Gaza Aid Flotilla Massacre - join Amnesty International asking for an independent enquiry

Minimum we can do to is to join our voices and record our protest against the Israeli massacre of aid workers heading toward Gaza.

At least ten activists protesting the blockade on the Gaza strip have been killed by Israeli forces. The activists were on a flotilla of ships carrying aid to the Gaza strip in defiance of the blockade.

Israel says its forces acted in self-defence but the level of lethal force used by Israeli troops appears to have been out of all proportion to any threat posed.

The Israeli authorities have the primary responsibility to investigate the use of lethal force by its forces but given the international nature of this incident, there is also a need for an immediate international investigation. We are calling on Israel to launch an immediate credible and independent investigation into these killings, and to allow the UN access to conduct an international inquiry.

Background

For nearly three years Israel, which is the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, has implemented a policy of banning all movement of goods and people, except for the most basic humanitarian necessities which are imported by international aid agencies. Only a fraction of patients in need of treatment outside Gaza are allowed out, and dozens have died waiting for Israeli permission to travel.

The blockade does not target armed groups but rather punishes Gaza’s entire population by restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials. Israel has a duty under international law to ensure the welfare of Gaza’s inhabitants, including their rights to health, education, food and adequate housing.

Amnesty International is asking us to come together and Act Now by sending the following message to the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague. It take less than a minute to send this message from the Amnesty International site.

As a supporter of Amnesty International I welcome your statement of 31 May and I urge you to support the call for a credible, independent and international investigation into the deaths caused by the raid on the aid flotilla in international waters outside Gaza on May 31 2010.

Given the international nature of this incident and the continuing lack of credible Israeli investigations into violations of human rights in the context of the Gaza conflict, there is a strong need for an immediate international investigation and it’s important for the interests of regional peace and security that the UK strongly and publicly advocate such a call.

The Israeli authorities do of course have the primary responsibility to investigate the use of lethal force by its forces, as well as the claims by Israeli officials that Israeli forces were attacked with a range of weapons. But for full credibility and transparency, Israel should be strongly urged to invite the relevant UN experts to carry out an investigation into the events of 31 May.

The UK should also publicly back the calls for the Israeli authorities to make public immediately the rules of engagement issued to the troops who carried out this lethal attack.

Furthermore it is essential that the UK Government insist on the Israeli authorities immediately providing the names and locations of those UK Nationals detained, as well as their physical condition and legal status. UK officials and lawyers should also be allowed access to those arrested, detained or in hospital.

The UK must also insist that the Israeli authorities promptly release those who are detained unless they are charged with a recognisable criminal offence, and to insist that Israeli security forces and police do not employ excessive force against demonstrators protesting the events of 31 May.

Give the martyrs of Gaza a minute of your time.

Moral dilemas of Pakistani politics: Prime Minister Gilani of Pakistan prefers corruption over nepotism

Speaking at an election rally in Muzaffargarh district Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani proudly stated that he has chosen Mr Jamshed Dasti, a known felon, over his own brother to stand as his party's candidate in the forthcoming elections.

His statement comes "while setting honesty and fair play as criteria for public officeholders, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declared that all those candidates who had earlier resigned [from the parliament] under the charges of having fake degrees would be ineligible to contest by-elections." Mr. Jamshed Dasti is one of those fraudsters identified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Mr. Jamshed Dasti, a close friend of President Asif Ali Zardari, recently resigned from the parliament, under the apex court's pressure, for having used fake certificates of educational qualification from a religious institution - a common ploy used by uneducated but rich and influential politicians to circumvent a legal requirement to hold at least a Bachelors Degree from a recognised educational institution (which unfortunately includes religious madrassahs many of whom would sell you one for a charitable donation, along with a free pass for entry for two into heaven). Though the law has itself now been changed (thus denying some religious schools at least one means of funding) but not before cases and Mr Dasti and other fraudsters appeared before the courts.

Dishonesty and being involved in fraudulent activities is now worn as a badge of honour by the ruling party in Pakistan. President Zardari had responded to the outcry against Mr Jamshed Dasti by awarding him party ticket, again, to contest the by-election. Well! You would expect from President Zardari this cavalier attitude towards building your parliamentary team from among politicians of questionable morals. But it was the Prime Minister who shocked the law abiding citizens of Pakistan when he appointed disgraced Jamshed Dasti his adviser on livestock, a fortnight after the latter opted to resign from his seat to avoid a jail sentence. Now the Prime Minister has declared Mr Jamshed Ahmad Dasti to be a true representative of the poor labourers and the impoverished, and the people should support him in by-elections.

Mr Gilani hails from a long line of honourable and religious leaders from Multan and boast a religious following perhaps more than his political credentials. He is in the process of destroying his heritage by not demonstrating a strong spine as a leader and standing up for morals that his elders upheld. His legacy is in danger of becoming that of a spineless front man of a globally recognised corrupt master, and whose job is to clear up litter thrown around by corrupt stooges of Mr. Zardari.

Who kidnapped Colonel Imam?

It has makings of a script for a Hollywood movie but since the main character hails from Pakistan and has been an operative of the much loved Inter Services Intelligence Agency of Pakistan, this might not become a reality.

I got interested in this story in February reading the Times Online piece about retired Brigadier Amir Sultan Tarar, well known as Colonel Imam. The article gave credit to Colonel Imam to be the main man who single handedly ran the Mujahidin insurgency against the Soviet Union.

As a top agent for the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, Colonel Imam recruited, trained and armed almost every one of Afghanistan’s prominent insurgents and warlords during the 1980s. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ahmed Shah Massoud and Jalaluddin Haqqani were all his charges or colleagues at one time.

He escorted Charlie Wilson, the Texan congressman who funnelled millions of dollars to the Mujahidin, into Afghanistan three times and once took the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, then the CIA’s Deputy Director, to a Mujahidin camp near the border.

It is only when I saw a grainy photograph of three ISI operatives, who have allegedly been kidnapped by Taliban sympathisers in the North West tribal region of Pakistan, I realised that one of the victims is none other than Colonel Imam himself. Reportedly Taliban hostage takers are asking for release of three key Taliban leaders recently arrested by Pakistani law enforcement agencies.

According to daily Telegraph Colonel Imam believed that

only direct dialogue between the Afghan authorities and Mullah Omar himself, without the interference of the Americans, could end the conflict [in Afghanistan]

Since leaving the ISI, Colonel Imam

has styled himself as a human rights campaigner. He has defended al-Qaeda suspects and fought attempts to extradite Mullah Baradar to Afghanistan.

It is the same Mullah Baradar that his captors want to be released in exchange for his life.

The story is still unfolding and it is hard to say whether it is really Taliban who have taken Colonel Imam hostage. According to daily Telegraph Colonel Imam along with other ISI operatives was taken [by whom] at the request of the American intelligence service as he travelled through Pakistan's lawless tribal belt. In the meanwhile, I am going to watch Charlie Wilson's war to see whether Colonel Imam featured in the Hollywood version of events two decades ago.

Full text of Report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Having spent millions of Pounds (that Pakistan doesn't have) and over two years late Pakistan is now abuzz with findings (or lack of) in the report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The report is a catalogue of incompetence of law enforcement personnel and agencies, callousness of ruling Junta at the time, and ineptness of those responsible for Mrs. Bhutto's personal security - now responsible for overall internal security of Pakistan.

Unfortunately the report does nothing more than providing an independently verified catalogue of what independent Pakistani media has been saying all along.

Though Baitullah Mehsud was immediately singled out as the mastermind behind her assassination and duly killed himself, the report highlights that real masterminds are still at large. For those interested in detail the report is a good read and available here.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa - what the fuss is all about

I have been watching with bemusement the rumpus in the political circles in Pakistan caused by discussions around renaming of the North West Frontier Province - a name which does not represent anything other then a effigy of the British Raj in India.

Right wing media in Pakistan, including my personal favourite daily newspaper Nawa-e-Waqt that I grew up reading has been up in arms at the thought of the province being named Pakhtunkhwa - reminding the audiences that this is in some way giving in to the long dead Pashtun nationalist leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's demands who wanted independence for NWFP and having failed to see that happen continued another struggle to get the province named as Pakhtunkhwa.

I am failing to understand that if the province inhabited by majority of Punjabi speaking Punjabis is called Punjab, that of Sindhi speaking Sindhis is called Sind, that of Balochi speaking Blauchs is called Baluchistan and that of Kashmiri speaking Kashmiris is called Kashmir then what is the harm in shedding the legacy of the Raj and calling NWFP - a province of Pashtu speaking Pakhtun majority as Pakhtunistan.

Worth noting that I am not, in anyway suggesting splitting up the country in small unmanagable provinces split on linguistic lines. It is worth acknolwedging that in Punjab the number or real Punjabi speakers is not more than 75.23% and the second bigger lingistic group Saraiki speakers (17.36%) have for quite some time been raising their voices for a provincial status. Similarly in Sind only 59.73% of the population speaks Sindhi, while 21.05% speaks Urdu - and they have in the past raised similar voices for a provincial status for Karachi. In Baluchistan 54.76% people speak Balochi compared to 29.64% Pashto speakers.

There are already protests in Hazara region where speakers of other languages are unhappy at the naming of the province as Khyber-Pakhtunkwa. At the moment various political parties are being compelled to back the demand for Hazara province in view of the growing support for the idea. Lets not go down that road.

Are Pakistan's nuclear weapons safe from the Americans?

Speaking to the New York Times President Obama has confirmed that he is confident that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is safe from Al-Qaeeda.

Q. When you came to office, President Bush had just spent five years working with the Pakistanis to try to secure their weapons. I think we spent about $100 million on a U.S. program to help them go do that. My impression, covering the Bush administration, people were unsatisfied with the results of that by the time you came to office. What can you tell us that you’ve done specifically ——

A. I’m not going to — - I’m not going to talk about the details of Pakistan’s nuclear--

Q. O.K. Can you tell us if you now feel more assured than you were when you came to office, that those are safe from Al Qaeda, from the Taliban?

A. I feel confident that Pakistan has secured its nuclear weapons. I am concerned about nuclear security all around the world, not just in Pakistan but everywhere.

And so my sense is that in every country, we constantly have to find ways that we can further improve our approach. And as I said, right now, one of my biggest concerns has to do with the loose nuclear materials that are still floating out there. It is — it remains more likely that a threat arises because of some smuggled HEU or plutonium than that a terrorist organization obtains a fully built nuclear weapon.

And so we’ve got to guard against that, and that’s exactly why this nuclear summit is so important.

For common Pakistanis this confirmation from president Obama has raised alarm bells. Is Pakistani nuclear arsenal safe from America? Care to comment General Kayani (note I am not asking president Zardari)