supply watersheds by providing ground water recharge. The communities who live in mountain areas benefit from these services, but the main beneficiaries of this huge water storage capacity are the multitudes who live in the vast basin areas downstream.

A recent Task Force Report of the Planning Commission of India (in 2010) on the hill states specifically emphasized that the mountains have profound effect on the climate of the Indian subcontinent and Tibetan plateau. It states that the water resource in the Indian Himalayan region are under threat due to diminishing discharge of springs and lowering water table, high silt load, water pollution and reduced water flow from big hydropower projects.

Following are the specific recommendations of the Task force in the context of mountain water:

1. In the Indian hill regions there should be provisions for water recharge zones and spring sanctuaries, rainwater harvesting and community owned network of small hydropower generation.
2. The ground water potential of different states of the Indian Himalayan region should be considered while planning for water security of the region.
3. There is a need for workable and community supported solutions to the discharge of polluted water for human habitation and agro-horticulture and industrial operations.

The Hindu Kush Himalayan mountains are a major source of stored water in the region. Water is retained in the form of ices and snow in the high mountains, as well as being stored in natural lakes, wetlands, and ground water aquifers, and behind constructed dams.  It is evident that the temperature and precipitation in the form of rainfall and snow largely determine the hydrological cycle, including runoff. The changes in these factors will thus impact freshwater supplies from mountain areas and have implications for water availability in the lowlands.

The High altitude wetlands are important ecosystems in the Himalayan region (form 16% of total area of HKH) and the ground water aquifers are important for water storage.

Given that the Water Policy 2012 contains all the possible elements of water resource planning, implementation and management, but in my view it should adopt a more pragmatic approach in putting and defining them. Following suggestions should be considered by the policy making team in context to mountain regions specifically, and in general:

1. Water storage based on local practices, should be encouraged.
2. It should have solutions that consider shorter and erratic rainfall, to store massive quantities of water for dry spells.
3. There is a need to understand the potential of water storage for climate change adaptation in mountain regions, and, therefore, it is necessary to look at the natural storage systems in the cryosphere and biosphere, as well as examining constructed systems (The natural systems in the cryosphere include snow, ices and glacial lakes, while the natural systems in the biosphere include soil, moisture, ground water aquifers and natural water bodies and wetlands. The constructed systems include artificial ponds and tanks, as well as small and large reservoirs.)
4. The Policy should look in the existing National Action Plan for Climate Change that emphasizes water resources in terms of adaptation and mitigation measures.
5. While the Policy talks about the ‘low public consciousness’ on water security and its economic value, we need to incorporate the specific provisions of larger and comprehensive IEC (information, education, communication) campaigning through all possible means to save water and I would say that the proposed authorities should take stock from the national campaign – the Polio Eradication programme.
6. While we covered the human, social and economic needs of water in planning, development and management, equal emphasis has not been given to the ecological need, and payment for ecological services (PES).
7. Provisions to fulfill the data gap in the Indian Himalayan region in the context of complete data set on temperature and rainfall pattern will help in future planning.
8. We can’t afford to have the private sector taking charge of water in the states due various reasons and this issue should be dealt with cautiously through a separate debate, considering the environmental and ecosystem issues.
9. In water pricing I see that provisions have been made selectively on volumetric basis, if this is the case then we must think that the water used by big hydropower projects, due to which many ecosystems in the river basins get affected should be charged for holding huge amount of water for the electricity generation. We should think in terms of natural and man-made storage systems, so for obvious reasons when we are using a definite volume of water for productive purposes or business like industrial operations, hydro-power generation or tourism, etc. the cost of using that water should be borne by that business on a volumetric basis.
10. Special emphasis should be given to research areas like GLOF (Glacial Lake Outburst Floods), and high altitude wetlands.
11. Given that in practice different aspects of water use in India fall within the purview of several ministries, line departments and institutions, at both the central and state levels a cautious and practical approach needs to be adopted by applying the IWRM principles for water development and management.

Photo Credit: Mr. Dinesh Mahtolia, Nainital, Uttarakhand (India)

AUTHOR: K. N. Vajpai
URL: http://vajpai.org and http://chimalaya.org
E-MAIL: knvajpai [at] climatehimalaya.net

The event promises to be the largest convergence of dairy stakeholders in Africa bringing together providers of technologies and solution in the dairy industry in the region.

Under the theme African Dairy: Driving competitiveness through technology, the event, according to the Peter Ngaruiya, the Executive Director of the ESADA, “will seek to address key issues that are facing the industry and chart the way forward by providing solutions that are workable for consumers of dairy products and other players in the dairy industry”.

The participants will also discuss on the ways of having the dairy industry play a bigger role in trade and industry development in Africa.

But according to Moses Nyabila, the Regional Director of the East Africa Dairy Development Project of the Heifer International, there are many bottle necks facing dairy processors who trade within the various trading blocks in Africa.

He says the agencies in charge of dairies, they have all erected barriers.

He adds that although they all want the barriers to come down, they however raise them up when products from the neighbouring countries export products across the borders.

“There are issues with the import licensing is still there and makes it hard for products to cross the border. Then there are issues with the standards, and the customs who hold products at the borders for long,” he said.

The dairy sector faces problems both at the products side as well as inputs side all of which do not offer farmers benefits.

Ngaruiya says that over the years, the cost of production has increased, slashing the profit levels that farmers would normally enjoy. “We hope that by understanding new ways of managing costs then farmers would increase their output among other benefits.

In Kenya, livestock producers contribute to 17 per cent to the GDP and generate KSh320 billion annually.

But the sector has suffered somewhat due to reduced effectiveness of extension services, low absorption of modern technologies, limited capital and access to affordable credit.

AUTHOR: Henry Neondo
URL: http:// www.africasciencenews.org
E-MAIL: neondohenry [at] yahoo.com

Felipe Calderón

John Ackerman is a U.S. born and trained scolar (Ph.D. in political science, University of California, Santa Cruz) who is also a Mexican citizen. He is a researcher in the Institute of Judicial Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and editorial director of the Mexican Law Review. He is a columist for La Jornada newspaper and Proceso magazine. He maintains a blog of his articles in Spanish, as well as some in English. 

La Jornada: “The most serious cases of politicization of law enforcement are not the ones known to us, but those that we don’t know. The Michoacan cases (in which thirty-some mayors belonging to the PRI–Institutional Revolutionary Party–were arrested on drug corruption charges just before the mid-term congressional elections in 2009 but subsequently released for lack of evidence) and the cases of Greg Sanchez (Cancún area politician charged with, but absolved of ties to drug trafficking) and Jorge Hank Rohn (former PRI mayor of Tijuana), and the ongoing criminal investigations (of Humberto Moreira, former PRI governor of) Coahuila and (three former PRI governors of) Tamaulipas, are only the tip of the iceberg. The real scandal is not that the PGR (Attorney General of Mexico) has decided to investigate and make a show of these politicians, but that it has not done so earlier and in a more systematic and widespread manner.

How many times will Felipe Calderon, for political reasons, order that a criminal case be filed against a high-level official? Why do none of the political front line investigations by the PGR have to do with PAN (National Action Party, the party of President Calderon)? The politicization of justice has been the rule throughout the country’s recent history. More serious than the current attempts by Calderon to intimidate his present-day opponents are his pacts of complicity and impunity with his friends of yesterday.

… Mexico needs more, not less, serious investigation of the probable complicity of senior officials and business leaders with organized crime and drug trafficking. The levels of impunity and infiltration that remain in the country today are not just a result of actions by individual police, prosecutors and corrupt judges. Instead, they reflect government policies and systems of complicity that are fostered and tolerated at the highest levels.

Last week, General Guillermo Galván confessed that, in many parts of the country, public safety agencies are completely overrun and that in some regions organized crime has appropriated state institutions. This is not just the responsibility of the PRI, but also of the party that now rules the federal level.

The audit by the Supreme Audit Office of the Federation (ASF) for FY 2010 helps us to understand the reasons for such a monumental failure in public safety. During 2010, for every 100 criminal investigations opened by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) only 34 were presented before a judge. In other words, 66 percent of investigations were completely without substance, either because the persons being investigated or arrested had nothing to do with the crimes under investigation or because of the total ineptitude of the agents of the MPF to prove the crime or who was responsible. Also during the same year, nearly 7,000 injunctions were canceled because their time limits had expired and the authorities had not acted.

The ASF also found that the PGR simply does not have a reliable record of the arrests and dispositions before the Federal Public Ministry for all of 2010. It turns out that during the process of a change in the systems for recording this information the data was lost or never recorded.

The auditor, Juan Manuel Portal, also certified what many already suspected: the PGR simply does not have an anti-drug strategy. The National Drug Control Program of 2007-2012, which was drafted early in the presidential term, was never properly approved or given institutional follow-up. The PGR also now operates with completely outdated and unworkable rules that do not correspond to the new Organic Law of the institution, published on May 29, 2009.

The recent firing of the special prosecutor for electoral crimes, Jose Luis Vargas, and of the inspector general of the PGR, Cesar Chavez, are not, then, a turn toward greater politicization of the institution, but are just the latest examples of the large institutional weakness have eaten away at the state agency from the beginning of the current administration. While the case of Vargas has received more media attention, the Chavez case is also serious. In 2011 he had achieved a 300 percent increase in the number of observations issued to PGR officials regarding administrative and criminal irregularities. Apparently, this effort to implement a more energetic internal purge made the attorney general, Marisela Morales, uncomfortable.

AUTHOR: Reed Brundage
URL: http://americasmexico.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: Americas [at] ciponline.org

It’s a government-wide call to end Islamophobia, according to a blog by a Washington, DC-based watchdog group that investigates, exposes and prosecutes government corruption.

A few months after the Obama White House ordered an investigation of government counterterrorism training, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has destroyed instructional material that characterizes Muslims as prone to violence or terrorism, according to the Judicial Watch blog.

So far 700 pages of documents from about 300 presentations given to agents since the 2001 terrorist attacks have been purged, according to a new report published this week. The White House order came after the same publication reported in late November that the FBI, Department of Justice (DOJ) and Pentagon taught employees that mainstream Muslims embrace violence and compared the Islamic religion to the death star.

And the purge of training material regarding Islamic terrorism from law enforcement training is only the beginning. Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress that anti-Muslim instructional materials hurt the country’s fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. As a result of this mentality, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were asked to collect counterterrorism training materials at all military academies and academic centers such as the National Defense Intelligence College and the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.

“The goal, evidently, is to banish any material that could be viewed as offensive to Muslims,” said the JW blog.

To fulfill this politically-correct mission, the FBI enlisted the Army Combating Terrorism Center at West Point to purge material that conflates terrorism with mainstream Islam, according to inside information cited in the Judicial Watch report. The cleansing also includes a White House review on any information related to “cultural awareness” training for troops that were preparing to deploy to the Middle East.

This appears to be part of a wider Muslim outreach effort on the part of the Obama Administration and the president’s allies in Congress. Last spring, for instance, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee quietly scheduled a special hearing to better protect Muslim civil rights in America. Organized by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin — arguably one of the most sympathetic lawmakers to Islamic causes — the event came in “response to the spike in anti-Muslim bigotry” and marked the first ever congressional hearing on Muslim civil rights.

It was Durbin who on the floor of the Senate in 2004 called U.S. soldiers Nazis, and detention centers such as Guantanamo Bay “gulags.” He later apologized, but his constituents were happy to hear him denigrating U.S. troops since his district has a very large Muslim population, according to news reports.

According to the Examiner, other Muslim outreach efforts under Obama included; Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano meeting to discuss national security matters with a group of extremist Muslim organizations including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the nation’s space agency (NASA) being ordered to focus on Muslim diplomacy, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signing a special order to allow the reentry of two radical Islamic academics whose terrorist ties long banned them from the U.S.

AUTHOR: Jim Kouri
URL: http://www.renewamerica.com/
E-MAIL: COPmagazine [at] aol.com

This counsel was given by Ms Agnes Mwasembo when speaking to human rights defenders in Mbozi town, Mbeya region, Southern Highlands of Tanzania recently, during a visit to her office by representatives of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRD).

The survey was aimed at looking ways of merging activities of human rights activists and employees in the social welfare department and NGOs in seeking for gender parity.

Ms Mwasembo, apart from being a district community officer is an activist, and deputy secretary with the Mbeya based Human Rights National Association of Educators for World Peace. The NGO has been dealing with the needy, amongst the population with regard to human rights issues.

She says in her office she has been receiving cases of desertion, domestic violence, abandoned children, street children and matrimonial conflict, where some cases are still in court at present. She elaborates that it is hardest for widows who are so often kicked out of their family houses.

“I have been receiving sad cases where women are harassed, pointed to as having bewitched their husbands, and even at times blamed that they are the source of HIV/Aids infection in cases where their spouses have passed away as a result of this deadly disease,” she said.

She was supported by Ms Gift Sichone, a social welfare officer who says that in many matrimonial separations which her office has handled, she has witnessed a wrangle over child care where the two sides claim that they can look after the children well, but that is not true in many cases. “It is sadly true that at times divorcees claim the children simply because they know that this will guarantee them a flow of money, but men want to take their children simply because they want to cut off communications with their former spouses altogether, this is a serious challenge,” she commented.

She further related that in situations of this nature women were susceptible to Gender Based Violence (GBV), particularly if they had established new matrimonial relationships, and since it is a right for both parents to see their children there was always a necessity to escort them in order to avoid intimidation.

Statistics at the Mbozi offices indicate that from December 2010 to December 2011 there were 16 GBV cases that reached the district welfare office. In the same period there were three estate and land cases regarding widows who had been kicked out of their homes.

Two cases reached the office where women had lost everything after their husbands passed away, four cases were resolved in the same office. In Tunduma one parent who was granted care of the children after a separation had submitted a written statement not allowing his former wife to visit their children in their boarding school.

In the same period there were four rape cases but it is claimed that family members and some Police officials had colluded for an out-of-court settlement. Efforts to get comments from the Mbozi OCD, Vitus Dudu, proved futile.

AUTHOR: Elias Mhegera
URL: http://mhegeraelias.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: mhegeraelias [at] yahoo.com

Such lashings are daily occurrences and designed to teach women to “behave” in accordance with Sharia law, which means dressing properly, behaving properly, speaking properly, and of course more serious punishment reserved for adultery or running a brothel. The Sudanese judiciary is investigating the incident that dramatizes the medieval treatment of women.

This incident has sparked a great deal of revulsion around the world as it should have. The question is why focus on this case and not the larger issue of the rights of women in all “traditional” societies, Islamic or not, pro-West and not, suffering under barbaric treatment in the name of tradition, religion, and archaic laws?

This is a complex topic that cannot be covered in a few lines. There are a couple of thousand books dealing with women and Islam, and many thousands of articles, mostly written by westerners or western-educated Muslims living in the west.

There is the core issue of course of the degree to which Sharia law reflects the Quran, which was very progressive toward women for its time, far more humane than anything the Eastern of Western Christians had in the Middle Ages. To the degree that the law reflects Hadith, (sayings of the Prophet) collections of writings from 8th and 9th century dealing mostly with legal aspects of the faith, there is substantial criticism by critics of the treatment of women in Islamic countries.

Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex in my view remains the classic study in understanding gender relations in a historical context and against the background of a given culture (in its broadest possible context that includes religion) and class system. While the entire world should express in every method possible outrage at barbaric treatment of women in traditional societies, it is also important to consider cultural relativism.

It is not possible to apply the same criteria of gender relations in contemporary Sweden and Norway as in contemporary Afghanistan and Sudan. Islamic feminism may not be acceptable as “real feminism” to Western feminists, but it is a form of feminism suitable for the cultural settings of Muslim countries and a step toward humane treatment of women. The totality of traditions, institutions, and social structure of the countries in comparison are very different, not merely the domain of gender relations.

The sense of social harmony and social justice in Islamic countries is not the same as it is in the secular West that has undergone Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment, intellectual revolutions that helped societies make the great leap forward from religious-based traditionalism rooted in patriarchy to secularism that only recently permitted human rights to include assertion of female identity. After all, Europeans under traditionalist religious-based cultures tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of women not only as part of the witchcraft craze, but also as infants to avoid the burden of dowry and in pursuit of male heirs to carry on the patriarchical tradition.

While the legal system can change rapidly to permit for humane treatment of women in traditional societies, cultural and social changes are hardly something that can change overnight. It is also true that the treatment of women in Islamic societies has been used by the West to stigmatize countries with which the West has an antagonistic relationship in this epoch of terrorism that the West identifies with Islam. The treatment of women in a friendly Muslim country like Saudi Arabia is almost never an issue. By contrast, the same incident is front and center in western governments and press if the Muslim country, let us say Iran, is overtly anti-Western.

The antagonistic US (and European) antagonistic relationship with Muslim countries since the collapse of the Communist bloc makes it very difficult for the West to preach to Islamic nations rights of women as an integral part of human rights. Nevertheless, it is difficult to defend the extraordinarily harsh treatment of women in a number of Islamic countries that rigidly apply Sharia law largely for political and cultural reasons than as an observance to religious tradition.

To watch a young lady beaten in public, crying as she seems in horrible pain, humiliated by lashings and to simply not feel disgust at the absurdity of the barbarian legal system that permits such treatment of a human being is inhuman. While solutions for a society’s unjust institutions cannot be imposed from the outside, in the age of instant communications networks that link the entire world, it is difficult to hide the inhuman treatment of women justified by laws devised in the 8th and 9th century.

Finally, there is something disturbing when the world expresses outrage about a Chinese dissident who receives the Nobel Peace Prize and he is the subject of so much public sympathy, while countless of women daily, some victims of brutal legal practices others of human trafficking receive very little sympathy and then only when it is politically advantageous to the West to do so.

Raising the awareness level of women’s rights on a global scale is a first step. The United Nations, NGOs and private organizations have the proper role to advocate for women than any government, least of all any Western government currently at war with Islamic nations. There are many such organizations and they are easily accessible on the web, always seeking public support in any manner that it can be offered.

AUTHOR: Jon Kofas
URL: http://jonkofas.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: jonkofas [at] yahoo.com

Flag used by the Taliban (1997–2001)

The withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan by 2014 has set into motion a hastened process of reconciliation. Among the flurry of activities that is going on, the most conspicuous is the ongoing negotiations with the Taliban, the key stakeholders in building durable stability in the war torn country.

It’s a foregone conclusion that if long term peace has to be established in Afghanistan, then it is essential to have a political settlement with the Taliban.

Now when the US has changed its strategy from fighting the Taliban to reconciliation with them realizing that it cannot militarily defeat them negotiating have started at Jeddah, Qatar and in Kabul.

However the most complex part is with whom the negotiation has to be held. Taliban is a faction ridden organization and reconciliation with one can become source of animosity with other.

How the negotiators can satisfy all the groups and how can they tackle the disgruntled one, is something that needs to be carefully watched.

It would be an interesting exercise to give some thought on the Taliban groups, their composition, to draw conclusion whether the talks would materialize in bringing the Taliban into the mainstream.

At the moment Taliban is a fragmented lot with different views and factions emerging among them. The newer and younger field commanders who have borne the brunt of field casualties facing up to the US troops surge are more radicalized or extreme in their views.

Some of these mobile troop commanders in the field, to whom Pakistani patrons are no longer that popular, do not feel inhibited to maintain connections with the Iranian Basij. Now, given the US Iran relationship, this negotiation process becomes complicated.

Others are more receptive to insurgency fatigue experienced by common people at the grassroots and their support is openly voiced in favour of better civic amenities and education for girls in rural Afghanistan. This is the section which is more amenable for negotiations.

There are three main Shooras that are known to exist and that forms the core body of the Talibs. The Quetta Shoora based in Quetta and most directly under the charge of Mullah Omar. The Peshawar Shoora, earlier known to be in control of Mullah Akhtar Mansour and the Miramshah Shoora of the Haqqanis (Jalaluddin’s sons-Siraj, Nasir) predominantly under influence of the Zadran tribes are the main pivots of the Taliban with whom negotiations is to held.

In more recent times, individual commanders have become prominent and established independent following or support bases.

Maulvi Abdul Qayyum Zakir, a former Gauntanamo inmate who was released by the US sometime back has emerged as Mullah Omar’s Combat Operations Commander.

Other prominent leaders include Maulvi Hassan Rahmani, considered ideologically close to Mullah Omar and possibly inclined to moderation.

Maulvi Abdul Rauf Khadim who earlier commanded Taliban’s mobile field reserves and is now shadow Governor for Uruzgan. He is seen as a potential rival to Maulvi Abdul Qayyum Zakir and is allied with the camp of Mullah Akhtar Mansour.

The current shadow Governor of Kandahar, Mullah Abdul Razzaq Akhund is considered one of the hardliner, anti- US ideologues that have a brutal record against its opponents.

Amir Khan Muttaqi is a senior leader heading their propaganda wing. Maulvi Ishmayel is known as the kidnappings expert.

Maulvi Gul Mohd has been successful in the North while Sheikh Mohd Dost is a Taliban leader from the minority Pashai tribe.

Though tactical linkages of Afghan Taliban with the Pakistani continues, none of the above second string Taliban leaders are known to be unduly close to the hardliner like Hakimullah Mehsud.

They were once closer to the Mullah Dadullah faction, but known to have weakened or even dissipated after the latter’s death.

So this is the broad spectrum of the Talibs the situation on ground is muddy. It is with these factions that the negotiations have to be held. The negotiations that are being held, it remains to be seen who all can be won over and who all will fall out.

Known Taliban demands openly voiced and reiterated from time to time are release of all Guantanamo Bay prisoners. There are about twenty such personnel known to be held.

There are reports of agreement being reached with US interlocutors on release of eight such high value targets including Mullah Khairkhowa, believed to be close to Mullah Omar and considered a moderate, in comparative terms.

Release of all prisoners held inside Afghanistan. Removal of UN sanctions- acceptance of Taliban as a political organization- declaration of a ceasefire and a time schedule for complete withdrawal of all foreign forces, are some other demands.

Acknowledgement of Shariah principles- incorporation of Shariah law provisions in some form in the Constitution are also being demanded.

Extension of a comprehensive guarantee of a substantive role in governance after a power sharing agreement has been negotiated.

An essential corollary to this demand would be a purge of existing ANA/ANP forces to alter their ethnic composition and amalgamate their own mobilised armed personnel in some workable or acceptable proportion.

Some progress appears to have been made in discussion of these demands. There were reports that President Karzai had been able to reach out to Mullah Khairkhowa and was favorably inclined towards his early release and utilization thereafter, as a conduit to Mullah Omar.

As troop withdrawals begin at year-end, it remains to be seen how Taliban behave, will they remain content with the agreement reached if any, or will they break free and force themselves on Kabul. In such case, who and how they could be reined.

In such backdrop, any peace process in Afghanistan has to address its military and political dimensions. In the military dimension, it would be imperative for those won over to suggest changes to the pattern of ongoing fighting operations.

Their advice also needs to be sought whether there should be conditional or localised ceasefires mutually agreed upon, to stop aerial bombardment, whether Taliban could be given legal recognition in some areas which they control, whether a time-table could be worked out for de-escalation, which would include surrenders or voluntary arms disclosure.

If accepted, these changes could provide grounds to take negotiations further but these need trust, which is currently just not there between the negotiators.

On the political side, negotiators would need to work out which aspects of the Constitution would be acceptable to the Taliban and what would be the nature and content of any package of Islamic tenets, the Taliban may insist on being recognized before any power sharing deal takes shape.

American interlocutors, Afghan government and Taliban negotiators would have to develop and communicate these military and political proposals and see how they inter-mesh with the actual situation on the ground.

As of now the reconciliation agenda in Afghanistan is likely to remain mired in imponderables and proceed at best, in fits and starts.

AUTHOR: Mujtaba Syed
URL: http://mujtabas-musings.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: syedalimujtaba [at] yahoo.com

“If you look at the records then most of the streams and rivers have been booked for hydro power. The so called investors, they take the license and

wait for years paying a nominal amount of taxes to the government and the government in the name of lack of management waits and watches. What a worst situation” said Nirupam Dhoj Karki an activist

According to the organizer, “It is a simple effort to raise awareness regarding the current situation we have been silent from past 5 years, what did they do? It is high time that the public ask few questions and we are doing that as we have the rights?”

Different popular band like Abhaya and the Steam injuns, Tripitak, Anuprastha, Albatross band also performed in raising awareness.

With the high time and high rates of power cut, few of the facebook activists and rock stars came in action to raise the issue of power shortage. The concert “Let there be Light” was organized by a L.A.M.P.S which aim to raise awareness regarding the short cry of power.

AUTHOR: Shreedeep Rayamajhi
URL: http://www.shreedeeprayamajhi.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: weaker [at] gmail.com