I want justice. I want to see my son. I want him if he is alive, and if dead: Agya Kour

By: Sheikh Gulzaar
Srinagar: Family of a youth is awaiting justice for the past 11 years, demanding the whereabouts of their son, they say, was picked up by Special Operations Group of  Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Ichpal’s mother, Agya Kour, said her son left home on March 20, 1999 to get sugar from market, but never returned. “All I remember is that the incident took place one year after the Chittisingpora massacre,” she said, adding, “My son was on way to the market when the SOG picked him up. Since then, I have been moving from pillar to post for justice. I want my son.”

The family resides at Sanat Nagar on the city outskirts after migrating from Arina village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. Ichpal, son of Karan Singh, was 13-year-old at the time of his arrest. “An SOG man would demand money from us after we sold a cow. But we refused,” she said.

In 2000, Kour said she filed a report about the case in police station, Saddar, and later moved the JK Human Rights Commission in 2001 when police did nothing.  In its judgment in 2003, the Commission recommended to the government that an amount of Rs 1 lakh be paid to Kour as ex-gratia relief and sent the order to chief secretary for implementation. “The Government shall inform the Commission about its action within one month,” the JKHRC said.

The 2-page report mentioned that the boy’s antecedents were “not shady” and the “police has not stated that he was involved in any anti-national or any illegal action.” Even the senior superintendent of police, Srinagar, in his report said that the youth was not involved in any militancy-related activity.

“The then government didn’t respect the JKHRC verdict. For three years, I was not given the ex-gratia even as I am very poor lady, working as peon and having an  ailing husband,” Kour said.

The ex-gratia was sanctioned to Kour on 10 July, 2006, by the then deputy commissioner, Budgam. But, Kour said, the amount could not compensate her son’s loss. “I want justice. I want to see my son. I want him if he is alive, and if dead, I want the killers behind bars,” she told me .(Writer-South Asia)

Kunan-Poshpora gang rape

Kashmir Human Rights asks Govt to reinvestigate Kunan-Poshpora gang rape case

Srinagar, Nov 6: : The JK Human Rights Commission (JKHRC) Wednesday asked the State government to start a fresh probe into the case relating to the alleged mass gang rape of women by army personnel in Kunan and Poshpora villages of Kupwara district 20 ago.

Announcing its recommendations on the case, a division bench of JKHRC asked the state government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to reinvestigate the alleged mass gang rape of at least 31 women by army personnel in 1991.

Dozens of women from Kunan and Poshpora villages, around 110 km from here, had claimed that they were gang raped by army troopers during the intervening night of February 23 and 24 in 1991, leading to outrage across Kashmir.

"The SIT should be headed by an officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police," the bench comprising JKHRC Chairman Justice (retd) Syed Bashiruddin Ahmad and Javaid Kawoos said.

It also asked the state government to prosecute the the then Director Prosecution who had sought closure of the case as the perpetrators were "untraceable".

"The then Director Prosecution had overstepped his brief...prosecution proceedings should be initiated against him and those officers who had approved his report," the JKHRC bench recommended.

Reading out from the report of the then district magistrate, Kawoos said 31 women, who claimed to have been victims of gangrape, had been sent for medical examination, which confirmed that they were subjected to atrocities.

"In the course of hearing the case, statements of 18 women were recorded and during which they testified that they were subjected to the atrocity," he said.

The Commission asked the state government to pay compensation of Rs two lakh each to the victims of the incident.

The then Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Wajahat Habibullah, who visited the villages following the allegations, had filed a confidential report in the same year about the incident.

"While the veracity of the complaint is highly doubtful, it still needs to be determined why such complaint was made at all. The people of the village are simple folk and by the army's own admission have been generally helpful and even careful of security of the army's officers," a part of Habibullah's report, released later, read.

"Unlike Brig Sharma, I found many of the village women genuinely angry... It is recommended that the level of investigation be upgraded to that of a gazetted police officer," it said.

In response to the criticism of the government's handling of the investigation, the army had requested the Press Council of India to investigate the incident.

The Press Council team, which visited Kashmir in June that year, claimed that "such a delayed medical examination proves nothing" and that the medical findings were typical among villagers.

The team concluded that the charges against the army were "well-concocted bundle of fabricated lies" and "a massive hoax orchestrated by militant groups and their sympathisers and mentors in Kashmir and abroad".

Unmarked graves result of impunity enjoyed by forces under AFSPA: Prashant Bhushan

SRINAGAR, October 1: Calling for DNA profiling in the anonymous/unmarked graves, senior Supreme Court lawyer and influential core member of team Anna, Prashant Bhushan  Friday said unbridled impunity to forces  under Armed Forces Special Powers Act  (AFSPA) has led to  thousands of such graves across the State, ISHFAQ TANTRY reports in Rissing Kashmir (30/10/2011)

“Primarily, I was here to appear in 1996 Baderwah civilian killing case, which was listed before High Court today. This is one of the case which indicates how large number of  persons were killed in Kashmir over the years by forces”, Prashant Bhushan, a leading Supreme Court lawyer, said while addressing a press conference, here today.

He said in the particular (Baderwah killing case) involving death of three persons in a fake encounter, the charge sheet was filed but subsequent trial ended in acquittal of the main accused because the initial investigation had loopholes.

Linking the Baderwah fake encounter case with discovery of unmarked and unknown graves in Kashmir, Bhushan said if the fourth person in the case, Talib Hussain, who escaped from clutches of the accused would have been killed,  all the three persons would have been buried in an anonymous or unknown grave somewhere.

“That is why we say that anonymous grave issue, as reported by the SHRC in its investigation,  is important to be probed. The DNA profiling should be done and it should be matched with the DNA profiles of the missing persons, whose list is available with APDP,” he said.

He said Baderwah case is one such case, which can be re-investigated and perpetrators, howsoever influential, be brought to the book. “Because of the impunity enjoyed by armed forces under special powers like AFSPA, such crime are repeated time and again”.

Linking impunity of troops under special powers with mass anonymous graves, team Anna member said this cycle of impunity needs to be broken. “It will be broken only when we can provide justice  to victims by  bringing culprits, howsoever big or influential they may be, to book. For this reason, we are demanding that AFSPA should be removed and DNA profiling  of victims in unmarked  graves be carried out,” he said.

About Hurriyat (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq proposal to seek support of team Anna  on mass grave issue, Bhushan said the matter  is under consideration.“  I am here in my individual capacity. But the proposal is before the core group and I hope it will be considered soon”, he said.

He, however, dismissed the proposal of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to setting up Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to probe issues like unmarked graves.  “It (TRC) won’t serve any purpose. TRC has its uses but it cannot be a complete substitute for booking persons involved in heinous crimes. Here (in Kashmir) we are dealing with accountability of forces who have committed heinous crimes,” he said.

The SC lawyer linked the mass graves issue with unresolved nature of Kashmir issue. “The longer the Kashmir issue festers, the larger number of forces would operate  in Kashmir and it would result in larger number of human rights abuses  like existence of unmarked graves,” he said.

He said conditions should be created conducive for political solution  to the Kashmir problem.
Baderwah Case hearing

Meanwhile, High Court Friday posted the  writ petition seeking reinvestigation into 1996 fake encounter case  for hearing on October 10.

“ The court  will not proceed into the case till Advocate General causes his appearance”, Justice Hasnain Masoodi observed  after  the petitioner lawyer Prashant Bhushan pressed  for issuing notices in the case and the recall of the  case records.

The defence counsel also pleaded  for reinvestigation of the case on the pattern of Best Bakery, Rubabudin and Zahira Sheikh cases wherein Supreme Court ordered reinvestigation and set up the Special Investigation Teams.

Earlier, senior additional Advocate General informed the court that the office of the Advocate General has not received any notice for the assistance of AG in the case from the bench. “The AG’s office has no such information. Advocate General cannot appear in the case, as he has already boarded the plane,” he informed the court.

The families of  Baderwah fake encounter victims, Fazal Hussain Dar, Fareed Hussain Dar and Mohammad Hussain Lone, who were killed in 1996,  had  on  September 21, 2011 approached  High Court with a petition seeking  re-opening  and  reinvestigation of the  case. (Writer-South Asia)

Human rights group makes startling disclosures on unmarked graves

Rameez Makhdoomi/Ajaz Ahmad War/Sheikh Gulzaar

Srinagar : In a startling disclosure made by the International Forum for Justice/Human Rights Forum J&K, Mohammad Ahsan Untoo, Chairman, with reference to letter written to JK Human Rights Commission has disclosed with list that the Police Investigation Wing of Jammu and Kashmir  Human Rights Commission (JKHRC) has only visited 38 graveyards across north Kashmir and found 2730 graves, out of which 2156 are still unidentified. But the fact of the matter according to this forum is that in Lolab area alone there are more than 38 graveyards which have unmarked graves and mass graves.

Another startling disclosure made by the International Forum for justice/ Human Rights Forum J&K is that the security agencies in the last 22 years have been responsible for killing many civilians in fake encounters. In Devar village of Lolab area, the said human rights forum states that they have documented 37 cases of fake encounter killings, where according to International forum for justice human rights j&k ,33 local civilians were killed in fake encounters and branded as foreign militants. Also 4 local Kashmiri militants from Devar have been killed in fake encounters and branded as foreign militant.

Another ground breaking disclosure made by this human rights group is that amongst the victims of fake encounter killings one of the striking cases is of Kareem War (65) S/O Aziz War R/O Dilbagh, Devar, Lolab, who was killed in a fake encounter by 18 Rashtriya Rifles (8 Sector – Cherkoot) and Special Operations Group of J&K Police and was branded as Afghani militant. Shockingly, three of his sons Baktiyar War (24), Mohammad Shareif War (21), Lateef Ahmed War (27) were also killed by the same agencies. Mohammad Shareif War was branded as Bangladeshi militant, Lateef War was branded as Pakistani militant and Baktiyar War was claimed as unidentified militant. Four members of this family have been killed in fake encounters and branded as nationals of 3 different countries. The father and his three sons who have been killed in the fake encounters, is not the only injustice which has happened to the family, but Kareem War’s other son Sharief ud Din War was disappeared by army in 1998. According to International forum for justice human rights forum J&K,the family members of Kareem War are still awaiting justice, even after truth has been established according to the information gathered by International Forum for justice human rights J&K.

The revelations made by this human rights group certainly are quiet sensational and will demand answers from those who are at helm of affairs.

http://www.facebook.com/Writerasia

Shopian Anniversary : 11th August Foundation

Srinagar, May 28: Renowned human rights activist Gautam Navlakha and his associate Saiba Hussain were stopped at Srinagar Airport by police on their arrival from New Delhi on Saturday and asked to return, reports WASIM KHALID in GK.

Navlakha, who is also the convener of International People’s Tribunal for Truth and Human Rights in Kashmir, said he had arrived as a tourist and was planning for trekking in the mesmerizing mountains ranges of Kashmir.

“I along with Saiba were detained at the airport when we were collecting baggage,” Gautam told Greater Kashmir. “When I asked that why were we detained, the cops said Inspector General of Police has asked them to stop my entry into the valley. When I asked for the written detention order, they had nothing to show. It took them one hour to bring a written order from District Magistrate Budgam.”

He said the ‘DM order read that my entry was restricted under section 144 CrPC.’ “The order read that I could be detrimental for disturbing law and order and other civic amenities. So I have to be prevented from entering,” he said.

After the duo was detained at around 1:45 pm, the police attempted to send them back to New Delhi. “However there were no tickets available,” Gautam said. “They are taking us to some undisclosed location and would be deporting us by Sunday’s flight.”

“We were supposed to leave early Monday morning for trekking,” he said. Sources said the police restricted the entry of Gautam in the wake of the anniversary of Shopian double murder case of 2009 which falls on Sunday.

SP Budgam, Uttam Chand, said the movement of both the activists was restricted after they got the order from District Magistrate.

“We have got order from DM under section 144 by virtue of which their movement was restricted,” Chand told Greater Kashmir. “We have kept them at airport and asked them to go back. Currently they are in police custody at the airport. If the plane tickets are not arranged, they would be sent back tomorrow.”

Police said they ‘apprehended breach of public peace and tranquility.’ Gautam has been traveling to the valley quite often for past 22 years. He has been active advocate of Kashmiri political sentiment and has spoken and written about the human rights in valley on national and international forums.

Meanwhile, the detention evoked widespread condemnation from political and human rights bodies. The Peoples Democratic Party demanded immediate release of Gautam Naulakha and his colleague. Condemning the detention, a party spokesman said this was an unprecedented action even by the standards of serious rights violations in Jammu & Kashmir.

“Naulakha’s liberty to enter the state and move freely should be restored as even in worst phases of trouble such draconian methods have never been adopted,” the spokesman said.

Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (M), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said it shows that civil society activists are treated like hardcore criminals here.

“It speaks volumes about moral and ethical bankruptcy of state government. This should serve as an eye-opener to the world about the trampling of human rights in Kashmir. What can common man expect in a state where human rights activists are not spared,” he said.

11th August Foundation spokesman Umar Kashmiri also denounced the act. “Even the non-Kashmiri rights activists are becoming the victims of state brutality for speaking the truth,” he said.

Peoples Rights Movement Chairman Abdul Kabir also condemned the detention. The International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) has condemned the denial of entry of one of its Conveners and prominent HR activist, Gautam Navlakha, into the Valley.

In a statement, Dr Angana Chatterji, Convener IPTK and Professor, Anthropology, California Institute of Integral Studies, said Navlakha’s “denial of entry raises urgent concerns about the status of freedom of speech and movement in Kashmir.”

“We understand that harassment, intimidation, and threats to IPTK members or their families are acts aimed to target and obstruct the work of the Tribunal. We remain gravely concerned about the physical and psychological safety and integrity of all Tribunal members. We remain gravely concerned about our ability to continue our work, and the ability of out-of-state Tribunal members to travel to Kashmir,” the statement said.

China most-trusted friend of Pakistan: PM

Islamabad, May 18: Pakistan sees China as its most-trusted and all-weather friend, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said as he began his four-day visit to China Tuesday, reports Wang Zhaokun Global Times.


"We appreciate that in all difficult circumstances China stood with Pakistan, therefore we call China a true friend and a time-tested and all-weather friend," Gilani told the Xinhua News Agency in Islamabad before flying to Shanghai.

The Prime Minister also appreciated that China recognizes Pakistan's contribution and sacrifice in the war on terror.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters Tuesday that China will "unswervingly continue to support Pakistan's efforts to fight terrorism."

Leaders from both countries will witness the signing of agreements concerning trade, finance and culture. They will also participate in a reception to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties, Xinhua said.

 The two governments are also reportedly planning to seal a extending of the Saindak gold and copper mining project.

Gilani's visit has long been planned as part of the anniversary celebrations, but the timing also coincides with the ongoing diplomatic spat between Islamabad and Washington over the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Tuesday, NATO helicopters originating from Afghanistan wounded two Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border attack, triggering a protest from Islamabad.

Andrew Small, a researcher at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Brussels told Reuters that Gilani's visit to China will tell the US, the Pakistani public and the wider world that "Pakistan has other options."

However, Sun Shihai, vice director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that China and Pakistan have long maintained close cooperation with each other at all times.

"I don't think Gilani's visit to China has any special implications for Pakistan-US relations because all parties have their own to play for the regional stability," Sun said.

US War on terrorism turned war against Islam and Muslims

Srinagar, May 9: Muslims Worldwide Seething with Anger at West and their own rulers. States Sri Lankan journalist at Islamabad gathering

“The United States led west has unleashed a global crusade against Islam and Muslims under the guise of fighting a war on terrorism” was the theme of a speech by Sri Lankan journalist and author Latheef Farook at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute-IPRI.

Addressing the gathering of researchers and others Latheef Farook explained how this carefully planned and ruthlessly implemented anti Muslim campaign strikes at the very root of the political, economic, religious, social and cultural survival of Muslims worldwide.

He added that “never in the fascinating and inspiring more than 14 century history of Islam has such a vicious campaign been undertaken jointly by the Zionist Jews, regarded as the architects, Evangelical Christians and RSS Hindu extremists.

He explained that this conspiracy, commenced in the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989, was unleashed with all its ferocity following the controversial 9/11 events at the World Trade Centre in New York. Islam was associated with barbarity and evil despite Islam being a religion of peace.

For example, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, all Christian  east bloc countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechhoslavokia, Bulgaria and others were  allowed to go free and join the  European union. However this generosity was not extended to the Central Asian Muslim republics such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kirgizstan.

Instead all these central Asian Muslim republics were quickly brought under the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent states,CIS, to ensure continuous Russian control over them.

In 1991 Chechen Muslims declared independence and Russia unleashed its military might and committed medieval style massacres causing horrific scenes of death and destruction everywhere. The war killed more than 20,000 Chechens and around 100,000 Russian soldiers. Chechen refugees returned home and started to resume normal life when Russia  bombed an apartment building in Moscow in 1999, blamed Chechens and launched its second military strike which virtually emptied Chechnya of its people under its scorched earth policy.Grozny,the Chechen capital,was reduced to a ghost city and the people ended up as refugees in neighboring Ingushetia.

In an April 1992 referendum predominantly Muslim Bosnia Herzegovina declared independence and emerged as a separate state. Responding with extreme violence Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic arrested Bosnian Muslims, detained them in warehouses, starved and tortured them before killing them en masse.This carnage continued uninterrupted for three long years under the watchful eyes of the champions of human rights in Washington. London and Paris where then President Jacques Chirac openly declared that “France will never allow a Muslim entity in Europe”. These atrocities climaxed when Serbs committed the largest ever genocide of about 10,000 Muslims who were under United Nations custody in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica.

The United Nations Security Council imposed arms embargo on the victims, Bosnian Muslims who are as blue eyed as rest of the Europeans while no such embargo was imposed on the perpetrators of the genocide- the Serbs.

In the autonomies Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, where more than 90 percent of the population were Muslims, Serbs committed similar massacres such as in Bosnia.

Somalia with a population of about 4.5 million Muslims descended into anarchy due to the failure of the United Nations. In fact the US wanted to use Somalia as an experimental laboratory for regime change and turned this once peaceful nation into a lawless killing field. It is today a wasteland.

In the December 1991 Parliamentary elections in Algeria the Islamic party, FIS, won with a large majority. However the military backed by most Arab dictators and France, installed a dictator, crushed the peoples’ dream and triggered off a civil war which turned this oil rich peaceful country into yet another killing field.

We also know how US former US President George Bush Senior tricked Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait, blackmailed the world and formed a coalition, mobilized the military might of the west, got the UN to legalize military strikes and attacked Iraq, killed innocent Iraqis, destroyed cities and virtually pushed Iraq, as pointed out by former US President Jimmy Carter, into the middle ages. Subsequent US sponsored UN economic sanctions, described by UN officials as genocide, killed more than half a million children alone.

The true purpose of this engineered war was revealed when George Bush Sr said “that Israel is safe in the region and oil flows uninterrupted”.

In India Hindu extremists led by L.K.Advani destroyed the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 and triggered off violence which killed thousands of Muslims. Ten years later on 27 February 2002 yet another Hindu Saffron terror leader  Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, bombed a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, blamed innocent Muslims under a well organized conspiracy, killed thousands of Muslims, destroyed Muslim owned properties and virtually reduced the Muslims into refugees to languish in camps in appalling conditions.

In the process of this global campaign, the legitimate freedom struggle of Muslims all over such as the Palestinian struggle against brutal Israeli oppression and continuous killings, Indian atrocities in Kashmir and the like have been overlooked while the Western media, an integral part of the Western war machine, continues to demonize Islam and Muslims and mislead the world to justify this evil design.

This campaign climaxed in the aftermath of the 9/11 events in New York in 2001. Within hours, former US President turned warmonger George Bush Junior, together with disgraced former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accused Al Qaeda of destroying the WTC without any proper inquiry. Exploiting the mood of the country in its wake, Bush blackmailed the shocked and confused world, created a coalition and invaded within 27 days the war battered and impoverished Afghanistan where he slaughtered innocent and poverty stricken Afghans in one of the most barbarous military ventures of its kind in modern history.

Killing innocent  men, women, children and the aged has become common in Afghanistan which continues to bleed to ensure the agendas of neo cons and corporate war mongers.

In an act described by late British playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter as “banditry”   Bush and Blair, illegally invaded Iraq in 2003 and virtually turned this once almost developed country into a waste land. Around 1.4 million innocent Iraqis were killed, hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women were tortured and killed, women indiscriminately raped, infrastructure destroyed and birth, marriage, death, land and vehicle registration offices burnt causing chaos in the society.

Around four million Iraqis who lived in peace were forced into refugee camps in neighboring countries to languish in sub human conditions. More than two million Iraqis were made refugees in their own country.   Shiites and Sunnis were put against each other turning Iraq into a killing field where, with the help of a puppet government, western oil companies started looting the country’s oil wealth while the Iraqis starved.

In Palestine the periodic slaughter of Palestinians continues uninterrupted by the Israelis with the complete backing of the US and Europe.

And now they have turned their attention on Pakistan. These are the champions  of human rights who accuse small countries of human rights violations.

The frightening situation today is such that every Muslim with a beard and a head cap and every Muslim woman with a Hijab have been branded as terrorists and humiliated. The tragedy is that most Muslim countries, ruled by mostly lackeys of   the West, openly and secretly collaborate with these Western crusaders against their own people to ensure their own survival.

Today Muslims worldwide pass through their most critical period in their history. Muslims have been attacked and killed all over under various pretexts. Muslim refugees walking in sheer desperation in search of shelter with their meager belongings have become a common sight worldwide.

Helpless Muslims worldwide are seething with anger at the west and their own rulers. No one knows what would be the outcome. The situation is so frightening that Wolfram Richter, the Economic Professor of the University of Dortmund, has expressed fears that “the next holocaust would be against Muslims”; thus concluded Latheef Farook.

The meeting, followed by a stimulating question and answer session, was chaired by IPRI Chairman Dr Maqsudul Hasan Nuri.

“The United States led west has unleashed a global crusade against Islam and Muslims under the guise of fighting a war on terrorism” was the theme of a speech by Sri Lankan journalist and author Latheef Farook at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute,IPRI, on Thursday 18 March 2010.

Addressing the gathering of researchers and others Latheef Farook explained how this carefully planned and ruthlessly implemented anti Muslim campaign strikes at the very root of the political, economic, religious, social and cultural survival of Muslims worldwide.

He added that “never in the fascinating and inspiring more than 14 century history of Islam has such a vicious campaign been undertaken jointly by the Zionist Jews, regarded as the architects, Evangelical Christians and RSS Hindu extremists.

He explained that this conspiracy, commenced in the aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989, was unleashed with all its ferocity following the controversial 9/11 events at the World Trade Centre in New York. Islam was associated with barbarity and evil despite Islam being a religion of peace.

For example, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, all Christian  east bloc countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechhoslavokia, Bulgaria and others were  allowed to go free and join the  European union. However this generosity was not extended to the Central Asian Muslim republics such as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kirgizstan.

Instead all these central Asian Muslim republics were quickly brought under the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent states,CIS, to ensure continuous Russian control over them.

In 1991 Chechen Muslims declared independence and Russia unleashed its military might and committed medieval style massacres causing horrific scenes of death and destruction everywhere. The war killed more than 20,000 Chechens and around 100,000 Russian soldiers. Chechen refugees returned home and started to resume normal life when Russia  bombed an apartment building in Moscow in 1999, blamed Chechens and launched its second military strike which virtually emptied Chechnya of its people under its scorched earth policy.Grozny,the Chechen capital,was reduced to a ghost city and the people ended up as refugees in neighboring Ingushetia.

In an April 1992 referendum predominantly Muslim Bosnia Herzegovina declared independence and emerged as a separate state. Responding with extreme violence Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic arrested Bosnian Muslims, detained them in warehouses, starved and tortured them before killing them en masse.This carnage continued uninterrupted for three long years under the watchful eyes of the champions of human rights in Washington. London and Paris where then President Jacques Chirac openly declared that “France will never allow a Muslim entity in Europe”. These atrocities climaxed when Serbs committed the largest ever genocide of about 10,000 Muslims who were under United Nations custody in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica.

The United Nations Security Council imposed arms embargo on the victims, Bosnian Muslims who are as blue eyed as rest of the Europeans while no such embargo was imposed on the perpetrators of the genocide- the Serbs. In the autonomies Yugoslavian province of Kosovo, where more than 90 percent of the population were Muslims, Serbs committed similar massacres such as in Bosnia.

Somalia with a population of about 4.5 million Muslims descended into anarchy due to the failure of the United Nations. In fact the US wanted to use Somalia as an experimental laboratory for regime change and turned this once peaceful nation into a lawless killing field. It is today a wasteland.

In the December 1991 Parliamentary elections in Algeria the Islamic party, FIS, won with a large majority. However the military backed by most Arab dictators and France, installed a dictator, crushed the peoples’ dream and triggered off a civil war which turned this oil rich peaceful country into yet another killing field.

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We also know how US President George Bush Senior tricked Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait, blackmailed the world and formed a coalition, mobilized the military might of the west, got the UN to legalize military strikes and attacked Iraq, killed innocent Iraqis, destroyed cities and virtually pushed Iraq, as pointed out by former US President Jimmy Carter, into the middle ages. Subsequent US sponsored UN economic sanctions, described by UN officials as genocide, killed more than half a million children alone. The true purpose of this engineered war was revealed when George Bush Sr said “that Israel is safe in the region and oil flows uninterrupted”.

In India Hindu extremists led by L.K.Advani destroyed the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 and triggered off violence which killed thousands of Muslims. Ten years later on 27 February 2002 yet another Hindu extremist Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat, bombed a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, blamed innocent Muslims under a well organized conspiracy, killed thousands of Muslims, destroyed Muslim owned properties and virtually reduced the Muslims into refugees to languish in camps in appalling conditions.

In the process of this global campaign, the legitimate freedom struggle of Muslims all over such as the Palestinian struggle against brutal Israeli oppression and continuous killings, Indian atrocities in Kashmir and the like have been overlooked while the Western media, an integral part of the Western war machine, continues to demonize Islam and Muslims and mislead the world to justify this evil design.

This campaign climaxed in the aftermath of the 9/11 events in New York in 2001. Within hours, former US President turned warmonger George Bush Junior, together with disgraced former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, accused Al Qaeda of destroying the WTC without any proper inquiry. Exploiting the mood of the country in its wake, Bush blackmailed the shocked and confused world, created a coalition and invaded within 27 days the war battered and impoverished Afghanistan where he slaughtered innocent and poverty stricken Afghans in one of the most barbarous military ventures of its kind in modern history.
Killing innocent  men, women, children and the aged has become common in Afghanistan which continues to bleed to ensure the agendas of neo cons and corporate war mongers.

In an act described by late British playwright and Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter as “banditry”   Bush and Blair, illegally invaded Iraq in 2003 and virtually turned this once almost developed country into a waste land. Around 1.4 million innocent Iraqis were killed, hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women were tortured and killed, women indiscriminately raped, infrastructure destroyed and birth, marriage, death, land and vehicle registration offices burnt causing chaos in the society.

Around four million Iraqis who lived in peace were forced into refugee camps in neighboring countries to languish in sub human conditions. More than two million Iraqis were made refugees in their own country.   Shiites and Sunnis were put against each other turning Iraq into a killing field where, with the help of a puppet government, western oil companies started looting the country’s oil wealth while the Iraqis starved.

In Palestine the periodic slaughter of Palestinians continues uninterrupted by the Israelis with the complete backing of the US and Europe.

And now they have turned their attention on Pakistan. These are the champions  of human rights who accuse small countries of human rights violations.

The frightening situation today is such that every Muslim with a beard and a head cap and every Muslim woman with a Hijab have been branded as terrorists and humiliated. The tragedy is that most Muslim countries, ruled by mostly lackeys of   the West, openly and secretly collaborate with these Western crusaders against their own people to ensure their own survival.

Today Muslims worldwide pass through their most critical period in their history. Muslims have been attacked and killed all over under various pretexts. Muslim refugees walking in sheer desperation in search of shelter with their meager belongings have become a common sight worldwide.

Helpless Muslims worldwide are seething with anger at the west and their own rulers. No one knows what would be the outcome. The situation is so frightening that Wolfram Richter, the Economic Professor of the University of Dortmund, has expressed fears that “the next holocaust would be against Muslims”; thus concluded Latheef Farook.

Indian attack will trigger nuclear standoff : (CIA) can’t achieve success in war against terror without ISI’s support. Pakistan

Lahore, May 8: Pakistan has told United States that any surgical operation carried by India on the pattern of Abbotabad operation will lead to nuclear stand-off between the two countries.

Pakistan’s leading newspaper, The Nation quoted sources as having revealed that the top hierarchy in the country’s establishment has straightforwardly told the United States to “inculcate into the minds of Indians” that any type of misadventure could lead to an all out nuclear standoff between the two South Asian neighbours.


“The US violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty has set a very dangerous precedence, which hostile powers and particularly India can try to follow the same pattern. India needs to understand that such a transgression will be treated as an act of war by Pakistan,” sources said.


They said US needs to ensure that India gets this message loud and clear and doesn’t embark on an misadventure, which may plunge the region into a nuclear standoff’.


Another official, requesting anonymity, said that the US victory was made possible only due to the support of the ISI, the country’s premier intelligence agency.


He also made it clear that major victories against al Qaeda have been made possible only due to the efforts of the ISI and any future successes could only be achieved if there is a ‘close and meaningful cooperation’ between CIA and ISI.


‘They (CIA) can’t achieve success in war against terror without ISI’s support. Failure to unearth Osama’s presence at Abbottabad should not be allowed to tarnish a sterling performance by the ISI in the past nor be made a measure of its performance in the future’, a senior Defence Ministry official involved in counter-terrorism planning in post Osama scenario said.

"Osama bin laden still alive"

NEW YORK | Wed May 4: Almost immediately after the United States said it had killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the conspiracy theories started.

Even some relatives of the Sept. 11 victims of the 2001 attacks on America say his death, announced by President Barack Obama in a speech at the White House, begs questions.

The U.S. government said Bin Laden was shot in the head when elite Navy SEALS stormed his compound on Monday after he had evaded a decade-long manhunt as the world's most wanted man.

But his swift burial at sea, in which he was slipped into the Arabian Sea in a weighted body bag, and authorities' reluctance to release pictures of his corpse have been fuel for the conspiracy theorists.

One hotly argued assertion is that bin Laden was in fact a CIA stooge who had been dead for years, a fanciful figure who was used to justify America's war in Afghanistan.

That is a position shared by U.S. anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and other doubters from Indiana to Kabul.

"If you believe the newest death of OBL, you're stupid," Sheehan wrote on her Facebook page.

Sheehan, who set up an anti-war camp at President George W. Bush's Texas ranch in 2005, disputes the facts given by the government, asking how the United States could get such fast DNA results, why the burial was hasty and why no video had been released.

And, she noted, the late Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto claimed in 2007 that bin Laden was already dead.

Sheehan is not alone in posing such questions.

Internet site Yahoo said searches for "osama bin laden not dead," "osama bin laden still alive" and "bin laden not dead" spiked off the charts on Monday.

Men were most likely to think he may be alive, Yahoo said, adding that searchers of "bin laden conspiracy" were mostly from Oregon, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Indiana and New Jersey.

In Iran, the semi-official Mehr news agency declared: "The death of Osama is a lie."

Iranian state television news said by disposing of the body at sea, "the mystery (of his death) has increased." Iranian media say the myth of bin Laden has been used to justify the U.S. occupation of its neighbor, Afghanistan.

Nearly 3,000 people died when planes hijacked by bin Laden's al Qaeda followers flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, setting off a hunt for the plot's architect.

Afghanistan's Taliban said in a statement posted on their website that talk of bin Laden's death was "premature" and that the United States had not provided "convincing evidence."

ELVIS AND ALIENS

Some Americans thrive on conspiracy theories. Who really shot President John F. Kennedy? Elvis Presley lives! Did aliens land in a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico? Was Sept. 11 orchestrated by U.S. interests to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

At New York's "Ground Zero" where the twin towers once stood, some visitors pondered whether bin Laden's death might be too good to be true.

"I just hope we really did get him. They buried him at sea. Who knows what happened?" said project manager Sal Leto, 59.

Retired teacher Joani Ellingson, 62, who was visiting from Minnesota, said: "It is part of the death culture that we want to see proof positive. We have a curiosity."

Rosaleen Tallon, whose brother died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, said she was "dismayed" that bin Laden was buried so quickly.

"It has unfortunately opened this up to the possibility of conspiracy theories," she said.

At Pace University, political science professor David Caputo asked students if they doubted bin Laden was dead. Two thirds had at least a slim doubt, and 5 percent had a major doubt, he said.

(Additional reporting by Ramin Mostafavi in Tehran and Edith Honan in New York; editing by Christopher Wilson)

Pakistan test fires nuclear-capable Babur cruise missile

By Johan Simth

Islamabad, April 29: Pakistan test fired nuclear-capable Babur (Hatf-7) cruise missile with a range of 600 km that can hit targets in India.

The test of the indigenous-developed missile was “part of a process of validating the system,” said a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations. The statement did not mention where the test was conducted.

The successful test of Hatf-7 or Babur cruise missile was witnessed by Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Khalid Shamim Wynne, who said the launch would “go a long way in consolidating Pakistan’s strategic deterrence capability and further strengthening national security.”

“Pakistan’s resolve and commitment to continue its strategic program will remain paramount,” he said.

The test was “warmly appreciated by the President and Prime Minister,” who congratulated the scientists and engineers on their success, the statement said.

The Director General of the Strategic Plans Division, Lt Gen (Retd) Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, Army Strategic Force Command chief Lt Gen Jamil Haider, senior officers from the military and strategic organizations, scientists and engineers also witnessed the test.

The Babur can carry strategic or conventional warheads and has stealth capabilities, the statement said.

It is a “low flying, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability, pin-point accuracy and radar avoidance features.”

The missile also incorporates modern cruise missile technology of terrain contour matching (TERCOM) and digital scene matching and area co-relation (DSMAC), the statement said.

Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) fear fresh migration, accuse Kashmir govt of callousness

SRINAGAR, Apr 27 :Accusing the state government of failing to trace the missing Pandit youth from Aishmuqam area All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) today said this scenario might lead to fresh migration among their community members, who are permanently residing in the valley or have recently returned, reports Kashmir Times.

A youth Sushil Raina of Chandigam Aishmuqam went missing on April 4  after he left his home for college to collect the marks sheet. Addressing media persons at missing youths residence at the  Chandrigam village, chairman of coordination committee Vinod Pandit said, "Nearly a month has passed since the Pandit boy went missing but unfortunately the government has been showing callous approach in tracing him."

He said  on one hand the government claims to rehabilitate the migrant KPs if they return to valley but on the other hand the government has failed to provide security to those Pandits who had preferred to stay back or have recently returned to join their duties in the valley.

"If the chief minister was really serious in the return and rehabilitation of  Pandits he would have then visited the family of missing youth and expressed a word of sympathy with them," Vinod said.

He viewed that if any thing bad happens to the missing youth it will create fear psychosis among the Pandit community and might result in fresh migration.

Warning the government of serious repercussions if it fails to trace out the youth, Vinod said, "The APMCC will initiate strong agitation if government does not give a time frame and traces out the missing youth in the given time frame."

He demanded setting up of Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a DIG rank police officer for tracing  the youth. However he hailed the efforts of the local Muslims in trying to look out for the missing youth.

Indian CRPF troopers in IHK get new Israeli assault rifles

Srinagar, April 12 : In Jammu and Kashmir, the personnel of Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are finally laced with Israeli assault rifles 'X95' and 'Tavor' to suppress Kashmiris’ just liberation struggle, reports Kashmir Media Service.

A local daily in a report said that one of these sophisticated rifles 'X95' had already been received by the CRPF while 'Tavor' was yet to be procured.

A top CRPF officer, wishing anonymity, told media men that both the weapons were costly and were first used in some areas in India by the CRPF personnel. "Since both the rifles are difficult to operate so the CRPF men will be made to undergo a special training to use them," the report said.

Confirming that the CRPF men in the valley will be laced with the two sophisticated weapons, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of CRPF, Prabhakar Tripathi said that they had already procured 'X95' and the 'Tavor' would be procured soon.

Chinese troops on Jammu and Kashmir : Gen Parnaik

Srinagar , Apr 6 : China’s presence in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)is “increasing steadily” and its troops are “actually present” along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, a top Army Commander said, adding the Chinese footprints are “too close for comfort” for India.

“Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern Areas is increasing steadily. There are many people who are concerned about the fact that if there was to be hostility between us and Pakistan, what would be the complicity of Chinese. Not only they are in the neighbourhood but the fact that they are actually present and stationed along the LoC,” Northern Army Commander Lt Gen K T Parnaik said here recently while addressing a seminar.

He said China’s links with Pakistan through Azad Jammu and Kashmir “lends strength” to the “nexus” between the two countries which is a cause of “great security concern” for India.

“As part of (China’s) ‘strings of pearls’ policy, Chinese footprints are too close for comfort,” Parnaik added.

The Army Commander said such a ‘nexus’ between the Chinese and Pakistani military “jeopardises our regional strategic interests in the long run and facilitates speedy and enhanced deployment of Pakistan armed forces to complement China’s military operations and thus outranks India.”

He said China has been found to be involved in the construction of numerous roads and several hydro-power projects inside Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Beijing is laying a web of roads that run across areas as distant from each other as Skardu in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Kunming in China near Myanmar border.

China has already constructed roads connecting all its highways to logistic centres and major defence installations that dot the border with India and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in south-eastern Jammu and Kashmir.

U.S. does not support freedom in Egypt

By Christoph R. Horstel

With courage, enthusiasm and readiness to endure police brutalities and other hardships, the Egyptian people have managed to oust their hitherto nearly unchallenged president Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal as designated political heir plus assurances for substantial changes in the constitution, a referendum and more attention to the needs of the poor. So far, so good, reports Tehran Times

But are we sure, how much freedom and social justice this new constitution will grant the people? How do we know, that the next set of government measures will gradually overcome the widening gap between rich and poor, mass poverty and joblessness in Egypt?

To check the chances of the people’s will to prevail, we look at history: Since the last 15 years serious transition or succession problems in the Arab world were discussed in western countries. Does anyone truly believe the U.S. never developed any change strategies and/or contingency plans to readiness status?

Then we consider social change in Egypt and elsewhere: A new class of mainly young and often secular-minded Arabs has developed among a larger change from a patriarchal society with hand made goods to an economy with wealthy capitalists, regional entrepreneurs and exporters of natural goods. And it were the wealthy, who used governmental power to further enrich themselves, thus pushing back the traditional set of landlords and bazaar traders.

At least three more key issues should be observed: It was the Serbian movement “Otpor” (once supported by the then U.S. ambassador Richard Miles), and nowadays renamed to “Centre for Non-Violent Action” (CNA) (at least indirectly financed through the “Open Society” network of the U.S. billionaire George Soros), which trained activists of several countries including Egypt and Tunisia. Does that mean the Egyptian revolution is in the hands of the U.S.? Not at all. These activists have a common trademark of working mainly via internet.

“Facebook revolution” is the new buzzword in western capitals – that says more than the eager commentators may have intended. Since all those wonderful internet platforms are subject to U.S. law obliging them to full disclosure of all information on all clients any time to U.S. intelligence, it is very clear, that little happens in Egypt that is not on the intelligence agenda.

No matter how often observers write that the U.S. were taken by surprise, stumbling behind events etc. – that is what those intelligence circles want us to believe. We still hear official blabber on intelligence failures on 9/11 and before the Iraq invasion. Had the U.S. with and through their leading Egyptian collaborators wished to stop the uprising early on, that had never put serious problems in the past and would not have this time. Rather the U.S. had helped prepare the events and let them happen:

The U.S. proxies, namely ex-IAEA boss ElBaradei, were ready, the military was faithful and ready, intelligence well informed. For a political steam pot like Egypt just a tiny, well-calculated reduction in pressure on the lid means heavy spill-overs. Imprisonments, torture and killings even continue to this day. For years the U.S. had used some of their support funds for Egypt to finance all those opposition groups susceptible to U.S. influence, translate: “democratic groups” or “development of civil society”. In vain did Egypt protest against this blatant interference in its interior affairs, as we know through embassy cables in WikiLeaks. And there are enough pictures and records of meetings hosted by Hillary Clinton for Egyptian friends of “Freedom House”.

Does this take any credibility off the Egyptian revolution? Not at all. But the U.S. is trying all the time to influence the results and hijack the benefits. Only awareness and efficient counter activities can stop this.

But this background induces us to look at second key issue: the present leadership personnel, since it will be those leaders to organize the start of Egypt’s future – and maybe more, if they do not abandon power as promised. The CIA lists Omar Suleiman as the most powerful Middle Eastern intelligence chief, the people dub him “Mubarak II”. Suleiman enjoys best contacts to the U.S. intelligence leadership. He has made Egypt a preferred CIA rendition hub and has personally overseen torture.

Therefore it is little wonder, that the demonstrators asked for his removal and were pacified only somewhat by introduction of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) as the real though unconstitutional leadership, comprising among others the defense minister Tantawi and army chief Enan. But what does this mean? In order to fully and truly do the will of the Egyptian people, the army and its intelligence shooting-star Suleiman would have to ultimately give up its obedience to the U.S. That is highly improbable: Location and time are not ready yet for Egypt’s Erdogan.

Until the end of February, the SMC will publish a proposal for changes to the constitution, a nationwide referendum is to be held within two months. That means, as the third key issue: turmoil in Egypt, is far from over. Three simple truths call for attention: The only single intact coherent power base in Egypt is the army. Like in the German army, many higher officers are more or less closely linked to the U.S. by multiple bonds - including years of consecutive training steps, many of them held in the U.S. The whole political fabric in Egypt: social groups, parties, internet-based groupings – are no viable power base, since they lack structure and experience. The one exception is the Muslim Brotherhood. And these valuable people are just by name a political monolith. But that is already enough for the U.S. to riddle them with government spies and make sure their influence will be limited at least for now – and mainly limited to those parts and personalities, which are “constructive” or, more accurately put: “open to influence”.

Another thought for accurate political calculation: Exchange old puppets by fresh puppets is old style. Modern U.S. policy accepts even full chaos as a viable “system” – in case a stable obedience can neither be reached quickly nor guaranteed for the next 20 years: Afghanistan and Pakistan are sad examples.

And, last not least, Obama’s speech on the Middle East held Tuesday made it clear: In their struggle against Iran the U.S. want to be sure to enlist any of the new and unstable leaderships. That is also one of the non-public but rock-hard pre-conditions to U.S. support.

For any opposition movement in the region a tough question appears: How to make sure, that no foreign power can hijack or misuse the accomplishments of political activities? Check the priorities: If the government is not pro-U.S., a one-year time delay in mass demonstrations may help to avoid being identified as part of the present U.S. regional plotting. And publicly as well as credibly disassociating the movement from U.S. government policies may prove helpful in many ways.

*The author is a government and business consultant in Germany, multiple book author and expert since 25 years on issues of Central Asia, the Middle East and security-related questions

Why America loves Israel and hates Iran

[Photo by www.sodahead.com/]
By A. Faizur Rahman 

By announcing fresh sanctions against Iran the UN Security Council has once again displayed a kind of motivated obstinacy which makes one suspect that it is not really serious about establishing peace in the region. But then the UN rarely exudes neutrality. It has always been subservient to American interests, particularly the pro-Israel US foreign policy that has kept West Asia on the boil ever since the creation of the Zionist state.

On the face of it, it may appear strange that the US-controlled Security Council should let go of the historic opportunity offered by the Turkish-Brazilian initiative to amicably resolve the Iran imbroglio. But West Asia watchers know that US response to Iran’s nuclear program cannot be seen in isolation because it is dictated by the US-Israeli relationship which again is not a mere political alliance but a symbiotic bond firmly secured by Judeo-Christian theology.

An analysis of the U.S. political scene would reveal that it is the Evangelical Right, also known as the Christian Zionists, led by extremist televangelists such as John Hagee, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who, along with the Jewish lobby, call the shots, in so far as the U.S. Middle East policy is concerned. It must, however, be said that mainstream Christianity (including the Catholic Church) does not identify itself with the fanatical beliefs of Evangelical Right such as those discussed below.

In a recent article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz titled Why Christian Zionists really support Israel Hagee wrote; “Our support for Israel starts with God’s promises in the Hebrew Bible, but it does not end there. Christian Zionists recognize that we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the Jewish people. As I have stressed to my Christian audiences for years: If you take away the Jewish contribution to Christianity, there would be no Christianity.” (http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/why-christian-zionists-really-suppor...).

By “God’s promises” Hagee is actually referring to the deliberate misrepresentations of certain biblical verses. One such verse promises Prophet Abraham and his descendants the land “from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the Euphrates” (Genesis 15:18). In another one God offers to give Abraham and his “seed” after him the entire land of Canaan (Palestine) “for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8). It may be noted here that according to the Old Testament the Arabs and the Jews are the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael and Isaac respectively which, hypothetically speaking, makes them the joint owners of the “promised land.”

But for obvious reasons the Zionists and their Christian supporters do not recognise Ishmael as the legitimate son of Abraham as he was born to a “slave woman” named Hagar, the handmaiden of Sarah, the first wife of Abraham and the mother of Isaac (Genesis 16:1-6). This divide was further aggravated by St.Paul who advised the Christians saying, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way [Ishmael] persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit [Isaac]. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.’” (Galatians 4:28-31).

It is therefore the belief of the Christians Zionists that the occupation of all Arab lands by the Jews (in fulfillment of the prophesy in Genesis 15:18), after driving out the children of the “slave woman”, is a prelude to the Second Coming of Christ and Armageddon, the biblical concept of the last battle between the Good and the Evil before the day of Judgment (Ezekiel 38-39). It is in this context that the US attitude to Iran must be seen and understood, and once again John Hagee personifies this extremist mindset. In his provocative book Jerusalem Countdown Hagee advocates a war on Iran saying; “The rise of terrorism in our world and the emerging crisis in the Middle East between Israel and Iran are part of a much bigger picture – that of God’s plan for the future of Israel and the entire world. We are going to discover we are facing a countdown in the Middle East – the Jerusalem Countdown, a battle such as the world has never seen or will ever see again.”

But what many Israelis are unaware of is that the Zionist Christians are not exactly honest in their support for their country. They have their own hidden religious agenda according to which, Jesus in his second mission will convert all the Jews to Christianity, and therefore, to hasten this process all must be done to help the Jews take over the Arab lands between Nile and Euphrates. This belief is based on a statement in Mathew 23:39 in which Jesus is quoted as saying, “For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” As Jesus was speaking to a Jewish audience at that time the Zionist Christians interpret this statement as having one meaning: for Jesus to make a second appearance all Jews must be converted to Christianity.

No wonder Hagee was forced to clarify in his aforementioned article that, “I am not at all surprised that many in the Jewish community are skeptical of Christian support for Israel. Some worry that our efforts are motivated by a desire to convert Jews. Others posit that our Zionism is tied to an effort to speed the second coming of Jesus. Both of these allegations are flat wrong. All we ask of our Jewish friends is that they get to know us before they judge us harshly on the basis of myths such as these.”

It is a strange paradox that, on the one hand we have the Christian Zionists supporting Israel with financial, moral and military aid in the dogmatic hope of one day converting all the Jews to Christianity, and on the other, we see the cunning Zionists - who never accepted Jesus as their Messiah - successfully manipulating the Christian Right using their own Bible to further their diabolical expansionist agenda. The ultimate victims of this unholy scheming between two Machiavellian religious groups are the innocent Palestinians who have been rendered refugees in their own homeland.

(The author is the Secretary General of Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought Among Muslims. He may be reached at faizz@rocketmail.com).

US complicit in India’s systematic use of torture in Kashmir

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By Deepal Jayasekera
Washington,  3 Feb: US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks show that Washington has long had evidence of Indian authorities’ systematic use of torture against opponents of Indian rule over Jammu and Kashmir, but has chosen not to speak out against New Delhi’s gross human rights violations.

In a classified cable sent in April 2005, the then-US ambassador to New Delhi, David C. Mulford, reported to the US State Department on a “confidential briefing” embassy officials had received from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) “on widespread severe torture in Indian prisons in Kashmir between 2002 and 2004.”

“The continued ill-treatment of detainees,” reported Mulford, “despite longstanding ICRC-GOI (Government of India] dialogue, have led the ICRC to conclude” that New Delhi “condones torture.”

In their briefing, the ICRC officials emphasized that those subjected to torture by Indian authorities were generally not anti-Indian insurgents—since Indian security forces have a standard practice of summarily executing suspected insurgents. Rather they were noncombatants, those accused of providing the insurgents support or suspected of having useful information: the “detainees were rarely militants (they are routinely killed), but persons connected to or believed to have information about the insurgency.”

The ICRC officials said they had made more than 177 visits to detention centers and had interviewed 1,491 detainees. Of these, according to the US embassy’s summation of the ICRC findings, 852, or well over half, had suffered abuse. 171 were beaten and 681 were “subjected to one or more of six forms of torture.” 498 persons were subjected to electric shocks; 381 to suspension from a ceiling; 294 to crushing of leg muscles through use of a “roller”; 181 to 180-degree leg-splitting; 234 to various forms of water torture; and 302 to sexual abuse.

The “numbers add up to more than 681,” says the cable “as many detainees were subjected to more than one form of IT (ill-treatment.) ICRC stressed that all the branches of the security forces used these forms of IT and torture.”

Indian and international human rights organizations have presented numerous reports documenting Indian authorities’ horrific human right abuses in the two-decades-old counterinsurgency war in Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state.

Nevertheless, the evidence presented by the ICRC to the US diplomats was both damning—given the access the ICRC had had to Indian detention centers—and highly significant. As a rule, the ICRC does not make its findings known to anyone but the government having jurisdiction over the facilities it inspects. It argues that if it assumes a public advocacy role, its status as a neutral organization will be jeopardized and governments will deny access to prisoners, making it impossible for the ICRC to fulfill its humanitarian mission.

But in this case, ICRC officials had apparently become so frustrated and angered by the stance of the Indian government they chose to reveal their findings to US officials. The cable reports, “There is a regular and widespread use of IT and torture by the security forces during interrogation; -- This always takes place in the presence of officers; -- ICRC has raised these issues with the GOI for more than 10 years; -- Because practice continues, ICRC is forced to conclude that GOI condones torture.”

Horrific as were the ICRC’s findings, its officials reported that conditions had improved from the mid-1990s, when security forces invaded villages in the middle of the night and arbitrarily and indefinitely detained many of their residents.

Still, the ICRC had never been allowed right to speak with prisoners at the most “notorious” detention center, the “Cargo Building” in Srinagar. And increasingly the Indian government was seeking to curb the ICRC’s activities, even though, in keeping with its traditional mode of operation, it had not made any of its findings public. According to the April 2005 cable, the ICRC had told the US diplomats, “the MEA [Indian ministry of external affairs] also protested the ICRC’s presence in Srinagar [the capital of Jammu and Kashmir], asking it to ‘wind up’ its operations, advising that its ‘public activities must stop’ (believed to be a reference to a seminar ICRC staff held at Kashmir University on IHL in 2004), and warning against ‘unauthorized contacts with separatist elements’.”

In another cable from 2007, the US’s Indian embassy noted that a member of the Jammu and Kashmir legislature, Usman Abdul Majid, was the leader a pro-Indian government militia “notorious for its use of torture, extra-judicial killing, rape and extortion of Kashmiri civilians suspected of harbouring or facilitating terrorists.”

But while US officials in India have been keeping the State Department informed of the conduct of the Indian security forces and allied militia in Kashmir and of the support this enjoys from the highest levels of the Indian government, neither they nor their superiors in Washington have publicly condemned the Indian authorities. On the contrary, under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, India has been touted as the world’s most populous democracy and a “natural ally” of the US in promoting “democratic values” around the world. When Obama visited India last month, in deference to his hosts, he studiously avoided any mention of Kashmir.

The US’s silence on the Indian state’s repression in Kashmir is yet another example of the cynicism and hypocrisy of US foreign policy under Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Washington routinely issues ringing condemnations of the human rights violations of foreign governments whose interests and policies are cutting across those of the US corporate elite—condemnations that are then amplified by a pliant media. But India is being assiduously courted by Washington and Wall Street, because it is viewed as a counterweight to a rising China. Hence the US silence on the repression in Kashmir.

Declaring that the US wants to assist India in becoming a “world power,” the US, under George W. Bush, secured India special status in the world nuclear regulatory regime, giving it the right to purchase civilian nuclear technology and fuel, although New Delhi developed nuclear weapons in defiance of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And Obama, also touting the US’s support for India’s global aspirations, announced during his recent trip to India that Washington supports India becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The Indian elite’s reaction to the WikiLeaks cables about Kashmir has been telling. A spokesman for the India’s Congress Party-led coalition government brushed the ICRC findings aside, declaring “India is an open and democratic nation which adheres to the rule of law. If and when an aberration occurs, it is promptly and firmly dealt with under existing legal mechanisms in an effective and transparent manner.”

The reality is India’s security forces have and continue to enjoy impunity.

Not surprisingly, the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which led India’s government from 1998 to 2004 and presided over much of the repression in Kashmir, had nothing to say about the ICRC findings.

As for the Indian press, it gave the matter short shrift. In some of the major dailies, such as the Hindu and the Indian Express, there were perfunctory reports, but there were no editorials demanding that the government and security forces be held to account. The attitude of the press and the ruling class toward the Kashmir question is exemplified by the recent widespread calls for the writer Arundhati Roy to be charged with treason for suggesting that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should have the right to choose to leave the Indian Union.

In response to the WikiLeaks revelations, the head of the National Conference (NC)— which leads the current state government in Jammu and Kashmir in a coalition with the Congress Party and is also a partner of the Congress in India’s national government—tried to shift the blame on his political rivals.

“We don’t condone torture and will not turn a blind eye to reports of human rights violations,” declared Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. “Not only the state government, but the Center too has a policy of zero tolerance to human rights abuses.”

Refusing to comment directly on the WikiLeaks’ exposure, Abdullah said, “I am not getting into it… It pertains to 2005 and you know who was in power that time.” Abdullah was referring to the fact that the state was then ruled by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), also in a coalition with the Congress Party.

Abdullah’s claims to uphold democratic rights are belied by the actions of his government. Under its direction, security forces killed more than a hundred unarmed demonstrators this summer in a bid to quell a popular mobilization in the Kashmir Valley provoked by the police killing of a youth. (See Kashmir seethes: Indian elite resorts to repression and political maneuvers)

In answer to Abdullah, PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti said, “Omar Abdullah should be the last person talking about human rights abuse. The PDP’s tenure is for everybody to see and we don’t need any certificate from anybody but the people.” Turning the tables on the NC, she added: “We inherited from the National Conference (in 2002) a Kashmir in which human rights violations were at their peak.”

Both Kashmir regional parties have served as junior partners of the Indian state and the principal parties of the Indian bourgeoisie, the Congress Party and the BJP, in the systematic violation of democratic and human rights in Kashmir, including the torture of political prisoners as documented in the diplomatic cables exposed by WikiLeaks.

Security in Sistan-Balouchestan to be handed over to locals: IRGC chief

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TEHRAN – Iran has taken necessary measures to establish and promote security in southeast Iran, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Saturday, reports Tehran Times.

“Security is important for the development of infrastructure in the region and we have taken measures in cooperation with people, specially tribes and ethnic groups in southeast of the country,” Jafari, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said during his trip to Zahedan, the capital city of Sistan-Balouchestan province.

According to the directives issued by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the security affairs of the region will be handed over to the people of the area, the top commander announced.

He went on to say that the enemy is trying to hinder the progress of the region through creating insecurity, sowing discord between the ethnic people, kidnapping, committing robbery and banditry.

The area has also experienced several terrorist acts during the past years. On December 15 a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside a mosque in the southeastern city of Chabahar during a Shia religious ceremony, killing 35 people and injuring more than 100 others.

The members of the terrorist group Jundullah use Pakistan’s soil as their safe haven for committing terrorist attacks in Sistan-Baluchestan (Writer-South Asia)

Kashmir on United Nations Security Council agenda: UNO

United Nations, Nov 16: The Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the United Nations Security Council’s agenda, a UN spokesman categorically stated while rejecting as “inaccurate” reports that it has been removed from the list of unresolved issues.

“Some articles today on Kashmir are inaccurate,” UN Spokesman Farhan Haq said, referring to those reports.

He said the latest list of matters the Security Council is seized of “continues to include the agenda item under which the Council has taken up Kashmir which, by a decision of the Council, remains on the list for this year,” the spokesman added.

Earlier, a spokesman for the Pakistan Mission clarified that Pakistan’s Acting Ambassador Amjad Hussain Sial, in his speech to the General Assembly on Friday, November 12 had referred to the omission of Jammu and Kashmir dispute in a statement by the President of the Security Council, and NOT from the Council’s Annual Report-as reported in a section of press.

“The agenda item entitled, ‘India and Pakistan Question’, which covers Jammu and Kashmir dispute, is duly mentioned in the Annual Report of the Security Council and is also present on its agenda,” spokesman Mian Jehangir Iqbal said in a statement.

In his statement, the 15-member Council’s President for the current month, British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, while presenting the Annual Report to the 192-member assembly, did not mention the Kashmir dispute in the context of unresolved long-running situations, despite the fact decades-old issue is included in the Annual Report.

“We understand this was an inadvertent omission, as Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest disputes on agenda of the Security Council,” Ambassador Sial remarked, after Grant’s statement.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, who is on a visit to Pakistan, said there was no question of the Kashmir issue being dropped from the Council’s agenda. “The Security Council Report in its annexures is explicit,” he said in a statement.

“The President of the Security Council, the Permanent Representative of the UK, is amply clear on the subject and is cognizant of the matter. I would request all concerned not to speculate unnecessarily upon the subject”. (Agncies/Writer-South Asia)