Human Rights Day: ‘International covenants not implemented in Pakistan’

Pakistan is trying to do more for human rights but international covenants of United Nations have not been practically implemented.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairperson Zohra Yusuf pointed this out while talking to The Express Tribune. Today’s Human Rights Day marks the 50 years of the United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. While both covenants have been signed by Pakistan, activists feel that much more is required to bring them into effect. “It [Pakistan] is trying to do more but, practically, the covenants have not been implemented.”

A sad example is that of Zahid*, a member of the Ahmadi community, who avoids praying in public. “When I am at the airport or at any other public place, I miss out on prayers. I fear that if I pray, someone will identify me as an Ahmadi and I will be sent to jail.”

The world celebrates the Human Rights Day today with the theme, ‘Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always’, emphasising rights, which include the freedom of worship. But Zahid and his community have long been deprived of their right to religion. “We helped in the creation of Pakistan so that Muslims can practise [their faith] freely. But here, we can’t call ourselves that.”

Under the anti-Ahmadi laws of the country, a person of the Ahmadi community caught practising his/her faith as a Muslim can be imprisoned and fined. “I, therefore, pray in my house or [those of] our relatives. Even our house of worship has no legal status and after the Lahore attack, we don’t feel safe anymore,” says Zahid, who lives in a neighbourhood of Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

Speaking from Rabwah, the incharge of the press section of Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya, Amir Mahmood, said that the right to worship is a fundamental law but the anti-Ahmadi laws in the country forbids them from following or preaching their faith. “Since the 1984 Ordinance against the Ahmadis coming into force, hundreds and hundreds of our [people] have been charged for simply giving out the azaan,” he said. Data compiled by the community shows that between April 1984 and September 2015, around 765 Ahmadis have been charged for displaying the kalma, 447 for posing as Muslims, 93 for offering prayers, 303 booked under the blasphemy law, 796 booked for preaching, and 27 of their mosques have been demolished.

There are 0.5 to 0.6 million Ahmadis in Pakistan, but because of the law, Mahmood says that they cannot build new houses of worship, cannot call it a masjid and cannot call for the prayer aloud.

Freedom of speech is another covenant that Pakistan needs improvement in, according to the HRCP, who raised the issue of Saleem Baloch. In March 2006, the Jamhoori Watan Party leader was detained allegedly by security forces for raising his voice against missing persons and the rights of the Baloch people. Over nine months after he was released, Baloch held a press conference at the organisation’s office, talking about spending time in solitary confinement and being blindfolded most of the time. Less than a month later, he was picked up again and detained for some more months. His colleague, HRCP field officer Abdul Hai, recalled that Baloch was told to ‘remain silent for the rest of his life or he won’t be found in one piece again’. Today, Baloch, supposedly ‘free’, doesn’t talk about his past. “Those who speak the truth will always be punished for it,” said Hai.

*Name has been changed to protect identities

Pakistan - #POLIO - 50th victim comes from Khyber Agency

A two-year-old boy from Khyber Agency was Wednesday confirmed to have polio, taking the total number of cases in the country to 50.

According to officials at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, Sanaullah, son of Namdar, was first diagnosed at a clinic in Mirdad Khel, Khyber Agency on November 13. Subsequently, his stool samples were sent to Islamabad to confirm whether he was afflicted with polio.

“We have received the report (from NIH) and the lab tests have confirmed that Sanaullah was carrying the (polio) virus,” a senior health official told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media.

The official added that the boy had been vaccinated during the short additional dose campaign. But since the virus was still prevalent in the area, he was infected.

Wednesday’s case brings the total number of polio cases in Pakistan to 50. So far this year as many as 16 cases have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 15 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 11 in Sindh, seven in Balochistan and one in Punjab. This is down from the nearly 300 cases reported in 2014.

Polio drive from Dec 14

A three-day anti-polio drive in Balochistan will kick off from December 14.

According to the Balochistan Coordinator for Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Dr Syed Saifur Rehman, the campaign will cover 30 districts of the province and will target 2.4 million children, including 55,085 refugees.

“All security arrangements have been completed,” said Dr Rehman, adding that they had identified three high-risk districts in Quetta, Killa Abdullah and Pishin.

Further, as many as 6,463 mobile teams, 782 fixed-sites and 311 transit points will be part of the campaign.

Pakistan - Terrorist Cleric Abdul Aziz’s jihadlings

Tashfeen Malik, the female shooter in the San Bernardino attack that killed 14 last week, is believed to have links with Abdul Aziz’s Lal Masjid. Or at least that’s what US officials are being reported to have conveyed to the Pakistani government representatives in a recent meeting in London. Insiders confirm that evidence was provided to the Pakistani contingent showcasing Tashfeen’s affiliation with Lal Masjid, coupled with the unsaid, and yet deafening, call to ‘do more’.

Believing that Tashfeen Malik was sent by Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz on a terror mission to California would be generous overestimation of the madrassa’s reach, if not aspirations. More crucially though, buying the interior ministry’s off the record claims that Aziz is ‘no longer a threat’ domestically, is underestimation of the same.

Granted, the man who notoriously refused to condemn the APS attack last year is now seen condemning Paris attacks, and even the San Bernardino shooting. Granted also, that he might no longer have as strong a network in place to target heads of the Pakistani state through suicide bombers, or unleash them throughout Punjab. Even so, this is the same man who only four weeks ago launched a “movement to enforce Shariah” in Islamabad, reminiscent of circa 2007, in blatant defiance of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. When informed through an official letter about his ATA breach, Aziz said in a social media message: “But for the regard of decency, I would have torn to pieces the deputy commissioner’s note.”

Such audacity to flout at the government, the military and law enforcement agencies, while sitting smack in the middle of the state capital, is only possible if it’s bulwarked by the assurance that no one is going to touch him. Whether that assurance comes from Aziz’s friends – and apprentices – in the government and establishment, or from his personal reading of the security situation, only he would know best.

Many believe that the government and establishment’s ‘reluctant’ symbiosis with Aziz, all the while the National Action Plan (NAP) was being trumpeted, stems from wariness vis-à-vis potential violent blowback on the streets. It is argued that the reason why Lal Masjid was given a pass, while hate speech and extremism in mosques and madrassas were being targeted elsewhere, was to ensure that jihadists don’t unite under the Lal Masjid umbrella, before the groundwork is laid to take Abdul Aziz down from his pulpit. Last month’s insolent “movement to enforce Shariah”, in utter defiance of everything that the government has fed us in the name of the NAP for the past 11 months, bursts this otherwise substantial counterargument.

Are we to believe that the same security machinery that ground Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – Pakistan’s biggest existential threat over the past decade – into centrifugal fragments rummaging around for a binder, and transformed Karachi’s ‘unconquerable’ volatility into palpable stability in a matter of months, doesn’t quite have the foundation in place to take on Abdul Aziz? If such is indeed the case, maybe the idea that he can orchestrate a shooting in California might not be that outrageous after all.

Tashfeen Malik’s posthumous entry into this non-starting showdown between the state and Aziz is completely superfluous as far as the state taking any action is concerned. If Aziz is a ‘strategic asset’ worthier than the TTP, or Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Islamabad is perfectly capable of consuming eons of ‘do more’ calls without any eyelids being batted, or damns being given, in the Parliament or GHQ.

While Abdul Aziz has distanced himself and Lal Masjid from the San Bernardino shooter, facts pertaining to Tashfeen’s links with the mosque, or Pakistan in general, just like the magnitude of Abdul Aziz’s current wherewithal, are irrelevant to the bigger picture anyway. The picture that paints Tashfeen as a success story for Lal Masjid’s jihadlings.

Tashfeen might never have set foot in Lal Masjid, nor had any connections with Abdul Aziz, but rest assured that is not what is being taught in the ‘Sleepy Hollow’ of the mosque and Jamia Hafsa; the hidden chambers where the fatwa against the Pakistan Army was deliberated over in 2003, suicide bombers were trained to kill Pervez Musharraf and guidelines were issued for the 2005 London bombings. In those chambers, which were famously unscrewed and laid bare in 2007, Tashfeen is peddled as a hero who ‘embraced martyrdom for Allah’ fighting the ‘infidels’ in America – the emblem of Satan. That the ISIS-supporting Tashfeen is believed to be a Lal Masjid product will only fuel the ambitions of the Jamia Hafsa students that pledged allegiance to ISIS in a social media video last year.

Tashfeen might never have been Abdul Aziz’s jihadling, but for those that are, she is now the face of global jihad, whose war cry was reiterated by Aziz and his wife Umme Hassan, when they marched from Lal Masjid in Islamabad’s G-6 sector, to Jamia Hafsa in G-7, rallying for Sharia law. 

Whether it’s Beijing’s disinterest – which would be ironic considering that it was the abduction of the seven Chinese workers that forced Musharraf’s hand in 2007 – or fan clubs in the Parliament or GHQ, the pretext behind Aziz’s impunity from law and the NAP needs to be addressed with alarming urgency.

That Aziz and his jihadlings haven’t orchestrated violence in the recent past, doesn’t mean that they don’t intend to do so. Abdul Aziz might not have the same ominous resources, but in Tashfeen he has chanced upon a world-renowned apprentice, whose story might help Lal Masjid's jihadlings graduate to full-blown jihadists. And so, the next time a vociferous rally is allowed to come out of Lal Masjid, it would be surprising if it settles for sloganeering and journey's end at Jamia Hafsa.

Pakistan - Corruption In The CDA

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. Still suffering from the backlash it faced for forceful evictions of slum dwellers, it’s statement in the Supreme Court – in which it claims that if slums are not removed Islamabad would become a Christian majority – has also brought it under intense criticism. However, the instances of political incorrectness and bad policymaking are more publicised than CDA’s legal troubles. The officials from the authority are facing FIA and NAB action on account of multiple inquiries on different issues. The events of November 30th take the show; CDA Deputy Director, Chaudhary Iftikhar Ali Haideri was caught red handed accepting bribes worth Rs 4 million from the owner of a shopping mall – bribes that he demanded.

The case is open and shut, he was arrested during the act, and prosecution, barring political intervention, should be relatively straightforward.

However not all government officials are unintelligent enough to accept bribes in their own person. Graft and embezzlement, especially related to land, is a complex matter which is handled more subtly - it is rare to find a smoking gun or an easy trail of evidence. Past record shows that the FIA and NAB have struggled to effectively prosecute scams on that scale. The LEAs must be commended for their action but it must also be kept in mind that they would have been unable to uncover this act had the mall owner not come forward himself.

The CDA must come under increased scrutiny after this act. It’s officials are being investigated for corruption while it’s senior officer is caught red handed accepting bribes, how far does this malaise spread, and more importantly, under whose patronage is it allowed to grow. If the CDA is corrupt top to bottom then perhaps it is time for a drastic reshuffle, starting from the head of the body, who – willfully or negligently – allowed such acts to happen right under his nose.

Bilawal Bhutto - PPP to protect rights of every individual

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto on Thursday said that his party was fully committed to the protection of human rights of every individual without any discrimination and would continue to pursue upholding the fundamental rights always.

On the International Human Rights Day, the PPP chairman pledged complete support to UN theme – our rights, our freedoms, always. In a statement, he said that PPP has always stood and struggled for the basic rights of the people. From frontline to the party workers, the commitment to human rights remains unshakable since party foundation, he said.

Bilawal said that PPP fought against each and every violation of human rights and sacrificed the lives of thousands of its workers including first elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and first woman elected prime minister Benazir Bhutto in the struggle for the restoration of democracy and human rights. He vowed to continue the struggle for the rights of the people.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/10-Dec-2015/ppp-to-protect-rights-of-every-individual-bilawal

#HUMANRIGHTSDAY: ASIF ALI ZARDARI CALLS FOR ADOPTION OF BILL AGAINST TORTURE

The Universal Human Rights Day, observed the world over on December 10 every year is an occasion to not only reiterate our commitment to uphold basic human rights of all individuals but also to visit the national score card in human rights issues.

In a message on the international human rights day being observed worldwide tomorrow the former President Asif Ali Zardari called for promoting a culture of tolerance, respect for human rights, diversity, and pluralism.

Islam also teaches us deep respect for rights of all human beings including the freedom and the right to profess any faith. Unfortunately however, religion has been misinterpreted by narrow minded bigots to deny equal treatment to peoples of other faiths on the one hand and to stifle dissent on the other. Sane voices must be raised against this misinterpretation.

Democracy, Peace and Human Rights are interlinked and flourish in an environment of Freedom and Liberalism. On this occasion we reiterate our commitment to the democratic progress and freedoms as our weapons to fight militancy, the anti thesis of peace, human rights and freedoms.

The present score card of human rights in the country is most unsatisfactory and calls for serious soul searching and introspection. No wonder that recently Pakistan lost its seat on the UN Human Rights Council.

On this occasion the Party demands that reports on the implementation of the international human rights conventions pertaining to ending torture and ensuring civil and political rights of citizens which were signed during the previous PPP government should be submitted regularly and also made public. I also call for the adoption of the Bill Against Torture that has already been passed unanimously by the Senate early this year.

On this day we also express dismay over how some laws have been misused against women and minorities in the name of religion and urge every man and woman of conscience to raise voice against it. We salute those who have suffered in the course of struggle for human rights and demand that special protection be given to the human rights defenders who selflessly serve the cause of human rights.

On this day let us respond to the cries of the victims of missing persons and those who have been brutally killed and tortured either by the militants on the one hand or by the state institutions acting beyond their mandate on the other.

https://ppppunjab.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/humanrightsday-asif-ali-zardari-calls-for-adoption-of-bill-against-torture/

‘Arab Spring and Iranian threat have opened way for improved Arab-Israel relations’

ALTHOUGH ''Israel is on the same side as the Arab states against Iran,” no broader progress in relations with the Arab world is likely without improvement on the Palestinian track, the Jordanian director of one of the few think tanks in the Arab world focusing on Israel told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
The Iranian nuclear program and the Arab uprisings triggered a change in Arab attitudes toward Israel for the better, said Dr. Abdullah Sawalha, the director of the Amman-based Center for Israel Studies.

“During the Arab Spring,” Arabs focused on domestic issues, he asserted, adding that “in the past, Arabs hung all their problems on Israel, but now they discovered it is not the main issue.”

While it is still too early for Israeli students to take part in large scale exchange programs in Jordan, he said, “when a Palestinian state is established on the 1967 borders – including land swaps and a capital in east Jerusalem,” relations will improve.

Sawalha claimed that his think tank is the first in the Arab world to focus on Israel and that he collaborates with people in Israel and Cairo, where much of the Hebrew to Arabic translation is done. He said the Hebrew University program in Cairo is very strong.

The Center for Israel Studies, founded in 2014, is an independent NGO dedicated to studying Israel’s politics, society, economy and military, according to its website.

The center seeks to expand “understanding of Israel in all Arab states,” it said.

The think tank director took part in the 13th Ambassadors’ Forum at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan last week that dealt with the Israeli-Arab issue.

Asked about the danger Islamic State poses to Jordan, Sawalha responded that despite the organization’s presence near the kingdom’s frontiers with Iraq and Syria, “there is no fear since our security forces are very strong. We fully control our borders.”

Questioned about the threat of terrorist attacks in Jordan, he replied, “No country in the world can have 100 percent security,” adding that Jordanian citizens cooperate with the security forces to prevent violence.

“Jordanians are united behind King Abdullah,” he said.

Sawalha sounded a refrain often heard from Israeli officials, that despite the chaos in the region, Jordan remains stable and has a good education system and so on. This, despite the severe refugee problem caused by the wars in Syria and Iraq, he said.

According to the UN refugee agency, there are more than a million refugees in Jordan.

Sawalha puts the number at over 1.4 million and complains that the international community is not doing enough to help.

He pointed out that Syrian refugees are taking jobs from Jordanians and are working for half the salary. They are straining Jordan’s social welfare services, schools and other institutions.

And within this context, he said that the new project, currently under way with Israel, to bring Jordanian day workers to work in hotels in Eilat, is helping alleviate social pressures, as the official unemployment rate is around 12 percent.

The borders with Iraq and Syria are virtually closed to trade, he noted.

Under the plan, which began in the past month, there are currently 150 Jordanian workers working in Eilat, and by the end of the month, there will be 500. The government target is to eventually reach 1,500 Jordanian workers in the Red Sea city.

The Jordanian workers stay for eight hours and then return home to their country at the end of each workday.

Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara has been pushing a number of initiatives to improve relations with Jordan.

He told the Post last month that talks were under way to open a new border crossing with Jordan near the Dead Sea in order to ease tourist travel and bring in more workers from the kingdom to replace illegal migrants from Africa.

Asked about some of the other plans such as the proposal for a free trade zone, Sawalha said the problem is that potential projects between the two countries, such as in the gas, water and agricultural sectors, are stuck as long as the politics is stuck on the Palestinian issue.

The tensions on the Temple Mount and the lack of progress in the peace process track with the Palestinians are holding up advancement in relations, continued Sawalha.

Asked about relations between Jordan and Israeli Arabs, he said they were very good and that many study in Jordanian universities and travel through the country on their pilgrimages to Mecca.

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Donald Trump, you are now doing Isis's propaganda for them

Ella Griffiths

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has dominated world news in the last few days following his call for Muslims to be banned from entering the US until in his own words, “we figure out what the hell is going on”.

As well as being a terrifyingly frank declaration of bigotry, Trump’s statement also undermines US security. His misguided belief that banning Muslims from the US would neutralise the threat of terrorism feeds the Isis narrative of war between Islam and the West. Slamming the door in the face of Muslims would only tip those on the brink of radicalisation over the edge, while further increasing distrust and violence. In short, Trump is off doing Isis’s propaganda for them.

It is incomprehensible for many of us how a man who comes out with such vile, Islamophobic rhetoric can also be a legitimate contender to run a country. And yet, here in Britain we can be proud that anti-Trump feeling is at an all-time high, following the unsurprising news that 61 percent of Ukip voters think that Trump’s policy is “appropriate” and a quarter of the British public support a plan to ban all Muslim immigration.

In perhaps the greatest verbal smackdown of recent times, Mayor of London Boris Johnson said in response to Trump’s speech about the apparently rampant radicalisation of Londoners that “the only reason I wouldn’t go to some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump”. Similarly, JK Rowling delivered the ultimate insult when she tweeted that Voldemort was nowhere near as bad as Trump. Even Nigel Farage thought he had gone too far – even if most of his supporters apparently didn’t.

Fortunately, the British public are beginning to recognise that Trump isn’t a laughing matter, but a dangerous one. A petition to ban Trump from entering the UK has reached 200,000 signatures, which means parliament will have to consider the motion for debate. The Home Office has the power to ban speakers from overseas coming to the UK under the “unacceptable behaviours or extremism exclusion” policy, and if Trump’s views were to be deemed as deplorable as those such as the Westboro Baptist Church and Ku Klux Klan officials then he too could be banned.

Of course, banning Donald Trump from the UK will not stop him from being Donald Trump, just somewhere else. There is also the nagging issue of free speech which puts a question mark over the idea of a ban. But this petition and the potential of a ban are symbolic gestures that carry a lot of weight.

Combined with the condemnation of the UK government, it sends a powerful message from Britain across the pond that hopefully might have some sort of influence. And it’s no hyperbole to say that he really could be a threat to national security, considering the glee Isis must be feeling at his divisive rhetoric and the very real possibility that he could one day become “the leader of the free world”.

Brits have realised that Trump has now made the leap from ridiculous to dangerous; one can only hope that this realisation occurs among potential Trump voters in America, and fast. In the wake of the Paris attacks, the San Bernardino shootings and other Isis-inspired terrorist attacks around the globe, the last thing we need is the language of Donald Trump getting anywhere near the White House. Thankfully, for the 200,000+ who signed the petition against his visit to the UK today, it’s clear that many of us still believe Love Trumps Hate. 

'Reckless' weapons transfers to Iraq fueled 'IS' atrocities: Amnesty International

Irresponsible weapons transfers to Iraq over decades enabled terror group "Islamic State" to carry out its atrocities, Amnesty International reports. The group is using arms and ammunition from at least 25 countries.

In a report released Tuesday, the London-based human rights watchdog said the huge amounts of internationally-manufactured weapons seized by the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" when it took over Iraq's second city of Mosul in mid-2014 were used to take over other areas and commit crimes against civilians.

"The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale," Amnesty researcher Patrick Wilcken said in a statement. "Poor regulation and lack of oversight of the immense arms flows into Iraq going back decades have given IS and other armed groups a bonanza of unprecedented access to firepower."

IS had distributed weapons windfalls from several seizures of army and police bases across its multiple fronts, with some weapons seized in Mosul being used barely a fortnight later some 500 kilometers (310 miles) away in northern Syria, according to the report, which was based on expert analysis of video and still images.

The Islamic State’s fighters appear spoiled for choice when it comes to small arms. Its gunmen have been documented to carry not only the Iraqi-manufactured Tabuk, US-made Bushmaster M4 but also the Chinese CQ, German G36 and Belgian FAL among others. Amnesty said that, in total, "IS" was using arms and ammunition from at least 25 nations, and would be able to equip as many as 40,000 conventional troops.

The human rights group called on all states to adopt a "presumption of denial" rule when it came to sending weapons to Iraq, meaning stringent criteria would have to be in place. It also called countries to impost an embargo for sending weapons to Syrian government forces as well as armed opposition groups implicated in committing war crimes.

"The consequences of reckless arms transfers to Iraq and Syria and their subsequent capture by IS must be a wake-up call to arms exporters around the world," he said.

Report: Civilians killed in coalition Syria strikes

A group which monitors the war in Syria has reported that 26 civilians were killed in airstrikes suspected to have been carried out by the US-led coalition fighting the "IS."

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of contacts on the ground, reported the strikes on the "IS" controlled village of Al-Khan in the country's northeast left only civilians dead, according to news agency AFP.

The US-led coalition on Monday denied accusations its fighters had carried out air raids on a Syrian army camp on December 6, which was reported to have killed at least three Syrian troops.

The US-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria for the past year, while Russia began its own aerial campaign in coordination with the Syrian regime in September.

Human Rights Groups Criticize U.S. Arms Sale To Saudi Arabia

The State Department has approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, which includes as many as 13,000 precision guided weapons or smart bombs. The sale comes as Human Rights Watch charges that Saudi airstrikes in Yemen "have indiscriminately killed and injured civilians."

Congress was notified of the sale on Nov. 13 and has 30 days to block the deal — unlikely because congressional staffers have already carefully reviewed the sale. It now appears set to go through this week as part of the Obama administration's pledge to boost military support for Gulf states, after negotiating a nuclear deal with regional rival Iran.

A Saudi-led coalition launched an air war in Yemen in March. The Saudi royals pledged a quick victory after Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and ousted the Saudi-backed government.

For the Saudis and Gulf allies, the Houthis, supported by Iran, are a proxy for Iranian expansion in the region. The Saudis have vowed to counter Iran. But the war has dragged on, devastating Yemen and the country's fragile infrastructure, with more than 2,000 civilians killed and more than 5,000 injured.

"We used precision bombs in the beginning, but the stocks dwindled and we got no resupply," complained a Saudi businessman with links to the royal family. He asked to withhold his name so he could speak about a sensitive subject. "We know we have a problem, but we must prosecute the war."

For months, Saudi officials asked the State Department to approve the current sale, according to Saudi and Western sources in Riyadh. With dwindling supplies, the Royal Saudi Air Force has to rely on unguided weapons or "dumb" bombs. Experts say this increases the chances that more civilians will be killed.

"You can imagine them saying to everybody that is criticizing them, 'Look, if we have better weapons, there will be less casualties,' " says Ford M. Fraker, president of theMiddle East Policy Council and a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who was in Riyadh this week. "I think that is probably correct, but I think the whole issue of civilian casualties is not one you are going to eradicate."

Human Rights Watch has called on Congress to block the weapons sale to the Saudis and issued a highly critical report in November charging that the Saudi-led coalition has failed to investigate what it called "unlawful coalition airstrikes in Yemen." According to the United Nations, most of the 2,600 civilian deaths since the coalition began strikes against the Houthis have resulted from those coalition airstrikes.

A Saudi military spokesman confirmed today that the Saudi military has an investigations committee that now meets to look into allegations of civilian casualties. According to the spokesman, the committee includes representatives from the defense and foreign affairs ministries, the Saudi Red Crescent and military lawyers. However, there are no public reports from those investigations.

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which facilitates foreign sales, says the sale would replenish supplies and "help sustain strong military-to-military relationships between the United States and Saudi Arabia."

The proposed sale includes some of the most advanced precision weapons systems produced in the U.S., including Joint Direct Attack Munitions, known as JDAMs. These and other smart weapon systems have GPS guidance systems, a substantial improvement over the unguided weapons that are now in the Saudi stocks. However, it's not clear when the new munitions would be delivered once the sale goes through.

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Will Syria Repeat the Fate of Libya, ‘Which No Longer Exists’?

Libya, previously described by western mainstream media as “Gaddafi's military dictatorship”, was ‘successfully’ toppled back in 2011 “to pave the way to true democracy.” And while the same very media now demands the ousting of President Assad in Syria, let’s have a look at what both Libya actually lost, and what it never had.

Contrary to popular belief, Libya, which western media often described as "Gaddafi's military dictatorship" was in actual fact, Africa's most prosperous democracy.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), prior to the US-led bombing campaign in 2011, it had the highest Human Development Index, highest GDP per capita, the lowest infant mortality and the highest life expectancy in all of Africa.

“With life expectancy at birth at 74.5 years, an 88.4% adult literacy rate and a gross enrolment ratio of 94.1%, Libya was classified as a high human development country among the Middle East and North Africa region,” according to 2010 UNDP report.

© AP PHOTO/ HASSAN AMMAR

A woman mourns for the Egyptian Coptic Christians captured in Libya and killed by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group, outside of the Virgin Mary church in the village of el-Aour, near Minya, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Feb. 16, 2015

“During the NATO bombardment of Libya, western media conveniently forgot to mention that the United Nations had just prepared a lengthy dossier praising Mr. Gaddafi’s human rights achievements,” Professor Garikai Chengu, a scholar of Middle Eastern affairs at Harvard University, wrote in his article for the Foreign Policy magazine back in 2013.

“The UN report commended Libya for bettering its “legal protections” for citizens, making human rights a “priority,” improving women’s rights, educational opportunities and access to housing. During Mr. Gaddafi’s era housing was considered a human right. Consequently, there was virtually no homelessness or Libyans living under bridges,” he added.

© AP PHOTO/ MOHAMMED EL-SHEIKHY

Libyan military soldiers check on an area as they battle with Islamic extremist militias in Benghazi

And less people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.

“How many Libyan homes and bridges did NATO destroy?” the author then questioned.

Women’s Rights in Gaddafi’s Libya

One area where the United Nations Human Rights Council praised Muammar Gaddafi profusely is women’s rights, he said.

© AFP 2015/ MAHMUD TURKIA

Libyan women raise red cards during a protest against the national unity government proposed by United Nations envoy Bernardino Leon on October 9, 2015 in Tripoli's central Martyrs Square.

“Unlike many other nations in the Arab world, women in Libya had the right to education, hold jobs, divorce, hold property, and have an income.”

“One of the first laws Mr. Gaddafi passed in 1970 was an equal pay for equal work law, only a few years after a similar law was passed in the US.”

“In fact, Libyan working mothers enjoyed a range of benefits including cash bonuses for children, free day care, free health care centers, and retirement at 55.”

© SPUTNIK/ ALEXEI DRUZHININ

Italian Prime Minister Warns West Against Repeating ‘Libyan Scenario’

Education in Gaddafi’s Libya

“Under Muammar Gaddafi, education was a human right and it was free for all Libyans. If a Libyan was unable to find employment after graduation the State would pay that person the average salary of their profession,” Chengu said.

“Isn’t it ironic that America supposedly bombarded Libya to spread democracy, but increasingly education in America is becoming a privilege, not a right, and ultimately a debt sentence?” he questioned.

If a bright and talented child in the richest nation on earth cannot afford to go to the best schools, he further explained, society has failed that child. In fact, for young people the world over, education is a passport to freedom. Any nation that makes one pay for such a passport is only free for the rich but not the poor.

© AP PHOTO/ MANU BRABO

Libya crisis

Libyans did not only enjoy free health care and free education, the author added, they also enjoyed free electricity and interest free loans. The price of petrol was around $0.14 per liter and 40 loaves of bread cost just $0.15.

With the above in mind, here are some extracts from the Human Rights Watch watchdog 2015 report on Libya, which clearly illustrate how the once prosperous country has declined into chaos.

© REUTERS/ ESAM OMRAN AL-FETORI

Renewed Violence: Civil War in Libya May Flare Up Again

“The fighting caused widespread destruction of property, and civilian injuries and deaths. Around 400,000 were internally displaced in Libya, including about 100,000 residents of Tripoli. Another 150,000 people, including foreigners, fled Libya. Most foreign embassies, the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and international agencies withdrew their staff and closed their missions in July,” the report states.

“Militias attacked, threatened, assaulted, or arbitrarily detained journalists, judges, activists, politicians, and ordinary citizens with impunity. Lack of protection for the judiciary resulted in a near breakdown of the justice sector in cities such as Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte, Sebha, and Derna.”

“Lack of border controls and tribal infighting aggravated the security situation, allowing continued trafficking of humans, drugs, and weapons across Libya’s borders with Chad, Sudan, Egypt, and Algeria.”

“Libya’s justice system suffered serious setbacks. Militias attacked judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and witnesses, causing the closure of courts and prosecutors’ offices in Benghazi, Derna, Sirte, and Sebha, and a near breakdown of the justice system. The Justice Ministry in Tripoli shut down in July due to the fighting there.”

© AFP 2015/ ABDULLAH DOMA

Lawless Libya: Western Governments Will Be Forced to Look Back

“Amid the breakdown of law and order and in the prevailing climate of impunity, women continued to suffer from discrimination. Some armed groups imposed restrictions on women based on their ideological beliefs. Guards harassed university students in Tripoli for refusing to wear the hijab. Some women faced harassment while attempting to travel out of Libya without a male guardian.”

“Record numbers of migrants and asylum seekers embarked on the perilous sea journey from Libya to Europe with 60,000 reaching Italy alone in 2014. The Italian navy’s large- scale rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, rescued around 100,000 from unseaworthy boats, but at least 3,000 still perished at sea.”

Professor Garikai Chengu states that the West has shown that unfettered free markets and genuinely free elections simply cannot co-exist.

© FLICKR/ THIERRY EHRMANN

Sirte was once home to Libya's former dictator Muammar Gaddafi before he was killed by a NATO-led rebellion in 2011.

“Organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy. How can capitalism and democracy co-exist if one concentrates wealth and power in the hands of few, and the other seeks to spread power and wealth among many?”

So, if it is not too late, the US should ease its grip on Syria and leave it to the country to decide how “to spread economic power amongst the downtrodden many rather than just the privileged few.”

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/africa/20151208/1031421463/libya-gaddafi-toppling-chaos.html#ixzz3trvsTGIK