Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘Terrorism’ Category

A half decade old proposal for the welfare of the families of the martyrs of war on terror..!

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad on October 5, 2009 at 2:35 am said:

To :- All the Patriotic Pakistanis.

Dear Sir/Madam.

AoA.

Nowadays, the entire Pakistani nation is fighting a battle of life and death against terrorism.

Obviously, the terrorists are fighting on behalf of their masters who have plans to either dismember Pakistan or at least strip it from its nuclear weapons.

Obviously the will of nation and the determination of the entire security apparatus, to defend Pakistan with their blood, is standing in the way of the nefarious designs of the enemies of nuclear Pakistan.

However, one thing seems clear that this fight of the survival of the nation will be a long drawn battle.

And consequently, our security forces which includes armed forces, F.C., rangers, police forces etc. will be offering more and more sacrifices for the motherland.

No doubt central and provincial governments and respective departments look after heirs of our martyrs well, according to the available resources and their rules and regulations.

It is the need of the hour that entire population of Pakistan and expatriate Pakistanis come forward on a voluntary basis, to financially support the heirs of martyrs, whose loved ones have laid down their lives, for our safe and better tomorrow.

In this regard, it is proposed that the government should take the initiative to mobilize the public opinion and take the following action.

1. Declare the salary of entire people serving in all the security forces/agencies ( armed forces, F.C., police service, intelligence agencies, rangers etc.) as tax free. Plus, they should also be exempted from property tax.

2. Government should create a fund with initial investment of Rs.1 billion (amount to be released from US grant of Kerry Lugar bill.) Rest of the amount to be collected as donations from overseas and local Pakistanis on a continuous basis, till such time the war with terrorists continues.

This fund should be managed by persons of very good repute from government and non government sectors like Abdus Sattar Edhi, Syed Baber Ali, Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim, Justice (Retd.) Bhagwandas and Cowasjee etc.

It is proposed that heirs of each security force(s) martyr be paid Rupees one crore, as a humble tribute and contribution, for their future welfare, from their fellow countrymen.

Thank you.

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Just read the following excerpts and see how Pakistan was and is being looted and plundered by the World Bank, IMF and other lending agencies of the West through the stooges, Mir Jaffers and Mir Sadiq’s of Pakistan…!

EYE OPENING extracts from the book titled “Confessions of an economic hit man” by John Perkins.

The SPECIAL point to be noted is that there is a special mention of the word “Rigged Elections”, which seen in its true prospective, fully applies to Pakistan in every respect.

Economic hit men {EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM.”

Claudine pulled no punches when describing what I would be called upon to do. My job, she said, was “to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial in- terests. In the end, those leaders become ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire — to satisfy our
political, economic, or military needs. In turn, they bolster their political positions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. The owners of U.S. engineer- ing/construction companies become fabulously wealthy.”

That is what we EHMs do best: we build a global empire. We are an elite group of men and women who utilize international financial organizations to foment conditions that make other nations sub- servient to the corporatocracy running our biggest corporations, our government, and our banks. Like our counterparts in the Mafia, EHMs provide favors. These take the form of loans to develop in- frastructure — electric generating plants, highways, ports, airports, or industrial parks. A condition of such loans is that engineering and construction companies from our own country must build all these projects. In essence, most of the money never leaves the United States; it is simply transferred from banking offices in Washington to engineering offices in New York, Houston, or San Francisco.
Despite the fact that the money is returned almost immediately to corporations that are members of the corporatocracy (the creditor), the recipient country is required to pay it all back, principal plus interest. If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money —and another country is added to our global empire.

Outside the window of my Outback, great clouds of mist rolled in from the forests and up the Pastaza’s canyons. Sweat soaked my shirt, and my stomach began to churn, but not just from the intense tropical heat and the serpentine twists in the road. Knowing the part I had played in destroying this beautiful country was once again taking its toll. Because of my fellow EHMs and me, Ecuador is in far worse shape today than she was before we introduced her to the miracles of modern economics, banking, and engineering. Since 1970, during this period known euphemistically as the Oil Boom, the official poverty level grew from 50 to 70 percent, under- or unemployment increased from 15 to 70 percent, and public debt increased from $240 million to $16 billion. Meanwhile, the share of national resources allocated to the poorest segments of the population declined from 20 to 6 percent.5

Unfortunately, Ecuador is not the exception. Nearly every country we EHMs have brought under the global empire’s umbrella has suf- fered a similar fate.6 Third world debt has grown to more than S2.5 trillion, and the cost of servicing it — over $375 billion per year as of 2004 — is more than all third world spending on health and educa- tion, and twenty times what developing countries receive annually in foreign aid. Over half the people in the world survive on less than two dollars per day, which is roughly the same amount they received in the early 1970s. Meanwhile, the top 1 percent of third world households accounts for 70 to 90 percent of all private financial wealth and real estate ownership in their country; the actual per- centage depends on the specific country.7

That hideous, incongruous wall is a dam that blocks the rushing Pastaza River, diverts its waters through huge tunnels bored into the mountain, and converts the energy to electricity. This is the 156- megawatt Agoyan hydroelectric project. It fuels the industries that make a handful of Ecuadorian families wealthy, and it has been the source of untold suffering for the farmers and indigenous people who live along the river. This hydroelectric plant is just one of many projects developed through my efforts and those of other EHMs. Such projects are the reason Ecuador is now a member of the global empire, and the reason why the Shuars and Kichwas and their neighbors threaten war against our oil companies.
Because of EHM projects, Ecuador is awash in foreign debt and must devote an inordinate share of its national budget to paying this off, instead of using its capital to help the millions of its citizens officially classified as dangerously impoverished. The only way Ecua- dor can buy down its foreign obligations is by selling its rain forests to the oil companies. Indeed, one of the reasons the EHMs set their sights on Ecuador in the first place was because the sea of oil beneath its Amazon region is believed to rival the oil fields of the Middle East.8 The global empire demands its pound of flesh in the form of oil concessions.

These demands became especially urgent after September 11, 2001, when Washington feared that Middle Eastern supplies might cease. On top of that, Venezuela, our third-largest oil supplier, had recently elected a populist president, Hugo Chavez, who took a strong stand against what he referred to as U.S. imperialism; he threatened to cut off oil sales to the United States. The EHMs had failed in Iraq and Venezuela, but we had succeeded in Ecuador; now we would milk it for all it is worth.

Ecuador is typical of countries around the world that EHMs have brought into the economic-political fold. For every $100 of crude taken out of the Ecuadorian rain forests, the oil companies receive $75. Of the remaining S25, three-quarters must go to paying off the foreign debt. Most of the remainder covers military and other gov- ernment expenses — which leaves about $2.50 for health, education, and programs aimed at helping the poor.9 Thus, out of every $100 worth of oil torn from the Amazon, less than $3 goes to the people who need the money most, those whose lives have been so adversely impacted by the dams, the drilling, and the pipelines, and who are dying from lack of edible food and potable water.
All of those people — millions in Ecuador, billions around the planet —are potential terrorists. Not because they believe in com- munism or anarchism or are intrinsically evil, but simply because they are desperate. Looking at this dam, I wondered — as I have so often in so many places around the world—when these people would take action, like the Americans against England in the 1770s or Latin Americans against Spain in the early 1800s.

The subtlety of this modern empire building puts the Roman centurions, the Spanish conquistadors, and the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European colonial powers to shame. We EHMs are crafty; we learned from history. Today we do not carry swords. We do not wear armor or clothes that set us apart. In countries like Ecuador, Nigeria, and Indonesia, we dress like local schoolteachers and shop owners. In Washington and Paris, we look like government bureaucrats and bankers. We appear humble, normal. We visit project sites and stroll through impoverished villages. We profess altruism, talk with local papers about the wonderful humanitarian things we are doing. We cover the conference tables of government committees with our spreadsheets and financial projections, and we lecture at the Harvard Business School about the miracles of macroeconomics.

We are on the record, in the open. Or so we portray ourselves and so are we accepted. It is how the system works. We seldom resort to anything illegal because the system itself is built on subterfuge, and the system is by definition legitimate.
However — and this is a very large caveat — if we fail, an even more sinister breed steps in, ones we EHMs refer to as the jackals, men who trace their heritage directly to those earlier empires. The jackals are always there, lurking in the shadows. When they emerge, heads of state are overthrown or die in violent “accidents.”10 And if by chance the jackals fail, as they failed in Afghanistan and Iraq, then the old models resurface. When the jackals fail, young Americans are sent in to kill and to die.

Claudine told me that there were two primary objectives of my work. First, I was to justify huge international loans that would funnel money back to MAIN and other U.S. companies (such as Bechtel, Halliburton, Stone & Webster, and Brown & Root) through massive engineering and construction projects. Second, I would work to bankrupt the countries that received those loans (after they had paid MAIN and the other U.S. contractors, of course) so that they would be forever beholden to their creditors, and so they would present easy targets when we needed favors, including military bases, UN votes, or access to oil and other natural resources.
My job, she said, was to forecast the effects of investing billions of dollars in a country. Specifically, I would produce studies that pro- jected economic growth twenty to twenty-five years into the future and that evaluated the impacts of a variety of projects. For example, if a decision was made to lend a country $1 billion to persuade its leaders not to align with the Soviet Union, I would compare the ben- efits of investing that money in power plants with the benefits of in- vesting in a new national railroad network or a telecommunications system. Or I might be told that the country was being offered the op- portunity to receive a modern electric utility system, and it would be up to me to demonstrate that such a system would result in sufficient economic growth to justify the loan. The critical factor, in every case, was gross national product. The project that resulted in the highest average annual growth of GNP won. If only one project was under consideration, I would need to demonstrate that developing it would bring superior benefits to the GNP.
The unspoken aspect of every one of these projects was that they were intended to create large profits for the contractors, and to make a handful of wealthy and influential families in the receiving coun- tries very happy, while assuring the long-term financial dependence and therefore the political loyalty of governments around the world. The larger the loan, the better. The fact that the debt burden placed on a country would deprive its poorest citizens of health, education, and other social services for decades to come was not taken into consideration.
Claudine and I openly discussed the deceptive nature of GNP. For instance, the growth of GNP may result even when it profits only one person, such as an individual who owns a utility company, and even if the majority of the population is burdened with debt. The rich get richer and the poor grow poorer. Yet, from a statistical standpoint, this is recorded as economic progress.
Like U.S. citizens in general, most MAIN employees believed we were doing countries favors when we built power plants, highways, and ports. Our schools and our press have taught us to perceive all of our actions as altruistic. Over the years, I’ve repeatedly heard com- ments like, “If they’re going to burn the U.S. flag and demonstrate against our embassy, why don’t we just get out of their damn country and let them wallow in their own poverty?”
People who say such things often hold diplomas certifying that they are well educated. However, these people have no clue that the main reason we establish embassies around the world is to serve our own interests, which during the last half of the twentieth century meant turning the American republic into a global empire. Despite credentials, such people are as uneducated as those eighteenth- century colonists who believed that the Indians fighting to defend their lands were servants of the devil.
Within several months, I would leave for the island of Java in the country of Indonesia, described at that time as the most heavily pop- ulated piece of real estate on the planet. Indonesia also happened to be an oil-rich Muslim nation and a hotbed of communist activity.
“It’s the next domino after Vietnam,” is the way Claudine put it. “We must win the Indonesians over. If they join the Communist bloc, well…” She drew a finger across her throat and then smiled sweetly. “Let’s just say you need to come up with a very optimistic forecast of the economy, how it will mushroom after all the new power plants and distribution lines are built. That will allow USAID and the international banks to justify the loans. You’ll be well rewarded,

“We’re paid — well paid — to cheat countries around the globe out of billions of dollars. A large part of your job is to encourage world leaders to become part of a vast network that promotes U.S. commercial interests. In the end, those leaders be- come ensnared in a web of debt that ensures their loyalty. We can draw on them whenever we desire — to satisfy our political, economic, or military needs. In turn, these leaders bolster their political posi- tions by bringing industrial parks, power plants, and airports to their people. Meanwhile, the owners of U.S. engineering and construction companies become very wealthy.”

relaxing in the window while snow swirled around outside, I learned the history of the profession I was about to enter. Claudine described how throughout most of history, empires were built largely through military force or the threat of it. But with the end of World War II, the emergence of the Soviet Union, and the specter of nuclear holo- caust, the military solution became just too risky.
The decisive moment occurred in 1951, when Iran rebelled against a British oil company that was exploiting Iranian natural resources and its people. The company was the forerunner of British Petroleum, today’s BP. In response, the highly popular, democratically elected Iranian prime minister (and TIME magazine’s Man of the Year in 1951), Mohammad Mossadegh, nationalized all Iranian petroleum assets. An outraged England sought the help of her World War II ally, the United States. However, both countries feared that military retaliation would provoke the Soviet Union into taking action on behalf of Iran.
Instead of sending in the Marines, therefore, Washington dis- patched CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt (Theodore’s grandson). He per- formed brilliantly, winning people over through payoffs and threats. He then enlisted them to organize a series of street riots and violent demonstrations, which created the impression that Mossadegh was both unpopular and inept. In the end, Mossadegh went down, and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. The pro-American Mohammad Reza Shah became the unchallenged dictator. Kermit Roosevelt had set the stage for a new profession, the one whose ranks I was joining.1
Roosevelt’s gambit reshaped Middle Eastern history even as it rendered obsolete all the old strategies for empire building. It also coincided with the beginning of experiments in “limited nonnuclear military actions,” which ultimately resulted in US. humiliations in Korea and Vietnam. By 1968, the year I interviewed with the NSA, it had become clear that if the United States wanted to realize its dream of global empire (as envisioned by men like presidents Johnson and Nixon), it would have to employ strategies modeled on Roosevelt’s Iranian example. This was the only way to beat the Soviets without the threat of nuclear war.
There was one problem, however. Kermit Roosevelt was a CIA employee. Had he been caught, the consequences would have been dire. He had orchestrated the first U.S. operation to overthrow a foreign government, and it was likely that many more would follow, but it was important to find an approach that would not directly im- plicate Washington.
Fortunately for the strategists, the 1960s also witnessed another type of revolution: the empowerment of international corporations and of multinational organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF. The latter were financed primarily by the United States and our sister empire builders in Europe. A symbiotic relationship developed between governments, corporations, and multinational organizations.
By the time I enrolled in BU’s business school, a solution to the Roosevelt-as-CIA-agent problem had already been worked out. U.S. intelligence agencies — including the NSA — would identify prospective EHMs, who could then be hired by international corporations. These EHMs would never be paid by the government; instead, they would draw their salaries from the private sector. As a result, their dirty work, if exposed, would be chalked up to corporate greed rather than to government policy. In addition, the corporations that hired them, although paid by government agencies and their multinational banking counterparts (with taxpayer money), would be insulated from congressional oversight and public scrutiny, shielded by a growing body of legal initiatives, including trademark, interna- tional trade, and Freedom of Information laws.2

Is anyone in the U.S. innocent? Although those at the very pinnacle of the economic pyramid gain the most, millions of us depend — either directly or indirectly — on the exploitation of the LDCs for our livelihoods. The resources and cheap labor that feed nearly all our businesses come from places like Indonesia, and very little ever makes its way back. The loans of foreign aid ensure that today’s children and their grandchildren will be held hostage. They will have to allow our corporations to ravage their natural resources and will have to forego education, health, and other social services merely to pay us back. The fact that our own companies already received most of this money to build the power plants, airports, and industrial parks does not factor into this formula. Does the excuse that most Americans are unaware of this constitute innocence? Uninformed and intentionally misinformed, yes — but innocent?

Note:-The above excerpts are from P1-P96. Rest shall follow…!

Why Kashif Abbasi failed to remind the following verdict of the judge when Rana Sanaullah today said in his (8-9PM ARY News) program that road barriers at Minhaj Secretariat were illegal?

Quote:
“Justice Najfi also noted that the PAT workers had not fired a single bullet on the police and just pelted stones when attempts were being made to remove the barriers outside Minhaj Secretariat, which were completely legal thus the Punjab government’s action was “illegal”.”
Unquote.

Why Turkey is dead silent now..?

When its aid flotilla for Gaza was attacked Turkey raised hell of a noise….but when Israel is committing genocide of the Palestinians, specially their children, why Turkey is mum today..?

An earnest request to the federal government of Pakistan.

1. As reported by media, there was no government representative present at the Namaz-e-Janaza (offered in Lahore today) of Shaheed ASF Inspector, Mr. Muhammad Sarwar.
If this news is true then government must investigate the reasons for this callousness of all the concerned.
Government must realise and recognise that such small gestures in our culture and society, are much appreciated by the officers and men of the services, than offering of monetary rewards, to the families of the Shaheeds.

2. Now, the entire nation has realised that the monumental supreme sacrifices offered by the 11 ASF men (during the terrorists attack at the Karachi airport) has saved the country from an unimaginable loss of men and material. Moreover, their SHAHADAT has also saved Pakistan from a huge loss of image and reputation, as well. As such, these ASF men, deserve to be awarded highest bravery award, to acknowledge their immortal services to the nation.

3. No Pakistani should and must not forget that today we and our children are alive and happy, because of the blood shed by our Martyrs for our better Tomorrow.

Latest update after attack at Karachi air port and killings of dozens of pilgrims at two hotels in Taftan near Iranian border.

Now, a time has come that Pakistan can not and must not allow this war, to be just a kind of a routine exercise, to wait for the terrorists to attack as per their will and evil designs; and after that we ask our law enforcing agencies, to go after them and kill them.

This sort of mind set will ruin us completely, sooner than later. Offence is the best defence. Pakistan must inform the United Nations, Afghanistan and India that come what may, Pakistan will launch severe punitive strikes inside Afghanistan, on its terrorists training bases and on the Indian Consulates, as well.

We must remember that when it comes to a do or die situation, specially for a nuclear power, then there is no going back. Precisely, this was the reason USA was absolutely ready for a nuclear war, when Russia planned to install missiles, in its back yard in Cuba.

Actually, the current strategy of our known enemies, to wage a out sourced third party war, to disintegrate and degenerate a nuclear Pakistan, suits them as the best option, without any cost to our enemies.

As such, it is high time our strategy is revamped and rehashed, to let our enemies and the whole world know very clearly that red lines of Pakistan’s conventional and nuclear threshold have been crossed; and we reserve the right to use any and all weapons, to safeguard our national interests.

This means clearly the use of nuclear and all weapons at our disposal, because we can’t sit idle and witness our own demise, without any punishment to the mischief mongers.

In this regard, if the UNO or the world powers wants to take steps to ensure peace on our western borders, we should have no objection, provided all the Indian consulates established, after the NATO invasion of Afghanistan, are permanently shut down, just as Russia accepted American demands, during the Cuban crisis.

So, for a nuclear Pakistan, enough is enough.

We must not forget that any all out nuclear war between India and Pakistan, will not only be a complete annihilation of both the countries, but it will spell dooms day, for the entire planet, as well.

Posted at www.snayyar.com by Syed Nayyar Uddin on January 9, 2014 in Counter Terrorism, India Peace and Pakistan, My Views, Pakistan, Terrorism |
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How to win Pakistan’s world war..?

Pakistan is not in an ordinary war rather, for us it is our world war, which is being fought for the life and death of Pakistan. This type of war has not been witnessed by any other nation, in the history of the world.

Moreover, it seems that this fight may not end very soon, in the near future. As such, our civil, military and all non military people, will have to stand united in front of the terrorists, who are hell bent to fight this war, not in our back yard, but right in the middle of our house.

In view of the seriousness of the situation and to keep the motivation of the general public alive, it is imperative to immediately announce the following initiatives:

1. Shaheed Chaudhry Aslam SSP and Shaheed Aitzaz Hussain (the 9th class student of Hangu, who grabbed the suicide bomber) may be awarded the highest national bravery award, for offering ultimate sacrifice, in beyond the call, performance of their duties.

2. As a safety and precautionary step, government must announce that with immediate effect, no vehicle of any type, including cycles and motor cycles etc., be allowed to enter or be parked in any bazaar, throughout the country. This is a harsh and very inconvenient step, but it may save many lives.

3 (i). In any crime investigations, the first logical step is to find the beneficiary of that criminal act. Here, in Pakistan we have observed a pattern, which reveals that either, the terrorists have been targeting the GHQ, Naval and Air Force bases or indulging in specific targeted attacks on Sri Lankan cricketers, Chinese, foreigners and Pakistani minorities.

3 (ii). All these operations are carried out (at specifically chosen vital timings) not only to inflict maximum men and material losses, but also to undermine Pakistan’s military power; and create isolation in foreign policy, economy, sports and tourism etc.

3 (iii). We should not be so naive to indefinitely close our eyes and ignore the role of huge number of Indian consulates, specially based near the Pakistan’s western borders with Afghanistan.

3 (iv). In fact, the terrorism in Karachi and the insurgencies of Swat and Balouchistan are a clear testimony of the Indian evil designs, being perpetrated through these consulates in Afghanistan.

3 (v). However, Pakistan must rest assured that this Indian game plan, specifically designed to keep Pakistan burning for an indefinite period, will never cease, till such time we repay the Indians in the same coins, by devising a strategy, to fight fire with fire.

3 (vi). As such, it is high time that Pakistan officially warn India to immediately pack up all its consulates in Afghanistan, failing which Pakistan should also immediately take steps to establish its own consulates, in the border areas of all those countries, which share a common border with India e.g., China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and SriLanka etc.

4 (i). The sudden increase of acts of terrorism, highlights the importance of preventive measures to curb the menace of terrorism, which is causing severe losses to men, material and reputation of the country.

4 (ii). In the cases of terrorist attacks on the GHQ, PIDC house & Pakistan Navy air base, it was reported that the gang of attackers was residing in a rented house for quite some time, in an area not very far away from their targets. It was also reported that the neighbours of these houses were although, suspicious of these tenants yet; they kept quiet and did not tip area police, about their apprehensions.

4 (iii). Under the circumstances, there is a dire need for motivating general public, which must remain extra -vigilant, in playing their role of defending the motherland, by involvement of entire population of the country, to look out for the stay and suspicious activities of the terrorist, in their near vicinity.

4 (iv). As such, In order to make the stay of terrorists at any place almost impossible, it is proposed to actively involve the entire population to look out & hunt them. This objective can be easily achieved, by the announcement of the Government, that a reward of Rs. 50 millions shall be paid to any person, who informs the Police, about the terrorist staying in a house, hostel, hotel, rest house or any such place.

4 (v). If the war against terror is to be won quickly, the entire population of the country have to be geared up and involved in the task of watch and vigilance.

The New York Times deserves a Noble Peace Prize for its great service to the humanity by publishing this heart wrenching article.

And the entire Muslim Country’s governments deserve hall of SHAME for their callousness in looking the other way on the genocide of Muslims in Myanmar.

Myanmar\’s Appalling Apartheid
Posted on 14 hours ago

Nicholas Kristof
Minura Begum has been in labor for almost 24 hours, and the baby is stuck. Worse, it\’s turned around, one tiny foot already emerging into the world in a difficult breech delivery that threatens the lives of mother and child alike.
Twenty-three years old and delivering her first child, Minura desperately needs a doctor. But the Myanmar government has confined her, along with 150,000 others, to a quasi-concentration camp outside town here, and it blocks aid workers from entering to provide medical help. She\’s on her own. Welcome to Myanmar, where tremendous democratic progress is being swamped by crimes against humanity toward the Rohingya, a much-resented Muslim minority in this Buddhist country. Budding democracy seems to aggravate the persecution, for ethnic cleansing of an unpopular minority appears to be a popular vote-getting strategy.
This is my annual \”win-a-trip\” journey, in which I take a university student on a reporting trip to the developing world. I\’m with this year\’s winner, Nicole Sganga of Notre Dame University, spotlighting an injustice that some call a genocide. There are more than one million Rohingya in Rakhine State in the northwest of Myanmar. They are distinct from the local Buddhists both by darker skin and by their Islamic faith. For decades, Myanmar\’s military rulers have tried systematically to erase the Rohingya\’s existence with oppression, periodic mass expulsions and denials of their identity.
\”There are no people called Rohingya in Myanmar,\” U Win Myaing, a spokesman for Rakhine State, told me. He said that most are simply illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This narrative is absurd, as well as racist. A document as far back as 1799 refers to the Rohingya population here, and an 1826 report estimates that 30 percent of the population of this region was Muslim. Since clashes in 2012 claimed more than 200 lives – including children hacked with machetes – the authorities have confined Rohingya to internment camps or their own villages. They are stripped of citizenship and cannot freely go to the market, to schools, to university, to hospitals.
Tens of thousands have made desperate attempts to flee by boat, with many drowning along the way. This year, the Myanmar authorities have cracked down even harder, making the situation worse. First, the government expelled Doctors Without Borders, which had been providing health care for the Rohingya. Then orchestrated mobs attacked the offices of humanitarian organizations, forcing them out. Some kinds of aid are resuming, but not health care. That\’s a sterile way of putting it. I wish readers could see the terrified eyes of Shamshida Begum, 22, a mom whose 1-year-old daughter, Noor, burned with fever.
Shamshida said that at home the thermometer had registered 107 degrees. Even after damp cloths had been placed on Noor to lower her temperature, the thermometer, when I saw it, still read 105 degrees. What kind of a government denies humanitarians from providing medical care to a toddler? Noor survived, but some don\’t. We visited the grief-stricken family of a 35-year-old man named Ba Sein, who died after his tuberculosis went untreated.
\”He died because he couldn\’t get medicine,\” said his widow, Habiba, as friends made a bamboo coffin outside. Now she worries about her four small children who, like other children in the camp, haven\’t been vaccinated. The camp is an epidemic waiting to happen. Minura, the woman with a breech delivery, survived a 28-hour labor and hemorrhaging, but lost her baby. The infant girl was buried in an unmarked grave – one of a large number of achingly small graves on the outskirts of the camp.
\”Because I am Rohingya, I cannot get health care and I cannot be a father,\” Minura\’s husband, Zakir Ahmed, a mason, said bitterly after the burial. The United States has spoken up, but far too mildly; Europe and Asia have tried to look the other way. We should work in particular with Japan, Britain, Malaysia and the United Nations to pressure Myanmar to restore humanitarian access and medical care. President Obama, who visited Myanmar and is much admired here, should flatly declare that what is happening here is unconscionable. Obama has lately noted that his foreign policy options are limited, and that military interventions often backfire. True enough, but in Myanmar he has political capital that he has not fully used.
As a university student, Obama denounced apartheid in South Africa. As president, he should stand up to an even more appalling apartheid – one in Myanmar that deprives members of one ethnic group even of health care. Myanmar seeks American investment and approval. We must make clear that it will get neither unless it treats Rohingya as human beings.
The New York Times

All Islamic Countries Must Read This Latest Reuters Report & Immediately Snap Diplomatic Relations With Myanmar.

Rohingya health crisis in west Myanmar after aid groups forced out
By Aubrey Belford

KYEIN NI PYIN CAMP, MYANMAR | Mon Apr 28, 2014 3:43am EDT

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By Aubrey Belford

KYEIN NI PYIN CAMP, Myanmar (Reuters) – As three-month-old Asoma Khatu approached her final, labored breaths, her neighbor Elia, a 50-year-old former farmer, dug through the strongbox holding some of the last medicines in this camp for Myanmar’s displaced Rohingya.

First, some paracetamol for the severely malnourished girl’s fever and a wet towel for her forehead. Then some rehydration salts for her diarrhea. There was nothing else left.

The death of Asoma in a dusty, stifling hot camp a two-hour boat ride from Sittwe, capital of Rakhine State in west Myanmar, is part of a growing health crisis for stateless Muslim Rohingya that has been exacerbated by restrictions on international aid.

“I think my child would have made it if someone was here to help,” Asoma’s mother, Gorima, told Reuters, as she cradled the girl’s shrouded, almost weightless body in her arms.

In February, Myanmar’s government expelled the main aid group providing health to more than half a million Rohingya in Rakhine State – Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland (MSF-H) – after the group said it had treated people believed to have been victims of violence in southern Maungdaw township, near the Bangladesh border, in January.

The United Nations says at least 40 Rohingya were killed there by Buddhist Rakhine villagers. The government denies any killings occurred.

Attacks on March 26 and 27 on NGO and U.N. offices by a Rakhine mob angered by rumors a foreign staffer for another group, Malteser International, had desecrated a Buddhist flag led to the withdrawal of aid groups providing healthcare and other essential help to another 140,000 Rohingya living in camps after being displaced by Buddhist-Muslim violence since 2012.

The government had pledged to allow most NGOs to return to full operation after the end of Buddhist New Year celebrations this month.

But so far only food distribution by the World Food Programme has returned to normal, and Rakhine community leaders in the state government’s Emergency Coordination Centre have imposed conditions on others wanting to go back.

NGOs will only be allowed to operate if they show “complete transparency” in disclosing their travel plans and projects and are not seen to favor Rohingya, said Than Tun, a Rakhine elder who is part of the center. Neither MSF-H nor Malteser are being allowed back in, he said.

“CONCENTRATION CAMP”

With foreign aid largely absent, every day of delay is measured in preventable deaths.

No one is there to count them accurately, but the average of 10 daily emergency medical referrals before aid groups left are no longer happening, said Liviu Vedrasco, a coordinator with the World Health Organisation.

Extrapolating from that how many people could be saved is impossible, Vedrasco said. “It was not ideal before March 27. NGOs were not providing five-star medical care. But they were filling a gap.”

Government medical teams have been making limited visits to Rohingya areas, but foreign aid groups say they are inadequate. Most of the slack has fallen to under-qualified Rohingya using whatever is at their disposal.

In Kyein Ni Pyin, nearly 4,600 Rohingya live under police guard and their movements are restricted. They are classified by the government as illegal Bengali immigrants. One foreign aid worker described the area to Reuters as “a concentration camp”.

Elia is one of eight people given seven days’ training to assist in an MSF-H clinic, which now sits empty. The only medicines he has are those he used on little Asoma and some iodine. Government doctors have made three visits of about two to three hours each, he said.

Eight people, including six infants, have died since the aid group left, he said. The night before a recent Reuters visit, one woman lost her baby during delivery.

“THEY REFUSE TREATMENT”

Win Myaing, a spokesman for the Rakhine State government, dismissed the notion that there is a health crisis in the camps.

“There is a group of people in one of these camps that shows the same sick children to anyone who visits. Even when the government arranges for treatment they refuse it,” he said.

The United States, Britain and other countries have called on the government to allow aid groups to return to Rakhine State, to little effect so far [ID:nL6N0MZ4K1].

Appeals by the international community for Myanmar to do more to end persecution of the Rohingya have similarly made little impression on a government that sees them as illegal immigrants and denies them citizenship.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking during a visit to Malaysia, said on Sunday that Myanmar would not succeed if its minority Muslim population was oppressed.

He may visit Myanmar towards the end of this year, when it is due to host a regional summit, and he could come under pressure from lobby groups to restore sanctions that have been softened since the end of military rule in 2011.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the fight for democracy while the military ran the country and now sits in parliament, has faced rare criticism abroad for her failure to defend the Rohingya.

GETTING WORSE

Visits by Reuters to the remote Kyein Ni Pyin camp, as well as several camps near Sittwe, reveal a widespread struggle with illness. In low-slung huts, dozens of mothers showed their emaciated children. There is no data to compare malnutrition rates to when NGOs were forced to leave.

Along the bustling main street of the Thae Chaung camp outside Sittwe town, thatched bamboo stalls that sell a limited selection of drugs have become makeshift clinics.

Mohammad Elyas, a 30-year-old who sold medicine in Sittwe’s market before he was driven out by marauding mobs in 2012, displays his laminated qualifications near the front, including a degree in geology and a certificate in traditional medicine.

Medicine is sporadically supplied by sympathetic Rakhine Buddhists in Sittwe, but they run the risk of retribution from their own community for doing so.

At least 20 to 30 people come each day seeking treatment, Elyas said. “Week by week it’s getting worse.”

“I’m just trying to save as many lives as possible. Even though I don’t have the proper qualifications, if I don’t do this work, people will die,” he said.

(Additional Reporting by Min Zayar Oo and Aye Win Myint; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

War, cricket and the ICC..!

A refreshed write up of 3 March, 2012. May be it is still relevant now to a large extent…!

Promotion of the Cause of Peace Through Cricket : Why to punish Pakistan for fighting the world’s war on terror? Why to play into the hand of the terrorists?

It has been reported tonight (3 March, 2012) on TV that Bangladesh cricket team’s coach Stuart Law, who is of Australia origin, has declined to tour Pakistan with the Bangladesh cricket team, for it’s impending tour being scheduled next month in April. This news if correct, raises many questions with serious ramifications for the cricketing world.

However, before dwelling with the consequences of the above mentioned news, the following facts should also be kept in mind, to have a better prospect of the whole issue.

1. Newly appointed coach of Pakistan cricket team Dev Whatmore, is also a former Australian Test and international cricket player, who had no qualms ever for staying in Pakistan. In fact, he was one of the coaching candidates for the Pakistani cricket team, when another very famous former Australian international cricketer Lawson, was selected as coach for Pakistan. We understand that when he was removed to appoint Waqar Younis, Lawson never himself wanted to quit the job. And Lawson stayed in Pakistan (and also wanted to stay further), during much worse war conditions in Afghanistan and it’s spill over impact of very serious law and order conditions, then prevailing in Pakistan.

2. To say that Stuart Law is taking refuge under travel advisory of Australian government, is also a very weak argument, which does not hold water, as many Australian professionals are continuing to visit Pakistan and they even stay here for longer durations, without any fear of violence. As compared to this situation, we hear very regular news of violence against Asian migrants in Australia, but then again no body stays away from traveling there.

3a. One isolated incidence against the SriLankan cricket team, can’t be made an excuse to stop international cricket in Pakistan, forever. No foreign team ever stopped visiting SriLanka during it’s 25 years civil war, where matches continued even during bombings and explosions.

3b. Why no sportsmen or sports teams ever decided not to visit Germany after the Munich massacre attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany on 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, who were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer.

3c. Why no sports teams ever boycotted sports events in America after the Centennial Olympic Park bombing of a terrorist bomb attack on the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia on July 27 during the 1996 Summer Olympics. The blast claimed 1 life and injured 111 people, while another person died of a heart attack.

3d. Also no one stopped visiting New York or USA after 9/11. Similarly, Pakistani players were once mugged in South Africa. One off incidents or accidents do happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future everywhere. So why to single out only Pakistan. People don’t stop air travels, just because airplanes do meet accidents every now and then.

4. Now, if today Bangladesh cricket board succumbs to the blackmail tactics of their coach or support staff, this matter will not stop here. Indiscipline and black mail if not nibbed in the bud, spreads like cancer. Tomorrow, other boards should be ready to face much worse pressures for even more ridiculous demands. This situation may even force the boards to consider putting new clauses of conditions in the agreements, to safe guard their national interests with iron clad wordings.

5. Above all, the planned tour of the Bangladesh cricket team shall be arranged after clearance of double security checks by the BD government and the the ICC, with security cover equal to the head of the state. Believe me, this security may not even be available to Stuart Law, neither in BD nor any where else in the world. And the planned tour is going to be over in just few days with only three matches, it will not last even few weeks.

6. Last but not the least, this tour will tremendously help the cause of cricket in this part of the world. It will also prove the resolve of the world that terrorism threat can’t hold for ransom, the game of international cricket in Pakistan. In fact, this epoch making tour will highly contribute to the cause of peace in the world. These people must not forget that Pakistan stood like a rock before the terrorists, for more than a decade, so that this menace does not spread to any other parts of the world. And many Australian troops also gave their lives in Afghanistan, for the same cause. So today if with the decision of an ill informed Australian, the terrorists gains strength, it will be a great betrayal with the cause, for which the Australian troops shed their blood.

7. So come on Bangladesh, let us give peace a chance through cricket and let the posterity record that Bangladesh was the first great nation which revived international cricket in Pakistan.

8. It is now a time of reckoning for the ICC to ponder very seriously, whether, it wants to continue playing into the hands of the terrorists or to prove that peace and cricket are synonymous with each other. ICC must advise all its members to immediately start visiting Pakistan to send a firm message that Cricket can not and shall not be ever defeated by the terrorism.

9. ICC must beware of the verdict of the posterity lest it may be recorded in the pages of the history that this sports organisation was responsible for knowingly playing into the hands of the terrorists.

How to win Pakistan’s world war..?

Pakistan is not in an ordinary war rather, for us it is our world war, which is being fought for the life and death of Pakistan. This type of war has not been witnessed by any other nation, in the history of the world.

Moreover, it seems that this fight may not end very soon, in the near future. As such, our civil, military and all non military people, will have to stand united in front of the terrorists, who are hell bent to fight this war, not in our back yard, but right in the middle of our house.

In view of the seriousness of the situation and to keep the motivation of the general public alive, it is imperative to immediately announce the following initiatives:

1. Shaheed Chaudhry Aslam SSP and Shaheed Aitzaz Hussain (the 9th class student of Hangu, who grabbed the suicide bomber) may be awarded the highest national bravery award, for offering ultimate sacrifice, in beyond the call performance of their duties.

2. As a safety and precautionary step, government must announce that with immediate effect, no vehicle of any type, including cycles and motor cycles etc., be allowed to enter or be parked in any bazaar, throughout the country. This is a harsh and very inconvenient step, but it may save many lives.

3 (i). In any crime investigations, the first logical step is to find the beneficiary of that criminal act. Here, in Pakistan we have observed a pattern, which reveals that either, the terrorists have been targeting the GHQ, Naval and Air Force bases or indulging in specific targeted attacks on Sri Lankan cricketers, Chinese, foreigners and Pakistani minorities.

3 (ii). All these operations are carried out (at specifically chosen vital timings) not only to inflict maximum men and material losses, but also to undermine Pakistan’s military power; and create isolation in foreign policy, sports and tourism etc.

3 (iii). We should not be so naive to indefinitely close our eyes and ignore the role of huge number of Indian consulates, specially based near the Pakistan’s western borders with Afghanistan.

3 (iv). In fact, the terrorism in Karachi and the insurgencies of Swat and Balouchistan are a clear testimony of the Indian evil designs, being perpetrated through these consulates in Afghanistan.

3 (v). However, Pakistan must rest assured that this Indian game plan, specifically designed to keep Pakistan burning for an indefinite period, will never cease, till such time we repay the Indians in the same coins, by devising a strategy, to fight fire with fire.

3 (vi). As such, it is high time that Pakistan officially warn India to immediately pack up all its consulates in Afghanistan, failing which Pakistan should also immediately take steps to establish its own consulates, in the border areas of all those countries, which share a common border with India e.g., China, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and SriLanka etc.

4 (i). The sudden increase of acts of terrorism, highlights the importance of preventive measures to curb the menace of terrorism, which is causing severe losses to men, material and reputation of the country.

4 (ii). In the cases of terrorist attacks on the GHQ, PIDC house & Pakistan Navy air base, it was reported that the gang of attackers was residing in a rented house for quite some time, in an area not very far away from their targets. It was also reported that the neighbours of these houses were although, suspicious of these tenants yet; they kept quiet and did not tip area police, about their apprehensions.

4 (iii). Under the circumstances, there is a dire need for motivating general public, which must remain extra -vigilant, in playing their role of defending the motherland, by involvement of entire population of the country, to look out for the stay and suspicious activities of the terrorist, in their near vicinity.

4 (iv). As such, In order to make the stay of terrorists at any place almost impossible, it is proposed to actively involve the entire population to look out & hunt them. This objective can be easily achieved, by the announcement of the Government, that a reward of Rs. 50 millions shall be paid to any person, who informs the Police, about the terrorist staying in a house, hostel, hotel, rest house or any such place.

4 (v). If the war against terror is to be won quickly, the entire population of the country have to be geared up and involved in the task of watch and vigilance.