Culture

PAKISTAN: Talibanization Strides and Stumbles

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Fundamentalists blew up six music and video shops in the past month in northwestern Pakistan, an area bordering Afghanistan that experts say the Taliban have colonized. In Islamabad, an army of female religious students have also been attacking music and video stores, and kidnapped three women they say were running a brothel. The students also held two policemen hostage until the government released two imprisoned teachers who work at a banned seminary. A crackdown on jihad-preaching seminaries has faltered because of the religious right’s influence over the Musharraf government, which hasn’t even been able to prevent foreign students from illegally enrolling in the schools. In the North West Frontier Province, Afghan and Pakistani Talibs have established a parallel government with “Sharia courts, police forces, tax collectors and public offices,” Al-Ahram Weekly reports.

Democracy

RWANDA: Legacy of a Genocide

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Rwanda’s genocide ended 13 years ago, but some Hutus still target Tutsi survivors with “arson, stone throwing, uprooting of crops and threats,” according to a mayor who recently presided over a ceremony to bury the remains of 554 victims.
A human rights expert also says the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has failed to fulfill its mandate by neglecting to investigate Rwanda’s Tutsi president, Paul Kagame, for the killing of “hundreds of thousands” by his forces as they battled for control of the country in 1994. Western nations would rather have Kagame in power to maintain stability in the region — or so the theory goes. Andre Ntagerura and Emmanuel Bagambiki, both acquitted of charges in the genocide, remain trapped in Tanzania for fear of retribution elsewhere in Africa, and have been barred by Belgium and Holland from visiting their families there. Sources:
“‘One-sided justice’ at Rwanda genocide court, expert witness says”
Deutsche Presse Agentur, March 18, 2007
“Free Rwanda genocide suspects wait in limbo”
Deutsche Presse Agentur, March 21, 2007
“Rwanda: 554 genocide remains accorded decent burial”
The New Times (Rwanda), March 24, 2007

Democracy

INDIA: Gender Bias Drives Abortion Boom

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Up to a million Indian mothers illegally abort their female fetuses every year in India, and police are discovering the remains in toilets or gutters. Effects on the sex ratio have been dire, with 817 females to every 1,000 males in Punjab. The procedure has become a moneymaker for thousands of private doctors, who allegedly use ultrasounds to determine the sex of the child and encourage women to abort if it is a girl. Officials are trying to educate people about the issue, and gain control of private hospitals and clinics where such procedures are performed. Sources:
“Foeticide issue continues to rock Rajasthan”
Indo Asian News Service, March 23, 2007
“A cry to save the girl child”
Indo Asian News Service, March 20, 2007

Culture

Who Is Rafsanjani?

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Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s landslide election to Iran’s powerful Council of Experts was widely considered a rebuke to President Ahmadinejad, his fundamentalist backers, and his nuclear brinksmanship. But is he a gift to the West, or an ambitious politician with his own agenda for Iran and the Middle East? As Iran’s former president, Rafsanjani calls for Sunni and Shia cooperation, including stronger ties with Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. He says the United States is deliberately destabilizing the Middle East — but compared it to a “wounded tiger” that is being dangerously provoked by Ahmadinejad. He is also one of the wealthiest men in a nation that is struggling economically.

Democracy

‘Democracy’: Easy to Say, Difficult to Do

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Riots flared up and victims traded sides in Nepal, as young Maoists were first set upon by minority separatists, then teamed up with ruling party members to attack supporters of the former kingdom’s monarchy. In Egypt, parliament approved new constitutional amendments that would ban religious parties, boost government security powers, and eliminate judicial oversight of ballot boxes. The vote provoked a walkout by Islamist lawmakers, who said it would encourage dictatorship. Pakistan’s President Musharraf continues to feel the heat for his suspension of the country’s chief justice, which one analyst says results from a disdain for inclusive politics that dates back to the British Raj. Writing in Gulfnews.com, Boston University academic Husain Haqqani says that without real democratic reform, Pakistan will “continue to hurtle forward from crisis to crisis,” ultimately at Musharraf’s — and America’s — expense.

Democracy

Muslim Discrimination, From Massachusetts to Mindanao

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Four Muslim truck drivers for FedEx in Massachusetts are suing over claims that upper management ignored racist verbal abuse and unfair work assignments. A judge has ruled that the suit can proceed because the men are employees and not independent contractors — a finding that also undermines the company’s case against a unionization bid by its 15,000 truckers. On the overwhelmingly Christian island of Mindanao in the Philippines, Muslims say they have been barred from working at malls over fears that they might be suicide bombers. Critics say this increases tensions in a province with a decades-old Islamic independence movement, where Muslims tend to be poorer, and have shorter life expectancies than average. Sources:
“Arab Americans charge harassment by FedEx”
Reuters, March 10, 2007
“Philippines: Muslims ‘banned’ from working in malls in Mindanao”
ADNKRONOS International, March 9, 2007

Culture

Outnumbered, But United, in Germany and Pakistan

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The more than three million Muslims living in Germany are on the brink of overcoming ethnic and religious differences to form a new advocacy group that would give them, for the first time ever, a “united voice,” Deutsche Welle reports. In Pakistan, one of the heartlands of Islam, Hindus are taking similar steps, forming the Sindh Minority Alliance in the face of “growing incidents of kidnapping, extortion and other torture cases,” the Times of India reports. Sources:
“German Muslims want unified voice”
Deutsche Welle, March 5, 2007
“Pakistani Hindus form party in Sindh”
The Times of India, March 5, 2007

Democracy

Putin: A Good Time to be President, but Not a Critic

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings top 70 percent, and most citizens say that they’ll vote for whomever he chooses as a successor after his last constitutional term in office. This, along with Putin’s intolerance of dissent and the ongoing, unsolved and usually fatal attacks on his critics, have cemented fears of resurgent authoritarianism. The Telegraph reports on two recent incidents: the shooting of a “vocal” critic of Putin in Maryland in an apparent robbery, and the death of a journalist in Russia after he fell from the fourth floor of his apartment building. The mayor of the Arkhangelsk, the sole contender so far in next year’s presidential elections, said that since declaring his candidacy he has come under police investigation, and expects to be jailed despite testimony in his favor. Bloomberg reports that pro-Kremlim parties are expected to sweep regional elections later this month, since the reformist Yablinko Party and the pro-business Union of Rightist Forces have both been barred.

Democracy

Uganda: A Rebellion on the Run, Crossing Borders

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Decades of conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army have taken thousands of lives in Uganda. More than two million people have been pushed from their homes, and peace talks have stalled on rebel fears that mediators are biased. Now, after being flushed out of bases in southern Sudan, the remaining LRA militants have broken the terms of a cease-fire, and are crossing the border to join forces with the Central African Republic’s local rebel militia, the Popular Army for the Restoration of Democracy. Sources:
“As peace talks stall, displaced Ugandans yearn for home”
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, February 23, 2007
“‘Ugandan rebels flee to CAR'”
South African Press Association, February 20, 2007
“Uganda: ‘A war against children”
Newsdesk.org news analysis, April 1, 2005

Culture

IRAQ: ‘Soldiers of Heaven’ Scare Wagged the Dog?

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When the governor of Najaf called on U.S. air support for an Iraqi Army attack on a heavily fortified compound, the target was originally described as an al Qaeda-affiliated Sunni group — and then later a Shia doomsday cult — that sought to massacre Shia imams and pilgrims during a religious festival. But the Institute for War & Peace Reporting now cites “security officials” who claim no attack on imams and pilgrims was planned, and quotes Najaf’s deputy governor as stating that regional Shia leaders simply wanted to eliminate a rival militant Shia sect. “Shia rivalry sparked battle of Zarqa”
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, February 15, 2007
“Rebel Muslims longed for doomsday / ‘Heaven’s Army’ battled near Najaf with high-tech arms”
Los Angeles Times, January 30, 2007