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News archives for the week ending 18th June 2010

Soldiers charged for killing Afghan civilians

Five soldiers accused of murdering three Afghan civilians earlier this year allegedly threw grenades at them and shot them with rifles, according to charging papers released Wednesday by Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Two of the soldiers also are accused of beating a fellow soldier who might have been an informant, while a third is accused of trying to impede the investigation by asking a colleague to erase a computer hard drive which contained evidence of the crimes.

The slayings in January, February and May come as a blow to the credibility of the U.S. military as it seeks to win over local populations in advance of a major campaign in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

Seattle Times, 16/6/10

Iraq parliament meets, for 18 minutes

Behind the Green Zone's concrete fortifications, where most Iraqis aren't allowed, the parliament actually met for less than 18 minutes in what U.S. and Iraqi officials hailed as a historic accomplishment.

Officials and analysts say that the formation of Iraq's next government, which is to rule as U.S. troop levels drop, is likely months away. The parliament members took an oath, postponed their first task -- choosing the president -- and quickly adjourned. Now, the ruling elite will probably spend weeks negotiating backroom deals to divvy up Iraq's top jobs.

Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was supposed to speak, along with the Iraqi president and the speaker of the parliament, officials said. But when Ayad Allawi, the secular Shiite whose Iraqiya bloc won the plurality in Iraq's March 7 elections, demanded time equal to Maliki's, the speeches were canceled.

Washington Post, 15/6/10

Kurds want written guarantees

Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region wants written guarantees from Iraq's main political leaders that key Kurdish issues, such as the region's right to oversee its oil resources, will be protected before it backs a new Iraqi government, Kurdish Prime Minister Barham Salih said Monday.

"We would like to see clear guarantees that some of the marginalization that the Kurds have suffered (in recent years) will not be repeated," Mr. Salih said, in an interview in London with The Wall Street Journal. He added that "these (guarantees) have to be written by whoever will be forming the next government."

Mr. Salih's comments come amid a political standoff that has left the Kurds in a position to play kingmaker in the formation of Iraq's next government.

Wall Street Journal, 15/6/10

Marine convicted of murdering Iraqi walks free

A marine sergeant convicted of murder in one of the biggest war crimes cases to emerge from the Iraq war was allowed to walk free by a US military judge, nearly two months after a military appeals court ruled he had an unfair trial.

The surprise decision to release Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins deals another blow to Washington's prosecution of US troops accused of killing unarmed Iraqis.

Attorneys for the government have said Hutchins led a squad of seven troops who killed a 52-year-old man in the Iraqi village of Hamdania in 2006, and then planted a shovel and AK-47 to make it appear he was an insurgent.

Hutchins had been serving an 11-year sentence. The others in his squad served less than 18 months. The US Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington ruled in April that Hutchins was not given a fair trial because his lead defence lawyer left the case shortly before his 2007 trial.

"I'm going to be the best marine I can be today," an elated Hutchins said after being released from his cell at Camp Pendleton.

Press Association, 15/6/10

Majority of world’s refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq

The continuing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq has contributed to the highest total of displaced people in the world since the mid-1990’s, as the number of refugees going back home fell to its lowest level in 20 years.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency (UNHCR) said in a report released today that the overall number of forcibly displaced people had risen to 43.3 million people.

Afghanistan, from which 2.9 million people fled in 2009, was the largest source country for refugees, while Iraq’s total of 1.8 million made it the second largest country of origin. Together, the two nations accounted for 45% of all refugees under UNHCR responsibility.

The annual report also reveals that increasing numbers of refugees are living in the urban areas of the developing world, contrary to the notion that industrialised nations are being inundated with refugees.

Developing nations accounted for 80% of refugees last year, with Pakistan, Iran and Syria housing the largest numbers. Of the 71 nations that have accepted refugees displaced by Afghanistan’s long-running conflict, Pakistan and Iran account for 96% of those fleeing.

Guardian, 15/6/10

Afghanistan’s mineral treasures

Afghanistan is appealing to the world's industrialists to share in a potential $1tn bonanza of untapped mineral wealth that western powers hope will help the impoverished country foot its own bills once foreign troops leave.

Geologists say the country has huge deposits of copper, iron and lithium – a vital ingredient for batteries that go in everything from iPhones to electric cars – as well as precious stones such as rubies and emeralds.

Wahidullah Shahrani, the Afghan mining minister, will try to sell the war-racked country as a money-making opportunity at a meeting for investors in London next week.

The scale of Afghanistan's mineral wealth has been known ever since Soviet experts surveyed the country decades ago. British and American geologists recently took up where the Russians left off and came up with a figure of $1trn for the potential value of resources that have been off limits through three decades of war.

Lorenzo Delesgues, director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, said the rewards of mining could be even higher than $1trn, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. However, he warned that there are dangers, particularly if the country continues to lack the capacity to control mining conglomerates that are financially more powerful than the Afghan state itself.

Guardian, 15/6/10

China: Yuan level not to blame for trade gap

China's Foreign Ministry says its currency policy is not to blame for the U.S. trade gap with China, rejecting renewed pressure by the United States to let its currency rise in value.

Spokesman Qin Gan said Monday China's exchange rate is not the main cause of the imbalance in trade between the countries and that the issue should not be politicized.

Qin's comments were in response to a question about a proposed U.S. law that would raise import duties and tariffs on China as punishment for Beijing's refusal to raise the value of the yuan.

Beijing has repeated on many occasions its view that excessive consumption in developed countries, and not China's currency policy, is the main cause of global economic imbalances.

Voice of America, 14/6/10

Falklands oil raises tensions

Two hundred million barrels of oil is a drop in the ocean compared to the reservoir that produced the voluminous gusher of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It is just 120 days’ worth of consumption in the UK or a mere 10 days of US consumption.

But Rockhopper Exploration’s announcement in May that it had struck oil in the North Falklands region at the first drilled well threatens a bitter-sweet drama of its own for David’s Cameron new British administration.

The strike, the first in the Falklands Basin, could, according to the British Geological Survey, prove to be the first fruits for a region that could prove to be Britain’s new “North Sea.”

Signs of an investor frenzy setting in have sent share prices rocketing. But the early find has already significantly ratcheted up tensions with Argentina – and talk of a second Falklands War.

Energy Tribune, 14/6/10

USA leaving toxic legacy in Iraq

American troops going home from Iraq after seven painful years are leaving behind a legacy that is literally toxic.

An investigation by The Times in five Iraqi provinces has found that hazardous material from US bases is being dumped locally rather than sent back to America, in clear breach of Pentagon rules.

North and west of Baghdad, engine oil is leaking from 55-gallon drums into dusty ground, open acid canisters sit within easy reach of children, and discarded batteries lie close to irrigated farmland.

BrigadierGeneral Kendall Cox, who is responsible for engineering and infrastructure in Iraq, told The Times yesterday that he was in the process of disposing of 14,500 tonnes of oil and soil contaminated with oil. “This has accumulated over seven years,” he said.

The Times, 14/6/10

Fixing the Gaza flotilla inquiry 1

An experienced politician like Benjamin Netanyahu knows that getting the outcome you want from a public inquiry is all about the right terms of reference and who you appoint to sit on the inquiry.

So, the commissions' remit does not include looking at the process of government decision making which led to Israeli commando raid. It will instead focus on questions of international law.

And the two foreign observers who have been appointed are seen as friends of Israel.

BBC News, 14/6/10

Fixing the Gaza flotilla inquiry 2

The selection of Mr. Trimble, a former leader of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionist party, was described as unfortunate by his political opponents at home.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the former leader of Ulster’s unionists recently made his personal support for Israel quite clear:

"Trimble joined the “Friends of Israel” initiative launched in Paris some two weeks ago, in which Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Dore Gold, was also involved. Gold is considered a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

The Israeli newspaper reported in 2007 that Mr. Trimble had written a report published by the Conservative Friends of Israel called “Misunderstanding Ulster,” in which he argued that although engaging the I.R.A. was an important part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, that did not mean that talks with Hamas were a good idea in the Middle East.

At the time, the newspaper quoted Mr. Trimble advising the international community to “stand firm” on Hamas.

New York Times, 14/6/10

Fixing the Gaza flotilla inquiry 3

(Brigadier General Ken Watkins is the other foreign observer on the inquiry.)

A Canadian House of Commons committee investigating what the federal government may have known about possible prisoner torture in Afghan jails ran into a brick wall Wednesday, with the military's top lawyer refusing to answer questions.

Brig.-Gen. Ken Watkins, the military judge advocate general, claimed solicitor-client privilege about whether he'd seen warnings from a diplomat in Kandahar and whether he'd received direction from the prime minister's office .

Watkins' office was copied on reports written by diplomat Richard Colvin in 2006, which laid out stark warnings about possible torture in Kandahar jails. Senior members of the Conservative cabinet say they never saw the reports. Watkins refused to say whether he -- or anyone else in his office -- saw Colvin's reports.

Watkins also refused to say whether he'd seen published annual reports from the Foreign Affairs Department that detail Afghanistan's abysmal human-rights record. At one point, Watkins wouldn't even acknowledge whether he had read newspaper accounts of torture allegations.

The Canadian Press, 5/11/2009

Obama wins only modest sanctions against Iran

Last week, after 16 months of relentless effort, President Obama finally achieved one of his major foreign policy objectives: a United Nations Security Council resolution imposing stronger economic sanctions on Iran.

But it wasn't much of a victory. The resolution wasn't unanimous, which diluted its intended message. And the sanctions themselves are modest, watered down to secure support from Russia and China.

Even Obama isn't promising much. "We know that the Iranian government will not change its behavior overnight," he said in a muted victory statement, "but [the U.N.] vote demonstrates the growing costs that will come with Iranian intransigence."

Los Angeles Times, 13/6/10

Red Cross says Gaza blockade illegal

Israel's blockade of Gaza is a clear violation of international humanitarian law, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.

In a statement, the ICRC describes the situation in Gaza as dire, saying the only sustainable solution is a lifting of the blockade. It says Israel is punishing the whole civilian population of Gaza.

The ICRC, a traditionally neutral organisation, paints a bleak picture of conditions in Gaza: hospitals short of equipment, power cuts lasting hours each day, drinking water unfit for consumption.

"The whole of Gaza's civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law," the agency said in the statement.

BBC News, 14/6/10

UN considers removing Taliban leaders from terror blacklist

The United Nations is speeding up efforts that could lead to the removal of Taliban leaders from an international terrorist blacklist, the top United Nations official here said Saturday.

At a news conference, the official, Staffan de Mistura, the secretary general’s special representative to Afghanistan, said the United Nations was responding to the call of Afghanistan’s recent consultative peace gathering, called a jirga, to de-list Taliban figures.

Since 1999, Security Council Resolution 1267 has blacklisted 142 Taliban figures as well as 360 others with ties to Al Qaeda, ordering their bank accounts seized and prohibiting them from crossing international borders.

The presence of Taliban leaders on the list has been a sticking point in efforts to start peace negotiations with them, but attempts to remove any have foundered because of opposition from Security Council members.

New York Times, 12/6/10

Karzai loses confidence in US

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is said to have lost confidence in the US led foreign forces' ability to reign in Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and is trying to strike a deal on his own with the insurgents to bring peace and stability in the war tattered country.

According to former Afghanistan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who along with Interior Minister Hanif Atmar, resigned from the post after a heated meeting with Karzai last week, the President is trying to reach out to the extremists on his own to end the decades old bloody insurgency.

During the meeting, which was called to discuss the Taliban attack on the peace 'jirga' held in Kabul last week, Karzai suggested that the attack might have been carried out by the US, as he threw out the evidence tabled before him by the intelligence chief.

Saleh and other Afghan officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, pointed out that Karzai has actually lost faith in both the US and NATO's ability to control the Taliban menace, and is trying to manage things on his own by striking a deal with the insurgents.

OneIndia, 12/6/10

Polish PM wants Afghanistan exit strategy

Poland's prime minister says he wants NATO to develop a timetable to end its mission in Afghanistan. Donald Tusk said Saturday that he plans to raise the issue at the alliance's next summit in Lisbon, Portugal, in November.

His comments came after a Polish soldier was killed earlier in the day by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Poland has some 2,600 troops there, making it the seventh largest troop contributor to NATO's mission.

Tusk said he wants NATO to work out "a possibly quick plan for ending the mission that should also be as precise as possible."

Associated Press, 12/6/10

Shia groups form political bloc

Iraq's two main Shia groups, which performed strongly in recent elections, have merged to form the biggest alliance in the new parliament. The bloc, to be called the National Alliance, brings together the prime minister's coalition with other Shia factions, including followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr. It will be just short of an absolute majority in parliament but well ahead of the rival secular-Sunni bloc.

The new parliament opens on Monday. After weeks of negotiations, the two Shia coalitions announced they were forming one bloc, and said they had notified the acting speaker of parliament.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says that both the Shia and secular-Sunni blocs will now be claiming the right to be asked to form a government. The constitution is unclear on the issue.

In any case, our correspondent says, the Shia bloc has not yet decided who it wants to nominate as prime minister. So the betting is that the first session of parliament will be declared open, and suspended indefinitely until a power-sharing deal is hammered out.

BBC News, 11/6/10

Hoon denies knowledge of hooding

Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary, insisted yesterday that he did not know until the death of Baha Mousa that British troops hooded prisoners in Iraq as standard operating procedure.

Mr Hoon told an inquiry into Mr Mousa's death: "I was clearly deeply shocked that a man had died in such circumstances at the hands of apparently British soldiers," and that the abuse he had suffered, manacled and hooded, while held by British soldiers was "appalling" and "reprehensible".

Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Mercer, the Army's senior legal officer in Iraq at the time of the invasion, had earlier told the hearing that his "very serious" concerns about the treatment of Iraqi prisoners were passed to military headquarters in the UK "and or ministers" before Mr Mousa's death.

Independent, 12/6/10

Nato route opens through Russia

Nato has opened an alternate supply route to Afghanistan though Russia and Central Asia, after its convoys moving through Pakistan faced deadly attacks from the local Taliban.

The new supply route is crucial for re-supplying the 140,000 strong Nato mission in land-locked Afghanistan. Previously, cargo was shipped to the Pakistani port of Karachi and then transported into Afghanistan.

Aljazeera, 12/6/10