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Haiti earthquake: time running out in nightmare republic – The Sunday Tribune

January 17th, 2010

http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2010/jan/17/time-runs-out-for-survivors-as-relief-operation-st/

http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jan/17/time-is-running-out-as-irish-aid-workers-struggle-/

Simon Roughneen in PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – In ‘The Comedians’, Graham Greene called Haiti the nightmare republic. For the last few days, truth has been more nighmarish than fiction, with an estimated 140,000 killed in last week’s earthquake according to the Haitian Government.

The international relief operation struggling, and time is running out for the estimated 3 million Haitians affected by the disaster – either injured, homeless, or without food and water. With only miracle rescues now possible for those still trapped alive under the rubble, the risk of disease grows by the hour.

In a land notorious for voodoo, the dust-covered corpses lying prone in the early-morning haze took on an eerie aspect, only overshadowed by the sheer scale of the tragedy that left so many dead – and dying – with medical supplies absent, and medical facilities obliterated.

And the stench – the retch-inducing waft of rotting corpses, with so many thousands still under the rubble – settled over the city, as dead as the heat marking the turn from dawn to morning.

Jean-Pierre, 26, said he had been digging for survivors, without food or water, or much of a break, for two solid days. ”We cannot keep going like this, we are trying to reach people, but they cannot last under the buildings.”

Bodies lay in rows or piled beside the streets, some being stacked as roadblocks. On Friday, Haitians began to dig mass graves to bury their dead, which include several leading politicians and the country’s leading Catholic cleric.

Chaos reigned on the streets of Port-au-Prince, with machete-wielding mobs forming road-blocks, and people looting whatever they could lay their hands on. People are visibly angry and baffled at the inability of foreign governments and major international organisations to come to their assistance quickly enough. (more…)

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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…)

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Churches Bear Brunt of Anger in Malaysia – National Catholic Register

January 13th, 2010

http://www.ncregister.com/register_exclusives/churches_bear_brunt_of_anger_in_malaysia/

BANGKOK, Thailand — Churches in Malaysia have come under attack after a court ruling permitted Christians to use

the word “Allah” in publications.

In the wake of the ruling, nine church buildings had been attacked around the country, though no injuries have been reported.

The controversy has dragged on since 2007, with Herald — the Catholic Weekly, the main Catholic newspaper in the country, challenging a government ban on Christians using the word “Allah” in Malay-language literature to refer to God.

One effect of the government ban has been that thousands of Bibles printed in nearby Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other country, have been confiscated by the Malaysian authorities because they employ the word “Allah” for God.

The government has challenged the court ruling, prompting the judiciary to issue a stay on its implementation. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited one of the vandalized churches, issuing a call for calm while reminding Malaysians that Islam forbids such attacks.

After briefing foreign diplomats on the situation Jan. 11, the Home Ministry secretary, Gen. Mahmood Adam, said, “These outrageous incidents are acts of extremism and designed to weaken our diverse communities’ shared commitment to strengthen racial unity.”

Malaysia remains somewhat anomalous for its widespread use of the word “race” to denote ethnic and religious differences among the Malay, Chinese and Indian groups that make up its 27 million people.

Despite the condemnatory words, the government’s appeal suggests that it seeks to exploit the controversy for political gain. The opposition parties have endorsed the court’s decision; in particular, Malaysia’s sole self-declared Islamist party, PAS, which is growing in size and strength and is a key opposition player, contends that Christians have Quranic sanction to say “Allah.”

The government has argued that Christian use of the word “Allah” will confuse Muslims and promote conversions from Islam, which are illegal under Malaysian law. (more…)

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The worst crime – National Catholic Register

January 11th, 2010

http://www.ncregister.com/site/article%20/the_worst_crime/

KNOCK, Ireland — In 1979, Ireland was enthralled as a visit by Pope John Paul II brought out millions at locations across the land. Out of a population of just over 3 million at the time, this massive turnout was seen as a triumphal indicator of the strength of Irish Catholicism.

When Hilaire Belloc wrote “Europe is the faith, and the faith Europe,” he may have had Ireland in mind. Catholicism has been integral to Irish national identity for hundreds of years, and to an extent unequalled in any other European country, save perhaps for Poland.

But all was far from well in the Irish Church. The Pope was welcomed onstage in Galway by Bishop Éamon Casey and Father Michael Cleary, two of Ireland’s best-known Churchmen. Years later, it was revealed that both had fathered children. Soon after the Casey scandal emerged in the early 1990s, stories began to break that some priests had sexually abused children, and as the years went on, the number of allegations rose.

Thirty years after the Pope’s visit, 2009 saw the publication of two reports that have shocked Irish people, led to the resignation of four bishops, and prompted speculation that Pope Benedict XVI will instigate a reorganization of the Irish Church in a pastoral letter scheduled for early 2010 (see related story on page 4). (more…)

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Big task for Abu Dhabi bishop – RTÉ World Report

January 10th, 2010

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0110/worldreport.html

ABU DHABI – When Irish people think of a diocese, they likely imagine a county-sized region with townland parishes

within.

Not so for Bishop Paul Hinder. He is the Pope’s representative in the heartland of Islam, in charge of a diocese encompassing six Arab countries – Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

I caught up with him at St Josephs Cathedral in the oil-wealthy city of Abu Dhabi, part of the Emirates. That same day, neighbouring Dubai launched the world’s tallest building, the 800 meter high Burj Khalifa, with the building effectively paid-for by Abu Dhabi, which is footing Dubai’s bills after spectacular property bust last year.

Bishop Hinder is more concerned about the estimated 2 million Catholics across his vast diocese. The majority are Filipino migrant workers, with an estimated 1 million or more in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and site of its holiest places. Here open Christian worship is not permitted, and priests cannot serve.

Workers also come from countries such as Ethiopia and India, and many suffer at the hands of unscrupulous agents and employers. Often they come to the region on the promise of a good job and good conditions, but on arrival their passport is taken by their new employer, or the agent who brought them from home, and they are forced to work long, almost incessant hours, with no recourse to due process. (more…)

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Karen Refugees Have a White Christmas in Ireland – The Irrawaddy

January 4th, 2010

http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=17519

CASTLEBAR, Ireland — After fleeing an army campaign of human rights abuses in eastern Burma, a group of Karen refugees celebrated a white Christmas this year in the snowbound west of Ireland.

“Every now and then, the military comes through our village and asks my mother, ‘Where is your son?’” said Po Hta. His mother tells them that he is in Thailand.

But that’s no longer true.

As a teenager, Po Hta fled Burma in 1994, spending a couple of years in Bangkok before the Thai authorities moved him to Ban Don Yang refugee camp in the north. He spent 10 years there, before being sent to Ireland in 2007 under a UN refugee resettlement program

Now he calls a friend in Bangkok every few weeks, who keeps in touch with his mother, mother and son pass information back and forth through the friend.

Po Hta, who asked that his real name not be used, is part of a group of 100 Karen refugees who resettled in Ireland two years ago. Estimated to number around 7 million of Burma’s 56 million population, with another 400,000 Karen native to Thailand, the Karen are both Christians and Buddhists. Of the six Karen who met with The Irrawaddy in Castlebar, Po Hta was the sole Buddhist.

The Karen army has fought the Burmese army on and off since the country gained independence from Great Britain in 1948 and ordinary Karens have suffered government army counter-attacks and reprisals. (more…)

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North Korean Weapons Mystery: Is Burma the Missing Link?

December 16th, 2009

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17410

The North Korean arms cargo interdicted in Bangkok seems unlikely to be bound for Burma, despite ties between

Pyongyang and the Naypyidaw military junta. Burmese junta strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe visited Sri Lanka in November, reciprocating a visit made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in June this year.

The final destination of the cache remains unclear. The crew claim that the airplane was to land in Sri Lanka to refuel, eventually to conclude its journey in the Ukraine, apparently after the cargo had been dropped off elsewhere. Sri Lankan officials denied any knowledge that the embargo-breaking flight was going to land in that country.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the plane was going to “a destination in the Middle East” to unload the weapons. Earlier this year, authorities in the United Arab Emirates seized 10 containers of North Korean arms on board a Bahamian-flagged ship. Like the Ilyushin-76 flight cargo, the manifest was listed as “oil drilling equipment.” The consignment was supposedly destined for Iran.

Other speculation surrounds a possible African destination. Sudan is also under a UN arms embargo, but acquires weapons from China and Russia among others, and has become increasingly close to states such as Iran and Burma in recent years. The latter two are thought to be key buyers in North Korea’s US $1bn per annum illicit arms bazaar, prompting speculation that a bevy of human rights violators are collaborating in an underground weapons trade.

Sudan’s deputy foreign minister visited Burma in October 2009 to discuss “beneficial cooperation on investment and energy sectors,” according to The New Light of Myanmar, a junta-backed publication based in Rangoon. Both Sudan and Burma are important sources of energy supply to China, which has fostered these links while Western competitors remain largely absent, due to international sanctions on both Khartoum and Naypyidaw. Sudan, like Burma, will stage controversial elections next year, amid speculation that oil-rich southern Sudan will later secede, a move that Khartoum is likely to resist with military force. (more…)

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Bad cops, mean streets – The Sunday Tribune – Voice of America – RTE

December 13th, 2009

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/west/decapua-sierra-leone-kids-7dec09-78673062.html

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1213/worldreport.html

http://www.tribune.ie/news/international/article/2009/dec/13/picking-up-the-pieces-of-civil-war-in-sierra-leone/

FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE – “The police stop us all the time. Sometimes they try to take money from us, sometimes they threaten to arrest us. But the usual trick is to check our handbags. They plant some drugs, then tell us to come with them to the station. The only way to get out is have sex with the policeman, otherwise we go to jail.”

Just 20 years old, Maryama* has lived on the ramshackle streets of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, for eight years.

Her father died when she was 10 – possibly from HIV-AIDS, although nobody knows for sure – leaving her mother unable to bring up their three children. This was at the height of Sierra Leone’s civil war, infamous for anti-government rebels who hacked off arms and hands to deter civilians from voting in elections.

Government-allied militias believed that their magic rendered them invisible and invulnerable in battle against the rebels who funded their war with “blood diamonds” smuggled out of the country and sold on at profit. The mainstream diamond industry and its customers turned a blind eye to the suffering caused by the fighting.

Now the country is peaceful and the diamond trade better regulated. The 2007 elections saw an orderly transfer of control to the winning party, and the economy is growing at around 5% a year. War seems a distant memory, brought to mind only by the sight of war amputees on Freetown’s bustling streets. Their arm (and sometimes leg) stumps are a physical testament to what was a notoriously vicious war, fought at close quarters with AK-47s and sharp blades. Around 50,000 people were killed, mostly non-combatants.

Starting in 1992, the fighting devastated much of the country. It ended only after British military intervention in 2000, which earned Tony Blair an honorary chieftaincy from the Freetown government. Despite a wealth of natural resources, the average per capita annual income in Sierra Leone is only US$240 per person.

Despite a wealth of natural resouces -  not only diamonds  – but bauxite and large untapped iron ore reserves, which are stoking Chinese interest, the country ranks at or near the bottom of most global indexes of poverty and corruption.

These rankings are not mere abstractions. Behind them lies a harsh and sordid reality. Poverty is part of the reason why young women like Maryama end up on the streets, and corruption makes their life even more miserable. (more…)

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Yellow vs Red to Roll On in Thailand – The Irrawaddy

December 12th, 2009

http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17387

With the red-shirted supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra taking to the streets once more in Bangkok, Thailand will close 2009 much as it did the previous year. Protests, counter-demonstrations, questions over legitimate government and a spat with Cambodia linger, meaning that the country will remain polarized and unstable for the foreseeable future.

Around 15-20,000 members of the pro-Thaksin National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) convened near Bangkok’s Democracy Monument on Thursday to listen to a video-linked message from Thaksin and to seek the dissolution of parliament and a repeal of the 2007 Constitution, drafted by the army after it ousted Thaksin in a coup in 2006.

The protesters called the Constitution undemocratic and said they want a return to the 1997 Constitution under which Thaksin won two landslide elections in 2001 and 2005.

The UDD earlier canceled a planned three-day rally out of respect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrated his 82nd birthday on Dec. 5. Thaksin had been stung by allegations of treachery for taking up a job as economic adviser to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and for an interview with the UK newspaper The Times, which the Thai government views as undermining the country’s revered monarchy.

The night before the demonstration, a fund-raising dinner was held in Bangkok for prachatai.com, a website started in 2004 to attract readers disillusioned with the mainstream Thai media. (more…)

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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

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…)

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