The ‘Under-Nourished’ Future of India

Ishaal Zehra

A 27 year-old Russian man, Sergei Gavrilov, killed his mother because she refused to give him her pension money so he could go for gambling and partying. He was so infuriated that he smashed her head with a brick and then strangled her. He put her out on the balcony, spent the next 2 weeks blowing through her money, and then when he discovered her body had frozen, he cannibalized her dead body, making soup and pasta from parts of her legs for over a month.

‘She was frozen, like meat in the freezer,’ he told police.
Apparently he was driven to eat his own mother’s flesh because he was starving. Or at least that’s what he claimed.

The whole story flashed in my mind while reading the latest United Nation’s Children’s Fund report that said India has the largest number of stunted children below the age of 5 in the world.

More than 90 percent of the developing world's children facing stunted growth live in Africa and Asia, the report said. One third of them -- roughly 60.8 million -- are in India alone. Out of a total of 19 million newborns per year in the developing world that are born with low birth-weight, India avow the 7.4 million low birth-weight babies per year -- the highest in the world.

The report said that "more than half of the world's chronically undernourished children under the age of 5 live in South Asia. The rates were highest in Bangladesh, India, Timor-Leste and Yemen, comprising more than 40 per cent of underweight children. India has one of the highest numbers of underweight children, below the age of five-- in the world in addition to one third of 'wasted children' (those facing a greater chance of death). Undernourished children often have poor physical health and slower mental development. When the problem is widespread, as in India and Afghanistan, it undermines those countries' ability to improve their economies and eradicate poverty.

In developing countries, almost 200 million children under the age of 5 suffer from stunted growth and health problems due to poor nutrition in their early years. Those who survive under-nutrition often suffer poorer physical health throughout their lives, and damaged cognitive abilities that limit their capacity to learn and to earn a decent income," the UNICEF chief said. "They become trapped in an intergenerational cycle of ill-health and poverty," she added.

Leaving aside the future of India, the present of India is even in the worse condition. According to another report, India is fast emerging as the Hunger Capital of the world.

As per the report released by Navdanya Trust, India is fast emerging as the hunger capital of the world with one in every four Indians going hungry. If this is any indication of an impending food crisis, the report said that 57 million children in India, the largest in the world, are underweight due to malnutrition. Although the Indian central government spends more than Rs. 32,600 crores in food subsidies, per capita food consumption has reduced from 186 kg per person annually in 1991 to 152 kg in 2001 and is gradually on the decrease.

The report said, “The food prices have doubled since 2003 and if the food prices continue to rise, the situation is not going to get any better. The report also criticized the quality of food provided at ration shops and cited genetically modified seeds and chemicals as the reason for the high cost of food production, forcing farmers to debt and ultimately suicide. The report further said that the proposed Food Security Act, based on a failed policy was only adding insult to the injury.

Most people in New Delhi are concerned about poverty situation in India and general discriminatory behaviour amongst Indians, where, a number of them were of the view that India has adopted a policy to focus and develop select group of Indian high society and bring it at par with the developed world and then take on the next segment of society for its development. As most military diplomats believed that even if India attempts to take the entire population along, still it will not be able to match the pace of progress and will be thus left behind. They have taken a sharp decision indeed as why to carry the deadlock with one. But this is not a deadlock rather a huge portion of their own population.

Many congratulations to the Indian cream of the crop on the successful launch of Dhanush, the 350 km range ship based anti-surface missile from INS Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal on December 14. This was probably the consolation after the failure of its nuclear-capable IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) Agni-III in May and November 2009 test firings. Furthermore the nuclear deals with the West are on the surge already, what if it’s on the cost of India’s inopportune poor masses.

A 60.8 million of Indian children with stunted growth with one in every four Indians going to death due to hunger is not easy to digest. It is a big figure to ignore. Probably, most people are very much right to believe that India has a gigantic task to lift the masses out of poverty which seems very unlikely under the prevailing corrupt and inefficient Indian society as a whole. Don’t you think it would be better to snub that farce slogan of shining India and accept the reality with facts? The money been wasted on expanding nuclear arsenals and guns and missiles budget rather be spend on helping the massive rock bottom poverty. Or else, am afraid many of “Sergei Gavrilov” would be forced to turn cannibal with no other option left for survival. It is a serious snag, provided someone pay any heed to it.

Indian Nuclear Assets Danger to the World

While the western media and the western governments keep shouting about vulnerability of Pakistans nuclear arsenal and keep expressing the fears that these are likely to fall in the hands of extremists like Taliban, they have kept their eyes wide shut regarding the state of affairs of the nuclear weapons and nuclear capable missiles of neighbouring India where the situation is highly alarming, reveal the findings of The Daily Mails investigations into the matter.

According to The Daily Mails investigations, the Indian government, in bid to keep it maximum possible away from the striking capabilities of Pakistan that lies across Indias northern borders, decades back decided to install all its nuclear and missile facilities in the Eastern zone of the country. However, with the passage of time, the eastern region of India emerged as the most disturbed, fragile and ungovernable region of the country with a variety of insurgency movements including that of Naxal rebels, emerging in that very part of the country.

According to a map, graphed by Indias own security agencies, the eastern region and some other parts of the country have been declared as The Red Corridor of India due to being unstable,ungovernable and being highly fragile, security wise. According this Red Corridor map, there are some 51 districts that are very badly hit by the rebels while the total number of rebel struck districts remains around 164, ranging from Dehradhun to Kerala.

The Daily Mails investigations indicate that most of India’s top nuclear and missile facilities are located in the extremely Nexal terrorists struck districts of India, located deep down in the Red Corridor. According to The Daily Mails investigations, in the direction of Indian nuclear facilities, Uranium processing plant by the name of Uranium Corporation Of India Limited (UCIL) is located in adversely insurgency and terror struck region of Jharkhand where Nexal guerrillas are dominating and are on the rampage, Talcher Heavy Water Plant again in the same area, Institute of Physics(IOP) again in the same area while Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research(AMD), Ceramatic Fuel Fabrication Facility(CFFF), Electronics Corporation of India Limited(ECIL), Mishra Dhalu Nigam Limited(MIDHANI), National Centre for Compositional Characterization of Materials(NCCCM), New Zirconium Sponge Plant(New ZSP), Nuclear Fuel Complex(NFC), Special Materials Plant, Uranium Fuel Assembly Plant and Zirconium Fabrication Plant, Seha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre(VECC) are located in the most Nexal warriors hit areas of Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Similarly, Fast Breeder Test Reactor(FBTR), Fast Reactor Fuel Reprocessing Plant (FRFRP) General Services Organization(GSO), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research(IGCAR), Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant(KARP), Kamini Research Reactor, Madres Atomic Power Station (MAPS), Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor(PFBR), Manuguru Heavy Water Plant, Institute of Mathematical Sciences(MSc), Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Limited(SPIC), Tuticorin Heavy Water Plant, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited(BHEL), HMT Machine Tools Limited(HMT-MTL), Indian Institutes of Sciences(IISc) and Super Computer Education and Research Centre(SERC) are located in the areas, Indian government has included in the most disturbed Red Corridor while Apsra Research Reactor, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(BARC), Boron Enrichment Plant(BEP), Central Workshops, Plutonium Reprocessing Plant, Purnima 1,II & III Research Reactors, Uranium Conversion Plant, Uranium Enrichment Plant, CIRUS Research Reactor, Dhruva Research Reactor, Hazira heavy Water Plant, Larson and Toubro, Hazira Water Works, Advanced Fuel Fabrication Facility(AFFF), Tarapur Atomic Power Station(TAPS), Power Reactor Fuel Reprocessing Plant(PREFRE), Beryllium Matching Facility(BMF), Construction Service and Estate Management Group(CSEMG), Directorate of Purchase and Stores(DPS), Heavy Water Board, Tata Institute of Fundamental search(TIFR), Rshtrya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF), Thal-Vaishet Heavy Water Plant, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing(C-DAC), Kiroskar Brothers Limited and Walchandnagar Industries Limited(WIL) are located in State of Maharashtra, which, though, is not included in the Red Corridor map of India, yet the whole world knows that Maharashtra is the hub of Extremist Hindu Militant Groups where Hindutva Brotherhood, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini and Sangh Parivar like terrorist organizations are on the rampage for past many years, without any check from authorities and all these Hindu militant organizations are very well known for their extreme anti-Pakistan policies and are full capable of getting hold of any of the Indian nuclear facility that exists in their respective state and region.

Courtsy to: Geo Tau Aisay

http://www.geotauaisay.com/2009/11/indian-nuclear-assets-danger-to-the-world/

'Junagadh is disputed like Kashmir' Nawab Khanji

Islamabad, Nov 9 (Kashmir Watch): Grandson of the princely state of Junagadh, Nawab Mohammad Jahangir Khanji has said that the state of Junagadh is illegally occupied by India. He said that Junagdh and Kashmir are UN recognised disputed states.

In an interview with a local TV channel here Nawab Mohammad Jahangir Khanji said that the case of Junagadh was that his grandfather Nawab Mahabat Khanji after taking the State Council had opted to accede to Pakistan on September 15, 1947. But India decided to annex the state by force. He said Pakistan had filed a case in the United Nations against the Indian aggression on Junagadh soil, where the case is still lying pending before the United Nations to this day'. Junagadh continues to figure on the official map of Pakistan as part of its territory along Kashmir.

Each year Nawabs of Junagadh commorratet the 9th of Nov. as a Black Day for, it was this day 9th day of Nov. in the year 1947 the Indian Army with the might of military force entered the sovereign boundaries of Junagadh State and forcibly took over the physical possession of the Junagadh State .

Junagadh was a First class 15 gun salute State, situated in the western Indian State agency (Kathiawar) in the Indian province of Gujarat. The area of Junagadh State consisted upon 3,336 sq. miles of rich and fertile land. It lies on the south west portion of the Kathiawar peninsular. It was bounded on the south by the Arabian Sea. The State commanded a sea coast of 84 miles possessing delightful golden sandy beaches. It had 16 ports of which the principal was VeraVal. The total number of cities and towns numbered up to 999. The capital of Junagadh State was a city also called Junagadh, which is situated on the slopes of the Girnar and Dathar hills and is one of the most picturesque in India; lying aprox:70 miles from the coast line.The Uper Kot or the old Citadel contains interesting caves. The famous Ashoka inscriptions are carved out on a big bolster of black granite stone. At the foot of Girnar Hill range to the South-East, lies the extensive forest of the Gir comprising of 494 sq. miles and 823 acres, unique as it is the strong hold of the Junagadh State wild life, particularly the Asiatic Lion. Where the climate is healthy, with the annual rainfall of State up to 30 to 35 inches.

Profile of 11th Nawab Sahib Muhammad Jahangir Khanji

The present Nawab of Junagadh His Highness Nawab Muhammad Jahangir Khanji started his primary education from Karachi Convent of Jesus and Mary, at the age of seven he was sent to Burn Hall a boarding school in the northern area, this missionary school run by European Roman Catholic fathers. Later Nawab sahib was went to Switzerland for higher education to Aiglon College & from Gstaad International School. Nawab Sahib also obtained a degree of Bachelor form Karachi University. He is a gold Medallist from the SKI Club of Switzerland in sking.

He has been a keen sportsman who has won cups in rowing competition and water polo, football & fencing etc. He is also Black Belt in Martial Arts.

He has also served as an advisor to the senior most executive of Sindh chief minister on matters concerning cultural, heritage and archeology.

Nawab Sahib has been a pattern for many N.G.O in Pakistan. He has also served as elected Presided of Junagadh State Muslim Federation in 1986, he was a member of committee called ‘Friends of Thar’ had invited Madam Carven from Paris to Karachi to hold a fashion show in which money was raised for the welfare of people of Thar.

The Nawab Sahib is the founder and first Chief Executive of the Nawab of Junagadh Foundation, which would work in a dedicated to serve of humanity. He had also serve as a private secretary of his father when he was Governor of Sindh.

Their hobbies are Photography, Art, Culture, Music and Cars. He believes in conversation of in echo system and a particular wild life. Intentions for the future are to fight for Junagadh, injustice and pollution.

New Iran – New Intentions

Ishaal Zehra

The attack which killed the national Deputy Commander of the ground forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (RG), General Noor Ali Shooshtari and the provincial commander for Sistan-Baluchistan, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh along with some senior officers and 42 others in a homicide bombing inflicted Iran's worst military casualties in years.

Quick after the mishap, an Iranian military official went as far as to raise the prospect of a possible military offensive into Pakistan against the group blamed for the attack. "There is even unanimity that these operations (could) take place in Pakistan territory," the ISNA news agency quoted MP Payman Forouzesh as saying. While the headquarters of Iran's armed forces blamed the bombing on "terrorists" backed by "the Great Satan America and its ally Britain," Fars News Agency said Sunday.

Islamabad strongly denied the allegations and said the attack was an attempt to "spoil ties" with Iran. "There are forces which are out to spoil our relations with Iran. But our ties are strong enough to counter these machinations," said the Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit while dismissing the allegations.

The point to ponder is that, how come Pakistan would be wishing to create unrest in some neighbour while its own house is burning. Pakistan has been the victim of worst type of terror since many years. The war which initially started in Afghanistan was purposely shifted to Balochistan province of ours as a part of the Great Game. Amid the GWOT the active involvement of many countries intelligence agencies in Balochistan was observed. These agencies, while playing with the internal conflicts of the center and the Baloch people, are subversively involved in provision of funds and arms to different armed groups. This has been proved many a times that the outlawed armed groups of Balochistan, BLA and BRA are funded and trained by Indian RAW. Even the websites of BLA and greater Balochistan are updated from India. The role of Indian consulate offices in Afghanistan is suspected since their origin.

Keeping in view the sensitivity of the problem, it is difficult for India to openly support the Baluch insurgency because it may harm her relations with Iran (never bother about Pakistan). If the Indians will come out openly in support of the BLA, anti-Indian elements in Pakistan will quickly bracket New Delhi with the alleged Great Game of the US against Iran.

Indian relation with Iran have generally been viewed by observers as a tightrope walking to balance out her interests in Iran as well with the US. India, knowingly, that sidestepping the international community’s efforts to thwart Iran’s so-called drive for nuclear weapons would only devalue her credibility in the eyes of global power, New Delhi is fast trying to convey an unambiguous message that a nuclear armed Iran is as unacceptable to India as it is to the US, the U.K. or France. Hence, India (a good time’s friend) seems to be all set to dump Tehran to seek new alliances and please her new friends.

Iran is a regional power and an aspiring nuclear state which poses a threat to Israeli expansionism in Middle East. There is no denying the fact that Iran’s nuclear programme has been a persistent worry for both, US and Israel. And the choice between new allies and old friend is getting tough on India. To understand India’s dilemma, it requires a critical view of her relation with both Israel and Iran. There has been a steady strengthening of the India’s relationship with Israel ever since India established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992. Ever since then, the flourishing Indo- Israel relationship has gained much potential to make a significant impact on the global politics, by altering the balance of power not only in South Asia but the Middle East as well. Today, India has become the biggest market for Israeli arms with their strategic, defence and intelligence cooperation growing at a rapid pace. Where as, on the other hand, the vast oil and gas reserves of Iran serve magnetic affiliation to the quenching India’s long term thirst for energy. And yet another attraction in Iran’s case is that she offers India access to Afghanistan and Central Asia, side-lining Pakistan.

Given the scenario, India is more likely to tilt towards Israel in future. As regardless of her important ties with Arab countries and Iran, her lure for intelligence consultations with Israel seems a durable one. Until now, India has veered between cooperation and altercation in case of Iran yet in the time to come we may expect India to go along with Israel and US in destroying Iran, one of the country in Bush’s war against his self-selected axis of evil. A nuclear Iran suspected of supporting Palestinians and organizations sympathetic to them, faces a great threat of attack on its nuclear installations. And India would support such an operation clandestinely, while opposing in front of the world, not to annoy Iran because of economic reasons. Amusingly, India’s interest in the proposed IPI gas line project diminished sharply from the time the US-India nuclear deal began to take shape. Probably, the US wants to undermine India-Iran economic relations to such an extent that New Delhi becomes a stakeholder in its plan against Iran.

The geopolitical implications of the collaborations between India, US and Israel are grave and manifold. Despite the denials, India is playing a secret role in US strategy against Iran for past many years. India regardless of having close ties with Iran stabbed her in the back by joining EU-3 on Iran’s nuclear issue. It is no more a secret that EU-3 is no longer acting independently, but as a surrogate of the US. How piteous that a democracy ended up as a deputy of a surrogate. History has witnessed how India once used the friendly ties with Tehran as a ladder to achieve US and European community’s support to secure permanent seat in Security Council. Thanks to her mean and wanton nature which made her vote twice against the same Iran in the IAEA governing board, thus endorsing the US agenda for confrontation with Iran. Nevertheless, the Indian vote against Iran has extensively lowered her global structure and credibility. Despite her close economic and political relations, if India could stab a friendly country like Iran in the back, then she could not be considered trustworthy by other developing countries.

The thriving indo-Israeli relations are posing a direct threat to Iran. Their trade has grown exceptionally over the years, especially after the launch of Israeli spy satellite from the Indian Space center, the tie got even stronger. The launch of TecSAR has considerably enhanced Israel’s intelligence-gathering capability. The satellite is clearly affecting the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, as its ability to produce image in adverse weather and even at night allowed Israel to obtain more information about the Iranian nuclear programme. Though India officially argues that she has commercially utilized her advanced technological capacity but the act brought to light India’s full cooperation to dissuade, isolate and if necessary sanction and contain Iran. Nevertheless, Iran should realize that a friend of your enemy can never be your friend and India has already established herself as Israel’s friend and Iran’s foe at many instances.

It is time that India’s credibility as a friendly democracy should be weighed by other developing countries of the world. The Indo-Israel nexus, under the US patronage, is posing a threat to the Muslim world. All their ambitions revolve around targeting particularly Muslim states that are energy rich and either nuclear or threshold nuclear states. It is high time that the Islamic countries take a unified and concrete step to cater this ghastly menace, or else it might become too late.

South Asian Fake Nuclear Power

India's nuclear tests shocked the world

Ishaal Zehra

Every now and then, in the democratic entity called India, something unusual happens which keeps one amused for so many days. The feeling is almost the same as some magician waves his wand and ‘woof’……. here comes a surprise (which eventually turns out to be a shock at the end of the day) and then another and another and the story goes on.

Some time back Mr. P. K. Iyengar, former head of India's main nuclear body, told the BBC that he made it clear in 2002 that India's nuclear tests were inconclusive and ambiguous and that the 1998 nuclear test was not a deterrent against China, though it was against Pakistan. His comments came as atomic scientist K Santhanam, who was associated with India's 1998 nuclear tests, said they were not as successful as claimed. Meaning, the yield of the thermonuclear explosions was actually much below expectations and the tests were perhaps more a fizzle. Now if his statement is accurate then it points to a massive cover-up by India and also confirms what many in the West suspected at that time - that the nuclear devices India tested were not as powerful as had been thought. Revising history, Pakistan was forced to test her nuclear capability and declare itself a nuclear state after India made this dramatic presentation in front of the world boasting her fake strength in 1998 which actually disturbed the balance of power in the region.

Sometimes it is believed that countries exaggerate their achievements for political posturing against their enemies. Realistically, this is the part of the global game but this insanity of India in 98 unfortunately accelerated the arms race in the region and saying this would not be wrong that it is actually India who pushed the region towards an unending nuclear race.

This time the surprise came when the former US president Bill Clinton made it public that in the event of a nuclear war with Pakistan, Indian leaders had predicted a bizarre victory. Surprisingly the Indian officials had calculated that while 300 million to 500 million of their countrymen would die if Pakistani nukes hit India, all 120 million Pakistanis would be annihilated in a tit-for-tat Indian strike. What is more amazing is the Indian government’s willingness to play fast and loose with its citizens lives to notch up a bizarre win against Pakistan. Now this is actually called the height of enmity. In the heart of their hearts such is the hatred for Pakistan that they simply assumed their 500 million people dead just for the wish to see Pakistan dead and gone. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Taylor Branch's new book, The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, which goes on sale in early October, has an unguarded Clinton venting about Indian leaders' so-called willingness to threaten the death of millions in their standoff over nuclear arms.

India-Pakistan relations do not move at a comfortable pace. They zigzag from crisis to crisis. In the interregnum the two countries either engage in negotiations or struggle to revive an interrupted dialogue. And in such scenario keeping nuclear weapons free from risk is a mad fantasy. There is always a fatal risk that sooner or later, in a situation of political tension and panic, someone somewhere will err and millions may die.

Today many a brilliant writers including Mr. Iyengar himself stress upon conducting further tests to prove Indian nuclear capability. While talking to the BBC Mr. Iyengar said that If India wants to declare itself as a nuclear power and confirm to the military (read “Pakistan” instead) that it has all the means of designing a thermo-nuclear device which can go into a missile, which can be dropped from an aircraft or can be launched from a submarine, it needs many more tests. Humbly, for all such statements of conducting further nuclear tests just to establish India as a true nuclear power, I would suggest them to spend that money helping its gigantic rock bottom poverty rather then experiencing again a global embarrassment while raising their so-called ego by doing another fake test, provided someone cares to listen.

IPI Gasline - Crucial for Energy Requirement

Khalid Khokhar

While Pakistan welcomed the US offer to help it overcome the energy crisis, the US made it clear that it was linked to the relinquishing of long-dreamt-about Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project. The need for natural gas is more imperative than ever both for India and Pakistan.

Long-term projections indicate that the demand for gas in India is likely to go up from the present 74 to about 500 million cubic meters per day by the year 2025, necessitating large-scale gas imports. Similarly, gas supply in Pakistan, currently 71 million cubic meters per day, is expected to increase by 50% in the next five years. The longer-term outlook would justify significant imports of gas by Pakistan as well. It is very disheartening that while the world around us is moving towards closer economic cooperation, Indo-Pakistan bilateral relations have been stalled by the 26/11 Mumbai attacks impeding joint economic excursions. Nevertheless, realizing the importance of the pipeline as the most favoured option, negotiations on crucial energy imports remained unhindered by the on-going tense relations between India and Pakistan. Now when both the countries have become willing to extend cooperation to each other, it can be hoped that they will promote their mutual cooperation and create a pleasant atmosphere for promoting economic cooperation and resolving controversial issues, like gas imports through trans-national gas pipeline projects, i.e., Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline (IPI), Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAPI) pipeline project and Gulf-South-Asian, Qatar-Pakistan project etc. extending up to the Indian border.

Since the discovery of natural gas reserves in Iran's South Pars fields in 1988, the Iranian government began increasing efforts to promote higher gas exports abroad. Iran contains the world's second largest natural gas reserves "at an estimated 812 trillion cubic feet". The negotiations to bring natural gas to India from Iran via Pakistan began in 1994. The Iranian government proposed the construction of a $7.6 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, also known as the "peace pipeline", from its South Pars fields in the Persian Gulf to Pakistan's major cities of Karachi and Multan and then further onto Delhi, India. It travels to Pakistan through Khuzdar, with one section of it going on to Karachi on the Arabian Sea coast, and the main section traveling on to Multan, Pakistan. From Multan, the pipeline travels to Delhi, where it ends. At this point, India is free to consider and negotiate further domestic routing of the pipeline. The pipeline would be 2,670 km long with a 48 inch diameter, and hold $3.2 billion of gas. Pakistan could earn as much as $500 million in royalties from a transit fee and save $200 million by purchasing cheaper gas from this pipeline project. The gas pipeline via Pakistan is "a win-win proposition for India and Pakistan" that could serve as a durable confidence-building measure, creating strong economic links and business partnerships among neighbouring countries. But while a rival gas-pipeline project -- the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI), is supported by the Asian Development Bank and America, the IPI does not have any backing from International Financial Institutions (IFIs). However, both IPI & TAPI projects are to be routed through Balochistan, complicating the matters, as the on-going Baloch Insurgency has caused damage to the gas pipelines & other government installations in Balochistan. Pakistan, however, has made clear it would build the pipeline with Iran even if India opts out of the project. The construction of the new pipeline could be finished within five years time.

The US is dissuading India and Pakistan from going ahead with the project and is willing to address the long-term energy needs if New Delhi & Islamabad forgo the proposed gas pipeline with Iran via Pakistan. The pipeline plan seems to be threatened by Washington’s serious reservations about Iran's nuclear ambitions. According to the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, the US President may impose sanctions on any international firm that does $20 million or more in oil or gas business with Iran (and $ 40 million with Libya). India is eager to push forward a proposed pipeline to carry gas from Iran via Pakistan despite US opposition to the project. US is "stepping up pressure" to scuttle the project, as the project "could violate Iran and Libya Sanctions Act" passed by the US. Washington is willing to give nuclear power technology to India for meeting its growing energy needs but in return wants that India should not do business with Iran, a country the US administration label as a “rogue state”. The pipeline deal is creating "wrinkles" in US-India ties. At least in this rare case, both Pakistan and India stood shoulder to shoulder in rejecting relentless pressure from the US administration to scotch the deal.

The rival TAPI gas pipeline project was signed in April 2008, to build a $7.6 billion pipeline delivering natural gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India. It would cut right through the heart of Western Afghanistan, in Herat, and head south across lightly populated Nimruz and Helmand provinces - the stronghold of Talibans. Turkmenistan had already signed contracts to supply Russia with about 50 billion cubic meters annually, China with 40 billion cubic meters, and Iran with 8 billion cubic meters. The future of the classic IPI vs. TAPI battle may hinge on Gwadar. For its part, China badly needs Gwadar for IPI gas pipeline to be built to western China. Iran's relations with both Russia and China are swelling - China desperately needs Iranian oil and gas, has already clinched a $100 billion gas "deal of the century" with the Iranians. Gwadar really becomes a key transit corridor for either Iranian gas from the South Pars field heading for China, or Caspian gas from Turkmenistan heading Europe-wards. There's US and China’s vested interest in the pipeline diplomacy. The great game is on; with IPI, Iran & China win. With TAPI, Turkmenistan & the US win. The question is, “Who profits?”

Pakistan has made invaluable contributions to combating al Qaeda over the past eight years, capturing scores of key leaders and providing tips that led to the foiling of deadly terrorist plots. The death of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief Baitullah Mehsud and ensuing infighting among the Taliban indicated that Talibans had become weaker and its top leadership is on the run. The success of Pakistan security forces in the on-going military operation against the militants in FATA and Malakand areas, is being appreciated by the world community. The Obama administration and the US Congress are committed to supporting Pakistan on a long-term basis and develop its institutions as well as energy requirements. Pakistan had inked agreement with Iran on June 5, 2009, subject to the approval from their respective governments before September 5, 2009. Pakistan and Iran have formally signed an agreement to activate a bilateral gas pipeline project through a third country law that is why it was signed in Turkey. Pak-Iran gas pipeline project is of vital importance to meet the energy requirements of Pakistan, saving over 5 million dollars on daily basis. However, the project could be shelved for ever if the US opposes the pipeline because it involves Iran, a country the Obama administration considers a “sponsor of terror”. Pak-Iran gas pipeline project should materialise in the supreme national interest at every cost. The US understands Pakistan’s energy requirements and needs. It is hoped that the Obama Administration should give green signal to IFIs to release funds for the proposed IPI gasline project so crucial for it’s survival.

Tipaimukh Dam: A Hazard for Bangladesh

Mamoona Ali Kazmi

The Indo-Bangladesh relations have never been cordial. Regrettably, India’s expansionist policy in the region and anti-Bangladesh propaganda continued unabated. In Bangladesh, India is viewed as a bully, throwing its weight around and threatening the sovereignty of its smaller neighbors.

There are several issues between the two countries, which are of grave concern for Bangladesh. These include water issue, land issue, fencing of border, Indian support to Chakma community, killing of innocent civilians by BSF, subversive activities by India’s intelligence wings, Bangladesh’s high profile criminals taking asylum in India, smuggling from India etc.

Most important issue that mars bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh is water. Most of the rivers, which Bangladesh shares with India are controlled and managed by India. It has evolved plans to divert waters, from the northeast of the country to its drought prone west and south, of some 54 rivers which flow from India to Bangladesh.

India’s construction of dams or barrages on the common rivers one after the other not only violates international law regarding common rivers but also threatens the norms of good neighbourliness and the livelihood of the people of Bangladesh. After building Farraka and Teesta barrages, India has started construction of the Tipaimukh dam on river Barack just a kilometer north of Jakiganj in Sylhet. The construction work of Tipaimukh dam was stalled in March 2007 in the face of protests within and outside India for not following the international conventions about the international rivers. Linked to this dam is the Fulertal barrage. To be located 500 meters downstream from the flowing rivers of the Barack and Tuovai rivers, the Tipaimukh dam lies on the south western corner of the Manipur state of India. Its reservoir will have a water storage capacity of 15,900 million cubic meters with a maximum depth of 1,725.5 meters. The dam and barrage when completed in 2012 are supposed to provide 1500 megawatts of hydel power to the Indian state of Assam but in return its going to bring about a major disaster for Bangladesh, practically contributing to drying up of 350 km long Surma and 110 km long Kushiara rivers which water most of the northeastern region of Bangladesh. The Tipaimukh barrage is going to seriously affect not only agriculture in large portions of Bangladesh, particularly in winter, but is also gong to bring about negative ecological, climatic and environmental changes in vast areas of Bangladesh. Education Minister of India Nurul Islam Nahid said, “If India withdraws water from the Barack River, the free flowing Surma and Kushiara rivers will dry up”. Surma-Kushiara and its 60 tributaries support agriculture, irrigation, navigation, drinking water supply, fisheries, wildlife in numerous areas in the entire Sylhet division and some peripheral areas of Dhaka division. So around five crore people in Sylhet and Dhaka division will face problems as Surma and Kushiara will lose five feet water in the rainy season. Abdul Karim Kim, an organizer of the Sylhet Paribesh Andolon feels that besides other parts of Bangladesh, Sylhet will be gravely affected. “The dam completion will disrupt agriculture, irrigation, navigation, drinking water supply and ground water levels. Sylhet will face the same consequences faced by the south western region of Bangladesh”.

A Water resources expert, Professor Mustafizur Rahman Tarafdar discussed the ill effects of the Tipaimukh dam. He said, “If this dam is eventually constructed as intended, Bangladesh would have to suffer the adverse effects. This dam would lead to hydrological drought and environmental degradation. This dam would cause the Surma and Kushiara to run dry during November to May which would eventually hamper agriculture, irrigation, navigation, shortage of supply of drinking water, etc. This shortage of water in these months would decrease the boost of ground water which over the years would lower the ground water level, which in turn would affect all dug outs and shallow tube-wells. Agriculture, which is dependent on both surface as well as ground water, would also be affected. Also, any interference in the normal flow of water in the Barack would have an adverse effect on the Surma in Bangladesh that, in turn, feeds the mighty Meghna that flows through Bangladesh. Arable land will decrease and production of crops will fall, leading to an increase in poverty. Roughly 7 to 8 percent of total water of Bangladesh is obtained from the Barack. Millions of people are dependent on hundreds of water bodies fed by Barack in the Sylhet region for fishing and agricultural activities. A dam-break is a catastrophic failure of a dam which results in the sudden draining of the reservoir and a severe flood wave that causes destruction and in many cases death downstream. If the Tipaimukh dam were to break, impounding billions of cubic meters of water, it will cause catastrophic floods because of its colossal structure”.

India never bothered to discuss the matter of the Tipaimukh dam with Bangladesh. The Tipaimukh Dam project was entirely developed and approved without informing the government of Bangladesh or involving its people in any meaningful exercise to assess the downstream impacts of the dam. Since the river Barack is an international river, Bangladesh as a lower riparian country should have an equitable share of water. Moreover an access to the design details of the project, planning and design etc also is a right of the country. Mir Sajjad Hossain, member of Joint River Commission (JRC) said, “We do not know what is going on there. We came to know from our sources that India is panning a hydroelectric plant. India has not sent any official documents about the proposal”. This is clearly a gross violation of co-riparian rights of Bangladesh. India has violated provisions of the 1997 UN Watercourse Convention on the Article 5 (1) Equitable Utilization, (7) No Harm Principle, (9) Exchange of Information.

According to International Law, it is illegal to construct any dam on an international river without consent from the other side. But India has violated it by starting the construction of Tipaimukh Dam on the Barack. Unilateral water diversion, or withdrawal of water from international or common rivers, has been the long standing policy of India. India has seldom bothered to think about the impact of such policies on a low riparian country, such as Bangladesh, in diverting water from common rivers. The high commissioner of India Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty to Bangladesh admitted that the Indian government has resumed the process of construction once again from the end of 2008. According to Chakravarty the dam would produce hydroelectricity and would not harm Bangladesh in any way. It would only regulate the rivers’ flow. As it is a project aimed at producing hydroelectricity, no water would be withheld from Bangladesh. But this is not as simple as said by Chakravarty as to produce electricity the water flow would have to be obstructed which means that there will be less flow of water to the riparian neighbouring country. Furthermore, Chakravarty also stated that the water will not be used for irrigation purposes. Where as according to sources the original plan of India is to supply water to the areas of Rajasthan and other states from Barack River, around 900 km away from the Manipur state. How can the people of Bangladesh trust that India’s Tipaimukh dam will not do any harm to them when they have been suffering numerous environmental disasters for the last 35 years due to the barrages, in the upstreams of the Ganges and the Teesta, built by India?

India is withdrawing waters of almost all the common rivers by building dams on the upstream, which will eventually cause Bangladesh to turn into a desert. India’s lack of sensitivity to the neighbours does not speak of friendly act by a friendly country. By constructing Tipaimukh dam India is only looking its own interest. India wants to control the water flow to facilitate irrigation of the Cacher plain. India should not be insensitive to the environmental and the negative consequences of the Tipaimukh dam on the lower riparian Bangladesh.

West’s Silence over Indian Proliferation

Sajjad Shaukat

Setting aside the Indian irresponsible record of non-proliferation, defence agreement signed between the US and India on July 20, this year as part of the deal about civil nuclear technology, agreed upon by the two countries in 2008 has raised new alarms on global and regional level.
Now, New Delhi is officially allowed to obtain the US sophisticated arms and nuclear weapons for its armed forces. In February this year, America had pressurised the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) to sign an accord of specific safeguards with India. It permits New Delhi a broad atomic cooperation, while superseding the IAEA regarding transfer of nuclear equipments and technologies. These arrangements also entail enrichment and reprocessing items under the so-called cover of IAEA. In this regard, Washington also contacted the Nuclear Suppliers Group in order to grant a waiver to India for starting civil nuclear trade on larger scale, while the latter has already been getting nuclear material and arms of all kinds from Israel, Russia, and other European countries.

On the other side, US and European high officials including their media make much hue and cry in relation to the safety of Pakistan’s nukes. In this respect, in the recent past, by manipulating Taliban’s advances in Buner, they misperceived that Pakistan could be overtaken by these extremists who could also possess atomic weapons. On April 22, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton clearly remarked that atomic weapons of Pakistan could fall into the hands of terrorists. Recently, although the President Barrack Obama admitted that nuclear assets of Pakistan are safe, yet he clarified that America had all options open. On the other hand, Pakistan’s successful military operations which flushed the Taliban out of Buner, Dir and Swat exposed the real designs of the US and Europe which only distort the image of Islamabad in connection with nuclear proliferation. In this context, while rejecting west’s misperceptions, Pakistan’s military and civil leadership has repeatedly been assuring that nuclear assets of the country are under tight security.

Notably, on September 25, 2008, Obama had pledged that if elected, he would encourage India and Pakistan to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and resolve the Kashmir problem to reduce nuclear dangers in South Asia. But he has deviated from his earlier commitments and by following the unilateral approach of the ex-president Bush, he sent Hillary Clinton to sign the defence pact with New Delhi. Surprisingly other major European countries like France, Germany and UK are also silence on US-India nuclear deal. In fact, they are also encouraging New Delhi in this regard.

Nonetheless, double standards of the western counties indicate that they totally ignore India on the question of nuclear proliferation as their sole aim is to de-nuclearise Pakistan which is the only atomic power in the Islamic World.

As regards the question of nuclear proliferation, India’s past and present record is replete with innumerable events.

In July 1998, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seized eight Kg. of nuclear material from Arun, an engineer in Chennai including two other engineers. It was reported that the uranium was stolen from an atomic research center. The case still remains pending. On November 7, 2000, IAEA revealed that Indian police had seized 57 pounds of uranium and arrested two men for illicit trafficking of radioactive material. IAEA had said that Indian civil nuclear facilities were vulnerable to thefts.

On January 26, 2003, CNN pointed out that Indian company, NEC Engineers Private Ltd. shipped 10 consignments to Iraq, containing highly sensitive equipments entailing titanium vessels and centrifugal pumps. Indian investigators acknowledged that the company falsified customs documents to get its shipments out of India.

In 2004, when the issue of international nuclear black market came to surface, Pakistani nuclear scientist, Dr. A.Q. Khan was only blamed by America and Europe for proliferation activities by neglecting the western nationals and especially those of India. While in February, same year, India’s Ambassador to Libya, Dinkar Srivastava revealed that New Delhi was investigating that retired Indian scientists could possibly be engaged in “high technology programs” for financial gains during employment in the Libyan government.

On June 12, 2004, Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation (BNC), an American company was fined US $ 300,000 for exporting a nuclear component to the Bhaba Atomic Research Center in India.

In December 2005, United States imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for selling missile goods and chemical arms material to Iran in violation of India’s commitment to prevent proliferation. In the same year, Indian scientists, Dr. Surendar and Y. S. R Prasad had been blacklisted by Washington due to their involvement in nuclear theft. In December 2006, a container packed with radioactive material had been stolen from an Indian fortified research atomic facility near Mumbai.

Some weeks ago, death of India’s nuclear scientist, Lokanathan Mahalingam raised new apprehension about Indian proliferation. He was missed from the scenario and after a couple of days; his dead body was recovered from the Kali River. Indian police concocted a story that Mahalingam had committed suicide by jumping into the river. It is a big joke to hide some real facts behind his death because wisdom proves that if an educated person decides to commit suicide, he will definitely adopt a soft way to eliminate his life. Notably, Dr. Haleema Saadia disclosed that death of the scientist is a conspiracy, as soon as his dead body was found, within no time; the police had announced that Mahalingam had committed suicide.

Nevertheless, in connivance with the officials, proliferation of nuclear components and their related-material has continued intermittently by the Indians.

Besides, in the recent past, solid evidence has surprised the world regarding the existence of Hindu terrorism which also shows future dangers of Indian proliferation. In this respect, Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra arrested a serving Lt. Col. Srikant Purohit along with some officials who confessed that they were involved in training of the Hindu terrorists, supplying them the military-grade explosive RDX, used in bombings of various Indian cities including Malegaon. The investigation further indicated the confession of Lt. Col. Purohit for the bombing of Samjhota express, while proving close links of the Indian army officials with prominent politicians of BJP, VHP, RSS and Bajrang Dal, who have been pressurizing New Delhi to release the arrested persons. Nevertheless, the enquiry still remains pending. Meanwhile, assassination of Indian Anti-Terrorism Squad Chief Hemant Karkare in Mumbai during terror attacks also endorsed these links. All these developments show that Hindu fundamentalists, trained by Indian military experts or secret agency RAW could obtain Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Thus they could jeopardise the global peace by using these fatal weapons inside America and Europe so that these developed nations could point finger to Islamabad because of their ‘stereotypes’ against the Muslims in wake of war on terror.

However, it is surprising that despite nuclear proliferation by India in violation of various international agreements and its refusal to sign Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), CTBT and Additional Protocol with the IAEA, the United States also included New Delhi in its joined non-proliferation goals like Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) by praising India as a responsible atomic actor.

In the past, Islamabad offered a number of suggestions to New Delhi to jointly sign NPT and CTBT, but the latter flatly declined. Instead, in 1998, India detonated atomic devices and compelled Pakistan to follow the suit. On July 27 this year, by launching its first nuclear-powered submarine, India has initiated deadly nuclear arms in South Asia.

It seems that all the global non-proliferation conventions led by Washington and its western partners are applicable to Iran, North Korea and especially Pakistan, while India which has played a real role in the international black market from where even terrorists can obtain these fatal weapons, is exempted because the sole superpower has to fulfill its Asian interests through New Delhi at the cost of Islamabad and other regional countries. If American duplicity in the matter continues, Obama’s policy of South Asia will badly fail as all the issues such as terrorism, Kashmir, Afghanistan and non-proliferation are inter-related.

We can conclude that western countries ignore India which is the real nuclear proliferator. So the right hour has come that the international community must take notice of the dangers posed by Indian proliferation to save the world from any prospective nuclear catastrophe.

Sajjad Shaukat writers on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations.

Where is my Buddy – Hemant Karkarey?

Ishaal Zehra

It seems that investigation to the Mumbai tragedy is re-opened. And so are the queries in my mind. Some unanswered questions that still haunt the investigation authenticity are laying bared open with no one serious enough, or more preciously, daring enough to search for the answers. Death of Hemant Karkery who was about to expose the Hindu-Israeli terrorism in India and the long-forgotten lethal case of Colonol Prohit are two of those serious questions.

All this remembers me of a joke which was circulated widely condemning the absurdity of Iraq war. It went like this… On a campaign the (former) US President George Bush visits a school and explains his political actions. Afterwards he invites the children to ask him questions. One little boy raises his hand and say, “Mr. President my name is Joe and I have three questions from you. 1- How come you invaded Iraq without the support of the United Nations? 2- Where is Osama bin Laden actually hiding? And 3- Don't you think that the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was the biggest terrorist attack of all times?”

Just as the President Bush begins to answer, the recess bell rings and he says they’ll continue afterward. 25 minutes later the kids come back to class.

“Where were we?” says Bush. “Oh, yes... do you kids have any questions?”

Another boy raises his hand and says, “sir my name is John and I have 5 questions: First, why did you invade Iraq without support from the U.N.? Second, where is Osama bin Laden actually hiding? Third, don’t you think that the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima was the biggest terrorist attack of all times? Fourth, how come the recess bell went off 30 minutes early? And last where is my buddy Joe?!!”

Similarly, the number of times the Mumbai case will be re-opened, the questions will increase with the same magnitude. Who benefited from Mumbai carnage? How come Hemant Karkery died? Why his death is not being investigated properly specially from the point of view that he died just after unearthing rich and credible material about the involvement of a section of Hinduised army officers in the Malegaon and Modasa blasts? Why the case has not been investigated as a “False-Flag Operation” rather simply putting the blame on Pakistan? Why BJP Inclusion in the whole drama is being missed out? What has happened to the case of Col. Prohit, who is a Symbol of Hindu Terrorism? Why the findings are not being made public? The real motives behind this terror act and the actual beneficiaries are still not apprehended by the authorities. The case is being mishandled intentionally.

These dilly-dally tactics regarding the Mumbai incident investigations simply cannot hide the reality. Keeping own eyes shut doesn’t mean that every one else is blind as well. Some serious questions have to be investigated and answered if fair trail is to be done. How is it that ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, his associates Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and his entire team of about seven, who were tracking the case of Col Prohit, were gunned down in a narrow lane near Cama hospital about 12.5 miles away from the Taj Hotel? The Marathi papers in Mumbai have reported that the killers of Hemant Karkare and his associates spoke to them in Marathi before killing him and the others. The connection between Hemant Karkarey death and the Col Prohit case must be deeply probed, as there is much more underneath than what is present at the surface.

The death of ATS squad during the carnage has remained controversial as there are many loop ends in this regard. The wives of killed Policeman keep issuing statements suspecting hands of some vested interest Hindu organization in killing their husbands. Vinita Kamte, wife of slain police officer Ashok Kamte who was killed during the operation, wanted to depose some points before the Ram Pradhan committee panel but was not allowed to do so. She alleged that certain portions of the call records of the police control room on November 26 were deleted. "There are at least 10 minutes of conversation that has been deleted. I have sought call records of my husband, Ashok Kamte through RTI," Vinita said but was ignored completely.

Again, Quoting his captors’ conversation in his interview with Aaj Tak, a TV news channel, one of the hostages who escaped from room # 630 following his brief captivity said “One terrorist asks the other: How much amount of money these Indian politicians have?” The other terrorist answers, “You have received your payment isn’t it, then why are you worried?” why not this lead was taken forward? The election in India is over. The new government has taken the charge well and we all now expect fair trail of Mumbai carnage from them, evaluating all the leads which were left earlier. The loopholes must be probed properly.

One thing for sure, whether today or tomorrow, every time the case will be proceeded further the same question will haunt the court; where is our buddy Hemant Karkarey? And how was he and his whole team was cold bloodedly gunned down at a distant place from the main terror venue before he could proceed further the case of Col Prohit with some concrete proof about which he gave a hint in his interview to a TV channel before his tragic death? Surely, the case will only solve when this mystery will be cracked.

The neighbour next door – a persistent pain in Bengal’s neck

Ishaal Zehra

Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina has said that the recent mutiny in the paramilitary force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) which killed 73 army officers was aimed at triggering a civil war and warned that the masterminds behind the bloody revolt still wanted to achieve their goal. The 33-hour mutiny by the rebel BDR soldiers on February 25-26, 2009 was initially believed to have been caused by disputes over pay and command structure.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, who heads a high-power committee to coordinate the foreign and local investigations into the February 25-26 carnage, said “a dangerous conspiracy is going on to destroy the development of the country". Whereas the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Mahmoud admitted that terrorist outfits with alleged cross-border links still existed in the country despite years of massive anti-terrorism campaigns.
At a glance, Bangladesh's 37-year history has been a turbulent one, with many incidents of political turmoil and violence, where most of the time cross-border linkage was confirmed at the public level (even if not acknowledged at government level). This recent mutiny reminded me of the tempest that rocked Dhaka University and other educational institutes of Bangladesh, in August 2007 which ended up in the imposition of curfew like situation in the country. At that time too the sole purpose of the tempest creators (master minds), seemingly, was to start a civil war by bringing the people face to face with the armed forces through the so-called student movement. The Bengali media reports later disclosed that the havoc was actually masterminded by the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing – RAW. In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla service, the first elected mayor of Rajshahi City, Mr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Minu said that he feels that India is behind the terrorist activities in Bangladesh. Minu said that because of the Indo-Bangladesh porous border, it has not been possible for the government to apprehend the terrorists.
Yet today the same situation is again being sensed in the country. “Foreign hands” had been detected by the new Chief of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Brigadier General Mohammed Mainul Islam who revealed the involvement of outsiders wearing BDR uniform in the mutiny. Ironically, had there been no revelation from General Mainul Islam, people would have believed that BDR personnel targeted Army officers on account resentment over biased treatment as well as difference in their pay, allowances and other benefits. Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Matiur Rahman Nizami, in the same regard, also claimed that the killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring. Analytically, Mr. Nizami might be true as the increasing frenzy in Bangladesh is only paving an easy way for India to increase her hegemony in political, economical and cultural arenas.
The story is quite simple if considered logically. Bangladesh, having the population of more than 140 million - 40% of whom are below the poverty line - and it is dependent on foreign aid and investment, seems a soft target to digest. And by initiating a civil war in the country many disrupted plans could have been fulfilled like crippling the economy of Bangladesh, disrupting and destroying the road communications and infrastructures thus proving Bangladesh a dysfunctional and failed state and finally paving the way for Indian military invasion.
To achieve the objective, the people of Bangladesh were being targeted in an ingenious way and from all dimensions of life. RAW is exploiting this civil force to meet its own evil objectives. India’s agenda does not obviously end in creating and keeping Bangladesh as a nominally independent country. Since 1972, India has been pouring in huge material and intellectual support to Indianise the mind and psyche of Bangladeshi people. The so-called modern school educational curriculum, in general, and the social sciences, in particular, have been said to be shaped and oriented to Vedic philosophy rather than to Islamic values and virtues. Besides the promotion of narcotics in the society RAW is said to be supplementing terrorism via educational institutes in Bangladesh and the recent BDR mutiny exhibits the reach of Indian tentacles.
There lies a real dilemma for Bangladesh in forging some form of much needed unity to stand concrete against constant onslaught of Indian hegemony. Indian policy makers are well aware that the traditional method of occupying a country by force is neither appreciable nor acceptable in the recent scenario. Today, to run over a country, an aggressor cripples psychologically of the civil force of the nation and reduces its economy to shambles and creates such a situation that its citizens no longer possess mental strength and inspiration to be self- reliant. And RAW is persistently attempting to create such a situation in Bangladesh. It is known to all that Indian intelligence agency is engaged in disruptive activities in Bangladesh since it came into being in 1971 to create the demand for Indian intervention from within the country. As a matter of fact, India has a condemnable history of swallowing Hyderabad, Manvadhar, Goa, Dumn, Deue and Kashmir and of course not forgetting the illegal and conspiratorial annexation of Sikkim, a tiny and rocky mountainous kingdom of Himalayas. Recalling all this it would be quite naive to believe that India is not interested in capturing a strategically important country like Bangladesh as this annexation seems necessary for them to suppress the on-going liberation struggles in North-Eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh.

It wasn’t surprising at all when General Mainul Islam said that the BDR mutiny was a conspiracy by outside forces. Even history is evident that India's assistance in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, did not originate from their sense of humanity for the people of Bangladesh, but to dismember Pakistan and finally merge them to 'greater Bharat, what Nehru termed as 'Aakhand Bharat'. At that time probably the Indian leaders thought that dismemberment of Pakistan would lead to the accession of Bangladesh to India but unfortunately this dream of them could not materialize even after the lapse of 38 years but hats off to the consistent nature of India that she has still kept her dream alive and is still working for its establishment.

Indian Elections and the Muslim Factor

Momin Iftikhar

The elections for the 15th Lok Sabha in India are at hand and as the billion plus public gears up to go to hustings, the Indian Muslims are only prominent on the tumultuous scene through their conspicuous absence.

In a changing political scenario in which the mainstream parties (Indian National Congress, Bhartya Janata Party) are loosing their clout to an empowerment of regional players (Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, Rashtrya Janata Dal etc), it is disconcerting that despite constituting a solid 14% chunk of the Indian population, Muslims as a community appear comatose, confused and directionless.

The most striking aspect is the absence of a unifying strategy seeking to uplift the community from the social morass and squalor that it finds itself in. It is a reason for major concern that Muslims in India neither have a leader to represent them nor a party of their own to articulate their aspirations. It is a measure of the prevailing drift that Muslims remain outside of the core constituency of any mainstream or regional party in India; leaving them at the mercy of political mavericks who are ruthlessly exploiting them for realizing partisan agendas, more often than not at unbearable cost to their interest.

Having been disillusioned by the supposedly secularist Congress Party and bruised and battered by the BJP, the Muslims in India find themselves at the mercy of exploitative regional parties whose interest in their welfare barely extends beyond a malicious purloining of votes. It is ironic that instead of producing and supporting a leader from among their own ranks, Muslims in India are turning to the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadev and Mayavati for political leadership and emancipation. The situation need not have been so dismal. Notwithstanding that the Indian state and the political process tends to leave them outside the mainstream of politics yet in term of numbers, which determine the thrust of matters in a democracy, Muslim presence in India is in no way insignificant. Their clout, if suitably exploited, becomes particularly potent in a scenario whereby the major political parties are shrinking in influence and the regional parties are becoming ascendant. It is a measure of their latent potential that in at least 140 constituencies where they constitute more than 20% (including 14 constituencies where they are in majority and 28 other where they are above 30%), all political parties, including the BJP, are bending backwards to woo Muslim votes.

The formation of the Central Government in India largely depends upon the number of seats secured by political parties in Bihar and UP and in both states the Muslim constituencies can play a major role in deciding who reaches the pinnacle of political power in India. It is a different matter though that the supposed friends of Muslims, boasting claims of their leadership, are playing games with them. In Bihar, during 15 year’s rule of Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Muslims have suffered the maximum, particularly on the education front. Lalu never cared to implement reforms that would benefit Muslim; only administering to the interests of his own clan of Yadavs. Once asked as to why there was no Muslim in the top leadership of his Rashtrya Janatadal Party, Lalu replied jokingly that he himself was the leader of the Muslims of Bihar.

Situation is no different in UP, where the Muslim votes have been instrumental in the rise of Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati , who after winning the UP state elections a year ago, appointed only one Muslim minister and that too in the insignificant department of environments. In another unkind cut she ordered the abandoning of construction of the Mohammad Ali Johar Minority University in Rampur that was much needed in spreading the light of education among Muslim youngsters who presently lack badly in this vital field. As for Mulayam Singh Yadav, claiming to be the rock solid friend of Muslims of UP, in the run up to the elections, has taken into his party’s folds Kalyan Singh, who during his stint as the Chief Minister of UP was instrumental in demolition of Babri Mosque on 6 December 1992.

It doesn’t require exceptional political acumen to identify the well known Muslim grievances that have reduced a significant community to the level of the proverbial slumdogs. The Sachar Committee report starkly outlines the despicable conditions of the Indian Muslims who are sliding miserably on account of all socio – economic indicators. It also exposes a state sponsored culture of institutionalized insensitivity that has seen Muslims in India descending to the bottom of the pit, even below the scheduled castes(SC) / tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) whose sponsorship by the Government is facilitating these neglected communities’ upward social mobility.

The absence of a political clout to voice the concern of the Muslim community over racial profiling, that has made the Muslim youth a target of police and agencies, is another area that requires immediate emphasis. Muslim community also needs to underscore the need for implementing recommendations made by the Mishra Commission to provide 15% reservations for the minorities in the government jobs, provision of higher education opportunities, developmental benefits and availability of credit flow with 10% assured quota for Muslims. These recommendations are pertinent but in a joint electorate system where Muslims political and economic interests are totally overshadowed, given the obtaining state of affairs, hold no promise. Unless Muslims acquire a voice in the political system of India and secure dedicated quotas, guaranteed by legislative guarantees, there can be no empowerment of the community enabling them to benefit from the high pace of economical growth so proudly brandished by the Indian leaders and economists.

Muslims exclusion in Indian politics, irrespective of who takes the reins of the government, seems to have made the community resigned to a life of second rate citizens in perpetuity. It is instructive to note that in dealing with Muslims’ welfare and matters of advancement, the secular Congress Party has not been much different to BJP once their performance is viewed even superficially. In violation of its manifesto and charter, UPA in direct political competition with BJP, tried to sidetrack the Muslim community’s interests in a bid to vie for the Hindu votes. Congress made its lack of concern for the Muslim welfare glaringly obvious once it trashed the recommendations made by Sachar commission, refusing to even table it in the Parliament. Congress led UPA even refused to acknowledge the constitutional and legal recommendations made by the Mishra Commission in the wake of the Sachar findings. The reason behind this inertia is the stark realization that any relief to the Muslims is cross grained to the run of the democracy practiced in India where Muslims are destined to remain eternal losers under the crippling weight of a strident Hindu majority.

Indian infringement over Nepal border Area

Ishaal Zehra

THE history of demarcation of India-Nepal border began on March 4th, 1816, after the signing of the “Sugauli Treaty” between the then British India and the state of Nepal, which declares River Mahakali, of Nepal, as the border-line between both the countries. The Treaty was expected to resolve the border issues, but it did not. Even after such a long time, the dispute regarding the border and the no-man’s land area is being ensued now and then in different areas of Nepali border. The reason for the continuation of such dispute is that the rivers, counted on as border, diverged from their courses several times in the past. Interestingly, 595 Km of the border is defined by rivers. Mechi in the East, Mahakali in the West and Naryani in the Susta area, and the unavailability of old maps and documents to revise demarcations has made the situation more significant. The Central government of India deputed its Para-military security guards of special services bureau (Shastra Seema Bal) along the border where as to counter guard the Nepali side of border-line, presence of Nepali security is almost nil!. Taking advantage of the ignorant attitude of Nepalese towards border guard, India started encroachment of the border land. She has said to encroach over 60,000 hectares in 21 of the bordering districts, by now. There has been a lot of hue and cry over the encroachment by Nepali people which unfortunately never fell on the deaf ears of the giant called India.

India surrounds Nepal from the East, West and South. There is a 1,808 km long border between Nepal and India, where 26 districts of Nepal adjoin Indian Territory, marking 54 areas of disputes altogether where the main ones include Kalapani- Limpiyahura, Susta, Mechi and Tanakpur. There is often found an opportunistic overtone in both countries regarding the ownership of such disputed border points. Hence, to resolve the issue, an India-Nepal Joint Technical Level Boundary Committee has been set up in motion which is still to find a reasonable solution for this false encroachment issue.

The encroachment by India started right after the Indo-Sino border war of November 1962. After facing defeat the Indian army set-up a camp inside Nepali’s territory at Kalapani to monitor the Chinese activities. But now they claim that the area belongs to them. However, reports prepared by Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, former director general of the Department of Survey Nepal, corroborates that the maps of 1850 and 1856 prepared by the Survey of India with the participation of Nepalese authority clearly states that the river originates from Limpiyadhura, 16 km North-West of Kalapani, which proves that Kalapani belongs to Nepal. But India refuses to accept those maps as proof. They say that the map prepared by them in 1875 should be considered as proof which shows river Mahakali origin is beyond Kalapani. Interestingly, the said map does not have Nepal’s certification.

The other disputed area situated in the East of Naryani River, is the Susta area, which is the tensest area owing to encroachment. Some time ago, over one thousand Indian villagers backed by Indian border police force (SSB) had forcibly entered the Nepali territory in Susta. They completely destroyed sugarcane in about ten hectares of land and also manhandled men and women. Where the locals of Susta complain such incidents are rampant in the area. The main reason behind the dispute is the changing course of Naryani River, over the past decades. The river has said to change its course towards the Nepalese side in the West. India has encroached about 14,000 hectares of the reclaimed land because of this. The intrusion happened in stages over a period of 73 years. Considering the situation, the people of Nepal had launched a “save Susta campaign”. The organizers requested students of Nepal to join them and launch a valley wide campaign from Nepal’s capital Katmandu. The purpose of the campaign was to inform the world about the wicked plans of her “polite” neighbor India. Actually the reason to start off the border dispute at Susta side is that Susta is surrounded by Indian Territory on three sides -the North, South and East, and on the West it is the Naryani River. Hence, cutting off Susta from its mother land becomes much easier for India to occupy it which will pave her closer to the “Greater India” dream of Hindus.

The other most talked about point of dispute is Mechi. India’s disapproval of “Junge pillers” as the main boundary pillars has sparked the Mechi border dispute. The map published by the British India right after the Sauguli Treaty clearly indicates those pillars to be the main boundary pillars. Even history is evident that British had erected those pillars as monuments of Nepal-India border. But the credit goes to the Indian desire of getting control over weak and tiny neighbours which made her to incite the dispute by denying the original Sauguli Treaty signed by the British and the Nepal Kingdom.

According to the official records, Nepal covers a total area of 147,181 Sq Km. But in reality, the territory of Nepal is gradually shrinking because of the increasing encroachment by India. The Maoists Young Communist league (YCl) once submitted a memorandum to the Indian embassy Katmandu, demanding immediate return of the encroached land by the Indians in Susta area but later the political havoc in Nepal made everything go vanish for some time. They demanded that scientific demarcation of the border land must be done as per historical maps, the encroached territories should be given back to Nepal and the bilateral bordering area should be regulated. The district level of Nepal and India earlier agreed not to allow the use of encroached land for any purpose and put the issue at the central level for the resolution of the problem. But despite the agreement Indian farmer have been cultivating in the disputed area. More than 125 Bighas of Nepali land has been encroached by Indian farmers in year 2007 alone.

The Nepal-India joint Technical level Boundary Committee has supposed to have completed 98% of the task of strip-mapping the border, as per 1874 Persian map adopted by the committee. According to them all the disputes, except Susta and Kalapani, have been resolved. But when the border is traced in the field, many instances of encroachment are found. The unwisely decision of Nepalese side of accepting the Persian map as the basis of demarcation has made them deprived of 1630 hectares of their own land, which now lies in Indian territory. The border committee somehow, could not act the way it ought to. It failed to take firm decisions regarding border disputes at several places, such as the presence of Indian Paramilitary force in Kalapani since 1962.

The amusing part is that India ignoring all her regional disputes is always eager to malign Pakistan by making her a part of every Indian dispute (with whom so ever it may be). And her practice is same even in this land dispute problem. Propaganda against Pakistan is the main instrument of Indian Intelligence. Exposing Indian hegemonic designs, Nepali media says that although India grumbles a lot of the India-Nepal open border being misused by the ISI, it is actually India’s own intelligence agency which is blatantly exploiting the open border. Today every tom, dick and Harry knows that the Terai agitation was actually fueled by India. Earlier when Nepal was a kingdom, India used to supply arms and ammunition to the warring fractions of the Terai and gave safe sanctuary to its leaders, as exposed by a visiting team of United Nation Mission in Nepal (UNMN). The Research and Analysis Wing of Indian Intelligence (RAW) is active in Nepal for the last 40 years, earlier it was only the Intelligence Bureau (IB), operating from there. Experts say that due to open border and special relations with India and Indian association in political changes in 1950, 1990 and 2006, it has become easy for RAW to perform disguised role in Nepal. Raw is not only involved in creating instability and disturbing peace in the Asian region but its name is also associated with terrorism.

India has many interests in Nepal to fulfill which it has gradually made her strong political, diplomatic, economical and cultural influence there, all due to RAW’s efforts. Her main strategy is to keep Nepal instable and always dependent towards India. In this regard, she has supported arms to the establishment as well as anti-establishment groups in Nepal, according to the former Prime Minister BP Koirala’s biography. The untrustworthy nature of India is evident from the past. She has a history for formulating efforts on multiple fronts to weaken the already fragile country to facilitate its swallowing. It is high time when all the Nepalese, currently divided among various political affiliations, should come together against the onslaught, instigated by India, in Nepalese territory and understand the game-plan of their so-called considerate neighbors. And India also should realize that the flame she has ignited in Nepal can very well extend to its own northern flank and the unstable southern part as well.

WHITHER INDIAN PEACEKEEPERS?

Amjed Jaaved

India boasts of professional competence and conduct of its peacekeeping forces. But, the facts tell a different story. Take Republic of Congo. In view of elusive ceasefire (1998-2003) between rival groups, the United Nations deployed a multinational 8,000-strong force there. The force evinced sterling-clean conduct, except for two groups of Indian `soldiers’. One group indulged in gold trafficking and gun running. And, the other committed `sexual exploitation and abuse’ in Congo’s North Kivu province.

The local commander tried to cover up the incidents for fear of beclouding UN peacekeepers’ image. But, Human Rights’ Watch (HRW) somehow managed to get an inkling of the Indian troops’ moral infarctions. When Indians’ misconduct surfaced in the HRW report, the United Nations’ Secretary General Ban ki Moon, had to order an inquiry through the Office of Internal Oversight Service.

The Service confirmed several allegations. As such, the secretary general had to demand from India `disciplinary action to the maximum degree permitted by Indian law’ against Indian peacekeepers’.

India’s defence minister, A. K. Antony and vice chief of army staff, M. L. Naidu, had to carry out a time-bound probe to punish the offenders. Aside from moral turpitude, Indian peacekeepers regard gun running as a lucrative pastime. They do so, not as individuals, but as state-sponsored-policy agents. Indian peacekeepers in Sri Lanka amply bear out this policy role.

India forced Sri Lanka to accept its `mediation’ and `peacekeeping’. During peacekeeping, its forces never made a sincere attempt to eliminate the LTTE. They were more interested in establishing a pro-India administration in northern Sri Lanka than exterminating armed rebels.

Prabhakarn was India’s prodigal son. He received political, financial, and military support from India’s central government during 1978-87. He enjoyed patronage of not only the Tamil Nadu’s state government, but also the politicians from all shades of opinion in that state Prabhakaran lived in Tamil Nadu for several years. His Ambassador car used to be escorted by Tamil Nadu state police. He sustained his outfit’s warfare through supplies of arms, ammunition, explosives, medicines, etc from Tamil Nadu, his base of operations.

The position of the LTTE vis-à-vis India was total cooperation until Rajiv Gandhi began to compel it to negotiate outside Eelam context in late 1986. The Indian agencies the RAW, and Q Branch of the Tamil Nadu police not only armed and funded the LTTE but also provided logistical as well as intelligence support for their operations. The Sri Lankan government realised that Indian forces were actually perverting, not keeping peace by avoiding confrontation with the LTTE. So, it considered it wise to initiate negotiations with the militants. It directed Indian peace keepers to pack up and leave Sri Lanka.

India reluctantly left Sri Lanka. But, look, what it did before leaving! She decided to punish the LTTE for its conciliatory attitude towards the Sri Lankan government. It expressed its ennui at the LTTE by raising, arming, training and funding another militant force, Tamil National Army.
The Indians conscripted `volunteers’ from the refugee camps, and trained them in handling weapon and explosives. For easy identification, lest they should slip out, the young men drafted were shaved and their eyebrows plucked.

On June 23, 1989, president Premadasa asked the IPKF to remain in their barracks, if they could not withdraw by end-July, as he earlier directed. Judging the government’s mood, Indians decided to withdraw. But, before doing so they heavily armed the TNA to pave way for gory clash between the LTTE and the TNA.

Rohan Gunaratna points out: “Most of the Indian troops were airlifted on board Soviet-built Ilyushin-76 transport aircraft. Accompanying these planes were Antonov-32 transport planes carrying arms and ammunition for the TNA” (Indian Intervention) in Sri Lanka, p. 3560. To India’s ill fate, the TNA was wiped off in a few months.

The Sri Lankan experience reflects that Indian peacekeepers do not keep peace. They pervert it. They are morally bankrupt. In view of Indian government‘s ulterior motives in peacekeeping in foreign lands, these forces should never be deployed anywhere in the world.

RAW THE RASCAL by PREM RAJ in Columbo

Up to the mid-seventies the Sri Lankan government had kept India happy by following policies which followed the Indian line - domestically and externally. The trouble began in 1977 when the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) lost power to the Jayewardene-led United National Party in elections. He moved towards a more cooperative policy with the United States and Sri Lanka chose to oppose the Indian demand for the withdrawal of all foreign naval forces from the Indian Ocean. Mrs. Gandhi had already been irked by Sri Lanka’s support to Pakistan during the 1971 war when it allowed landing and fuelling facilities to Pakistan’s East-West commercial flights.

So RAW saw a perfect opportunity to exploit within the prevailing dispute between the Sinhalese majority (74 percent) and Tamil minority (14 percent) over distribution of economic and social spoils of independence. Before the two sides could work out a compromise, India, through its RAW, managed to polarise the two sides as well as militarise this essentially political conflict. On the Mukti Bahini model, RAW built up terrorist training camps in India for a number of Tamil terrorist organisations, while India suddenly began orchestrating a public campaign feigning concern because of the links the Tamils had with the 50 million Indian Tamils of Tamil Nadu state - which was separated from Sri Lanka by the Palk Straits. It was only a matter of time before the militants trained in India began sidelining the moderate Tamils and instead demanding complete independence - Ealam. Ironically, the presence of Tamil training camps in Tamil Nadu often created a law and order situation when large arms were captured by the state police. The surprise for the state government came when New Delhi ordered that such captured material be returned.

According to Rohan Gunaratna, in his book Indian Intervention in Sri Lanka, RAW waged a secret war in India beginning 1983 so that when the Sri Lankan armed forces launched a major offensive against the Tamil militancy in 1987, the Indian government had already ensured that the Tamils were well supplied and were able to conduct terrorist acts that brought the war closer to Colombo. Tamil Nadu had become the sanctuary for the Tamil terrorists in their hit-and-run tactics. Already, a year prior to this offensive, that is by 1986, there were over 20,000 Indian trained and financed Tamils and India forced Sri Lanka through this militant pressure to alter its foreign policy. But even more crucial, India by now was systematically destabilising Sri Lanka. Being unable to resist the temptation to now intervene directly, India used the Sri Lankan offensive against the Tamil terrorists to force Sri Lanka to accept India’s armed intervention ostensibly to save ‘ innocent Tamil civilians’. Unfortunately for India, the controversial Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 proved to be as much of a failure as India’s policy of direct intervention. The result was India’s massively assisted LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) turned on its benefactor and declared war against the Indian forces in Sri Lanka. All in all, this Indian adventure killed 60,000 men, women and children and forced the Indians to withdraw their forces without successfully completing their mission. The price has been steep for both India and Sri Lanka and even today Sri Lanka is paying the price for this Indian-initiated and RAW inspired polarised conflict. The extent of RAW’s role in this affair has been painstakingly documented by Gunaratna in his book on the Indian intervention.

Quest for Justice

By Judith Stone

I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine. It was the right thing to do.

I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking.

Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity.

"Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to us alone." My generation was raised being led to believe that the biblical land was a vast desert inhabited by a handful of impoverished Palestinians living with their camels and eking out a living in the sand. The arrival of the Jews was touted as a tremendous benefit to these desert dwellers. Golda Meir even assured us that there "is no Palestinian problem".

We know now this picture wasn't as it was painted. Palestine was a land filled with people who called it home. There were thriving towns and villages, schools and hospitals. There were Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In fact, prior to the occupation, Jews represented a mere seven per cent of the population and owned three per cent of the land.

Taking the blinders off for a moment, I see a second atrocity perpetuated by the very people who should be exquisitely sensitive to the suffering of others. These people knew what it felt like to be ordered out of your home at gun point and forced to march into the night to unknown destinations or face execution on the spot. The people who displaced the Palestinians knew first hand what it means to watch your home in flames, to surrender everything dear to your heart at a moment's notice. Bulldozers levelled hundreds of villages, along with the remains of the village inhabitants, the old and the young. This was nothing new to the world.

Poland is a vast graveyard of the Jews of Europe. Israel is the final resting place of the massacred Palestinian people. A short distance from the memorial to the Jewish children lost to the holocaust in Europe there is a levelled parking lot. Under this parking lot is what's left of a once flourishing village and the bodies of men, women and children whose only crime was taking up needed space and not leaving graciously. This particular burial marker reads: "Public Parking".

I've talked with Palestinians. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who hasn't lost a member of their family to the Israeli Shoah, nor a Palestinian who cannot name a relative or friend languishing under inhumane conditions in an Israeli prison. Time and time again, Israel is cited for human rights violations to no avail. On a recent trip to Israel, I visited the refugee camps inhabited by a people who have waited 52 years in these 'temporary' camps to go home. Every Palestinian grandparent can tell you the name of their village, their street, and where the olive trees were planted. Their grandchildren may never have been home, but they can tell you where their great-grandfather lies buried and where the village well stood. The press has fostered the portrait of the Palestinian terrorist. But the victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. The Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist.

Two years ago I drove through Palestine and watched intricate sprinkler systems watering lush green lawns of Zionist settlers in their new condominium complexes, surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire in the midst of a Palestinian community where there was not adequate water to drink and the surrounding fields were sandy and dry. University professor Moshe Zimmerman reported in the Jerusalem Post (30 April, 1995), "The [Jewish] children of Hebron are just like Hitler's youth."

We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labour and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned?

The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves... politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves.. .The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country...".

Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. Its cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of God. We must recognise that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realised through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.

In Hertzl's 'The Jewish State' the father of Zionism said: "We must investigate and take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak (3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd hurtle a boulder.

Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not G-d's restitution of the holy land to it's rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people.

We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return of the Palestinian people. here.
Contact Independent Catholic News tel/fax: +44 (0)20 7267 3616

Jewish editor sacked for publishing article
This article was sent to Debbie Ducro, an American-Jewish journalist with the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. She published it, and was fired the next day.