Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Saturday, November 16, 2013
In Ghaziabad’s prisons, pay up or pay the price
Families claim that Ghaziabad police have to be bribed to ensure prisoners aren’t tortured in custody
November 14, 2013
We’re now bribed to ensure that the person in custody is not beaten in lockup’
‘When we arrest someone for interrogation, the family members are ready to pay 10-20 thousand rupees’These statements by two policemen posted at different police stations of Ghaziabad district in Uttar Pradesh reveal how money is being made in the name of policing. When asked why there is such terror of the police in the district, a sub-inspector responds, “A number of deaths in custody have cast a spell of terror among people and the police take advantage of it.”
In a judgment passed in 2010, the Supreme Court declared that policemen found guilty of crime deserve more severe punishment than a regular criminal because they are the upholders of law and must preserve its sanctity. The constable accused of castrating a man in custody was sentenced to 5 years in jail. Criticizing the psychology of the police, the Court said that our democracy had no place for illegal methods like third degree.
But there is no stopping custodial violence. Statistics from the National Human Rights Commission reveal that in the past three years 417 deaths have taken place in police custody and 4285 in judicial custody. In 2005, an amendment in CrPC provided for a judicial investigation in case a person dies, goes missing or is raped during custody. But this has not restrained the police.
According to a sub-inspector posted in the area across Hindan River, Ghaziabad is like Dubai for the police department with good opportunities to make the extra buck. The amount received for not torturing men in custody is distributed among shareholders ranging from the highest management to lower level figures of authority.
Ghaziabad has witnessed half a dozen deaths in custody within the past one and a half years, three of which are quite recent cases. In July this year, Lakhan Saxena was arrested from Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad. He was accused of throwing acid on a married woman. The police arrested him the next day on 28 July and took him to the police station. It was later reported that he had hanged himself in the toilet of the jail. He was rushed to a local hospital where he succumbed to death. Saxena’s brother Ramsharan alleges that he died because of police torture. Five policemen were suspended in the case.
In June, another similar incident took place in Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar police station. The police had arrested a truck driver, Shakeel, on theft charges. He later died in police custody. When his family protested, the government hastily compensated them with 5 lakh rupees and 9 policemen were suspended. A case of murder was also registered against them. Shakeel’s father Khaleel says that on 13 June the police came to his house at around 10:30 in the morning and arrested his son instead of their neighbour. He says, “We told them that my son was not the one they were looking for but they assured us that they will let him go after a brief interrogation. The next day we reached the police station and met Shakeel. He was scared and pleaded us to get him out or the police would kill him.” A local resident, Mohammed, alleges that the SHO Sudhir Tyagi demanded Rs 80,000 as bribe for releasing Shakeel. When they told him that they could arrange for only Rs 10,000, the police turned them away. According to the police, Shakeel fell ill on the night of 14 June. He was taken to the nearby Sarvodya Hospital where doctors referred him to Delhi’s GTB hospital because of his serious condition. He succumbed to death on the way.
The DIG, Meerut Range, Satyanarayan says that he was wanted in several cases of vehicle-theft and had confessed to involvement in many cases while in custody. According to him, the police were taking him to Ferozabad to recover stolen vehicles when he fell ill on the way and died. When asked about marks of injury found on his body in the post mortem, he said that he was suffering from TB
A Wayward Rocket
BJP digs up the ISRO spy case, a scientist faces a bitter past
The Spy Who Never Was
A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
- December 1994 ISRO spy scandal hits headlines. Scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran accused of selling cryogenic technology. Two Maldivian women dragged into the case.
- 1995 Kerala CM Karunakaran resigns
- 1996 CBI clears Narayanan’s name, reinstated in ISRO
- 1998 SC acquits all accused
- 1999 Narayanan files compensation suit
- 2001 NHRC orders state govt to pay Rs 1 crore compensation
- 2012 HC orders immediate payment of interim relief, Rs 10 lakh paid
- 2013 BJP rakes up issue in its tirade against R.B. Sreekumar
***
Politics has a habit of dredging up old dirt. The scandal that shook
the political and scientific establishment in Kerala long ago—the 1994
ISRO spy case—is back in news. The case had not only ruined the careers
of senior scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran but also led to
the fall of the K. Karunakaran-led Congress government and cast
aspersions on former DGP Ramon Srivastava. The charges against the
scientists were dismissed in ’96 and was thrown out by the Supreme
Court in ’98. Activist-lawyer A. Jayashankar says, “It was a conspiracy
between certain media houses and groups within the Congress. The media
blew it out of proportion. It was tragic that good scientists like
Narayanan and Sasikumaran were dragged into this.”A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
A Wayward Rocket
BJP digs up the ISRO spy case, a scientist faces a bitter past
The Spy Who Never Was
A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
- December 1994 ISRO spy scandal hits headlines. Scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran accused of selling cryogenic technology. Two Maldivian women dragged into the case.
- 1995 Kerala CM Karunakaran resigns
- 1996 CBI clears Narayanan’s name, reinstated in ISRO
- 1998 SC acquits all accused
- 1999 Narayanan files compensation suit
- 2001 NHRC orders state govt to pay Rs 1 crore compensation
- 2012 HC orders immediate payment of interim relief, Rs 10 lakh paid
- 2013 BJP rakes up issue in its tirade against R.B. Sreekumar
***
Politics has a habit of dredging up old dirt. The scandal that shook
the political and scientific establishment in Kerala long ago—the 1994
ISRO spy case—is back in news. The case had not only ruined the careers
of senior scientists Nambi Narayanan and D. Sasikumaran but also led to
the fall of the K. Karunakaran-led Congress government and cast
aspersions on former DGP Ramon Srivastava. The charges against the
scientists were dismissed in ’96 and was thrown out by the Supreme
Court in ’98. Activist-lawyer A. Jayashankar says, “It was a conspiracy
between certain media houses and groups within the Congress. The media
blew it out of proportion. It was tragic that good scientists like
Narayanan and Sasikumaran were dragged into this.”A decade and a half later, it’s the BJP’s turn to use the story. Sore at former Gujarat DGP R.B. Sreekumar testifying against the Modi government in the fake encounter cases—potential dynamite it wants badly to defuse—it has stumbled on his controversial role (as an IB official) while investigating the ISRO case. Sreekumar has been charged by many—including by the CBI—of not conducting a fair probe; some even accuse him of cooking up charges against the scientists. The BJP alleges that Sreekumar’s role as an upright cop speaking the truth is just payback to the UPA for helping hush up his culpability in the ISRO case.
Amidst this political wrangle, Nambi Narayanan finds himself caught in the spotlight again. Speaking from Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan says, “My career and life was ruined because of a concocted story by Sibi Mathews (present chief information commissioner) and Sreekumar. Even though my name was cleared by the courts, not a single Kerala CM wanted to hear my version.” Then he makes an interesting revelation: one morning in September, a BJP aide called up Narayanan to tell him that Narendra Modi, who was in Kerala, wanted to talk to him. “The meeting barely lasted 10 minutes,” says Narayanan. “Modi wanted to know more about my case. He hugged me and said it was the most unfortunate thing that could happen to anyone. I am a scientist and not bothered about politics, but I want justice and compensation for the years I have lost.”
In December 1994, Nambi Narayanan, a cryogenic scientist at ISRO and a leading expert of indigenous rocket technology, was charged with selling cryogenic technology to foreign operatives. Narayanan was thrown into prison for 50 days (and tortured, he alleges, by Sreekumar’s men) and his reputation destroyed. And true to any spy thriller, an essential ingredient, women, was added to sex it up. The case spelt doom for ISRO’s cryogenic programme too. The GSLV rocket based on cryogenic technology has still not been launched.
Narayanan, who took his master’s in chemical rocket propulsion from Princeton University in 1969, and worked under Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and U.R. Rao at ISRO, was a broken man by the end of the ordeal. His relatives speak of his deep dejection after being falsely implicated, and how he lost all interest in the space programme that had once circumscribed his life.
After the CBI cleared his name and the Supreme Court too acquitted all the accused in the spy case, Narayanan was reinstated in ISRO. In 1999, he filed a compensation suit; the respondents included the state and Union government and IB officials, one of them being Sreekumar. In 2001, the National Human Rights Commission headed by retired SC judge J.S. Verma ordered the Kerala government to pay Rs 10 lakh as interim immediate relief. In 2012, the Kerala government dropped charges against the police officers for ‘unprofessional conduct’ in the ISRO case, something a CBI probe had recommended.
The BJP’s raking up the ISRO spy case will not return one of India’s top rocket scientists the best years of his career. What it can do is prompt the state government to overlook the bitterness of a long-settled legal tangle and settle the issue in a humane manner with him. The politics is another matter.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Demand grows for reservation for West Bengal Muslims
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 allieshild 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. 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.
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." "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. "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 | |||||
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.
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."
"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. |
Haiti's orphan adoption debate
| |||||||||||||
| Rajapaksa's minority report | ||||
| | ||||
| By Suvendrini Kakuchi
| ||||
|
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. 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. 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. 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.
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. "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. 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. 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 | |||
| | |||
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. 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.
"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." 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 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. |
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Germans mark fall of wall, Palestinians lament 'apartheid' wallIsrael's wall remains 20 years after Berlin Wall
Local and international peace activists stand on a concrete block of Israel's controversial wall
DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
As Germany marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinians lamented the rise of Israel's "apartheid" wall by breaching the concrete barrier on Monday near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Some 100 protestors, waving Palestinian flags, broke through near the Qalandiya military checkpoint and set fire to tires as Israeli forces opened fire, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported. The protesters were said to be wearing fluorescent jackets that read "We are going to Jerusalem" in a bid to get the worlds attention about the hypocrisy of celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall when Israel still kept its wall around the Palestinian people.
The images of Palestinians breaching the wall were almost identical of the images of the historic night when East Berliners trapped behind the 3.6 meter (12 feet) high concrete barrier rushed checkpoints to force it open, which have dominated German television and newspaper coverage for the past week.In Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the courage of East Germans as leaders converged on the German capital to celebrate the 20th anniversary of an event which marked the end of the Cold War."The night of Nov. 9, 1989 was the fulfillment of a dream," Merkel said in a speech in Berlin. "Many played a role. But it would not have been possible without the courage of the people in the former East Germany."Perhaps the Palestinian people should take a page out of the German people's book.
All rights reserved for Alarabiya.net © 2007-2008
Local and international peace activists stand on a concrete block of Israel's controversial wall
DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
As Germany marked the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Palestinians lamented the rise of Israel's "apartheid" wall by breaching the concrete barrier on Monday near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Some 100 protestors, waving Palestinian flags, broke through near the Qalandiya military checkpoint and set fire to tires as Israeli forces opened fire, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported. The protesters were said to be wearing fluorescent jackets that read "We are going to Jerusalem" in a bid to get the worlds attention about the hypocrisy of celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall when Israel still kept its wall around the Palestinian people.
The images of Palestinians breaching the wall were almost identical of the images of the historic night when East Berliners trapped behind the 3.6 meter (12 feet) high concrete barrier rushed checkpoints to force it open, which have dominated German television and newspaper coverage for the past week.In Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the courage of East Germans as leaders converged on the German capital to celebrate the 20th anniversary of an event which marked the end of the Cold War."The night of Nov. 9, 1989 was the fulfillment of a dream," Merkel said in a speech in Berlin. "Many played a role. But it would not have been possible without the courage of the people in the former East Germany."Perhaps the Palestinian people should take a page out of the German people's book.
All rights reserved for Alarabiya.net © 2007-2008
Saudis say pick up communications in Farsi among rebelsYemen rebels post alleged Saudi prisoner video
The military identity card posted by the Houthi rebels
DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
Yemeni rebels on Monday posted footage of a man they identified as one of several Saudi soldiers in their custody as Riyadh continued its offensive against the Shiite insurgents.Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on the northern Yemeni rebels last week after they crossed the border and said they had seized an area called Jabal al-Dukhan. On Friday, the rebels said they had captured several Saudi soldiers.The video showed a man in military uniform with facial wounds and an apparent leg injury receiving medical attention. It identified him as Staff Sergeant Ahmad Abdullah al-Omari.
They also posted a picture of a military identity card carrying Omari's name but the photograph alongside it showed little resemblance to the man in the video.Saudi Arabia has said four soldiers were missing, but denied they had been taken prisoner. The rebels have not said how many soldiers are in their hands.
Important documents
In the meantime, one of the Saudi soldiers reported missing returned to the kingdom on Monday with important maps and other military documents.The Saudi forces said they have also reported picking up communications in Farsi language among the rebels.The kingdom said on Sunday it had regained control of territory seized by the rebels.The world's top oil exporter has become increasingly anxious about instability in Yemen, which, as well as the Shiite insurgency in the north, faces separatist sentiment in the south and a growing threat from resurgent al-Qaeda fighters.In the past few weeks Houthi rebels have accused Saudi Arabia of allowing Yemeni forces to use its territory as a base to launch attacks against them, but the kingdom has denied the allegation. The rebels, referred to as Houthis after the clan of their leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, first took up arms against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalization by the Western-backed administration.The conflict intensified in August when Yemen's army launched Operation Scorched Earth to crush the rebels.Aid groups, which have been given limited access to the northern provinces, say up to 150,000 people have fled their homes since 2004
The military identity card posted by the Houthi rebels
DUBAI (Al Arabiya)
Yemeni rebels on Monday posted footage of a man they identified as one of several Saudi soldiers in their custody as Riyadh continued its offensive against the Shiite insurgents.Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on the northern Yemeni rebels last week after they crossed the border and said they had seized an area called Jabal al-Dukhan. On Friday, the rebels said they had captured several Saudi soldiers.The video showed a man in military uniform with facial wounds and an apparent leg injury receiving medical attention. It identified him as Staff Sergeant Ahmad Abdullah al-Omari.
They also posted a picture of a military identity card carrying Omari's name but the photograph alongside it showed little resemblance to the man in the video.Saudi Arabia has said four soldiers were missing, but denied they had been taken prisoner. The rebels have not said how many soldiers are in their hands.
Important documents
In the meantime, one of the Saudi soldiers reported missing returned to the kingdom on Monday with important maps and other military documents.The Saudi forces said they have also reported picking up communications in Farsi language among the rebels.The kingdom said on Sunday it had regained control of territory seized by the rebels.The world's top oil exporter has become increasingly anxious about instability in Yemen, which, as well as the Shiite insurgency in the north, faces separatist sentiment in the south and a growing threat from resurgent al-Qaeda fighters.In the past few weeks Houthi rebels have accused Saudi Arabia of allowing Yemeni forces to use its territory as a base to launch attacks against them, but the kingdom has denied the allegation. The rebels, referred to as Houthis after the clan of their leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, first took up arms against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalization by the Western-backed administration.The conflict intensified in August when Yemen's army launched Operation Scorched Earth to crush the rebels.Aid groups, which have been given limited access to the northern provinces, say up to 150,000 people have fled their homes since 2004
King Abdullah to Israel: Don't play with fire
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:28:28 GMT
Font size :
Jordan's King Abdullah
Last month, Jordan warned that the provocative Israeli acts in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound could "fuel violence in the region and jeopardize peace efforts." "Any further provocative attempts by Israeli troops and Jewish extremists, such as what happened today in the shrine's compound, represents a flagrant violation of international law and conventions and sets the stage for more tension and acts of violence," said Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communication Nabil Sharif, in a statement. Hamas Political Leader Khalid Meshaal said in October that Israel plans to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in an effort to build a new temple in its place. Under a 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Tel Aviv, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to be in control of all matters relating to the historical compound
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:28:28 GMT
Font size :
Jordan's King Abdullah
Last month, Jordan warned that the provocative Israeli acts in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound could "fuel violence in the region and jeopardize peace efforts." "Any further provocative attempts by Israeli troops and Jewish extremists, such as what happened today in the shrine's compound, represents a flagrant violation of international law and conventions and sets the stage for more tension and acts of violence," said Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communication Nabil Sharif, in a statement. Hamas Political Leader Khalid Meshaal said in October that Israel plans to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in an effort to build a new temple in its place. Under a 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Tel Aviv, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to be in control of all matters relating to the historical compound
Obama: US military presence serves Japan
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:03:17 GMT
Font size :
The US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base is located in the populated city of Ginowan.
US President Barack Obama, who is due to travel to Japan this week, says the presence of US military bases in the country is in the interest of the nation. Obama said he thinks the new center-left government in Japan will continue with a 2006 military deal with the US after reviewing the agreement. "I'm confident that once the review is completed they will conclude that the alliance that we have … serves the interests of Japan and that they will continue," Obama said Tuesday. Under the 2006 accord, the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base would be closed, but its air operations moved to an alternative site to be built on the southern island of Okinawa by 2014 in the coastal Camp Schwab area. The US leader, however, accepted that the new government wanted to review aspects of their security alliance. "I think that it is perfectly appropriate for the new government to want to reexamine how to move forward in a new environment," Obama said in an interview with broadcaster NHK. Tokyo and Washington have been at loggerheads with each other over the presence of US military forces in the country after the new Japanese government took power in September. Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama who has pledged a less subservient relationship with the US says his government may want the base moved off the island or even out of the country. Washington has about 47,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of them on Okinawa. Local residents have been angered by crimes committed by US service personnel as well as the risk of accidents. In 1995, rape of a schoolgirl by three US servicemen infuriated residents of Okinawa. Demands to close the base on safety grounds grew when a US helicopter crashed in the grounds of a local university in 2004. Last Sunday, some 21,000 Okinawan residents protested against the presence of the US military base.
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:03:17 GMT
Font size :
The US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base is located in the populated city of Ginowan.
US President Barack Obama, who is due to travel to Japan this week, says the presence of US military bases in the country is in the interest of the nation. Obama said he thinks the new center-left government in Japan will continue with a 2006 military deal with the US after reviewing the agreement. "I'm confident that once the review is completed they will conclude that the alliance that we have … serves the interests of Japan and that they will continue," Obama said Tuesday. Under the 2006 accord, the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base would be closed, but its air operations moved to an alternative site to be built on the southern island of Okinawa by 2014 in the coastal Camp Schwab area. The US leader, however, accepted that the new government wanted to review aspects of their security alliance. "I think that it is perfectly appropriate for the new government to want to reexamine how to move forward in a new environment," Obama said in an interview with broadcaster NHK. Tokyo and Washington have been at loggerheads with each other over the presence of US military forces in the country after the new Japanese government took power in September. Japan's new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama who has pledged a less subservient relationship with the US says his government may want the base moved off the island or even out of the country. Washington has about 47,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of them on Okinawa. Local residents have been angered by crimes committed by US service personnel as well as the risk of accidents. In 1995, rape of a schoolgirl by three US servicemen infuriated residents of Okinawa. Demands to close the base on safety grounds grew when a US helicopter crashed in the grounds of a local university in 2004. Last Sunday, some 21,000 Okinawan residents protested against the presence of the US military base.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Cultivating For Hajj | |||
| |||
 | |||
“This is my third time to go on hajj,” the 68-year-old told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, November 7. He is preparing to go with his wife to the holy lands in Saudi Arabia for the spiritual trip. “We farm and sell our produce to collect money for hajj.” More than 20,000 Russian Muslims will go on hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, this year. The first batch of the Russian pilgrims left for Saudi Arabia on November 4. Russian preparations are in full swing for the soul-searching journey. “Religious authorities have begun giving lessons to the pilgrims about hajj ahead of their travel to the holy lands,” said Roshan Abassov of the Religious Board of Muslims in European part of Russia. He said the Board is also cooperating with travel agencies to provide religious guides for the pilgrims. “We are coordinating with the agencies to provide a group of religious guides to help the pilgrims perform the ritual.” Every able-bodied adult Muslim -- who can financially afford the trip -- must perform hajj once in their lifetime. Around three million pilgrims from over 160 countries are expected to perform hajj this year, which is expected to climax on November 26, when the faithful descend the Mount `Arafat. Dream Comes True The elder Muslim recalls his first time he went on the spiritual journey. “Hajj was a far-fetching dream,” Mouradov said. “I had never imagined that I would be able one day to visit this holy place as the Communists have deprived us from everything, even prayers.” Muslims suffered repression under the Soviet Union, which banned the visible practice of all religions. Under the Soviet rule, a few number of Muslims were able to get their hajj dream fulfilled. “But now the dream has come true,” said Mouradov. Islam is in a state of revival in Russia after years of suppression. There are nearly 4,000 mosques in the country. Muslim halal food and Islamic dresses have emerged in the capital Moscow, which saw earlier this month the opening of the first Muslim hospital in federal Russia. The government has also set up a $60 million fund to support Islamic culture, science and education, part of which is designated for state-accredited Muslim schools and universities. Russia has a sizable Muslim minority of around 23 million people representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million population. Islam is Russia's second-largest religion |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
