It Works! (Nepal police claim….)
Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by admin in War on Terror
After Maoists rebels laid down their arms to join the Nepalese peace process in 2006, no fewer than 109 separate armed outfits–gangs and rebel groups–sprang up to replace them in the southern plain of Terai, which sits on the border with India.
People ages 16- 35 joined these gangs and were involved in killing, abduction, extortion and even attacks on police posts in some places.
The criminal activity got so bad that, a year ago, businessmen throughout the country–tired and frightened after several kidnaps, murders and ransoms–demanded the government do something, and even the UN described the area as “a tinderbox that could spiral out of control.”
Now, according to the Nepal Police, the Special Security Plan that was implemented has worked.
“There were 109 armed groups, now there are only 10 outfits in Terai,” said police spokesman Bigyan Sharma. “Most of the people involved in the groups are arrested, and they are in the jails.”
Sharma added that out of the ten groups remaining at large, only a few are politically motivated. The deadly splinter group Goit–which killed parliamentarian Krishna Shrestha in 2006–and Jwala are among those still active.
-Rajneesh Bhandari
Police This
Posted on 02. Jul, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
This week in Iran saw opposition leaders asking what happened to the honor of the police, reduced to plainclothes beatings at rallies. Meanwhile, civilians took matters into their own hands when they decided the “morality police” went too far. The latest from the Week in Green:
http://blip.tv/file/3831641
It’s On! (Or is it?)
Posted on 30. Jun, 2010 by admin in Economy, Environment, Uncategorized, War on Terror
Ending a month-long constitutional stalemate, Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned today after just over a year in office.
Addressing the nation, 57-year-old Prime Minister Nepal said, “It is already too late to table the annual policies, program and budget in the Legislature-Parliament. Despite having a clear majority in the House, I decided to tender my resignation, with the hope that peace process and constituent making process will be completed, as it would not be right to keep the nation at indecision and confusion in situation like this.”
And there has been a lot of confusion. Four weeks ago, the three major political parties agreed that they could not agree on a new constitution. Instead, they extended the process for another year, and in the meantime hammered out a three-point agreement. The prime minister’s resignation was key for the Maoists.
The other parties are demanding the dissolution of Maoist’s sister organization Young Communist League, which has been charged with violating law and human rights, as well as demand that Maoists return property seized during the conflict. The major disagreement between the Maoists and the other parties is about the issue of the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army.
Because of the political deadlock, the discussion on major issues such as army integration, the structure of the government: presidential form or prime minister as the chief executive; questions about the numbers of states under federation and the judiciary system; and whether it will be independent or under parliament, is disrupted. Whoever leads will not have an easy time to get consensus on these issues.
–Rajneesh Bhandari
A Civil War – Not an Insurgency
Posted on 24. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
It’s a grim milestone that with good leadership could have been avoided. This week a Royal Marine wounded in Helmund Province became the 300th British soldier to die as a result of operations in Afghanistan. The tragic death has caused many Brits to pause and reflect, not only on the sacrifices made by our brave men and woman in uniform but on the broader issue of what our country can realistically achieve in Afghanistan.
Anticipating the flood of public doubt surrounding Britain’s continued involvement, the new coalition government responded to this terrible landmark by once again linking Afghanistan to national security. ‘We are paying a high price for keeping our country safe,’ said Prime Minister David Cameron. ‘We are there because the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country.’ This, as regular readers of my posts will know, is a bogus argument in my view. If anything, Britain’s military presence in Afghanistan has compromised national security by fanning the flames of home grown terrorism. As for making the world a safer place; I’ve said since 2001 that Britain and its allies would do better to tackle al-Qaeda at its source by hitting select targets in Pakistan (al-Qaeda’s primary breeding ground) and Saudi Arabia (al-Qaeda’s financial centre). Going after terrorists one by one in Afghanistan is tantamount to swatting mosquitoes to eradicate malaria.
Can he be won over?
Those who support ‘staying the course’ in Afghanistan believe the coalition can eventually succeed in its mission to bring security and stability to the country. This misperception is not surprising given that for years now, the public has been told that Britain and its allies are waging a counter-insurgency campaign. Indeed I have been sucked into calling the conflict an insurgency. I apologize for doing so and I’d like to be perfectly clear now: Britain is not fighting counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. We have taken sides in a festering 30-year civil war. This distinction is crucial for understanding the limits of what can be achieved there. A foreign force can win a counter-insurgency by getting the people in its area of operations on side. By contrast, British and US forces operating in Pashtoon dominated Southern and Eastern Afghanistan have no chance of winning over the local population because the coalition has allied itself with the former commanders of the Northern Alliance – the mortal enemies of the Pashtoon.
Having worked for six years as a security advisor in Afghanistan, I’ve had contact with locals ranging from humble villagers to cunning warlords. When pressed, they have all come to the same dire conclusion. It doesn’t’ matter when the coalition withdraws from Afghanistan, the end result will be the same; brutal, all-out civil war. Bear in mind too that it’s not just the coalition that have taken sides in the Afghan conflict. India, Pakistan and China all have a presence in the country whether through proxies or exploiting the country’s vast mineral wealth. Russia and Iran are also working behind-the-scenes to secure their interests. That’s five regional powers – all with nuclear weapons or close to it, vying to assert their will in Afghanistan. No matter how you look at it, Afghanistan is a quagmire that defies military solutions.
It’s entirely possible to support our troops in Afghanistan and be against the war. Britain’s armed forces deserve to be honoured for their service and sacrifice. The fact that they were able to hold out in Helmand for years despite being woefully undermanned and ill-equipped is testament to their skill and prowess. They could fight on in Afghanistan indefinitely if that’s what this country asks of them. But make no mistake: achieving Afghan stability is a mission no foreign army, no matter how professional, can accomplish.
Bob Shepherd is an ex-SAS soldier and bestselling author of The Circuit. His debut novel The Infidel will be published August 5th by Simon & Schuster UK. To read more posts by him, please visit www.bobshepherdauthor.com.
A Bar Brawl in Kyrgyzstan
Posted on 18. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
Ethnic Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan are still licking their wounds after the pogrom earlier this month. With hundreds dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, the question arises how did it all start? One theory is that a group of Kyrgyz men didn’t pay their bar tab. Freelance journalist and Johns Hopkins University researcher Alisher Khamidov analyzes the roots of the conflict.
http://www.vimeo.com/12677308
Who’s Running Nepal?
Posted on 16. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
It’s two weeks now since Nepal’s political leaders swore that they’d have some kind of consensus to run the country after they missed the May 28th deadline to finish the new constitution. They promised Nepalis that they’d have one done in another year. Meanwhile, they would come up with a plan.
But the plan they came up with includes two tricky parts: first, the integration and rehabilitation of Maoists militants; second, the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Sources say there was an understanding between the parties that if Maoists agreed to start integration process, then the prime minister would resign within five days. And that is the problem.
Please give us a government!
Maoists are saying that the prime minister should resign first, while the ruling parties are saying that Maoists should integrate first.
So who is running the country in the meantime? The current government, but even its ministers are not sure for how much longer. Despite considerable confusion among officials, they are managing necessary works, like the budget.
Meanwhile, meetings continue. Inter-party and tri-party and multi-party meetings happen every day, but without much progress.
Citizens remain unimpressed. “Leaders spend more time in bargaining who should be the next prime minister rather than how to make a new constitution on time,” grumbled Nepal Yatayat as he rode a city bus in Kathmandu.
-Rajneesh Bhandari
Six Months and Still Going
Posted on 14. Jun, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
Although a year has passed since Iran’s contested presidential election, it is still up for debate what exactly happened in the aftermath. Juan Cole discusses the controversy in a recent blog post. The Week in Green has been closely tracking the political situation in Iran. This piece covers a protest six months after the election, giving a sense of the size and scale of the protest demonstrations.
http://www.vimeo.com/12565586
How to Save Billions Now
Posted on 27. May, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized, War on Terror
This week Chancellor George Osborne unveiled £6.2 billion in public spending cuts; the first round in what is expected to be a deep and painful austerity program to rein in Britain’s £156 billion deficit. According to Osborne, the government is targeting ‘wasteful spending.’ If waste is truly in the crosshairs, I’d like to put forth a glaringly obvious proposal that will save Britain billions now and in the future. Withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.
Sadly, arguing the case for withdrawal on the basis of British lives lost — both men and women in uniform and private security contractors working in Afghanistan — has thus far failed to convince the government to rethink its policy. Public pressure hasn’t hit critical mass. Perhaps too many voters feel the conflict has no impact on their day-to-day lives or they’ve been frightened by the government’s claims that Britain’s continued involvement in Afghanistan is necessary for safeguarding our national security. But where blood has failed to persuade, treasure may succeed, especially now that every man, woman and child in this country is living in the shadow of an £893.4 billion debt mountain.
The economic argument for pulling out of Afghanistan is compelling. An analysis by the Independent on Sunday estimated that by the middle of this year, the MoD will have spent £9 billion on Afghan operations; a figure that only accounts for logistical costs including wages, equipment and transport. When the Independent factored in ‘hidden costs’ such as support for injured troops, veterans and the families of soldiers killed in action, the figure climbed to £12 billion. And that’s just the bill so far. There are also long-term costs associated with the Afghan campaign, for example, the on-going care of wounded veterans and soldiers suffering from PTSD. Consider too that the MoD isn’t the only British presence in Afghanistan. The Foreign Office and British development agencies have poured tens of millions of pounds into the Afghan black hole.
Again, the naysayers will argue that Britain needs to stay the course in Afghanistan to protect our shores from terrorists. As I’ve argued before, Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan has stoked home grown terrorism and compromised our future defence capabilities by forcing the MoD to gut the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force to free up cash for operations. It’s also a mistake to view national security exclusively through the lens of counter-terrorism. Economic strength is equally vital. Right now, Britain is staring down the barrel of a sovereign debt downgrade that would boot it out of the premier league of world economies. And while Britain continues to spend on Afghanistan, education budgets in this country are being slashed. The impact on our future competitiveness cannot be overstated. We need to give our children a running start; not rob them of a decent education and saddle them with a debt bomb.
Britain’s new Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, recently described Afghanistan as ‘a broken 13th century country.’ As much as I admire the Afghans for their toughness and cunning, I have to say I agree. Pouring good money after bad is not going to fix Afghanistan. But it will add to Britain’s already considerable economic woes.
Bob Shepherd is an ex-SAS soldier and bestselling author of The Circuit. His debut novel The Infidel will be published August 5th by Simon & Schuster UK. To read more posts by him, please visit www.bobshepherdauthor.com.
Minute of Your Time: High-er Education
Posted on 25. May, 2010 by admin in Economy, Uncategorized
For California’s marijuana advocates, legalization would lighten the state’s financial burdens by bringing in more taxes – as much as $1.4 billion per year. But it could also cut expenditures on a bloated prison system crowded with inmates convicted of petty drug crimes. Richad Lee, founder of Oaksterdam University, the country’s first Cannabis college, is leading the charge, spending millions of his own money to finance the campaign to pass this November’s California voter initiative on legalization. Yet as the battle heats up, all eyes are on the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association – aka the prison guards union, and the biggest lobby in the state. Learn more about it in the latest episode of “A Minute of Your Time.”
http://www.vimeo.com/12026097
Biomass for Everyone
Posted on 24. May, 2010 by admin in Environment, Uncategorized
The US throws way around 7 billion tons of organic waste ever year, but this waste could be used to produce energy – half a trillion dollars’ worth, according to James Anderson, CEO and Founder of BHFI in Ohio. A unit of BHFI has developed the Organics Reprocessing for Biofuels (ORB) system, which offers a relatively cheap, easy, and environmentally friendly way for everyday people to capitalize on the organic energy all around them.
http://www.vimeo.com/11996957