by Uri Avnery
During the Spanish civil war of 1936, a news story reported the deaths of 82 Moroccans, 53 Italians, 48 Russians, 34 Germans, 17 Englishmen, 13 Americans and 8 Frenchmen. Also one Spaniard.
“Serves him right,” people in Madrid commented, “Why did he interfere?” Similar things could now be said about the civil war in Syria.
by Glenn Kates
ISTANBUL, June 8, 2013 — A bagpipe squeals over Taksim Square as a ring of demonstrators dances merrily around. The circle largely represents the grab bag of disparate groups that has come together in their anger at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They say he is becoming increasingly authoritarian and many claim that he has tried to force Islamism — through laws like restrictions on alcohol sales — on a segment of the population that cherishes its secularism.
by Abbas Djavadi
The uproar started all too typically, with a rather minor event. Last week, a few thousand people protested against plans to allow construction of a shopping mall in a park near Istanbul's central Taksim Square. An unexpectedly harsh crackdown by police armed with tear gas provoked tens of thousands more to pour into the area. Soon the protests spread to other districts of Istanbul and on to the major Turkish cities of Ankara and Izmir.
By the second and third days of unrest, the protests began to focus more on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and less on the plans to raze the park near Istanbul's Taksim Square. The protests, though largely limited to Turkey's three largest cities, seemed to have united young and old, secular and conservative-religious, and rich and poor. Continue reading »
by Abubakar Siddique
Election day is approaching in Pakistan, and women in one violence-wracked province are working hard to ensure they have a voice. Tens of millions of women are expected to refrain from voting during the May 11 general elections due to societal restrictions, failures in the electoral system, or the very real threat of violence. Continue reading »
by Frud Bezhan
Afghanistan's ties with its neighbor Pakistan have become severely strained lately, with both sides engaging in a war of words and cross-border violence. At the forefront of those tensions is a longstanding dispute over the demarcation of their contested border.
The latest controversy involves a border outpost, a checkpoint, and other installations recently built by Pakistan. The facilities were constructed along the edge of Goshta District, which is located in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar Province. Kabul has demanded that Islamabad remove the installations, saying they encroach on Afghan territory. Pakistan counters that its new fortifications are on its side of the border.
The controversial border posts have rekindled the thorny issue of the Durand Line, a border agreed to by the British and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan in the late 19th century.
The simmering tensions boiled over on May 2, when Afghan border police in Goshta District opened fire and destroyed parts of the newly built installations. Afghan forces said they had noticed Pakistani troops starting additional work on the outpost, despite recent agreements to halt construction.
An Afghan border guard was reportedly killed and three others injured during a six-hour clash with Pakistani troops. Pakistani authorities said that two of its security personnel were wounded in the skirmish.
Each side has blamed the other for sparking the incident, which took place along a crucial battleground in the fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants that operate on both sides of the border.
In April, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered Afghan troops to "take immediate measures" to remove the installations near Goshta District. Karzai has maintained that activities by either side along the Durand Line must be approved by both countries.
An Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman has claimed that the post is up to 30 kilometres inside Afghan territory. He has suggested that "all options" were open in Kabul to ensure the installations were removed.
Karzai has directed his Foreign, Interior, and Defence ministries to ask for clarification from the U.S.-led coalition for "assisting and supporting Pakistan to build these installations," according to a statement from the president's office.
Abdul Karim Khurram, the president's chief of staff, revealed on April 29 that Karzai has sent a letter to US President Barack Obama to seek his help in retaking nearly a dozen border posts the Afghan president's office believes Pakistani forces have unjustly occupied in the past decade.
"When ISAF and coalition troops arrived in Afghanistan, they took these check posts and centers," the BBC and Afghanistan Times quoted Khurram as saying. "They [the ISAF] paved the way for the Pakistani military to occupy these posts after they evacuated the posts. It shows some US interference on the issue. Considering the U.S.-Afghan long-term strategic pact, Karzai sent a letter to Obama."
The dispute in Nangarhar has led to mass protests against Pakistan. For the last few weeks, the streets of the provincial capital, Jalalabad, have been lined with demonstrators chanting anti-Pakistani slogans and demanding military action by the Afghan government.
Protestors have also demanded that Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai be dismissed immediately and they have accused him of treason. The calls came after lawmakers said Sherzai failed to inform them of Pakistan's activity along the border and accused him of not doing enough to stop the construction of border installations.
In retaliation, Pakistan on April 30 closed its border crossing with Afghanistan along the highway linking Kabul and Islamabad. A Pakistani border official said the closure was ordered because an Afghan border guard fought with a Pakistani official.
That came a day after Islamabad tightened entry requirements in connection with Pakistan's May 11 general elections, ordering that only Afghans with valid documents be allowed to cross into Pakistan. Before the measure, crossing the border without travel documents was routine.
Afghan claims that Pakistan is trying to thwart efforts to begin reconciliation talks with the Taliban have also fuelled souring relations.
Afghanistan has grown increasingly frustrated with Pakistan, saying Islamabad is not fulfilling its promises regarding the peace process. Kabul has suggested that Islamabad is seeking to keep Afghanistan unstable until foreign combat forces leave at the end of 2014.
Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary to Afghan insurgents on its soil. Pakistan denies this and says that Pakistani Taliban routinely seek shelter on the Afghan side of the border.
by Bruce Jacobs
TOKMOK, Kyrgyzstan, April 20, 2013 — Before their family moved to the United States a decade ago, Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent some of their early, formative years in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, home to the country's largest ethnic Chechen community.
RFE/RL Kyrgyz Service correspondent Timur Toktonaliev and cameraman Ulan Asanaliev traveled to Tokmok, which sits near the border with Kazakhstan, one day after the death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzhokhar after a massive manhunt in the Boston area. They spoke to family friends and other members of the community who knew the Tsarnaevs.
by Uri Avnery
Last Sunday, on the eve of Israel’s Remembrance Day for the fallen in our wars, I was invited to an event organized by the activist group Combatants for Peace and the Forum of Israeli and Palestinian Bereaved Parents. It was a moving experience, filled with moments that spoke not only to the mind, but also – and foremost – to the heart.
by Uri Avnery
“Around us the storm is raging / But our head will not be bowed…” we sang when we were young, before the State of Israel was born. On the eve of Israel’s 65th birthday, this coming Monday, we could sing this rousing song again. And not just out of nostalgia.
from the Australia Broadcasting Network
Jim McIlroy, an activist from the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network, interviewed by ABC TV News, on March 8, 2013
March 10, 2013 — Following the tragic death of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez from cancer after 14 years in office, the world's big-business media has gone into overdrive to dishonestly describe Chavez's record as being "authoritarian", "dictatorial" and having made the Venezuelan economy a "basket case", as was rudely interjected by an Australian Broadcasting Corporation "journalist" in the video above. Such media lies have been refuted by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , VenezuelAnalysis and the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
by Frud Bezhan
March 05, 2013 — Pakistan's checkered role in Afghanistan has long attracted the anger and mistrust of Afghan officials. But while some might go so far as to privately accuse Islamabad of orchestrating violence in their country, such sentiments were routinely suppressed.
That all changed this week, when high-level Afghan officials publicly accused Islamabad and its notorious intelligence service, the Inter-Service Intelligence agency (ISI), of covertly supporting the Taliban and other extremist groups working against the government in Afghanistan.
First came Afghanistan's ex-spy chief, Rahmatullah Nabil, who on March 3 took the unprecedented step of calling for the United Nations to place the ISI on its global list of terrorist groups.
Nabil, who is deputy chairman of Afghanistan's National Security Council, also said Pakistan should not be allowed to participate in negotiations to reach a peace agreement with the Taliban.
"The Afghan government and people have done their outmost to forge a good relationship with Pakistan so we could, as Muslim neighbors, live together and create peace in Afghanistan and in the region," Nabil said. "But, unfortunately, we have never seen any positive steps from Pakistan. Instead, they fire rockets that shell our people and land while our clerics, tribes, and children are martyred by their terrorists."
Then came President Hamid Karzai, who issued similarly robust remarks on March 4.
Speaking to reporters alongside NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Kabul, Karzai said Pakistan has taken "no practical steps" to help Afghanistan fight terrorism. The Afghan president also criticized recent statements by influential Pakistani cleric Tahir Ashrafi, who reportedly said suicide attacks in Afghanistan were justifiable because they target foreign occupiers.
For Kabul to formalize Nabil's calls for the ISI to be blacklisted by the UN, Afghanistan would have to make a request to the Al-Qaeda and Associated Individuals and Entities Committee, also known as the "Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee." The committee, which is chaired by Australia's ambassador to the UN and includes representatives from all 15 members of the Security Council, would then have to decide by consensus to add the ISI to its blacklist.
Much of the anger in Afghanistan appears to be directly related to Ashrafi's legitimization of terrorist acts in Afghanistan.
Former Afghan spy chief Nabil initially charged that Ashrafi's statement represented the views of the Pakistan government and intelligence services. Ashrafi has since backtracked and said his comments were taken out of context by the Afghan media.
Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, suggests that the recent criticism could be a sign of Kabul's frustrations with its efforts to reach a peace settlement with the Taliban.
Kabul has secured the releases of dozens of Taliban officials held in Pakistani prisons over the past few months, but the move has not led to any breakthroughs. Instead, there have been media reports that many of those released are now back on the battlefield.
Kugelman also leaves open the possibility that the strong reaction by Nabil could be driven by political considerations, with presidential elections scheduled to take place in Afghanistan in 2014.
"This strong comment from Kabul could betray this sense of anger about how things aren't really progressing very well. Given the elections aren't too far off, someone like [Nabil], a possible candidate, could be trying to make a political statement that would appeal to public opinion — particularly given how hostile many Afghans are toward Pakistan, but in particular the ISI," Kugelman said.
"Afghanistan-Pakistan relations are volatile and not good. They seem to have improved over the last few months. But anytime you have a high-level official make a comment as strong as Nabil did about the ISI, that risks not endangering but definitely harming the relationship — in the sense that to have such a strong statement come from so high up in the government against such a significant and powerful organization such as the ISI," Kugelman said.
