Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

PM touches on the untouchableMaseeh Rahman

THE Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has become the first leader of his country to compare the condition of low-caste Hindus with that of black South Africans under apartheid. Mr Singh drew the parallel at a conference in New Delhi on social and caste injustices, saying it was modern India's failure that millions of Dalits, often called untouchables, were still fighting prejudice."Even after 60 years of constitutional and legal protection and support, there is still social discrimination against Dalits in many parts of our country," Mr Singh said. "Dalits have faced a unique discrimination in our society that is fundamentally different from the problems of minority groups in general. The only parallel to the practice of untouchability was apartheid."By raising the spectre of apartheid the Prime Minister has publicly repudiated the stand taken by the previous BJP-led government. At a United Nations human rights conference in 2001 Dalit activists had pushed for a resolution linking the treatment of low-caste Hindu untouchables to race-based oppression. The resolution proved abortive thanks to concerted opposition from official Indian delegates. They maintained that unlike in apartheid South Africa, the constitution in India did not endorse or tolerate any form of discrimination. Sydney Morning Herald (12/28)

More clashes reported in Congo

KINSHASA — Fighting resumed Thursday in Democratic Republic of Congo's restless eastern Nord-Kivu region between dissident soldiers and regular army forces a day after clashes killed 18 insurgents, U.N. officials said. Combat between the two sides took place in Bugusa, some 75 kilometers north of Goma, the region's main town. Fighting in the same region Wednesday between government soldiers and breakaway forces of dissident general Laurent Nkunda left 18 rebels dead and five government soldiers wounded, the U.N. Mission in DRCongo (MUNOC) said. Troops loyal to Nkunda, a former officer facing war crimes charges, have occupied since early December the Rutshuru hills near the Rwandan border where Bugusa is located. A senior army official has been stationed in the area for the past week to "follow the evolution of the situation close up," military sources say. The regional unrest has reportedly displaced some 50,000 people. Local authorities contacted by telephone Thursday also reported people heading toward the country's border with Uganda. Japan Today (12/28)

UN forces in Haiti battle gangs in slum

PORT-AU-PRINCE: UN troops and Haitian police have battled gangs as they tried to purge a kidnapping gang from a shantytown in the capital, leaving five people injured by gunfire, the United Nations said. Witnesses in Cite Soleil, the largest shantytown in Haiti and partly controlled by armed gangs, said that five people were killed during the UN operation. According to a UN statement, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) and the Haitian national police destroyed part of the turf of the Belony gang in the Bois Neuf quarter. A gun battle erupted during the operation that was aimed at curbing gang activity in the capital, the statement said. Last Friday, MINUSTAH and the police had conducted an operation in the same neighborhood that left more than a dozen killed and nearly 30 injured. MINUSTAH announced that it would continue to support police operations in a crackdown on crime and lawlessness in Port-au-Prince Meanwhile, hundreds of supporters of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide demonstrated peacefully in the capital to protest the UN operations and call for the return of Aristide from exile in South Africa. International Times (Pakistan) (12/28)

With approval of Israeli gov't, Egypt transfers thousands of rifles to Fatah

By Amos Harelssacharoff

Egypt transferred a large quantity of arms and ammunition to Palestinian Authority security organizations in the Gaza Strip yesterday. The move was carried out with Israel's approval and was made in an effort to bolster Fatah affiliated groups, following clashes with Hamas paramilitary organizations. The shipment included 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 20,000 magazines and two million rounds of ammunition. The arms and ammunition were transferred from Egypt to Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing, in coordination with the Israel Defense Force and with the government's authorization. The four trucks carrying the weapons were accompanied by Military Police, and crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Karni crossing, where PA security personnel received the shipment. Senior members of various Fatah affiliated groups in the Gaza Strip have complained of their inferior firepower when confronted by Hamas forces. One of the main reasons they point to for their inability to counter Hamas is the fact that the radical Islamic organization controls most of the smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip through tunnels running from Sinai to Rafah in the South. Ha'aretz (Israel) (12/28)

PAKISTAN: Humanitarian groups condemn landmine plan

PESHAWAR, 27 Dec 2006 (IRIN) - The Pakistani government’s plan to lay landmines and build a fence along its border with Afghanistan has been condemned by humanitarian groups. It follows criticism from Kabul and the US that Pakistan has not been doing enough to stop pro-Taliban militia from crossing into Afghanistan. Pakistan’s military has been ordered to survey what is needed to lay landmines in “selected places” and build the fence along the 2,400 km border. Asma Jahangir, the chairman of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission (HRCP), said that the plan announced on Tuesday was a “complete violation of all humanitarian norms”. "It is no way to deal with the problem of cross-border militancy," said Jahangir. Kamran Arif, a Peshawar-based lawyer and vice-chairman of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province’s HRCP branch, said the border divided tribes and families for whom there were currently no visa requirements when they moved between the countries. "The placing of landmines will have very grave humanitarian repercussions as children wander freely around this area and the border is not demarcated. Many (children) play near it and cross it all the time," said Arif. "People, including the Afghan refugees, have still not forgotten the deaths and injuries caused by the mining during the Afghan war, and now we could have a new catastrophe once this latest plan goes ahead." IRIN News (United Nations Press Office) (12/28)

When Africa's malnutrition victims survive

By Michael Wines

SHIMIDER, Ethiopia: In this corrugated land of mahogany mountains and tan, parched valleys, it is hard to tell which is the greater scandal: the thousands of children malnutrition kills, or the thousands more it allows to survive. Malnutrition still kills here, though Ethiopia's infamous famines are in abeyance. In Wag Hamra alone, the area that includes Shimider, at least 10,000 children below age 5 died last year, thousands of them from malnutrition-related causes. Yet almost half of Ethiopia's children are malnourished, and most do not die. Some suffer a different fate. Robbed of vital nutrients as children, they grow up stunted and sickly, weaklings in a land that still runs on manual labor. Some become intellectually stunted adults, unable to learn or even to concentrate, inclined to drop out of school early. There are many children like this in the villages around Shimider. Nearly 6 in 10 are stunted; 10-year-olds can fail to top an adult's belt buckle. They are frequently sick: diarrhea, chronic coughs and worse are standard for toddlers. Most disquieting, teachers say, many of the 775 children at Shimider Primary are below-average pupils, often, well below. International Herald Tribune (12/28)

Mogadishu retaken as Somali Islamists flee

Sam Knight and agencies

Somali government forces, supported by Ethiopian soldiers, entered Mogadishu unopposed today after the leaders of Islamist militias that have controlled the city since June fled last night."We are in Mogadishu," said Mohamed Ali Gedi, the Prime Minister of Somalia's interim Government, after talks with the clan elders who are the ultimate powerbrokers in the ravaged capital. "We are coordinating our forces to take control of Mogadishu."A spokesman for the interim Government said that Somali soldiers backed by Ethiopian tanks and aircraft started moving into the outskirts of the city after seizing the main roads in Mogadishu early today. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Government had abandoned its plan for a siege and decided to take Mogadishu after being told that the leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) had left their base and that armed clans were beginning to loot the city, which has around 2 million inhabitants. London Times (12/28)

EAST BERLIN'S FIRST MOSQUE

The Muslims Are Coming!

By Michael Scott Moore and Jochen-Martin Gutsch in Berlin

A citizens' group in Berlin turned out this week for a candlelight vigil to protest plans for a new mosque in their neighborhood. It will be the first to be built in the former East Berlin, where almost no Muslims live -- but no one can quite explain why it shouldn't be there. At the end of a rundown suburban street lined with bare trees and flaking apartment facades, a small group of people hold candles or colored Glo-sticks. A few hold signs -- "Democracy yes! Caliphate no!" -- and some carry German flags. "The mosque is supposed to go up right here," says Günter Bronner, a blustery white-haired man with glasses pushed up on his forehead who's lived in the neighborhood for 42 years. He points to a drab piece of land at the end of the street where a defunct sauerkraut factory stands. "They want to have a minaret with a muezzin who gives the call to prayer five times a day. Can you imagine? Five times a day over our rooftops." Officials gave the go-ahead last Friday for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association to build a new mosque in Heinersdorf, an eastern neighborhood of Berlin where very few Muslims live. It will be the first mosque on the once-Communist eastern side of the city, and an organization of locals turned out Wednesday to protest. "It was pretty brazen to hand this (approval) to us as a Christmas present," quipped Joachim Swietlik, head of the citizens' group, who claims that 90 percent of Heinersdorf doesn't want the mosque. Der Spiegel (Germany) (12/28)

The HIV/AIDS Enron?

Commentary

ONE supposes that it was only a matter of time before some aspect of the frenzied HIV/AIDS cirque caved in on itself. That time seems to be now. The recent publication of an article on potential fraud in the America's PEPFAR programme almost tangentially highlights Guyana's troubles with implementing the multi-million dollar prevention and care programmes which have been created under the project. The specific report which may shed a brighter light on the PEPFAR's problems in Guyana is one entitled "Audit of USAID/Guyana's Progress in Implementing the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief [PEPFAR]". The report was submitted to USAID/Guyana's Director, Dr. Fenton Sands, in May of this year. It cites, for example, the shifting goalposts of success indicators held by the main implementing agency in Guyana. It also mentions an average of 83% of information coming from top local HIV/AIDS NGOs as either inaccurate or unverifiable. The problem with this document is its sheer thoroughness. The official report is in fact a revised one which takes into account the objections made by various agencies involved. But even with that consideration, the fact that the programme has fallen short in so many areas still comes through as clear as day. What could have gone wrong? The answer can be told two-fold. Guyana Chronicle (12/28)

Nelva Méndez de Falcone, a ‘Plaza’ Mother, Is Dead

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 28 (AP) — Nelva Méndez de Falcone, a pioneering member of an Argentine group that protested the disappearance of loved ones during Argentina’s “Dirty War,” died Monday in La Plata, 30 miles southeast of here. She was 76.The cause was an unspecified lung problem for which she had been hospitalized for her last 10 days, her family said. She was one of the first members of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, white-scarved activists who for decades have pressed to learn the fate of their children who vanished during the 1976-83 dictatorship.Ms. Méndez de Falcone’s 16-year-old daughter, María Claudia Falcone, was arrested and tortured in 1976 by the military’s security services along with six other students who were accused of organizing demands for a reduction in public transportation fares. María Claludia and five other students remain unaccounted for and are believed to have been killed. New York Times (12/28)

posted by Dave Carroll @ 12/28/2006 11:27:00 PM