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At home and abroad, UN report details abysmal U.S record of abuse

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Torture, indefinite detention, excessive force, and systematic discrimination and mistreatment have become part of the nation’s modern legacy

The findings of a new UN report do not reflect well on the U.S., a nation that continues to tout itself as a leader on such issues despite the enormous amount of criticism aimed at policies of torture, indefinite detention, and various forms of other abuse in recent years. (Image: Witness Against Torture/flickr)

The findings of a new UN report do not reflect well on the U.S., a nation that continues to tout itself as a leader on such issues despite the enormous amount of criticism aimed at policies of torture, indefinite detention, and various forms of other abuse in recent years. (Image: Witness Against Torture/flickr)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

An official report by the United Nations Committee Against Torture released Friday found that the United States has a long way to go if it wants to actually earn its claimed position as a leader in the world on human rights.

Following a lengthy review of recent and current practices regarding torture, imprisonment, policing, immigration policies, and the overall legacy of the Bush and Obama administration’s execution of the so-called ‘War on Terror,’ the committee report (pdf) found the U.S. government in gross violation when it comes to protecting basic principles of the Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. ratified in 1994, as well as other international treaties.

This was the first full review of the U.S. human rights record by the UN body since 2006 and the release of the report follows a two-day hearing in Geneva earlier this month in which representatives of the Obama administration offered testimony and answered questions to the review panel. The report’s findings do not reflect well on the U.S., a nation that continues to tout itself as a leader on such issues despite the enormous amount of criticism aimed at policies of torture and indefinite detention implemented in the years following September 11, 2001, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that followed, and the global military campaign taking place on several continents and numerous countries that continues to this day.

In addition to calling for full accountability for the worst torture practices that happened during the Bush administration, the panel also demanded the Obama administration end the continued harsh treatment of foreign detainees at its offshore prison at Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba. AsReuters notes, the panel’s report criticized what it called a continued U.S. failure to fully investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment of terrorism suspects held in U.S. custody abroad, “evidenced by the limited number of criminal prosecutions and convictions”.

According to the report:

The Committee expresses its grave concern over the extraordinary rendition, secret detention and interrogation programme operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between 2001 and 2008, which involved numerous hum an rights violations, including torture, ill – treatment and enforced disappearance of persons suspected of involvement in terrorism – related crimes. While noting the content and scope of Presidential E.O. 13491, the Committee regrets the scant information pr ovided by the State party with regard to the now shuttered network of secret detention facilities, which formed part of the high – value detainee programme publicly referred to by President Bush on 6 September 2006. It also regrets the lack of information pr ovided on the practices of extraordinary rendition and enforced disappearance; and, on the extent of the CIA’s abusive interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists, such as waterboarding.

As The Guardian reports:

Many of the harshest criticisms are reserved for the Bush administration’s excesses between 2001 and 2009. But the committee is critical of how the current US government has failed, in its view, to clean up the mess that was created in the wake of 9/11.

In particular, it wants to see the US acknowledge torture as a specific criminal offence at the federal level, thereby removing possible loopholes in the law. It also urges the US Senate select committee on intelligence to publish as quickly as possible its report into the CIA’s historic detention and interrogation programme that has been caught up in political wrangling for months.

“The Obama administration needs to match its rhetoric with actions by supporting full accountability for torture,” said Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU’s human rights program, in response to the report. “As a start, that means allowing the release of the Senate’s torture report summary without redactions that would defeat report’s primary purpose, which is to expose the full extent of government abuse. It also means ensuring a top-to-bottom criminal investigation of the torture that occurred.”

The report says that though the U.S. has tough anti-torture statutes on the books, it has not gone far enough in some areas to guarantee that no loopholes exist and has done far too little to allow redress for violations that have already occurred. In terms of recommendations, panel’s report “calls for the declassification of torture evidence, in particular Guantanamo detainees’ accounts of torture” and said the U.S. “should ensure that all victims of torture are able to access a remedy and obtain redress, wherever acts of torture occurred and regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. ”

In addition to criticizing other policies related to military engagement abroad, the committee slammed the U.S. for many of its domestic policies, including prolonged solitary confinement of those in prison; charges of “prolonged suffering” for those exposed to “botched” state executions; heavy-handed and discriminatory policing practices in the nation’s cities; the treatment of juveniles in the criminal justice system; and serious problems with its immigration enforcement policies.

As protests related to the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri continue this week, the UN panel specifically referred to the “frequent and recurrent police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals.”

Speaking with reporters, panel member Alessio Bruni said, “We recommend that all instances of police brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officers are investigated promptly, effectively and impartially by an independent mechanism.”

“This report – along with the voices of Americans protesting around the country this week – is a wake-up call for police who think they can act with impunity,” said ACLU’s Dakwar. “It’s time for systemic policing reforms and effective oversight that make sure law enforcement agencies treat all citizens with equal respect and hold officers accountable when they cross the line.”

Surinder Koli must not be hanged: ACHR

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Surinder Koli

New Delhi: Asian Centre for Human Rights while releasing its report, “Death Reserved for the Poor” Monday stated that condemned prisoner, Surinder Koli, who was convicted and sentenced to death in the Rimpa Halder murder case must not be executed before conclusion of the trial in 11 other cases of the Nithari murders.

Koli’s case must be reviewed again in the light of the judgements in all the pending Nithari cases.

The stay on Koli’s execution by the Allahabad High Court expires on 1 December 2014.

“If Koli is executed, the families of the victims of 11 pending cases in which Koli is an accused shall be denied justice, which means nothing less than final conclusion of the trials. Further, if Koli is executed, co-accused Pandher will get inadvertent favour. As Koli remains in jail he does not pose any threat to society whatsoever, and there is nothing urgent which warrants his execution before the conclusion of the trials of all the pending cases.” – stated Suhas Chakma, Coordinator of the National Campaign for Abolition of Death Penalty in India.

The report concluded that it is the poor and uneducated who are disproportionately awarded death penalty as they are unable to defend themselves in the highly expensive legal system. On the other hand, the rich and well-connected criminals can sabotage the probe, intimidate, influence and induce witnesses, suppress evidence with money and muscle power, and abuse all the procedural rights, the report said.

The report highlighted a number of cases of miscarriage of justice including by the Supreme Court which had upheld death penalty to juveniles like Ram Deo Chauhan of Assam in 2000 and Ankush Maruti Shinde of Maharashtra in 2009 as the legal aid lawyers provided by the State did not raise the issue of juvenility before the Courts.

“If Ram Deo Chauhan and Ankush Maruti Shinde were from rich and educated families, such gross miscarriage of justice would not arisen.”- Mr. Chakma said.

Asian Centre for Human Rights recommended to the Government of India to grant mercy to all those who are defended by legal aid because of poverty in all stages of the trial and appeal, and further ensure that the trial courts appoint advocate/amicus curiae who have trial practices on the offences that the accused is charged with.

Five African novels to read before you die

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Odds were on for Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o winning the Nobel Prize this year. University of California/Ho/EPA

Odds were on for Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o winning the Nobel Prize this year. University of California/Ho/EPA

by Brendon Nicholls, The Conversation

There is a surfeit of book prizes. Big ones, small ones, ones that award experimental fiction, others that concentrate on female authors, or young authors, or authors from Ireland or Latin America. African literature is blossoming, and its prize culture is flourishing alongside. The Caine Prize is well-established, and the last few years have seen the establishment of the Mabati-Cornell Kiswahili Prize for work in African languages (announced on November 18), the Etisalat Prize for first time authors, and the South African Literary Awards.

None of these are recognised on a global level, and so people following this growing trend were excited when this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature re-ignited speculation that the Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o would receive the award. His fans reasoned that the recent death of Chinua Achebe might focus the minds of the Swedish Academy on their pioneering and accomplished, but now ageing, generation of African writers.

But it was not to be. So to partly address this yawning oversight, here’s a list of five of the greatest African novels:

1) Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958)

Things Fall Apart comprehensively imagines how the Nigerian Igbo community functioned prior to colonialism. The divisions in this community accompany the tragic fall of the hero, Okonkwo, whose heroic but rash stand against colonialism ends in a lonely suicide. Achebe’s wisdom is sufficient to move readers beyond recriminations or historical blame, since the Igbo community adapts to accommodate Christianity and new forms of colonial governance. Just as the novel’s title quotes Yeats’ poem The Second Coming, Achebe’s African philosophy of balance in all things works towards a millennial partnership with Western modernity.

2) Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Petals of Blood (1977)

This is the great novel of African socialism. Petals of Blood reaches beyond its native Kenya to embrace the wider black histories of the Caribbean and the US. Drawing together four village outcasts – a teacher, an ex-Mau Mau soldier, a student teacher and a barmaid – the novel intertwines the characters’ memories and life-experiences to construct a shared communal past. Ngugi accumulates a deep communal history of colonial, multi-national capitalist, and post-Independence theft. Charting the development and decline of a single village from Edenic pastoral to apocalyptic disorder, Petals of Blood likens the endlessly regenerating African socialist struggle to the Biblical resurrection.

3) Ayi Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born (1968)

Armah’s novel reflects on the existential predicament of one honest man, a lone moral beacon in the corrupt last days of the Ghana’s Nkrumah regime. Amid the greed of all who chase the “gleam” of possessions and wealth, Armah’s unnamed man endures slights from his political friends and chastisement from his wife. When the Nkrumah government eventually falls, the man becomes the ironic saviour of those who have attempted to corrupt him. The man’s moral purposes become vindicated for a moment and they anticipate a future in which the “Beautyful Ones” will one day be born.

4) Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1988)

A young Rhodesian girl, Tambu, dreams of going to school in a family that favours her brother. Breaking with her female destiny to work in the fields and bear children, Tambu realises her ambition of attending her uncle’s mission school. But all is not well. Tambu’s cousin, Nyasha, is aware of the trap of a colonial education, which empowers individuals at the cost of their belonging to family and community. As Tambu’s dream materialises, Nervous Conditions charts Nyasha’s increasingly self-destructive eating disorder in a futile rebellion against patriarchy and history.

5) Bessie Head, Maru (1977)

A powerful love story written during Head’s exile from Apartheid South Africa. Margaret Cadmore is a young Masarwa (Bushman) woman adopted and educated by a British namesake. Margaret’s identity breaks the usual categories in the Botswanan village of Dilepe, where her people are slaves. Unknowingly, she inspires a deadly love-rivalry between two powerful men, Maru and his best friend Moleka. Maru defeats Moleka and kidnaps Margaret through the wiles of witchcraft and suggestion. His marriage to Margaret has the effect of freeing her people from slavery. However, in an unconscious room in her mind, Margaret continues to dream of Moleka.

These novels contain stories that Africans themselves want to tell, stories that imagine a world exceeding all expectation. Their world, it is true, contains its elements of suffering, but it also offers the surprises of triumph, community, magic, justice, philosophy, wisdom, humour and the habits of African dailiness.

In celebration of African literature, readers can judge for themselves which of these great novels merit plaudits and accolades. So this year, stop that desperate rifling through the Booker and Nobel lists to find something to buy distant relatives for Christmas. Your list is right here.

Brendon Nicholls is a Lecturer in African and Postcolonial Literatures at University of Leeds.

The Conversation

Bhopal sitting on 18,000 tonnes of toxic waste even 30 years after gas tragedy

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Image from the movie Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

Image from the movie Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

by Sandeep Pouranik

Bhopal: The tens of thousands who survived the leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984 not only battle the after-effects but also live with an unsavoury legacy: 18,000 tonnes of toxic waste in the defunct plant that is polluting the environment and contaminating the soil and ground water.

The nearly 2,000 truckloads of the waste had been accumulating for nearly 15 years before the world’s worst industrial disaster struck, killing over 3,000 people immediately and thousands others over the years due to related causes.

Union Carbide had set up the pesticide plant in 1969. Twenty-one ponds were dug to dispose of the toxic effluent from the plant. The ponds were in use till 1977 when they proved to be inadequate due to the increasing volume of effluent from the plant. This necessitated a 32-acre solar evaporation pond, soon followed by two more such. Water from the effluent in these ponds got evaporated, leaving behind the harmful chemicals.

In 1996, waste from the three ponds was gathered in one pond and covered with soil. This waste exceeds 18,000 tonnes, Satinath Shadangi, a member of rights body Bhopal Group for Information and Action, told IANS.

It was only when various research showed that this waste was contaminating the soil and ground water and its spread was increasing over time that urgent steps were planned to destroy it, Shadangi said.

Alok Pratap Singh, who has been crusading for the rights of the victims of the gas tragedy, moved the Jabalpur High Court in July 2004 for disposal of the waste. The court constituted a task force to make recommendations on this.

In June 2005, the state government, as directed by the high court, tasked Ramky Enviro Engineers at Pithampur near Indore, to rid the Union Carbide plant of the waste. The company deposited 346 tonnes of pesticide and other chemicals and 39 tonnes of lime sludge in a warehouse in the pesticide plant.

As recommended by the task force, the high court in October 2006 ordered that the 385 tonnes of waste be incinerated at the Ankleshwar plant of Bharuch Environmental Infrastructure Limited in Gujarat. After widespread opposition to the move, the Madhya Pradesh government moved the Supreme Court in August 2008. In October 2009 the task force decided to send the waste to Pithampur in the state instead of Ankleshwar.

In January 2010, the Supreme Court directed that the waste be incinerated in Pithampur and asked the high court to oversee the entire process.

However, due to protests in villages surrounding Pithampur , the Madhya Pradesh government wrote to the central government in August 2010 expressing its inability to send the waste.

The central government moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court in May 2011 seeking a direction that the waste be incinerated at a Nagpur facility of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The high court asked the state government to do so.

Then, on a plea of the Vidarbha Environmental Action Group, the Mumbai High Court in July 2011 stayed its counterpart’s order.

Officials of the pollution control boards of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra met in February 2012 and decided that 346 tonnes of the waste would be incinerated at Pithampur.

In the meantime, a German company, GEZ, expressed interest in destroying the waste in Hamburg following which the central government moved the Supreme Court. The court directed the state government in April 2012 to send the waste to Germany, but later stayed this decision.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) also approved incineration of the waste in Germany. But this plan too had to be dropped due to opposition in that country. In October 2012, the GoM decided that the waste would be destroyed in Pithampur.

R.A. Khandelwal, commissioner, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, told IANS: “The Supreme Court in April 2014 ordered that 10 tonnes of waste be incinerated at Pithampur on a trial basis.” However, due to technical glitches in the incinerator, the waste has not been sent to Pithampur.

It’s a different matter that American courts have been moved for damages, but the question that now begs an answer is: If 346 tonnes of waste cannot be disposed off, what happens to the remaining 18,000 tonnes lying buried in the solar evaporation pond and elsewhere in the plant.

(IANS)

250 acres allotted to Coca Cola in Yadgir to set up bottling plant

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coca-cola-plant

Kalaburagi/Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has finally started process of handing over 250 acres land in Yadgir district to Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd to set up a greenfield bottling plant.

The previous Bharatiya Janata Party government had cleared Coca-Cola’s investment plan in Yadgir. But due to a High Court stay, the government could not allot the land immediately.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said the government had approved land for setting up a Coca-Cola factory at the proposed industrial area near Kadechur and Badiyal villages in Yadgir district.

He said he held talks with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited on Friday and decided to accept its proposal to set up its soft drink plan in Yadgir.

The government decided to draw 25 MLD of water for the industrial area from Joladgi-Gudur barrage built across River Bhima.

Textile Minister Baburao Chinchansoor said water would be drawn from Bhima and Krishna rivers for the plant. However, when asked, Siddaramaiah did not say where the government intended to draw the water from for the industrial area and the cola factory.

Ratna Prabha, State Additional Chief Secretary, Commerce and Industry Department, said the company is expected to invest Rs. 1,000 crore in Yadgir. She said that the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) has started making payments to land owners in Yadgir, and the area has been notified for industrial development. The KIADB will soon hand over complete 250 acres at Kadechur village in Yadgir taluk to the company.

Fertile land

Nearly 3,330 acres at Kadechur and Baliyala have been reserved for industrial purpose. Spread across three taluks — Shahapur, Shorapur and Yadgir — the district is known for its cluster of cement industries and a distinct stone popularly know as ‘Malakheda Stone’. The district has a vast stretch of fertile black cotton soil and is known for red gram, cotton, jowar and groundnut cultivation.

(Agencies)

Dear PM, Save Our Colleges From Communal Agendas

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Aligarh Muslim University

by Rana Ayyub

My father, a noted writer from the field of Urdu literature, like many of his friends from the Progressive writers movement, found in his alma mater Aligarh Muslim University, the courage to break the barriers of religion enforced stereotypes. He forced his wife, my mother, who was raised in a conservative family of zamindars from Uttar Pradesh to pursue her education post marriage and give up all ominous practices of subjugation.

Among the first few books my mother was gifted besides Maxim Gorky’s ‘Mother’ were on Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, the founder of AMU, and Sultan Shahjahan Begum, the first female ruler who vehemently worked for the promotion of education amongst women and Muslims in particular.

Shahjahan Begum, also referred to as the Begum of Bhopal, was the first Vice-Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University which gave India some of its best known luminaries from the field of politics, art, literature. AMU alumni include former Presidents of India and current Vice President Hamid Ansari, who also served a term as the Vice Chancellor of the university.

Some of the most prolific writers and thinkers with affiliation to the Marxist philosophy owe their careers to AMU. One such figure was Raja Mahendra Pratap, an admirer of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who started the Mohammad Anglo Oriental College after successfully completing his education from Oxford and Cambridge.

With the dominance of religious education in the lives of Muslims, who were in the lowest rung of socio-economic progress, Sir Syed understood that religious studies from Madrassas did not give the less privileged a window into the world; for them to succeed, there was a dire need for a platform which helped them with a contemporary understanding of religion, philosophy and science.

While the University was started with the intent of providing modern education to Muslims, non-Muslims were welcomed. It was for this reason that many Hindu rulers of the time sent their children to the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College spread over 468 hectares of land which was later renamed the Aligarh Muslim University.

So impressed was Raja Mahendra Pratap with the vision of Sir Syed that he decided to lease 3.04 acres of land to the AMU in 1929. Though it was a small share, this helped forge a strong bond between Hindus and Muslims. His commitment to the social cause and his zeal for the Marxist thought was such that Lenin himself is said to have invited him to Russia post the success of the Bolshevik revolution.

An independent MP from Mathura from the year 1955 to 1962, and a freedom fighter with a desire to weed out communal thinking, Mahendra Pratap despised all form of right-wing indoctrination. Little did he realize that one day his name would be used by right-wing leaders to turn an educational institute he so admired into a ground for religious polarisation.

Satish Gautam, BJP MP from Aligarh, whose party has professed commitment to ushering in a new era of development and inclusive growth, has decided to use AMU to instigate communal politics between Jats and Muslims, both communities being the main constituents of Aligarh.

Satish Gautam, a popular figure amongst Jats, possibly realises that the last time the two communities were provoked in Muzaffarnagar, it earned rich political dividends for his party. But in his overzealous endeavour to use AMU, he has conveniently forgotten to state some very important facts to his followers.

It would be judicious on the part of Satish Gautam, who has threatened to hold a rally at the gates of the AMU on the birth anniversary of Raja Mahendra Pratap on the 1st of December to list for his followers some of the most revolutionary non-Muslim thinkers from AMU. Before and during the freedom movement, both Muslim and Hindu kings and rulers united against the British and helped each other – these included funding educational institutions. AMU and the famous Banaras Hindu university were the two icons of this educational uprising that received patronage from both the communities.

Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, the founder of the Banaras Hindu University, had no qualms about accepting funds from Muslim rulers and elites.

If one were to accept the BJP MP’s logic, then each and every person who leased land for the 468 hectares of AMU will have to be celebrated just like each and every donor of BHU and thousands of other educational institutes in India.

Would the BJP MP not do a great service to the iconic institution by asking it to celebrate the birth anniversary of social reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who was one of the main influences on Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, or guide the non-Muslim students of Aligarh to the plaque of historian Ishwar Prasad, who belonged to the first batch of graduates from the AMU?

The Vice Chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University has written to the Education Minister Smriti Irani stating that the BJP’s decision to hold a rally would provoke communal tension; he has said the university is willing to diffuse the tension by holding a seminar on Raja Mahendra in the future. Smriti Irani displayed her feminist side by speaking out against the VC’s alleged decision to not allow female undergraduate students into the Central library – she called it an “insult to the daughters of the country.”

Now she should take the first step in saving the legacy of the likes of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya by weeding out the rogue elements who threaten to target educational institutions.

In the last few months, there seems to have been a meticulous plan to target educational bodies by fringe elements by planting fictitious stories and dividing them on religious lines. On this particular occasion, it would be wise for the powers that be to not allow local Samajwadi Party and BJP leaders to target the sacrosanct for a communal or political agenda. Both the HRD Minister and the Prime Minister, who has held education as one of the key areas of development in his agenda, should step forward to save the legacy of the great reformists from being converted into a communal experiment.

Rana Ayyub is an award-winning investigative journalist and political writer. She is working on a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi which will be published in 2015.

Bengaluru: Group of Congressmen set to revolt against Digvijay Singh

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Digvijay Singh

Bengaluru/Agencies: A number of current and past legislators belonging to Congress party are up in arms against Digvijay Singh, who has been in charge of Congress affairs in Karnataka since sometime. These people, who wield considerable clout in the party, have together begun an effort to divest Digvijay of Karnataka Congress affairs, and they have initiated efforts to bring pressure on the party high command to make this happen, sources said.

It is said that some state ministers and legislators are making efforts to ensure that Singh is relieved of charge relating to Karnataka, as they expect All India Congress Committee to be revamped during January or February 2015. Sources say that the issue has already reached Congress national vice president, Rahul Gandhi. These Congressmen are angry at keeping legislators and past legislators at bay while allotting seats in boards and corporations, and that the decisions of a single person is being imposed on all the people without justification.

It is gathered that top leaders in Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and government were ready to consider these people for heading corporations and boards, but Digvijay stuck to his stand against doing so. The party people are also angry that Digvijay had done so entirely on the advice of an individual.

It is learnt that Digvijay Singh has already instructed both Siddaramaiah and Dr G Parameshwara, to fill posts of directors in all urban development authorities, corporations, and boards in the state without further delay. He has told them to post loyal party workers to urban development authorities and to corporations and boards after obtaining resignations from present office bearers.

KPCC president, Dr G Parameshwar, has suddenly left for New Delhi, fuelling speculations about the purpose of his visit.

Modi, Sharif hold informal talks at Saarc retreat

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(Front L-R) Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maldives' President Abdulla Yameen, Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa attend the opening session of 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Kathmandu November 26, 2014. REUTERS/Narendra Shrestha/Pool

(Front L-R) Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maldives’ President Abdulla Yameen, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa attend the opening session of 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Kathmandu November 26, 2014. REUTERS/Narendra Shrestha/Pool

Kathmandu: In a significant development, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif held informal talks during the 18th Saarc Summit retreat Thursday afternoon.

Both sides maintained silence over the talks and did not divulge any details after the informal meeting.

The effect of the informal talks between Modi and Sharif was immediately reflected in the proposed agreements. The heads of state and government have agreed to sign the Saarc Framework Agreement on Energy Cooperation now and decided to sign two other agreements — relating to movement of motor vehicles and railways — within three months in a big face-saver for 18th Saarc Summit host Nepal in particular and the region as a whole.

Dinesh Bhattarai, foreign relations advisor to Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, who was present at the retreat, confirmed to IANS that both the leaders held informal talks after meeting each other along with other heads of the state and government.

Prime Minster Koirala pushed the leaders of the two South Asian neighbours to sit for talks, at least informally now, and break the logjam in the bilateral India-Pakistan relations.

When the two leaders were talking, other heads of state and government were also there. The retreat is an informal gathering in Saarc summits, and is referred to as “beauty time”.

In his personal talks with Modi, Koirala asked the Indian prime minister to reach out to Pakistan given its stature as Saarc leader, and its size, population and economy.

Though Modi and Sharif shook hands and talked briefly Wednesday, they had not interacted with each other at length. It was still not clear whether the two sides would hold delegation-level talks after the retreat got over Thursday afternoon.

The Saarc leaders, including Modi, Sharif and Koirala, cracked jokes, planted trees and shared personal trivia with each other.

After the retreat, the leaders have agreed to sign the Saarc Framework Agreement on Energy Cooperation which will be announced in the Kathmandu Declaration later Thursday.

Because of the deadlock between India and Pakistan, the fate of three proposed agreements — related to motor vehicles, railways and energy and all pushed by New Delhi — was uncertain until Thursday.

After the retreat and unofficial talks among the leaders, the Saarc leaders have agreed to sign the energy deal now and agreed to complete the other two agreements within three months, Bhattarai said.

Located in the neighbourhood of Kathmandu Valley, the Shangrila Resort in Dhulikhel is famous for its scenic beauty.

“While watching the Himalayas and taking herbal and organic food, Modi and Sharif were seen more open and close,” a diplomat said. “The focus was on how to carry on the Saarc process and how to strengthen bilateral ties.”

The 33 food items served to the leaders were totally vegetarian. Gujarati basundi with jalebi was served to Modi as dessert.

(IANS)

Israeli driver hits, kills Palestinian as "price tag" attacks intensify

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Israeli Occupation Forces use pressurized water to disperse Palestinians protesting against illegal Israeli settlement plans in Nablus, West Bank on November 21, 2014. Anadolu / Nedal Eshtayah

Israeli Occupation Forces use pressurized water to disperse Palestinians protesting against illegal Israeli settlement plans in Nablus, West Bank on November 21, 2014. Anadolu / Nedal Eshtayah

by Al-Akhbar

An Israeli bus driver ran over two Palestinians in the northern West Bank, killing one and injuring the other, Palestinian security sources said Tuesday, as Israeli forces detain tens in overnight raids in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.

Nour Hassan Naim Salim, 22, was killed and Alaa Kayid Salim, 20, was injured after being ran over by an Israeli settler driving a bus at the al-Jalama checkpoint in Jenin.

Israeli police and ambulances arrived at the scene and the bus driver was arrested.

Similarly on Monday, an Israeli settler ran over and injured a Palestinian teenager in the Romena neighborhood of West Jerusalem, and on Friday Palestinian woman Suzanne al-Kurd, 29, was also run over by an Israeli settler near the annexed East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shufat.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) monthly report stated that one Palestinian child was killed and six others Palestinians injured, four of them children, after being deliberately hit by Israeli settler vehicles in October.

Besides the hit-and-runs, Israeli settlers have also physically assaulted Palestinians across annexed Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, and in Occupied Palestine.

On Monday, five Israeli settlers assaulted 19-year-old Mahmoud Ubeid near the illegal Israeli settlement of French Hill, a day after a Palestinian taxi driver from Kafr Qasim in central Occupied Palestine said he was attacked by 17 Israelis in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Bnei Brak after two of them claimed he tried to run them over.

Hate crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property, referred to as “price tag” attacks, are endemic and Israeli authorities rarely intervene in the violent attacks or prosecute the perpetrators.

A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there were at least 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2013.

Unrest has gripped annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on an almost daily basis for the past four months, flaring up after a group of Zionist settlers kidnapped and brutally killed 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir because of his ethnicity.

Israeli authorities have also allowed Zionist settlers to take over homes in Palestinian neighborhoods both in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and announced plans to build thousands of settlements strictly for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem while ignoring Palestinian residents.

Last month, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah slammed Israel for failing to hold Zionist settlers accountable for a recent wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli government has never brought settlers to account for the terrorism and intimidation they commit [against Palestinians],” Hamdallah said.

More than 600,000 Israeli settlers, soaring from 189,000 in 1989, live in settlements across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

Israeli forces injure Palestinians with “sponge rounds”

Meanwhile, a young Palestinian was hospitalized late Tuesday after an Israeli soldier shot him in the head with a sponge bullet in the al-Tur neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, witnesses said.

Medics told Ma’an news agency that the unidentified young man sustained a skull fracture, and was in moderate-to-serious condition.

In a separate incident, Jasir Abu al-Hawa, 55, and his 18-year-old son Ahmed were hit by sponge bullets after Israeli troops fired tear gas and sponge bullets at Palestinian mourners during a funeral in Tur.

According to Majdi al-Abbasi of the Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center, clashes broke out in al-Luzah and the Bir Ayyub areas of the Silwan neighborhood after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and sponge bullets at the residents.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) repeatedly use excessive force against peaceful protests in the occupied West Bank and annexed Jerusalem.

Tens of Palestinians, including children, have been wounded in protests or during Israeli incursions in Jerusalem and West Bank so far this month.

Saleh Samer Attiyeh Mahmoud, 11, was shot in the face at close range by Israeli forces firing sponge bullets during an Israeli incursion into al-Eisawiya village, north of East Jerusalem. He was hit directly between the eyes, causing severe bleeding to his nose and the loss of sight in his left eye. The vision in his right eye is also severely damaged.

A day later, 10-year-old Mayar Amran Twafic al-Natsheh was left with a fractured skull after a sponge bullet, fired by Israeli forces near the Shufat refugee camp checkpoint, smashed through her grandfather’s car window and hit her in the face.

Sponge rounds are made from high-density plastic with a foam-rubber head, and are fired from grenade launchers. Israeli police have been using them in Occupied Palestine and annexed East Jerusalem since the use of rubber-coated metal bullets was prohibited there, but protocol explicitly prohibits firing them at the upper body.

Israeli forces also fired live ammunition at protesters.

Two seventeen-year-old boys were shot while throwing stones, one in the thigh and one in both the hand and foot, and 38-year-old Nariman Tamimi was shot in the thigh at close range in front of her children and family in the village of Nabi Saleh.

Moreover, two Palestinians, 17 and 19, were shot, one in the shoulder and waist and another in the lower jaw, during an Israeli incursion into Beitin village northeast of Ramallah.

Israeli forces detain physically disabled Palestinian woman

Israeli forces on Wednesday took a physically disabled Palestinian woman from the al-Tur neighborhood into custody during a court hearing for her daughter, family members told Ma’an.

Nadia al-Mughrabi, 54, was detained while attending a hearing at an Israeli magistrate court in Jerusalem for her daughter Amani, who was arrested for defending her mother during an Israeli raid on their home the day before.

According to Mohammed Mahmoud, a lawyer for the prisoner rights group Addamir, Nadia was accused of assaulting a police officer and was hence taken to the Russian Compound interrogation center in Jerusalem for questioning.

Meanwhile, the IOF arrested 13 Palestinians in overnight West Bank raids, sources told Ma’an Wednesday, a day after they arrested 11, including 10-year-old Rachid Abu Sarah, in overnight raids in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said 13 Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank overnight, one south of Nablus, five south of Ramallah, five near Bethlehem, and two south of Hebron.

Moreover, a former Palestinian prisoner in Hebron and two Palestinian women in annexed East Jerusalem were detained during the day Tuesday.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement that Israeli forces in Hebron detained former prisoner Akram al-Fseisi, who served two years without trial under the administrative detention policy and was released from Israeli custody two months ago after a 70-day hunger strike.

In Jerusalem, 20-year-old Amani Abed al-Mughrabi was detained at her al-Tur home while Latifa Abdul Latif was arrested while leaving the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The arrests add to the estimated 6,500 Palestinians, including 300 minors, currently being held in Israeli prisons.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian human rights groups reported that a detained Palestinian child was seriously injured during interrogation on November 19 at an Israeli interrogation center in annexed Jerusalem.

The WAFA News Agency said 16-year-old Khader al-Ajlouni was pushed down a flight of stairs at the police station and suffered serious injuries to his neck, arms and back.

At least 600 Palestinian children have been arrested in annexed Jerusalem alone since last June.

According to a report published Friday by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC), nearly 40 percent of these children have been subjected to sexual abuse during arrest or investigation by the Israeli authorities.

The PPC, an independent Palestinian organization set up in 1993, said the “daily arrest campaigns” inflicted on young Palestinians living in Jerusalem are a “collective punishment against Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.”

PPC attorney Mufeed al-Haj said that other violations were reported during the apprehension of children, including but not limited to night and predawn raids on family homes, physical and sexual abuse.

Around 95 percent of detained children were subject to beatings and torture by Israeli security personnel while in detention, while many were forced to make confessions under duress and undergo unfair trials, said Issa Qaraqe, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) committee on detainees.

A report by Defense for Children International (DCI) published in May 2014 revealed that Israel jails 20 percent of Palestinian children it detains in solitary confinement.

DCI said that minors held in solitary confinement spent an average of 10 days in isolation. The longest period of confinement documented in a single case was 29 days in 2012, and 28 days in 2013.

A report by The Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights, Israeli forces arrested nearly 3,000 Palestinian children from the beginning of 2010 to mid-2014, the majority of them between the ages of 12 and 15 years old.

The report also documented dozens of video recorded testimonies of children arrested during the first months of 2014, pointing out that 75 percent of the detained children are subjected to physical torture and 25 percent faced military trials.

In 2013, the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) reported that Israel was the only country in the world where children were “systematically tried” in military courts and gave evidence of practices it said were “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.”

The Israeli cabinet approved early November a new legislation which will be added to the Israeli penal code and would allow the imposition of a prison sentence up to 20 years for those convicted of throwing stones or other objects at Israeli vehicles.

The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous Balfour Declaration, called for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community.

(Ma’an, Al-Akhbar)

N. Srinivasan slammed by Supreme Court, asks 'How can BCCI chief own an IPL team?'

by

Supreme Court, while examining the Justice Mukul Mudgal report on corruption in IPL 2013, raised questions of conflict of interest on N. Srinivasan, putting in doubt the suspended cricket administrator’s re-election as BCCI president.

Narayanaswami Srinivasan (right) with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Photograph: BCCI

Narayanaswami Srinivasan (right) with India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Photograph: BCCI

by Soumitra Bose, NDTV

New Delhi: In a massive setback for N. Srinivasan, the Supreme Court has slammed the suspended BCCI president for conflict of interest in Indian cricket administration. During a hearing of the Indian Premier League scam probe report on Monday afternoon, the two-member special Bench said: “You can’t make a distinction between BCCI and IPL. IPL a is a by-product of BCCI.” Srinivasan’s company India Cements owns IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings and his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan has been indicted for betting. Meiyappan was a team official ever since IPL started in 2008. (The IPL spot-fixing and betting saga: A timeline)

The top court said: “The ownership of team raises conflict of interest. President of BCCI has to run the show but you have a team which raises questions and it can’t be wished away”. The BCCI lawyers argued that there is no conflict of interest because Bombay High Court had dismissed this issue. However, Srinivasan is seeking a nod from the Supreme Court to seek re-election as BCCI president. The hearing will resume on Tuesday afternoon. (Sachin Tendulkar tight-lipped over Mudgal report)

On Srinivasan’s chances of getting another term as BCCI boss, the judges said: “One of the employees (Gurunath Meiyappan) of your team was involved in betting. You have to reply because it will affect the position and the dignity of BCCI president position.” The judges added: “The benefit of doubt should go to the game and not an individual.”

The court’s mood is very clear. Although, conflict of interest was not directly in the ambit of Mudgal’s probe, the Supreme Court judges hinted a person who owns an IPL franchise against whom there are issues of corruption, cannot ethically be the leader of BCCI. “You are assuming a clean chit,” the judges told Srinivasan.

Srinivasan has been suspended as BCCI president by the Supreme Court till investigations into corruption in IPL were over. His son-in-law Meiyappan, identified as a team principal by the inquiry panel headed by former judge Justice Mukul Mudgal, has been indicted for betting. Chennai Super Kings, led by India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, are two-time IPL champions. Srinivasan had called Meiyappan a “cricket enthusiast” who was not a stake-holder in Chennai Super Kings.

The judges said: “Some people who are in BCCI now own a team. Now it has become a mutual benefit society.” They added: “If people know that a game is fixed who will visit the stadium? In India, cricket is like a religion. Recognition comes when one lakh people in Eden Gardens applaud.”

ICC’s first chairman, Srinivasan is seeking a second term as Board president. The BCCI AGM is scheduled on December 17. The probe report said Srinivasan, is “not involved with match fixing activity” and “not found to be involved in scuttling the investigations into match fixing”. However, the report charged him and other IPL officials of “cover up” of misdeeds of an unnamed player who violated Players Code of Conduct. The report called these “misdemeanours.”

(With inputs from A. Vaidyanathan)

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