“We’ve been set back 30 years” – The Diplomat
September 2nd, 2010
http://the-diplomat.com/2010/09/02/after-the-flood-in-pakistan/
Garhi Khuda Baksh, Sindh Province, Pakistan – As the floodwaters slowly recede and the Indus River empties into the
Without shelter, some flood-displaced people just shelter under furniture. Garhi Khuda Baksh. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Arabian Sea, the full impact of what Pakistan’s Foreign Minister on Wednesday described as the worst disaster in the country’s history is becoming clearer.
A death toll of just over 1600 is set to rise, with the sad likelihood is that more dead bodies will be found as the waters drain. Rotting carcasses of hundreds of thousands of drowned livestock will add to the threat of disease, as the river drains into the sea and the dead animals are exposed to the blistering 40 degree heat
Over 3.5 million are thought to be homeless in Sindh, with six million displaced nationwide. The threat of epidemic is real, with people on the move in blistering heat amid vast, often stagnant, floodwaters. Aidworkers have reacted with alarm to reports of cholera in northern Sindh province. “If there is just one case of cholera, then that can lead to hundreds, if not thousands, given that this is an airborne disease and spreads quickly”, said Dr Wasi Aslam, based at the Railway Hospital in Sukkur.
Over four weeks after the disaster began, thousands of flood survivors and evacuees can be seen on roadsides, still without any tents or shelter. The United Nations says donors have paid around 63 percent of the US$459 million needed to fund flood relief over the next three months. However, to date, only a fraction of those who need aid have received it, and the evidence of this can be seen at roadside and in fields all over Sindh. While many are in camps, with tents provided by NGOs or by the Pakistani military, others have nothing. Anger is growing, with roadblocks and protests in Sukkur and other towns, expressing disgruntlement with the relief effort.
Outside Garhi Khuda Baksh, Sindh Province, men, women and children lie under upturned beds which have been propped up at an angle with sticks or broken-off tree branches. Those I spoke with understand clearly what the disaster that has befallen their country means. “We have been set back thirty years”, said Fatima, a mother of seven ,and one of twelve people seeking shade under a rough-and-ready shelter made from plastic sheeting and bamboo, loosely tied-down with rope and a peg on two corners, running diagonally from top-right to bottom-left. (more…)
Ebb and flow in flood relief – Asia Times
August 31st, 2010
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LI01Df02.html
IDPs shelter in the shadow of the Bhutto mausoluem. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
LARKANA, Sindh province – It is 40 degrees Celsius in the mid-afternoon. Buffalo submerge themselves in floodwaters covering farmland to cool off. Only their heads are above water as they snort and shake to dismiss the morass of flies buzzing around.
For many among the estimated 6 million people now homeless by the floods in Pakistan, such comfort remains elusive. Many are still without basic shelter and rest under trees, under their carts, and beneath makeshift canopies fashioned from beds, blankets and whatever bits of timber or trees they can find.
On Sunday, teams of foreign and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) attempted to reduce the vast deficit by supplying 500 families in Larkana with temporary shelters, along with basic survival kits such as jerrycans and buckets to fetch and store water, and kitchen sets to enable families to cook. A drop in the ocean in a many ways, but something nonetheless.
Larkana’s pre-flood population of around 345,000 has been swollen to over half a million, as the Indus River expanded to 40 times its usual size in places. The roaring, unstoppable river has spawned a tidal wave of people – on the roads, into towns and cities, all seeking refuge, shelter, food and dry land. A vast ebb and flow of water and people, and of tear for the vast losses incurred. (more…)
Hands-on at the dykes of courage – The Sunday Tribune/Today’s Zaman
August 28th, 2010
http://www.tribune.ie/news/international/article/2010/aug/29/building-dykes-of-courage/
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-220700-impressions-hands-on-at-the-dykes-of-courage.html
On the road in northern Sindh, Pakistan – Dirty, tired and bedraggled, Imran beckons us over to the women who
Women and children camped out at the roadside after their homes were destroyed. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
fled their village. They came thirty miles on foot only to spend almost three weeks here in the dead heat at this makeshift camp outside Sukkur in southern Pakistan.
“Take some photographs”, he implores. “You sure this is OK?”, I reply, our conversation translated from Sindhi to English and back again by Nizam Ud Din Bharchood, a long time charity worker for Hands, a NGO based in southern Pakistan. “Go ahead, he insists!”, assured Nizam.
Under normal circumstances, foreigners cannot take photos of women or girls in Pakistan, but Imran waives this, showing a canny insight into how best to raise awareness about his people’s plight. The ladies, adorned in their assorted pinks, greens and orange veils, clasp their children close and sit atop a rusted old bed, one of the few possessions they managed to carry from one of their houses.
Photo taken, Imran tells me more about their plight. “We are here twenty days now, without any shelter and only a little food”. That is some ordeal, for women and small children. One woman pipes up, unsolicited. “Some people dropped off food here and we give thanks for that”, she said. “But it was done in a disrespectful way – they just threw it off the back of a truck, like they were feeding animals”. (more…)
Pakistan Floods: Awaiting succour in Sukkur – Irish Examiner/Eureka Street/Crikey/SouthAsiaMasala
August 26th, 2010
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/08/26/pakistan-dolphins-play-as-floods-bring-intense-suffering/
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19305
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=23017
Watching the waters rise again. Shahdadkot, Sindh province. (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
SUKKUR, Pakistan. On the road in from the airport, the water shimmered under the moonlight as men, women and children sat in the dark, near the would-be lakeshore. During the day, river dolphins can usually be spotted in the nearby river. It sounds idyllic, you might think, but not so. This dusty and ramshackle town is at the front-line of one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters in living memory. Usually there is no water lapping up at the roadside, and the only people there would be those out for an evening snack after the daytime Ramadan fast. But since torrential monsoon rain sent the Indus River spilling onto towns and farmland the length of Pakistan, an area the size of England has been deluged.
In downtown Sukkur, I spoke to Ashraf, who said he had left his family at the outskirts, before coming into town to buy some food. “We managed to gather up some of our possessions before the waters came, but we did not have much warning. Our home is under water completely. I have enough money to feed my children for another couple of days, that is all.” Like a few more flood victims I encountered, he had to pay three times the normal price for a bus to the city, as opportunists capitalise on people’s desperation, to make a quick rupee.
Nature’s unwitting cruelty followed up, here and there, then, by man’s calculated greed. The last time a natural disaster hit this country, 80,000 people died in just thirteen seconds when an earthquake rocked Pakistani Kashmir. This time, the death-toll is much lower and the disaster is unfolding slowly over many weeks. However, the impact is vast – running the entire 1,976 mile length of the Indus River from the mountainous north of Pakistan, where that 2005 quake hit, to these flood-prone plains in the south. (more…)
Burma-Timor Leste Forge Closer Ties – The Irrawaddy
August 23rd, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19279
Burma Foreign Minister Nyan Win concluded a three-day goodwill visit to Timor Leste on Sunday, after being met by protestors at Dili’s international airport on Friday.
According to a Timorese journalist who requested that his name not be used, a small group of mainly university students clashed with police at Presidente Nicolau Lobato Airport.
Juvinal Diaz, who attended the demonstration, said that although the rally was peaceful, police seized banners and placards protesting the visit. According to eyewitnesses, Nyan Win was unable to leave the airport for more than an hour while the demonstration took place. (more…)
US disengages from Burma – ISN
August 20th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=120399
When the US lined up as the fifth country to back a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma earlier this week, it did more than just back the surprise March recommendation – By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
The move marks an about-turn on Washington’s Burma policy, which had, for a few months at least, been predicated on the hope that the junta would defy precedent and respond to foreign inducements.
The first move came from Burma in February 2009, according to US officials. Afterwards, months were spent in Washington devising a new policy on Burma, which when announced, did not change that much in practice, as it retained sanctions. However, the US suggested that these measures could be relaxed, pending reforms in Burma. (more…)
Bangkok Dangerous: US trumps Russia over ‘Merchant of Death’
August 20th, 2010
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=19262
BANGKOK – After months of diplomatic horse-trading and pressure, Thailand’s appeal court today ruled that Viktor Bout is to be extradited to the U.S. to face terrorism charges. He faces life in prison if convicted, with charges including conspiracy to kill US officers or employees and conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile.
Bout maintains that allegations against him are politically-motivated and that he was running a legitimate air cargo business. Mr Bout was labelled a ‘Merchant of Death’ by British Government minister Peter Hain, back in 2000 after years of running his alleged arms trade business with warlords and governments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
United Nations agencies and several Western governments have reported numerous times that Bout sent arms to dictators and warlords in Africa and Afghanistan, breaking several UN arms embargoes in the process.
In a scene akin to something out of a John le Carré novel, Bout was snared in a 2008 sting operation mounted by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operatives posing as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) arms dealers, operating alongside the Thai authorities.
In 2009 a Thai court rejected a U.S. request for Bout’s extradition on the grounds that the FARC, a Colombian militia the U.S. has formally labeled a terrorist organization and whose dealings with Bout were the focus of a 2008 U.S. indictment against him, was not a terror group under Thai law.
US and Vietnam tighten the bond – ISN
August 17th, 2010
One-time enemies, the US and Vietnam are developing new-found links as both countries take stock of China’s rise.
Just over fifteen years after the US and Vietnam normalised relations marred by war, the naval destroyer USS John S. McCain docked in Da Nang last week to mark the anniversary. The ship is named after the grandfather of 2008 US presidential candidate John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam. Commanding officer Jeffrey Kim said that “over the last 15 years, we’ve established trust, a mutual respect, and I know that, in the coming years, our friendship and relationship will continue to become better.”
According to a Vietnamese scholar who requested anonymity, the tighter relations are seen as a good thing inside the country. “Vietnamese view the US rather positive as the war is becoming history in the memory of a new generation”, he said in an email.
Trading off civil liberties?
From a low base, US-Vietnam relations have grown during the decade-and-a-half since normalisation, with both Presidents Clinton and Bush II visiting Vietnam while in office. However, human rights activists have criticised what seems to be a bipartisan drive in Washington to develop ties with the one-party state. (more…)
US dips into Mekong politics – Asia Times
August 13th, 2010
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LH14Ae01.html
BANGKOK – China’s dam building on the upper reaches of the Mekong river is raising hackles with downstream countries and providing the US with another strategic theater to counterbalance China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia.
The rising controversy comes alongside a range of new US initiatives in Southeast Asia, including recent US-led multilateral military training exercises in Cambodia, joint US-Vietnam naval training exercises, US-Vietnam discussions on sharing nuclear fuel and Washington’s announcement that it will re-engage with Kopassus, Indonesia’s controversial special forces unit.
The recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Hanoi was overshadowed by Sino-American rivalry, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying that the US was willing to mediate in territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea. Many Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, believe Beijing increasingly views the contested maritime area as a Chinese lake.
China’s foreign minister Yang Jichi responded bluntly to Clinton’s remarks by saying that they amounted to “an attack on China”, before reminding Southeast Asian countries that China is a big country, implying that individually they are small. (more…)
Two Reminders From Indonesia – ISN
August 12th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=120027
While Indonesia has made notable strides in the twelve years since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, radical ideology and elitist cronyism could stall further progress
It is sometimes said that Indonesia is the most important country that the world knows least about. It might be clichéd to remind that the country is “the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy”, but in truth the world’s fourth-biggest country remains little-known relative to its size.
Earlier this week came two reminders why this knowledge deficit probably needs addressing. Former Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader Abu Bakr Basyir was arrested on Monday for allegedly backing an al-Qaeda linked training camp in the country, with this coming after a series of terrorist-related shoot-outs and arrests in recent months. Almost simultaneously, Jim O’Neill, the economist who coined the term BRICs to categorise the large emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, said that Indonesia, along with Turkey, would likely emerge next as a major global economic player. (more…)
