Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka needs to be looked at now. I'd been working (slowly) on the next post in the alphabetic sequence I've taken so far, but I received this call to action from my friends at Avaaz and it has to be shared:

Dear friends,

A modern day bloodbath is unfolding on the small island of Sri Lanka and the key to stopping this humanitarian disaster lies with Sri Lanka’s largest donor and closest partner in the region -- Japan. Let´s send a powerful message to the Japanese Foreign Minister asking for pressure to stop the killing.

Now that the US has begun to increase its pressure, the solution to stopping this humanitarian disaster lies with Sri Lanka’s key donor and closest partner in the region -- Japan. It has powerful political and economic influence over the Sri Lankan government and a swing vote at the UN Security Council, which up until now has turned a blind eye to this mounting catastrophe.

Click here to send a message to the Japanese Foreign Minister, who is deciding his government's next steps. Japan cares about its international reputation and a flood of messages from abroad would encourage them to act. If Japan moves then the Sri Lankan government will be forced to immediately respond to protect civilians.

As last weekend´s carnage testifies, every minute counts for the estimated 50,000 civilians still trapped inside the shrinking conflict zone and for those 200,000 more who are barely surviving in overcrowded camps. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which rarely makes public comment, called this conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels, 'nothing short of catastrophic'.

Until now, the divided UN Security Council has abdicated their responsibility to protect Sri Lankans from war crimes and other atrocities. But in this conflict Japan cannot be ignored – it's powerful voice could tip the balance and influence the conflict dynamics, saving lives in the short-term and promoting peace and development in the long run.

Asia's longest-running civil war is entering its final stage – the only question is how many will die before it ends. Let´s send a powerful message urging Foreign Minister Nakasone to act responsibly and lead international efforts to push the Tamil rebels to release the remaining civilians, stop the government bombing and bring sustainable peace to Sri Lanka. Japan's political and economic weight means that they cannot be ignored.

As other donor nations increase the pressure behind the scenes this week, a truly global citizens' outcry can further turn the heat on the Japanese government to use its leverage and push for a robust and concerted international action that stops the bloodshed and protect the Sri Lankan civilian population at risk. Thank you for sending your message today.

With hope

Luis, Brett, Alice, Graziela, Pascal, Ben, Ricken, Paula, Iain, Paul, Raj and the rest of the Avaaz Team

Update May 14, 2009:

The United Nations Security Council has asked the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to ensure the safety of civilians trapped in the conflict.

A UNSC statement expressed grave concern at the worsening humanitarian crisis in the northeast.

The International Red Cross report that their workers on the ground in Sri Lanka are "witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe."

Update May 23, 2009:

According to some mainstream media outlets, the United Nations has stated that up to 10,000 civilians died in the Sri Lankan army's advance across the north of the island between January and May. In fact, the United Nations has not stated a casualty count at this stage. To properly assess the human cost of the Sri Lankan army's advance, the UN needs access to the suffering survivors. The Sri Lankan government has not, as yet, provided the necessary access.

orana gelar

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See also: bloody venerable island on webdiary-libre
Google news on Sri Lanka
Wikimedia Atlas of Sri Lanka

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Afghanistan

This morning I type "Afghanistan" into a Google News search and I select the story appearing at the top of the list (as sorted by relevance). It is an article published by The Associated Press:

Militants die in Afghanistan clash
By AMIR SHAH – 3 hours ago

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Dozens of protesters blocked a road Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, claiming U.S.-led coalition forces killed three civilians, and a local official said police fatally shot one of the protesters and injured three of them.

Villagers from the area carried three bodies to a major highway during the protest. Police allegedly opened fire, killing one and wounding three.

The coalition said its troops were attacked Friday while searching compounds in the Shinwar district of Nangarhar province.

"Several militants were killed" and nine insurgents were arrested, the coalition said in a statement Saturday.

With our ends in mind, i.e. to determine the truth about where we are, this report raises several questions: Who are the 'militants' and who are the 'protestors'? Who are the 'U.S.-led coalition forces' and why are they in this land? Is this reported 'clash' an event that's somewhat representative of the current experience of the human condition by people in this place we call Afghanistan?

The answers to any of these questions can serve as a starting point in beginning to understand what it is to be "here" in Afghanistan. So let's take the first question and see where that leads: Who are the 'militants' and who are the 'protestors' described in that report?

The people living in the land known today as Afghanistan are ethnically and linguistically mixed, reflecting the location of their homelands on historic travel routes leading from Central Asia into South Asia and Southwest Asia.

The 'land of the Afghans' is actually the land of families of Pashtuns, Takjiks, Hazaras, Farsiwan, Qezelbash, Uzbeks, Aimak, Turkmen, Baluch, Nuristani and other smaller ethnic groups. Excluding urban populations in the principal cities, most of the people of non-urban Afghanistan are divided into tribal and other kinship-based groups, which follow traditional customs and religious practices.

There's a clue to the identity of the reported 'protestors' in the location -- Shinwar -- in Nangarhar, one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is a location where the local people are predominantly Pashtun.

The Pashtun, a population of approximately 42 million in toto (13 million within Afghanistan and 29 million beyond its borders), are an Eastern Iranian ethno-linguistic group. These people inhabit primarily eastern and southern Afghanistan, the North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan provinces of neighbouring western Pakistan.

The Pashtun tend to be referred to as 'Afghans' (despite there being far more Pashtun living today in Pakistan than in Afghanistan), while other groups hold to their ethnic name. Herein lies a clue to the human condition as lived in the land of the Afghans. Indeed, it is something that characterises not only the human condition as lived in this land, but that lived in many lands. Individuals, families, clans, tribes; they draw on various identities. Could identity be at the core of clashing that characterises the human condition as experienced in this 'land of the Afghans'?

From its founding in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, Afghanistan had traditionally been dominated by the Pashtuns, who before 1978 constituted a 51% minority in the country. However, about 85% of the 6.2 million Afghan refugees who fled the war that broke out here in 1979 were Pashtuns. This, accordingly, lowered the percentage of Pashtuns inside Afghanistan temporarily and raised the percentages of the country's other ethnic groups (fuelling some tension in the land). By the mid-1990s many of the refugees returned restoring the Pashtuns to their status of the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan constituting about 45% of the population (and increasing the tension).

The 'Afghans' are a proud people. The true essence of their culture can be seen in the "code of ethics" that they live by - the unwritten Pushtunwali (the way of the Pushtan). Pushtunwali is followed religiously, and it includes the following practices: melmastia (hospitality and protection to every guest); nanawati (the right of a fugitive to seek refuge, and acceptance of his bona fide offer of peace); badal (the right of blood feuds or revenge); tureh (bravery); sabat (steadfastness); imamdari (righteousness); 'isteqamat (persistence); ghayrat (defense of property and honour); and mamus (defense of women).

The 'Afghans' are a people divided. They have divided themselves into tribal and sub-tribal groups to which they remain intensely loyal. These tribal divisions have been the source of conflict among Pashtuns throughout their history. Even today, the Pashtun parties are divided along tribal lines. The Pushtan tribes of Afghanistan are said to love or hate with equal intensity. They display fierce loyalty to friends, whilst exercising the right of badal - revenge or blood feuds - as far as enemies are concerned. An old proverb reveals much, "He is no Pushtan who does not give a blow for a punch."

And the 'Afghans' are a people in pain. It is the Pashtuns who have been the main victims of U.S.-NATO bombing attacks on the Taliban, who are largely Pashtuns and operate almost entirely in Pashtun territory. In one authoritative estimate, Pashtun civilian casualties have numbered nearly 5,000 since 2001.

Many Pashtun are seen as 'militant' by the Westerners fighting in the "Afghanistan theatre" of the "Global War on Terror." The Taleban Islamic Movement of Afghanistan (TIMA), which formed in in September of 1994 "to rid Afghanistan of criminals," -- whether you believe the story that the 'criminals' referred to were those responsible for the rape and murder of boys and girls from a family traveling to Kandahar, or that the 'criminals' were the bandits harassing the "Afghanistan Transit Trade," -- comprised mostly Pashtuns from Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan. The term 'Taleban', is so often now used by politicians and the press in the West as a synonym for the 'militant' and 'insurgent' forces of Afghanistan, it is easy to see how in the eye of the one-eyed, the Pashtun 'protestors' may seem to merge with 'militants' and 'insurgents.'

Certainly that was borne out by what occurred in March of 2007, in the Shinwar district of Nangarhar (i.e. that place where 'protestors' gathered last week). What occurred was the Shinwar massacre. According to witnesses and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, U.S. Marines responded to an attack by with excessive force, firing indiscriminately at civilians passing by on the busy highway 40kms to the east of , killing elderly men, women, and children. Akhtyar Gul, a local reporter who witnessed the shooting, claims that, even though they were not under attack, the Marines sprayed civilians with machine gun fire. The Marines murdered 19 people and wounded over 30 more.

Now, a little over a year later, these people have been dealt another blow. A less bloody blow perhaps than that dealt to them before by those U.S. Marines, but a blow nevertheless with potentially very bloody consequences. For the shooting this time was carried out by Afghan National Police (trained and supplied by U.S. Marines).

Whether the people are "militants," or "insurgents," or merely civilian "protestors," watch out for the blowback (again).

Orana gelar

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News Archive for Afghanistan
Wikimedia Atlas of Afghanistan
Amnesty International: Human Rights in Afghanistan
Global Peace Index Rank 2010: 147
Human Development Index: 0.345 (Rank 2007: 174)
Literacy rate: less than 30%

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Abkhazia

It may be a surprise to find that first in our list of countries to survey is Abkhazia.

Where?

Abkhazia!?

Yes, Abkhazia!

Abkhazia has a president, a flag, a national anthem and even a visa system for foreign visitors, but the country doesn't appear on many maps.

Abkhazia is the land located in the Transcaucasus region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. It is a land that was incorporated into Russia in 1810; was declared an Independent Soviet Socialist Republic in March 1921; by December 1921 had signed a treaty of federation with Georgia(which we shall visit later); and was merged into Georgia as an autonomous republic of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1931.

It sounds an idyllic land. Squeezed between the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains the climate in Abkhazia is mild. The coastal areas have a subtropical climate and it had been known as the "Soviet Riviera" in the 1970s and 1980s. To this day, tourism is said to a key industry.

It is a fertile land. It is a land richly irrigated by small rivers originating in the Caucasus mountains. Its agriculture supplied Soviet markets with tea, tobacco, wine and fruits (especially tangerines) and, it is said, these agricultural products remain an important part of the economy of this country.

But in truth, Abkhazia today is a half-abandoned place of rusting ports and skeleton homes. It is a vast junkyard of collapsed structures and resurgent nature. The factories are blighted, offices shut down.

Roads are dotted with the shells of homes, picked clean of all but the frame. Staircases to nowhere rise from tangles of vine. Cows claim the right of way on shattered roads, stepping among the bomb craters and puddles.

The economy is broken, but the people don't starve. Families have turned to their gardens to survive; to their milk cows and chickens; their fruit and nut trees.

It is called a "ghost country" because no other country has officially recognised it. Only Abkhas recognise their sovereignity over their land.

It is said that there are about 200,000 ethnic Abkhaz in all, of whom 150,000 live in Abkhazia. These people are a Caucasian ethnic group, and their origin is not clear. Classical sources speak of several tribes dwelling in the region, but their exact identity and location remains controversial. The Abasgoi of the Graeco-Roman authors are sometimes considered as the predecessors of modern-day Abkhaz, but the identification is not universally accepted.

Once part of the ancient Greek and Roman empires, many Abkhaz adopted Christianity in the sixth century. Surveys of Abkhazia's population (1997 and 2003) shows the Abkhaz people are highly religious. In 2003, 60% of the people surveyed considered themselves Orthodox Christians, 16% Muslims, 8% atheists and unbelievers, 5% pagans, 3% devotees of an Abkhaz religion. Jehovah's Witnesses and Jews accounted for less than 1% each. It would seem to be a population not riven by tensions based on religious identification.

Yet this land is rift. People inhabiting this place are not at peace with each other. Conflict between peoples over this land is primarily a consequence of conflicting views and of longstanding fears with regard to the preservation of language, culture and national identity.

The French historian Papin described in 1824 the "state of perpetual hostility" in which the Abkhaz were living "with their neighbours the Russians from Doudjouk-Kal and the Mingrelians". Events such as the Caucasian war, which ended in 1864, the deportation of a large part of the Abkhaz population by the Tsarist regime in the wake of the failed uprisings of 1866 and 1877, the Georgian colonization of the country and the establishment of Soviet rule, are grievances still held by Abkhaz today. The Abkhaz feel their culture is on the verge of extinction.

The Abkhaz feared that the "Georgianization" of Abkhazia,
which in their view was far advanced under the Soviet regime
and their view is supported by the chart to the left which was published by Conciliation Resources).

They feared this "Georgianization" would be completed through the integration of Abkhazia into a Georgian framework. They were concerned that a rise in the number of Georgians through further ‘colonisation’ would lead to the exclusion of the Abkhaz from political power in their own homeland and limit their rights.

The Georgians feared the Russification of Abkhazia by cultural means and the loss of the ‘historical’ Georgian character of this region. They criticized the close links between the Abkhaz leadership and Moscow.

In the view of both parties, political sovereignty – which meant in practice full control of the state apparatus of Abkhazia – was the sole instrument to counter that fear of extinction.

Georgian language was made compulsory in Georgia and the Abkhazi felt their culture was being assimilated and dissipated. An existential crisis, real or merely perceived, is a motivating force. A secessionist movement of the Abkhaz people living in this region declared independence from Georgia in 1992, so it is now a de facto independent republic, but de jure an autonomous republic
covering 8,600 km² of land located within the internationally recognised borders of Georgia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

What can we see of the present situation in this land where the Abkhaz live?

Concern about conflict escalating into crisis and violence.

Conflict over this land has festered since the fighting in 1992-1993. Fourteen years of negotiation, led alternately by the UN and Russia, have done little to resolve it. Conflict remains a central factor in the experience of living in this land. The main topic of discussion in the region is whether war is going to break out again.

Years of stalemate have solidified each side’s distorted and negative image of the “other”.

Tensions rose in July 2006 when a forceful Georgian police operation raided a "renegade militia" out of upper Kodori Gorge, the one part of pre-war Abkhazia not controlled by the de facto government in Sukhumi.

Since then Georgian-Abkhaz negotiations have been frozen. While Georgia asserts that it is committed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, its military budget rose in 2005 at a rate higher than any other country in the world. Bellicose statements by some officials do not increase confidence.

Georgia accuses the Abkhaz secessionists of having conducted a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing. This claim is supported by an OSCE declaration and many Western governments. The United Nations Security Council has diplomatically avoided use of the term "ethnic cleansing", but it has affirmed "the unacceptability of the demographic changes resulting from the conflict."

Local media are broadcasting statements from Moscow warning that if Georgia attacks Abkhazia, Russia will support its citizens there and tens of thousands of people in Abkhazia now hold Russian passports.

Last week a Georgian newspaper, Rezonansi, printed a front-page headline asking,'Will war in Abkhazia begin tomorrow?' The article said that Russian and Abkhaz forces were preparing to attack the Upper Kodori Valley, the only part of Abkhaz territory still under Georgian control.

It was reported last week that the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, speaking to Russian journalists, had said, "I think that a few days ago, we were very close [to war] and this threat is still real."

The rise in tension comes after Russia sent an additional 500 troops to Abkhazia to join the peacekeeping force there (which operates under a mandate from the Commonwealth of Independent States). It also comes after a number of serious incidents between Tbilisi and Moscow.

Moscow has withdrawn from CIS sanctions against Abkhazia and has authorised official contacts with the de facto government there. The Georgians have accused Moscow of behaving aggressively by deploying extra troops and shooting down a Georgian unmanned spy plane over Abkhazia on 20 April 2008.

The Georgians are saying they have no intention of declaring war, but Georgia holds parliamentary elections later this month. Can we see that the Georgian president might be grateful for this chance to be seen as bold?

The president of the unrecognised Abkhazia republic, Sergei Bagapsh, stated on Wednesday, 7 May 2008 (in an interview with the Spanish El Pais newspaper), that Abkhazia will eventually achieve independence just like Serbia's Kosovo gained sovereignty in February 2008.

"We want a lawful state, independent and democratic... If Kosovo can be independent then so can Abkhazia," Bagapsh said. "We [Abkhazia] do not want Moscow to recognise us in defiance of the United States in order to take revenge for Kosovo," he added, "We want independence because we have a right to it. Because we have deserved it."

[Much more to come ... as there is much, much more to learn]

orana gelar

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News Archive for Abkhazia
Wikimedia Atlas of Abkhazia
HDI: N/A (Rank 2008: N/A)

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