Army in CAR to fight Kony
Sunday, 3rd January, 2010	E-mail article Print article
By Chris Ocowun THE UPDF 4th Division commander, Brig. Charles Otema Awany, has camped at Obbo village in the Central African Republic to coordinate operations against the LRA remnants headed by Joseph Kony. The regional army spokesman, Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, said Otema took over the command against the LRA rebels from Brig. Patrick Kankiriho. “The hardcore LRA criminals are in the Central African Republic. The issue now is when to put the final nails on them since they are already defeated,” Kakurungu told journalists at his office on Monday. He said the situation in the north was calm with more troops deployed in the DR Congo, the Central African Republic and at all the borders to pursue the LRA rebels and ensure that they do not return to Uganda. “We have not lost focus in these operations and our mission is to ensure that the problem of LRA rebels does not spill over to the north again,” Kakurungu noted. Kakurungu said the army had killed 305 rebels since it launched a joint military offensive, Operation Lightning Thunder, on December 14, 2008, under the command of Kankiriho. He said the UPDF jointly attacked the LRA hideouts with the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army and the Congolese army in an operation backed by the air force, paratroopers and infantry. The forces withdrew from Congo early last year when the time granted by the Congolese government for the operations elapsed. However, the army maintained intelligence units to help the SPLA and Congolese army clear LRA remnants, Kakurungu added. He also explained that the army with the Police have been conducting a national de-mining programme in the north. “There was a big concern by the IDPs about the mines in return areas. Most of these areas were battlefields and, not yet safe for settlement,” Kakurungu stated that the UPDF and the Police recovered ammunition in the return areas in Gulu, Amuru, Pader and Kitgum. Some of the weapons recovered included 23 land mines, 277 grenades and 154 rocket- propelled grenades. // <![CDATA[ if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ','; phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11); document.write (""); // ]]>

New Vision Online : Army in CAR to fight Kony.

22 October 2009: UN-supported military operations and FDLR reprisals lead to violations, abuses and displacement

The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions has described military operations against the rebel FDLR militia as “catastrophic” from a human rights perspective. Since Operation Kimia II started March in North and South Kivu Provinces, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced, thousands have been raped, hundreds of villages burnt to the ground, and at least 1,000 civilians killed. There are currently an estimated 980,000 IDPs in North Kivu Province alone. In October, over 80 Congolese and international NGOs denounced the humanitarian cost of operations against the FDLR and its reprisals against the population.

Meanwhile, the UN reported that in South Kivu Province, over 5,000 cases of rape against women had been reported in the first six months of 2009, 90 per cent of them allegedly committed by armed militias or by the Congolese army. Attacks against humanitarian workers have also increased in recent weeks in North Kivu, hampering access to IDPs and other vulnerable people. Between January and October, over 100 attacks were recorded in the province, involving murders, abductions, and thefts of assets. Fewer than ten per cent of attacks on humanitarians reported in 2008 have been formally investigated by police.

via: IDMC | Internally Displaced persons (IDPs) in the DR Congo.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) , led by Joseph Kony, operated in the north from bases in southern Sudan. The LRA committed numerous abuses and atrocities, including the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of civilians, including children. In addition to destabilising northern Uganda from bases in Sudan, the LRA congregated in the Bunia area in eastern Congo. They linked up with the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) and other rebel groups battling with forces from the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD)

Some accused the Sudan of supporting the LRA and Uganda of allegedly supporting the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the rebel movement that fought against the Sudanese government. Although both governments denied the accusations, they severed diplomatic relations with eachother on April 22, 1995. However, relations between the two countries improved. In 1999, Sudan and Uganda signed an agreement under which Sudan said it would stop aiding the LRA and Uganda would stop aiding the SPLA.

The LRA continued to kill, torture, maim, rape, and abduct large numbers of civilians, virtually enslaving numerous children. Although its levels of activity diminished somewhat compared with 1997, the area that the LRA targeted grew. The LRA sought to overthrow the Ugandan Government and inflicted brutal violence on the population in northern Uganda. LRA forces also targeted local government officials and employees. The LRA also targeted international humanitarian convoys and local NGO workers.

The LRA has abducted large numbers of civilians for training as guerrillas; most victims were children and young adults. The LRA abducted young girls as sex and labor slaves. Other children, mainly girls, were reported to have been sold, traded, or given as gifts by the LRA to arms dealers in Sudan. While some later escaped or were rescued, the whereabouts of many children remain unknown.

In particular, the LRA abducted numerous children and, at clandestine bases, terrorized them into virtual slavery as guards, concubines, and soldiers. In addition to being beaten, raped, and forced to march until exhausted, abducted children were forced to participate in the killing of other children who had attempted to escape. Amnesty International reported that without child abductions, the LRA would have few combatants. More than 6,000 children were abducted during 1998, although many of those abducted later escaped or were released. Most human rights NGOs place the number of abducted children still held captive by the LRA at around 3,000, although estimates vary substantially.

Civil strife in the north has led to the violation of the rights of many members of the Acholi tribe, which is largely resident in the northern districts of Gulu and Kitgum. Both government forces and the LRA rebels–who themselves largely are Acholi–committed violations. LRA fighters in particular were implicated in the killing, maiming, and kidnaping of Alcholi tribe members, although the number and severity of their attacks decreased somewhat compared with 1997.

The LRA rebels say they are fighting for the establishment of a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments. They are notorious for kidnapping children and forcing them to become rebel fighters or concubines. More than one-half-million people in Uganda’s Gulu and Kitgum districts have been displaced by the fighting and are living in temporary camps, protected by the army.

Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Sometimes in life you meet the best people- who become your heroes and they inspire you a lot. Alhamdulilah, the day when I met mine was in the summer holidays of 2009.

The situation in Pakistan at that time was devastating. There was an insurgency in Swat due to which the civilians there had to migrate to places near Islamabad because they were to live there temporarily in camps for an indefinite time period. Strange, the world is- residents of a city had to leave their homes, jobs, schools, lives and past and they were labeled as IDP’s (internally displaced people). There were many NGO’s and various other organizations that were helping the IDP’s. Anyone could help and for that matter you had to volunteer. And from here the story of a Pakistani hero begins.

I wanted to volunteer. The only issue was – my parents consent. My parents play this strategic game with us sometimes, when I asked\convinced my dad if I could volunteer for the camp in Sawabi, after a lot of reluctance he said yes but he added a sentence like a disclaimer in a contract by saying, ‘Ask your mom too’. So I asked my mom and the answer was a big NO! NO! My mum came up with all these hypothetical assumptions and thoughts that made my dad endorse her view and thus my idea to volunteer went down the drain. My one and only chance to help the Ummah and the Pakistani people was lost courtesy of my parents.

But then I thought that obedience to parents is crucial after obedience to Allah and that’s what prevented me from an insurgency at home. In short I gave in and sulkily decided to spend the rest of the summer holidays and believe me the thought of betraying my Pakistani brothers and sisters was a killer. Then one day in the summer holidays I reluctantly decided to visit a gynecologist with my mum. I was always averse to visiting gynecologists because according to me they infringed my privacy by asking too many unnecessary questions. But the situation here was extremely different.

I went to a well known Hospital with my mum one day because we had an appointment with a very competent, well qualified gynecologist mashAllah – Dr Noreen Zafar.  I entered her room and I was surprised to be greeted with a big smile. A Doctor in that Hospital-one of Lahore’s elite private hospitals, with a Dr who actually smiled at you was an oxymoron. But SunhanAllah Dr Noreen Zafar was different. Se was kind, considerate, friendly and wise. We talked for quite some time and we discussed many things- like how going to a gynecologist was considered a stigma and how women are treated in Pakistan. Dr Zafar reminded me that I was amongst the -15% (figures say that 54% of Pakistanis are literate but that’s quite doubtful) or so privileged educated Pakistanis on whom it was obliged to work for the betterment of the rest of the nation.

Dr Zafar further said that she was the founder and president of an organization which ensured the wellness of women, girls and children. She made me realize how much I can do for Pakistan with little resources or no resources at all. The most important resource at hand was our time which if allocated to help those who couldn’t even afford the basic necessities would be of considerable use. Her ideology was quite simple: it was to provide ‘Wellness with Dignity’. I really liked her vision because she wanted women and girls of all ages, backgrounds and lifestyles to benefit by educating them about their fundamental rights. In short she wanted to benefit women, girls and children from all walks of life.

Dr Zafar, M.D., F.R.C.O.G., is a woman of steel indeed. She is a Doctor, A mother and a social worker. When she’s not at home, she’s in the hospital with her patients, whenever she gets a minute off, she works on her organization. She is extremely busy and yet always available on email, phone and meetings. Dr Zafar is patriotic Pakistani and mashAllah she was the only Muslim, Pakistani, female to receive the prestigious Eisenberg Award 2009 in the States for her efforts and achievements.

The awards were given in five categories nationally and new international category has been introduced this year and Dr Noreen Zafar has earned the distinction of becoming the inaugural international category award winner.
Source: http://pakobserver.net/200911/19/news/Lahore02.asp -Salim Ahmed reporting for Pakistan Observer 

Dr. Zafar’s vision is to offer high quality gynecological care and empower women to become good decision makers regarding their own health and their family’s health. Dr. Zafar has worked independently to promote wellness among girls and women, without government or any other support. She has overcome many social taboos in her quest and has established health awareness programs related to pre-cancer screening, teenage gynecological health, and reproductive health. Dr. Zafar has initiated nearly a dozen campaigns under the umbrella of the Girls and Women Health Initiative such as “Say No to Osteoporosis,” “Beat Menopause,” “Prioritize Pink,” “Folic Acid Campaign,” “Women Matter,” and “The Pakistan Group for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology” to improve girls and women’s health. 

“The Eisenberg Award shines a spotlight on the frontline work that is occurring worldwide to improve health care quality by making a difference in patient safety,” says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission. “These innovations and public commitments to safe, reliable care serve as an example for what can be achieved.”

Source: http://www.jointcommission.org/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/nr_9_21_09.htm

My job here is done, I can go on and talk more about Dr Zafar’s credibility, stature and caliber but suffice it to say that a hero is not born everyday. Work for the betterment of the women of Pakistan and help make Pakistan a better place. “Treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers.”
From the last sermon of Prophet Mohammed

For now, I’ll leave you with another quote highlighting the significance of this organization:

• I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.
  • Speech at Islamia College for women March 25, 1940.

It doesn’t really matter if you live in Pakistan, you can volunteer by contributing your time, money or even ideas please Visit:

 www.gwhi.org or email us at: gwhi.staff@gmail.com

Thanks.

Any book might have been a compelling jolt out of the academic ambivalence that precedes (and prevents) my dissertation, but it happened to be Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia, published last year by the Cornell Southeast Asia Program, and edited by Eva-Lotta E. Hedman. I was surprised to find it at Aksara on my last trip to Jakarta so I picked it up, not least because I had dinner once with Eva-Lotta here in Banda Aceh a few years ago and should familiarize myself with her work. The cover has a terrific photograph that for me perfectly captures the inherent tension between structure and agency that animates so much anthropological debate. This woman IDP returning home to Halmahera from her displacement in Ternate in 2002 is decidedly *not* interested in the policeman’s direction, but she probably doesn’t have much choice or where else to go.

The back cover states the book’s mission: “This volume foregrounds the dynamics of displacement and the experiences of internal refugees uprooted by conflict and violence in Indonesia.” In doing so, Hedman hopes to achieve a threefold intervention, described in the last paragraph of the Introduction (p.27):

1. Instead of a focus on explaining violence and conflict in Indonesia, which has the unfortunate–some might say unavoidable–byproduct of displacement, this book highlights displacement itself as an actual mode of governmentality. She invokes Agamben’s “state of exception” theory here.
2. Instead of reducing Indonesia to one case study in a global comparative analysis of sectarian or communal violence, terrorism, or failed states, this book allows for a deeper and multi-layered analysis within Indonesia’s borders, which has more diverse comparative material on “conflict, violence, and displacement” than most other nation-states could claim.
3. Instead of situating this book within discourses of the emergent and well-funded transnational humanitarian industry, concerned with describing the distribution of conflict and violence and prescribing solutions for it, an industry that arguably reflects and reproduces “a more pervasive/violence discourse, … this volume serves as a reminder that the very processes involved in the production of knowledge about displacement cannot, by definition, remain somehow outside or above politics.” (p.27)

Each “intervention” grips and excites me, but each in their own particular way. I’ll start with the second one, because that poses no disagreement. I’ve accepted that in some elite institutions regional studies may be unfashionable second tier academia, but I think of myself as an Indonesianist, so I enthusiastically support Hedman’s claim that a more fine-grained analysis of Indonesia at the nation-state and regional levels precedes, and supersedes, global comparison. Anthropologists, at least in a Boasian tradition, have the least problem with getting “intensely local,” multi-sited theoretical developments aside, so at least in my discipline I don’t have to apologize for putting regional and thematic issues on an equal footing. I love this book already because it’s all about Indonesia! It even has two chapters about Aceh!

The first “intervention” drags me back, kicking and screaming, to my anthropological training. I think I was assigned Agamben in at least two courses, and the “state of exception” (also a highlight in Walter Benjamin’s work) is a powerful analytic deployed frequently in contemporary ethnography. It’s not that I think it’s wrong; rather, my day-to-day work in Aceh over the years has not encouraged, broadly speaking, a discursive analytical framework. Foucault & friends do not come easy to begin with, and I have to flex the brain a few times to “get it.” When I first read Hedman’s Introduction, I thought her writing was strange, excessive, and strident… even as I found myself agreeing with her. Writing about late Soekarno-era military adventures along the nation’s borders, here is an excerpt that stands out:

The West New Guinea and Konfrontasi campaigns served, in distinct ways, to shape the social (re)production of state borders and national space in Indonesia through militarized conflict, violence, and displacement. In the case of the West New Guinea campaign… it prompted a creeping militarization of the long border with Papua New Guinea and the emergence of a growing and, eventual, so-called ‘protracted refugee situation’ across this border, thus anchoring Jakarta’s claims to the last remnants of the (former) Dutch East Indies colonial territory in new lived experiences of political boundaries and violent geographies on Indonesia’s easternmost frontier. … The undeclared border war known as Konfrontasi prompted a new consciousness of the border between Indonesia and Malaysia and the wider social and economic effects thereof, as ‘people from across the border came to be viewed as outsiders rather than relatives.’ (p.12)

Violence and displacement not only consolidate national boundaries but are also productive of national consciousness among displaced populations at Indonesia’s most distant frontiers. I get it. I’ve even written papers like this. It’s just been awhile. Like I said, any decent ethnography may have (re)oriented me (natch!) back to my discipline’s theoretical for-granteds, but I am grateful that this one did the job.

I take issue with the third “intervention,” and only partly because it kicks me where it counts. She writes: “The mobilization of a massive transnational ‘humanitarian’ machinery, with its own considerable complex of national and international, governmental and non-governmental, resources, networks, and discourses, has propelled an entire industry focused on ‘conflict and violence in Indonesia,’ including the so-called mapping of conflict and violence, the search for conflict intervention mechanisms, and the design of peace and conflict resolution programs.” Such efforts, she says, arguably reflect and reproduce “a more pervasive conflict/violence discourse ‘grounded in a set of institutions that promotes its persistence.’” (p.27) At the end of the line there she is quoting from a book I haven’t heard of before, by Paul Brass, titled Theft of an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence, published in 1997 by Princeton University Press. After a quick browse online, here is how the publisher describes the book, which is an ethnography of communal violence in northern India:  

Brass shows how, out of many possible interpretations applicable to these incidents, government and the media select those that support existing relations of power in state and society…some incidents remain localized while others are fit into broader frameworks of meaning, thereby becoming useful for upholders of dominant ideologies. Incessant talk about violence and its implications in these circumstances contributes to its persistence rather than its reduction. Such treatment serves in fact to mask the causes of violence, displace the victims from the center of attention, and divert society’s gaze from those responsible for its endemic character.

OK now let’s compare Hedman’s words and her reference point with my current job. I work for World Bank Indonesia’s Conflict and Development team (read: massive transnational ‘humanitarian’ machinery…focused on ‘conflict and violence in Indonesia,’). My job is to support The Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at Syiah Kuala University, which receives much of its funding from the World Bank (read: the search for conflict intervention mechanisms, and the design of peace and conflict resolution programs). Our signature product is the Aceh Peace Monitoring Update, which relies on a newspaper monitoring methodology to map conflict and violence in Aceh since early 2005 (read: including the so-called mapping of conflict and violence). In Hedman’s own chapter, “Back to the Barracks: Relokasi Pengungsi in Post-Tsunami Aceh,” she cites one of these monitoring updates (when it was still called the Aceh Conflict Monitoring Update, and still produced directly by the World Bank). It’s not unlikely that the critique in her Introduction is directed squarely at my employer and its publications. In a word: Ouch!

It’s not like she is the only one to make this critique. There is a blooming critical literature in the social sciences about humanitarianism, Mariella Pandolfi’s “mobile sovereign” and all that, wherein the state of exception figures heavily as well. The problem with this critique though is that it sets up a straw man figure of the (faceless) Humanitarian, and if that is your image, then The Bank is such an easy and obvious target. In that conversation, structure beats agency every time, with a knockout punch, except it’s rigged! I prefer the more productive tension illustrated on the book cover.

So in an effort to balance Hedman’s third intervention, I just want to say two things. The first is that these conversations and critiques also take place within the humanitarian industry itself. Humanitarians might possibly be the most reflexive professionals around, after anthropologists of course. The second is that humanitarians are not (only) cylon machinery. One could argue perhaps that some are more “interpellated by structures of power and domination” than, say, some critical anthropologists think that they’re not, but they’ve got agency in there somewhere (In Jakarta, for example, I choose Starbucks over Oh-La-La). Humanitarians also have lives, and frustrations, and lovers, and even moral commitments, and well, experience, that are ethnographically rich, and that is something still missing from this critical literature.

I should add, now that I’ve got that off my chest, that Hedman is partially right. My office does not have total neutrality and autonomy when it writes a peace monitoring update, but I think most of us are aware of that. There are subtle and blunt forces that shape the content, style, and language of those reports. The details of such forces are indeed ethnographically rich; I savor them actually (because the process is so fascinating), even as they frustrate and compel me/us to self-censor. The net effect favors, though hardly explicitly and certainly not intentionally, an assemblage of powerful interests. This is what draws me to the Paul Brass book, in due time; I don’t think I’ll find that one at Aksara.

There is so much more to write, to fill in the details of the previous two paragraphs just for example, but that’s beyond the scope of this post. Regarding this wonderful new book that got my head ticking again, I’ve only really addressed the Introduction, but there is a great collection of chapters, and so far I’ve read the two excellent Aceh chapters (Hedman wrote one about the early and decisive days for managing the tsunami IDPs, Ed Aspinall wrote the other one about three major waves of conflict IDPs between 1998 and 2005). I am really looking forward to the last chapter which is about ghosts with trauma and a haunting drakula in post-conflict North Maluku. But for now, I’ve got my own chapter to write, for another book, and I’m hoping this conversation here serves as an inspiration.

]]> http://srilankandiasporablog.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/guru-jovita-on-hr/ Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:57:26 +0000 srilankandiasporablog http://srilankandiasporablog.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/guru-jovita-on-hr/ http://blacklightarrow.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/when-people-do-not-matter/ Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:46:49 +0000 David Blacker http://blacklightarrow.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/when-people-do-not-matter/ http://southasiaspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/let-them-speak-truth-about-sri-lankas-victims-of-war/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:39:49 +0000 southasiaspeaks http://southasiaspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/let-them-speak-truth-about-sri-lankas-victims-of-war/

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall – think of it, ALWAYS.”   – Mahatma Gandhi

Executive Summary

This latest report from the University Teacher for Human Rights (Jaffna) documents the final chapter of Sri Lanka’s war 26-year war. Drawing on individual eyewitness accounts, it chronicles the relentless violence experienced by survivors of the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam between September 2008 and May 2009, when the Sri Lankan government ultimately crushed the LTTE leadership and declared victory.   What these survivors’ stories make clear is that for both parties, the key to military dominance lay not in brilliant strategies, but in an utter disregard for the lives of civilians and combatants alike, driven by their leaders’ single-minded pursuit of personal power.

Both sides treated truth as an enemy.  Outsiders who could bear witness to these events were kept out or silenced; dissent on either side was crushed; the poor and powerless were treated as cannon fodder and in the case of Tamil civilians, ultimately locked up to prevent them from revealing  what they had experienced. As the report notes, Sri Lanka’s “war against truth has grave implications for the future of democracy.”

But this report is more than a catalogue of war-time atrocities; it provides an analysis of the social and political underpinnings of the conflict that made atrocities possible, and that have historically shielded the people who committed such crimes from justice.

This report is a call to Sri Lankans of all communities to examine their history and take control of their present; to acknowledge the degeneration of the country and its democratic institutions, to demand justice for the crimes that have been committed in the name of fighting terrorism or securing Eelam, and to declare “never again.”

~~~

It was bloody war and international norms were breached by both sides, which by trapping people in the conflict zone wrought large scale death and destruction. The State systematically marginalised and restricted the operation of international organisations, subverting their efforts to humanise the conduct of the war and secure reduced casualties. It convinced the majority of people in the country (and many outside), that utter annihilation was only way to deal with the forces like LTTE. At the same time the Government blatantly lied about the real number of civilians trapped in the zone, and the number killed by their disproportionate use of force in the form of intense shelling and bombing.

The LTTE’s callous attitude towards the civilians, its forced conscription and the violent and coercive methods it used to prevent people from fleeing for their lives, further helped the government to successfully neutralise any criticism against their modes of operation.

Perpetrators must be brought to account.

It is also imperative for international human rights activists and organisations to go beyond mere condemnation of the way in which this war was conducted and recognise what it has shown us about the limitations of the present broader architecture of international Human Rights and Humanitarian mechanisms and institutions, which failed utterly to avert this disaster.

Social and political forces with narrow ethnic or religious ideological trappings continue to undermine democracy in most of the developing nations. These are not new phenomena; the world had seen many major religious crusades to wars between nations which in the modern era led to the creation of international institutions, conventions and treaties. The unequal economic and military power structures operating at a global level continue to undermine these institutions while allowing local actors to blame the external powers for their own failures.

In Sri Lanka, the political elite continues to fail the people, and whatever potential the country had to move towards a healthier path of development and prosperity has been continuously undermined by narrow electoral politics. The country is at a crossroads. Improvement will not be achieved by relying on the political elite in the belief that they will have at last to moderate self interest and address the many underlying social and economic issues which caused the war.

The callousness of Sri Lanka’s powerful towards their own people has been clearly shown in the persistent undermining of state institutions, the deterioration of which has been met with major armed resistance again and again. Today politicians continue to use this war, this monumental tragedy,  for political capital in their narrow power game in the South, while the removed and insensitive Tamil Diaspora tries to further polarise people in their home country with their meaningless rhetoric and slogans of Transnational government.

There is only one way forward. An initiative to forge a broad multi-ethnic and multi-religious movement that challenges these narrow ethnic and religious agendas and Sri Lanka’s climate of impunity; that demands accountability for the grave and systematic violation of human rights that has for so long prevented Sri Lanka from progressing. This should be the priority for all those who desire to fight for social justice and human rights.

University Teachers For Human Rights (Jaffna) Sri Lanka.

Special Report No: 34

Date of release: 13^th December  2009

For complete report – click link

http://www.uthr.org/SpecialReports/Special%20rep34/Uthr-sp.rp34.htm

The Iraq inquisitors’ questioning of Sir Suma Chakrabarti (the DFID man at the height of the crisis) did not answer my questions on displacement (below). But on the same morning that humanitarian issues were discussed in a sunny London, bombs went off in Baghdad and the National NGO  Coordinating Committee released this Refugees International  report on internal displacement with the press release:

Four years after the U.S. launched its attack against Iraq, the civil war there has produced a humanitarian crisis marked by the world’s fastest growing refugee and internally displaced populations. But Iraq, Washington and the U.N. do not acknowledge the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis. This has led to an inadequate response, both within Iraq and in the region.

Jan Egeland former senior UN humanitarian official spoke earlier this month at Oxford’s Refugee Studies Programme and his lecture, ‘Beyond Blankets: in search of political deals and durable solutions for the displaced’  is now available as a podcast.

By Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press

Tamil civilians leaving camp in Vavuniya - photo / TamilOnline

Sri Lanka’a Rajapaksa administration, facing a challenge from military leader Sarath Fonseka, announced “freedom of movement” for those interned in the Vavuniya camps, starting December 1, in the run up to snap elections now set for January.

The UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on November 21 immediately issued a statement praising the government’s announcement, and on November 23 his top humanitarian envoy John Holmes came to the UN briefing room to in essence add to the praise.

Despite reports to the contrary from non governmental organizations on the ground, Holmes said there’s no ban on movement except for safety, “physical safety.” Inner City Press asked about statements by Oxfam in Sri Lanka that even “freedom of movement” will involve a system of passes and only limited numbers of days outside the camps.

Holmes replied that people will be able to leave for “days at a time,” saying this “looks like freedom of movement as most would define it.” But signing in and out of a camp surrounded by barbed wire, with any limitation on the number of days out, is not how many define freedom of movement.

Inner City Press asked Holmes about a letter from the government agent of Mannar to NGOs, telling them to suspend any operation not approved by the Presidential Task Force headed by presidential brother Basil Rajapaksa. Holmes shrugged that the PTF is in charge.

A large international NGO working in Sri Lanka was told by Basil Rajapaksa to deal only with the government, and to stop complaining to the UN. Inner City Press asked Holmes about this, and he said he is “not sure that is a hugely important point.”

But to some, a government telling NGOs not to complain to the UN is not a small thing.

It was the UN’s quiet pull out from Kilinochchi that presaged the killing of civilians that would occur. So for the UN to be less than concerned with the government tries to cut off the flow of information to the outside world is not a good sign.

United Nations, November 23 ————

Sri Lanka Defends Land Mine Use as UN Says Nothing, of “Victim Activated” IEDs

By Matthew Russell Lee

The UN and its Secretary General are said to be strong advocates for countries to become parties to the Mine-Ban Convention. But when it comes to Sri Lanka, which has refused to join the Convention and which states openly that it uses land mines, it is unclear what the UN is doing to urge the country to stop using mines.

The UN is paying for removal of mines laid by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Meanwhile, in a debate in the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee on October 30, Samantha Jayasuriya of the Sri Lankan Mission argued that “for legitimate national security concerns, Sri Lanka had not become a party to the Mine-Ban Convention… Land mines were used by security forces ‘always for defensive purposes’ and mainly to demarcate the limits of their military installations.”

This statement, more than five months after the Rajapaksa government declared final victory over the LTTE or Tamil Tigers, went uncommented on by the UN. At a press conference on November 17, Inner City Press asked Dmitry Titov of UN Peacekeeping and Maxwell Kerley, Director of the UN Mine Action Service, about Sri Lanka’s statement and continued use of land mines.

Mr. Titov replied that the Secretary General is in strong support of the Mine Ban Treaty. But when Inner City Press asked if Ban Ki-moon, in his many bilateral talks this year with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has ever directly asked that Sri Lanka join the Mine Ban Convention, Mr. Titov passed the question to Mr. Kerley, who described UNDP’s work removing LTTE mines.

With the LTTE defeated, the Sri Lankan government’s justification for using land mines is gone. But it was repeated on October 30 at the UN.

United Nations, November 17 –

Official link – http://www.innercitypress.com/lanka1sri1elections112309.html

I posted this note on my Facebook page on May 13, 2009

I.D.P’s are our sisters, brothers, friends ect. Who have been displaced from their home because of the Taliban. Pakistan army is trying to fight against Taliban and getting them out of our Homeland, these people are the kkk’s (kuu kllux klan) of Pakistan .

Some I.D.P camps are recently established in Islamabad. The children don’t have anything to eat and crockery to eat in.The hygienic conditions are not good and there is no cleanliness so that’s they have skin problems and fever etc. They don’t have medicines or doctors that’s why the diseases are increasing. there are no school so the children cant study. They don’t have books to read and toys to play.

They sacrificed for us so that the Taliban dont come to Islamabad. Now its our turn to act.I request the children from mazmoon-i-shauq and other children who want to join us, to help these children who r our friends from Swat. Lets go to I.D.P camps to selute our friends and bring them food, books and toys. More than anything they need our company and time.leta go.

My mother has volunteered to take us to the camps.Would you like to go?

Internally displaced Sri Lankan Tamil civilians peer over a fence at a camp for the displaced in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka. (Photo: AP)

Some 300,000 war refugees were forced into the camps after fleeing the final months of the government’s decades-long war with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, which ended in May.

The ethnic-minority Tamils are being held against their will. More than half were released in recent months amid pressure from rights groups and foreign governments. Authorities say nearly 136,000 people remain detained in the camps, which are guarded by soldiers and strung with barbed wire.

Basil Rajapaksa, a senior adviser to his brother, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Saturday the refugees will be free to return to their villages after Dec. 1, and the camps will be completely closed by Jan. 31.

The announcement came two days after the U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, pressed Sri Lanka to allow the war refugees to leave.

Sri Lanka pledged in September to the U.N. that all civilians would be sent home by the end of January.

Rights groups say the detention is an illegal form of collective punishment for the ethnic group. Access to the camps is heavily restricted.

The government has maintained that Tamils must be screened for rebel ties and detainees’ villages de-mined before the camps can be closed.

On Saturday, Rajapaksa said the military was given the green light to release the detainees as no security threats remain. Detainees can settle in areas cleared of mines, he said.

Government troops routed the Tamil Tigers in May, ending their 25-year fight for an independent homeland for the country’s minority Tamils. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 people were killed in the violence.

Source: CBS News

Ein riesiges VLBI-Projekt zur Verbesserung des kosmischen Koordinatensystems

International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF2; s.a. hier die GPS-Notiz) findet im Augenblick statt: Am 18. und 19. November beobachten 35 Radioteleskope rund um den Globus 243 Quasare. Das ICRF2 wurde auf der IAU GA diesen Sommer als das fundamentale Referenzsystem der Astronomie festgelegt und ist an 295 himmlischen Radioquellen ohne Eigenbewegung aufgehängt; leider gibt es zu wenig Radioteleskope auf der Südhemisphäre, um sie alle gleichzeitig einzubeziehen. (NRAO Release, Malkin, Preprint 16., Mittelbayerische Zeitung 17., Nature Blog 19.11.2009; auch eine Outreach-Seite dazu)

Starburst-Galaxien “neue” Quelle von Gamma-Strahlung

Sowohl Gammastrahlen-Teleskope auf dem Boden wie VERITAS als auch der Fermi-Satellit haben diffuse Gammastrahlung aus – relativ nahen – Galaxien mit hoher Sternbildungsrate entdeckt, so NGC 253 und M 82, und auch die 30-Doradus-Region in der LMC ist eine Gammaquelle. Hinter der harten Strahlung steckt jeweils Kosmische Strahlung – und die wiederum wird vermutlich in Supernovaresten beschleunigt, die ein Abfallprodukt der Bildung massereicher (und damit kurzlebiger) Sterne sind. (CfA, NASA Press Releases 2.11.2009)

NACHTRAG: Acero & al. (Science 326 [20.11.2009] 1080-2) haben Gammastrahlung von NGC 253 auch mit H.E.S.S. nachgewiesen, wo 5-mal so viel Energie der Kosmischen Strahlung in diesen Kanal geht als in der Milchstraße. NACHTRAG 2: Der Nachweis von M 82 mit VERITAS wird von dessen Kollaboration in Nature 462 [10.12.2009] 770-2 diskutiert – dies Dichte der Kosmischen Strahlung in der Starburst-Zone der Galaxie ist 500-mal so hoch wie in der Milchstraße. NACHTRAG 3: noch ein Paper zu VERITAS & M 82. NACHTRAG 4: Guten Morgen! Sky & Tel. hat’s auch mitbekommen …

22 ganz junge Galaxien sind mit der neuen WFC3 des HST aufgespürt worden und lassen neue Rückschlüsse über den Verlauf der kosmischen Reionisation zu – und bei einer der z=7-Galaxien (siehe auch hier) gelang sogar die direkte spektroskopische Messung der Rotverschiebung. (Ouchi & al. Preprint 14.10., Carnegie Release 6.11.2009)

Komplizierte Gravitationslinse bei z=1.0 hilft bei Eichung der Massenbestimmung von Galaxienhaufen

Ein Galaxienhaufen WARPS J1415+36 bei z=1.03 ist einer der am weitesten entfernten, der das Bild einer weit dahinterstehenden (z=3.9) Galaxie dramatisch verzerrt: An ihm lassen sich gut verschiedene Verfahren der Massenbestimmung von Galaxienhaufen testen und zeigen, dass sie auch bei z~1 noch ganz gut gelten. (Huang & al., Preprint 4.11.2009)

Eine “gewaltige kosmische Struktur” bei z=0.55 von mindestens 60 Mio. LJ Ausdehnung gilt als bis dato prominenteste Einzelstruktur des kosmischen ‘Skeletts’. (ESO Release 3.11.2009)

Der Neutronenstern im SNR Cassiopeia A hat eine Kohlenstoffatmosphäre

Jedenfalls kann man nur so ein Emissionsverhalten der zentralen Röntgenquelle des jungen Supernovarestes modellieren, das seine ganze Oberfläche involviert und nicht nur einen Hotspot – denn dann würde der ~330 Jahre alte Neutronenstern pulsieren, was es aber nicht tut. (Ho & Heinke, Nature 462 [5.11.2009] 71-3, Chandra Release 4.11.2009)

Ist NGC 5408 X-1 ein “Mittelklasse”-Schwarzloch? Diese Ultraluminous X-ray Source (ULX) zeigt 100-mal langsamere quasiperiodische Oszillationen der Helligkeit als SL-Kandidaten stellarer Masse und ist gleichzeitig 100-mal heller als diese: Das könnte zu einem SL mit 1000 bis 9000 Sonnenmassen passen. (NASA Feature 10.11.2009)

Untersuchung an Sternhaufen: Lange Sonnen-Minima “normal”?

Das – spektroskopisch bestimmbare – Aktivitätsniveau von 60 ziemlich sonnenähnlichen Sternen im offenen Sternhaufen Messier 67 mag Rückschlüsse auf den “typischen” Zustand der Sonne zulassen: Danach waren Sterne mit sonnengleicher Rotation eher geringer aktiv als die Sonne, während die aktiveren zugleich schneller rotierten. Bedeutet das, dass die Sonne einen “signifikanten Teil ihrer Zeit” in einem Maunder-Minimums-artigen Zustand verbringt? (Reiners & Giampapa, Preprint 2., Physics World 12.11.2009)

Die Temperatur der Sonnenkorona fiel von 2006 bis 2008: Das ergibt sich aus der Vergleich von Emissionslinien, die während der Sonnenfinsternisse der beiden Jahre beobachtet wurden – insbesondere war die [Fe XIV]-Linie 2008 wesentlich schwächer geworden. (Voulgaris & al., Preprint 30.10.2009)

Jede Menge Details über Lage und Wanderung der Sternflecken auf CoRoT-2a

haben sich aus 142 Tagen ununterbrochener Photometrie durch den Satelliten herausfinden lassen: So gab es zu Beginn der Beobachtungen zwei einander gegenüber liegende Aktivitätszentren, die sich aber aufeinander zu bewegten. (Lanza & al., Preprint 4.11.2008)

Kapteyn’s Stern aus Omega Centauri entlaufen? Der 25.-nächste Stern (13 Lichtjahre Entfernung von der Sonne) ist wohl nur zufällig hier – er scheint aus derselben Zwerggalaxie zu stammen, die die Milchstraße einst verschluckte und deren Kern nun als “Kugelsternhaufen” Omega Cen bekannt ist. (New Scientist 11.11.2009)

Sonnenähnliche Sterne mit Planeten haben weniger Lithium

auf ihren Oberflächen – dieser Effekt ist nach den Daten der HARPS-Durchmusterung sehr signifikant. Offenbar wird die Sternkonvektion in einer Phase der Planetenentstehung markant beeinflusst; was da allerdings genau passiert, ist noch ziemlich offen. Aber den Effekt – der wohl auch für das Lithium-Defizit unserer Sonne verantwortlich ist – könnte man zur Vorauswahl von Sternen nutzen, bei denen man Planeten suchen will. (Israelian & al., Nature 462 [12.11.2009] 189-91, auch Pinsonneault, ibid. 168-9, Tracker 13., Welt der Physik 12., ESO Release 11.11.2009) NACHTRÄGE: das Paper als Preprint – und tiefschürfende(re) Gedanken.

Staubscheibe von HR 8799 nachgewiesen, dem Stern mit den drei abgebildeten (mutmaßlichen) Planeten (siehe z.B. hier): Der Staub, den das Spitzer Space Telescope glühen sieht, ist bei Kollisionen von kleinen Körpern untereinander entstanden – die drei Planeten haben wohl noch nicht ihre endgültigen Bahnen gefunden. (Spitzer Feature 4.11.2009)

Ultra-primitive Staubteilchen von Komet Grigg-Skjellerup eingefangen

Im April 2003 zog die Erde durch den Staubschweif des Kometen G-S, und in der Stratosphäre wurde gezielt Jagd auf diese Teilchen gemacht – mit Erfolg: Es handelt sich um deutlich ursprünglichere Partikel als was die Stardust-Sonde aus der Koma des Kometen Wild 2 holte (siehe Artikel C00), und diese IDPs sind sogar älter als die Sonne. (Carnegie PR 2.11.2009) NACHTRAG: ein reichlich später Press Release aus Manchester.

Die “beste” Sternbedeckung durch Pluto für Europa in mindestens einem Jahrzehnt scheint am 14. Februar 2010 bevorzustehen, wenn ein Stern 11. Größe getroffen wird – schon mit einem Sechszöller müsste man die schwindende Atmosphäre des Zwergplaneten nachweisen können. (PlanOccult 8.11.2009; Sonderseite der IOTA-ES)

Der 50. Jupitermond hat einen Namen erhalten

S/2003 J17, der diesen August wiederentdeckt worden war, ist nun amtlich und darf sich “Herse” nennen; 12 weitere Jupitermonde warten noch auf ihre Bestätigung. Und der Mond des Kuiper-Gürtel-Objekts (50′000) Quaoar heißt nun ganz offiziell Weywot. (IAUC #9094 11., Planetary Society Blog 12.11.2009)

Saturnmond dank seines Schattenwurfs entdeckt: Als S/2009 S1 wird jetzt ein nur etwa 300 m großer Saturnmond ínmitten des B-Rings geführt, der sich im Juli mit der Sonne fast in der Ringebene durch einen 36 km langen Schatten bemerkbar machte. (IAUC #9091 2.11.2009)

You’ll remember the UN Guidng Principles on Internal Displacement makes provision for legal displacement. Here’s an example of Saudi villages being evacuated in advance of Government action against Shi’ite rebels across the Yemen border.

Commentators over at the  Enough Project are probing the possible reasons why the Sudan Government has announced the closure of IDP camps in the Darfur region. The official justification concentrates again on the camps themselves being the source of continuing instability. Enough’s bloggers question the Government’s capacity and preparedness to return and reintegrate in excess of 2 million people to areas where conditions have largely not improved.

We’ve spent some time trying to piece together why IDP numbers are steadilly rising. The ICRC is consistent in its skepticism about the value of ‘displacement camps’.

The group refugee status of tens of thousands of Rwandans who fled their country in the wake of the 1994 genocide could be lifted by the end of 2011, according to UN and Rwandan officials.

Since 2002, Kigali has been keen to see invoked a clause in the 1951 refugee convention which allows for refugee status to be lifted if the conditions in a country that led to mass exodus are deemed to have changed in a fundamental, durable and effective way. This “ceased circumstances” clause is one of the convention’s cessation clauses.

Of the several million, mostly Hutu Rwandans who fled their country after the genocide, around 60,000 still live as refugees in neighbouring states. The government in Kigali has been unable to allay their fears that it is not safe to return home.

“There is no reason why Rwandan citizens should stay in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], Uganda or Burundi as refugees, when their country is stable. We are pleased that we have reached common ground with UNHCR [UN Refugee Agency] over the cessation clause,” Rwanda’s local government minister, Christophe Bizivamo, said recently.

According to UNHCR spokesman Yusuf Hassan, this common ground consists of a commitment “to work on a road map of activities and benchmarks which, if met, would allow the invocation of the cessation clause for Rwandan refugees by 31 December 2011.”

Key points of this roadmap include:

Actively enhancing voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees
Implementing effective reintegration projects to make returns sustainable
Securing rights for Rwandan refugees who are unable or unwilling to return, through regularizing their stay in their current country of residence, or confirming their need for continued international protection.
Once the cessation clause is invoked and blanket international protection is lifted, some individual Rwandans who are still unwilling to return home could retain refugee status by invoking “compelling reasons arising out of previous persecution”.

“This exception is intended to cover instances where a person who – or whose family – has suffered under atrocious forms of persecution, should not be expected to repatriate,” said the UNHCR’s Hassan.

“Even though there may have been a change of regime in his country, this may not always produce a complete change in the attitude of the population, nor, in view of his past experiences, in the mind of the refugee. Whether or not the Rwandans in DRC and Burundi fall under that category will have to be determined,” he added.

Source: IRIN