Libya: End of the Honeymoon Period

Libya: End of the Honeymoon Period
By: Reem al-Barki
Published Thursday, September 27, 2012
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/libya-end-honeymoon-period

The Libyan capital Tripoli is awaiting a renewed wave of protests as the new parliament prepares an emergency law to contain the unrest.

Tripoli, Libya The angry protests sweeping the streets of Tripoli on Wednesday closed in on the vicinity of the Turkish Rixos hotel and the General National Assembly (parliament) headquarters.

Demonstrators besieged the building and managed to attack and assault some of the MPs.

In the luxurious Corinthia hotel, angry protesters reached health minister Fatima al-Hamoresh. She held a press conference on Wednesday night to comment on the incident.

Hamoresh maintained that she had come under attack for attempting to fight corruption ever since her appointment. The signs held by demonstrators demanded her resignation for failing to properly handle the compensation of the wounded during the revolution.

She insisted that she had called the interior ministry several times, but did not receive protection.

While everyone agrees that the security situation will be a top priority for the new national assembly, it is clear that it remains out of the government's control.

In the last few months, tombs have been vandalized, army officers have been assassinated, and parliamentary sessions have been suspended due to the siege by demonstrators.

Wednesday's parliamentary session had to be adjourned when protesters surrounded the parliament building demanding the resignation of prime minister Mustafa Abushagur, who has barely begun his term.

The building was evacuated, leaving many to wonder who is behind the chaos spreading across the country.

The demonstrators justified their call for Abushagur's resignation by saying that the newly elected prime minister put his hand on his heart during the US national anthem at the funeral of ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The funeral was held in the capital, Tripoli, and attended by the US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and many foreign missions in Libya.

In the meantime, the national assembly extended the deadline for forming the government. It gave the prime minister ten extra days.

The government is speeding up efforts to organize the security forces to protect the country.

National assembly member Ahmad al-Naqi told Al-Akhbar that the problem is with the young men who are carrying arms and believe that they should be county's the rightful rulers.

He was, nonetheless, optimistic about the dialogue underway with some of the militia commanders.

There are negotiations discussing integrating some of them into state institutions, while giving the necessary health care and vocational rehabilitation to the others and providing them with job opportunities.

He added that this is expected to dominate much of the discussions that will take place in the coming parliamentary sessions.

He insisted that there will be neither stability nor security unless the militias are disbanded and some of its members integrated into the state.

Meanwhile, MPs from Benghazi released a statement calling on the people of the city to postpone their demonstration on Friday in order to avoid further instability.

They maintained their commitment to ensuring the release of the emergency funds for the city, disbanding the militias, and putting an end to extra-judicial arrests.

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

Egypt's Sinai: The Collapsing Buffer Zone between Egypt and Israel

Egypt's Sinai: The Collapsing Buffer Zone between Egypt and Israel
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 10 Issue: 18
September 27, 2012 05:44 PM
By: Adrian Shahbaz
http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews [tt_news]=39896&cHash=a82fb4109f2d23393f222edcce396947

The recent escalation of jihadi activity in the Sinai Peninsula has added a new dimension to the geostrategic uncertainties of the post-Mubarak era. Like the fallen regime, the Sinai served as a buffer in the cold peace between the Egyptian and Israeli populations. With the Egyptian military in the Sinai suffering its greatest personnel losses since the 1970s, public anger has been channeled into loud calls to renegotiate the 1978 Camp David Accords to restore full Egyptian sovereignty over the peninsula. However, senior Egyptian officials have remained quiet about the issue, focusing their efforts instead on rooting out Salafi militants and addressing the root causes of instability in Sinai and, to an extent, the Gaza Strip as well.

Sixteen Egyptian soldiers were killed on August 5 by Salafi militants en route to the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Israel. The assailants were met with resistance from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion before their stolen armored personnel carrier was destroyed by an Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike inside Israeli territory. Another pick-up truck ridden with explosives was blown up at the border. Eight militants were killed in the attack, while an estimated 27 retreated into Egypt (Jerusalem Post, August 6; Daily News Egypt, August 7).

In response, President Muhammad Mursi launched "Operation Sinai," calling on security forces to "implement entire control" over the peninsula and the northern towns of al-Arish, Rafah, and Shaykh Zuwayid. This was the second major operation in the area since the revolution; an attack on the al-Arish police station in August 2011 prompted the deployment of two Special Forces brigades and 1,000 soldiers in a campaign dubbed "Operation Eagle" (Bikya Masr [Cairo], August 16, 2011). Egypt's State Security Emergency Court issued 14 death sentences to members of Tawhid wa'l-Jihad in connection with the Arish incident on September 24 (Ahram Online, September 24).

After one month, the military completed "phase one" of operation, killing 32 militants, arresting 58 suspects and closing 31 smuggling tunnels linking Sinai to Gaza. Security forces also seized caches of automatic weapons, mortars, anti-tank mines and anti-aircraft guns from Palestinian and Bedouin jihadis (Al-Shorouk [Cairo], September 9). [1]

Peace discussions between a presidential delegation and tribal leaders were dropped after militants killed an Egyptian soldier in a new attack on the northern Sinai security headquarters in al-Arish on September 16, using rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the assault. Fighting also occurred in Rafah and Shaykh Zuwayid, where the army targeted militants with helicopters and dozens of APCs. Earlier that day, security forces in the village of Mahdia also detained four militants connected with the August 5 attacks (Ma'an News Agency, September 16).

A Sinai-based militant group using the name Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Supporters of the Holy Place, i.e. Jerusalem) claimed responsibility for an attack on the Israeli border that killed an IDF soldier on September 21, saying it was a response to the Innocence of Muslims film made by "the doomed pigs of the (Coptic) diaspora." [2] The same group has claimed responsibility for earlier cross-border rocket attacks and an attack on the pipeline carrying natural gas from Egypt to Israel.

Egyptian officials have consistently played down fears of an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai. As late as July a security advisor dismissed the jihadist threat, claiming that "Israel, like many parties, has vested interests in making up dangers in Sinai" (Egypt Independent, July 4). Egyptian Intelligence Chief Murad Mowafi came under heavy criticism for his unpreparedness, especially given that Israeli officials publically warned of an increased threat in a travel alert issued to its citizens. Mowafi admitted he had "detailed information about the attack, but we never imagined that a Muslim would kill a Muslim on the hour of breaking the fast in Ramadan" (Bikya Masr, August 7). Commenting in the aftermath of the unprecedented attack, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed his condolences and hoped the incident would serve as a "wake-up call for the Egyptians to take matters into their own hands" (Ha'aretz, August 6, 2012).

President Mursi exploited public anger to sack Mowafi and a dozen senior military leaders, including Defense Minister and Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Chairman Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Sami Enan and the heads of the navy, air force and air defense (Ahram Online, August 14). The moves prompted fears in Israel that a reshuffled SCAF hierarchy under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood would not be as cooperative with Israel (Times of Israel, August 12). However, Mursi has continuously stressed his intention to respect all international agreements (Bikya Masr, August 7). In addition, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has confirmed that the two countries continue to consult with each other regarding additional troop placements in the Sinai under the "Agreed Activities Mechanism" overseen by the Multinational Forces and Observers (MFO) (Arutz Sheva, September 9; for Egyptian-Israeli tensions and the MFO, see Terrorism Monitor, May 18). Reacting to persistent calls from Egypt to amend the treaty, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman stated: "There is no chance Israel will agree to any kind of change" (Times of Israel, September 23).

In the long term, Egyptian officials are keen to stamp out the root causes of the lawlessness and instability in the Sinai. Prime Minister Hisham Qandil has pledged to provide $ 270 million to support development projects in the area, an unfulfilled promise of former presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. In an attempt to draw the Bedouin away from smuggling and other illicit activities the government will also review proposals for free trade zones in Rafah, al-Arish, and Nuweiba (Egypt State Information Service, September 4).

The current troubles in the Sinai are largely a spillover of insecurity, desperation, and economic deprivation in the Gaza Strip. To stifle the dangerous flow of arms, extremist ideology and Palestinian militants into Sinai, all parties (including Egypt, Fatah, Hamas, and Israel) will need to work to address the ongoing economic blockade of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority's political crisis. Using its contacts with Hamas, Egypt will use the opening of Rafah border as a bargaining chip to push for further Palestinian reconciliation in the run-up to future Palestinian Authority elections. However, Egypt will be careful not to provoke Israel into permanently closing the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Gaza and Israel, which would essentially transfer full responsibility over Gaza to Egypt.

The August 5 attacks highlighted the neglect of Egyptian security forces towards the threat of Salafi militancy in the Sinai Peninsula. Efforts to re-establish control over the buffer zone resurrected traditional grievances in all parties to the conflict. As "Operation Sinai" enters its second phase, more efforts to alleviate some of the deep grievances of the Bedouin population will be needed, as well as long-term steps to address the unsustainable situation in Gaza. Politicians from all sides will look to secure a breakthrough that could ease popular Egyptian pressure to renegotiate the Camp David Accords, particularly since the Military Annex to the Accords already provides the necessary mechanisms to address the current crisis through mutual consultations. In the absence of an Egyptian political and military apparatus to guarantee peace, both sides would benefit from Sinai's return as a strategic and symbolic buffer zone.

Notes:

1. For detailed information on the composition and causes of Salafist militancy in the Sinai, see Andrew McGregor, "Has al-Qaeda Opened a New Chapter in the Sinai Peninsula?" Jamestown Foundation Hot Issues, August 17, 2011.

2. Jama'at Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, "Adopting the Friday Attack on the Jews (Ghazwa of chastisement of who offended the beloved Prophet)," Ansar1.info, September 22, 2012.

Adrian Shahbaz is a freelance Middle East analyst and contributing writer at Fair Observer, an international affairs website.

Montly Human Rights reports (west Bengal)

Banglar Manabadhikar Surtakksha Mancha (MASUM) conducted 9 fact findings during the month of
September 2012 and made requisite complaints before the relevant authorities and institutions. Out of these
fact findings, 4 incidents were of severe police torture and subsequent procedural violations regarding arrest
and implicating in false criminal charges. In all these incidents, respective police personnel violated
procedures, domestic as well as international legalities. Out of these cases, in one, Mumbai police arrested
a minor boy from religious minority community, tortured him during his detention, and falsely claimed him as
an adult. In another incident a woman from Dalit community inhumanely tortured while the police came to
arrest her husband, the heinous act was committed by the personnel from Raninagar police station. In other
two incidents, police personnel arrested, two persons having alliance with ruling party of West Bengal and
meted with severe custodial torture in Murshidabad district in both the incidents, victims were from religious
minority; Muslim community.
One incident of extra judicial killing by the Border Security Force personnel in Murshidabad has been
reported and subsequent fact finding has been done and complaints sent to different authorities and
National Human Rights Commission. In this case, the deceased belongs to Dalit community. He was killed
by the BSF, while he went out for fishing. The young man was shot at his forehead. In another incident a
young man has been killed by the police personnel of Diamond Harbor police station while the deceased
refused to bribe the police. He was rammed by a speeding police vehicle. Two other cases of torture and
intimidation by BSF have been reported and complaint made. In one case a minor boy has been tortured at
24 Parganas (north) while he was at field to graze cattle. The boy belongs to Muslim community. In other
case, three women from religious minority community faced the wraths of the BSF personnel at
Murshidabad. All these incidents prove that the socio- economic marginalized are the most vulnerable to
torturous acts of state machineries; police and BSF.
Dhananjoy Mondal
Fact finding has been done in the incarceration of Mr. Sushil Roy, this aged and ailing Maoist leader has
spent more than 7 years in prisons of West Bengal and Jharkhand. Organization has made an appeal to the
NHRC for a general amnesty and early release of Mr. Roy.
Sushil Roy
In between, MASUM attended a workshop on Human Rights Defenders issue at Bangkok; the workshop
was organized by FORUM ASIA.
A medical camp has been arranged in 24 Parganas (North) on the aegis of United Nations Voluntary Fund
for Victims of Torture, nearly 50 victims and their family members received medical and psychological
treatments.
An investigating team from NHRC came to Murshidabad to investigate the incident of extra judicial killing of
Khalil Seikh by Border Security Force personnel. In this connection investigating team called his family,
witnesses and activists of MASUM. They thoroughly discussed the issue with representatives of MASUM.
NHRC team taking the victim’s statement
Two training sessions have been organized for the civil society partners at Boro Andulia in Nadia and
Aatghara in 24 Parganas (north). A large section of activists from CBOs and NGOs with locales participated
on those sessions. Constitutional rights, criminal justice system and role of police were the issues for
discourse.
Nadia workshop Atghara Network meeting
MASUM as an organization becomes a victim of long pendency of judicial process. The appeal before the
Calcutta High Court is still pending for hearing. The case was last heard in May 2010. It should be referred
here that in 2009, Kolkata police falsely implicated MASUM in a criminal case for holding a peoples’ tribunal
on torture. Secretary and other activists of the organization as accused appeared before the Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court for regular hearing and a further date has been fixed for the same.
MASUM also documented important media reports related to human rights abuses published in regional as
well as national media during the month of September. During this period 4 incidents of police torture from
West Bengal and 4 from rest of the country have been documented. Two incidents of custodial deaths in
West Bengal have been recorded. These two deaths were happened in Srirampur and Presidency prisons.
Nationally, a person died at Ahmedabad prison.
80 media reports on violence against women have been documented for the month in which 13 incidents of
murder and 11 rapes have been committed against the women in West Bengal. 8 incidents of minors being
trafficked also have been recorded. 34 incidents of child rights violations recorded during this timeframe.


Secretary
Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha
(MASUM)
&
National Convenor (PACTI)
Programme Against Custodial Torture & Impunity
40A, Barabagan Lane (4th Floor)
Balaji Place
Shibtala
Srirampur
Hooghly
PIN- 712203
Tele-Fax - +91-33-26220843
Phone- +91-33-26220844 / 0845
e. mail : kirityroy@gmail.com
Web: www.masum.org.in

उत्पीड़न के बहाने

उत्पीड़न के बहाने
http://www.jansatta.com/index.php/component/content/article/20-2009-09-11-07-46-16/29498-2012-09-29-08-45-03
Saturday, 29 September 2012 14:14

अनिल चमड़िया
जनसत्ता 29 सितंबर, 2012: जब राजनीतिक दल और नेता पोटा, टाडा और गैर-कानूनी गतिविधि निवारक कानून जैसे कानून बनाने पर जोर देते हैं या ऐसे कानूनों के लगातार दुरुपयोग पर चुप्पी साध लेते हैं तो इसे लोकतांत्रिक राजनीति के पुलिसियाकरण होने का ही संकेत मानना चाहिए। इस तरह के कानूनों में किसी के खिलाफ पुलिस और खुफिया एजेंसियों के आरोपों को मान लेने की बाध्यता जैसी स्थिति होती है। जामिया मिल्लिया इस्लामिया के शिक्षकों के एक संगठन ने 1992 के बाद की वैसी सोलह घटनाओं के तथ्यों का संकलन किया है जिनमें पुलिस ने मुसलिम समुदाय के कुछ लोगों पर आतंकवादी होने का झूठा आरोप लगाया था। न्यायालय में ये आरोप टिक नहीं पाए। क्या हमें यह पड़ताल नहीं करनी चाहिए कि ऐसी घटनाओं के दौरान लोकतंत्र के स्तंभ कहे जाने वाले दूसरे घटकों की क्या प्रतिक्रिया थी।
निश्चित तौर पर कहा जा सकता है कि विधायिका और मीडिया की उस दौरान की भूमिका सही साबित नहीं हुई। लोकतंत्र में विधायिका सर्वोपरि होती है और संविधान से इतर मीडिया को चौथा स्तंभ माना जाता है। लेकिन ये दोनों ही स्तंभ उन सवालों के दबाव में आ गए जो जमीनी स्तर से नहीं उपजे थे बल्कि गढ़े गए थे। सुरक्षा से जुड़ेसवालों का इतना दबाव बन गया है कि लोकतंत्र के विभिन्न स्तंभ अपनी भूमिका को कई बार लगभग स्थगित कर देते हैं और इसका नुकसान सीधे लोकतांत्रिक परंपराओं, आस्थाओं और मूल्यों को होता है।
एक के बाद एक आतंकवादी घटनाओं के होते रहने या वैसी परिस्थितियां दिखने से समाज के सामने कई तरह के सवाल गंभीर हो जाते हैं। वे लोकतंत्र के स्तंभों को उन घटनाओं के आलोक में कड़े फैसले लेने पर मजबूर करते हैं। निश्चित ही जिस तरह से आतंकवाद को लोकतंत्र पर प्रहार माना जाता है उसी तरह से आतंकवाद की अवास्तविक स्थितियां दिखाना भी लोकतंत्र पर हमले का दूसरा रूप है। क्योंकि लोकतंत्र के स्तंभों को तब अपनी परंपराओं और मूल्यों को क्षति पहुंचाने वाले कड़े फैसले करने होते हैं। न्यायालय जब किसी आरोपी को दोष-मुक्त करता है तो वह पुलिस पर मनमानी करने का आरोप सीधे भले न लगाए, लेकिन सुरक्षा बलों के प्रति अविश्वास और नाराजगी का भाव इस तरह के फैसले में अंतर्निहित होता है।
देश में कई बार लोकतंत्र पर हमले की तैयारी की आशंका जाहिर की गई है। लेकिन ऐसे अधिकतर मौकों पर यही देखा गया कि वैसी स्थितियां नहीं थीं जैसी कि दिखाई गर्इं। चिंता की बात तो यह है कि स्थितियों के बदतर होने का आकलन जिस तरह से प्रस्तुत किया जाता है उस पृष्ठभूमि में लोकतंत्र के सर्वोच्च स्तंभ विधायिका की भूमिका आखिरकार उसके पक्ष में सक्रिय हो जाती है। यहां विधायिका में बहुमत का ही महत्त्व है। बहुमत से ही कानून बनाए जाते हैं और बहुमत के बगैर जो राय और आशंका प्रकट की जाती है उसे दरकिनार कर दिया जाता है। विप के जरिए नेतृत्व के फैसले को स्वीकार कर लेने की बाध्यकारी स्थितियां तैयार कर ली गई हैं।
अगर आकलन किया जाए कि आतंकवाद के नाम पर निर्दोष लोगों को पकड़े जाने के खिलाफ विधायिका में जनप्रतिनिधियों की भूमिका लगातार कमजोर क्यों होती चली गई है तो निराशा ही हाथ लगती है। यह सामान्य अनुभव रहा है कि पोटा, टाडा जैसे जितने भी कानून बने हैं उनसे आतंकवाद के नाम पर कमजोर वर्गों के दमन और उत्पीड़न की घटनाएं बढ़ी हैं। इसमें सुरक्षा बलों की भूमिका बढ़-चढ़ कर होती है। फिर भी राजनीतिक दल खामोश रहते हैं।
इस तरह का एक अध्ययन किया जाना चाहिए कि मानवाधिकार हनन की घटनाओं को लेकर राजनीतिक पार्टियों और गैरचुनावी संगठनों में किसकी कैसी भूमिका रही है। किसी भी राजनीतिक पार्टी की किसी शाखा या घटक संगठनों ने मानवाधिकार हनन की घटनाओं को लेकर कोई अध्ययन करने की जरूरत कभी महसूस नहीं की है। ऐसी घटनाओं पर बोलना और अपनी सक्रियता जाहिर करना वे अपने वक्त और संसाधनों की बर्बादी ही मानते हैं। अलबत्ता जब उनके कार्यकर्ताओं के खिलाफ जब पुलिस दमन और उत्पीड़न की घटनाएं होती हैं तो वे जरूर कुछ हरकत में आते हैं। इसलिए कि चुप रहने पर उनके कार्यकर्ताओं का मनोबल न टूट जाए।
इस देश में लोकतांत्रिक परंपराओं और मूल्यों की रक्षा करने में गैर-राजनीतिक पार्टियों, संगठनों और संस्थाओं की बहुत बड़ी और महत्त्वपूर्ण भूमिका दिखाई देती है। एक तरह से कहा जाए कि ये राजनीति के आगे-आगे चलने वाली मशाल की तरह काम करते हैं।
चुनावी पार्टियों को जब यह लगने लगता है कि किसी समुदाय विशेष के उत्पीड़न और दमन की घटनाओं पर चिंता जाहिर करने से उन्हें लाभ हो सकता है तभी वे सक्रियता दिखाने को बाध्य होती हैं। जामिया मिल्लिया के शिक्षकों ने केवल न्यायालय से बरी हुए आरोपियों के मामलों का संकलन पेश किया है। यानी लोकतंत्र के एक महत्त्वपूर्ण स्तंभ न्यायपालिका के फैसले को ही अपनी प्रतिक्रियाओं के रूप में सामने रखा है। जबकि लोकतांत्रिक परंपरा यह रही है कि उत्पीड़न और दमन की घटनाओं की जांच ऐसी संस्थाएं और संगठन करते रहे हैं और उनकी जांच को गंभीरता से लिया जाता रहा है। यहां तक कि कई बार राजनीतिक दल भी अपनी जांच समिति गठित करके जांच के निष्कर्षों से समाज और लोकतंत्र के संवैधानिक स्तंभों और मीडिया को प्रभावित करते रहे हैं। हम इस बात की कल्पना कर सकते हैं कि दमन और उत्पीड़न   की घटनाओं के प्रति सजग गैर-चुनावी संगठन और लोग सक्रिय नहीं होते तो लोकतंत्र का ग्राफ कितना नीचे पहुंच चुका होता।
लोकतंत्र में दो तरह के लोग हैं। एक कार्यकर्ता कहा जाता है और दूसरा सत्ता पर काबिज होकर शासक के इतिहास में दर्ज होने की भूख वाला पात्र होता है। लोकतंत्र का यह कार्यकर्ता ही है जो इतिहास में अपने नाम को दर्ज कराने से बेपरवाह होकर उत्पीड़न और दमन के खिलाफ सक्रिय होता है। उसकी चिंता नागरिक अधिकारों और मानवीय मूल्यों को लेकर होती है। जबकि उसे लगातार उपेक्षा भी झेलनी पड़ती है। कई लोगों के अनुभव से मालूम होता है कि जब किसी उत्पीड़ित समूह को उसके शोषण, दमन, उत्पीड़न और अधिकार से वंचना की स्थिति में आंदोलन की जरूरत महसूस होती है तो वे उनका साथ लेते हैं और उनकी उपस्थिति को अनिवार्य मानते हैं। लेकिन जैसे ही आंदोलन की स्थितियां खत्म होती हैं वे भुला दिए जाते हैं। लेकिन वह लोकतंत्र का कार्यकर्ता है कि उत्पीड़न-विरोधी चेतना विकसित करने की योजना पर कायम रहता है। जिसकी कोई नहीं सुनता, उसके लिए वही सक्रिय नजर आता है।
आमतौर पर जो लोग मानवाधिकार हनन के खिलाफ तथ्य-संग्रह के साथ अपना विरोध दर्ज करते हैं उनपर तरह-तरह की तोहमत लगाई जाती हैं। कड़े कानूनों में इस बात पर जोर रहता है कि अगर सुरक्षा बलों की हिरासत में आरोपित ने संबंधित आरोप स्वीकार कर लिया है तो न्यायालय भी उसे उसी रूप में स्वीकार कर ले। यह तो पुलिस-व्यवस्था का एक तरह से विस्तार करना ही हुआ। न्यायालय में खुली सुनवाई होती है और आरोपित वहां अपनी बात निडर होकर कह सकता है। ऐसी स्थितियां लोकतंत्र के लिए जरूरी मानी गई हैं।
लेकिन इन कानूनों के साथ दूसरी मुश्किल यह है कि सुरक्षा बलों ने जो आरोप लगाए हैं उन्हें साबित करने की जिम्मेदारी उनकी नहीं होती, बल्कि उस आरोपित को ही न्यायालय में यह साबित करना होगा कि सुरक्षा बलों के लगाए गए आरोप सही नहीं हैं। ऐसे ही कानूनों के कारण समाज के कई कमजोर लोग निर्दोष होते हुए भी जेलों में बरसों तक सड़ते रहते हैं। उनके पास न तो शासन तक अपनी पहुंच बनाने का कोई जरिया होता है न वकील की सेवा लेने के लिए पैसे होते हैं।
जामिया के शिक्षकों ने जो तथ्य संकलन किया है उसके मद््देनजर पुलिस की ओर से यह अजीब-सी बात कही गई कि उनमें से कुछ मामलों को लेकर उच्च न्यायालय में अपील दायर की गई है। दूसरी बात यह कही गई है कि जिन एक सौ बयासी आतंकवादी घटनाओं की जांच-पड़ताल दिल्ली पुलिस की विशेष शाखा द्वारा की गई उनमें एक सौ तैंतीस मामलों में न्यायालय के फैसले आए हैं और सजा वाले मुकदमों की संख्या अड़सठ प्रतिशत है।
जब कांग्रेस और भाजपा के बीच सांप्रदायिक दंगों को लेकर बहस होती है तो दोनों के नेता उन आंकड़ों को दोहराते हैं कि किसके शासन में कितने दंगे हुए। दंगे न हों और इसमें राजनीतिक पाटिर्यों और उनके शासन की भूमिका क्या होनी चाहिए इस पर बहस नहीं हो पाती। यह मुद््दा ही सिरे से गायब कर दिया जाता है। यही भाषा सुरक्षा बलों के पास भी पहुंच गई है।
न्याय का सिद्धांत इस मूल्य पर आधारित होता है कि सैकड़ों दोषी भले छूट जाएं लेकिन एक भी निर्दोष को सजा नहीं होनी चाहिए। सुरक्षा बलों के लगाए गए आरोपों में तो विशेष जाति या विशेष धार्मिक समुदाय के एक नहीं, कई-कई लोग एक साथ फंसा दिए जाते हैं। कई अदालती फैसलों से यह जाहिर है कि ऐसे लोग बेवजह वर्षों तक सलाखों के पीछे रह चुके हैं। फिर भी उन अनुभवों से कुछ सीखने की तैयारी सुरक्षा-तंत्र में नहीं दिखती। जामिया के शिक्षकों की पहल से हुए तथ्य-संकलन के अलावा कई ऐसे मामले देश के दूसरे हिस्सों से भी सामने आए हैं।
नक्सलवाद और माओवाद के नाम पर भी ढेरों झूठे मामले सामने आ चुके हैं। इससे भी महत्त्वपूर्ण बात यह है कि न्यायालयों में जिन मामलों में सजा मिली है उनका तकनीकी और परिस्थितियों के आधार पर कोई अध्ययन अभी नहीं किया गया है। संभव है कि किसी तकनीकी कारण भर से कोई निर्दोष दोषी की श्रेणी में पहुंच गया हो और न्यायालय को उसका भान भी न हो। न्यायालय में फैसलों के पीछे कई तरह की परिस्थितियां काम करती हैं। आखिरकार लोकतंत्र को सुरक्षा बलों और खुफिया एजेंसियों के भरोसे नहीं छोड़ा जा सकता। उनकी चिंता के साथ-साथ लोकतंत्र के मूल्यों और अधिकारों की रक्षा कम महत्त्वपूर्ण नहीं है।

India: big bang, or parting shot? By Victor Mallet

FT

September 25, 2012

India: big bang, or parting shot?

By Victor Mallet

Manmohan Singh has rediscovered his zeal for reform but faces a test of strength

 

Market forces: small traders, such as these vendors in Uttar Pradesh, dominate the Indian retail sector. Many fear that plans to welcome foreign investors into the country will damage their businesses  

Two weeks ago, frustrated business leaders and foreign investors had all but abandoned hope of any significant economic progress for India under Manmohan Singh, the supposedly reformist prime minister in power for the past eight years. Mr Singh, who turns 80 today, surprised them all. With the tacit backing of Sonia Gandhi, powerful leader of the Congress party, the coalition government has since September 14 unleashed a barrage of economic reforms described as a big bang by Indian commentators.

 

 

First, the cabinet braved public anger with a sharp reduction in subsidies for diesel and cooking gas, pushing up the cost of diesel at the pump by about 14 per cent to curb a growing budget deficit. The following day, Mr Singh's government allowed foreign investors to build supermarkets and department stores and buy into local airlines, and announced the sale of shares in state companies in a re-launched privatization program.

Hardly a day now passes without some new initiative to promote investment and boost economic growth. On Monday – less than two months after an electricity grid failure that left 600m Indians without power in history's biggest power cut – the government unveiled a scheme to restructure over $35bn in debt owed by loss-making state electricity distribution companies. These will now be pressed to take the politically unpopular step of raising prices.

Markets reacted quickly. The rupee, after a steep decline this year, has recovered some lost ground. Foreign investors have welcomed Mr Singh's rediscovered enthusiasm for reform, while Indian business leaders are euphoric. From a famine of policy action we have moved to a feast, tweeted Anand Mahindra, the industrialist, after the first two days of announcements. "The government's got back its gumption! We cheer and urge that they stay the course."

Yet the reforms are not without risks for Mr Singh's government and for the investors who theoretically stand to benefit. The flurry of measures to bring order to the public finances and liberalize the economy has destabilized the Congress-led coalition, thereby increasing the chances of an early election in the world's largest democracy – and raising the possibility of a less business-friendly government in the future.

A general election is not due until the first half of 2014, but Mamata Banerjee, the populist chief minister of West Bengal and head of the Trinamool Congress party, has withdrawn her ministers and 19 members of parliament from the coalition in protest at Mr Singh's "anti-people" reforms, leaving him short of a guaranteed majority.

So why did Mr Singh, after years of inaction, take such risks so late in his second term as prime minister? The answer, according to senior Indian officials, is that he felt he had no choice. He believed that his own legacy to India – the modernization and economic expansion bequeathed when as finance minister in the 1990s he dismantled the corrupt "licence Raj" – was in grave danger of being lost.

Mr Singh, an economist who speaks so softly he can be hard to hear, repeatedly alluded to this legacy himself on television last Friday night in what was, for him, a passionate speech to the nation. He defended the economic rationale of the two most controversial decisions – to raise fuel prices and allow foreign retailers such as Walmart to own majority stakes in supermarkets and department stores – and said urgent action was needed so as not to deter investors and increase unemployment.

"The last time we faced this problem was in 1991. Nobody was willing to lend us even small amounts of money then," Mr Singh said. "We came out of that crisis by taking strong, resolute steps. You can see the positive results of those steps. We are not in that situation today, but we must act before people lose confidence in our economy."

Among the early signs that Mr Singh and Ms Gandhi were preparing to take action were the decisions last month to move the energetic Palaniappan Chidambaram back to the finance ministry, and to name Raghuram Rajan, the former chief economist of the IMF and an outspoken critic of Indian corruption and bureaucracy, as the government's senior economic adviser.

Foreign investors, Indian business groups and international economists and analysts had publicly expressed concern about the economy's downward path. In private, senior members of the government and the bureaucracy were equally worried. They said the coalition, and even the Congress party itself, was divided between old-fashioned leftists and those who favored economic liberalization and competition of the sort that had brought success to Indian mobile telephony and domestic aviation.

It was "politically convenient" to blame the sluggish world economy for India's troubles, a senior financial official noted in August. But the real problems were lack of reform, a failure to invest in power and transport infrastructure, corruption scams, the fractious federalism of the Indian political system and a divided cabinet – in short, a "combination of economic and governance failures, largely domestic and self-inflicted".

. . .

Particularly disturbing for the government was the sharp slowdown in economic growth – the year-on-year increase in gross domestic product dropped to 5.3 per cent in the first three months of this calendar year, compared with 9.2 per cent a year earlier and has since recovered to 5.5 per cent.

Then there is the fiscal deficit. With the rupee declining and world oil prices having risen, the government's fuel subsidy bill was set to exceed $35bn in the current financial year, contributing to a total public sector deficit of more than 8 per cent of GDP. Even after the latest price increases, Mr Singh told Indians in his speech, the government was spending more on fuel subsidies than on health and education combined.

Probably the last straw for Mr Singh was the threat that credit rating agencies would downgrade India's sovereign debt to "junk", or non-investment grade, over the country's inability to tackle its economic woes.

"We could tip if we are not careful into something more dramatic, so there is a sense of urgency," said another senior official in New Delhi who favors reform. "What is creating the space for doing these things is a growing sense of crisis."

The government's determination to take unpopular decisions less than two years before a general election suggests that India's economic fortunes could indeed be at a turning point as significant as the 1991 reforms. But there are two important caveats voiced by business leaders and analysts.

First, the reforms unveiled so far must be entrenched before Mr Singh can claim victory. It was only last year that he hurriedly reversed an earlier opening of the mass retail trade to foreign direct investment following protests from politicians and shopkeepers. Indian bureaucrats, furthermore, are exceptionally slow to provide environmental and other permits required for such investments.

"Just announcing 'Let us have FDI', let us have investment' is not going to be enough," says Sidharth Birla, chairman of Xpro India, a plastics producer, and vice-president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. "Unless we have good procedures, the investments are not just going to flow in, they are not going to be implemented or produce the desired results."

The second issue is that the latest reforms amount to only a fraction of what local and foreign investors insist they need to ensure robust economic growth. They say piecemeal concessions to foreign capital are hedged with onerous conditions – on sourcing goods from small Indian suppliers, for example – and need to be followed with broader reforms to facilitate land acquisition, improve infrastructure and simplify the tax system.

"We say, 'You have made a beginning by making these announcements. It is a signal. But it is not enough. If you have started the cycle, then please go ahead with many other things that are needed'," says Mr Birla.

. . .

A bruising political battle, or series of battles, lies ahead for Mr Singh. In his address to the nation, he tried to appeal over the heads of squabbling politicians to India's 1.2bn people, but it is hard for the studious prime minister to compete with the charismatic rivals he accused of "spreading fear and false information".

Subsidies and foreign retailing are the two most contested battlegrounds. The traditional Indian left, within the Congress party and outside it, reflexively supports state spending and opposes capitalism. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, the main opposition, is beholden to some 50m small shopkeepers and has therefore found itself in an opportunistic and temporary alliance with the secular left against Mr Singh – even though BJP leaders pushed through their own reforms when they were in power a decade ago.

And the increasingly influential regional politicians from states such as Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are already in pre-election mode, contemplating their chances of joining a coalition led by Congress or the BJP, or of joining a left-leaning "third front" government.

The language used to attract India's often poorly educated voters is far from subtle. While every politician professes to be working for aam aadmi – the common man – and Mr Singh talks of the benefits to farmers and consumers of efficient shops and supply chains and sound fiscal policies, his opponents sometimes resort to xenophobia and overblown rhetoric.

Sitaram Yechury, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), accused Mr Singh of worshipping the US.Congress wants Indians to be slaves, and foreigners to be our masters, he told a protest meeting of small traders last week.

Like the politicians, investors from India and abroad – including Walmart, which wants to identify sites for retail outlets within 18 months – are now bracing themselves for months of haggling and confusion. Years may pass before they can look back and say for certain whether 2012 was as important for the Indian economy as 1991.

"These measures do not fully resolve either policy or political uncertainty," says Eswar Prasad, economics professor at Cornell University, commenting on the reforms that were announced over the past two weeks. "But they are an important step in reorienting India's policies in the right direction.

"The Manmohan Singh government has drawn a line in the sand. It may end up with the government losing power and having to call elections in the next few months," Mr Prasad concludes.

"But at least it is been made clear that this is a government that will go down fighting. At least there is a prospect of reform."

 

FT

September 25, 2012

Retail: Mom and pop's gloomy prospects

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

Delhi's decision to allow FDI in retail has provoked protest

It is mid-afternoon and Simrat Kaur, a 25-year-old housewife in New Delhi's middle-class Kirti Nagar neighborhood, is pushing a trolley through the well-stocked aisles of the local Easy Day store, part of a retail chain owned by India's Bharti group and operated with Walmart of the US.

"Find a lower price, and we will match it," the signs say. As Bollywood songs boom over the sound system, a male voice declares: "More music and more fun at Easy Day."

Ms Kaur is a regular at the brightly lit, air-conditioned convenience store, having abandoned old-fashioned, family-owned-and-run shops where workers climb ladders to pluck down goods piled high out of customers' reach. "There, we have to shout, 'Give me this, give me that'," she says. "Here, you roam around and take what you want. You can see the price and check the expiry date, which is very important."

New Delhi's recent decision to allow foreign direct investment in retail has provoked protest from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, and from leftwing parties warning that the reform will harm India's estimated 50m shopkeepers. Entrants are likely to include big international operators such as the UK's Tesco, and Carrefour and Auchan of France.

But traditional shops are already under pressure from a nascent – and homegrown – retail revolution. Conglomerates such as Bharti Enterprises, Reliance Industries, Tata and RPG Enterprises, and more focused companies such as Kishore Biyani's Future Group, are running and expanding, modern retail formats. Some, including Bharti and Tata, are working with global companies.

Organized retail still accounts for just 5 to 6 per cent of India's total retail industry. But with sales from these formats growing at about 20 per cent a year – compared with overall sales growth of 7 to 8 per cent a year – modern stores are already threatening family-run shops.

Down the road from Kirti Nagar's Easy Day, business at the Green Bakery has collapsed. Founded half a century ago, it once provided a comfortable living for its owners, the Bangia family. But today it is dark, with the lights turned off to save electricity, and its stock low.

"It is just hand to mouth," says Shivani Bangia, the 27-year-old great-grand-daughter of the founder, who uses her salary as a private schoolteacher to prop up the shop.

She complains that wholesale distributors favor modern retail stores with deep discounts, allowing them to undercut older rivals. Such competition means a gloomy future for many family-owned shops, even without foreign investment. But Green Bakery's owners are reluctant to give up. "It is a family business and our sentiments are attached to it," says Ms Bangia. "People know us here."

Outrage at CIA's deadly 'double tap' drone attacks Report claims just one in fifty victims of 'surgical' US strikes in Pakistan are known militants. Jerome Taylor reports on a deadly new strategy Jerome Taylor

Outrage at CIA's deadly 'double tap' drone attacks
Report claims just one in fifty victims of 'surgical' US strikes in Pakistan are known militants. Jerome Taylor reports on a deadly new strategy
Jerome Taylor
Tuesday 25 September 2012
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/outrage-at-cias-deadly-double-tap-drone-attacks-8174771.html

Late in the evening on 6 June this year an unmanned drone was flying high above the Pakistani village of Datta Khel in north Waziristan.

The buzz emitted by America's fleet of Predators and Reapers are a familiar sound for the inhabitants of the dusty hamlet, which lies next to a riverbed close to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan and is a stronghold for the Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur.

As the drone circled it let off the first of its Hellfire missiles, slamming into a small house and reducing it to rubble. When residents rushed to the scene of the attack to see if they could help they were struck again.

According to reports at the time, three local rescuers were killed by a second missile whilst a further strike killed another three people five minutes later. In all, somewhere between 17 and 24 people are thought to have been killed in the attack.

The Datta Khel assault was just one of the more than 345 strikes that have hit Pakistan's tribal areas in the past eight years but it reveals an increasingly common tactic now being used in America's covert drone wars the "double-tap" strike.

More and more, while the overall frequency of strikes has fallen since a Nato attack in 2011 killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and strained US-Pakistan relations, initial strikes are now followed up by further missiles in a tactic which lawyers and campaigners say is killing an even greater number of civilians. The tactic has cast such a shadow of fear over strike zones that rescuers often wait for hours before daring to visit the scene of an attack.

"These strikes are becoming much more common," Mirza Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer who represents victims of drone strikes, told The Independent. "In the past it used to be a one-off, every now and then. Now almost every other attack is a double tap. There is no justification for it."

The expansive use of "double-tap" drone strikes is just one of a number of more recent phenomena in the covert war run by the US against violent Islamists that has been documented in a new report by legal experts at Stanford and New York University.

The product of nine months' research and more than 130 interviews, it is one of the most exhaustive attempts by academics to understand and evaluate Washington's drone wars. And their verdict is damning.

Throughout the 146-page report, which is released today, the authors condemn drone strikes for their ineffectiveness.

Despite assurances the attacks are "surgical", researchers found barely 2 per cent of their victims are known militants and that the idea that the strikes make the world a safer place for the US is "ambiguous at best."

Researchers added that traumatic effects of the strikes go far beyond fatalities, psychologically battering a population which lives under the daily threat of annihilation from the air, and ruining the local economy.

They conclude by calling on Washington completely to reassess its drone-strike programme or risk alienating the very people they hope to win over. They also observe that the strikes set worrying precedents for extra-judicial killings at a time when many nations are building up their unmanned weapon arsenals.

The Obama administration is unlikely to heed their demands given the zeal with which America has expanded its drone programme over the past two years. Reapers and Predators are now active over the skies of Somalia and Yemen as well as Pakistan and less covertly Afghanistan.

But campaigners like Mr Akbar hope the Stanford/New York University research may start to make an impact on the American public.

"It's an important piece of work," he said. "No one in the US wants to listen to a Pakistani lawyer saying these strikes are wrong. But they might listen to American academics."

Reprieve, the charity which is trying to challenge drone strikes in the British, Pakistani and American courts, said the report detailed how the fallout from the extra-judicial strikes must be measured in terms of more than deaths and injuries alone.

"An entire region is being terrorised by the constant threat of death from the skies," said Reprieve's director, Clive Stafford Smith.

"Their way of life is collapsing: kids are too terrified to go to school, adults are afraid to attend weddings, funerals, business meeting or anything that involves gathering in groups."

Some of the most harrowing personal testimonies involve those who have witnessed "double-tap" strikes.

Researchers said people in Waziristan the tribal area where most of the strikes take place are "acutely aware of reports of the practice of follow-up strikes", and explained that the secondary strikes have discouraged ordinary civilians from coming to one another's rescue.

One interviewee, describing a strike on his in-laws' home, said a follow-up missile killed would-be rescuers. "Other people came to check what had happened; they were looking for the children in the beds and then a second drone strike hit those people."

A father of four, who lost one of his legs in a drone strike, admitted: "We and other people are so scared of drone attacks now that when there is a drone strike, for two or three hours nobody goes close to [the location of the strike]. We don't know who [the victims] are, whether they are young or old, because we try to be safe."
Testimonies

"The villagers brought us the news."

Khairullah Jan, whose brother was killed in a drone attack.

"I was ... going to my house. That's when I heard a drone strike and I felt something in my heart. I thought something had happened, but we didn't get to know until the next day. That's when all the villagers came and brought us news that [my brother] had been [killed]... I was drinking tea when I found out. [My] entire family was there."

"My father's body was scattered in pieces."

Waleed Shiraz, who was studying for a BA before he was injured by a strike.

"My father was asleep and I was studying near by [When we got hit], [my] father's body was scattered in pieces and he died immediately, but I was unconscious for three to four days [Since then], I am disabled. My legs have become so weak and skinny that I am not able to walk."

"Children, women, they are all affected."

Firoz Ali Khan, a shopkeeper in the town of Miranshah.

"I have been seeing drones since the first one appeared about four to five years ago [We see drones] hovering [24 hours a day but] we don't know when they will strike People are afraid of dying Children, women, they are all psychologically affected. They look at the sky to see if there are drones [They] make such a noise that everyone is scared."

How to kill the Haqqanis? Work with Iranian terrorists! By removing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq from its terrorism list, America has signalled that it isn't interested in any meaningful negotiations with Iran.

How to kill the Haqqanis? Work with Iranian terrorists!
By removing the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq from its terrorism list, America has signalled that it isn't interested in any meaningful negotiations with Iran.
September 24, 2012
M K Bhadrakumar
http://indrus.in/articles/2012/09/24/how_to_kill_the_haqqanis_work_with_iranian_terrorists_17853.html

Prima facie, the Barack Obama administration has probably done one of the stupidest things in the bizarre chronicle of United States Iran relations when it reportedly decided last week to remove the virulently anti-Iranian regime group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq [MEK] from the State Department's terrorism list. A formal announcement is expected coming Monday.

The MEK has a bloody history of perpetrating terrorist acts against the Iranian regime. Although it is today a pale shadow of what it used to be in the 1980s and commands hardly any support within Iran, MEK evokes strong feelings in Tehran.

One of the most revered figures in the pantheon of heroes of the Islamic revolution, Mohammad Beheshti, fell victim on June 28, 1981 along with more than 70 revolutionary figures in an MEK terrorist strike in Tehran. The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who was present at the conclave narrowly escaped with debilitating injuries. So did former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The MEK plan was to decimate the entire Iranian revolutionary leadership at one stroke. This was at the height of the US-Iranian hostilities soon after the hostage crisis ended. The forces behind the MEK in planning that incident are not yet identified.

With this one move to rehabilitate the MEK, Washington has signalled that it isn't interested in any meaningful negotiations with Iran. It is inconceivable that Tehran will easily overlook Obama's provocative decision. (Curiously, the US decision coincides with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's arrival in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session.)

Without doubt, Israel will be mighty thrilled. But what is surprising is that the US cannot have any sort of ideological or political affinities with the MEK. The MEK had Marxist leanings at one time; it also used to be "anti-imperialist" and "anti-Shah"; and, later it aligned with the Islamic revolution and finally it turned against the religious establishment and ended taking refuge under Saddam Hussein until the dictator's rule ended in Iraq. Saddam provided sanctuaries to the MEK and used it as an instrument of policy to destabilize the Iranian regime.

With Saddam's tragic departure, MEK ended up in American hands. Obama's latest decision is part of a concerted western design to rehabilitate the MEK on the specious plea that it has become a toothless, harmless organisation anyway. Other European countries have also taken similar steps. This is double standard bordering on rank hypocrisy.

The heart of the matter is that the MEK works closely with the Israeli intelligence and has proved its usefulness by undertaking dangerous operations inside Iran, especially for subverting Iran's nuclear program by assassinating nuclear scientists in that country. Iran has apprehended several MEK agents working for Israeli (and US) intelligence.

Now, if the MEK continues to be listed as a terrorist organisation by the state department, CIA will be violating the law of the land by working with it. Also, Israel will be seen as collaborating with an organisation that has been listed as a terrorist organisation under American law and that has dire consequences, too.

So, how to circumvent the law? That was the big question that Obama administration faced. The only expedient way is to remove the MEK from the terrorist list. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are not only gifted politicians but also are lawyers trained in the best law school in the US (Yale). They know how to be on the right side of the law although they may often not always be on the "right side of history".

By the way, the recent induction of the Haqqani group into the US' terrorist list is actually in the very same spirit of expediency to be on the right side of law. Since the Haqqanis are supposed to be holed up in North Waziristan and since they are now deemed "terrorists", the drone attacks, which Obama personally clears, no more become the stuff of war crimes, which they otherwise could be, because the US and Pakistan are, technically speaking, not at war.

The US law gives a free hand to Obama to go for terrorists anywhere on the planet in the supreme national security interests of the US. So, he can't be seen as ordering the drone attacks to assassinate foreigners, which, by the way, is also prohibited under U.S. law.

Simply put, as a law-abiding civilised nation, the US cannot afford to do unlawful things. And, therefore, Haqqanis are "in", and MEK is "out". That makes things perfectly legal if the US assassinates the Haqqanis and consorts with the MEK terrorists.