Debating aid and Haiti – ISN
January 29th, 2010
All over Port-au-Prince, thousands of buildings will need to be razed and rebuilt (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=111942
Aid to Haiti has largely failed in the past, and now faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the capital from the bottom up, many wonder whether international development plans will be lost in the rubble, Simon Roughneen
writes for ISN Security Watch.
Much of Haiti’s capital lies in ruins after the devastating January 12 earthquake. Up to 200,000 people are thought to have died, many now buried in mass graves outside the city. Hundreds of thousands more are homeless, sleeping in the open or in makeshift camps cobbled together with whatever blankets or sheeting people could get hold of. Delivering sufficient quantities of emergency assistance to so many people is proving a logistical nightmare, with the already limited Haitian infrastructure pulverized by the disaster.
While the emergency phase is from over, already Haiti and interested parties such as the US and Canada are looking to the longer term, and trying to raise money and figure out ways to help the western hemisphere’s poorest country get back on its feet – if it ever was fully so – in the months and years ahead.
As memories of the disaster fade, this will be a tall order. Already various notions of a ‘Marshall Plan’ for Haiti have been floated, evoking the US-led public-private partnership that helped rebuild Europe after World War II. Moreover, the task at hand has reignited the debate over the utility of development aid, with some wondering just how effective such a scheme could be in a Haiti that has received around $9billion in foreign assistance in recent decades.
The aid failure
Garaudy Laguerre is head of the Institute for Advanced Political and Social Studies in Port-au-Prince. He told ISN Security Watch, “This earthquake has profoundly affected or destroyed the little state structure that existed, it has also exposed, in our view, the failure of international aid in the way it has been conducted and used in Haiti.” (more…)
Northern Ireland still troubled – ISN
January 14th, 2010
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=111287
As the Irish and UK prime ministers meet to discuss the impasse over control of police and justice in Northern Ireland, the long-running dispute is overshadowed by sex and corruption scandals, and IRA splinter groups are keeping police busy by attempting to undermine the political process and capitalize on a vacuum should the policing powers dispute not be settled.
By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
The dictum that truth is stranger than fiction was given renewed impetus by the outing of MP Iris Robinson’s affair with Kirk McCambley, now 21. She announced last month that she would be stepping down from politics as she seeks treatment for depression, and says that she attempted suicide in March 2008 after the liaison ended.
Robinson, 60, is the wife of Peter Robinson, first minister in Northern Ireland’s regional government and the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest pro-British political party in Northern Ireland.
The couple are to be investigated by Northern Ireland’s committee on standards and privileges after Iris Robinson admitted she secured £50,000 ($81,400) from two developers to help McCambley set up a restaurant business in Belfast. (more…)
For Now, Peace in Sierra Leone – ISN
December 11th, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=110478
Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war is a receding memory, but corruption and poverty need addressing to avoid any relapse
Lungi beach, running along the third-biggest natural harbour in the world at Freetown (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
By Simon Roughneen in Freetown for ISN Security Watch
The civil war in Sierra Leone was one of the most violent anywhere in the late 20th century. A death toll of around 50,000 did not tell the full story of a conflict where much of the fighting was carried out at close quarters.
Rebels were funded by diamond exports and supported by Liberian warlord-later-president Charles Taylor – who is now standing trial in The Hague at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Machetes were used to lop off hands and arms as a deterrent against voting; child soldiers were forced to kill family members; women were abducted and raped; cannibalism was a war ritual among some combatants; and foreign mercenaries dotted the land.
Then-president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared the war officially over in 2002, after the British Army intervened in 2000 to end eight years of carnage in its former colony. At one stage, despite being only around the same size as Ireland, the country hosted the world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission, with 18,000 blue berets in place.
Today, the country is at peace. A 2007 election saw a peaceful transfer of power from Kabbah’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to the party that was in power back when the war started – the All Peoples Congress (APC), led by Ernest Bai Koroma.
The president was in London recently, where he was joined by former UK prime minister Tony Blair in touting the resource-rich West African state as an investment location. Blair was made an honorary paramount chief by Freetown in acknowledgement of the UK’s intervention, which was decisive in ending the war. (more…)
Unsettling Climate Change – ISN
December 7th, 2009
The Copenhagen climate conference may be overshadowed by leaked emails showing some scientists apparently colluding to exaggerate global warming; and while the scandal does not mean that climate alarmism is unfounded, it does suggest that global warming science is less than ‘settled’.
By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
Arctic Circle designation in Norway (cc) Børge Antonsen/flickr
As world leaders gather today to discuss actions to prevent and mitigate climate change, the conference could be overshadowed by hundreds of emails and files showing prominent climate scientists expressing dismay at the fact that, contrary to predictions, global temperatures have been falling since 1998.
Sometime over the past two weeks, a hacker/whistleblower released thousands of emails and related files from the University’s Climate Reseach Unit (CRU) into cyberspace, after apparently failing at first to get these picked up by mainstream media.
Messages exchanged between scientists at the CRU and counterparts and colleagues elsewhere feature discussions in which scientists lament their inability to explain the post-1998 fall-off as a ‘travesty – internecine doubt that contrasts sharply with public statements that global warming science is ‘settled’.
CRU Director Professor Phil Jones remarked in one 1999 email that he had used “Mike’s Nature [magazine] trick” to “hide the decline” that inconveniently shows up after 1960 in one set of temperature records. In another, dated July 2005, to climatologist John Christy of the University of Alabama, Jones says: “As you know, I’m not political. If anything, I would like to see the climate change happen, so the science could be proved right, regardless of the consequences.”
Missing data
Perhaps most significantly, the CRU – which is one of a handful of key climate research centers and data collectors involved in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – claims that it has “lost” some of the raw data upon which climate projections are ultimately made (more…)
Muddy waters in Thailand’s deep south – ISN
November 24th, 2009
More shootings in Thailand’s troubled south show that no end is in sight for an often brutal insurgency, despite the army’s ‘hearts and minds’ efforts.
-By Simon Roughneen in Bangkok for ISN Security Watch
Lieutenant-General Pichet Wisaijorn, regional commander of the Thai 4th army, told reporters in Thailand’s capital on
Thai army soldiers in Bangkok (cc) Ross Websdale/flickr
18 November that “things are getting better, the number of violent incidents are down, and the traditional life of villagers in the south is returning.”
He was discussing conditions in the country’s ‘Deep South,’ the four southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia, where 90 percent of the two million-strong population are Malay Muslims. Overall, 94 percent of Thailand’s 66 million people are Buddhist.
An oft-described “murky, shadowy” insurgency and terror campaign has rolled on since 2004, with over 3,700 killings. Intermittently heavy Thai army crackdowns impinge on civil liberties, but now the military is attempting hearts and minds development projects to win over ordinary Malay-Muslim Thais.
Coming from the section head of the Thai army responsible for military operations in a region beset by five years of bombings, beheadings and gun battles, such words might be of consolation – if they rang true. Violence dipped in 2008, but has climbed back up in recent months – though how many incidents can be attributed to insurgents on the one hand, or criminals on the other, is not clear. Small arms and drug trafficking are rife in the region, and violence is not always political, according to Marc Askew, a University of Melbourne researcher based in the southern city of Pattani. (more…)
Thaksin’s Brinkmanship – ISN
November 11th, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=10945
Former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra (cc) Russian PIO/Wikipedia
Former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra landed in Cambodia yesterday, upping the ante in his quest to return home. But he may have damaged his campaign in a recent interview, with Bangkok accusing him of undermining the Thai monarchy, writes Simon Roughneen.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva will share the limelight with US President Barack Obama in Singapore later this week, with Thailand due to co-chair the first ever US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Singapore.
But with fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra arriving in Cambodia on Tuesday, after being offered a job as an “economics advisor” by Cambodian premier Hun Sen, a royal-sized row is ramping up between the two countries, and between Thailand’s divided political classes.
Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 coup and is currently in exile, fleeing graft charges. His party won the 2007 elections, but was in turn kicked out of office when a number of MPs defected to support Abhisit’s Democrat Party in late 2008. That all came after a series of violent protests, culminating in the blockade of the country’s international airports by Thaksin’s yellowshirt opponents.
In recent weeks, the telecoms billionaire has been rallying his redshirts via videolink from his Dubai redoubt, seeking a royal pardon and pushing for new elections to be held as soon as possible. (more…)
America Dips Toe in Burmese Waters – ISN
November 5th, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=109232
The US goes to Burma in advance of President Barack Obama’s ASEAN summit next week, but major progress is not expected any time soon, Simon Roughneen comments for ISN Security Watch.
A high-level US delegation visited Burma on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, meeting with Prime Minister General Thein Sein and with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Significantly, US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell did not meet Burma’s ruling strongman Sen Gen Than Shwe, who really calls the shots.
The meetings are part of the new US engagement policy with the junta, softening the isolationist stance taken by the Bush and Clinton administrations, but retaining the targeted sanctions on the ruling generals and business cronies first implemented in 1997.
However, his trip was described as “exploratory,” and dissidents outside Burma remain skeptical, with reason. In the days before the meeting the junta rounded up journalists in Rangoon and arrested some aid workers involved in Cyclone Nargis relief. (more…)
The People Nobody Wants – ISN
November 3rd, 2009
By Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch
Rohingya refugees in Nayapara camp (cc) Ruben Flamarique/Austcare/flickr
At its 15th summit held in Thailand two weeks ago, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations inaugurated the ASEAN Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission. It is the first time that the 10-state bloc has given institutional recognition to human rights.
What that means in practice is unclear. The body will merely promote human rights, and cannot sanction offenders or protect victims. With the Burmese junta nominating a representative to the 10-member commission, along with states such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which have less-than-stellar records in this area, it seems the new body is there to pay lip service rather than act decisively.
Action for sure is needed. Malaysia does not recognize refugees as a category; communist Vietnam continues to make life hard for religious groups; and the majority of Burmese struggle under a military dictatorship.
Standing out for the wrong reasons
But of all the ethnic groups in the region perhaps one stands out as suffering the most. The Rohingya are a Muslim minority in western Burma, living mainly in Rakhine State close to the border with Bangladesh. Muslims make up around 4 percent of the country’s total population, and a majority of Burmese Muslims describe themselves as ‘Rohingya.’
The Rohingya number about two million people. Approximately 800,000 remain in Burma and 200,000-400,000 in Bangladesh. An estimated half million live in the Middle East as migrant workers, with around 50,000 in Malaysia.
Some are thought to be descendants of migrants who came east from what is now India and Bangladesh during British colonial rule. Others believe the Rohingya descend from Arab traders who settled in Rakhine more than 1,000 years ago. It is impossible to say exactly who came from where and when, but the Burmese junta maintains that the Rohingya are not among the country’s 135 recognized ethnic groups.
Since 1982, Rohingya have been denied citizenship. (more…)
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – ISN
October 26th, 2009
Burmese delegate Khin Ohn Mar expresses disappointment at ASEAN leaders (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
ASEAN’s new human rights commission is a tiger with no teeth and highlights the organization’s continuing unwillingness to confront member states who thumb their nose at democracy, writes Simon Roughneen for ISN Security Watch.
By Simon Roughneen in Hua Hin, Thailand for ISN Security Watch
As current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN), Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva formally launched the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) here in Hua Hin on 23 October.
However the AICHR is toothless. Apparently it work to promote the concept of human rights, but lacks any competence to sanction member states for human rights abuses, which Abhisit acknowledged in his launch speech. He said that $200,000 was available to fund the AICHR, but added that he hoped more money from ASEAN, and beyond, would be made available. ASEAN will review the Commission’s terms of reference every five years to “further develop and strengthen the mandate and function of the body,” according to the Thai PM, who stressed that critics should not see the AICHR as “an end in itself, but a work in progress.”
The launch was overshadowed by a row between ‘civil society’ groups from the ASEAN member states, and the heads of government. At 11:30pm on last Thursday, Thai Foreign Ministry officials informed the delegates – elected at a meeting of the ASEAN People’s Forum 18-20 October – that the governments of Burma, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines had vetoed the NGOs chosen to meet the heads of government the following morning as part of the Summit proceedings in the resort city of Hua Hin. (more…)
Burma, Bangladesh Border Build-Up – ISN
October 21st, 2009
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/Security-Watch/Detail/?lng=en&id=108738
Bilateral tensions remain high as a complex maritime dispute spills over onto refugees and regional politics, Simon
Burmese troops marching during Armed Forces Day, March97 (cc) Stephen Brookes/flickr
Roughneen writes for ISN Security Watch.
Bangladesh announced on 8 October that it would ask the UN to resolve a regional maritime wrangle, which involves India, Burma and Bangladesh. Four days later, what Bangladeshi army spokespersons called “a massive military build-up,” took place on the Burmese side of the land border, and on the same day, the Burmese navy based in Arakan State stationed five warships close to the disputed area. A day later, the Chittagong-based Bangladeshi navy sent four warships to the disputed area in response.
Burma’s military junta had earlier protested against Bangladesh’s exploration of oil and gas in the disputed maritime zone, and warned against oil companies going ahead based on exploration rights granted by Dhaka.
Foley Hoag, the law firm taking the arbitration case on behalf of Bangladesh, spoke of intimidation of oil companies granted concessions by Dhaka, by Burmese naval vessels operating in the Bay of Bengal, the site of the disputed maritime zones.
However, a spokesperson for Tullow Oil – one of the oil companies mentioned in a press release by Foley Hoag – told ISN Security Watch that the company “no longer has any operations in the maritime area adjacent to Burma,” but added that a UK-based oil and gas multinational had recently been granted a new offshore block adjacent to India. The Bay is believed to contain huge undersea oil and gas reserves.
This is not the first time both countries have rattled sabers over natural resources in the Bay of Bengal. (more…)
