4,500 killed in Yemen in 150 Days of Fascist Saudi-led bombing

Approximately 4,500 people, many civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition began bombing 150 days ago, according to the UN. 23,000 more have been wounded.

An average of 30 people have been killed in Yemen every single day since the beginning of the war on March 26, which pits a US-backed coalition of Middle Eastern nations and forces loyal to President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi against Iran-backed Houthi rebels and fighters loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

UNICEF estimates nearly 400 children have been killed and over 600 injured in the past four months in the country, the poorest in the Middle East.

13 Yemeni teaching staff and four children were killed by a Saudi air strike on August 20. Two days before, coalition bombing in the Amran province took the lives of 17 civilians, injuring 20 more. UNICEF condemned what it called the “senseless bloodshed.”

A Red Cross spokeswoman said the violence in Ta’iz, in southern Yemen, in just one day on August 21 left 80 people dead.

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda continues to grow and take more territory as the US-backed, Saudi-led bombing destroys infrastructure and plunges millions of Yemenis, most of whom already lived in abject poverty before the war began, into further desperation.

As early as April, US politicians including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter warned that the “disorder” in Yemen, greatly inflamed by the bombing supported by their own country, was strengthening al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). I wrote about this at the time: “US-Backed Saudi Bombing Kills 38 Yemeni Civilians a Day, Creating Humanitarian Disaster & Feeding Extremism.”

The Houthis and al-Qaeda are sworn enemies. Al-Qaeda seeks to capitalize on the chaos in which the country is embroiled. In the midst of the bedlam, however, ISIS has also attempted to extend its influence influence in the region. Further adding to the messy entanglement of alliances, ISIS has fought not just the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, but also al-Qaeda.

Yemenis in the rubble of homes destroyed by coalition air strikes in the capital city of Sana’a
CREDIT: Hani Mohammed / AP

Almost half a year into the conflict, violence appears to be escalating, not diminishing.

In July, I reported that, according to UN figures, 3,000 people had been killed in Yemen in the first 100 days of Saudi-led bombing, half of whom were civilians.

Just 20 days later, that figure had risen to at least 3,600 dead, with over 17,300 wounded.

July 24 was the bloodiest day of the conflict yet. On that day alone, coalition air strikes killed over 120 civilians and wounded 150 more in Ta’iz.

Leading human rights organizations maintain the US and other Western allies of Saudi Arabia can be held accountable for war crimes being committed by the coalition.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, a Yemeni man insisted that the US was complicit in the coalition’s killing of children.

I detailed the accusations of war crimes and the enormous hardship which millions of Yemenis must endure in July:

Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East. Before the war broke out, over half of the population lived on less than $2 USD a day and had no access to clean water, according to the World Food Program. 41% of the population was food-insecure, and child malnutrition rates were among the highest in the world. Unemployment rates exceeded 40%, over 60% among the youth.

90% of Yemen’s food is imported, yet Saudi Arabia’s stringent air, water, and land blockade, in the name of preventing weapons from entering the war-torn country, has prevented not just food, but also fuel, medicine, and urgently needed aid from getting to the millions in need.

Even journalists have been denied entry by Saudi forces. The Nation foreign correspondent Matthieu Aikins explained he had to smuggle his crew in by boat from neighboring Djibouti.

In the meantime, extremist groups, namely al-Qaeda, have flourished in these dire conditions.

The coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, consists of monarchies Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, and Morocco, along with Egypt and Sudan.

The US and other Western nations have provided Saudi Arabia with weapons, in spite of knowledge that the arms are being used to commit what human rights organizations and the UN have classified as potential war crimes.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the Saudi-led coalition has engaged in unlawful targeting of civilian areas. Coalition air strikes have rained down on hospitals, schools, neighborhoods, and more.

Amnesty International has accused the coalition of knowingly violating international humanitarian law in its bombing campaign. And there “is no indication that the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition has done anything to prevent and redress such violations,” remarked Amnesty’s Senior Crisis Response Advisor Donatella Rovera.

Just a few days into its assault, the Saudi-led coalition bombed a refugee camp, killing roughly 40 people, injuring around 200 more.

Weeks later, the coalition purposefully destroyed an Oxfam humanitarian aid warehouse, in what HRW classified as “an apparent violation of the laws of war.” Oxfam “vehemently condemned” the attack.

In its attacks, the coalition has also used banned cluster munitions, weapons that are prohibited by a 2008 treaty that was adopted by 116 countries (Saudi Arabia and the US refused to sign the accord).

The US is complicit in these potential war crimes, HRW maintains. The UN and human rights organizations have called on Western nations to cease their support for the military assault, which has pushed Yemen to the edge of catastrophe.

- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/killed-saudi-bombing#sthash.f733nhlr.dpuf

Erasing Middle East’s long history amounts to a ‘new war crime’

There is a point at which we become almost inured to the latest excesses of Islamic State (IS). After civilian massacres, beheadings, rapes and enslavements of women, the throwing of gay men off buildings . . . we are again shocked and pained by the next atrocity, but the bloody brand has been established. It can’t get any worse. And so the latest barbarity, the torture and beheading of Palmyra’s brave 83-year-old head of antiquities Khalid al-Asaad last week, and the weekend dynamiting of the Temple of Baalshamin, one of Palmyra’s and of the world’s best-preserved first-century temples, is really just more of the same, another variation that serves primarily as a PR stunt to capture headlines across the world by a media savvy organisation.

But although it is perhaps difficult to perceive the archaeological vandalism as akin to mass murder, UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural body, has rightly described IS’s rampage through Syria and Iraq’s priceless antiquities, an irreplaceable loss of world heritage and obliteration of untold future scholarship, as a “new war crime”.

Syria, one of history’s most important crossroads – Palmyra was an oasis on the Silk Road – contains some 10,000 sites of archaeological interest. After sweeping through much of northern Iraq last year, Isis set its sights on the ruins near its stronghold of Mosul, ransacking museums, the ruins of once-mighty cities like Nimrud and Hatra, and desecrating historic Christian and Shia shrines. In the more populated, western half of Syria, combat and deliberate vandalism have severely damaged some of the world’s most renowned antiquities like the Crusader-era castle Krak des Chevaliers and the medieval citadel of Aleppo. IS took Palmyra in May but had until recent days left its priceless heritage alone.

The destruction of antiquities is an important statement by the organisation about what IS is – it has pledged to destroy only what it deems idolatrous, although it has also been cynically selling stolen antiquities internationally in large quantities to raise funds. Like the Malian Islamists who ransacked Timbuktu’s library and destroyed its mausoleums, and the Taliban in Afghanistan who looted and bombed the Kabul national museum or destroyed unique statues, IS is expressing a particularly extreme, sectarian form of their Sunni faith, one that demands the violent eclipse of all others. Like the brutal Khmer Rouge who reset the clocks to Year Zero, IS is rewriting history by obliterating all other narratives.

But people’s history and culture is precious. The remarkable stories of al-Asaad’s resistance to torture, of the bravery of many museum workers, historians and archivists in the city, as in Timbuktu and Kabul, in rescuing and hiding much of their vulnerable heritage, in the face of certain death if discovered, is testimony to an irradicable spirit that IS will not destroy.

Video - War Crime - Terrorist ISIL shows images of Palmyra temple destruction

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Putin to discuss with Egypt’s president fighting international terrorism

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will discuss on Wednesday with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattakh as-Sisi issues of fighting international terrorism.

The Egyptian leader is paying a working visit to Russia.

"Russia supports Egypt’s vigorous efforts in this direction and is ready to render all-round assistance to strengthening Egypt’s armed forces and law enforcement," the Kremlin press service said.

The Middle East settlement and the situation in Northern African, including Syria and Libya, will also be part of the agenda, the Kremlin press service stressed.

Egypt is one of Russia’s major Middle East partners. Trade and economic ties form an important aspect of Russian-Egyptian bilateral ties, the Kremlin press service said. The year 2014 saw an 86% increase in reciprocal trade since 2013 that reached 5.5 billion U.S. dollars. The reciprocal trade dwindled by 16% in monetary terms in the first half of 2015 due to falling prices in global product markets and foreign exchange rate fluctuations. However, the trade structure remained unchanged. At the same time, Egypt’s agricultural exports into Russia are showing stable growth. The quantum of trade over the designated period exceeded 500,000 tonnes.

"The Joint Russian-Egyptian Commission for Trade, Economic and Scientific-Technological Cooperation is a vital mechanism to promote the Russian-Egyptian interaction. Its next meeting is to take place late this year," the Kremlin press service said.

Energy, including the oil and gas sector, is one of the leading areas of cooperation. Russia’s oil company LUKOIL implements a number of projects near the Egyptian city of Hurghada where it extracts about 0.5 million tonnes of oil annually.

Russia’s Rosneft and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation agreed on annual deliveries to Egypt of petroleum products and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Rosneft will also train personnel for the Egyptian oil and gas industry.

Russia’s Gazprom and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company struck a deal to supply several LNG shipments to Egypt before 2019.

In a bid to create modern atomic energy in Egypt, the two countries signed an agreement for developing a project for the construction of nuclear power stations in Egypt during President Putin’s visit to Cairo in February last year. The sides are studying the project’s technical and financial parameters, the Kremlin press service said.

The two countries strengthen humanitarian contacts. Russia helps Egypt to train qualified experts for the Egyptian economy. Over years of cooperation, about 10,000 Egyptian experts in various field of knowledge have graduated first from Soviet and then Russian institutions of high learning. About 200 Egyptian nationals are studying in Russia now. The Egyptian-Russian University founded in 2009 has 4,000 students. Russian and Egyptian scientific and educational establishments develop direct ties. An archaeological mission of the Russian Academy of Sciences functions in Egypt. The two countries develop cooperation in high technologies.

Tourism is another vital and dynamic area of reciprocal cooperation. A record number of Russian tourists - over 2.5 million people - visited Egyptian sea resorts in 2014. More than half a million Russians spent their vacation in Egypt in the first half of 2015.

Russia and Egypt develop a confidential political dialogue, including at the summit level. The Egyptian president visited Russia on August 12, 2014. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea town of Sochi. The Egyptian leader took part in the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) in Moscow on May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Cairo on February 9-10 this year. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Egypt on August 6 to attend the unveiling ceremony of the major extension of the Suez Canal. He also met President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

Other Russian officials who visited Egypt in 2015 include Nikolay Patrushev, the head of the Russian Security Council, a number of ministers and the heads of major Russian companies.

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'China’s V-Day parade aims at containing Japan' is nonsense

By Zhang Yuan 

The grand parade held by China on Sept. 3  is intended to commemorate history, cherishthe memory of fallen revolutionary heroes, uphold peace and usher in the future, with nospecific countries targeted, said Qu Rui, deputy director of the Office of the ParadeLeading Team and deputy chief of the Operations Department of the General StaffHeadquarters.

However, several Japanese media have a wrong understanding of the aim of the parade,saying that the parade aimed to show the muscle of the Chinese army and contain Japan.Such statements are narrow-minded and a distortion of facts. China doesn’t need toconduct a grand parade just to cope with the problems of Sino-Japanese relations. Besides,China never shows off its military strength, and it always keeps a low profile.

It’s unnecessary for Japanese media to “over-interpret” the aim of the parade. In fact, theaim is very clear: to commemorate history, cherish the memory of fallen revolutionaryheroes, uphold peace and usher in the future.

Commemorating history means one should never forget the harms caused by Fascist andJapanese militarism, and one should never forget the disaster to Chinese people, Japanesepeople, and people of other countries brought by the war waged by Japan. By the end ofWorld War II, more than 35 million Chinese were killed or wounded, and its propertylosses and war consumption amounted to more than 100 billion US dollars during theJapanese aggression. Japan and other Asian countries also suffered huge economic losses.

The parade also aims to cherish the memory of fallen revolutionary heroes. According tothe Chinese archives, allied forces killed and wounded about 1.95 million Japanesesoldiers in that eight years. About 70 percent of these casualties took place on thebattlefields in China.

China Will Never Accept Dala Lama’s “Middle Way”

The Chinese central government will never accept the “Middle Way” proposed by the DalaLama group, China’s United Front said in its official website in an article pen namedKelsang.

The article was posted after the Chinese Central Government ended its sixth workingconference on Tibet Tuesday in Beijing.

“The Central Government did not in the past, nor is now and will not in the future acceptthe Middle Way solution to the Tibet issue,” reads the article.

The essential intent of the ‘Middle Way’ is to split China, “ adds the commentary , sayingthat the Dalai group refuses to accept China’s sovereignty in Tibet and wants to seize thereins of power and set up a semi-independent political regime.”

In particular, China is against the Dalai Lama’s proposal for a “high degree of autonomy”in Tibet, saying “the essence of ‘a high degree of autonomy’ is to setup ‘a state within astate’ free of any control from the central government.

The article recalls that the central government has attached great importance to Tibet,holding six Tibet working conferences since 1980, with the second one in 1984, the thirdone in 1994 , the fifth one in 2010 and the sixth conference ended just on Tuesday.

Each Tibet working conference worked out specific measures to push forward Tibet’seconomic development and secure social stability.

On Tibetan Buddhism, the article promotes “political unity and respecting religious belief” saying the government is against intervening and limiting Tibetan’s religious freedom. 

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Clinton wins endorsement of first Obama Cabinet member

Hillary Rodham Clinton collected her first endorsement from a member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet on Tuesday when Agriculture SecretaryTom Vilsack cited her leadership and loyalty in announcing his decision to fall in line behind the "battle-tested" and embattled Democratic presidential contender.

Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, also endorsed Clinton during the 2008 contest, which she lost to Obama.

He planned to join Clinton for campaign appearances Wednesday in Iowa.

"Hillary Clinton has the right policies to strengthen and expand the middle class, is battle tested, and has the experience and relationships to lead and govern well," the Obama secretary wrote in an opinion piece posted on the website of The Gazette newspaper of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clinton's campaign also circulated the piece.

Along with her policies and experience, Vilsack also cited Clinton's loyalty and their friendship of more than two decades as reasons for supporting her over her Democratic rivals: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.

The endorsement comes as Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, is mired in controversy over her use of a private email account and server while she served Obama as secretary of state during his first term. Vilsack also announced his support amid rampant speculation that Vice President Joe Biden will jump into the race to help soothe the nerves of some Democrats who are growing increasingly skittish about Clinton's viability.

Hillary Clinton Holds Strong Lead in New Iowa Poll

By Alan Rappeport

Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a strong lead against her Democratic rivals in Iowa despite lingering concerns about her honesty, according to a new poll.

A survey from Suffolk University found that Mrs. Clinton has the support of 54 percent of likely Iowa caucus participants, with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in second place at 20 percent. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has not said if he is running, comes in third place with 11 percent.

The poll questioned 500 likely Democratic caucusgoers, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It reveals strong loyalty to Mrs. Clinton among Democrats amid concerns about the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server as secretary of state. While most people said that the email problem did not bother them personally, 52 percent said they thought it would damage Mrs. Clinton in a general election.

“There is huge loyalty to her and they are sticking with her,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.

Although Mrs. Clinton appears to be the most popular Democrat in Iowa, Mr. Sanders is considered to be the most honest and trustworthy of the party’s candidates and their most likely second choice, edging out Mr. Biden.

Mr. Paleologos said that the support for Mr. Sanders, who has also shown polling strength in New Hampshire, indicates the challenge facing Mr. Biden as he moves closer to deciding about his White House bid. However, he said that the fact that he was not facing ethical questions might make him a more dangerous general election candidate than Mrs. Clinton for Democrats.

“He’s got to find a path to victory in the primary,” Mr. Paleologos said of Mr. Biden. “He would be a better general election candidate because he doesn’t have this email controversy swirling around him.”

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Pakistan Must Convince the World of its Intentions

By - Alyssa Ayres 

Over the weekend, Pakistan’s national security advisor, Sartaj Aziz, called off planned talks with India’s national security advisor after a series of public disagreements escalated to the pointof no return. Islamabad and New Delhi failed to agree on the scope of the agenda, despite a clear joint statement issued by Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi during their meeting last month in Ufa, Russia, which had set the parameters for India-Pakistan dialogue in coming months. Most press accounts indicate that Pakistan sought to expand the NSAs’ agenda from the single subject of “terrorism” agreed upon at Ufa to include discussion of Kashmir. Compounding things, India reiterated its redline, developed by the Modi government last summer, against Pakistani officials meeting with separatists from Jammu and Kashmir on the margins of Indo-Pak talks. The Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi invited Kashmiri separatists to a reception, so between the redline and the soiree invite grew an impasse.

The Pakistani external affairs ministry statement issued August 22, canceling the NSA meeting, stated that talks “would not serve any purpose, if conducted on the basis of the two conditions laid down” [by India]. Pakistan’s position is that India and Pakistan have many issues to discuss, and terrorism has always been part of a larger composite dialogue. Islamabad believes talks have little value if not covering the full range of matters in dispute, of which no doubt the two neighbors have many. New Delhi has maintained that “talks and terror” cannot go together, reiterated by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in her August 22 press conference about the talks, and that tackling terrorism should be the first step toward a sequenced resumption of a fuller dialogue. Let’s put aside quibbles over a meeting agenda and whether and how Pakistani officials should or should not meet with Kashmiri separatists. Here’s the larger context for the aborted India-Pakistan NSA talks: About a month ago, on July 27, terrorists attacked across the international border, in Gurdaspur, in Indian Punjab. On August 5, another attack took place in Udhampur, in the Jammu region of Jammu & Kashmir. One of the attackers was caught, said his name was Naveed Yakub from Faisalabad (in Pakistan), and that he had been trained by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Each of these incidents generated speculation that India would call off the NSA meet, but New Delhi did not let the attacks undo the promise made by Modi and Sharif at Ufa.

That India and Pakistan were unable to agree on the agenda and the appropriate way to handle questions of Kashmir is certainly unfortunate. But make no mistake: given the history of terrorist attacks on India emanating from Pakistani territory over the past two decades, the onus now rests with Pakistan to step forward and ensure a terror-free atmosphere for discussion of difficult political matters. Yes, Pakistanis too are victims of terror, and that is not in dispute. But the state has international obligations in countering terror, not least in upholding the sanctions regime put in place by United Nations Security Council resolutions. Aziz did not address the issue of Pakistan-based terror, instead launching into Soviet-style whataboutism, brandishing a dossier about alleged Indian involvement in Baluchistan and complaining that India offers insufficient evidence to support its allegations of terror groups in Pakistan.

What has Pakistan done to tackle terror groups operating from its soil? Pakistan selectively mounts counterterrorism campaigns in one part of the country, while permitting a UNand U.S.-designated terrorist organization, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its leader Hafiz Saeed to openly hold public rallies and continue “humanitarian” work and alms collection in its largest cities like Lahore and Karachi. The perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attacks have not been brought to justice either, with a trial submerged by delays ad infinitum, and with one of the conspirators released on bail this year. The Haqqani network, another organization under UN and U.S. terrorism designations, appears untouched by Pakistan’s selective counterterrorism effort, and following Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death, a Haqqani has now ascended to the leadership ranks of the Taliban. In belated recognition of this problem, the Obama administration has apparently withheld certification that Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign has damaged the Haqqani network. These are only the barest outlines of the problem; suffice it to say that none of this looks like a state fighting comprehensively to rid the country of the scourge of terrorism. No one disputes that India and Pakistan have a terrible relationship, and could draw up a laundry list of an agenda even longer than the eight points of their current dialogue structure. Frankly, they probably should. But Pakistan needs to stop shifting the blame from the terrorism problem that is chewing up its own society and causing enmity with its neighbors. (Pakistan’s problems are not just with India: Two weeks ago a frustrated President Ashraf Ghani called upon Pakistan to rein in the terrorists who attack Afghanistan.) But instead of expressions of remorse about the lost opportunity for the NSAs to meet, on August 24 the Pakistani paper Dawn quoted Aziz saying, “Modi’s India acts as if they are a regional superpower, we are a nuclear-armed country and we know how to defend ourselves.” Does this sound like a country serious about negotiations and taking steps to resolve decades-long disputes?

It’s Pakistan’s job to restore India’s, and the world’s, confidence in its intentions, and that will not happen with continued terrorist attacks across the border in India, and with blustery rhetoric about using nuclear weapons. Tackling terror, all terror, should be job number one for Islamabad.

Abused and abandoned: Pakistani rights group confirms massive child sexual abuse

Pakistan's independent human rights commission, HRCP, says it has received "credible testimonies" confirming a massive child abuse scandal in Punjab, which the government had earlier played down as a land dispute.

"It is clear that a heinous crime has been committed against children," the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said in a seven-page report based on the investigations of its fact-finding mission. The HRCP said the authorities refused cooperate with its team.

Earlier this month, shocking revelations about a huge child pornography scandal jolted the Islamic nation, which generally denies such things happen in the country. According to Pakistani media, at least 280 children were filmed being sexually abused by a pedophile gang of 25 men in a village near the eastern city of Kasur. The city is close to Lahore, a political stronghold of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of the Punjab province.

The child sexual abuse started in 2006 and continued until last year, according to local residents and rights activists. The victims, mostly boys below 14 years of age, were forced to have sex, and their videos were then sold in the markets. The gang involved in the alleged abuse blackmailed the minors' parents by threatening to leak the videos.

Shock, anger and denial

The scandal shocked and angered the country, with child rights activists demanding a proper investigation into the case and severe punishments for the people involved in the crime. However, the government soon played down the seriousness of the scandal. Punjab's law minister, Rana Sanaullah, denied the cases of abuse, saying the reports surfaced because villagers were fighting over land. The police also disputed media reports that the number of victims ran into the hundreds.

"The references made to a land dispute in the village are irrelevant and nothing can justify avoidance of impartial investigation and prosecution," HRCP said on Wednesday, August 19, in its report. "The fact-finding team agrees that the crime remained concealed largely because the victims' families paid extortion money and they were also intimidated."

The commission, known for its largely independent advocacy, also said that it was not possible that the police could be unaware of "the video clippings freely circulating in the area."

Rana Asif Habib, a child rights activist and lawyer, told DW the numbers were simply "the tip of the iceberg." The actual number of victims could be much higher, considering that Kasur is very close to Lahore, where slum children attract abusers in large numbers.

"Pakistan is not a signatory to the UN Child Rights Convention," Habib said, adding that children could not complain to any authority in the event that they were sexually exploited.

A victim's father told DW's Urdu service on condition of anonymity that his life had been shattered due to the abuse of his two sons. "I am in deep pain. I can't sleep. I feel lost," he said, adding that the gang drugged his sons before making them abuse other kids and filming them.

"I wish I had the money to buy justice," he said.

Politicization of the scandal

The HRCP said its team heard complaints from the villagers that they were being pressurized by the police and politicians to downplay the intensity of the issue.

"The behavior of the police and public statements made by some of the PML-N (PM Sharif's party) leaders cast a doubt on their commitment to ensure that justice is done to the victims and that serious measures are taken to prevent further harm to them and their families," the report said.

The HRCP team also criticized the Pakistani media for its coverage of the scandal and said it was highly insensitive to the psychological and emotional impact of the issue on the children.

The rights group, however, warned that the scandal should not be used for political scoring against the ruling party. "The potential for opportunistic use of the incident for political purposes does exist."

Need for rehabilitation and monitoring

What the HRCP laments most in its report is the "total disregard for the physical and psychological impact of the abuse on the victims."

The rights body also blamed the families of the victims for this. "None of those, including the parents, raised any concerns in this regard with the team. Suggestions by team members that the children should receive proper medical attention and psychological counseling were given no serious attention by the families of these children, nor those who were leading their pursuit for justice against the accused."

The fact-finding mission said it would monitor the progress of the investigation, and that it would re-visit the village to "ascertain the situation with regard to the intimidation of victims and their level of satisfaction with the progress of the investigation."

#Pakistani Christians Under Attack - Kot Radha Kishan incident: The police witnessed the whole incident as spectator

Supreme Court criticizes police for being inactive when the Christian couple was lynched by mob in Kot Radha Kishan.
According to details, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court Lahore Registry issued notices to the prosecution on bail applications filed by two allegedly accused of ransacking when the Christian couple was being burnt alive by the mob on November 4, 2014 in Kot Radha kishan.
Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry heard this case on Monday, August 24, 2015. During the hearing an additional prosecutor general submitted that the accused also played a pivotal role during the whole episode of lynching of the Shahzad and Shamma, besides they were also involved in ransacking during the incident.
Also read: Family of Asia Bibi in great pain
During the hearing, the Supreme Court bench strongly criticized the police for not taking necessary action during Kot Radha Kishan incident and remarked that “the police witnessed the whole incident as spectator.”
What is more, the Additional prosecutor submitted to the court that only five police officials including an ASI were present on the scene of the brick kiln where the Christians were being burnt alive; however, the mob comprised of about 500 agitated fanatics.
Moreover, after the whole incident and subsequent police investigations the ASI who was present at the scene during the incident was terminated. Nonetheless, the remaining four police officials were charged on negligence by the Police Department. departmental action had been taken against the remaining officials on negligence.
The prosecutor maintained that the police did try to stop the infuriated mob but they were tortured. On the other hand, the court remarked that this story was fabricated by the police to avoid further blame of negligence and inaction. Conversely, the additional prosecutor asked the court to grant some time for thorough arguments.
The incident occured when an agitated mob burnt a Christian couple namely Shahzad and Shamma alive. The Christian couple was accused of committing blasphemy and so received an extra-judicial judgement.

- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/kot-radha-kishan-incident-the-police-witnessed-the-whole-incident-as-spectator-supreme-court-says/#sthash.ycf4dtra.dpuf

Pakistan - KHANZADA’S ASSASSINATION AN OPEN AND SHUT CASE

By : Amir Mir

While Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan has said the murder of Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada was still a “blind case” and there had been no “breakthrough” in it so far, those investigating the suicide attack that killed Khanzada believe it was an open and shut case as the bombing was masterminded by the Notorious Taliban (TTP), Taliban-Jamaat Ul Ahrar (JUA), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) aka AhleSunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) combine to avenge the July 29, 2015 killing of the LEJ chief Malik Mohammad Ishaq in a police encounter.

Addressing a press conference at the Punjab House in Islamabad on Sunday, Ch Nisar Ali Khan refuted media reports about the arrests made by security agencies in different parts of the country in connection with the August 16 suicide attack on Shuja Khanzada in Attock which had killed 22 people. “I am surprised to see kite flying in media which should refrain from reporting in irresponsible manner which could affect investigations. This is a blind murder case. There has been sufficient progress in the investigations, but no breakthrough so far”, the interior minister said.

On the other hand, a senior security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed surprise over Ch Nisar Ali Khan’s statement, adding that those investigating the Attock bombing are pretty sure that it was orchestrated by TTP-JUA-LEJ combine which had been responsible for a host of bloody terrorist attacks in the past, including suicide bombings.

The senior security official reminded that both the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahraar (TTP-JUA) had claimed responsibility for Shuja Khanzada’s assassination, stating that it was in retaliation for the killing of the LEJ leader Malik Ishaq.

And subsequent investigations proved that the lethal bombing was a coordinated operation by the TTP-JUA-LEJ combine. But he regretted that the First-Information Report (FIR) of Khanzada’s murder had been filed on behalf of the state against “unidentified attackers”.

While the LEJ had claimed responsibility for the suicide attack the same day, (August 16), the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahraar (TTP-JUA) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had tweeted the next day (August 17) that the assassination was revenge for the killing of Malik Ishaq, who was gunned down in a police encounter on July 29, 2015 in Muzaffargarh. “We accept responsibility for the Attock suicide bombing which killed Shuja Khanzada,” Ehsanullah wrote in a series of tweets that were published on his official Twitter account. Ehsan was clear that the suicide assault was executed to punish the Pakistani government for killing Malik Mohammad Ishaq, his two sons, and eight LEJ commanders in a shootout with police after an alleged prison break that took place on July 28, 2015.

Shuja Khanzada was martyred at his Dera (residence) in Shadi Khan in district Attock 18 days after Malik Ishaq’s killing. At the time of his assassination, he was considered to be a key player in the province’s fight against terrorism. Khanzada had declared the killing of Malik Ishaq a part of the National Action Plan against terrorism, though he was supposedly killed in an encounter while trying to escape from police custody. The agencies had warned of a serious backlash by the militants in the aftermath of Ishaq’s killing besides launching a renewed hunt to capture the most wanted chief operational commander of the LEJ, Matiur Rehman alias Abdul Samad Sial. But before the agencies could nab him, Matiur was able to despatch two human bombs to Attock who exploded themselves and killed Khanzada.

The consequent responsibility claim tweeted by the TTP-JUA spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said: “The Attock attack is revenge for the killing of Malik Ishaq and several other mujahideen brothers, thanks to the assistance of a brother jehadi organization”, indicating thereby that the attack was executed with the help of another terrorist group which the investigating agencies believe was none other than the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The Pakistani Taliban routinely carry out coordinated terror attacks in cooperation with other allied terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Exactly a year ago, in August 2014, the TTP Jamaatul Ahraar had carried out a ferocious assault on two airbases in Quetta while working in tandem with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Fidayeen-e-Islam (FEI) led by Ghalib Mehsud.

The TTP Jamaatul Ahraar is led by the Nangarhar-based Pakistani Taliban Commander Omar Khalid Khorasani who was responsible for beheading around two dozen jawans of the Frontier Corps last year. The Jamaatul Ahraar is the same Taliban group which had created havoc in Lahore by carrying out several deadly suicide bombings in the provincial metropolis of Punjab in the recent past with the help of its covert support system, killing 85 innocent people.

The TTP-JUA claimed responsibility for the March 15, 2015 twin suicide bombings, targeting two churches which had killed 15 people in the Youhana Abad area of Lahore, the November 5, 2014 suicide bombing at the Wagah border post that killed 65 people and the February 17, 2015 suicide attack outside the main gate of the Police Lines near the Railway Headquarter in Lahore which killed five people.

The anti-Shia Jamaatul Ahraar split from the Fazlullah-led Taliban in the summer of 2014 after a leadership dispute emerged in the wake of the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud. However, Khorasani decided to rejoin the TTP a few months later - in March 2015. According to US-based news website The Long War Journal, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is known to have integrated key al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leaders into its organization. In May 2015, three jehadi groups, led by Commander Matiur Rehman, Ehsanul Haq, and Muhammad Shamil, merged with the TTP led by Mullah Fazlullah.

Matiur Rehman, who was put in command of all three factions, was assigned with the task of killing some senior government figures from Punjab to avenge the assassination of Malik Ishaq. Hardly a few months before his killing, Malik Ishaq was also the vice president of the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) which was previously called Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). But Ishaq parted ways with the ASWJ after developing some serious differences with Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, the ASWJ president, who had played a vital role in his release from jail in 2011 under an alleged peace deal with the Punjab government.

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/18002-khanzada-s-assassination-an-open-and-shut-case

Pakistan’s attention span problem

By Ayaz Amir

Two minutes into a presentation and a shadow comes over the eyes and you can tell that the mind has begun to wander. Clever officials know this. So they steer clear of ‘boring’ issues.

Flights of fancy like signal-free corridors from here to Rewat, a train line to Murree and Muzaffarabad – this piece of brilliance is still on the cards – or another metro…bring these up and then you need not worry about the prime minister’s attention span.

Conspiracy theories and political calculations have also a tight hold on the prime ministerial mind. What is the ISI up to? What is Imran Khan’s next move? Who’s pulling his strings now? India is a big draw…and business deals of course because this is a political family in politics and huge bucks at the same time. Conflict of interest may have been a notion dimly understood in Pakistan once but not anymore.

Leaders are not technicians and they don’t have to be intellectuals or even experts. Ronald Reagan would not read anything beyond a single sheet of paper. And he would watch movies at night and go to bed early. George Bush was an early riser and would read something out of the Bible every morning. Scripture of all sorts can make for stirring reading – all that stuff about smiting the Philistines and dealing with the unrighteous. Was there a connection, yet imperfectly explored, between this and his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

But Reagan and Bush had their advisers who did the heavy thinking for them. Nawaz Sharif’s problem is that he wants to be his own foreign policy expert which is where he creates problems not only for himself but for the country he is supposed to be leading.

The goof-up about the meeting in Delhi between the two national security advisers is a perfect example of this. The PM seemed to have no idea of what he was putting his signature to at Ufa, the Russian city where he met Narendra Modi. Among the steps agreed to were: “a meeting in New Delhi between the two NSAs to discuss all issues connected to terrorism.” Period: nothing about the mountains or the rivers or the climate or Kashmir…all issues connected to terrorism. Does this leave anything to the imagination?

Furthermore, “Both sides agreed to discuss ways and means to expedite the Mumbai case trial, including additional information like providing voice samples.” This is the Indian take on Mumbai and our PM, his own Kissinger, agreed to this.

When the Indians said only terrorism-related issues would be discussed they were quoting Ufa, not making anything up. Good for us that they dragged in the Hurriyat – insisting, foolishly, that no one from the Pakistani side should so much as have a cup of tea with its leaders in Delhi – which gave us the pretext to get out of this mess. 

Of course we should normalise relations with India. But there is a way of going about it – creating a consensus at home and then taking the process forward…without getting unduly excited along the way. But for some reason Nawaz Sharif has this craze – and there is no other word for it – for shortcuts (and don’t forget that old line: the longest distance between two points is an unfamiliar shortcut). Then he discovers that the army has slightly different ideas. Then everyone who matters in the PML-N pulls a long face and the PM looks glum. And dark mutterings are heard that the Faujis don’t let them function.

Nawaz Sharif is third-time PM which makes him a man of experience and should give him a better understanding of how things happen in Pakistan. But to judge by some his moves on the civil-military front, and to go by the utterances of some of his key ministers who are dissatisfied with life unless they can shoot themselves in the foot every now and then, it would seem that his understanding on some issues is no better than what it was 20-25 years ago. 

To be sure, regarding their own business interests this crowd is very smart. They weren’t billionaires before entering political office but look at them now. That part of the political system they know how to work better than anyone else. But when it comes to unsexy issues, the attention deficit problem rises to the fore.

And there is no concept of delegating power and responsibility. It all remains within a tight, inner coterie. There is a turnover of faces in other climates, even China where the top leadership changes every ten years. Here we have the same faces year after year.

When the army seizes power and the commander-in-chief’s term never ends, the system gets frozen and fresh thinking is blocked. Time stood still with Gen Zia who was army chief for as long as he was commander of the faithful. It stood still with Gen Musharraf who was at the helm for a long time and wouldn’t suffer a successor to step into his shoes.

With Kayani there came some change. But when he got an extension time again stood still and fresh thinking stopped. The army sat on its haunches and couldn’t summon up the resolve or the initiative to go into North Waziristan.

Change came with the new commander, Gen Raheel Sharif. That’s when fresh ideas were taken up again and the army declared war on terrorism. In the last one year the national landscape has altered. Terrorism was in the ascendant and Pakistan on the defensive. Today it is the other way round.

The same principle or rule applies to politics. Politicians whose vision was shaped by the past were called upon to confront problems they had no clue how to handle. It wasn’t their fault if they chose the line of least resistance, making a cult of appeasement, even as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan mocked them and went on the rampage. 

Anyone who thinks that civilians are still in charge has a serious problem. It is the military handling things and giving the nation a sense of direction. Terrorism has not been eliminated but it is on the run, its force blunted. As a result, the sense of hopelessness defining Pakistan’s state of mind just the middle of last year is no more. There’s hope in the air that Pakistan’s condition is finally on the mend. Leadership has done this, but military leadership not any other kind.

It’s of a piece with this mood that the military’s standing is at an all-time high and the army chief is very popular. There’s no going around this circumstance.

This reveals a glaring disconnect between fact and fiction…or rather between military fact and constitutional fiction. The constitution vests political command in parliament. Parliament’s problem is it represents the vanished, defeated past. That is why popular acclaim and acceptance instead of being attracted by parliament has shifted decisively to the legions… to put it no more bluntly than that. This is the central fact of Pakistani politics today. 

How to bridge this disconnect? In other words, how to bring the constitution in line with prevailing realities? This is the central problem of Pakistani politics today.

The parliamentary system is dead. It is delivering nothing, not even the right sound bites. And people gradually, their eyes finally opening, are beginning to see through the metros and the flyovers…and the trains to Muzaffarabad.

Kayani was undone by his extension. An extension will be the kiss of death to Gen Raheel Sharif. So let this bogey be laid to rest. What Pakistan needs is something totally different: a directly elected president – a president elected by all the people – with executive power in his hands. Pakistan needs and deserves this fresh start, a right it has earned through the toil and sacrifices of the last one year.

Pakistan - Ch Nisar’s rose coloured glasses

And quick fixes

Ch Nisar believes that with himself presiding over the interior ministry everything is hunky-dory in the country. Living in a world of his own he has wished away all terrorist networks in Pakistan. This despite only ten days back Punjab home Minister Shuja Khanzada having been killed along with 14 others in Punjab, the relatively peaceful province of the country. An enquiry committee set up by the chief minister has concluded meanwhile that the attack was carried out by a Punjabi terrorist supported by a local network. Who killed or injured several Hazara Shi’a, police officers and soldiers in Quetta and Turbat this month? Who is conducting terror attacks in Karachi? It is odd to insist in the presence of this incriminating evidence that no terrorist network is left capable of operating in Pakistan.

One welcomes Nisar’s promise to end sectarianism. But can it be eliminated in six months, as he claims, without an Aladin’s lamp? Terrorist attacks are conducted by those with an extremist mindset. The mindset gives birth to hatred which expresses itself in terrorist attacks. One can arrest or kill thousands of terrorists but the extremist mindset will continue to create new generations of terrorists who will look for an opportunity to strike back. Nisar has no plan to launch a prolonged and patient campaign to inculcate tolerance and accommodation in society. The PML-N leadership is after quick fixes that must produce some ‘concrete’ results, even if they are short-lived, to present them as an achievement to voters before the 2018 elections. Nothing is being done therefore to eradicate the root cause.

The interior minister would like everyone to believe that while under the PPP the relations between the government and the army were sour, these are ideal under the PML-N government. If this is so why should he object to discussions on the matter in public or to giving out what he calls “reckless opinions on the subject”?

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto meets KPK party leaders

A meeting of the PPP leaders of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has started in Zardari house Islamabad and is underway.

Presided over by Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari those attending the meeting include Ms Faryal Talpur, Raja Pervez Ashraf, senator Khanzada khan president PPP KPK, senator Sherry Rehman Vice President PPP, Senator Rubina Khalid, ex Provincial Presidents Zahir Ali Shah and Rahimdad Khan, Najmuddin Khan, Shuja Khan, Humayun Khan, Noor Alam Afridi, Faisal Kundi, Muhammad Ali Shah MPA, Akhumzada Chatan President PPP FATA, Aurangzeb Burki, Jamil Soomro media advisor chairman PPP.Spokesperson senator Farhatullah Babar said the meeting is discussing issues relating to organizational matters of the party and political situation post local bodies election in the province. 

Earlier chairman PPP held two separate meetings with Faisalabad district and city chapters of ppp.

https://mediacellppp.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/chairman-ppp-meets-kpk-party-leaders/

Pakistan - Ahmad Faraz remembered on his 7th death anniversary

Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz was remembered on his seventh death anniversary on Tuesday, 25 August.Faraz was considered one of the greatest modern Urdu poets of the last century.

His real name was Syed Ahmad Shah.He was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz and other numerous national and international awards in recognition of his literary achievements.

His poetry has been translated into English, French, Russian and German.His several ghazals also shot to prominence in films during 1970′s including “Ranjish Hi Sahi Dil Hi Dukhanay Ke Liye Aa” and “Ab Ke Hum Bicchray To Shayed Kabhi Khawabon Mein Milen”. Ahmed Faraz died from kidney failure on this day in 2008.

Pashto Music - Sardar Ali Takkar ما دے ستا لمن ته ـ عبدالرحمان بابا