Demand grows for reservation for West Bengal Muslims

Justice Sachar Committee report has disclosed the worst condition of Muslims in West Bengal where Left Front has bee in power since last three decades. This eye-opening report provided reasons for Muslims who constitute 25% of the total state population to rethink about continuing their supports to the Left Front.

The cynical role of state government in gloomy incidents of Singur and Nandigram as well as Rizwanur Rahman murderer case increased the anger of Muslims towards it. Consequently, Muslims switched their political allegiance to Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress which led to Left Front’s debacle in the last General and Panchayat elections.

Now in an attempt to win back the Muslim vote bank in next assembly election expected to be held next year, the state government is planning to follow the pattern of Kerala and other southern states to include more Muslim sub-castes into the OBC category to extend the reservation benefits to more members of the community.

Considering that the recent erosion of the Left Front vote in the minority areas was the big reason for lower performance of the Front, Forward Bloc, one of the partners in Left government, was the first to initiate in this regard by writing to the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee a few days ago to take up the matter of reservations for Muslims as early as possible to win them back. The CPI and CPM leaders have also agreed to this proposal but the lone partner within the Left Front, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) differed on the issue.

Ironically, Muslims who are most backward community have only 2% share of reservation under the OBC folder in West Bengal while half of the Hindus, who are the 71% of the state population, are enjoying reservation as SC/ST.

However, avoiding the constitutional bar which is against religion-based reservations state government is going to bring as many Muslim castes in the OBC category as possible. Currently, only 12 Muslim castes are under the OBC but now Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has asked West Bengal Backward Classes Commission to identify another 28 Muslim castes to include them in OBC list. If it will be implemented nearly 10% reservation will be available for Muslims in the state.

According to Sayed Masudal Hussain, member of West Bengal Backward Classes Commission presently Muslim castes like Ansaris (weavers), Qureshis (butchers) are among the 12 Muslim castes under OBC reservation. But now castes of Muslims like Beldar (grave diggers), Abdal (sweepers), Mahaldar (fishermen), Kahar (palanquin bearers) and many others will be able to get reservation through the OBC quota. The work in this regard is going on.

On the other hand the West Bengal Minorities Commission has backed the demand for reservation of Muslims and termed it necessary for bridging the widening gap between Hindus and Muslims in all spheres of the society. Chairman of the commission, S Z Adnan, said it was time for the government to take emergency measures like reservation to maintain the balance between two communities.

Meanwhile, state unit of Jamia’t Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) also raised the voice in the favor of reservations for Muslims to solve their educational and social backwardness at a conference organized in famous Dharmatala ground, Kolkata on January 29th.

Talking to TwoCircles.net, Maulana Siddiqullah Choudhury, general secretary of West Bengal JUH, said: “10% reservation will not be enough to solve the West Bengal Muslim problems. Therefore, we demand 20% reservation because currently only 2.5% Muslims are in government job while they comprise 30% of the total population of the state.”

It was the first such impressive conference on reservation issue which was attended by almost 1.5 lak people from across the state as well as outside of it. “We gave ultimatum to the government to take the decision on the matter on earliest because we can not wait any more. We have fed up of promises since last 30 years now government has to step in practically” he added.

About the next step in this connection Maulana Choudhry who is also the president of a political party namely Public Democratic Conference of India (PDCI) said: “We are going to hold a vehicle-rally from January 6th to 8th which will begin from Kolkata and will be visiting all Muslim dominated areas of the state to create awareness among the community. It will not be our last step but our efforts will continue until demands are fulfilled.”

“Almost all leading Muslim organizations and groups including Jam’at Islami Hind, Indian Muslim League, All India Milli Council and Republican Party of India are with us in this struggle” he continued.

He further said that government policies pushed the community to the appalling condition. So, it is its responsibility to restore their lives and that would be possible only by reservation.

He also criticized Congress and Trinamol Congress: “These two parties promised in the recently concluded election manifestos that they will ease the way for Muslim reservation but now they are keeping silent. They should learn from the fiasco of Left Front” he said.

Keeping an eye on Assembly elections, the Left Front besides considering the reservation for Muslims, it also ordered concerned agencies to expedite job-oriented development projects in the Muslim-dominated blocks of Murshidabad, North and South 24-Parganas, Malda, Nadia, Birbhum, Howrah, Burdwan and Kolkata to regain the confidence of the minorities.

However, it will be interesting to see that how state government will settle the matter because if it fails to take decision about reservation then it will heavily pay for it in the coming assembly elections as it already got warning bells in Lok Sabha as well as in Panchayat elections and its decision in the favor of reservation may bring dispute among allies

hild smuggling' arrests in Haiti Haitian police have detained 10 US nationals for trying to bus 33

hild smuggling' arrests in Haiti

Haitian police have detained 10 US nationals for trying to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic. Yves Christallin, the Haitian social affairs minister, said on Sunday that police arrested five men and five women with US passports, along with two Haitians, as they tried to cross the border on Friday night. "This is an abduction, not an adoption," Christallin said. He said the US citizens did not have the proper documents from the government to take the children out of Haiti, nor letters of authorisation from their parents. The Americans were identified by Christallin as members of an Idaho-based Baptist group called New Life Children's Refuge. He said two pastors were also involved, one in Haiti and one in Atlanta, Georgia. Orphanage plan Their plan was to take around 100 children by bus to a rented hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, where they planned to establish an orphanage. special report Mario Andresol, a Haitian police chief, said the Americans were awaiting a hearing before a judge on Monday in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, and the children had been transferred to a facility north of the city, in Croix de Bouquets. Laura Silsby, the group's leader, said on Sunday: "In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing." She told The Associated Press news agency that the group only had the best of intentions and paid no money for the children, whom she said they obtained from Jean Sanbil, a Haitian pastor at the Sharing Jesus Ministries. When asked if she thought it was naive to cross the border without adoption papers at a time when Haitians are so concerned about child trafficking, Silsby said: "By no means are we any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat." The US embassy in Port-au-Prince said that ten US citizens were being held in Haiti for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration". "American diplomats have visited the detained Americans and are in communication with Haitian authorities," the embassy said in a statement. "As always, US embassy officials will take all appropriate steps to ensure the wellbeing of US citizens detained abroad." Trafficking fears Amanda Weisbaum, from the non-profit organisation, Save the Children, told Al Jazeera that taking children out of their home country is not in their best interests. "Experience has shown it is better to keep the children in the place, and with the people, they know," she said. "We trying to make sure that all these children still have parents or families within the area and that hasn't been ascertained yet. "The Haitian government was quite right to halt these people at the border if they felt they didn't have the right paperwork." Haitian officials have voiced fears that child traffickers will take advantage of the chaos after Haiti's 7.0 magnitude January 12 earthquake to leave the country with children in illegal adoption schemes. There is also concern that legitimate adoption agencies may rush to take earthquake orphans out of the country before proper checks have been conducted to confirm that their parents have died. The United States has urged citizens moved by Haiti's earthquake to show patience in adopting children, and Haiti said its prime minister will have to sign off on every minor's departure abroad for the time being

US group 'wrong' to take Haiti kids

US group 'wrong' to take Haiti kids

Haiti's prime minister has said it is clear to him that a US church group which tried to take a busload of undocumented Haitian children out of the country knew "what they were doing was wrong". "It is clear now that they were trying to cross the border without papers. It is clear now that some of the children have live parents," Max Bellerive said on Monday. The prime minister added that Haiti was open to having the 10 Americans tried in the US since most government buildings, including Haiti's courts, were crippled by a January 12 earthquake that destroyed much of the capital Port-au-Prince. If they were acting in good faith, as the Americans say they were, "perhaps the courts will try to be more lenient with them", Bellerive added. US embassy officials would not say whether Washington would accept hosting judicial proceedings for the Americans, but for now, the case remains in Haitian hands, PJ Crowley, a state department spokesman, said in Washington. "Once we know all the facts, we will determine what the appropriate course is, but the judgment is really up to the Haitian government," he said. Deterrent Haitian officials say some prosecution is needed to help deter child trafficking, which many fear will flourish in the chaos caused by the devastating earthquake. "One [9-year-old] girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that" George Willeit, SOS Children's Village spokesman The government and aid groups are still struggling to get food, water, shelter and basic healthcare to hundreds of thousands of survivors, and many parents are desperate to get help for their children. The 10 Americans have not been charged, Crowley said, adding that US diplomats have had "unlimited" access to the men and women from a Southern Baptist church in the US state of Idaho. Members of the group say they were only trying to save abandoned children. Laura Silsby, the group's spokeswoman, said they were "just trying to do the right thing", but she conceded they had not obtained the required passports, birth certificates and adoption certificates for the children - a near impossible challenge in the post-quake mayhem. Since their arrest on Friday near the border with the Dominican Republic, the group has been held inside two small concrete rooms in the same judicial police headquarters building where ministers have makeshift offices and give disaster response briefings. Held in Haiti One of the Americans, Charisa Coulter, was treated on Monday at a field hospital for either dehydration or the flu. Looking pale as she lay on a green army cot, the 24-year-old was being guarded by two Haitian police officers. "They're treating me pretty good," she said. "I'm not concerned. I'm pretty confident that it will all work out." Group members said they were just "trying to do the right thing" [Reuters] The 33 children, ranging in age from two months to 12 years, were sent to a children's home where some told aid workers they have surviving parents. "One [9-year-old] girl was crying, and saying, 'I am not an orphan. I still have my parents.' And she thought she was going on a summer camp or a boarding school or something like that," said George Willeit, a spokesman for the SOS Children's Village. The prime minister said some parents may have knowingly given their kids to the Americans in hopes they would reach the US – not an uncommon wish for poor families in a country that already had an estimated 380,000 orphans before the quake. Haiti's overwhelmed government has halted all adoptions unless they were in motion before the earthquake amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to being seized and sold. And Bellerive's personal authorisation is now required for the departure of any child. Investigators have been trying to determine how the American church group got the children, and whether any of the traffickers that have plagued the impoverished country were involved

Has the world failed Haiti?

Has the world failed Haiti?

Tens of thousands of people died in a matter of seconds when a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti last Tuesday. Now world focus turns to providing aid for the survivors. UN officials fear that Haiti faces humanitarian disaster unless relief is distributed effectively, but aid workers are encountering difficulties getting respite to those who need it most. With just one airport, aid trickles into Haiti. Once on the ground, relief distribution also becomes problematic because the country's already poor infrastructure has been devastated by the quake. The US has been actively involved in helping distribute aid, working closely with the UN and the Haitian government. Barack Obama, the US president, has pledged at least $100mn to rebuild Haiti - one of the largest relief campaigns in US history. He has asked his two predecessors in the White House to lead America's fundraising campaign for Haiti. But after decades of neglect, are world powers returning for an increased role in this poor country? And what price would Haitians pay for increased foreign assistance? Inside Story presenter Imran Garda is joined by Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, a professor of Africology at the University of Wisconsin, Leara Rhodes, an associate professor of Journalism at the University of Georgia and author of the book Democracy and the Haitian Media, and Todd Kent, an assistant professor of political science and a scholar at the Bush School of Homeland Security. This episode of Inside Story aired from Sunday, 17 January, 2010.

Haiti's orphan adoption debate

Haiti's orphan adoption debate By Jacqueline Head It is not known how many children have been orphaned by the earthquake [GALLO/GETTY] The plight of orphaned children in earthquake-hit Haiti has led to calls for international adoption processes to be sped up. But it has also raised the question of whether taking children away from their homeland, even in extreme or impoverished conditions, is the right solution. In a country where tens of thousands have been killed and an estimated 500,000 left destitute by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, the notion of sending children to countries where they will receive care, food and water appears on the surface a logical one. This, especially when Haiti's history of poverty, social unrest and political instability is added into the mix. special report Reacting to the humanitarian crisis, the Dutch government fast-tracked the adoption of 109 children already involved in the process before the quake struck, who arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday. Letje Vermunt, a spokeswoman for the Netherlands Adoption Foundation, one of the agencies involved, said the decision was made because of the "very high risk of death considering the situation in Haiti now". A day earlier, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, pledged that Washington would speed up American adoptions of Haitian children already under way before last week's catastrophe. Thousands of orphans Dixie Bickel, director of God's Littlest Angels, an adoption agency in Haiti, is hoping plans like these will help alleviate the situation. "We who are doing adoptions are trying to get those children to their adoptive families so they can be safe and have food and water and medicine, and that will also free up our beds for orphans created by earthquake," she said. "We who are doing adoptions are trying to get those children to their adoptive families so they can be safe and have food and water and medicine, and that will also free up our beds for orphans created by earthquake" Dixie Bickel, God's Littlest Angels Bickel said the devastation wreaked by the earthquake could leave thousands of orphans on Haiti's streets, adding to an already severe problem. "Haiti had about 50,000 orphans before the earthquake - that's the number that is being reported. We don't know how many actually because there are a number of orphanages not listed," she said. "Everytime we have a large aftershock new buildings fall down so it's very hard how many orphans we're going to have." But there is some concern that knee-jerk reactions to the crisis could break up families and have damaging psychological effects on children rushed out of the country. Kathie Neal, development director of SOS Children, the world's largest orphan charity, said any action has to be in the best interests of the child. She cited the position taken by Unicef, which states that family tracing should be the priority for children separated from their parents and communities during war or natural disaster, rather than inter-country adoption. "The most critical thing is that you don't take children away from their families - we may not know for several months if these children have families, it may even take a year," she said. "Traumatised children need familiarity and consistency. And if you pluck them out of all that's familiar to them ... then it's not an improvement to their psyche." She added that while following proper adoptive procedures was a better course of action, fast-tracking children through could still lead to problems. Nine of the children arriving in the Netherlands, for example, will be sent to foster homes while the parent-matching process continued. Neal said moves like these could increase the childrens' isolation. "If they're going through a good process then I'm in favour but pre-empting is not the answer. "It's better for them [the children] to be with other orphans with a shared experience. Parents who don't know this and haven't been trained in psychological care will face a huge challenge." 'Clearing houses' Neal's position is taken a step further by Roelie Post, of Against Child Trafficking, an NGO based in Brussels sceptical of international adoption. "Traumatised children need familiarity and consistency. And if you pluck them out of all that's familiar to them ... then it's not an improvement to their psyche" Kathie Neal, SOS Children She said a report by Unicef in 2005 found the Haitian adoption system to be "untransparent". "The issue at stake is that Haiti has for a long time been known as a country with not a good adoption procedure," Post said. "Orphanages are clearing houses in Haiti. As soon as the children enter the home, they are signed up to an international adoption agency. This means that the parents, if they are alive and they want them back, cannot get them back." Post said there was a different understanding in Haiti of what adoption really means. "In the Western world you get a new birth certificate, with the names of the adoptive parents. There's no legal link with the [biological] family," she said. "The system in Haiti is more like foster care and the family link remains. And the people in Haiti in do not know what international adoption really means." Parents believe they will still be able to be reunited with their children, Post said. 'Stolen children' God's Littlest Angels' Bickel, whose interview with Al Jazeera was cut short by another aftershock, said parents coming to her agencies are told what their decision will mean, and that they are given the option to change their minds. She suggested that there may be some illicit orphanages, but said hers followed transparent legal procedues. However, the reality on the ground, she said, pointing to the fact that many families existing on less than a dollar a day, could lead to families to make difficult decisions. "I've been approached by families in our area who don't have enough food or clean water to drink. I've been approached by doctors who are asking me to take children and I can't do that until I clear some beds out," she said. "Children are the future of a country and so we should help these countries to develop and help children to remain in their own country" Roelie Post, Against Child Trafficking Bickel said she hates the idea of having "stolen children" - those still with family members alive - being adopted out. And, she said, most adoptive parents would not want these children either. Neal agreed that there is a time and a place for international adoption. "There are millions of orphans in the world and we can't look after all of them. So I cannot possibly condemn the opportunity for some of these to go to a loving home," she said. "There will be examples where older children who know what's happening and wish to be able to go someplace else, and that's totally different," Neal said. But, she insists, the focus should still be on supporting families, the community and helping people become self sufficient. "We help support the community by setting up schools and childcare so parents can go out to work. We provide vocational training. "The more self sufficient the family is the more self sufficient the community becomes. And that's got to bode for a bettter future for everyone." Using international aid efforts to build stronger communities is also an idea endorsed by Post. "Children are the future of a country and so we should help these countries to develop and help children to remain in their own country," she said

Rajapaksa's minority report

By Suvendrini Kakuchi

Tamils comprise 13 per cent of Sri Lanka's population [GALLO/GETTY] Now that the electorate has given its verdict, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's victory in the just concluded presidential polls sends an ominous signal to the minority people of the island state. After all, the minority populations voted mostly for Rajapaksa's challenger - former army commander Sarath Fonseka - in hopes that a victory for the latter would mean the fulfillment of their aspiration for equal recognition in a country that has seen deep divisions between ethic groups. Such aspiration seems all but gone. Rhetoric to reality Following Monday's most crucial presidential contest in postwar Sri Lanka, Rajapaksa, who ran for his second term in office, garnered 57 per cent of the registered votes nationwide. Fonseka, received 40.15 per cent of the votes. He was supported by a coalition of the major United National Party and smaller Tamil and Muslim parties and the Sinhala extremist party, Janatha Vimukthi Party. Fonseka led the army to a crucial victory against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTT) group during the last phase of the war that spanned a quarter of a decade. President Rajapaksa, as commander in chief of the armed forces, also claimed victory over the secessionist Tamil Tigers. He and Fonseka soon parted ways and competed for the spoils of war - a presidential post and its sweeping powers - in the 2010 election. Now that a clear presidential winner has emerged in the person of Rajapaksa, who fought on a platform of ending a long, drawn-out civil war and bringing the country under the slogan of 'national unity,' analysts say, it is time to look beyond the populist rhetoric and face reality. "The rhetoric of a unified country under the Sinhala Buddhist flag has always swung Sri Lanka's elections in favour of the Sinhala politicians. But the minorities have voted very differently," explained R Bharathi, the editor of Sudar Oli, a leading Tamil daily. "There is absolutely no doubt that Rajapaksa's slogan has been rejected by the minorities, the Muslims and Tamils." National unity? Indeed, results announced Tuesday on television showed a marked difference in voting figures in areas dominated by the Sinhala majority population and Tamil and Muslim minorities. A stark example is the polling results in the war-torn northern towns and villages. A breakdown of figures shows that Rajapaksa garnered only 3,554 votes in Nallur, a prominent town in Jaffna province, the cultural homeland of Sri Lanka's Tamil population. There was overwhelming support for the opposition candidate, who received 11,543 votes, or more than three times the former's. In Kalmunai, an east coastal town and predominantly Muslim, votes cast for Fonseka totalled 32,946 compared to 9,564 for Rajapaksa, another illustration of minority frustration over Rajapaksa's national-unity pledge. As a multi-ethnic country, Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese group accounts for 75 per cent of its 21 million population. Tamils, traditionally dominant in the northern and east provinces, comprise 13 per cent, and Muslims 9 per cent of the population. Smaller groups such as the Malays and Burghers are linked to Western colonial nations. Interviews by IPS with Tamil voters this week conveyed their deep desire for a leader who respects their rights as equal citizens with the majority race when it comes to access to jobs, land and education and security for themselves and their families. These aspirations, they said, have been systematically ignored by Rajapakse, who has continued to backtrack on important constitutional guarantees such as that which involves the 17th amendment, which promises an independent public service, judicial and police and election commission. Second class citizens Shanthini, who declined to giver her last name, heads a women's support group in Trincomalee town on the east coast. She says she voted for Fonseka because "I believe Rajapaksa will never give the minorities their rights". Trincomalee is historically a Tamil-dominated district, but long decades of state colonisation and migration programmes have seen the area acquire a growing Sinhala population. Human rights campaigners say Rajapaksa cannot 'unite' the country [EPA] Shanthini manages a home for orphaned children in Muttur, a farming town in Trincomaleee dominated by Tamil and Muslim residents, and which was the centre of intense fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE. Fonseka won more than 70 per cent of cast votes in the town. Jayadeva Uyangoda, of the political science faculty at Colombo University, saw irony in the voting pattern among the Tamil and Muslim population, who favoured a military leader who led the ethnic war. That their favoured candidate did not win could be a disturbing sign of the kind of future awaiting the minorities under the leadership of Rajapaksa. "Rajapaksa's victory is a deep blow to the minorities, for their hope for change has been rejected. For them, the future is clear. They will be second-class citizens from now on," he said. 'Paternalistic' policies Tamil's political leadership became rudderless after the demise of the militant LTTE. Politicians belonging to the Tamil National Alliance, the leading Tamil party, have just begun returning to Sri Lanka from other countries and have failed to exert a post-war leadership that is expected to help retain the Tamil identity, which traditionally rode proud in the north and most of eastern Sri Lanka. Deepika Udugama, a respected human rights expert and professor at Colombo University, noted how national apathy and populism have taken over the electorate after the decades-old war. "The lack of political maturity in Sri Lanka is obvious. The voter cannot go beyond the rhetoric of the politicians. As long as the economic needs of the individual are looked after, there is no attempt by the voters to insist on addressing minority grievances, which is what should have been seen in this election by voting for a change," she explained. She expects the newly invigorated Rajapakse regime to continue with its "paternalistic policy" toward the minorities. Rajapaksa, in his war victory speech in May, insisted there would be no minorities but only a united country - which the minority populace took as a disparaging allusion to their aspirations for securing historical homelands that protect their identity. Sinhala strongholds such as the southern coastal towns like Galle and Hambantota showed strong support for Rajapakse. Voters laud his leadership to end the ethnic war, promoting Sri Lanka as a Sinhala Buddhist country, and foreign policy that supports China and Iran and veers away from Western influence. "Minorities have a right to live as citizens in this country but under a united country," insisted Shivanthini de Silva, from Colombo, who voted for Rajapakse. De Silva echoes the national mood. And this is exactly what minority groups in Sri Lanka view with a sense of hopelessness. Just what the future holds for their collective identity and aspirations remains in limbo

K cabinet 'misled' over Iraq war

Clare Short painted a damning picture of Tony Blair's style of government in the lead up to war [EPA] A former UK minister has told a public inquiry into the war in Iraq that the British cabinet was "misled" over the legality of the invasion in 2003. Clare Short, who is an outspoken critic of the war, on Tuesday said Peter Goldsmith, the attorney general at the time, did not tell the cabinet of his doubts about whether it would be against international law to invade Iraq. "I think he misled the cabinet, he certainly misled me, but people let it through," she said. "I was stunned by his advice." She also accused Tony Blair, the former prime minister who sent UK troops to Iraq, of standing in the way of cabinet discussion on the conflict. "Everything that's happened since makes me know that there was deliberate blockage and there were also all sorts of secret, private meetings," she told the hearing in London. 'Closed communication' Nadim Baba, Al Jazeera's correspondent in London, said Short painted a damning picture of Blair's style of government. "She describes an atmosphere at 10 Downing Street which was very secretive," he said. Short, who quit her post of international development secretary in May 2003 over the handling of the conflict, said normal parliamentary communications were "closed down" in the lead up to war. in depth Analysis: Iraq inquiry - another whitewash? Blogs: Tony Blair: Poodle or Bulldog? Blair still believes Iraq war was right Videos: Debating the Iraq inquiry Blair unbowed during Iraq evidence Iraqis react to Blair war testimony "There was never a meeting that said 'what's the problem, what are we trying to achieve, what are our military, diplomatic options?' "We never had that coherent discussion ... never." Short said Goldsmith had not told the cabinet about his deliberations over the legality of war, or that senior foreign office lawyers believed the invasion would be illegal without a second UN resolution. Last week the former attorney general told the inquiry that he had initially believed going to war would not be legal without an explicit UN mandate, but changed his mind after consulting lawyers abroad. But Short said she believed Goldsmith had been pressured by Blair, something he denies. Clare, however, admitted she had no direct evidence to back this up. Her testimony came days after Blair appeared before the inquiry, in what was seen as the climax of the proceedings so far. 'Wing and a prayer' Blair told the five-member panel that there had been "substantive discussion" with senior ministers in the cabinet. He also made a robust defence of his decision to go to war, saying Saddam Hussein, Iraq's then ruler, had posed a threat to the world and had to be disarmed or removed. But Short said she had seen the intelligence and there was no imminent threat from Saddam. "I knew that the intelligence agencies thought that Saddam Hussein didn't have nuclear [weapons] ... [he] would if he could but he was nowhere near it. It wasn't saying there was some new imminent threat," she said. Short was also damning of the planning that had been made for the aftermath of the invasion. "There was no reason why it had to be as quick as it was," she said. "It was all done on a wing and a prayer. "We could have gone more slowly and carefully and not had a totally destabilised and angry Iraq into which came al-Qaeda, which wasn't there before and that would have been safer for the world." Our correspondent said Short also criticised the military for failing in their duty to meet their obligations under the Geneva convention as an occupying force in Iraq. The former international development secretary quit the Labour Party parliamentary group in 2006 to become an independent, saying Blair had engaged in deceit over the Iraq War. The Iraq inquiry, though not a trial, was set up last year by Gordon Brown, who took over from Blair as the UK prime minister, to identify mistakes made. The five-person panel is headed by John Chilcot, a former senior civil servant, and has been accused several times of being too soft on witnesses.