Lawmakers misuse their authorities against ministers:Ibrahimi

Transcription

Eye on the News
TUESDAY
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JUNE 28 2016 -Sartan 08, 1395 HS
Vol:X Issue No:327 Price: Afs.15
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AT News Report
MAIMANA : First Vice-President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum
on Monday lashed out at President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, saying the two leaders remained rivals
despite a 50\50 power sharing in
the government while his part was
missing. Dostum expressed these
views late on Sunday in northwestern Faryab province after wrapping up a clearing offensive against
insurgents in Dawlatabad district.
He complained the president and
the CEO did not materialise pledges they had made with him. Dostum, who was unhappy with President Ghani’s two years of rule,
had earlier stated that one leader
should lead the government another stay in opposition. Leader of
his own faction, Junbish-i-Milli
Islami party, the VP said there was
no coordination among security
10 Daesh
fighters killed
in Nangarhar
AT News Report
KABUL: At least 10 Daesh fighters were killed in an airstrike in
eastern Nangarhar province, officials said Monday. “Ten Daesh
including intelligence in charge of
the group for Kot district were
killed in an airstrike in Kot district,” said Spokesman Provincial
Governor Spokesman Ataullah
Khogiani, identifying the intelligence in charge as Abu Saeed. He
said that 18 other Daesh fighters
were injured through the airstrike
conducted in Sepai and Janjal
Ghonda areas of the district. In
order to eliminate Daesh in the
Kot district, ground operations
and airstrikes are going on seriously in the district. Meanwhile,
provincial governor Salim Khan
Kunduzi said of well preparation
of Afghan forces in the province
for defeating Daesh in Kot district. He said that following President’s order all possible means
will be utilized to bust Daesh in
Kot district. Governor said that
till dater Janjal Ghonda area was
cleared from Daesh fighters.
Some 90 houses torched and 500
families displaced in recent Daesh
attacks in Kot district, he underlined.
Terror plot
foiled in Kunar
AT News Report
KABUL: The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Monday that it thwarted a terror plot
in Kunar province. Intelligence
operatives arrested a would-be
suicide bomber in Asadabad city,
the provincial capital, it said in a
statement. The would-be bomber
was named Hafizur Rahman, who
planned to conduct suicide attack
in a crowded area in Asadabad city.
The detained indict during primary investigation confessed that he
had received military training by
Panjabi insurgents in Peshawar of
Pakistan. In a separate operation
NDS forces discovered and confiscated thousands of explosive
wicks placed in a Dayna vehicle
in Soki district of Kunar province.
forces and the two main security
institutions --- the Defence Ministry and Interior Ministry --- were
split by the 50\50 power sharing
deal. “My role and place is not visible in the current government formation. I came with vote and have
a mandate. We have diplomatic relations with 174 countries, at least
my people should be appointed in
10 embassies and the deputy ministerial posts of defence and interior ministry were our rights,” said
the former warlord. “The government was trying to defame me and
repeated the mistakes made by previous governments. Whatever Allah blessed me with, nobody could
took it away from me,” said Dostum. He lamented most rural parts
of the country were being administered by Pakistan and the current
Afghan government was involved
political wrangling. He said the
KABUL: Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said the National
Unity Government was in full
swing to bring reforms in the country’s electoral bodies aiming to
ensure transparent and free elections. “Discussion on full card
over the implementation of the reforms,” Abdullah addressed the
cabinet’s weekly meeting held
Monday. Hinting to the Torkham
issue, he said that the foreign minister discussed the issue with Pakistani officials at the sidelines of
the Shanghai Summit. He added
that the foreign minister would
soon inform officials in Kabul regarding meeting with Pakistani officials over Torkham issue. “Rabbani would also brief us about the
‘fifth column’ and individuals and
circles afraid of fighting and facing
the Taliban in the battle-field were
conspiring against him and accusing him of spreading ethnic war in
the northern part of the country.
The first vice-president said he
was born in the north, raised in the
north and promoted to power with
public vote, so he could not remain silent when the people of the
north suffered from cruelty of Taliban and Daesh. He said the doors
of peace talks were open for Afghan Taliban but puppets and ISI
contractors would be expelled from
the country and would be chased
until the border. He said during the
just concluded offensive, Taliban’s
shadow district chief Mullah Mer
Dad and tens of others were killed
and several others arrested and
their weapons captured.
(Pajhwok)
57 insurgents killed
in operations
AT Monitoring Desk
Law makers misuse their
authorities against
ministers: Ibrahimi
By Akhtar M. Nikzad
KABUL: Speaker of Wolesi Jirga
(WJ) or Lower House of the Parliament claimed that a number of
lawmakers usually misuse their legitimate authorities in interpellation of ministers. Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, Speaker of WJ in Monday’s
plenary session said that some
MPs collected signatures from
lawmakers aiming to interpellate
negligent ministers, but they actually obliged their proposed ministers to bow for their illegal demands. “We are exhausted of the
issue, the form is taken from administrative board of WJ to collect the MPs’ signatures, but it is
dealt with ministers,” he mentioned. He termed the illegal mistreatment of the lawmakers a great
disloyalty against parliament dignity and people’s aspirations.
According to the Constitution,
lawmakers have the right to interpellate the negligent ministers, but
before all, MPs need to have at
least 50 signatures of the lawmakers and send it back to the administrative board within three days.
In the same time, Abdul Satar
Khwasi, member of parliament,
claimed that one lawmaker collects
signatures of others and take it to
his considered ministers and
warned him. “You are interpellated if you d not answer to my
orders the form would be handed
over to the administrative board.”
“When the minister awarded of
the matter, he calls to every MPs
separately and dissuade them from
their decision by any possible
manners” he asserted. Ramazan
Bashar Dost, another MP who
always points fingers of criticism
at dealer MPs asked the Speaker
of WJ to reveal the names of the
lawyers who misuse from their
legal authorities for personal benefits. He claimed MPs always
misuse their legal rights in different manners and the issue result-
ed that the ministers remained negligence toward the parliament.
Speaker of the WJ ordered to the
relevant commission to provide a
particular draft for the nature of interpellation of the ministers in a bit
to no lawyers can misuse from their
legitimate authorities against ministers.
The civil society had earlier criticized about nepotism in engagement of employees, absentness,
and grabbing of contracts by lawmakers.
Five insurgents
killed in mine blast
AT News Report
KABUL: Five Taliban insurgents
were killed and eight others wounded as a mine they were planting in
a mosque, went off in Paktia province, officials said Monday.
“The incident happened in the
Sayed Karam district,” Ministry of
Interior said in a statement.
No civilian casualties were reported in the blast.
In a separate report, three mine
planters were killed by their own
explosives while they were planting a roadside bomb in Kach Qala
village of Sayed Abad district in
Wardak province. Taliban mostly
concentrate on suicide attacks and
mine plantings on the roadsides and
public areas, which deems as one
of the main cause for civilian casualties across the country.
Shanghai Summit.” He also briefed
ministers about the upcoming
Warsaw Summit, terming the summit key for the country as international community will announce
their supports to Afghanistan. “We
are getting ready for the summit,”
he said, asserting that NATO
member states would ensure their
support for the Afghan security
forces. “Afghan government would
also do some commitments to the
world in the summit.” “It is very
important for the Afghan security
forces to receive US troops’ support in the battleground,” he stated.
Moreover, he termed the resumption of the US forces’ airstrikes and
other additional support to Afghan
forces as a significant tool in fight
against insurgent.
Two Afghan
nationals killed in
Malam Jabba
SWAT: Security forces on Monday claimed to have killed two
foreign militants during an armed
clash in Malam Jabba, a scenic
valley.
During a search operation, the
security forces gunned down two
men while a security personal
was also injured in the exchange
of fire. The identity of the slain
militants was not disclosed immediately. On condition, some security officials said that the militants hailed from Afghanistan and
they were planning to carry out a
sabotage act in the area.
(dailytimes)
TALIBAN
COMMANDER
JOINS PEACE
PROCESS WITH
65 COMRADES
IN FARYAB
AT News Report
KABUL: A key commander of the
Taliban along with his 65 fighters,
renounced violence and joined the
peace process in northern Faryab
province.
This comes aimed at ongoing
military operations led by First
Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum to suppress militants
in the province.
In a media statement, the vice
president office, said that Taliban
commander Rahimadad and his
fighters surrendered to the Afghan
security forces in Khwajah Sabzposh district on Sunday evening.
Welcoming them, Gen. Dostum said that the militants laid
down arms to help bring peace and
stability in the country.
Meanwhile, the office of the
vice president, said that at least 115
Taliban insurgents renounced violence by laying down arms in Astana Baba and Dast-e-Laili areas
of the same province.
It is worth mentioning that Gen
Dostum is currently in battlefield
to suppress militants in Faryab
province.
Earlier, Gen Dostum had
launched military operation in order to motivate Faryab security
forces in fight against insurgency.
In that time, he was in full military uniform and seen driving in a
tank as he joined security forces
on patrol in Almar district in northern Faryab province as part of his
drive to motivate security forces.
He also paid visit to a number
of outposts to support the military forces and told them that “I
am with you.”
Gen. Dostum termed Taliban
and other insurgent groups, puppets to foreigners and said if the
fight security forces, they would
be eliminated.
He also lauded the all-out efforts of the Afghan security forces
in order to restore peace and stability in the war-torn country.
KABUL: Fifty-seven Taliban
fighters were killed and 60 others
were wounded in different crackdowns within past 24 hours, officials said Monday.
In a press release issued here,
Ministry of Defense said that Afghan National Army with the cooperation of the Afghan National
Police and the National Directorate of Security conducted operations against insurgents in different areas of Nangarhar, Wardak,
Khost, Paktia, Logar, Kandahar,
Uruzgan, Farah, Sar-e-Pul, Faryab, Takhar and Helmand provinces. “In these operations, 57 rebels
including two Taliban commander
and 12 Daesh fighters were killed
and 60 others including 20 Daesh
were injured,” the statement said.
One rebel was arrested and handed over to judicial organs for further inquiry, according to the statement. The army also discovered
and confiscated weapons and ammunition in the operations.
“Unfortunately, seven army
soldiers were martyred in the operations.”
Atmar asks security
officials to retaliate
Daesh attack
AT News Report
KABUL: The National Security
Adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar
ordered security officials to retaliate the terrorist attack of Daesh in
the Kot district of Nangarhar province.
Via a video conference, Atmar
ordered military officials of Nangarhar province to take all possible resources for elimination of terrorist Daesh militants there.
He spoke with Nangarhar governor, police chief, political leaders and tribal elders and ordered to
spare no effort against routing out
of the terrorist militants in this
province. A statement issued on
Monday to the media said that
Atmar discussed the current security situation of Kot district with
officials of 201st Silab Corps, provincial police Chief and representative of Nangarhar in the parliament.
Atmar presented his heartfelt
condolences to the families of the
victims and stressed that they sacrificed for protection of their national sovereignty and their name
would remain permanent in the
history of the country.
He asked the military forces
to change Kot district to a cemetery for Daesh fighters and revenge
of their loving countrymen.
69: 43
68: 03
76: 78
74:78
.
TUESDAY JUNE 28, 2016
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Afghanistan’s Destiny and the Eastern Yalda Kabiri
Former interpreter starts
Pashtoons (1880-1980)
over as she opens day care,
Chapter Four
The Grow th of Socio-Political Struggle in the Afghan East before the Uprising
In the debates the stress was
on the construction of schools and
hospitals, uti1isation of wealth of
people for productive purposes,
struggle against smuggling and
hoarding, the extraction of beneficial material like barites and selling
it to Pakistan, introduction of new
agricultural crops for gainful occupation of people like planting tea
in Kunar. Three MPs demanded
the lifting of emergency from Paktia caused by the disruption of
normal tribal life in Paktia and the
Pak-Afghan tense situation.
Despite all the social hypocrisy and deception of the people,
which had coloured the discussion
of the representatives of rich classes and segments in the parliament,
the parliamentary debates of the
1969-1971 provided an opportunity of seeing the real problems
that had been the cause of concern
for the people of TR prior to uprising and interlinked with the backwardness of the areas of abode of
the eastern Pashtoons. It is also
worth mentioning that contrary to
the past, this time the social discontentment was reflected even in
the speeches of MPs divorced
from the people. This time the attention was not merely given to
the schools, hospitals and roads,
against the interference of central
authority, revenue collection and
military conscription, but to the
struggle against smuggling and enhancement of living conditions,
reduction of social and class contradictions as precondition. In our
view, it also reflected the improvement of social consciousness and
alignment of political forces of the
TR.
There was no markable difference in the speeches of the above
mentioned MPs from the speeches of representatives of the other
provinces of Afghanistan, including of Hazarajat, Badakhshan,
Nimroz and other far-off corners
of the country. In other words the
socio-economic problems in the
area of the eastern Pashtoons and
those of other provinces remained
similar.
It became increasingly obvious
in 1960s that decades were needed
to solve actual socio-economic
problems of the Afghan society.
The preliminary shapes of capital
accumulation i.e. the capital of
trade and usury known for its debasement.48, and similarly the
weak state capital and poor private investment in the cities indicated the insufficient scale of resources for accelerated victory of
capitalism in Afghanistan. The lower level of capital accumulation did
not provide the ground for required
scale of development for productive forces and could not provide
employment to many people in
city and in agricultural sector. As a
result, a big chunk of workforce
went to Pakistan and Iran in the
beginning of 1970s. The semi feudal remnants and the conservative
nature of trade and usury capital
were forming objective ground for
the crisis at national level and this
crisis also encompassed the superstructure in 1960s. The monarchy
was trying to push the Afghan society on capitalist way of development with reforms from above.
But the landlord ownership on
land and water, usury, the egoistic
trade capital, bureaucracy and such
other social chains were putting
obstacles to her efforts. Under
such conditions, hard struggle was
going on there between the supporters of different models of social development, above all between the left radical democrats
and religious circles. This struggle
filled the political process in the
TR with new content and changed
this area into a field of new social
movements.
The threat emerged from the
eastern provinces, was more felt
at the time of 1966 when on the
call of Senator Mohammad Hashem
Mujaddidi, who had returned from
his tour to Kandahar, Ghazni and
Mehtarlam. The religious personalities demanded the government
to ban the publication organ of
PDPA,” Khalq”, imprison the party leaders for the sin of breaking
the pillars of Islam. Parliament
and Attorney General Office
backed the mullahs’ demand and
‘“Khalq” news paper was
proscribed.49During 1967-1969
many clashes took place between
the lumpen elements provoked by
mullahs and the left-wing demonstrators in the big cities of TR.
They were accusing PDPA supporters of infidelity and proliferators of ‘anti-national ideology imported from abroad’. In the spring
of 1970, on the occasion of 100th
birth anniversary of Lenin, mullahs and mashaikhs staged biggest
demonstrations in Mazar and Kabul as reaction to an unwise misleading tribute to him in the Parcham journal, which were continuing under the slogans of jihad
against the ‘renegades and communist agents’ demanding banning the
journal of PDPA, “Parcham”. Bismillah from among the group of
Laghman mullahs played an active role in it and they even
accused King and Mujaddidi family of treachery to Islam. 50 After
his incarceration along with some
other mullahs, the rebellion spread
to Ghazni and Jalalabad assuming
explosive dimensions.51. Some of
the glimpses of these incidents are
enough to expose the tactics of the
rightist forces for organising the
demonstrations in the TR used
against the government.
Before anything else, it is to
be pointed out that the top religious families who had strong ties
with monarchy were not openly
involved in those demonstrations.
The organising role in them was
played by lower and medium level clergy and the same may be said
about some leaders of Shinwaris,
who were unhappy with measures
of the government against the
smuggling trade. On 27 May 1970,
they pulled together about five
thousand peasants, small businessmen of the city, craftsmen and others under the leadership of village
mullahs in front of the big city
mosque and with raising Islamic
slogans. They provoked and stimulated demonstrates to loot the
public buildings, guest houses for
foreign guests, book shops, cinemas and girls schools. The endeavours of police to quell the protest
demonstrations resulted in clashes causing the army to come out
with tanks and armoured cars,
blocking all roads leading to city
and tightening the Pakistan-Afghanistan border security. But in
spite of this, the chaos continued
in the areas near the city. Mullahs
incited the people of the surrounding villages to burn the Ghaziabad
farm. But after the army resorted
to strong arm tactics that uproar
subsided and order returned to the
province. The clashes between the
army and demonstrators resulted
into the killing of 13 mullahs with
a few soldiers killed or wounded.
The government was able to
put down the rebellion swiftly.
This incidence did not assume the
form of government clash with the
tribes as to the one happen in the
first half of 20th century. On 30th
May, it was officially stated that a
special delegation under the deputy interior minister, A. M. Alkozai,
with plenipotentiary powers went
to Jalalabad to probe the incident
and punish the culprits.52. Besides, the active inciters of chaos
from among the religious groups
were jailed. Sometimes later the
Parcham journal was banned and
in this way the religious opposition achieved its aim.
The Jalalabad uprising was not
yet subsided fully that the Laghman religious extremists shook the
Afghan society with their bloody
action. On 25th October 1970, the
extremists attacked peaceful protest demonstration of youth in the
city of Mehtarlam and cut to pieces active member of the PDPA
Abdurrahman in front of the police. (According to press he was a
member of “Parcham” and also a
member of the local city administration) and injured some of his
comrades. According to M.S
Mubarez, one of the wounded students of 12th class at that time, the
extremists were chasing the demonstrators in the whole city and
were accusing them of treachery
with Islam and breaking the religious principles. They also accused
them of walking bare-headed. According to some news of the press
the organiser of the incident was a
man known to be Pakistani mullah, whose father and wife lived in
Pakistan.53 In this regard, the
press attaché of Pakistan embassy in Kabul, M.E. Sethi, rejected
the allegation of Pakistani involvement in the incident in his letter to
Karwan newspaper. The letter
said, “the allegation as if Pakistan
was in one way or other abettor of
conflicts in Afghanistan is regrettable, since Pakistan has all along
been trying to establish brotherly
relations with its neighbour”.54
But the view of the Afghan revolutionaries was different. For example, regarding the death of Abdul Rehman and the support of
involvement of Pakistani mullah in
the suppression of peaceful demonstration, the Daily Rozgar paid
attention to the publication of antiAfghan Islamic-reactionary material and its import to Afghanistan.
The newspaper asked the reasons
of the action of the said neighbouring country. “ First of all Pakistan
wants to submerge Afghanistan in
her problems and in this way
achieve the opportunity to easily
dissolve Pushtoonistan issue in
herself favour and wipe out freedom struggle there.”55
The same year a big clash took
place between the supporters of
progressive ideology and the reactionary elements, who were led by
mullahs in Zurmat district of Paktia province. The disorder resulted into injuring of 25 students of
the Middle School.
The political circumstances of
the new clashes between left and
right political groups showed that
social chaos in Paktia was on the
rise. Such incidents did take place
in other provences of the country
these years, but they were not so
much bloody as those in the eastern provinces. According to press
reports prior to uprising, the political centre of religious extremists was Jalalabad and their influence was fast spreading in Paktia.56 A few objectives can be separated with regard to assessment
of various subversive activities of
Islamists in the TR during the last
few years before uprising:
1.
Resistance to the
strength of the left democratic organisations, especially of the
PDPA in the area.
2.
Establishment of the
social base of support of the Ikhwan movement in the eastern frontier areas.
3.
Defaming the usefulness
and impact of Afghan-Soviet cooperation before the eyes of the
people that has started giving practical results in the TR since the
end of 1940s.
4.
Finding out ways and
means to create a situation whereby the attention of the Afghan government is diverted away from
Pashtunistan problem and the Afghan tribal area is turned into a
trustworthy base of Pakistan military and Islamists groups.
At the same time, there were
preparations going on to use warlike peculiarities of some of the
Afghan tribes in 60s-70s for struggle against the progressive and
people’s forces of Afghanistan and
Pakistan and similarly to ward off
the development of their increasing cooperation. In order to
achieve the above objectives, the
Ikhwan extremists used all ways
and means including covert arms
shipment to tribes, active propaganda campaign, management of
valuable trade relations of particular tribal leaders with investors
across the Durand Line, enrolling
their children and relatives in the
religious and military schools of
Pakistan and trafficking the drugs,
weapons, precious stones, foreign
exchange and others. It must be
indicated that most of the leaders
of extreme aggressive Islamist
groups directly or indirectly received income from such business,
a part of which was being used to
finance the subversive activities
inside Afghanistan.
The republican regime of Mohammad Daoud Khan 1973-1978,
which initially depended upon
both factions of the PDPA, was in
direct conflict with the prominent
frontier circles and the interest of
the inhabitants of the said areas.
The endeavours of the state to
frame laws for the enhancement of
direct taxation, the progressive
system of land revenue based on
increasing rate on increased acreage, increased role of state in the
commercial and economic sphere,
discouragement of smuggling and
foreign exchange hoarding, augmentation of control over borders
and especially the custom control,
promotion of road construction
within the TR, currency of distributing national identity cards to the
inhabitants, further organisation of
koochis’ activity and such other
measures reflected a new stage in
the centralisation policy. By nationalising all jungles and similarly
the dissolution of parliament depriving the tribal chieftains from
the lucrative parliamentary posts,
1977 constitution directly contradicted the interests of tribesmen.57
In this regard during the republican stage, the movement of Islamic extremists was continuously expanding and increasingly assumed the shape of preparation for
a military coup for the sake of establishing pro-Pakistan Islamist
administration. The links of all
those conspiracies which had been
investigated by the security apparatus of Mohammad Daoud Khan,
reached in one way or another to
the frontier areas and then to Pakistan. Some of the Ikhwan leaders,
which included Burhanuddin Rabbani, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Ahmad Shah Masud, Younas Khalis
and others, had taken refuge in
Pakistan. Even in 1975, they had
set up hideouts and ammunition
dumps in the tribal area under the
control of Pakistan and had trained
about five thousand fighters named
as jihadist vanguards over two
years.58Slowly and gradually arms
were being smuggled to Afghan TR.
For instance, the investigation into
one of the plots in 1974 showed
that such a big arms depot was set
up in the house of Fazal Omar
Mujaddidi in Jalalabad, the weapons were meant for Islamic
resistance.59There was proliferation in the volume of propaganda
of Islamists and Ikhwans amid the
tribes. Not only the mosque pulpits were used for such propaganda, but published material printed
in Pakistan, Iran, Arab and European countries were also distributed among the students, teachers,
officials and military personnel.
Their slogans were: Mohammad
Daoud’s regime is un-Islamic as it
was reached to power with the
help of PDPA and it was puppet
of Soviet Union and its agents. His
regime was imprisoning and exe-
cuting the Islamists and even in the
past Mohammad Daoud was taking ruthless measures against the
tribes, especially against Sapis,
and, therefore, his laws were not
of use to the people of Paktia,
Paktika, and Kunar.60 . The
well organised and equipped antigovernment rebellion in Panjsher
on 21 July , 1975 was coordinated with the attacks on government
departments in Paktia, Paktika,
Laghman, Jalalabad, Kunar, Badakhshan and other areas of the tribal belt.61 The state military units
quickly suppressed various uprisings of reaction with the help of
tanks and helicopters, but the activity of reaction had not only been
weakened, it escalated ever more
and was incorporating around
its axis conservatives, monarchists
and military circles. Besides, the
terrorist activities against the
PDPA activists increased.62
Moreover, after the overthrow
of monarchy and due to the emergency imposed by Daoud Khan
immediately after his coup d’état
which continued till March 1977,
the PDPA activities in the eastern
areas had also been complicated.
But despite it, the PDPA was increasing its propaganda among the
military units and even spread
statements of pro-Pashtunistan
character.
During the Republican Period,
the contacts between the democratic movements of Afghanistan
and Pakistan were also expanded.
Daoud himself encouraged the proPashtunistan propaganda in initial
years as he was using it to strengthen his position among the army
and Pashtoon intelligentsia. With
the active backing of leftists in his
regime, he agreed to host Baluch
resistance fighters and grant refuge to them and other thousands
Baluch families who had run away
from the oppressive policy of Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto in the southern province
of Baluchistan.63
In 1975, Daoud Khan became
fearful of the escalation of activities of the Islamist forces and the
enhancement of the PDPA influence. He assumed more moderate
positions in the internal and external policy. The interest of stability of his regime and the slogan of
the PDPA with regard to solidarity with the struggle of Pashtoons
and Baluchs came into conflict and
pushed him towards closeness
with ruling circles of Pakistan. In
reality he agreed to the ‘honourable resolution’ of Pashtunistan
issue, tried to throw away Baluchs
from the territory of Afghanistan,
removed leftists from government
posts, escalated the surveillance of
PDPA and adopted such other related measures.
As a result of the above discussed factors and reasons, there
was a sharp polarization among the
political forces in TR and based
on it a prognosis and social chaos
on the eve of revolution was expected. Under the circumstances
that religious forces had also gone
through the experience of subversive terrorist activities in the country, had stockpiled some modern
weapons and had put up some pillars and secret hideouts near the
border with Pakistan, thus they
rightly analysed the customs and
psychology of the people and had
established links with intelligence
agencies of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia
and even with CIA. But the influence of PDPA and other democratic
forces was weak in the eastern areas. Their impact was mostly felt
in the urban areas. The long time
anti-communist campaign amid
tribes which had been augmented
by the rich experience of clergy and
the ideological support of Pakistan, and similarly, the years of
sharp struggle of accusations and
counteraccusations between Parcham and Khalq, had created hurdle in a segment of people of TR
to accept the ideology propagated
by the PDPA.
We can say that the problem
of the TR before uprising had been
in the fact that it had no strong
link with the Afghan State. The
powerful remnants of the tribal
structure had been maintained
there. Moreover, the impact of
domestic and external factors was
stronger upon its inhabitants and
the TR had special significance for
the security of Afghan state and
economic condition. One of the
peculiarities of this region is its
military strategic value. Because
this region is situated along the
common border of two countries
and is the transit route from near
east to the south Asia. For the landlocked Afghanistan, the TR is the
pathway to the markets of India,
Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and
other important countries.
It is the channel for most imported and aid economic goods
from west and the traditional route
to seasonal abode in Pakistan of
the Afghan koochis. This area is a
bridge between down and up Pashtoons or to be more correct a
link joining the eastern and western Pashtoons’ land. The fact that
Kabul does not recognise this line
as international boundary, also
imparts this area significance and
it has turned into an historic dispute between the two countries,
assuming hostile dimensions so
many times over the years.
Under such conditions, the
governments of both countries
were getting opportunity to influence each other at the opportune
moment and incited the tribal border factor which is the hurting
wound for Kabul and Islamabad
.64 Reference:
1. Until the coup of 1973, the
Muhmmadzai dynasty (Durrani)
was in power.
2. For example, in 1909 the
people of Laghman being angry
with the oppressive policy of the
local ruler, revolted and in the process of rebellion the ruler (governor) was murdered. But despite the
severe penalty which Amir imposed on the Laghman province,
in the March of next year another
ruler was assassinated along with
seven bodyguards. The cause of
the disturbance at this time was
the directive of the rulers to recruit 400 Laghmanis to the cavalry and afterwards the imprisonment of prominent tribal chiefs of
some tribes. In 1910, Andar tribe
near Ghazni rose against the government. The cause of the uprising was the effort of the officials
to collect revenue from the people
in the shape of money, while in
the past they used to pay it by
their production. The army sent
by Amir to the locality, took eighty
people as captives and executed
fifteen of them. Andars were also
severely fined in cash . In Febrnary
1911, Mangals and Zadrans, who
were unhappy over the pro-British policy of Ami r, created chaos
and expelled the local ruling agents.
To restore law and order an envoy
was sent from Kabul to Paktia and
six platoons were brought in on
stand by orders for war. (The Collection of Information by the
Turkestan Military Zone Headquarters about the Neighbouring
Countries, Vol. 12, 1901, p. 16; 46 volumes, 1910, pp.44-45; Vol.
4, 191 1, p. 2)
3. Those days the practice was
to seek the support of the other
tribes in suppressing the revolt to
utilise the services of spiritual or
temporal personalities loyal to
Kabul. Amir sent envoys to Logar, Laghman, Ghazni and other
provinces to prevent any revolt on
the part of the inhabitants. The
loyal religious and feudal heads
supported the Army in the expeditions. For instance, the Tagav
tribal lashkar was accompanied by
Akhundzada Sayed Gul Tagavi, the
Kunar tribal lashkar was headed
by the son of Kunar malik, Mir
Zaman Khan and Zadran tribal
groups were led by Babrak Khan,
the protector of valleys.
4.; About the en masse migration of the people in 1896 from
British India against the burden of
taxes, see: Hasan Kawon…, p. 19.
Under the same pretext, seventy
families migrated to India from Jalalabad in 1908. Also see the Turkestan Military Zone reports, volume 4, 1911, p. 14. About the
complaint of the people of Jalalabad on forced labour imposed by
regional officials on them. 5 .Ludwig Adamec, Who is who in Afghanistan, pp. 97, 224, 277 6 .K.E.
Sokolov-Strakhov, p. 17 7
.Vanchenka, Armed Forces of Afghanistan, Moscow-Leningrad,
1928 8. Iqbal Ali Shah, op. cit. p. 1
75. K.E. Sokolov-Strakhov write,
the alliance of these two powerful
groups, Ghiljis and Durranis,
saved the country. But coupled
with it, deepened the separation
between the two big confederations of tribes. Ibid. p. 18 9 .Lowel Thomas, op. cit., p. 209 10.
Iqbal Ali Shah, op. cit. P. 209 11.
Kargon, G., The Pages of Political
History in 20s and 30s of 20 Century of Afghanistan. Moscow,
1979, pp. 44-48 12 .Ali Ahmad
Khan, who was basically appointed by Shah to crush the insurgency of Shinwaris, started negotiations with the tribes for his (Amanullah Khan) own election as King.
In November 1929, when the capital was in the hands of Bacha
Saqao, Khugianis and Ghiljis declared him as king. But his failed
attempt on capturing the capital
resulted in his flight to India. But
when he returned to Kabul, the new
king Nadir Shah arrested and blew
him by cannon. Ghousuddin betrayed Amanullah Khan in the support of Bacha Saqao. In April
1929, the armed groups of Ghiljis
defeated the tribal lashkar of Nadir Khan, but could not consolidate his victory. At the end of 1929,
Ghousudd in fled to India and on
the Nadir Khan’s demand was
probably expelled to Burma. 13.
Davidov, The Agricultural Structure of Afghanistan - Stages of its
Development, Moscow, 1967, p.
79 14.Nadir Shah utilised the tribal lashkar in exterminating the chaos in the north of Kabul.See: The
History of Afghanistan, published
under the editorship of Y. V Gankovosky, Moscow, 1982, pp. 124,
24215. Ibid, p. 242
goes to college
Yalda Kabiri, 27, was an interpreter for U.S. Armed Forces medical
personnel for five years in Afghanistan. She was one the few female
interpreters. She said she was often taunted and threatened as she taxied
or carpooled from her village to the base. In 2013, while she was six
months pregnant with her second child, Kabiri was granted a visa to
come to the U.S. She had no friends or relatives here. “I wanted to go to
California,” she said, “because I heard there were a lot of Afghans.”
Yalda Kabiri describes how she ducked for cover when she heard
gunshots outside her window in Sacramento last summer while
cooking. “We were afraid when they were shooting that bullets
would come inside our house,” she said. Children attending her
day care center gaze out of the window. She worries about what
the children see.
Yalda Kabiri and her husband, Zabihullah Najem, listen to a
worker from Sacramento County explain why she hasn’t been
reimbursed for the children enrolled in her day care. After several weeks, they were finally paid
Yalda Kabiri works on her college homework. In May, she completed her third semester at American River College but hasn’t
decided on a major. “I want to work with people to help them,”
she said. Three years later and still living in poverty, she and
her husband dream of a better life. “I wish the U.S. government
could provide us better housing,” she said. (sacbee)
Uruzgan’s former HPC
chief gunned down
TIRINKOT : A former High Peace
Council (HPC) head and tribal elder from central Uruzgan province
has been assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Tirinkot, an official said on Monday.
A security official, who wanted to go unnamed, told Pajhwok
Afghan News that ex-HPC Chairman Abdul Baqi was killed in the
Shah Zafar neighbourhood of the
provincial capital on Sunday.
He said Baqi was sitting in a
shop when unidentified gunmen
opened fire at him. The attackers
managed to escape, the source
added.Ezatullah Latifi, son of Baqi
and civil society activist, said his
father was killed a few meters from
the governor’s house.
He blamed security forces for
failing to arrest the attackers in the
heart of Tirinkot.Baqi had also
served as head of the provincial
public health committee of Uruzgan. (Pajhwok)
.
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
‘THIS CAN’T BE
AMERICA’ – A DOCTOR
IN AFGHANISTAN,
SHE’S STARTING AT
THE BOTTOM
Dr. Najia Mohib was walking her
daughter, Hila, 8, home from
school in May 2015 when she
was struck by a car.
The former obstetrician was
hit on a stretch of Edison Avenue
without sidewalks, not far from
where fellow refugee Mustafa
Rafi was killed two months later
while riding his bike with his son
Omar, who suffered severe brain
injuries.
The driver, who stopped to
help, told police that Mohib
stepped in front of his car, an account backed up by a witness.
The California Highway Patrol
concluded she had walked into the
road to avoid a ditch, and the driver
was not charged.
For Mohib, the accident underscored a lack of respect she
has felt since arriving in the United States. She spent three days in
the hospital.
She insisted that she was
walking in the bike lane. “I’m a
doctor; I’m not stupid!” she said,
sobbing. “I know where is the
street and where is the sidewalk.
The car was out of control and
hit me.” Mohib and her husband,
Mohibullah Stana (recently
changed from Stanizai), arrived in
Sacramento in September 2014.
They were placed in Skyview
Villa Apartments, an Arden Arcade apartment complex that has
had problems with crime and bug
Front-line Auckland staff say the
latest increase to the country's refugee quota is "an embarrassment".
In 2018 the refugee quota will
increase from 750 to 1000 people
a year.
This marks the first increase
since 1987 but AUT refugee education senior lecturer Maria Hayward says that number could be at
least 1500.
AUT refugee education senior
lecturer Maria Hayward says New
Zealand could easily accept at least
1500 refugees a year.
AUT refugee education senior
lecturer Maria Hayward says New
Zealand could easily accept at least
1500 refugees a year.
"This isn't coming into effect
until 2018 and refugees need help
now," she says. "It's almost embarrassingly small compared to the
rest of the world and what the rest
of the world is doing."
Every two months a new
wave of refugees comes through
the Mangere Refugee Resettlement
Centre. Muhammad and Shazie
Azim fled Afghanistan after civil
war broke out in 1992 .
The couple and their daughter
Masooma have been in New
Zealand five months, they moved
into their Mt Wellington home in
March.
"During the civil war our house
was destroyed by rockets and we
had to leave to Pakistan," Muhammad says.
"As a refugee we had no
rights." Despite running a successful rug business, Muhammad says
the risk of kidnapping and ransom
demands was too high
"Now we feel safe and we look
forward to how we can contribute
to society and one day give back
infestations. It’s the same complex
where Faisal Razmal, a former
translator, was shot in the eye with
a flare gun, and where Rafi lived
with his family.
Mohib said she didn’t feel safe
in Skyview. She said a man with a
knife once approached her and demanded money as she went to pick
up her mail.
Her husband, an architect and
translator, shared his wife’s frustration. He worked with coalition
forces for six years helping design
buildings for the new Afghan security forces, but couldn’t find a
job for eight months after they arrived. Bit by bit, though, the couple made progress. Mohibullah
Stana found an engineering job that
pays $16 an hour. Najia Mohib obtained her driver’s license. The entire family changed their last name
to Stana, getting rid of the FNU
tag that had robbed them of their
full names on official documents.
On Nov. 23, the couple moved
out of Skyview Villa with their
three children to a new apartment
in Rancho Cordova.
Mohib (now Stana) broke into
a smile as she slipped behind the
wheel to drive out of the complex
for the last time. “It was not America at this complex,” she said.
“This can’t be America.”
The Bee’s Renée C. Byer contributed to this report.
(sacbee)
that support. We are very hopeful
for our children and their future."
Less than one per cent of the
65 million refugees or displaced
people worldwide are lucky
enough to be permanently re-settled in safe countries. The refugee
quota has remained the same for
almost 30 years despite New
Zealand's population having
grown by 40 per cent. The United
ISLAMABAD: Syria’s main opposition alliance is conveying serious concerns over Iran’s campaign of recruiting and training
thousands of Afghan men to fight
in Syria.
Officials in Afghanistan confirmed Sunday they have received
a letter expressing the concerns
from the Syrians.
The letter urges President
Ashraf Ghani to take urgent steps
to stop religiously-motivated exploitation of Afghans and discourage them from becoming part of
the Syrian conflict, a government
official told VOA on condition of
anonymity. He did not provide any
other details.
Afghan Foreign Ministry
spokesman Ahmad Shakeb Mustaghani told VOA that not only
through this letter, but through
other previous reports, the government is fully aware of activities of Afghans in Syria.
"Unfortunately, through nongovernmental organizations and
sometimes through official channels in countries where Afghan refugees are being hosted, the displaced population is forced to indulge in activities that are against
international norms and also beyond the control of the Afghan
government,” the spokesman lamented.
He said Kabul is looking into
the issue through the offices of the
U.N. refugee agency and other diplomatic channels. Afghans in Iran
There has been increasing evidence Tehran is recruiting men from
among an estimated three million
Afghans in Iran, with only about a
million Afghans having a formal
legal status as refugees the country. Many of the displaced families have fled persecution and
armed conflict in Afghanistan.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is
believed to be behind mobilization
of a multi-national Shi'ite Muslim
armed militia in support of embattled Syrian President Bashar alAssad.
The recruits are said to be
mostly from the improvised ethnic Hazara Shi’ite community who
are promised a monthly salary and
residence permits in exchange for
what Iranian authorities tell them
is a sacred mission to defend Shi’ite
holy shrines in Damascus from
Islamic State or Daesh.
Rights groups say that there
have also been instances of forced
deportations of Afghans who refused the offer. Many of the recruits, they say, fled the battlefield
and joined the refugee trail seeking
asylum in Europe.
In its report published earlier
this year, the Human Rights Watch
estimated that up to 10,000 Afghans may have been recruited and
trained to fight in Syria.
It said funerals for Afghans
killed in the fighting are frequently
held in Iran, sometimes attended
by Iranian officials.
(voanews)
Nations High Commission for
Refugees ranks New Zealand at
88th in the world per capita for
refugee resettlement. Hayward
says this reflects poor quantity
but not poor quality. "We have
great welcoming practices, really
good staff all over the country,
we've got really good programs,"
she says. "When you have a relationship with people who have
EMERGENCY
CALLS
Police
100 - 119
Hospitals
FMIC Hospital
Behind Kabul Medical
University:
0202500200-+93793275595
Rabia-i-Balkhi Hospital
Pule Bagh-e- Umomi
070263672
FILE - Workers wrap the bodies of dead fighters loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at a
morgue in Aleppo, Oct. 30, 2014. The opposition Free Syrian Army said it killed the men near
Aleppo city and that some of the dead had Iranian and Afghan nationalities.
40 Nepali
workers to return
from Afghanistan
Jun 26, 2016- Forty Nepali migrant workers employed at G4
Secure Solution in Afghanistan are
returning to Nepal on Sunday.
G4 is sending the Nepali workers back to Nepal following a deadly attack that resulted in the death
of 12 Nepalis in Kabul earlier on
Monday. The workers had been
demanding a sense of security and
a rise in salary after the attack.
According to Satyaraj Sapkota of Pokhara working in Afghanistan, 10 Nepalis are being sent
back to Nepal at 6:10am and the
other 30 at 9:30 am.
Sapkota further informed that
the Nepalis have only been said
lost trust in the very people they
should, it can be very testing.
"There's anxiety, sadness and nervousness on the first day and then
by the last day people are laughing and confident." The Azim family know they still have a long way
to go - mastering English and finding a job are just the beginning.
Muhammad says they would flailing without so much support. "It
that they are being sent back to
Nepal. “Our friends have not been
informed about the airport and how
they will fly back to Nepal. They
have only been told that they were
being flown to Nepal,” Sapkota
said.
According to Sapkota, the
workers are being sent through India. “They will reach Nepal at
10pm.”
The 40 Nepalis were involved
in manhandling the supervisor and
senior level Nepali security personnel last night. “We were scheduled to be sent back in a week, but
they decided to send us today because of the incident last night.”
helped us to open our eyes around
the New Zealand way of life."
Hayward says New Zealand's
isolation allows more regulated
approach to bringing in refugees.
"It's a huge relief just to have
an increase but nobody expected
things to get so bad so quickly. It's
not the same international situation that we had five years ago."
(stuff)
Gamechanging
w eek looms
for ICC
Big decisions to be made as the
ICC's annual conference gets underway in Edinburgh The future
of international cricket could be
transformed this week, as the
most significant ICC annual conference in recent years gets underway in Edinburgh on Monday. Delegates from more than
50 cricket nations will arrive in
Scotland for six days of talks,
with topics to be covered including a revamping of the world Test
championship, changes to oneday international cricket, the use
of technology and changes to the
scheduling of World T20 tournaments. Here are four of the hot
topics which will be covered over
the next six days: A two-tier Test
system A revamp of Test cricket
could see the top seven Test nations competing in division one
for the title of world Test champion. The second tier would be
expanded to five teams (with inclusion in that division earned by
the best performed associate nations) with promotion and relegation opportunities being decided across the concept's two-year
playing cycle. It could be played
over two or four years, with a
final to possibly be held at Lord’s.
Test series could still be scheduled outside of mandatory league
fixtures, meaning the Ashes
would still be possible should
England and Australia end up in
different divisions. A major revamp for one-day cricket Oneday international cricket could be
completely revamped under a
proposal from the ICC, which
would see a new league of 13
teams introduced to give greater
context and relevance to 50-over
contests. Under the proposal,
which could begin as soon as
2019, each of the 13 teams would
play a three-match series, either
home or away, against every other
country over a three-year period. At the end of the championship, the top two teams could
play off in a final. Should the proposal go ahead, it could see Australia play more regular matches
against associate nations including Afghanistan and Ireland. The
current ICC one-day rankings
table features 12 teams – the 10
full member nations plus Ireland
and Afghanistan. The 13th side
could be determined by the outcome of the 2015-17 World Cricket League Championship - the
second tier of one-day cricket – a
competition currently led by the
Netherlands, while other teams
include Scotland, Nepal, Hong
Kong and Papua New Guinea.
The league would also be used to
determine qualification for the
World Cup, as well as the seedings of teams. The team finishing
on the bottom of the table could
also face relegation to the WCLC.
Changes to playing regulations,
including DRS The ICC cricket
committee have put forward a
number of proposals from their
meeting at Lord’s earlier this
month, including key changes to
the decision review system.
They are recommending the benefit of the doubt given to the batsman be reduced by half. Currently, 50 per cent of the ball has to
be striking the stumps for a batsman to be given out lbw and overturn a not-out verdict by the onfield umpire. Under the new
rules, only 25 per cent of the ball
would need to be hitting the
stump for a decision to be overturned. (cricket)
Khairkhana Hospital
0799-321007
2401352
Indira Gandhi Children
Hospital, Wazir Akbar
Khan, Kabul 2301372
Ibn-e- Seena
Pul-e-Artan, Kabul
2100359
Wazir Akbar Khan
Hospital
2301741, 2301743
Ali Abad
Shahrara, Kabul
2100439
Malalai Maternity
Hospital
2201377/ 2301743
Banks
Da Afghanistan Bank
2100302, 2100303
Bakhtar Bank
0776777000
Azizi Bank
0799 700900
Pashtany Bank
2102908, 2103868
Air Services
Safi Airways
020 22 22 222
Ariana
020-2100270
Kam Air
0799974422
Hotels
Safi Landmark
020-2203131
SERENA
0799654000
New Rumi Restaurant
0776351347
Internet Services
UA Telecom
0796701701 / 0796702702
Exchange Rate
Purchase:
One US$ =
68.61Afs
One Pound Sterling=
91.74Afs
One Euro =
73.37Afs
1000 Pak Rs =
645Afs
Sale:
One US$ =
68.81 Afs
One Pound Sterling=
92.54Afs
One Euro=
75.97 Afs
1000 Pak Rs= 653
.
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Ukraine,
Sri Lanka
committed to
further
strengthen long
standing
relationship
Ukraine and Sri Lanka are committed to further strengthen the long
standing relationship between
both countries, the Foreign Ministry said today.
A press statement on the just
concluded visit to Ukraine by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that during the visit, Sanaraweera and the Foreign Minister
of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin reiterated that Sri Lanka is committed to
further strengthening and renewing the long standing relationship
with Ukraine.
Samaraweera had recalled with
appreciation the invaluable support extended to Sri Lanka by
Ukraine during the conflict years.
Minister Samaraweera briefed
his Ukrainian counterpart on recent developments in Sri Lanka
including measures taken by the
Unity Government to achieve reconciliation and inclusive economic
development, strengthen democracy, rule of law, and good governance including combating corruption. He also briefed the Foreign
Minister of Ukraine regarding the
process for evolving a new Constitution.
Welcoming Minister Samaraweera, Minister Klimkin said that
the visit would contribute to the
reinvigoration of relations between
the two countries. Reiterating
Ukraine’s support for Sri Lanka in
its efforts in reconciliation and
peace building, he said Ukraine and
Sri Lanka were similar in their drive
in promoting democracy and ending corruption.
Minister Samaraweera extended an invitation to Minister
Klimkin to visit Sri Lanka at a
mutually convenient time which
was accepted by Minister
Klimkin. This would be the first
visit of a Foreign Minister of
Ukraine to Sri Lanka.
The two Ministers agreed that
there is scope for further expansion of bilateral trade. Noting that
tea remains the main export item
from Sri Lanka to Ukraine with
Ceylon tea occupying 33% of the
Ukraine tea market, Minister Samaraweera stressed the need for
achieving export diversification. In
this regard, he encouraged business
delegations from Ukraine to attend
trade exhibitions and business forums held in Sri Lanka to establish
contacts with Sri Lankan entrepreneurs. The need to strengthen cooperation between the Chambers
of Commerce of the two countries
to facilitate closer interaction between the private sectors of the
two countries for the promotion
of business and investment was
also emphasized.
Noting that 23,853 tourists
from Ukraine have visited Sri Lanka in 2015, Minister Samaraweera
expressed hope that the commencement of direct non-stop
scheduled flights between Kiev and
Colombo by Ukraine International Airlines from November 2016
would pave the way for increasing
tourist traffic from Ukraine to Sri
Lanka. He encouraged travel and
tour operators from Ukraine to
visit Sri Lanka.
Minister Samaraweera invited
Ukrainian companies to participate in development projects in Sri
Lanka. Tourism and infrastructure
development, power generation
and transmission, oil exploration
and oil refining were identified as
areas of interest for possible collaboration by Ukrainian companies. During the visit, three treaties were signed between Ukraine
and Sri Lanka, on judicial cooperation, namely, Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners, and on
Extradition.
LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan said on Saturday that Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif should step down because
he has lost the moral ground to stay
in power.
“In real democracies, the head
of state follows the law,” Imran
said while addressing a seminar on
Panama leaks and Corruption organised by the PTI Professional
Forum. “If a leader doesn’t uphold
the law, the nation will never respect him.”
Panamagate inquiry: Imran
warns of street agitation over ToRs
Promising to keep the issue of
Panama leaks alive, the PTI chairman said the government wanted
to dictate its own terms of reference (ToRs) for the Panamagate
inquiry to save the Sharif family.
“The government knows that
if accountability starts from the
prime minister, he will be exposed.
So, they want to formulate tailormade ToRs,” he said. “We will first
exercise our legal options, and if
this doesn’t work, we will take to
the streets.”
Calling for shutting down the
National Accountability Bureau
(NAB), Imran alleged that the bureau was promoting and not eliminating corruption. “There are 13
cases pending against the premier
NEW DELHI : India on Monday
joined an exclusive club of countries controlling exports in missile
technology, just a day after bemoaning its exclusion from another elite group that governs international nuclear fuel and technology.
Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar signed onto the Missile Technology Control Regime aimed at
preventing the unchecked proliferation of missiles and their delivery systems.
The foreign ministry, in a statement issued soon after signing the
accession document in the presence of the ambassadors of France,
the Netherlands and Luxembourg,
thanked the other 34 members of
the MTCR group for supporting
its inclusion.
“India’s entry into the regime
as its thirty-fifth member would
be mutually beneficial in the furtherance of international non-proliferation objectives,” the statement said. Admission in the
MTCR was seen as the next step
for India in legitimizing its nuclear
energy and missile programs after
it conducted atomic tests in 1998
that alarmed the international community.
The MTCR restricts the proliferation of missiles, rocket systems, unmanned air vehicles, or
drones, and the technology for
systems capable of carrying a payload of 500 kilograms (1,100
pounds) for at least 300 kilome-
China has said the vexed border
dispute with India and some
“emerging new issues” pose a
“major challenge” to the development of bilateral ties.
“As the two neighbouring
countries, China and India have
historical issues such as the border dispute and also some emerging new issues with the development of the relations between the
two countries. How to deal with
these issues is a major challenge
for the relationship between the
two countries,” Chinese Assistant
Minister for Foreign Affairs Li
Huilai said.
“The two sides have agreed to
strengthen communication and dialogue, and to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution through friendly consultations, and to manage and control
these issues so that the overall development of the relationship between the two countries is not affected,” he told PTI.
When giants meet'India, China should devise code of conduct
for boundary issue': Chinese mediaIndia committed to 'early settlement' of boundary issue: Sushma Swaraj in BeijingAttempt by
Japan to form united front with
India against China will be a 'crazy
fantasy': Chinese mediaExpress
Exclusive: India,China to hold firstever maritime talksChina tries to
mollify India over Indo-Pak referenceWhen giants meet'India, China should devise code of conduct
for boundary issue': Chinese mediaIndia committed to 'early settlement' of boundary issue: Sush-
which are not being pursued.”
Imran said a democratic government was based on moral authority, while dictatorships depended on the use of force. He said
if nothing happened on the issue
of Panama Papers, the country
would have no future. “I cannot
see my country being destroyed. I
don’t want to become prime minister (of such a country). I want to
fix this system.”
Panama leaks: ICIJ has not
apologised to PM Nawaz, claims
Imran
Criticising the Sharif brothers
for having their pictures printed in
advertisements, Imran said if they
wanted publicity, they should not
waste tax-payers’ money.
The Sharif brothers have become owners of 28 factories in just
12 years, he said, adding that they
should enlighten the people how
they had acquired so much wealth.
“If they are unable to tell the
source of their wealth, it can be
assumed with certainty that they
earned the money through corruption.”
Attendees at the seminar included senior PTI leaders, including Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Dr
Yasmeen Rashid, Jehangir Tareen,
Naeemul Haq and Shafqat Mahmood.
ters (185 miles), as well as systems intended for the delivery of
weapons of mass destruction.
In 2008, India signed a landmark civil nuclear deal with the
United States giving it some access to nuclear materials and technologies.
Since then, India has been
pushing for its inclusion in the various elite groups that control the
export of nuclear materials and regulate technologies relating to conventional, nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons.
India still hopes to secure support for joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group, despite strong objections from China.
Last week, at a plenary meeting of the nuclear group in Seoul,
India’s membership to the 48-nation group that controls access to
sensitive nuclear technology was
shot down after China raised procedural hurdles.
India, still smarting over being
denied entry, on Sunday hit out at
Beijing, saying that the issue of its
membership of the nuclear group
was not going to go away.
External Affairs ministry
spokesman Vikas Swarup said
New Delhi had taken up the issue
with Beijing at multiple levels.
“We are going to continue discussing this with China. This is
going to be an important element
of our discussion with China. We
will continue to impress upon
ma Swaraj in BeijingAttempt by
mollify India over Indo-Pak referenceWhen giants meet'India, China should devise code of conduct
for boundary issue': Chinese mediaIndia committed to 'early settlement' of boundary issue: Sushma Swaraj in BeijingAttempt by
mollify India over Indo-Pak reference Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was on a five-day visit to
China last week, had said on Friday that the differences between
India and China on the boundary
issue and other matters may have
“some marginal effect” on bilater-
them that relationships move forward on the basis of mutual accommodation of each other’s in-
al trade but businesses between the
two sides have been expanding.
The two countries held talks
in April 2016 to resolve the vexed
border dispute. While China claims
the border dispute is confined to
2,000 kilometres, mainly Arunachal
Pradesh in eastern sector which it
claims as part of southern Tibet,
India asserts the dispute covered
the whole of the Line of Actual
Control (LAC) including the Aksai Chin occupied by China during
the 1962 war.
The Chinese Assistant Minister also said that the main task that
lies ahead for both China and India
is to implement the consensus between leaders of both countries
and strengthen the good momentum of the development in their
ties.
“Over the past years, China
and India have kept their relationship developing in a sound and
steady manner. The leaders of the
terests, concerns and priorities,”
Swarup told reporters in New
Delhi. China is not a member of
two countries have successfully
exchanged visits and met repeatedly, reaching an important consensus on deepening the strategic
partnership between China and
India and building a closer partnership for development,” said Li.
Asked why Beijing blocked
India’s bid to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar banned
by the UN, he said, “China supports the fight against terrorism in
all forms and advocates strengthening international counter-terrorism cooperation. We support the
UN in playing a central coordinating role in the international
counter-terrorism campaign.”
“The Chinese side always follows facts and fairly handles the
listing matter of the 1267 Committee in accordance with the Security Council resolutions and
rules of procedure. China is in
sound communication with all parties including India on this matter.
We also encourage direct communication of the parties concerned
and enhancing mutual understanding, and work to resolve differences through dialogue and consultation,” Li said.
Replying to a question on China’s opposition to India’s entry
into the elite Nuclear Suppliers
Group (NSG), when most of its
members, including the US, are in
its favour, he said, “NSG members remain divided on the NSG
membership of non-NPT countries. Therefore, we call for further and thorough discussions within the group in order to make decisions based on consultation.”
the MTCR, however. Beijing’s application to join the MTCR is
pending, leading to some analysts
in New Delhi to say India could
use it as a bargaining chip to leverage its entry into the nuclear group.
Sw eden urges
Bangladesh’s
support to
cand idature in
election to UN
Security Council
Swedish Prime Minister Kjell Stefan Löfven has phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeking Bangladesh's support to Swedish candidature in the election of non-permanent membership of the UN
Security Council for 2017-18.
Hasina’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim said the conversation
took place on Sunday evening.
Both the Prime Ministers exchanged greetings during the around
10-minute talk.
The Swedish premier invited
the Bangladesh prime minister to
visit Sweden. Hasina also extended an invitation to Löfven to visit
Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh prime minister also invited the Swedish prime
minister to the Dhaka Global Forum for Migration and Development to be held on Dec 9.
Karim said both the prime ministers agreed to co-chair a UN
High-Level Summit on Addressing
the Large Movement of Refugees
and Migrants slated for Sep 19
next at the United Nations in New
York.
.
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
News-in-Brief
Tunisia
commemorates
victims of beach
massacre
Tunisia held a minute’s silence
Sunday marking one year since
a seaside attack claimed by ISIS
that killed 38 tourists including
30 Britons in the North African
country. Tunisia’s Tourism
Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik
and British Foreign Office official Tobias Ellwood laid down
flowers to remember the victims
of the shooting in the town of
Port El Kantaoui south of the
capital.
A priest then called out the
names of the victims under the
watchful eye of security forces,
who were out in high numbers
for the occasion.
Hotel employees as well as
diplomats from Germany, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium and Russia - whose countries also lost
victims in the attack - also attended the ceremony.
Tourists fled in horror on
June 26 last year, as a Tunisian
gunman pulled a Kalashnikov
rifle from inside a furled beach
umbrella and went on a shooting spree outside a five-star hotel near the city of Sousse.
Tunisia, the birthplace of
the Arab Spring, has suffered
from a wave of extremist violence since the 2011 revolution
that ousted longtime dictator
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The beach bloodbath was
the second of two deadly extremist attacks that dealt heavy
blows to the country’s vital tourism sector last year, following
four years of decline due to political instability.The shooting
came just months after 21 tourists and a policeman were killed
in another attack at the Bardo
National Museum in Tunis.
Both were claimed by ISIS.
In November, a suicide
bombing in the capital - also
claimed by the extremist group
- killed 12 members of the presidential guard. The authorities
implemented a state of emergency, which remains in place after
it was extended for the fourth
time on Monday.
French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday confirmed
they were in “full agreement on
how to handle the situation” created by Britain’s vote to quit the
EU, according to French presidency sources.
Both heads of state, who will
hold further talks in Berlin in Monday, “want the greatest clarity to
avoid any uncertainty” after last
Thursday’s Brexit referendum sent
shockwaves across the continent,
a source close to Hollande said.
They also “stressed the need
for European initiatives and the
need to act quickly on concrete
priorities,” the source told AFP.
Britain’s momentous decision
to become the first member state
to leave the 28-member European
Union has plunged the bloc into
uncharted waters, sparking widespread concern and triggering losses of over $2 trillion on global stock
markets Friday.
European leaders will embark
on a flurry of diplomatic activity
this week to plan the way forward,
with some pushing for a quickie
divorce amid fears Britain’s vote
to leave will create a domino effect
in eurosceptic member states.
Hollande will hold talks with
EU president Donald Tusk in Paris on Monday morning, before
heading to Berlin for a meeting with
Merkel and Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi.
Leaders will then begin a
crunch two-day summit in Brus-
sels on Tuesday, when British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron is expected to face huge pressure to immediately trigger the two-year process to exit the EU.
Weapons shipped into Jordan for
Syrian rebels by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia
were stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms
merchants on the black market, the
New York Times reported, citing
American and Jordanian officials.
Some of the stolen weapons
were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and
three others at a police training fa-
cility in Amman, according to a
joint investigation by the New
York Times and Al Jazeera.
A Jordanian officer shot dead
two US government security contractors, a South African trainer and
two Jordanians at a US-funded
police training facility near Amman
before being killed in a shootout,
Jordanian authorities had said in
November. The training facility
was set up on the outskirts of the
capital, Amman, after the 2003 US
invasion of Iraq to help rebuild the
shattered country’s postwar security forces and to train Palestinian
Authority police officers. The
weapons used in the shooting had
originally arrived in Jordan for the
Syrian rebel training program, the
paper reported, citing American
and Jordanian officials. Theft of
the weapons, which ended months
ago after complaints by the American and Saudi governments, has
led to a flood of new weapons
available on the arms black market, the New York Times said.
Jordanian officers who were
part of the plan “reaped a windfall” from sale of weapons, using
the money to buy iPhones, SUVs
and other luxury items, according
to the paper, which cited Jordanian officials.
The CIA could not be immediately reached for comment.
ISIS on Sunday claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing this
week that killed seven Jordanian
soldiers on the Syrian border, the
extremist-linked news agency
Amaq said in a statement on its
website.
Tuesday’s blast, which also
left 13 soldiers wounded, struck
near an area of no man’s land where
thousands of Syrian refugees are
stranded and where the frontiers
of Iraq, Syria and Jordan meet.
Quoting an unnamed source,
the Amaq statement said the attack against “the Jordanian-American base at Rukban in Jordan was
carried out by an Islamic State
fighter”.
According to the Jordanian
army, the suicide bomber set off
from the makeshift Syrian refugee
camp near the Rukban crossing in
Jordan’s remote northeast.
He then entered Jordanian territory through an opening used for
humanitarian aid deliveries and
blew himself up as he reached a
military post, it added.
Jordan hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and thousands more have been stranded at
the frontier since January.
King Abdullah strongly condemned the attack and said that
Jordanian armed forces would
strike back “with an iron fist”.
Soon after, the army issued a
statement declaring Jordan’s desert
regions that stretch northeast to
Syria and east to Iraq “closed military zones”.
Jordan is part of the US-led
coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and
Iraq and while attacks on its territory are rare, it has been targeted
by jihadists before.
Tuesday’s bombing came two
weeks after a gunman killed five
Jordanian intelligence officers in a
Palestinian refugee camp north of
the capital.
Singapore
airlines plane
catches fire in
emergency
landing
A Singapore Airlines (SIA)
plane caught fire Monday while
making an emergency landing at
Changi Airport after turning
back from a flight to Milan following an engine oil warning
message, the carrier said.
No one was injured aboard
the Boeing 777-300ER, but one
passenger described those moments as a “so-close to death”
experience.
SIA said in a statement
Flight SQ368 was en route from
Singapore to Milan when an
engine oil warning message
forced it to turn back to the
city-state. “The aircraft’s right
engine caught fire after the aircraft touched down at Changi
Airport at around 6:50am,” it
said. This image provided by
Lee Bee Yee shows the aftermath of an engine fire on a Singapore Airlines flight, at Changi International Airport on
Monday, June 27, 2016. (Lee
Bee Yee via AP) “The fire was
put out by airport emergency
services and there were no injuries to the 222 passengers and
19 crew on board. “Passengers
disembarked through stairs and
were transported to the terminal building by bus.” The airline said passengers would be
transferred to another aircraft
to depart for Milan later in the
day and that it would “be cooperating fully with the authorities in their investigations.”
North African
extremist group
threatens France, UN
in new video
The head of Ansar Dine extremist group , Iyad Ag Ghaly, has
released his first video in 22
months, reiterating threats
against France and the United
Nations' peacekeeping mission
in Mali.
In the footage given to AFP
at the weekend, Ag Ghaly singles out a violent protest in Kidal
in northeastern Mali in April
against French forces and the
12,000-strong peacekeeping
mission, known as MINUSMA,
as an example of ways to confront "the crusaders' military
machine".
The 11-minute clip, delivered in Arabic and the Tuareg
language Tamasheq, is Ag Ghaly's first since one posted online on August 5, 2014.
Following rumours over recent months circulating in local
media, Ag Ghaly appeared because "he wants to show that
he is still alive", an extremist
group specialist told AFP.
A Jordanian court on Sunday
charged 21 people with carrying
out "terrorist acts" after their arrest in an operation against jihadists in the country's north in March,
a prosecutor said.
The State Security Court accused them of committing "terrorist acts that led to deaths", making
explosives and possessing weapons, the official Petra news agency quoted the court's chief prosecutor as saying.
The agency did not say when
their trial would begin. In March,
Jordan announced it had foiled a
plot by the ISIS militant group to
carry out attacks in the kingdom
in an operation in the city of Irbid.
ISIS had being planning to tar-
get "civilian and military sites", the
authorities said, adding seven militants were killed and around 20
arrested in the operation.
Two deadly attacks targeting
security forces rocked the kingdom
this month.
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber
killed seven soldiers in an area
where thousands of Syrian refugees are stranded near the Syrian
border.
The bombing came two weeks
after a gunman, who was later arrested, killed five Jordanian intelligence officers in a Palestinian refugee camp north of the capital.
Jordan is part of the US-led
coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and
Iraq.
Deadly suicide bombings
rock eastern Lebanon
At least five people were killed in
multiple suicide bombings early
Monday in eastern Lebanon near
the border with Syria, officials said.
At least four suicide blasts hit
the predominantly Christian village of al-Qaa, a military source
told AFP.
“The first attacker knocked on
one of the homes in the village, but
after the resident became suspicious, he blew himself up,” the
source said.
“People began gathering at the
site of the explosion and the three
other suicide attackers blew themselves up,” he added.
A security source had said earlier that a bomb had exploded and
then “more than one suicide bomber blew themselves (up)”.
George Kettaneh, the general
secretary of the Lebanese Red
Cross, told AFP the blast had left
“at least eight killed including three
suicide bombers.”
He said 15 other people were
wounded, including some in critical condition.
Lebanon’s national news agency said the blasts struck at 10
minute intervals and also wounded three Lebanese soldiers stationed in the area.
Al-Qaa is one of several border posts separating Lebanon and
war-torn Syria.
The border area has been
rocked by clashes and shelling since
Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011.
Lebanon’s army has fought off
extremist factions along the frontier and has sought to clamp down
on local cells operating in the area.
In August 2014, the army
clashed with ISIS and al-Nusra
Front, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, in the border town of Arsal.
As they withdrew, ISIS and AlNusra kidnapped 30 Lebanese soldiers and policemen, 16 of whom
were released after nearly 18
months of negotiations.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
We a r e a n a t io n a l in st it u t io n a n d n o t t h e v o ice o f a go v t o r a p r iv a t e o r ga n iza t io n
AFGHANISTAN TIMES
Editor: Abdul Saboor Sarir
Phone No: +93-772364666
E-mail: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
www.afghanistantimes.af
Photojournalist: M. Sadiq Yusufi
Advisory editorial board
Saduddin Shpoon, Dr. Sharif Fayez, Dr. Sultana Parvanta, Dr. Sharifa Sharif,
Dr. Omar Zakhilwal, Setara Delawari, Ahmad Takal
Graphic-Designer:
Edriss Akbari, Bilal Yusufi
Marketing & Advertising:
Mohammad Parwiz Arian, 0708954626, 0778894038
Mailing address: P.O. Box: 371, Kabul, Afghanistan
Our Bank Accounts: Azizi Bank: 000101100258091 / 000101200895656
Printed at Afghanistan Times Printing Press
The constitution says
Article 65:
Article Sixty-Five: On important national, political, social as well as
economic issues the President can call for a referendum of the people of
Afghanistan. The referendum shall not be contrary to the provisions of
this Constitution or require its amendment.
By Nake M Kamrany, Lauren Deife, and Dimitri Beshkov
The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Syria’s main opposition party engaged in the war with the Bashar al-Assad regime for the past
five years, has expressed serious concerns over involvement of
nearly 20,000 Afghans in the Syrian civil war. The SNC has brought
the issue into the Afghan government’s notice several times through
different channels. However, the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Afghanistan had not made the details public due the controversies involved. To bring attention of the Kabul leadership to this
serious issue once again, the coalition has sent a letter to the Afghan officials urging the NUG leaders to take measures on war
footing to stop “religiously-motivate exploitation” of the Afghan
people. The Syrian coalition wants to keep Afghans way from the
civil war in Syria.
The mysterious lull in the capital city is raising many eyebrows,
not only at national but on international level as well. May be the
involvement of Afghans in the Syrian civil war is a minor issue for
the government, but is far more serious in scope and effects. Kabul
should take up the issue with Tehran. No country has the right to
use Afghans as a tool for its interests. Why Afghans shall pay the
price for deeds and goals of other countries when they had already
seen much bloodshed? Why Afghans are not allowed to build their
own country?
If Iran denies halting recruitment process of Afghans to fight for
Bashar al-Assad then Afghanistan had to approach the UN Security Council. It is also duty of the UNHCR to safeguard rights of the
Afghan refugees living in Iran. The UN body should not allow
Tehran to send Afghan refugees to Syria to fight for $500 a month
while risking their lives and create challenges for their home country.
As far as role of the foreign ministry is concerned, it should
direct the Afghan ambassador in Iran to educate the refugees there
and tell them about the risks and bad reputation that their actions
are earning for the country. If the refugees were allowed to enter
Syria and fight for one or the other side, it will have consequences
for the Afghan government.
First, it would deteriorate relations between Kabul and future
Syrian leadership. Afghanistan shall not be a party in the Syrian
civil war if it wants good ties with Syria. Those Afghans who are
paid by Iran to fight for Assad are not known as Iranian but Afghans. Therefore, their activities are affecting relations between Kabul
and Syrian people, deeply. Turning a blind eye to this grave issue
would mean creation of more enemies than friends in the world.
Second, the trained mercenaries could pose serious threats to
Afghanistan’s national security if they were radicalized as we have
seen in the past. In the past, thousands of Afghans were trained in
Pakistan and were radicalized in Pakistani seminaries. They were
sent back to Afghanistan to impose their own ideology on the nation. They have not only challenged writ of the government, but
also tried to wage war on ethnic lines which damaged the national
unity to great extent. Therefore, the Afghan government should
take all possible steps to avoid repetition of the Pakistan’s episode.
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President Obama’s legacy is
being tarnished for having
been engaged in seven foreign
wars in third world countries
during two terms presidency
including the U.S. - Afghanistan war which is now in its 15th
year. President Obama delivered a profound speech on
May 27, 2016 at the site of Hiroshima in Japan articulating
the futility and horror of atomic war that took place 71 years
ago and killed tens of thousands and destroyed two Japanese cities - Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. However, it is perplexing that he concurrently ordered extension of U.S./NATO
military presence in Afghanistan for five additional years
which contradicts his disdain
for wars. In Afghanistan many
of the villages have already
been destroyed into rubbles
after 15 years (2001 - 2016) of
incessant bombing.
No other U.S. presidents
have been engaged in seven
wars for such a long duration.
During the campaign of 2008,
many voting citizens believed
that Obama will be a peace president in contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush who
invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
Obama inherited the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars. He withdrew from Iraq war although
the foot soldiers are back in
Iraq now due to ISIS insurgency.
Obama said that the Afghanistan war was the right war
without explaining why. Initially he increased the level of
troops by 30,000 foot soldiers
in Afghanistan which caused
higher U.S. casualties. Then
the number of troops was retrenched to approximately
11,000 and promises of complete withdrawal of U.S. troops
from Afghanistan were made to
the American public, but to no
avail. Currently U.S. war in Afghanistan is in its 15th year, the
longest American war in its history. And on May 20, 2016 the
U.S. along with NATO members
agreed to extend military occupation for five additional years
which will extend the occupation to 20 Years. In the meantime the U.S. has already sustained enormous damages in
blood and wealth in Afghanistan war.
Ostensibly, trends have not
been favorable for U.S. occupation. It has lost 2400soldiers,
sustained approximately 30,000
wounded and disabled veterans, and has spent more funds
in Afghanistan war than the
total budget of the U.S. Marshall Plan that was expended
for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. Moreover, abject poverty and high
unemployment has increased
in Afghanistan over the last 15
years of U.S. occupation. The
Taliban’s control of population
and territory in Afghanistan
has widened and stability has
detreated.
Moreover, incessant bombing, destroying thousands of
villages and killing millionshave turned the population
against the U.S./NATO occupation. The NATO strategy
has produced many Afghan refugees who have emigrated out
of Afghanistan. It has radicalized many Afghans including
governmental soldiers who are
on U.S. payroll. Afghan soldiers have frequently shot and
killed NATO soldiers. Recently, one such soldier who killed
two NATO soldiers went ON
TV with no regrets and said that
over the last 15 years U.S./
NATO has done nothing but
kill, torture and destroy. These
killing are not isolated, at least
hundreds of NATO soldiers
over the last years have been
shot by Afghan government
soldiers who are supposed to
fight alongside the U.S. forces.
They are radicalized as they
find U.S./NATO military operations unfair and forbidding.
Our policies have contributed to radicalization and a
sense of opposition that arguably justifies and legitimizes
radical responses and provoking such behaviors as suicide
bombing. IDE explosions, and
explosions on the part of peaceful citizens who are willing to
sacrifice their own lives in response to our military attacks.
In the final analysis indigenous
groups take pain when their
countrymen, women, relatives,
other villagers and children are
being killed by foreign powers.
Given the free flow of people, information, internet and
communication internationally
plus incitement and reinforcement by insurgents or in retaliation to incessant U.S. drone
and air attacks even average
citizens decide to retaliate at
their own risk. Our military offensives contribute to radicalization, anger and revenge by
individuals who turn “lone
wolves.” However, such probability could be checked -minimized or eliminated - by a shift
in U.S. policy to withdraw its
soldiers from the war zones and
reach peace. A policy of rapprochement with these groups
via diplomacy is the optimal
solution..
As a superpower, the U.S.
should endeavor to guide rather than fight these third world
nations and encourage education, economic development,
and civility and adopt a policy
of live and let live. Otherwise,
these third world county wars
could go on in perpetuity.—
(The Huffington Post)
Afghanistan
Terrorism
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Greater Kurdistan –
the dream and reality
By Eyad Abu Shakra
Only candor was new in Mr.
Masrour Barzani’s call for partitioning Iraq after liberating
Mosul. The President of the
Kurdistan Region Massoud
Barzani’s son and chancellor of
the Region’s “Security Council” justified his declaration by
citing the failure of federalism
in Iraq.
Many Kurdish nationalist
leaders, indeed, have diligently worked throughout Kurdishinhabited areas, extending from
western Iran to northwest Syria – including northeast Iraq
and southeast Turkey – for a
‘Greater Kurdistan’, despite the
fact such an entity never existed as one unified and integrated polity at any point in Kurdish or Middle Eastern history.
Even when some efforts
succeeded from time to time in
founding principalities and
mini-states – the most recent
of which is Iraqi Kurdistan –
such as the “Republic of Mahabad” in Iran and the Baban
Principality in Iraq, several obstacles have prevented the creation of a greater Kurdistan.
Firstly, the wide spread of
Kurdish communities within
the boundaries of vast empires,
and later, nationalist modern
states that had no interest in
tolerating secessionist ethnic
or sectarian entities within their
boundaries.
Secondly, a high percentage of Kurds assimilated and
fully integrated in the societies
where they settled for centuries, especially in major cities
like Cairo, Damascus, Aleppo
and Baghdad.
Thirdly, Kurdish areas are
predominantly land-locked, a
fact that has minimised the
chances of them enjoying active support from foreign powers. Even when such support
was provided, as was the case
of the Soviet backing of Mulla
Mustafa Barzani – the father of
Massoud and grandfather of
Masrour –, it was conditional
and temporary.
Fourthly, natural resources
in Kurdish areas – oil in Iraq,
Iran and Syria; and water in
Turkey – have been too precious to let go for the countries
where Kurds have lived.
Fifthly, the dream of ‘Greater Kurdistan’ is also inhabited
by non-Kurdish minorities
quite fearful of rampant Kurdish nationalism now hell-bent
on partitioning the present
states of the Middle East. The
Kurds have had a bloody history with their Assyrian (Nestorian Christian) neighbors, past
and present sensitivities and
animosities with the Turks and
Turkmen, friction and bad
blood with Arab and Turkish
nationalisms, and bad experiences with Iran which crushed
its Kurdish secessionist movement and assassinated one of
the Iranian Kurds’ foremost
leaders Dr. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (1989).
The Kurds are now bene-
fiting from the belief of some
Western powers led by the US,
that realistic global political
consideration has diminished
the need to keep the present
political borders in the Middle
East Eyad Abu Shakra
Regional partition?
Today, all Kurdish reserve
and caution regarding regional
partition plans is out of the
window. Kurdish ‘nationalists’
are candid and over-confident
about what they desire and do
so thanks to favourable regional and international circumstances.
First and foremost, is the
existential animosity now for all
to see between a frustrated and
confused Arab world, whose
frustration and confusion are
engendering nihilist self-destructive extremist movements,
and an aggressive expansionist Iranian regime engaged in
sowing the seeds of conflicts,
tending and exploiting them in
the Arab world either under the
slogan of “exporting the
(Khomeinist) revolution” or the
pretexts of guarding the Shi’ite
“holy shrines”. Then, there is
the current crisis between Sunni Arab states opposed to ‘political Islam’ and Sunni ‘Islamist’ Turkey ruled by Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.
Thus, between Sunni Arabs
vs ‘Shi’ite Iranian animosity,
and anti Islamist Arabs and
“Erdoganist” Turkey, and the
ensuing devastation and chaos they have visited on Iraq
and Syria, Kurdish ‘nationalists’ have decided to grab the
moment, believing it may be a
rare golden opportunity not
only to fulfil a great dream, but
also to avenge a bitter past.
In the meantime, internationally, the Kurds are now
benefitting from the belief of
some Western powers led by
the USA, that realistic global
political consideration has diminished the need to keep the
present political borders in the
Middle East. The taboo had already been broken in Europe
after the fall of the Berlin Wall,
and elsewhere after September
11th 2001 and the emergence
of al-Qaeda and ISIS.
One may also admit that
many of the Middle Eastern
entities have failed, after
around 100 years of drawing
their maps, to nurture genuine
citizenship and build proper
sold state establishments. Iraq
and Syria are being torn apart,
Lebanon is disabled, Yemen is
in turmoil, and religion-clad extremist terrorism is threatening
the very existence of Jordan,
whether in the form of ‘Islamist’ ISIS, “Biblical” Israeli settlers or “pro-Transfer” groups.
Furthermore, decades after
the preoccupation of USA-led
Western democracies with promoting the slogans of freedom,
democracy and human rights
as opposed to Soviet principles
of right to self-determination,
anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism; all the above have been
proven as empty slogans, noth-
ing more, nothing less. As we
see today, freedoms are nonexistent, democracy has not
been experienced and human
rights unheard of; and on the
other side, the region’s entities
are subservient to others, colonialism has returned under
new faces and techniques, and
ugly and aggressive regional
imperialisms are undermining
the whole Middle East.
That the Kurds should enjoy the right of self-determination is a matter that must be
beyond doubt or argument.
However, they must not be allowed to deprive others of their
rights too; otherwise they
would be doing exactly what
they have for so long claimed
their oppressors have done to
them.
Double standards, historical revisionism and forgery,
tactical exploitation of external
support to crush potential dissent, and severing ties of
neighborly relations and ditching co-existence, are not the
right ingredients required to
build a future independent Kurdistan.
One can easily sense the
above whenever one listens to
some Kurdish commentators
on Arab satellite TVs talking
with arrogance and over-confidence about the battles raging in northern Syria, giving
Kurdish names to towns in
mixed areas, promising that the
Kurdish militias will keep hold
of any territory they liberate
from ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and
refusing any discussion on the
identity of Kirkuk or what
would become of Mosul.
Actually, what has been
taking place in the countryside
of Hassakah, Raqqa and Aleppo Provinces, and attempts to
connect the Kurdish Afrin enclave (northwest corner of Syria) to the rest of Syrian-Turkish borders’ areas in order to
create Western Kurdistan – or
Rojava – at the expense of Arab
and Turkmen towns and villages in Azaz, El-Bab and Manbij
districts, have nothing to do
with the right of self-determination. A future ‘Kurdistan’, if
it is to exist, must provide a
peaceful co-existential example
to the whole Middle East, not
an ‘alien creation’ imposed on
the region by ephemeral international calculations.This article was first published in
Asharq al-Awsat on Jun. 25,
2016.
Eyad Abu Shakra (also written as Ayad Abou-Chakra) began his media career in 1973
with Annahar newspaper in
Lebanon. He joined Asharq AlAwsat newspaper in the UK in
1979, occupying several positions including: Senior Editor,
Managing Editor, and Head of
Research Unit, as well as being
a regular columnist. He has
several published works, including books, chapters in edited books, and specialized articles, in addition to frequent
regular TV and radio appearances. Eyad tweets @eyad1949
Sufi music - and especially the Sabri Brothers - have been
bridging the divide between Islam and the West.
By Khaled Abou El Fadl
One of the truly sublime Muslim voices that for decades had
been chanting endless mystical devotionals communing
with God has been silenced by
the bullet of an assassin. Amjad Sabri of the Sabri Brothers
has been killed, and his unfortunate companion injured, by
radicals in Karachi, Pakistan.
A year earlier, a frivolous
blasphemy case was filed
against Sabri because radical
Muslims did not like some of
his Sufi lyrics about the Prophet and his family.
As has become the pattern
and practice among extremists,
they kill and destroy what they
do not like - that is, everything
that has as much as a scintilla
of beauty, intellect, or mercy.
Pakistanis gathered to
mourn slain Sufi singer
Every time such criminal elements that associate themselves with Islam commit a new
act of murder and mayhem, millions of Muslims around the
world mourn. Today is no exception.
Sufi Qawwali music
For those who do not
know, the Sufi Qawwali music
of the Sabri Brothers is not a
recent fad or a modern invention of Westernised Muslims.
The Qawwali music is a devotional mystical supplication
that goes back seven centuries
or more.
Invented and popular in
South Asia, the Qawwali originated with the Chishti Sufi order which fused Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian musical elements to create its own
unique style of sama' (listening
to the sounds of divinity).
Qawwali itself derives from
the word "qawl" or the utterance of words. The significance
of this is that like all forms of
Sufi music, the Qawwali is premised on the theological centrality of listening to creation,
and in return reverberating the
ecstatic sounds of love, longing, and devotion to the Divine.
Thousands of people attend the funeral procession of
Amjad Sabri in Karachi, Pakistan [Reuters]
Typically, the Qawwali will
sing the praises of God and the
Prophet Muhammad and his
family, lament separation and
loss, or perform ghazals, which
are supernal love songs
couched in sometimes highly
metaphorical and symbolic
terms of intoxication and even
hedonistic oblivion for the sake
of the beloved.
Like so much of Sufi music,
the Qawwali played a critical
social role in transcending social, sectarian, and even religious divides.
In South Asian countries
such as India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh, the Qawwali plays
an unmistakably unifying and
integrational role in bringing
various classes, sects, and religious groups together over
universal themes.
Bridging the divide
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Substandard healthcare centers
There is no state-of-the-art healthcare centers in Afghanistan, as patients are going abroad to receive medical treatments. Afghan masses are
suffering from one of the worst healthcare system as they don’t have access to the basic medical care. On daily bases more than hundreds of
people are traveling abroad for treatment due to lack of standardized facilities at home.
Despite spending handsome money by the Afghan patients for their medical treatment in India and Pakistan, sometime they receive
substandard treatment.
There was a patient living in Kart-e-Now Kabul, went to Pakistan for medical checkup, but his dead body were returned home. There is no
report how he died in the hospital, possible the doctor prescribed him wrong and substandard medicines that caused to his death. It seems that
due to increase in medical tourism, medical services in Pakistan become commercial and don’t’ give a dam care while checking the sick one. The
relevant Afghan official should take necessary measures to provide standards medical care for the Afghan masses here at home
and free the Afghans from going abroad for treatment.
Ramin Khan, Kart-e-Now Kabul, Afghanistan
Letter to editor will be edited for policy, content and clarity. All letters must have the writer’s name and
address. You may send your letters to: [email protected]
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the author(s)
and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Afghanistan Times.
In fact, well beyond South
Asia, Sufi music - and especially the Sabri Brothers - have
been bridging the divide between Islam and the West.
Like so much of Sufi music,
the Qawwali played a critical
social role in transcending social, sectarian, and even religious divides.
The Sabri Brothers performed in Carnegie Hall in as
early as 1975, collaborated with
Western artists and record labels, and performed in sold-out
venues throughout Europe and
the US.
Perhaps it is precisely the
conciliatory and unifying role
played by groups like the Sabri
Brothers that make them so detestable to radical groups.
In truth, the Sabri Brothers
and the other Sufi performers
act as ambassadors of a very
different Islam than that espoused by radical groups.
It is a far more tolerant, loving, and beautiful message than
the typically divisive, intolerant, and bloody visions fantasised by the radicals.
For the radicals, Sufis with
their Qawwalis, ghazals, laments, and longings are nothing more than heretical unbe-
lievers. Yet, the historical reality is that Sufi Islam is older and
far more original to the tapestry of Islam.
Indeed, as recent scholarship has proven, up until the
17th century, it was not uncommon for Muslims to belong to
Sufi orders.
In short, some argue that
Sufism is more anchored in the
lived historical reality of Muslims than many other theological interpretations.
Different genres of musical
composition
Sure, radical groups are
quite adept at spewing out
many pedantic arguments
about why music is forbidden
in Islam, but the fact remains
that the view prohibiting all
forms of music was an ignoble
marginality until the mid-20th
century.
The fact also remains that
from the time of the Prophet to
this very day, every Muslim
society has produced many different genres of musical composition and performance.
When I learned of Sabri's
murder, I could imagine the
heavens crying for the beautiful hymns that have been silenced, and like millions of
Muslims, I wished I could defy
the murderous goons by uniting the entire world in a divine
hymn against their ugliness.
The truth is that they, just
like al-Qaeda, ISIL (also known
as ISIS), Boko Haram, and of
course their theological "teachers", methodically and systematically destroy everything
beautiful in Islam. They target
and destroy the artefacts and
historical sites that defy their
pedantic and false sense of history.
They even target the manuscripts that preserve the rich intellectual tradition of Islamic
civilisation. Without conscience, they murder divinity
itself when they kill human beings who are, regardless of faith
or creed, nothing but bearers
of the divinity of their Maker.
These are the true radical extremists. They and only they
are the true enemies of Islam.
Khaled Abou El Fadl is the
Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law at the UCLA School of
Law. His latest book is "Reasoning with God: Reclaiming
Shari'ah in the Modern Age."
The views expressed in this
article are the authors' own and
do not necessarily reflect Al
Jazeera's editorial policy.
The USloses its moral
high ground over Syria
By Raghida Dergham
The White House looked weak as
it defended President Obama’s
policies in Syria, in response to
the strongly worded memorandum sent by 51 US diplomats calling for the “calculated use” of
long-range weapons and airstrikes
against the regime of Bashar alAssad, arguing that the “status
quo in Syria will continue to
present increasingly dire, if not
disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges.”
The moral rationale for taking
steps to end the deaths and suffering in Syria, after five years of
brutal war, is evident and unquestionable, the memo said. The
memo’s harsh tone and allusion
to “the moral rationale” compelled
the White House to go on the defensive, raising impossible questions to justify its policies. The
White House asked “what was the
alternative” or “show us another
option”, phrases that seem to be
at the heart of the Obama doctrine and the lexicon of the administration.
The White House’s message
is clear and unchanged: The White
House will not intervene militarily against the regime in Damascus.
Its main battle today is against the
ISIS and not Bashar al-Assad.
Therefore, the Obama administration is trying to wash its hands
clean of the moderate Syrian rebels
represented by the High Negotiations Commission (HNC), and
implicitly agrees with Russia on
replacing the rebels with Kurdish
and tribal forces on the ground that
make up the Syrian Democratic
Forces (SDF) fighting ISIS primarily rather than the regime.
This trend coincides with international inaction in the Security Council and the UN at large,
where the Syrian question has
been effectively reduced to one of
refugees and humanitarian crisis
requiring focus on the delivery of
aid, away from political considerations and accountability for the
crimes and atrocities being committed in Syria. The Geneva
Communique that spoke of a transitional process handing over full
executive power to a new governing council has been aborted.
The Vienna Process
The Vienna Process midwifed
by Russia has fulfilled its objectives and stopped where Moscow
wanted it to. The members of the
Security Council have retreated
into empty statements and bowed
down to the dictates of RussianIranian policies without a “Plan
B”. The UN secretary general swallowed his words about seeking accountability, and submitted to the
will of the Russian-American duo
with regard to managing the Syrian tragedy without protesting.
Thus the UN lost its moral
leadership by relinquishing the
principle of accountability and its
values. It accepted to be the blunt
instrument by which the Geneva
Communique was bashed, and hid
behind its weakness when another
deadline for a political process
(August 1) approached, on which
the UN is supposed to launch a
political process albeit less firm
than the one launched by the Geneva Communique. Its only excuse
is that the US and Russian leaderships had had long lost their moral
compass in Syria before the UN
followed suit.
From the beginning, it was clear
that prolonging this military approach without accountability,
while using terrorism as a pretext
to avoid reform, would lead to the
growth of more terrorism in Syria
This week, the number of refugees and displaced persons in the
world reached 65 million. Syria has
a large share of this figure with
more than 10 million refugees and
displaced persons. The UN has
long since stopped counting the
number of those killed in Syria, but
unofficial estimates put the number at over 400,000, all killed in
just five years, since protests demanding reforms erupted in Syria,
before the regime decided to respond with a brutal military crackdown.
From the beginning, it was clear
that prolonging this military approach without accountability,
while using terrorism as a pretext
to avoid reform, would lead to the
growth of more terrorism in Syria
at the hands of both the regime and
its opponents, as well as those
who decided to turn Syria into a
magnet for terrorists to drive them
out of their own countries – i.e.
away from US, Russian, and other
cities. When it comes to involve-
ment in Syria, no one at all is innocent.
The failure of this line of thinking became clear, however, as terror attacks struck Europe and the
US, and could strike Russia at
some point. Now, however, US,
Russian, and European leaders believe the priority is for war on ISIS
in Syria and Iraq. It was in Iraq
where terrorists were lured away
from US cities, as then-President
Bush had suggested.
In Iraq, the collapse of the Iraqi army began when the US decided to dismantle it based on a deliberate political decision by the Bush
administration. The Iraqi army was
among the strongest Arab armies
and represented a threat to both
Israel and Iran. The Iraqi army was
the strongest in the Arab-Israeli
strategic equation, and at the time,
the decision by Syria to join the
war on Iraq and destroy the Arab
weight in this equation was stunning. Thus, the dismantling of Arab
armies began with the Iraq war,
benefiting both Israel and Iran,
which will never forget the Gulf
support for Iraq during the IraqIran war even though it has forgotten the US role in support of Saddam in the same war.
In Iraq today, militias like the
Popular Mobilization control the
military arena, replacing the army.
The army pretends to be coherent, even as tribal fighters join the
wars on terror, against al-Qaeda
and ISIS. The same situation exists in Syria. Iranian-run militias
control the military arena, undermining the army. Russia is furious
because it prefers the army to the
militias, but has found itself on the
losing side as Iran insists on the
militias at the expense of the army.
What matters most for Russia
is that no Islamists should replace
the regime in Damascus. From the
outset, Russia moves against the
Arab Spring because it opposed
the rise of Islamists to power. Russia backed Bashar al-Assad because
it assumed that the alternative is
the rise of Islamists to power. Russia has also insisted on not excluding Assad from running again for
the presidency, because it refuses
for Syria to fall into Islamist hands,
and has clung to the term “secularism” at all costs because it would
not allow the new Syria to be ruled
by Islamists.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Mo n ito rin g gro u p s ays 3 3 0 Pale s tin ian s , in clu d in g 6 0 ch ild re n , h ave be e n d e tain e d as raid s in W e s t Ban k are s te p p e d u p .
bout 330 Palestinians
across the occupied West
Bank and the Gaza Strip
have been detained by
Israel since the start of Ramadan,
the Palestinian Prisoners' Center
for Studies has said.
During the 20 days since June
6, when the Muslim holy month
of fasting began, Israel has stepped
up its raids on Palestinian towns,
the centre's director, Osama
Shaheen, told Al Jazeera.
"We noticed that the campaign
of arrests against leaders and activists in Hebron has increased, especially due to the recent attack in
Tel Aviv," Shaheen said, referring
to the June 9 shooting of four Israelis by Palestinians.
According to the centre's
records, of the 330 detained, at
least 60 are children, with the
youngest being 10-year-old
Marwan Sharabati from Hebron.
The figure also includes 21 women
ranging from 18 to 45 years old.
About 15 Palestinians, 13 of
whom are fishermen from Gaza,
were also detained at Israel's
Ashdod
port,
including
Mohammad al-Halabi, the head of
the Gaza programme at the Christian humanitarian organisation
World Vision.
The raids have been taking
place across occupied East Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah,
Jenin and Gaza.
INFOGRAPHIC: How many
Palestinians are imprisoned by Is-
rael?
"There are daily raids in the
West Bank. They target anyone
who has been involved in the recent intifada or in any nationalistic activities," said Shaheen.
"We are used to this. It is painful, but it has become a routine.
There is not one house that hasn't
been raided and not one family that
doesn't have a martyr."
Israeli prison authorities were
not available for comment.
Israel boosts troops in West
Bank after Tel Aviv attack
After the attack at a Tel Aviv
market, Israel suspended entry permits for 83,000 Palestinians from
the West Bank, many of whom
were hoping to pray in the holy
al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem for Ramadan.
Since then, the Israeli army has
been conducting raids in the West
Bank and clamping down on Palestinians.
"We discussed a range of offensive and defensive steps which
we shall take in order to act against
this phenomenon," Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was
quoted as saying.
There are an estimated 7,000
Palestinians behind Israeli bars, according to the statistics of Jerusalem-based prisoner and human
rights association Addameer. Of
those, 70 are female prisoners and
414 are children, 104 of which are
under 16.
Al Jazeera
To Brexit or Regrexit? A
dis-United Kingdom ponders
turm oil of EU divorce
A wom an h olds a sign in Westm in ster, in cen tral Lon d on , Britain J u n e 24, 20 16.
To leave, or not to leave: that is
the question. Still.
After Britain’s historic vote to
leave the European Union, there is
no indication that a so-called Brexit
will happen soon. It maybe never
will.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who is resigning, has said he
will not take the formal step to an
EU divorce on the grounds that his
successor should. Because the referendum is not legally-binding,
some politicians are suggesting a
parliament vote before formally
triggering Brexit. A petition on the
UK government’s website on holding a second referendum has gained
more than 3 million signatories in
just two days. European leaders,
facing the biggest threat to European unity since World War Two,
are divided over how swiftly divorce talks should start. Paris
wants haste and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging patience. European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker
said he wanted to “start immediately.” And on Sunday, Scotland’s
leader said Scotland may veto Brexit altogether. Under devolution
rules, the parliaments of Scotland,
Northern Ireland and Wales are required to consent to any EU divorce, according to a report by the
House of Lords. Most British politicians agree such a decisive 5248 win for Leave in the referendum means a divorce must happen. Anything less would be a slap
in the face of democracy. “The will
of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered,” a
choking Cameron said in his resignation speech, which marked the
most tumultuous end to a British
premiership since Anthony Eden
resigned in 1957 after the Suez crisis. Still, the upswell of chatter #regrexit is trending big on twitter
- over whether Britain might be
able to reconsider speaks to the
disbelief gripping this continent in
the wake of a vote that has unleashed financial and political mayhem.
Sterling has plunged, and Britain’s political parties are both crippled. Cameron is a lameduck leader, and the main opposition Labour party on Sunday attempted
a coup against its leader, with nine
top officials resigning.
“The kaleidoscope has been
shaken up not just in terms of our
relationship with the EU but in
terms of who runs our parties, who
governs the country and what the
country is made up of,” said Anand
Menon, Professor of European
Politics and Foreign Affairs at
King’s College London. “It is very
hard to see where the pieces are.”
Article 50 he law provisioning an
EU member country’s exit from
the union is Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that is effectively the
EU’s constitution. It has never
been invoked before.
Before the vote, Cameron had
said Article 50 would be triggered
straight away if Britain voted to
leave. Over the weekend, several
EU officials also said the UK needed to formally split right away possibly at a Tuesday EU meeting. But officials of the Leave campaign - including former London
mayor Boris Johnson - are stepping on the brakes. They say they
want to negotiate Britain’s postBrexit relationship with the EU
before formally pulling the trigger
to divorce.
European officials and observers say such a deal is unlikely, especially considering the thorny issues involved.
For example, it is unlikely that
the EU would grant Britain access
to the single market - key to allowing Britain trade goods and services in the EU - without London
accepting the free movement of EU
workers. But the biggest issue for
those who voted to leave the bloc
was limits on immigration - something the Leave campaigners promised.
Divided UK
On Sunday, a petition to call
for a second referendum was gaining supporters, reaching 3.3 mil-
lion signatories by the afternoon.
David Lammy, a lawmaker for
the opposition Labour Party, said
it was within parliament’s powers
to call a second referendum and
urged that it be done.
Perhaps the most vocal resistance to a British exit is coming
from Scotland.
Scotland, a nation of five million people, voted to stay in the
EU by 62 to 38 percent, compared
to the 54 percent in England who
voted to leave.
Under the United Kingdom’s
complex arrangements to devolve
some powers to Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland, legislation
generated in London to set off an
EU divorce would have to gain
consent from the three devolved
parliaments, according to a report
by the House of Lords’ European
Union Committee.
Scottish First Minister Nicola
Sturgeon told the BBC on Sunday
that she would consider urging the
Scottish parliament to block such
a motion. It is not clear, however,
whether such a scenario would
ever materialize or be binding. Sturgeon’s spokesman later said that
the British government might not
seek consent in the first place.
Moreover, Sturgeon is simply
laying out the groundwork for a
new referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom --something the first minister
said was “highly likely.”
Withdrawal
While there is no precedent for
Article 50, the House of Lords has
discussed how any Brexit would
work. In May, it published a report after consultations with legal
experts.
In the report, Derrick Wyatt,
one of the professors involved,
said that while it would be politically difficult, the law allows the
UK to change its mind after invoking Article 50.
“In law, the UK could change
its mind before withdrawal from
the EU and decide to stay in after
all,” said Wyatt.
Brazil: Po lice accu s e d
o f targe tin g black yo u th s
Italo's death highlights the entrenched racial divisions that persist in Brazil and failure to protect children.
Sao Paulo, Brazil - Patricia de Jesus
Siqueira was working her
laundrette job when her nephew,
10-year-old Italo, was killed. He
had stolen a car with a friend and
was shot by Sao Paulo military
police. According to authorities, he
fired at them first. Italo had a history of small thefts - he was arrested three times just in 2016 but not for violent crimes.
"It's impossible. Italo would
not be able to acquire a gun. No
one would give him one," Siqueira
told Al Jazeera.
Following the incident, two
police officers involved were suspended from duty while an investigation was launched.
Italo's death highlights the entrenched social and racial divisions
that persist in Brazil, where poor,
young, black men are overwhelmingly more likely to be the victims
of homicide or police violence.
The case also illustrates the
systemic failures of Brazil's child
protection services to protect vulnerable children and adolescents.
UNICEF estimates that up to
10,500 children and teenagers are
killed in Brazil each year, with
black children four times more
likely to be killed than whites.
Italo often stayed at Patricia's
home in a favela, an informal settlement that straddles one of Sao
Paulo's busy, noisy main avenues.
Teenagers selling drugs guard the
entrance, clutching plastic bags full
of cannabis and cocaine vials.
Many of the houses are just
wooden huts.
Typifying Sao Paulo's stark
social inequalities that often coexist alongside each other, Italo
would meet his death just a short
bus ride away in the upmarket
streets of Vila Andrade, where
many female favela residents work
as domestic maids in expensive
condominiums. According to the
official police report obtained by
Al Jazeera, Italo and a friend, 11,
broke into a condominium complex
and found a jeep with the keys in
the ignition and the engine running,
in which they drove away. Police
gave chase and allege that Italo fired
at them while driving.
Italo crashed the car into an
oncoming bus and then allegedly
fired another shot while stationary, at which point, two motorbike officers who had been in pursuit fired a shot each, one passing
through the driver side window,
striking Italo in the head.
After his death, experts
pointed to a series of irregularities
that compromise the version of
events given by officers at the scene
and security officials.
"It's unbelievable that a child
of 10 could manage to lower the
window and shoot at police while
driving," said Julio Cesar
Fernandes Neves, police ombudsmen of Sao Paulo. READ MORE:
Brazil urged to end police brutality ahead of Olympics A 38-calibre revolver was allegedly recovered, but removed, altering the
crime scene. In a note, Sao Paulo
public security officials said that
the crime scene was modified to
provide medical assistance to Italo.
Following the death, police at the
scene recorded a video that appeared to show Italo's friend admitting that Italo was armed and
had fired at the officers.
Altogether, the boy changed
his story three times, on the third,
telling a child psychologist that
Italo wasn't armed, and it's widely
believed that he had been threatened into confessing on video. The
boy is now under witness protection. "This [video] makes it very
clear that they were worried about
proving that the boy [Italo] had
shot at them," said Neves, the police ombudsmen, who described
the video as "totally out of normal
procedure" for Sao Paulo military
police. Protesters gather in the
neighbourhood where Italo was
killed, calling his death an 'execution' [Daniel Arroyo/Ponte] Neglect and abandonment
Italo's life was characterised by
neglect and abandonment, both at
home and by the Brazilian child
protection system. His father is in
prison for drug trafficking and his
mother has been in and out of jail
for a series of thefts.
He spent much of his life on
the streets, sometimes living in
children's shelters - often running
away - or staying with relatives.
He attended child counselling services for at-risk children 20 times,
but authorities didn't pay enough
attention to his case.
"It's symbolic of the failure to
protect children and teens in Brazil," said Arial de Castro Alves, a
human rights lawyer accompanying the case. The weekend after
Italo's death, simultaneous protests were held near where he was
killed. One group protested against
his death, while the other group,
made up of residents from the
neighbourhood, declared their support for the police officers, who
had been taken off duty and were
under investigation.
"The residents of the region are
terrified about the rising criminality," said Major Sergio Olimpio
Gomes, a national congressman
who served for 29 years as a Sao
Paulo military policeman and was
invited to the event by the
organisers. "The agitators came and I'm sure they were paid by
someone to confront and
antagonise the residents who they
call 'the elite'," he said.
Tolerance for violence
In Sao Paulo city, police are
responsible for as many as one in
four killings. A recent opinion poll
found that half of Brazil's metropolitan population agreed with the
phrase "Bandido bom é bandido
morto", or "a good bandit is a dead
bandit". Another poll found that
87 percent of the Brazilian population support lowering the age of
criminal responsibility from 18 to
16.
Last year, a popular tabloid TV
show - with a focus on violent
crime - broadcast a live pursuit of
two teenage suspects on a motorbike, who were chased by police
and shot at point-blank range. The
presenter said that the officer "did
very well", live on air.
"If the police kills someone
who is a suspect - even a young
boy - people often justify this by
saying "but he was a bandit", said
Bruno Paes Manso, a postdoctoral
fellow at the Centre for the Study
of Violence at University of Sao
Paulo. "These scandals happen
year after year, but this is a problem that the authorities have never
had the will to confront," he said.
READ MORE: The real cost of
Brazil's Olympic Games Back in
the favela, Italo's aunt Patricia said
he was a "normal child" who liked
football, playing online games at
the internet cafe and shining shoes
at the nearby airport. "We just
want justice so this doesn't happen again with someone else," she
said. Al Jazeera
Protesters gather in the neighbourhood w here Italo w as killed, calling his death an 'execution' [Daniel Arroy o/ Ponte]
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
Starbucksto
debut small-lot
Indian coffee in
USthisyear
HONG KONG: The pound sank
Monday to 30-year lows while
most stock markets tumbled following Britain’s decision to leave
the European Union, with traders
fearing it will lead to months of
uncertainty. Sterling plunged two
percent in early exchanges as dealers rushed into assets considered
safe, such as the yen and gold, although Japan’s Nikkei stock index
rallied after suffering a battering on
Friday. The surprise decision
wiped $2.1 trillion off market valuations Friday and sent the pound
slumping to a 31-year low against
the dollar. But while it recovered
marginally as Friday wore on —
helped by promises of financial
market support from major central banks — the pound resumed
its losses in early Asian business.
It bought $1.3386, down from
$1.3670 in New York and heading
back towards the $1.3229 touched
Friday, which was its lowest level
since 1985. Stephen Innes, senior
trader at OANDA Asia Pacific,
warned sterling “is extremely vulnerable” and predicted an interest
rate cut in the summer. He also said
there was “a huge concern that
London’s status as the global financial capital will crumble” if it
losses its “passporting” rights,
which permit banks to locate themselves in the UK while offering
products and services in the EU.
Investors were also shifting out of
other higher-yielding, riskier currencies, which took a hammering
last week. South Korea’s won fell
0.6 percent, the Australian dollar
slipped 0.7 percent and the Indonesian rupiah shed 1.1 percent.
Malaysia’s ringgit dived 0.8 percent and the Philippine peso one
percent. Scotland welcome to join
Starbucks Corp for the first time
will sell single-origin, premium
coffee from India in the United
States as part of its effort to support coffee production in the country better known for its tea.
Starbucks for a limited time
later this year will sell a small-lot
arabica coffee from the Tata
Nullore Estates in India’s Coorg
coffee growing area. The coffee will
be roasted and sold at Starbucks’
Reserve Roastery and Tasting
Room in Seattle. The price was not
disclosed.
Starbucks opens first cafe in
sub-Saharan Africa
John Culver, group president
for Starbucks Coffee China/Asia
Pacific, told Reuters that the aim
is for this to be the “first step in
what we hope will be many reserve coffees coming out of India.”
India, which produces both
robusta and arabica, is the world’s
China’s economic
woes a challenge for
In d ia, s ays Aru n Jaitle y
EU, Merkel ally says China weakened the yuan’s fixing almost one
percent to a five-and-half-year low
against the dollar, in the biggest
downward move since August’s
devaluation. On equities markets
Hong Kong shed one percent,
Seoul was 0.5 percent lower and
Wellington lost 0.1 percent. There
were also losses in Singapore,
Manila, Jakarta and Taipei. However, the Nikkei stock index in
Tokyo was up 1.4 percent by
lunch, having plunged nearly eight
percent Friday, while Shanghai
added 0.6 percent and Sydney
gained 0.3 percent. There are fears
the shock vote will usher in another rout on global markets just
months after a China-fuelled selloff that scythed through the value
of shares at the start of the year.
EU demands quick divorce from
divided UK James Audiss, senior
investment adviser at Shaw and
Partners in Sydney, warned the
week could see some sharp losses
across markets,”It’s going to be a
very tough week. Unless an investor has a really strong view one
way or the other, you’d be brave
to buy in. It will be a really volatile week and people are scared to
position into things.” Investors
will be closely watching events in
Britain over the next few weeks
after Prime Minister David Cameron said he will step down in the
autumn, while the leader of the op-
position Labour Party is also facing calls to resign. Finance minister George Osborne, who has been
silent since the result, will try to
reassure markets, with growing
fears Scotland will hold another
vote on whether to leave the United Kingdom. EU leaders have called
for a quick break as they look to
prevent eurosceptics in other
member states from calling referendums that could imperil the sixdecades-old alliance.
W h y Au s tralia is go in g to ru n o u t o f w o rke rs
We all know Australia's population is ageing – by 2030, almost 20
per cent of the population will be
older than 65. We also know that
Australia's economy is increasingly reliant upon the service sector.
Our modelling predicts that services will comprise an even greater proportion of the economy by
2030 (up 5 per cent to 77.3 per
cent), due in part to increased
health spending and new export
opportunities in Asia. But few of
us are thinking about the way these
forces will collide.
Service industries typically
rely more heavily upon workers,
particularly educated ones, than
goods industries, which means
businesses in the service sector will
have to get creative to combat the
coming labour shortages. The industries with the strongest growth
prospects (such as health, education and professional services,
which are all set to expand at 6 per
cent a year to 2030), are also some
of the most labour-intensive. The
bottom line is this: the servicesdriven economy of 2030 may be
one where workers are in strong
demand and short supply for the
first time in several generations.
The growth sectors identified
above all require high levels of education, which presents another
challenge – funding the tertiary
education sector. Today, over half
of Australia's population has completed year 12 and has at least a
post-school certificate (more than
twice as many as in 1981), and by
2030 this could climb above 70 per
cent. But the increase in the pool
of potential skilled workers is unlikely to fully satisfy demand due
to the downward pressure on overall worker numbers.
Further digitisation and automation will provide some relief, but
the strongest growth in employment is occurring in positions that
cannot readily be replaced by machines, such as business professionals and health workers. These
changes in occupation structure
suggest education will continue to
grow in importance for Australia's
workforce.
The flip side of this analysis
is capital. Most service industries
are capital "light" in comparison
to goods industries, which means
financial service providers and investors may have to adapt to a
world dominated by industries
with lower funding requirements.
Projects associated with the mining boom had very high capital requirements. With many of these
projects now complete, and with
lower commodity prices meaning
fewer new projects, investment is
being redirected to areas like computer software and R&D. The
funding requirements in these
knowledge industries are typically lower, but more frequent, than
those of the goods industries.
We believe these changes to
labour and capital allocation are
already starting to take effect, and
they help explain some of the
mixed signals that the Australian
economy has been sending recently. For instance, how do we reconcile relatively resilient GDP
growth and strong employment
numbers on the one hand, with
weak investment and falling inflation on the other? The answer may
lie in the transition to a growing
services economy which requires
more skilled labour but less investment. Another possible implications of an increasingly dominant
service sector could be a shift in
the distribution of wealth in Australian society. Demand for labour
in services, coupled with a con-
traction in the more capital-intensive industries like mining, should
support a recovery in the labour
share of income. In fact the wage
share of Australia's GDP has already risen 2 per cent since 2010
and we forecast this will rise further over the next 15 years (up 5
per cent to 65 per cent). As a result, some of the consequences of
a falling labour share which we
have seen in recent decades, such
as growing income inequality, may
begin to unwind. A rising labour
share would also have implications
for the broader economy because
consumption should theoretically
increase.
· Businesses will need to adopt
more flexible work arrangements
as labour becomes harder to find.
In particular, more part-time work
and work-from-home arrangements will help retain older and
female workers.
Japan to adopt int’l
Moody’s econom ist: US econom y
method for fuel-economy will be ‘just fine’ after Brexit
testing in 2018
Global markets tanked over the ... I think the EU's big enough to this union than the elites who saw,
weekend as a result of the United take it down and not go into reces- had a vision of it, and certainly
The transport ministry plans to
adopt an internationally standardized method of testing car fuel economy, beginning in 2018.
The standardized method will
cut costs for automakers and help
them provide consumers with fuel
efficiency figures closer than ever
to actual on-road performance,
ministry officials said.
The reduced burden on automakers is expected to help prevent
wrongdoing, such as the failure of
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp. to use government-set methods for collecting
fuel economy test data.
To gauge automotive fuel economy in Japan, automakers measure
cars’ travel resistance, which indicates their friction with the road
surface and air resistance, by driving them on test courses.
Based on the data available
from the outdoor tests, the National Agency for Automobile and Land
Transport Technology, an independent administrative agency,
measures fuel economy and exhaust gas concentration in laboratory tests. Cars are fixed to test
equipment and tires are rolled in
uniform patterns of acceleration
and deceleration. As the travel pattern in bench tests differs from
country to country, automakers
sixth-largest coffee producer. Its
coffee output has increased 16 pct
over the past 5 years, according to
International Coffee Organisation
(ICO) data.
India’s estimated 2015/16 harvest is expected to be 5.83 million
60-kg bags of coffee, according to
ICO.
US woman sues Starbucks for
$5 mn over ice in cold drinks
The country is one of the coffee chain’s fastest-growing markets. Starbucks’ India, an equal
joint venture between Starbucks
and Tata Global Beverages Limited, has grown to 84 stores across
six cities in India since its start in
2012.
Starbucks India, which so far
has served only 100 percent arabica coffee grown and roasted in India, will also begin offering Kenyan and Sumatran coffee soon,
Culver said.
need to conduct different tests for
respective export destinations. A
working group of the United Nations came up with a globally harmonized test method called WLTP
in 2014. Compared with the JCO8
mode test currently in use in Japan, travel distance in the WLTP
test is twice as long and the average speed is 36 kph from some 24
kph. The U.N.-devised test method provides an environment more
similar to actual driving, by adopting an engine cold start and using
heavier cargo, the officials said. The
50 percent higher travel speed
means that fuel economy tends to
fall for hybrid cars and minicars.
The standardized test method is
expected to be adopted in Japan
from 2018 and a shift to the new
method is expected to be completed around 2022, the officials said.
Overseas, the European Union
plans to adopt the standardized
method, while India, South Korea
and China are making preparations
to introduce it, according to the
officials. “Drivers will gain fuel efficiency figures that are closer to
actual road performance,” an official of the transport ministry said.
“Automakers’ operating costs in
the development phase will be reduced, so consumers can expect
lower sticker prices of cars.”
Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union--but one American
economic expert doesn't think the
move will have a major impact on
the U.S. economy. "For us here in
the United States, I don't think this
is a big deal--I really don't," Mark
Zandi, chief economist at Moody's
Analytics, on a Brexit-related panel
for CBS' "Face the Nation." "If this
doesn't lead to a broader splintering of Europe--that would be a
problem for everybody, including
us--but barring that, if what we're
seeing now is what we're going to
get, I think the U.S. economy is
going to be just fine." Zandi added
that the UK is "going down the
rabbit hole," and that the immediate aftermath of the vote is "going
to be really tough for them." "I
think a recession's likely for them
over the next six, 12 months," he
said. Still, the impact on the EU
might not be as acute: "For the
European Union this is going to
hurt but I think they can digest it
sion." Rana Foroohar, an economic columnist at Time Magazine,
pushed back, saying the UK's
Brexit vote is already having an
impact on the U.S. economy in the
Federal Reserve's decision not to
raise interest rates right now. "For
one, the Fed is keeping interest
rates low for longer in part because
of the volatility that this has created," she said. "There's a lot of
reasons that the Fed might want
to start raising interest rates ... we
need to have some real fiscal policy to create a Main Street recovery rather than one that's been genetically engineered by the Fed."
David Ignatius, a columnist for the
Washington Post, said the momentum behind multi-national groups
like the European Union has been
"slowing" for "many years" now,
and that leaders in many of these
European countries have gotten
ahead of where their people are on
the issue. "I think the public has
always been more uneasy about
profited from it," he said. "And
we've run up against a wall." Still,
Ignatius added, there's no way to
unring the bell of a global economy--so leaders in the UK and elsewhere have to figure out how to
help their people within that new
reality. "Economic globalization is
here to stay. Economic nationalism is not a viable idea," he said.
"Political nationalism is clearly
strong ... but you're not going to
reverse the way in which the
world's trade now flows."
The irony of the Brexit vote,
said Economist editor David Rennie, is that the Rust Belt-type voters who strongly supported leaving the EU are the ones who are
likely to be most hurt by it. He
noted that one of the first big towns
to vote "decisively" for Leave was
Sunderland, where the car company Nissan has a plant; Nissan, as a
consequence of the vote, has said
it may have to make its cars elsewhere in Europe.
Finance m inister Arun Jaitley speaking at an "Invest in
India" forum in Beijing, China. (Reuters Photo)
The slowdown of the Chinese
economy and fluctuations in its
stock market are among the external challenges facing the Indian
economy, finance minister, Arun
Jaitley has said, adding that New
Delhi will focus on domestic demand to ensure growth. He said
India was equipped to tackle external challenges like the “…possible rise of oil prices, political
threats in the Middle East, fluctuation of China’s financial markets
and the slowdown of the Chinese
economy”. The growth of China,
the second largest economy in the
world, has slowed down to less
than 7 percent in several years. And
last year, sudden volatility in its
stock market wiped out billions of
dollars. In a globally integrated market, it had an impact on many countries including India. But such challenges could be tackled in three
ways by India, Jaitley said. “First,
India must cement its “firewall”
to deal with challenges by ensuring a steady macroeconomic environment and properly managing its
financial situation; secondly, due
to the sluggish external market,
India must rely on its domestic
demand and Indian market to prevent the slowdown of economic
growth; finally, India must continue its economic reform, launch reform policies so as to enhance people’s living standard,” the Indian
finance minister wrote for the influential business and political
magazine, Caixin. Speaking to Indian reporters on Friday, Jaitley
had said it might seem “optically”
that China’s growth has slowed
down but “effectively for an economy of this size, 6 percent to 7
percent is still a very significant
growth”. Jaitley is on five-day China tour, where also addressed the
ongoing first annual session of the
China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) on Saturday, besides meeting Chinese companies and potential investors. The
China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) could meet
India’s need for about $2 to $3 billion to fund the country’s urbanisation drive, he said. “India has a
huge unmet demand for investment
in infrastructure and is preparing
basket of projects worth US$ 2-3
billion for AIIB funding in the areas of Urban Development (including Smart Cities), Energy, Urban
Transport, Railways, Inland Wa-
terways and Water Supply,” Jaitley said, in his address to the first
annual general meeting of the bank.
“Outlining India’s development
paradigm, the FM stated that India has undertaken reforms in FDI
and initiated large investments in
rural infrastructure, national highway, inland waterways, shipping,
power sector and smart cities etc,”
an Indian embassy statement quoted him as saying. Jaitley offered
India’s support in establishment
of a “regional office of AIIB in New
Delhi to effectively cater to this
potentially large portfolio and
speed up the process of project
development, monitoring and implementation.” In a separate interview to national broadcaster, China Central Television, Jaitley said
India’s growth rate of 7.6 percent
in 2015 was not only sustainable
but with a good monsoon this year,
could be improved upon. Asked
whether India can sustain the high
growth rate, the finance minister
said it was possible because of the
massive economic activities that
could go into building infrastructure in India. “It (the growth) is
sustainable for the reason that India still has a lot of distance in
terms of economic growth to cover; the potential for investing in
infrastructure, the potential for
urbanisation, in housing, in power, in electricity, in water, in the
social sector…For us even today
the sky is the limit…that’s the kind
of investments we require,” Jaitley said. He then linked it to the
potential for economic activity.
“And therefore a lot of economic activities have to go into it.
Currently, public finance is taking
the leading in doing so. But I am
sure in due course, as the economy picks up, the private sector
will also boost this,” he said. “Secondly, we have grown in the last
two years despite the fact that we
had a less than normal monsoon,
and monsoon plays an important
role in India’s economic growth,”
he said. “This year hopefully, the
monsoon seems to be broadly alright. And, if we have a good monsoon this year, that itself boosts
the rural economy, rural purchasing power, and therefore, it adds
to the economy,” he said. “We
grew by 7.6 percent last year will
certainly maintain that and with a
good monsoon, hopefully improved upon that,” Jaitley said.
3 s ign s Ge rm an y’s e co n o m y is fallin g ap art
Germany is the world’s fourth-largest economy. It is also Europe’s
largest economy, and any European economic recovery depends a
great deal on Germany’s trajectory.
Germany is also the third-largest exporter in absolute terms in
the G20 and is nearly as dependent on exports as Saudi Arabia
and South Korea. The country
must export vast amounts to maintain social and political stability.
With global demand weakening since 2008, we are seeing a generalized crisis for exporters. This
crisis is creating political and social instability in exporting countries like China, Russia, and Saudi
Arabia.
However, one country that has
not yet experienced the effects of
this crisis is Germany… While
other major exporters have been
struggling, Germany has actually
increased its export levels.
Germany has thus created a
significant vulnerability for itself
and will be the next country to face
an export crisis. Here are three
main indications that the country
is heading toward its own inevitable crisis. A crisis that can destabilize Europe and the rest of the
world.
The economic slowdown in
China and the eurozone’s economic
malaise led to low export growth
rates and, in some cases, declines
in German exports to these areas.
The weakening global demand for
German goods resulted in major
shifts in German trade patterns.
German exports to France have
grown so slowly since 2008, for
example, that France is no longer
the top destination for German
exports—for the first time since
1961. Not only that, exports to
China in 2015 declined by 4%.
German exporters have sought to
make up for decreased demand by
boosting exports to other markets,
especially the US. Only 7.2% of
German exports by value went to
the US in 2008. Seven years later,
this increased to 9.5 percent. In
2015, German exports to the US
rose by 19 percent. A Volkswagen
logo is pictured at Volkswagen's
headquarters in WolfsburgThomson Reuters The second indication
that Germany’s model is eroding
is declining returns on capital invested. Some German exporters
have experienced only slight declines, but several major companies have undergone significant
shifts. Volkswagen, Bayer, and
BASF all saw their rate of return
on invested capital decline over the
last two years. Volkswagen enjoyed a rate of return on invested
capital of over 13 percent in late
2012. That rate was less than 3
percent by 2015. Another example is Daimler’s rate of return on
sales of its Mercedes-Benz cars:
in the first quarter of 2016, it was
7 percent, compared to 9.4 percent the previous year. Flickr/Thomas Hawk The third indication
of a coming crisis is that German
businesses are sacrificing revenues
in order to boost exports in the
short term. Producer prices in the
eurozone are declining, according
to the European Commission.
In January, producer prices fell
3 percent at an annual rate, and in
February, prices dropped by 4.2
percent. Some German exporters
publicly declared that they are cutting prices.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
WHAT DID
RANVEER SAY TO
Deepika on IIFA stage?
Deepika Padukone's performance
to her rumoured boyfriend Ranveer
Singh's song from the film 'Bajirao
Mastani' moved the actor. He says
that nothing makes him happier
than his 'Goliyon Ki Raasleela
Ram-Leela' co-star.
The two seem to share a great
bond but neither Ranveer nor
Deepika have officially accepted
their relationship in public.
However, when Deepika hit
the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards stage here on
Saturday night and chose one of
Ranveer's song from Sanjay Leela
Bhansali's directorial "Bajirao
Maastani" to dance to, Ranveer
said he was moved by the performance.
While receiving the Best Actor award for his performance in
the film, he mentioned Deepika in
his acceptance speech and said: "I
was very moved by that performance. Leela to Ram, Mastani to
Bajirao. I want to know which is
next. Girl, you are so fine and by
fine I mean a fine performer. What
an actor!"
"Nothing makes me happier
than you, Deepika. Nothing makes
me happier then receiving this
award with you," he added.
Though he simply called her a
"fine performer", there were reports that the rumoured couple
broke up after Deepika visited
Ranveer in Paris.
owever, the 'Lootera' star put
an end to the rumours by sharing a
cryptic message on Sunday on
Twitter.
"Leela to my Ram...Mastani
to my Bajirao...Best Actress to my
Best Actor Deepika Padukone.
IIFA 2016. Koi Shaq (any
doubts?)," Ranveer tweeted. The
four-day gala -- which celebrates
the magic of Indian cinema at an
international destination every
year -- began on June 23. Madrid
is the fourth European destination
to host the IIFA extravaganza.
Signing movie doesn’t make
you Hollywood star. Wait for
release, SAYS PRIYANKA
Priyanka Chopra, who is all set to
take over the West with her much
-awaited film Baywatch, feels that
signing a movie does not brand anyone as a Hollywood actor.
Interacting with the media on
the sidelines of the IIFA 2016, the
33-year-old actor said, “Signing a
movie does not make you Hollywood actor. Let the movie release
first. I am very excited about
Baywatch’s release.” When asked
whether she is willing to play the
lead actress in Sanjay Leela
Bhansali’s next, Priyanka said she
is right now busy with Quantico 2
shoot and, therefore, can’t do any
another film till March. “Of course,
I want to do .We had a lot of discussion over this. But I am doing
Quantico season 2 and hence I
can’t do another film till March.
Only after March, I can do
Bollywood or any other film,” she
said. Speaking about the IIFA
night, Priyanka won the best performance in a supporting role (female) for Bajirao Mastani.
What breakup? Bradley Cooper, Irina
Shayk are planning to start a family
Looks like the rumours of Bradley Cooper and model girlfriend
Irina Shayk breaking up were...
rumours really. According to a report in E! Online, the gorgeous
couple is thinking about starting a
family soon. Cooper and Shayk
have been together since past one
year, are getting more serious about
their relationship. “Things are getting more serious between them.
They have spoken about having a
family soon and building a future
together. Irina Shayk and Bradley
Cooper hanging out on a beach in
the initial days of their romance.
(Twitter) “Irina would like to have
kids in the next few years. Being a
mother is something that is very
important to her...Things are mov-
The release of foreign films should
be limited, say directors as they
battle Hollywood hits
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Bollywood films are facing tough
competition from Hollywood
films on their own soil. Several filmmakers, like Mukesh Bhatt, have
sounded off an alarm to save Hindi films from dwindling box office
collections.
The Jungle Book, which released in April, crossed the Rs
150cr mark, matching up to the box
office collections of SRK and Salman Khan
It is well known that Hollywood filmmakers and studios work
in a monopolistic way. They have
realised the importance of the Indian market and sometimes, even
release their films here first.
The collections of Hollywood
films have multiplied in India in
the last five years. Initially, they
would only play at 400 screens
across the country, now it is over
1,500 screens. For instance, Jurassic World (2015) released in over
65 countries worldwide. In the US,
it released in only 440 theatres,
while overseas, it was running in
over 800 theatres. In India alone,
it was released in 2,300 screens
across the country. No big Bollywood films released a week earlier
or a week after after its release.
Mohit Suri's Hamari Adhuri Kahani, starring Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi, took the risk, but paid
the price at the box office.
In another instance, in 2015,
Fast and Furious 7 got double the
screens that Byomkesh Bakshi got.
While Fast and Furious 7 got 2,800
screens, Byomkesh got 1, 240.
Says Vikram Bhatt, "They
have aced the genres of animation,
sci-fi and action, due to which the
multiplexes favour them. This is
not a wrong move as they are raking in the moolah. But the biggest
impact is on small budget films.
During the festive season, it is difficult to procure release dates as
the Khans and Kapoors dominate.
During the summer months, they
release animation films to target the
vacation crowd. The IPL takes
care of the rest as filmmakers do
not want to release their films during the cricket season. So where
do the small filmmakers go?"
Saurabh Saxena, COO, Carnival Cinemas says, "Our earnings
from Bollywood and Hollywood
are the same. But what is happening is that Hollywood films are
now running successfully even in
the second week. For instance, The
Jungle Book did phenomenal business in the second and third week.
It was a similar situation during
Captain America and The X Men."
According to film distributors,
Hollywood is making a planned
effort to target India. They are releasing their films here before the
US. The Jungle Book released
worldwide on April 15, but in India it hit theatres on April 8. Commenting about the scenario, Amitabh Bachchan says, "I had started ABCL in 1995 and at that time
I had said that we need to look
after our production houses. The
Americans are coming. In 1990,
when I was in New York, I met a
Hollywood studio head. This man,
in a mere 30 minutes, told me the
history of the Hindi film industry.
I was shocked. He told me to look
after our house as the Yankees are
coming."
Irrfan, who has seen the best
of Hollywood and Bollywood,
says, "Earlier, we didn't had to
worry about such a situation. If
we do not make films that are inspired by our roots, we will not be
able to take them on."
Adds Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox
Star India, "It is the survival of the
fittest. In the marketplace, only
what is really good, sells. For example, Neerja and Kapoor and Sons
were our films and ran successfully in theatres for several weeks.
The audience has the right to
choose what is best for them. If
we enforce protective policies, we
are stealing the rights of the audience to choose what they want to
watch."
Filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt
counters Vijay Singh's logic. The
veteran says, "In China, only 35
foreign films can release in a year.
This is a government directive.
This is the case even though there
are 50,000 screens. We have only
8, 000 screens. Healthy competition will happen when there is a
fight among equal talents.
ing in an amazing direction,” a
source said. While the duo have
been busy with their respective
careers they do take out time for
each other. “Irina has been working non stop and is pretty exhaust-
ed but still has been making time
to see Bradley. Read: Lady Gaga
joins Bradley Cooper’s fourth remake of A Star is Born “Bradley is
very supportive. Irina is doing so
well in her career at the moment.
She has been getting gigs left and
right the demand for her with new
campaigns is insane. She has to
turn down jobs at this point,” the
source said. Cooper, 41, and
Shayk, 30, were first linked in April
2015 after they were spotted attending Broadway’s “Finding
Neverland”. They made their red
carpet debut together at the L’Oreal
Red Obsession Party in Paris in
March. Last month, the couple
attended the Met Gala and were
photographed at an after-party.
After 11 years together,
Nicolas Cage separates
from wife Alice Kim
Don’t worry GOT?
fans, the show will go
on. BREXIT OR NOT
National Treasure actor Nicolas
Cage and his wife Alice Kim have
been separated after 11 years together. According to a representative of the 52-year-old actor, the
couple parted ways in January,
reported People magazine.
Cage met Kim, 32, in February 2004 when she served him
while working as a waitress in a
Los Angeles restaurant. They were
engaged two months later before
tying the knot on a ranch in North-
ern California.
Nicolas Cage and Alice Kim at
The Croods premiere in 2013 in
New York. (AP)
This is Cage’s third marriage,
the actor was married to Lisa
Marie Presley for almost four
months in 2002 before filing for
divorce, and, prior to that, to
Patricia Arquette for five years.
He also has a 25-year-old son,
Weston, from a relationship with
model Christina Fulton.
Hit TV show Game of Thrones,
partly filmed in Northern Ireland,
will not suffer due to Britain’s decision to leave the European
Union.
The cable network squashed
speculations that the show would
lose EU funding on Friday, reports
variety.com.
Read:?Game of Thrones episode 9 spoiler-free review- Battle
of the Bastards
“We do not anticipate that the
result of the EU Referendum will
have any material effect on HBO
producing Game of Thrones,”
makers of the hit series said in a
statement. Isaac HempsteadWright in a still from the show.
(HBO)
Read:?Revisit the most memorable lines from Game of Thrones
Some productions could be
harmed because of disappearing tax
breaks or subsidies, but people
close to Game of Thrones said the
series already has succeeded without support from the European
Regional Development Fund
(ERDC) for the past few seasons.
Inspired by novelist George
R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy
novels, the HBO series narrates a
gripping story of seven kingdoms
and royals vying for the Iron
throne.
It weaves together various
emotions -- from love, politics,
revenge, hatred and value of family -- into a bloody tale which has
caught the fancy of several people
across the globe.
I am actually
dying to get
married:
Salman Khan
Superstar Salman Khan, who has
previously broken hearts by claiming marriage isn’t on the cards for
him, has brought hope back to life
by revealing that he is in fact “dying” to tie the knot.
The 50-year-old actor said that
he has been wanting to settle down
but the women in his life haven’t
reciprocated.
He said, “I am actually dying
to get married and had always been
waiting for the other party to agree.
Men have no say… It’s the
women who decide it all,” reports
Indian Express. Marriage looks
doubtful but I want two to three
children: Salman Khan Salman was
promoting his film Sultan in the
show Sa re ga ma pa, when a contestant asked for his advice to find
a life partner. “You have targeted
the wrong person, Jugpreet,” said
Salman. He added that he has been
unsuccessful in his love life.
“I have always been unlucky
in this matter, but the public impression about me in this regard is
all wrong,” noted the Bajrangi
Bhaijaan star.
I cannot take
the Kim
Kardashian route:
Armeena Khan
LAHORE: While many actors in
Pakistan aspire to cross borders,
some residing overseas have made
their way back home through the
entertainment industry. Such is the
story of Armeena Rana Khan’s life,
as well as that of her character
Meena in the upcoming film
Janaan. She divulges details about
rediscovering her home, her social
responsibilities and the direction
her career is headed, to The Express Tribune.
“I have refused 10 dramas and
three films this year. I don’t want
to do the bechari aurat role,” says
Khan, adding, she only takes up
projects that fit in with her principles. Shedding light on Janaan,
she shares, “Meena, in Janaan is a
lot like me — a young girl who has
just returned to her roots and is
rediscovering them from a fresh
perspective. It talks about the relationships you didn’t nurture and
the beauty of the area you originate from.” The film is meant to
portray the Pukhtun community
in a positive light, and Khan who
is half Pathan herself, quips that
her heritage helped her bag the role.
“Meena is empowered, ambitious
and ultimately falls in love with
Pakistan like I did.”
She sat with Osman Khalid
Butt while he was finalising the
script for Janaan. “My habits were
incorporated into the script like
how I laugh and my expressions
so you will see Meena in all of
Armeena’s shades in the film.”
Khan who started her career with
films feels she doesn’t translate as
well on TV serials. However, she
did take up a few dramas such as
Karb — where she plays a girl who
belongs to a family from Lucknow
— so she could prove her mettle
with Urdu to local audiences. Contrary to what some may believe
about her having an edge over local
female actors, Khan disagrees.
“My upbringing is not in accordance with the local culture or the
daily activities of Pakistani housewives; so I had to study it — it’s
not something that came naturally
to me.” That is why, after her first
serial with Wajahat Rauf, Khan
took acting courses at Pinewood
and Ealing in London. “My shortcomings came to light but I realised
that acting schools are great but
ultimately it boils down to how
centred you are in your character.”
Currently, Khan is in the UK running her property business and
shooting a short film titled Achilles Protocol. “If we’re lucky
you’ll see it at the Cannes Film
Festival next year”, she says, the
same festival where in 2013, Khan
became the first Pakistani female
actor in attendance. Recently the
fair-skinned actor recently got offered a lucrative contract with a
skin whitening company but
turned it down.
.
AFGHANISTANTIMES
EAST RUTHERFORD: Lionel
Messi sensationally announced his
retirement from international football on Sunday after Argentina
crashed to an upset defeat against
Chile in the final of the Copa America. The heartbroken Barcelona
superstar was distraught after missing a spot-kick as Chile snatched
victory in a penalty shoot-out —
Messi’s fourth straight defeat in a
major final while representing Argentina. “For me the national team
is over,” the crestfallen 29-yearold told reporters. “I’ve done all I
can, I’ve been in four finals and it
hurts not to be a champion.
“It’s a hard moment for me and
the team, and it’s difficult to say,
but it’s over with the Argentina
team.” Chile retain Copa with
shootout win over Argentina Messi’s dramatic announcement followed Argentina’s third loss in a
major final since 2014. They were
beaten 1-0 by Germany in the final of the World Cup in 2014 and
lost on penalties, also to Chile, in
the final of the 2015 Copa America. Messi also tasted defeat with
Argentina in the final of the 2007
Copa America. Despite a glittering career that has seen him be
named FIFA World Player of the
Year on no fewer than five occasions, Messi has often faced baffling criticism from Argentina fans.
Win Copa America or don’t come
back, Maradona tells Argentina
Although universally regarded
as one of the greatest footballers
ever, he has regularly been criticised for his failure to land a major
title in the colours of Argentina.
Messi’s failure to match the
achievements in the Argentina jersey of Diego Maradona, who single-handedly carried the team to
victory in the 1986 World Cup,
has often been held against him.
Maradona himself has often
taken potshots at Messi, criticising him on the eve of the tournament for a perceived “lack of personality.” “He’s a really good person, but he has no personality,”
Rain h as
las t lau gh as
th ird OD I
aban d o n e d
Maradona said in Paris shortly
before the start of Euro 2016. “He
lacks the character to be a leader.”
Copa America: Messi equals Gabriel Batistuta’s record Messi’s
bombshell decision comes after a
gruelling season which was disrupted by injury last year.
He recovered to help Barcelo-
na win the Spanish title once more
and was relishing the prospect of
leading Argentina to glory in the
Copa America Centenario. His
commitment to playing for Argentina was reflected in his decision
to fly from Spain to Argentina for
a low-key friendly against Honduras shortly before the tourna-
ment, where he suffered a back injury. He then returned to Spain to
give evidence at his trial for tax
fraud before jetting off to the United States to join up with his Argentina team-mates. Although he
was injured for his team’s opening
group game against Chile, he came
on as a substitute in a 5-0 ham-
mering of Panama to score a hattrick in 19 minutes.
He then equalled Argentina’s
international goalscoring record of
54, held by Gabriel Batistuta, in
the quarter-finals before setting a
new mark with his 55th international goal in the semi-final win
over the United States.
An th o n y Jo s h u a e ye s Am e rica
bu t co o ls talk o f D e o n tay W ild e r clas h
Anthony Joshua says he will soon
fight in the US but has told Deontay Wilder to focus on his own
upcoming bout with Chris Arreola. Wilder, who defends his WBC
heavyweight title against Chris
Arreola in Birmingham, Alabama
on July 16, took to Twitter following Joshua's seventh-round
stoppage of Dominic Breazeale on
Saturday, urging the Briton to
break his American duck and fight
him. Wilder wrote: "Since the winter time you planned on
@Tyson_Fury. Hey it's time to
make your American debut @anthonyfjoshua. Eddie Hearn said
sooner than later so let's make sooner "NOW"!!!!!" But Joshua,
whose next mandatory challenger
for his IBF belt is Joseph Parker,
told Sky Sports News HQ: "Let
him focus on his fight with Chris
Arreola, that's important to him.
"I will definitely be out there making my US debut soon, whether
it's against Wilder or not, I just
want to get out there, make my
name known because it's a golden
time for boxing again. Let's start
building, hit the big stage." He produced a devastating seventh round
stoppage.
Saturday's victory was
Joshua's 17th straight knockout
since turning professional and he
admits he is feeling the pressure to
break the American market. Anthony Joshua reflects on his victory over Dominic Breazeale to
retain his IBF Heavyweight title
Anthony Joshua reflects on his
victory over Dominic Breazeale to
retain his IBF Heavyweight title
He added: "Everyone is asking me
when I'm going to America, I'm not
too sure they'd be thrilled if I told
them we were going to Alabama,
not that there's anything wrong
with Alabama! "But it's not Las
Vegas and if we can get something
like that, then I would jump at the
option. "But I realised during the
Breazeale fight that everyone's
opinions are irrelevant, telling me
who to fight. "As the fight went
on, I realised I could go out there
and try and knock out Breazeale,
but I've got to do what's right by
me. When I take that out of the
fight and into my career path, I
want to do it by my own accord,
and no one else's influence. "There
are so many wolves in the pack
right now who want to come for
what we've built, but no problem.
I've got a good team. We will sit
down and discuss our options for
the short term - hopefully fight in
November or even sooner so we
can fit in another two fights - and
then a longer-term strategy." Repeats of Anthony Joshua vs Dominic Breazeale are on at 10am,
2pm and 8pm on Sunday, so book
via your Sky remote or online here.
Min d in g cru is e s to Pre tty Kin g m ay ap p e al
Po lly Stake s at th e Cu rragh o ve r Rio s n u b
Olympic champion Dani King is
considering appealing against British Cycling's decision to leave her
out of the road race team for the
Rio Games.
King, who won the track team
pursuit gold at London 2012, is
the second-highest ranked British
woman on the UCI World Tour
behind world road champion Lizzie
Armitstead. Armitstead has been
selected to lead the GB women's
squad, with Emma Pooley and
Nikki Harris occupying the other
spots. King (right) waits for the
Stage Two start of the Women's
Tour of Britain with Laura Trott
(left) and race leader Lisa Brennauer
King (right) waits for the Stage
Two start of the Women's Tour of
Britain with Laura Trott (left) and
race leader Lisa Brennauer
"Initially I was told that I
couldn't appeal as I wasn't a
Minding duly landed the odds to
collect her third Group One triumph of the season in the Sea The
Stars Pretty Polly Stakes at the
Curragh. The Qipco 1000 Guineas and Investec Oaks heroine displayed a decisive turn of foot to
cut down long-time leader Bocca
Baciata and surge clear in the final
half-furlong. Colm O'Donoghue
tried to steal a march on Bocca
Baciata and Jessica Harrington's
four-year-old turned for home a
good five lengths in front. However, Ryan Moore asked Aidan
O'Brien's filly to go about her business and the 1/5 shot gobbled up
the deficit in a matter of strides,
going away to win by four and a
half lengths. Lucida was third for
Godolphin and Jim Bolger, while
the Luca Cumani-trained Koora
was fourth and James Fanshawe's
Speedy Boarding last of the five.
It was a big-race treble for the Ballydoyle team and Moore after earlier Group-contest wins by Sir
Isaac Newton and Roly Poly.
O'Brien said: "She is a great
filly. She loves her racing, and is
getting very relaxed. Ryan was
delighted with her, and we will
look at something like the Nassau.
"She has two options really for
her next run, the Irish Oaks and
the Nassau, and we are eyeing the
Irish Oaks with Even Song."
He added: "I hope she will stay
in training next year, and I'll certainly plead that she does. She is
very talented and progressing all
the time."
Moore said: "She's a very good
filly and Aidan keeps bringing her
back and producing her to run.
"It's some performance for a
filly to run in two Guineas, an
Oaks then come here. It's a tough
schedule and to keep her in super
shape is a magnificent achievement.
"She picked up to get there,
then we shut down in the last furlong. There was more there again
if we needed it.
"She's a high-class filly and is
adaptable with trip and can go on
a variety of ground as well.
programme rider. I'm going to explore that option," said 25-yearold King.
"I haven't really been given a
fair explanation as to why I haven't
been selected, to be completely
honest. I was given nine criteria at
the start of the year which I've
been working toward and I'm absolutely gutted." King, who recovered from serious injuries suffered
in a training crash in 2014, was the
second-highest placed Brit in this
month's five-stage Aviva Women's
Tour of Britain.
She finished 11th behind winner Armitstead, but ahead of both
Harris (14th) and Pooley (45th).
The Women's Road Race will
be staged on August 7, day three
of the Rio Olympics, over a
130.3km course which takes in
such picturesque backdrops as
Copacabana Beach.
BRISTOL: England were left 1-0
up with two to play after rain
meant the third One-day International in their five-match series
against Sri Lanka ended in a no result at Bristol on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 249, England were 16-1 off four overs when
rain stopped play.
A minimum of 20 overs needed to be bowled in the second innings for a result to be declared
under the Duckworth/Lewis method for rain-affected matches.
But the players were still off
the field when the umpires abandoned the match at 5:30pm local
time (1630 GMT).
On Friday, Sri Lanka had 34.1
overs in the field without any success as England won the second
ODI at Edgbaston by 10 wickets
to go 1-0 up in the five-match series after Tuesday’s tie at Trent
Bridge. At Edgbaston, England
openers Jason Roy (112 not out)
and Alex Hales (133 not out) both
posted their ODI best scores in an
unbroken stand of 256.
It was a very different story
for Hales at the County Ground
on Sunday when he fell for nought
off the first ball he faced when
caught behind chasing a wide delivery
from
Suranga
Lakmal.Earlier, Chris Woakes and
Liam Plunkett both took three
wickets apiece as Sri Lanka were
held to 248-9 after England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss.
Woakes had fine figures of
three for 34 in his 10 overs, including two wickets with his last
two balls, after fast bowler Plunkett made early inroads on his way
to 3-46. Three Sri Lanka batsmen
— Dinesh Chandimal (62), captain Angelo Mathews (56) and
Kusal Mendis (53) — all made fifties.
But the trio all fell going for
big legside shots, with Sri Lanka’s
total looking well below par.
England had a wicket just five
balls into Sunday’s match when
Danushka Gunathilaka played on
to left-arm quick David Willey
when trying to leave the ball.
Kusal Perera fell for nine when
he got a top edge off Plunkett and
wicket-keeper Jos Buttler held a
skyer. First-change Plunkett had
now taken a wicket with his second ball on Sunday after striking
with this third delivery on Friday.
Mendis pulled all-rounder
Chris Jordan, recalled in place of
off-spinner Moeen Ali, for four and
six off successive deliveries.
But Mendis was out for his
ODI best score when he holed out
off Plunkett to Hales at deep midwicket. Mathews, like Chandimal
troubled by a hamstring problem,
drove Plunkett down the ground
for six. Chandimal completed a 65ball fifty but then, trying to hit
Woakes leg-side, got a thick edge
straight to Jordan at third man.
That was the end of a fourth-wicket stand of 80 with Mathews, who
later skyed a pull off Jordan to
Buttler.
Woakes ended his spell by
having Farveez Maharoof caught
in the deep and next ball bowling
Upul Tharanga (40) middle stump.
The series continues with a
day/night match at The Oval in
south London on Wednesday.
Djokovic, Federer,
Garbine start W im bledon
title challenges
Novak Djokovic begins his Wimbledon title defence against Britain's James Ward and Roger Federer also starts his pursuit of an
eighth crown at the All England
club on Monday. World No 1 Djokovic is targeting a calendar year
Grand Slam following this year's
victories at the Australian Open
and French Open and Ward, ranked
at 177, faces a daunting task. Djokovic returns to competitive action
for the first time since his triumph
over Andy Murray at Roland Garros, which ended his long wait for
the major clay title. In stark contrast, Ward has be short of form
and opening-round defeats at Nottingham and Queen's will have not
boosted his confidence ahead of a
meeting with dominant Serb. Kyle
Edmund, another British hope,
will be hoping to come through a
tough clash against Adrian Mannarino, with the winner set to face
either Djokovic or Ward. Third seed
Federer could renew his rivalry
with Djokovic in the semi-finals
after being drawn in the same half,
but firstly must take on Argentina's Guido Pella. Roger Federer
(left) defeated Andy Murray in the
2012 final The Swiss star missed
the French Open as he recovered
from knee and back injuries, but is
ready to challenge fellow title contenders Djokovic and Andy Murray. "Clearly I'm not thinking of
the title right away. It's too far
ahead," said Federer, who has not
won a Grand Slam since Wimbledon in 2012. The order of play for
the first day of Wimbledon action
at the All England Club on Monday. "Regardless if even Novak or
Andy would be in the draw, and
they are, they are the big favourites in my opinion. "They've had
such a great last six months, last
few years. To me they are the ones
to beat." Garbine Muguruza (right)
avenged her Wimbledon loss in this
year's French Open final Garbine
Muguruza (right) avenged her
Wimbledon loss in this year's
French Open final In the women's
draw, last year's beaten finalist
Garbine Muguruza makes her first
appearance against Camila Giorgi.
The Spanish second seed was beaten in straight sets by Serena Williams in the 2015 showpiece, but
exacted revenge by defeating the
American in the French Open final
this year to claim her first Grand
Slam title. The British duo of Laura
Robson and Naomi Broady are also
in action during a busy schedule in
south-west London. Laura Robson
will be hoping to repeat her win
over Angelique Kerber Robson has
been handed a difficult clash with
Angelique Kerber, five years after
her victory over the German, while
Broady is pitted against the 17th
seed Elina Svitolina.
TUESDAY
Investors have slammed the Afghan government for its lack of
adequate action against the unprecedented rise of kidnappings and
hostage-taking incidents in Kabul
city and on the nation's highways.
This follows only hours after
a group of armed men on Sunday
attempted to kidnap an investor
in the city center.
Reacting to the recent spate of
security threats and the rise in the
number of attempts to abduct investors, the Afghanistan Chamber
of Commerce and Industries criti-
cized the government for not been
able to ensure the safety of visiting businessmen. It is a rising trend,
the ACCI believes, that will have
negative repercussions for investments in and consequently of the
economic development of the
country. "Because necessary measures are not being taken to ensure
the safety of businessmen, this will
have a severe and adverse impact
on the interests of investors wanting to invest money in the country," deputy head of ACCI Khan
Jan Alokozai said.
Above 5,000 Afghan
children w ith VSD
need treatment
KABUL : The Afghan Red Crescent Society says some 5,000 children with a hole in the heart have
been treated during the past six
years, but more than 5000 children
with the birth defect need treatment.
The society spokesperson,
Miram Sadaqat, told Pajhwok Afghan News her organization had
diagnosed and registered more than
10,000 children having ventricular
septal defects (VSDs) during the
past six years. Of them, 5000 had
received free treatment funded by
the Red Crescent Society and most
of them received treatment in foreign countries, mostly in India, she
said. “Every day, three to four children having VSD are brought to us
and we accept 1000 children for
treatment each year, but sometimes the figures are reduced to 900
and 850 due to lack of budget, resources and capacity of hospitals.”
She said each year the society
spent three million afghanis on
treatment of such children, with
one million afs being provided by
the government and the two million earned through the ARCS Isaar
lottery programme.
She said most of the ailing children were aged below 12 years.
The treatment cost of each child,
if not seriously ill, stood at $2500
and the treatment of seriously ill
children was being done abroad at
a cost of $4000 each.
Public Health Ministry official Qamruddin Sediqi confirmed
the figures provided by the ARCS
spokesperson and there was no
problem in treating children with a
hole in the heart inside Afghanistan, but currently only two hospitals --- the France-run hospital
and Amiri hospital --- had the facility to treat such children. He said
the treatment of VSD children
would be launched in the Aryana
hospital in Kabul soon.
He said the public health ministry had no role in the treatment
costs of such children, but the ministry was playing its role spreading awareness among people.
In Kabul, Children Hospital’s
cardiology ward in-charge Dr.
Mohammad Aslam said VSD cases were not on the increase in Afghanistan, but it were facilities and
awareness among people that the
defect was diagnosed among children. “It is a birth defect. A child
develops the defect before birth so
it cannot be prevented, but by observing some precautions, mothers can somehow prevent the defect in children before birth.”
FAMILY OF DECEASED ANA
SOLDIER SHARE ORDEAL
Mashooq served in the ranks of
the Afghan National Army (ANA)
and assigned to combat duty in the
southern Helmand province five
months ago where he and his fellow soldiers were helping to secure the nation against insurgents.
Two weeks ago Mashooq lost his
life doing his duty. He has left five
children and a widow behind, his
oldest son is also a heart patient.
Mashooq's body was handed over
to his family in Kabul's Sardar Mohammad Dawoud Khan Hospital
and buried in his native town in
Kapisa province. "I am proud of
the sacrifice of my brother made
for the country," said Mashooq's
brother Maqbool. Mashooq was
the only breadwinner of his family. Mashooq's father and two other brothers were in prison for their
alleged involvement in a murder. "I
heard about Mashooq's martyrdom an hour ago, I attended his
burial ceremony on bail,"
Mashooq's father said. "The government should help Mashooq's
family," a relative of the deceased
solder said. "Mashooq has left five
children and a widow behind, his
younger child is only five months
old, he has never seen his father,"
said Mashooq's mother. He joined
the ANA seven months ago. He
had also served his country in rank
of Afghan National Police (ANP)
for seven years. (ToloNews)
On Sunday night, a group of
armed men attempted to kidnap a
businessman from his location in
Kabul as he was on his way to
attend prayers at a nearby mosque.
The attempt failed after the businessman managed to enter the
mosque and ask for help.
"We were praying in the
mosque when a man entered shouting for help. He said his attackers
wanted kill him," eye witness Samiullah said. The armed men fired
shots at the businessman, but
missed. "The Minister of interior
has had a meeting with all police
officers of Kabul today. He ordered
them to do everything they could
to ensure the security of Kabul and
foil criminal acts," said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman to ministry of interior.
Our TOLOnews reporter tried
to contact Abdul Wali Qurbani, the
victim of the attempted kidnapping, but did not succeed.
Over 40 businessmen have
been abducted in Afghanistan over
the past two months, eleven of
them in the capital Kabul itself.
Concerns are growing over the
recent sharp rise in kidnappings in
Kabul city. Two weeks ago, armed
men kidnapped an Indian woman
in Kabul. Her fate remains unknown. (ToloNews)
KABULZOO
VISITORS
GROW, SAY
OFFICIALS
The Kabul Zoo is experiencing a
sharp annual rise in visitors as
over 1,500 visitors on weekdays
and nearly 5,000 over weekends
come to see the animals, say officials The income from the zoo,
the only one in the country, has
increased by up to 40 percent
over the past three months –
compared to the 12 months of
last year. Mostly families come
to visit the Kabul Zoo which
hosts nearly 600 animals. "It is
the Ramazan month. We are students, we study and then want
to refresh our minds by visiting
such places," said Yalda, a school
student. Another student said:
"We came here. It was a fun."
"Such places should be built in
other areas as well to make it easy
for the citizens to spend their
time having fun," said Nadir, a
Kabul resident. According to officials, up to 700,000 people visited the zoo this year, adding 17
million Afghanis to its income.
"We are trying to apply a better
design for the zoo to enable the
spectators to see the animal more
easily," said Aziz Gul Saqib, head
of the Kabul Zoo. According to
Saqib the zoo has earned nearly
7 million Afghanis over the past
three months. (ToloNews)
.
.
JUNE 28 2016-Sartan 08 1395 H.S
Vol:X Issue No:327 Price: Afs.15
My year was supposed to be the
first which girls were allowed to
compete for slots. Just after we
were seated for the exam, however, the girls were asked to leave. A
government minister vetoed the
girls’ participation at the last
minute, arguing that it was inappropriate for girls of that age to
travel to America without family
members.
I was struck by how unfair it
was to deny smart Afghan girls the
opportunity to compete and succeed. But I also felt a degree of
ambivalence about the decision,
knowing that my chances of being
accepted into the program were
now much higher.
After passing the written test
in Dari, I was interviewed in English to assess how well I could
manage with an American family.
After a nerve-wracking wait, I was
informed that I would be spending
my junior year in the United
States. An orientation program followed. I started to get a better fell
for American ways but, like most
Afghans students, did not fully
grasp the immense distance sepa-
rating Afghanistan and the United
States or the profound differences
between our societies and cultures.
I knew that America was a modern
and powerful country. From the
news and movies, I had images of
great American cities with tall
buildings. But I thought they were
not much different from those in
India. As we prepared for the trip,
I learned about the intriguing nature of America—a country of immigrants that played an important
role in the world.
In the days before my departure, it hit me that I was leaving
my family and setting out for the
other side of the world. Waking
before dawn the morning I was flying out, I felt a sense of both excitement and unease. Unlike my
father’s family, who held a symbolic funeral for him when he left
Laghman for Mazar, my family
followed a more recent Afghan tradition. They held up a copy of the
Koran, under which I walked three
times. As I was leaving the house,
my sisters sprinkled water on the
floor behind me to ensure that I
would come back.
Torture
continues in
Afghan jails,
despite world
day in support
of victims
AFGHANISTAN STILL
WORLD'S LARGEST OPIUM
PRODUCER BY FAR
While the 26th June is Marked as
International Day in Support of
Victims of Torture, Afghanistan's
Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says prisoners
were still being tortured in the
county's jails. Earlier the United
Nations said that progress had
been made to curb torture in Afghan jails, but claimed were still
are cases of cruelty against prisoners. Murtaza Nekzad is a victim. He was in jail for five years
during the civil war and was subjected to constant torture. "I had
a stroke last year because of the
impact of psychological issues
stemming from difficulties of the
time. I have get a lot of torture
injuries to my head," victim Murtaza Nekzad said.
"Regrettably the government
of Afghanistan has not made significant progress in ending torture.
Perpetrators are not brought to
justice." AIHRC spokesman Rafiullah Bedar said. Torture has also
left a major impact on his psychological health. "There was severe torture during the era of the
Taliban regime as well as at the
time of the Mujahedeen government," political analyst Mia Gul
Khalid said. Afghanistan signed International Convention Against
Torture in 1985. However systematic torture continued in the country despite the country having
signed the UN convention. "They
were torturing us, forcing us to
stay awake, I remember that for
one week we were kept awake all
the time," Khalid said. According
to statistics of United Nations
Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) 278 detainees out
of 790 detainees were tortured in
Afghan jails. (ToloNews)
poppy cultivation in the country,
because, as in Badakhshan, the
money from drugs goes directly
into the pockets of militants. "Poppy is cultivated in Tashkan,
Darayem, Argo among other districts of Badakhshan. We have always urged government to prevent
the illegal drugs business but it has
not paid the required attention to
this state of affairs so far," he added. The MoCN said the government has arrested nearly 70 drug
traffickers this year and has seized
their drugs. Despite that, the Afghan government, particularly the
judicial organs, are being criticized
for not arresting the main drug
lords. According to the UN annual
report, focus group discussions
were held in 2015 for the first time.
These workshops included women in four of the northern provinces in order to learn more about their
attitudes to, and participation in
poppy cultivation and production.
The discussions revealed that
women in Afghanistan took part
in many of the labor-intensive processes in opium poppy production. This included the weeding and
clearing of fields, as well as lancing
of the poppy buds. They were
also involved in indoor operations
breaking opium poppy capsules,
removing and cleaning seeds, preparing opium gum for sale and processing by-products such as oil and
In a photo, which has gone viral,
two Afghan cricketers are
captured chasing a boy who was
trying to run away from the polio
dosage. The action displays their
commitment towards the Afghan
society. (Photo: Twitter)
Afghanistan is by a long way still
the world's largest opium producer, accounting for some 70 percent
(3,300 tons) of global opium production, according to the United
Nations World Drug Report of
2016. Myanmar is the second largest producer of the drug at 14 per
cent (650 tons) of global production. According to the UN report,
the total value of the illicit opiate
economy in Afghanistan was $2.8
billion USD in 2014 — equivalent
to 13 percent of the country's gross
domestic product (GDP).
The Afghan Ministry of
Counter Narcotics (MoCN) said
the income from illegal drugs business in the country is at $70 billion USD annually, but down by
nearly $9 billion. "A limited budget and not enough facilities are
among the main problems in our
campaigns against the illicit production of drugs. Our budget is
insufficient. It is claimed the United States has so far spend $8.5 billion USD to combat the drugs
trade. We want an explanation
about the process through which
the money was spend to fight
drugs trade," said MoCN spokesman Mohammad Hanif Danishyar. He added: "We are not satisfied
with the result of the campaign and
neither are the American people."
Danishyar said primary figures
reveal that poppy is being cultivated in 20 provinces of Afghanistan.
According to the ministry,
Helmand, Farah, Uruzgan, Nangarhar, Badakhshan, Badghis and
Nimroz provinces are among the
provinces with the highest poppy
cultivation.
Badakhshan lawmaker Safiullah Muslim said he is concerned
about the current high levels of
soap. In most rural communities
in Afghanistan, women were less
empowered than men and had only
a limited role in decision-making.
Decisions about opium poppy
cultivation were therefor mainly
taken by men, although it appeared
that women were increasingly being consulted about decisions to
cultivate opium poppy. In the absence of access to adequate healthcare facilities in rural areas, opium
had been used for generations by
women in northern Afghanistan as
a remedy for the most common
ailments among children, such as
coughs, colic, aches and pains, restlessness and diarrhea. The UN report indicates that at the country
level, Iran reported the largest opiate seizures worldwide in 2014,
accounting for 75 percent of global opium seizures, 61 percent of
global morphine seizures and 17
percent of global heroin seizures.
The next largest heroin seizures
were reported by Turkey (accounting for 16 percent of global
heroin seizures), China (12 percent), Pakistan (9 percent), Kenya (7 percent), the United States
(7 percent), Afghanistan (5 percent) and the Russian Federation
(3 percent). Seizures involving
Afghan opiates account for some
80 percent of global seizures of
opiates, the report says.
(ToloNews)

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