Peace and Justice Post

Amnesty International, March 21, 2011

The Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is holding hundreds of people each year without charge or trial in order to ‘keep them out of circulation’, a new Amnesty International report released today shows.

A ‘Lawless Law’: Detentions under the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, documents how the Public Safety Act (PSA) is used to secure the long-term detention of individuals against whom there is insufficient evidence for a trial.

Estimates of the number detained under the PSA over the past two decades range from 8,000-20,000, with 322 reportedly held from January to September 2010 alone.

“The Jammu and Kashmir authorities are using PSA detentions as a revolving door to keep people they can’t or won’t convict through proper legal channels locked up and out of the way,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.

“Hundreds of people are being held each year on spurious grounds, with many exposed to higher risk of torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”

Detainees include political leaders and activists, suspected members or supporters of armed opposition groups, lawyers, journalists and protesters, including children. Often, they are initially picked up for ‘unofficial’ interrogation, during which time they have no access to a lawyer or their families.

Continues >>

By Badri Raina, ZNet, April 04, 2011

The “Mainstream.”

Ask any ordinary Indian citizen whether the bulk of their elected representatives or members of the administrative  tribe  ever really can be trusted  to  square  with them on any issue  at hand—from the  burst water pipeline, to  the price of food articles, to any policy issues bearing on  domestic or foreign concern.

And you will discover that, among democracies,  the  Indian political/bureaucratic class  scores the  lowest worldwide  on truth-telling, and absolutely the highest on the  fine art of dodge and double-speak.

This is so,  Wikileaks now tell us,  for the  canny  reason that  India’s “mainstream” power wielders/brokers  reserve  truth-sharing  not for the people of India but for the American Embassy.   There  is  the  intimate zone  where  they bare their hearts out.

Here is a sampling—from the  lowly and  bumptuous, although not less punishable for that reason,  to the venerated sublime:

–in his cable  dated August 11, 2009, Timothy Roemer, the US Ambassador, recounting his first ever meeting with the then Indian National Security Advisor, (no less) underlined how the latter had candidly revealed his differences with the Prime Minister, Singh, on issues related to peace with Pakistan; and how Narayanan told him of his retort to Singh’s sentiment about the “shared destinies” of India and Pakistan: “you have a shared destiny, we don’t” Narayanan confided as having said.  Presumably, the “you” had to do with Singh being a north Indian and a Punjabi, and Narayanan being a southerner to whom the partition of the country in 1947 carried small resonance. . .

Continues >>

By our correspondent
wsws.org,  April 4, 2011

The demonstration in Tahrir Square on Friday

On Friday, tens of thousands took to the streets all over Egypt to demonstrate against recent political developments and call for a continuation of the revolution. An estimated 100,000 protesters assembled in Tahrir Square, the heart of the Egyptian revolution. In Alexandria, more than 10,000 people marched through the city centre. Demonstrations also took place in many parts of the port city of Suez.

Designated “Save the Revolution Day”, the protest expressed enormous popular anger at the openly counter-revolutionary policies of the military junta under Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf.

In recent weeks, the new regime has increasingly demonstrated that it is just as hostile to the Egyptian people’s democratic and social rights as was the ex-dictator, Hosni Mubarak, throughout his 30-year rule. Under Tantawi’s leadership, the military on March 23 banned all strikes and protests that interfere with the economy or public life, imposing draconian punishment for those who defy the law. The emergency laws—in force in Egypt since 1967 except for a short period prior to the assassination of Anwar Sadat—will remain in place.

Continues >>

By Edward Herman, Z Magazine, April 2011

The upheavals in the Middle East have created acute problems for establishment officials and pundits, and their discomfiture, squirming, and gyrations have added further pleasure to the shifting political scene. “We” are allegedly strongly in favor of democracy and hostile to one-party rule and repression, but sometimes geopolitical calculations (also called “our interests”) override this democratic proclivity. But in reality, the public has nothing to do with making these decisions; the public never voted to seek favorable climates of investment over the entire globe, or to move to a permanent war system, or to keep pumping up the arms business as the civil society cries out in pain. These have been elite decisions, reflecting elite interests and values. The use of “we” and “our” in this context is thus deceptive and trickery.

Furthermore, can democracy be “our” true value if it is so systematically overridden? Is it a true value even at home if the more aggressive quest for a favorable climate of investment in the United States itself has steadily weakened the electoral choices and effective political participation of ordinary citizens and brought with it intensified and savage class warfare? (See my “Toward a Homeland Favorable Climate of Investment,” Z Magazine, March 2011.)

Continues >>

By Ben White, Eurasia Review, April 4, 2011

The publication of Richard Goldstone’s op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday heralded a weekend of frenzied hasbara. Goldstone’s “retraction” (though ‘qualification’ is more accurate) of the report into Operation Cast Lead was welcomed by Israeli leaders, Israel advocates in the USA, and others. Ha’aretz columnist Aluf Benn described Goldstone’s op-ed has “a major public relations coup”, claiming that Goldstone had “retracted his allegations that Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during Operation Cast Lead”.

These responses ironically paralleled the fallout to the Report itself, with sound and fury (and in this case, delight) preferable to cold facts. Since the Israeli government and its propagandists have a track record in establishing certain ‘myths’ and ‘truths’ that are then repeated for years to come, here are five points about the Goldstone op-ed and the fallout.

Continues >>

Uruknet.info, April 4, 2011

Source: AlJazeera.net

At least 15 anti-government protesters killed as troops – some stationed on rooftops – open fire on crowd.

April 4, 2011

Yemeni security forces have shot dead at least 15 anti-government demonstrators and wounded 30 in the city of Taiz, south of the capital Sanaa, medics said.

The violence began when thousands of protesters marched through Taiz toward Freedom Square, where demonstrators have been camped out.

As the march passed the governor’s headquarters, troops stationed there blocked the procession, and clashes broke out, with some protesters throwing stones, witnesses said.

Troops on nearby rooftops opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd and the marchers then turned to besiege the governor’s headquarters, said Bushra al-Maqtara, an opposition activist in Taiz, and other witnesses.

Continues >>

Global Research, April 3, 2011

Two-state theatre is destructive – the refugee resolution shows the way

A Palestinian state alongside Israel has never been further from reality than it is today. Negotiations for a two-state solution have again capsized despite the Palestinian coup regime’s pronounced wish (if one is to believe Wikileaks) to sell off the Palestinians’ core rights in exchange for some measly Bantustan areas.

Meanwhile Israel, contrary to international law, continues to build settlements and steal Palestinian land, in a colonisation with ethnic cleansing, as it has done for more than a hundred years. The politics of genocide against the Palestinians have actually been facilitated by the UN suggestion for partition in 1947 and the Oslo Agreement in 1993 that launched the idea of a two-state solution.

Support for the idea of a two-state solution is dwindling among the Palestinians. Fatah, the movement that seized power through a coup after Hamas had won the election, has the two-state idea on its programme, but is losing supporters since the latest events. Hamas, formerly a bitter enemy of the idea, in attempt to achieve agreement, has suggested a provisional two-state solution connected to the UN Resolution 194 concerning the Palestinian refugees’ inalienable right to return. A right that Israel categorically denies as it is incompatible with the preservation of Israel as a Jewish state, as its Jewish majority would be threatened for demographic reasons.

Continues >>

By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, wsws.org, April 1, 2011

A senior officer in the Indian Army, Major-General I.S. Singha, has lavished praise on Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief minister of Gujarat, in an incident that, according to the Times of India, has “sent ripples across India’s armed forces.”

Modi, who is known to harbor national political ambitions, was instrumental in instigating the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. In an orgy of violence during which state security forces largely “stood down,” more than 1,400 people, most of them Muslims, were killed, according to government figures. Other estimates put the death toll at 2,000 or more. To this day, tens of thousand of Muslims who were chased from their homes during the pogrom languish in squalid refugee camps.

Speaking alongside Modi at the March 14 opening of a “Know Your Army” exhibition in Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s capital, Singha praised Modi for his “vision of development for the state and nation.”

Continues >>

by Ali Jawad, Dissident Voice,  April 2nd, 2011

While Syria’s protesters demand freedom, President has stark message for his people

AFP/GETTY IMAGES 

President Bashar al-Assad addresses parliament yesterday

He was not a humble President. He did not give way. There were hints, of course – an end to emergency legislation, “reforms” – but when he spoke yesterday, trying to calm a crisis that has seen more than 60 people killed in a fortnight and threatens his very office, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria did not give the impression of a man on the run.

Was it Libya that gave him the “oomph” to go on, the encouragement to stand up and say that “reform is not a seasonable issue” – an accurate translation of his belief that Syria does not have to conform to the Middle East revolution? Either way, the Baath party is going to fight on. Assad remains the President of Syria. No change.

Continues >>