Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Russian media: Clinton lost by demonizing Putin
Politicians and foreign policy pundits surveyed by the Russian press say that Trump won not because of his opinion about Russia but because of his anti-establishment credentials — which conversely make it harder to predict the future of U.S.-Russia relations.
The end of the U.S. elections have been big news in the Russian press. Experts quoted by Russia’s major newspapers and website have offered a variety of reasons for Trump’s unexpected victory, but are reluctant to say that the change will necessarily result in an improvement in U.S.-Russian relations.
Foreign policy was not a big factor in the election
In describing the outcome of the election, news website Gazeta.ru said (in Russian) that Donald Trump won the election because he positioned himself as an anti-establishment candidate and was able to attract voters disgruntled with “official Washington.”
“Issues such as maintaining a liberal international order, distributing democracy, restraining Russia’s power, and the view of Vladimir Putin as the focus of the world’s evil — these issues are what much of Clinton’s campaign were based on. As it turns out, this did not bother the average American voter, which is why it turned out like this,” Dmitri Suslov Deputy Director of the Center for European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow said in an interview with Gazeta.ru.
“These results show a deep divide between the establishment and the American population,” Suslov added. “The whole of the U.S. elite needs to make certain conclusions from this, and it seems that in this sense the U.S. political system is in need of reform. Trump’s victory is a colossal shock, which cannot be seen as a kind of accident. We should hope that in four years Trump will not be re-elected, and everything will go back to normal.”
Despite the fact that Trump was the official candidate of the Republican Party, many in the party leadership sought to distance themselves from him. Many experts think that Trump’s victory will result either in reform or a split within the GOP.
Trump will likely find it difficult to work with the establishment Republicans once on the ground in Washington. He lacks large transition team that will help him with his move into the White House. And, although Trump is in relatively good health, he is still the oldest person elected U.S. president.
Will relations with Russia improve?
Although many Russian politicians originally said Trump would be a better partner for Russia, Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, told Russian business daily Kommersant that “the situation for Russo-American relations remains an issue of serious concern.”
“We are still awaiting a reaction, although we don’t really even have hope that the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States would gather together with some representatives of the four committees for foreign affairs to discuss the situation,” Slutsky said.
Vyacheslav Novikov, first Deputy Chairman of the state Duma Committee for International Affairs, also said that it is unrealistic to expect swift changes after Trump’s victory. “Trump’s victory is a signal that problems in the U.S.A. have built up,” he said in an interview with Kommersant.
“Hillary Clinton represents the continuation of the current crisis, and this result therefore shows an attempt to change something. However, the second part of the problem lies in the fact that Trump will be president of his own country. He will have to work with the ruling elite, and it is still too early to hope for any grand changes in the White House. The rise of a new figure is a good opportunity for the U.S. to escape those bounds which appeared in the period before this, and to take advantage of this with good face. Trump may adjust policy on international lines; this does not look like a painful defeat but rather this might strengthen America’s position on the world stage.”
Sergei Mironov, head of the Just Russia party, expressed a similar opinion. “Candidates’ statements are one thing – and real life is another,” he said, referring to Trump’s campaign promises about improving relations with Russia. Nevertheless, Mironov suggested that Trump’s term as U.S. President “will turn a new page in relations between Russian and the United States.”
Politicians overreact on Twitter
A number of politicians expressed their frustration with the situation on Twitter, only to think better of it later. Gerard Araud, the ambassador of France to the U.S., wrote on Twitter: “After Brexit and these elections everything is possible. The world is crumbling before our eyes. My head is spinning.” This post has now been removed, however.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul wrote on his Twitter page: “Putin has interfered in our elections and succeeded. Well done.” This tweet has also since been removed.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova had time to react, however. “Firstly, the Obama Administration appointed this McFaul to responsible positions and entrusted him to managing not only the affairs of his own country but those of many vassal states, and then, when this situation became unworkable he began to cry that Moscow is to blame,” she wrote on Facebook.
Child Marriage Rife in Northern Afghanistan
By Qayum Babak
An investigation by IWPR has revealed that child marriage remains rampant in the north of Afghanistan, with the local authorities warning that they are powerless to combat the practice.
Dozens of fathers and tribal elders interviewed in Balkh, Faryab, and Jowzjan provinces all said that most girls in their communities were married off between the ages of nine and 14.
The legal age for marriage in Afghanistan is 16, although it can be as low as 15 with parental consent.
Local officials and rights workers said that they had been unable to combat traditional practices that often led to young girls being married off to much older men for large sums of money.
The Afghanistan Human Rights Independent Commission (AIHRC) also confirmed that the practice was rampant.
Shah Mardanqal, a 70-year-old resident of Kata Qala village in the Pashton Kot district of Faryab province, said with satisfaction that he had married his 14-year old daughter to Sarwar Baik, 60, in return for 3,000 US dollars, a cow and 10 sheep.
“A girl should be married while she is still young,” he told IWPR. “Here, all parents earn money from their daughters’ marriages, I did too.”
Asked why he had forced his underage daughter to marry a 60-year-old man, he said, “A father who keeps his young daughter at home and doesn’t get her married commits a sin.”
Najmuddin, a 65-year-old resident of the village of Jin Mala in the Shibirghan district of Jowzjan province, also said he had no regrets about marrying off his three daughters when they were aged between 11 and 17 years old.
He added that he had received a total of 19,000 dollars in bride prices.
“I sold my daughters after the Islamic scholar in our village told me that the marriage of underage girls was not a sin in Islam,” Najmuddin continued.
He claimed that he would not have been forced to sell his daughters if government help would have been available to help lift his family out of poverty.
Najmuddin’s eldest daughter Runa was married at the age of 11 to a 40-year-old man called Adil, from the village of Pancharigh in Aqchah district.
“When I got married, I knew nothing. I didn’t even know what a husband was and what marriage involved,” she said. “I was very scared when I entered my husband’s house.”
Mohammad Bhai, another of Najmuddin’s three sons-in-law, said that he had paid 6,500 dollars for his younger daughter Firooza.
“Because Firooza was betrothed to marry me, I travelled to Iran and spent many years working to earn this much money,” he said.
Both parties’ consent to marriage is required in Islam for a wedding to be lawful. The ceremony must be carried out by a religious scholar in the presence of two witnesses.
Mawlawi Hanif, the scholar who conducted all three of Najmuddin’s daughters’ marriages, said that he had carried out dozens of such ceremonies involving underage girls in Shibirghan city.
He argued that Islam did not prohibit the marriage of girls.
“Whoever disputes this, I am ready to discuss it and challenge him,” he said.
BRUTAL CONSEQUENCES
Balkh director of women’s affairs Suhaila Hadid said she could not give exact figures for the number of child marriages in the region, but added, “I want to say that every day when I come to my office I face a new case of forced or underage marriage.”
Qazi Sayed Mohammad Sameh, head of the AIHRC regional office in Balkh, also said that child marriage was an ongoing crisis.
He said that figures from 2015 showed that 56 cases of forced marriages of underage girls had been registered in the northern provinces. He stressed, however, that this was just the tip of the iceberg.
“The cases of forced marriages of underage girls in remote areas and villages are much higher than we thought or expected,” he continued.
Sameh said that the cases that they registered related mostly to much older men who had paid large sums to marry young girls.
Such marriages, she continued, were due to poverty, illiteracy, and outdated traditions.
As a result, girls were deprived of their education and often felt they had no other option but to run away from home. Sometimes girls and older women went on to commit suicide. Complications from repeated and early pregnancies were also a serious issue.
The Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, enacted by presidential decree in 2009, prohibited a range of abuses including marriages that are coercive, involve minors or amount to a transaction between the two families. However, this law was rejected by parliament in May 2013, and has been shelved ever since.
Hasina Rastaqi, head of children’s rights support at the AIHRC, said that although they tried to educate the public on such issues it was nonetheless the government’s duty to take action against the practice.
“Preventing such forced and underage marriages is the government’s responsibility,” she continued, adding, “We have held workshops to try and increase awareness among some villagers.”
Manizha Mukhlas, who works for the Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA) NGO, argued that the authorities needed to make an example of anyone involved in such cases.
“All the people involved in forced and underage marriages should be investigated by the government including the girl’s father, the religious scholar and the two witnesses.”
She continued, “Investigating those people who are involved in forced and underage marriages will frighten people and serve as a lesson for others, and that’s how to prevent such marriages.”
In a tiny minority of cases, women feel able to pay the penalty of ending their marriages in a country where it is seen as deeply shameful for a woman to apply for divorce.
Sharifa, 20, is a resident of Bazar Markaz in the Shor Tapa district of Balkh province. She was given as a third wife to carpet seller Tajuddin by her father, Tangi Berdi, who told IWPR, “I sold my daughter for 10,000 dollars because all fathers in Balkh take money from their son-in-laws in exchange for giving their daughters to them.”
“As soon I set foot in my husband’s house, he started torturing and harassing me,” Sharifa told IWPR, adding that the situation had been so unbearable that she was prepared to risk the social consequences of leaving her marriage.
“I went to the court and got divorced from my husband,” she said.
Asked why he had mistreated Sharifa, Tajuddin replied, “I have two more wives as well as Sharifa. Whenever I got angry with one of my wives, I beat all three, so as to treat all of them equally.”
http://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/child-marriage-rife-northern-afghanistan
Trump victory: ‘Pakistan, others will have to review foreign policy’
Opposition Leader in National Assembly (NA) Khurshid Shah has said that victory of Donald Trump in US presidential polls will bring about a new change in the world and the entire world including Pakistan will have to review their foreign policy.
“World will now witness a change with Trump success in presidential polls in US. However the entire world including Pakistan will have to review their foreign policy”, he said this while talking to media here on Wednesday in parliament house.
Lashing out at government over pursuing ill conceived foreign policy he said “our foreign policy is confused. A serving Indian military officer Kulbhushan Yadev was arrested as Indian spy agency RAW agent but we failed to expose India’s vindictive face to the world. Had this incident occurred in India the latter would have maligned us in the world?
He went on to say “our foreign policy is unclear. Our external front has gone paralysed due to lack of foreign minister, he added. Induction of permanent foreign minister is need of hour, he stressed. However it seems as if government has no competent person to be appointed as foreign minister. For this reason government is not realising sensitive matters.
Replying to a question about Imran Khan he said that the Pakistan Tehree-e-Insaf (PTI) chief has no political or parliamentary experience. Earlier he used insulting language against parliament and later he returned to parliament.
Commenting on non participation by the PTI in the committee for law and justice he said role of real opposition is not played by abusing and levelling allegations. Opposition is that which we are doing in parliament. “we don’t know the PTI is playing what game, he remarked.
http://dailytimes.com.pk/pakistan/09-Nov-16/trump-victory-pakistan-others-will-have-to-review-foreign-policy
Pakistani Christian: Life is Unbearable as an Asylum Seeker in Thailand
This interview was facilitated by the British Pakistani Christian Association, and was written by Donna Edmunds for the publication Breitbart. It has been reproduced with full with permission. The victim and her family are part supported by the BPCA however Kathriya is also earning a very small living as a model.
Kathriya Louis is gazing out of the window of the second floor condo she shares with her family in Thailand when a military vehicle pulls up. Pausing only to take a quick picture on her cell phone, she quickly withdraws inside, and the family sit in silence, hoping not to be the latest detainees shipped to Thailand’s immigration centers.
Kathriya, 20, is just one of thousands of Pakistani Christians who fled to the country following persecution in her home state. But like her compatriots, Kathriya lives her life in fear of being arrested and detained as an illegal immigrant.
“I am really worried,” she told Breitbart News. “We are all scared that the soldiers and police will come in larger numbers to take us all away. We all know how badly detainees are treated in the immigration detention centre, and none of us want to go there.”
Kathriya is lucky, for now – the officials move on. But she admits: “My family and I are planning what to do in an emergency, we are also thinking of spending time outdoors in tourist areas to prevent being caught at home again.”
And she begs: “Please ask people to pray for us.”
Thailand is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, and does not recognize asylum seekers from anywhere, considering them to be illegal immigrants instead. Consequently, those who flee to Thailand must wait to be assessed by the UN’s Refugee Agency and, if granted refugee status, to be moved to a country willing to accept a quota of asylum seekers. The whole process takes around five years, during which time the migrants are unable to work and must rely on charity handouts.
But precarious as it is, life in Thailand is preferable to the old life they left behind in Pakistan, where Christians are frequently caught in indebted slavery, tortured, falsely accused of blasphemy, and sentenced to death. Thousands of girls have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam before being married off to their captors. Many, consequently, have fled the country.
Kathriya remembers well the difficulties that came with being the only Christian family in her native town. “Our Muslim neighbors did not like us because they knew we were Christians,” she said. “Whenever we prayed or played Christian music they would come to our house and shout at us. My brothers were always caught up in arguments and fights and were harassed and bullied daily.”
Three years ago, an argument between her nephew and a local girl escalated when the girl falsely accused him of blasphemy, a charge which carries a death penalty. Within hours a mob had surrounded the family’s homes, beating her relatives and threatening to lynch them. Kathriya and her family were able to slip away through a rear exit and hid in a nearby town for six weeks, where a local pastor suggested they flee to Thailand, even helping with the cost of flights.
“My family is still deeply traumatized by the attack,” she admits. “I cry when I remember the day of the attack; none of us will ever forget it.”
“We felt in fear of our lives and needed to flee quickly, so we came to Thailand because it is easy to get here, visa is cheap and easy to get and flights are inexpensive. Also, most other countries do not accept Pakistanis. And my pastor told us to go to Thailand because others had escaped there. We were told that the UN would help us.”
Last year, the family were once again pitched into turmoil following the bombing of the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok, in an attack which claimed the lives of 20 people and left more than 120 wounded. The Thai authorities used the attack as an excuse to crack down on immigrants. Kathriya and her family narrowly escaped detention.
“We were woken up at 7.am by the noise of lots of vehicles that had arrived at our condos,” she recounted. “I could see many were the royal army, Royal police and Immigration officers also and they came with large vans with bars on.
“I was with my mum, and from our balcony I saw them breaking doors on many of the flats and was terrified.” Although Kathriya and her mother hid in the bathroom, immigration officials broke down their door, demanding to see their passports, and rejecting the UNHCR papers which listed them as asylum seekers.
“The immigration officer demanded we go downstairs and led us to where other asylum seekers had been taken. The Police placed Somalians in the vans first then started to place Pakistani into the vans, but ran out of space. So the vans left and I was left with my Mother, my two sisters in law and their four children, and there were some other Pakistani woman around also.
My fourteen-year-old niece and I asked if we could go to the toilet, and whilst there some of our friends called us to come to them through a back door that the Police did not know of. We went through the door and quickly jumped onto a taxi motorcycle, escaping to my friend’s house.
A few hours later I received a call from my mother, who had also escaped with my nephew. She had been allowed to get some milk for my small baby nephew who was crying, but after the landlord allowed her through the gates of the condo he had and argued with the Police to let her stay. Thankfully, a Christian Police officer told them to leave her, and so they did.”
Now just two months away from their interview with the UHNCR, with a view to being granted ‘Refugee Status Determination’ following a nearly three-year wait, Kathriya and her family fear that a spate of recent bomb attacks will provoke further crackdowns which could see her detained or even deported.
If she is granted Refugee status she faces a further wait of two to three years before she is granted leave to travel to a country which will accept her.
“I’m hoping to move somewhere safe where I can continue my studies and create an opportunity for a better life,” she said. “I am not bothered where I am resettled, but want to get to a Christian country. I won’t feel safe in a Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist nation.”
“I have already suffered persecution and just want to live a normal life free of danger and persecution I have done nothing to deserve the violence and hatred that I have had to suffer for most of my life, and I just want to be able to use my abilities to better my life and that of my family.”
“Our lives in Thailand have become worthless and without purpose or value. The situation in here is becoming unbearable, and Pakistan is now an impossibility for us. The UNHCR must help refugees likes us gain acceptance and hope.”
British Pakistani Christian Association are assisting stranded Pak-Christian asylum seekers in Thailand. We provide advocacy, aid and assistance including medical care, housing and food, business workshops and a school for asylum children. - See more at: http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/detail.php?interviewid=98#sthash.poa8jztW.dpuf
PPP STRESSES ON BILAWAL’S FOUR POINTS DEMAND
Pakistan Peoples Party’s Senator Saeed Ghani in a statement issued by Media Office has said that Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are the two sides of the same coins. Both have the same vision and both have been taught by the same teacher. Imran Khan has always harmed the opposition and once again he is offering his shoulder to Nawaz government.Senator Ghani said that because of Imran Khan PML(N) won more seats in Punjab than it deserved. Senator Ghani said that if opposition had been remained united then on the issue of Panama papers it could have give tough time to the government.
Imran Khan supported the government with solo flight. PPP is of the view that it will never change its stance on Panama paper and will keep asking the government to accept four points demand by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Senator Saeed Ghani concluded.
https://ppppunjab.wordpress.com/2016/11/09/ppp-stresses-on-bilawals-four-points-demand/