Peace and Justice Post

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission,

AHRC, Aug 11, 2010

The negligence of the authorities and improper mechanisms to deal with natural disasters has put the lives of millions of people in peril after the heavy rains in Pakistan. As a result the lives of the people have been drastically affected with the destruction and loss of vast areas of agriculture lands. More than 1,600 people have been killed by the flood waters that swept away over 400,000 houses throughout the country. Around 5000 villages were inundated and thousands of people are stranded with no hope of relief from the authorities.

According to the United Nations the massive floods in Pakistan affected 14 million people eclipsing the devastating 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the January 2010 Haiti earthquake.

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Antiwar.com, Aug 14, 2010

AFP

A US missile strike on a militant compound in Pakistan’s tribal district on the Afghan border killed 13 rebels and wounded five others on Saturday, local security officials said.

by David Rothauser,  Tokyo Progressive, July 26, 2010

In 1946 the United States Government decided that Japan needed a peace constitution. One was written. It included Article Nine which stated that Japan should never make war again.

A majority of citizens in Japan wholeheartedly embraced Article Nine. They had had enough of war following the crushing defeat of World War II.

The ink had barely dried on Japan’s new constitution when America found herself embroiled in another war, this time in Korea.

“Drop Article Nine of the Constitution,” said Uncle Sam. “Go to war against North Korea.” Not issued in such blatant terms, America’s intentions were nevertheless, perfectly clear. In July of 1950 General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers issued a secret order for the immediate build-up of a 300,000 to 350,000-man army. Identified as a “National Police Reserve,” this “little American army” included artillery, tanks and aircraft.

Japan went into shock. The American Eagle was acting irrationally. They had just completed a four-year war against Japan, fire-bombed Japan’s largest cities, A-bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demanded an unconditional surrender—and now wanted Japan to fight for the U.S. against North Korea.

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Al Jazeera, Aug 14, 2010

At least 20 million people have now been affected by heavy flooding across Pakistan, the country’s prime minister has announced, calling the disaster the nation’s “worst-ever calamity”.

Yousuf Raza Gilani urged Pakistanis on Saturday to “join hands” to help deal with the crisis, which has left more than 1,600 people dead across the country.

“This natural disaster has brought a huge devastation and approximately 20 million people have been affected by it,” he said in a sombre address marking Pakistan’s independence from British colonial rule 63 years ago.

“[It] destroyed standing crops and food storages worth billions of dollars, causing colossal loss to the national economy.

“Therefore, despite all out efforts by the government, all available aid seems to be inadequate. I would appeal to the world community to extend a helping hand to fight this calamity.”

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The New York Times

Aabid Nabi, right, sat next to his brother Fida Nabi, who was shot in the head during a protest, in a hospital in Srinagar. Mr. Nabi later died from his injury. More Photos »

By LYDIA POLGREEN, New York Times, Aug 12, 2010

The New York Times

Mr. Nabi was the 50th person to die in Kashmir’s bloody summer of rage. He had been shot in the head, his family and witnesses said, during a protest against India’s military presence in this disputed province.

For decades, India maintained hundreds of thousands of security forces in Kashmir to fight an insurgency sponsored by Pakistan, which claims this border region, too. The insurgency has been largely vanquished. But those Indian forces are still here, and today they face a threat potentially more dangerous to the world’s largest democracy: an intifada-like popular revolt against the Indian military presence that includes not just stone-throwing young men but their sisters, mothers, uncles and grandparents.

The protests, which have erupted for a third straight summer, have led India to one of its most serious internal crises in recent memory. Not just because of their ferocity and persistence, but because they signal the failure of decades of efforts to win the assent of Kashmiris using just about any tool available: money, elections and overwhelming force.

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Middle East Online, Aug 13, 2010

Prominent experts: the official cause of death was ‘extremely unlikely’

Calls for inquest into death of UK weapons inspector who exposed ‘sexed up’ Iraq dossier.

LONDON – A group of prominent experts on Friday called for a full inquest into the death of British government weapons inspector David Kelly, whose apparent suicide in July 2003 plunged then prime minister Tony Blair into crisis.

The eight senior figures said in a letter to The Times newspaper that the official cause of death in the Kelly case, haemorrhage, was “extremely unlikely” in the light of evidence since made public.

The signatories included a former coroner, Michael Powers, a former deputy coroner, Margaret Bloom, and Julian Bion, a professor of intensive care medicine.

Kelly was found dead in woods near his home in Oxfordshire, southern England, in 2003 after he was exposed as the source for a BBC story that alleged that Blair’s government had “sexed up” intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

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by Matthew Rothschild, The progressive, Aug 13, 2010

by Jeremy Scahill, The Nation, Aug 13, 2010

Four months before WikiLeaks rocketed to international notoriety, the Robin Hoods of the Internet quietly published a confidential CIA document labeled “NOFORN” (for “no foreign nationals”)-meaning that it should not be shared even with US allies. That’s because the March “Red Cell Special Memorandum” was a call to arms for a propaganda war to influence public opinion in allied nations. The CIA report describes a crisis in European support for the Afghanistan war, noting that 80 percent of German and French citizens are against increasing their countries’ military involvement. The report suggests that “Afghan women could serve as ideal messengers in humanizing the [International Security Assistance Force] role in combating the Taliban because of women’s ability to speak personally and credibly about their experiences under the Taliban, their aspirations for the future, and their fears of a Taliban victory.”

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