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The United Nations stands accused of marginalising water and sanitation in its much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at improving the lives of billions of people in the developing world.

But will this shortcoming be rectified at the MDG summit of world leaders scheduled to take place in New York, September 20-22?

Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), told IPS water has definitely not yet received proper attention in the draft outcome document to be adopted at the U.N. summit.

He pointed out that good management of water resources and provision of drinking water and sanitation are prerequisites for fulfilling all the different MDGs - including the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by the year 2015.

"Without water, we can never fight hunger; without toilets in schools, girls will continue to drop out before finalising their education; and without adequate sanitation and hygiene, diseases will continue to spread, resulting in increasing child mortality and bad maternal health," Berntell said.

There are far too many beds in hospitals occupied with persons suffering from water-borne diseases, he added.

"Water should therefore be recognised as one of the most important cross- cutting issues to be addressed at the summit, with the recognition that increased financing at all levels of our society is urgently needed," said Berntell whose Institute will host a major weeklong international water conference in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, Sep. 5-11.

The annual World Water Week, commemorating its 20th anniversary this year, is expected to be attended by more than 2,500 experts, practitioners, decision-makers and business innovators, who will discuss the escalating global water crisis.

The current water crisis is bigger than the crises brought on by HIV/AIDS, malaria, tsunamis, earthquakes "and all the wars put together in a given year," warns Aaron Wolf, programme director in Water Conflict Management and Transformation at the Oregon State University.

He told a recent U.N. news briefing that poverty alleviation is an explicit strategy for dealing with the insecurities of the world.

According to the United Nations, over 800 million people worldwide have no access to safe drinking water while a hefty 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation.

Serena O’Sullivan, of the London-based End Water Poverty, told IPS the international community needs to do more to meet the MDGs, and needs to do it better - including by investing in sanitation as part of a comprehensive approach to tackling poverty, hunger and ill-health.

She said sanitation, in particular, has been absolutely neglected by the international community and the MDG process. "The U.N. Summit provides a unique opportunity to act, and End Water Poverty will be there to ensure our messages are heard."

"We’ve worked with other global networks to produce a key policy briefing ‘Breaking Barriers’ which calls for a new approach in tackling the MDGs," O’Sullivan said, adding, "If we want to eradicate poverty, we simply can’t ignore water and sanitation poverty."

The evidence speaks for itself. Poorest countries lose 5.0 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to the crisis - with people spending time collecting water or suffering from diarrhoeal illnesses - thereby forcing them to keep away from work and school. It also heavily overburdens fragile health systems.

In Sub Saharan Africa, half of all hospital beds are taken up with people sick from unclean water or unsafe sanitation.

Speaking at the U.N.’s High-Level Interactive Dialogue on Water last March, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said "access to clean water and adequate sanitation are a pre-requisite for lifting people out of poverty."

She pointed out that seven out of 10 people without improved sanitation live in rural areas.

But the number of people in urban areas without improved sanitation is increasing as urban populations grow.

"Although 1.3 billion people have gained access to improved sanitation since 1990," Migiro said, "the world is likely to miss the MDG sanitation target by a billion people."

The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development.

A summit meeting of 189 world leaders in Sep. 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by the year 2015.

But their implementation has been thwarted by several factors, including the global financial and food crises, the impact of climate change and the decline in development aid by Western donors.

The upcoming MDG summit meeting is expected to take stock of the successes and failures in meeting the goals, and also find ways and means of accelerating progress toward them in the next five years, towards the 2015 deadline.

“Is it possible for migrations to promote solutions to conflicts, meetings if civilizations, dialogue among different religious experiences, and such?” The interrogative question is pronounced by none other than monsignor Agostino Marchetto, secretary for the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral for Migrants and Itinerants, in Bogotà at a conferences destined to overthrow the simplifications and clichés surrounding the concept of security. And of course, in typical fashion, Marchetto had an answer for it is the very title of the event: a Forum on migration and peace. Marchetto launches his rhetoric from the new realities of societies evolving along the co-existence of multiple identities, fruit of a world in which human mobility is a structural and not an occasional phenomenon before which there is an urgency to show solidarity and help and solidarity”. Marchetto’ s perspective, of course, is pastoral and the necessary step is a commitment “to educate to overcome mentalities and actions that betray a rejection of dithers or that they reduce themselves to its exclusion, up to wider limitations of rights and liberties or unjustified incriminations against innocents who leaving on account of various reasons decide to leave their homelands in search of another country in which to install oneself.” And so we are reminded of laws that, in Europe, introduce the crime of illegality and they subordinate a valid residence permit to basic medical care, which is essential for taxpayers. Such closures contribute to widening the divide between North and South. Marchetto says that this is “a clear divide which is manifest in demographic as well as structural and economic terms, which regulates migration flows reaching such a point as to pass them off as ‘limited’ with respect to the actual potential, however, from worsening poverty, from the desire for better living standards, from the attraction that existing migrants are an excellent availability of communications”. [BO]

Since the early 1980s, the greenhouse effect and global warming have captured the attention of the scientific community, politicians, and news media all over the world. Global warming refers to the increase in the earth's surface temperature since the late 20th century and its projected continuation to the end of the 21st century.

Several reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have attributed this warming to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, particularly increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) due to human activity (fossil fuel burning).

However, there is also strong opposition to the views and positions taken by the IPCC on global warming and climate change. This debate has accelerated since the publication of several reports by the IPCC, especially after the publication of the Third and Fourth Reports (2001 and 2007).

-Global average surface temperature has increased 0.6oC ± 0.2oC since the late 19th century, and it increased at a rate of 0.17oC per decade in the last 30 years.

-Most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities, in particular emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

-If greenhouse gas emission continues, the climate models predict that the earth's temperature will continue to rise, reaching 1.4oC 5.8oC by the year 2100.

Almost all climate scientists agree with the first point, but the other two points -- the cause of global warming and model prediction of future temperature trend -- are points of great disagreement.

-A sea level rise of 9-88 centimetres by the end of the 21st century due to thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of polar ice caps and glaciers.

Atmosphere: The sun is the ultimate source for the heating of the earth's surface. On a global/annual basis, of the total solar radiation that reaches the top of the atmosphere, 49 per cent reaches the earth's surface (called insolation), 31 per cent is reflected back to space from the earth's surface and the atmosphere, and 20 per cent is absorbed by the atmosphere.

It is apparent that the atmosphere is a poor absorber of solar radiation (absorbs only 20 per cent). In fact, the earth's surface is the major source for the heating of the atmosphere.

After being heated by the insolation, the earth's surface emits radiation in long waves (4-70 micrometres), called outgoing long wave radiation. It may be noted that one micrometre is equal to one millionth of one metre.

Greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect: Now let us examine how long wave radiation from the earth's surface heats up the atmosphere. The long wave radiation emitted by the earth's surface is absorbed efficiently by the greenhouse gases, such as water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3), and methane (CH4), and thereby they contribute to the heating of the atmosphere.

This mechanism of "heat trapping" in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases is known as the greenhouse effect. Because of the greenhouse effect, the earth's global/annual average surface temperature is 15oC. Without the greenhouse effect, earth's global/annual average surface temperature would have been only 18oC.

Among the greenhouse gases, water vapour is the single largest greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (average: 2 per cent by volume), followed by carbon dioxide as a far distant second (0.0385 per cent), methane as the third (0.00017 per cent), and ozone concentration is even much smaller (0.00006 per cent).

Changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration: It is estimated that atmospheric CO2 concentration before the Industrial Revolution was 285-290 parts per million (ppm), which has been increasing since then. Measurement taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii shows that atmospheric CO2 has increased from 310 ppm in 1957 to 385 ppm in 2008.

According to the IPCC reports, if the trend continues, the atmospheric CO2 concentration may reach 450 ppm by 2050. To give the proper perspective, present-day atmospheric CO2 value of 385 ppm is nothing but 0.0385 per cent of the atmosphere by volume, and the projected value of 450 ppm by 2050 is nothing but 0.045 per cent of the atmosphere by volume.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) cycle: The atmosphere contains 750 billion metric tons of CO2, and there is a continuous exchange of CO2 between the earth's surface and the atmosphere. In the long run, the flux of CO2 from the earth's surface to the atmosphere (upward flux) is equal to its return flux from the atmosphere to the surface (downward flux).

Oceans are the largest reservoirs of CO2 (39,000 billion metric tons (BMT)), followed by soil (1,580 BMT) and vegetation (610 BMT). Oceans are also the largest sink (that is, the largest absorber) of CO2.

On a global/annual basis, the total upward flux of CO2 is 207.9 billion metric tons (BMT) per year, of which 6.3 BMT per year come from fossil fuel burning, 1.6 BMT per year are due to land-use change, 50 BMT per year come from plant respiration, 60 BMT per year come from soil respiration, and 90 BMT per year come from the oceans.

It is clear that fossil fuel burning (6.3 BMT per year) accounts for only 3.03 per cent of the total supply of CO2 from the surface to the atmosphere, and the rest of the atmospheric CO2 come from the natural sources (nearly 97 per cent).

Greenhouse effects of various greenhouse gases: It was shown earlier that water vapour is the single largest greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (2 per cent by volume) and CO2 is the far distant second greenhouse gas (0.0385 per cent). It was also shown earlier that only 3 per cent of the CO2 come from fossil fuel burning.

Among the top three greenhouse gases, water vapour absorbs in a much wider band of long wave radiation (4-8 micrometre and 12-70 micrometre bands), and CO2 absorbs in a narrow band (13-16 micrometre band), and ozone (O3) absorbs in a much smaller narrow band (9-10 micrometre).

Because water vapour is the most dominant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and because it absorbs in a much wider wave length band, water vapour has the single largest greenhouse effect among all the greenhouse gases.

Now let us examine the partial contributions of various greenhouse gases to the greenhouse effect.

Professor S. Fred Singer (Atmospheric Physicist and Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, and former Director of the US Weather Satellite Service) performed calculations to this effect.

His work entitled: "Water vapor rules the greenhouse system: A closer look at the numbers" was published in 2001, and is available on the internet. His calculations show that water vapour alone contributes 95 per cent to the greenhouse effect, and all other greenhouse gases together contribute 5 per cent to the greenhouse effect. His calculations further show that the man-made portion of carbon dioxide contributes only 0.117 per cent to the greenhouse effect.

This suggests a gross discrepancy between the scientific basis of the partial contributions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide to the greenhouse effect and IPCC claims of global warming caused by anthropogenic carbon dioxide.

The temperature of the earth was never constant. It varied in cyclical patterns, in time scales ranging from few years to hundreds of thousands of years. The earth's temperature for the past 1,000 years was reconstructed on the basis of historical records and several proxy data (ice core data, tree ring analysis, pollen analysis).

According to Professor Jorgen Peder Steffensen of the University of Copenhagen, the earth's temperature reached the lowest point during the Little Ice Age in the last 8,000 years of earth's history.

Earth's temperature during the Medieval Period was about 1.5oC warmer than the present-day temperature. Scandinavian Vikings settled in Greenland during this warm period, where they grew crops and raised animals. That is how Greenland got its name.

When the climate changed for the worse during the Little Ice Age, the Vikings left Greenland, and moved farther to the west -- to North America. It may be pointed out that the Medieval Warm Period prevailed when coal burning was almost non-existent. So, anthropogenic CO2 due to fossil fuel burning is not responsible for the warmer climate during the Warm Medieval Period.

Large-scale coal burning began with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Despite increasing uses of coal since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, climate changed from Medieval Warm Period to the cold Little Ice Age (1400-1900). This cyclical change in climate is attributed to the natural cycle of the earth's climate.

Although IPCC claims that fossil fuel burning is the cause of global warming, the opponents argue otherwise, on many accounts.

First, the climate system consists of many interactive components such as the lithosphere (sphere of rocks), hydrosphere (sphere of water), cryosphere (sphere of ice), biosphere (sphere of living organisms), and atmosphere (sphere of air). Within each of these components there are sub-components (or sub-systems).

For example, the lithosphere contains mountains, hills, lakes, plateaus, forests, grasslands, desert, etc. There are also sub-systems in other components of the climate system. However, the nature and behaviour of the individual components of the climate system, and their interactive relationships are not fully known.

There are also other factors that affect global climate on short time-scales, from few years to few hundred years:

-Observations show that earth's temperature anomaly trend from 1860 to 2000 corresponds much better to the 11-year sunspot cycle than to the CO2 anomaly.

-There has been a rapid growth in the number and size of urban areas around the world since the 1970s. Because urban areas are much warmer than surrounding open/rural areas, and because almost all the weather stations are located in the cities, rapid growth in urbanisation since the 1970s has created a bias toward warmer temperatures.

-Occasional major volcanic eruptions causes earth's temperature to drop 0.5- 1oC in the next 2-3 years.

-Deep ocean conveyer belt circulation which has a periodicity of 200-500 years in the Atlantic Ocean, and 1,000-1,200 years in the Pacific Ocean. It may be noted that we have little understanding of how deep ocean circulation affects climate.

Using tree ring data, Dr. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, a leading scientist of the IPCC, reconstructed earth's temperature anomaly for the period from 1000 to 2000 AD, plotted as deviation from the 1961-1990 mean value.

Because this graph has the appearance of an ice hockey stick, this graph is referred to as the "Hockey Stick Graph."

The Hockey Stick Graph appeared so dramatic and so convincing that IPCC replaced the graph they had been using until 2000 with the Hockey Stick Graph in its Third and Fourth Reports (2001 and 2007, respectively). Since then the Hockey Stick Graph has cropped up all over the place. Al Gore also used the Hockey Stick Graph in his movie "An Inconvenient Truth."

-Earth's past temperatures were below normal from 1000 AD to the 1970s (for a duration of about 970 years).

-The long-accepted Medieval Warm Period (950-1350) was also shown as colder than normal.

Later on it was found that the Hockey Stick Graph was drawn on the basis of a very small sample of tree ring data (10 out of 65 samples), and by data manipulation and statistical exaggeration.

The Hockey Stick is only possible because the sample size was reduced from 65 samples to 10 samples, picked up selectively to make the graph very convincing that human activity is the cause of global warming.

When a different set of 34 samples is used, the hockey stick disappears. That is why UN pulled the Hockey Stick Graph from the 2009 UN Climate Report -- prior to the Copenhagen conference.

Instrumental observations of the earth's temperature began in 1875, near the end of the Little Ice Age. Based on instrumental data, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reconstructed earth's temperature anomaly from 1880 to 2007, plotted as deviation from the 1901-2000 mean value.

This calculation shows a generally increasing trend since the late 19th century, which is quite natural because earth's temperature has been bouncing back from the cold Little Ice Age.

It was mentioned earlier that there are many interactive components in the climate system that affect the earth's climate. However, the nature and behaviour of the individual components of the climate system, and their interactive relationships are not fully known. In fact, the climate science is still in its infancy.

Despite IPCC claims of "scientific consensus" and "mainstream support," tens of thousands of scientists oppose the IPCC claims of global warming and its prediction of future temperature increase.

In fact, more than 31,000 US scientists, including 9,000 Ph Ds, signed a petition opposing the IPCC view on global warming and climate change. There are also opponents of the IPCC in other parts of the world. Some of the opposing views are given below.

Professor Jorgen Peder Steffensen of the University of Copenhagen pointed out that instrumental measurement of temperature began in 1875, near the end of the Little Ice Age, when earth's temperature was lowest in the last 8,000 years.

Accordingly, increasing temperature since the late 19th century is nothing unusual, and it is a part of the earth's natural cycle, because earth's temperature is bouncing back from the lowest temperature during the Little Ice Age.

This view is also shared by many climate scientists. Professor Steffensen also pointed out that although earth's temperature is increasing, its present-day temperature has not yet reached the high temperature level of the Medieval Warm Period when it was 1.5oC warmer than the present-day temperature.

Professor John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville, a contributor to several IPCC reports, commented that there is neither a developing catastrophe nor the smoking gun proving that man-made carbon dioxide is to blame for the global warming.

Dr. William Grey, professor emeritus and head of the Tropical Meteorology, Colorado State University, ascribed this warming to the natural alterations in deep ocean circulations which are driven by the ocean salinity variations of which we have very little understanding. He also added that humankind has little or nothing to do with ocean temperature changes.

Dr. David Legates, associate professor of Geography and director of the Center for Climate Research, University of Delaware, and the climatology editor of the Physical Geography journal, maintains that about half of the 20th century warming occurred prior to the 1940s, and natural variability accounts for all or nearly all of the warming.

Many climate scientists have concluded that model projections of future climate change over the next 50-100 years is based on insufficiently verified climate models, and are therefore not considered reliable.

Like many meteorologists and weather forecasters, Dr. Neil Frank, former director of US National Hurricane Center, made an observation saying that the numerical models of weather forecasting cannot make accurate 5-day to 10-day weather forecasts. Then, how do we believe in 50-100 year temperature forecasts?

Dr. Richard Lindzen, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at MIT and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, concluded that we cannot confidently attribute past climate change to increased carbon dioxide, or cannot forecast what the climate will be in the future. Computer models do what they are programmed to do.

Dr. Freeman Dyson, emeritus physics professor, Princeton University, has pointed out that one can learn a lot from computer models, but cannot learn what's going to happen 10 years from now.

Observations over the last decade show that earth's temperature has not increased; yet the climate models predicted a significant increase in global temperatures for that time period. If the climate models cannot get it right for the past 10 years, how one can trust them for the next century?

Once in a while we also see statements from the IPCC and pro-global warming scientists that earth's temperature is rising faster and glaciers are melting faster than predicted. That too tells us that there is something wrong with the climate models.

A recent study done at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and UK's Hadley Centre shows a decreasing trend in global temperature since 2003. The US National Weather Service recently published a graph showing the decadal frequency of all-category hurricanes (tropical cyclones) that made landfall in the US mainland from the decade 1851 to the present decade (decade of 2001).

This graph shows inter-decadal fluctuations in the occurrences of all-category hurricanes, but does not indicate any trend. The intensity of tropical cyclone is expressed by the accumulated cyclone energy (ACE), which is a measure of the kinetic energy of a cyclone.

A study done at Florida State University on global ACE values from 1980 to 2008 shows that ACE values have been decreasing since 1994, and in fact 2008 marked the lowest global ACE value.

Although IPCC claimed that Antarctica will lose 40 per cent of its ice as early 2050, a recent study done at the Atmospheric Science Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shows that Antarctic ice cap has been fluctuating about its mean value since 1978, and has been growing since 2003.

The IPCC report of 2007 claimed that Himalayan glaciers will vanish by 2035. But according to a report published in the Discovery News magazine, May 5, 2009, the Himalayan glaciers have been growing since 1980.

This report was based on a study conducted by a team of glaciologists led by Dr. John Shroeder of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, using satellite imagery of the glaciers of the Himalayan region since 1960.

There have been quite a few dramatic events that took place since September 2009. In September 2009, UN pulled the Hockey Stick Graph from the UN Climate Report, immediately before the Copenhagen conference.

On October 19, 2009, some computer hackers leaked out thousands of documents and emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of East Anglia University. CRU is one of the IPCC centres for research on global warming and climate change. Some of the revealed documents were published in the newspapers and discussed in TV shows in the West, including UK and other European countries, US, Canada, Australia New Zealand, etc. These revelations were labelled as "ClimateGate."

These leaked documents reveal exchanges between top IPCC climate scientists in the UK and in the US. These disturbing documents revealed that they threw away raw data, and replaced them by "manufactured" data since 1980s to enhance the perception that man is causing global warming through the release of carbon dioxide (CO2). Another reason for using the manufactured data was to hide the observed temperature decline since 1980s.

These documents also revealed how the pro-global warming scientists marginalised and silenced their opponents and critics, which was done in two ways. First, the believers gained control of the main climate-profession journals. That was how they blocked the publication of papers written by the skeptics. Second, the skeptics were demonised through false labeling and false accusations.

In one of the ClimateGate revelations Dr. Kevin E. Trenberth, a lead author of the IPCC Reports lamented: "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. Our observation systems aren't able to comprehensively keep track of where all the energy is going. Consequently, we can't definitively explain why surface temperatures have gone down in the last few years. That's a travesty!"

ClimateGate documents also revealed that some US government agencies like US National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) systematically eliminated 75 per cent of the world's stations (used only 1,500 out of nearly 6,000 stations) creating a strong bias toward warmer temperatures.

The ClimateGate revelations caused some stir in the scientific community, and perhaps influenced the deliberations and outcome of the Copenhagen conference.

On December 5, 2009, a group of US physicists wrote to the American Physical Society to change its policy statement on Climate Change from "The evidence is incontrovertible: Climate change is occurring" to "Current climate models appear insufficiently reliable to properly account for natural and anthropogenic contributions to past climate change, and much less project future climate."

On the same day, the US National Academy of Sciences stated: "ClimateGate is equal to Scientific Misconduct."

Because of IPCC's erroneous projections of global temperature increase based on insufficiently verified climate models which, in turn, is based on our inadequate knowledge about the nature and interactive relationships of the climate components, IPCC's use of falsified data, data manipulation tricks, secretive activity, marginalisation and intimidation of its critics, etc and the aftermath of the ClimateGate revelations, the image of the IPCC has been tarnished tremendously -- resulting in a gross erosion of the trust and confidence in IPCC.

The much anticipated Copenhagen conference was attended by more than 15,000 representatives from 192 countries; 45,000 activists; and 5,000 journalists from around the world. Despite so much fanfare, the conference ended without much notable outcome.

At the last moment, as a face-saving device, five countries namely US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa came up with a two page long non-binding agreement, called "The Copenhagen Accord."

This accord emphasised the scientific case for keeping Earth's temperature increase to no more than 2oC, but does not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that goal. It is worth noting that among the signatories, US was the only industrial country that signed this agreement. Surprisingly, the host country Denmark did not sign this accord.

The next Climate Change Summit will be held in Mexico City in 2010, but the date is yet to be decided. Mexico City will seek to accomplish what Copenhagen failed to achieve. It will push for a binding international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by poor and rich countries by 2050 as compared to 2000 levels.

Whether that goal is achievable or not remains to be seen. It appears that, there is a push for reducing the carbon emission to the pre-Industrial level (285-290 ppm). The question is: How do we know that the Earth had its best climate during the pre-Industrial period?

Since IPCC credibility is now on a very shaky ground, future global climate change agreement will depend, in part, on what additional damaging information come out of the ClimateGate revelations before the next climate change summit, and what IPCC does to regain its reputation, credibility, and trust.

Future UN climate change policy should rely on a realistic approach in terms of growing energy needs, current energy sources and future alternative/renewable energy sources. The world's supply of fossil fuels will run out sooner or later. While the world transitions from the fossil fuels to renewable energy sources (wind, solar, fuel cells, etc.), there is need for the continued uses of the existing fossil fuels.

The US has recently adopted a new energy policy, which includes provisions for more drilling for oil and gas, use of clean coal, and nuclear energy. Energy conservation and increased energy efficiency will reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. These, together with clean fossil fuel technology will reduce carbon emissions.

However, questions arise whether renewable energy sources alone can supply the world's total energy needs, and whether there will be any inadvertent adverse environmental consequences due to the global-scale uses of renewable energy sources.

Rafique Ahmed, PhD, is Professor of Climatology, Department of Geography & Earth Science, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

With September 11 coming, the gruesome images of 9/11 will be remembered once more but nine years after one of the greatest crimes against humanity, we are failing to condemn the main culprit and, in emotional outrage, are lashing out at Islam, a religion that never advocates extremism, and protesting the construction of a mosque, forgetting the spirit of tolerance. Writes Towheed Feroze

As September comes we are not too far away from remembering the 911 terror attacks on the twin towers in the USA but this year the remembrance of the tragedy that left the world stunned in disbelief will be laced with the controversy raging currently over the proposed construction of a mosque not too far away from the devastation site, better known to the world as ground zero.

On one hand a large section of the US population has lambasted this decision though the head of the US government, president Obama, has categorically stated that the existence of a mosque not too far away from the site of the militant attack does not undermine the solemnity surrounding ground zero but sends a message of US tolerance towards Islam to the world.

Now this whole debate about whether a mosque should be allowed to open near the site of a devastation that was carried out by Muslims opens up a lot of other related issues. And, for good reason, the first of those is the whole matter of a US perspective towards Islam. The horrifying attack on the twin towers was carried out by Muslim radicals but in condemning that episode, alienating general Muslims is perhaps a mistake that grossly contravenes the much publicised US social ideology of tolerance.

In fact the mere presence of opposition to the construction of mosques show that ordinary Americans are not beyond stereotyped perceptions. The crime was carried out by a mere handful of people and their religion just happened to be Islam. But if simply for that purpose people in US decide to regard Islam, a religion of moderation, as a threat then the US stance that it wages war on terror and not on religion will come out as shallow rhetoric.

Post 9/11, the US government always maintained that it fears extremism and not Islam the religion and it was the rationale of radical breeding that the US used to invade Iraq and move into Afghanistan but now, with mass protests against the building of the mosque brings out the social sentiment in the US towards Islam out in the open.

General people are quick to associate Islam with the terror attack and therefore they feel that a mosque near the site of the tragedy would be an insult to the victims.

Interestingly, for the last nine years almost all Islamic states have denounced the 9/11 attack and a majority of Muslims in western countries have openly said that Islam does not condone extreme acts and believes in peaceful cohabitation. Strangely, such a move by a large section of Muslims, harbouring very peaceful notions about life seems to have made little impact on the impression that was struck on general Americans on September 11.

Though most Muslim countries around the globe have extended a hand of cooperation to the west to expunge all forms of radicalism, the general image of Islam is still linked to violence and extremism.

Now to look at the proposed mosque near ground zero, one also has to take a dip into human psychology which is - one has to admit - governed by emotions and experiences. The human brain is quick to form an idea and therefore, after 9/11, when the word 'Muslim terrorist' was used frequently, it was the religion that became demonised.

But the mosque debate also brings to surface many of the actions by USA that in later years spurred and instigated more radical views. The Iraq invasion was widely censured and though Bush assertively said that the main purpose was to exterminate a rogue Muslim leader with weapons of mass destruction, Iraq yielded no such weapons and as USA leaves Iraq now, the entire justification of the war comes into focus, with the world seeing no plausible reason for the invasion other than as an act aimed to stroke the ego of Bush.

It's only natural that any argument about 9/11 will open up several global political issues that will go back to the cold war era, linking world events where the role of the super powers were simply undemocratic, manipulative and downright unjust.

The cold war, which roughly ended in the early nineties after the collapse of the Soviet Union, kept the world hostage within a very selfish set of rules and these meant waging war, masterminding coup plots, toppling elected governments, fomenting social unrest for either serving communism or capitalism and it's true that much of the post nineties global politics is actually a legacy of the cold war and hence if we look at 9/11 then we will see that it has a link to grievances that go way beyond.

Be that as it may, the topic at hand is the construction of the mosque and if it's allowed to operate then the USA will be sending a strong message to the Muslim world that will say that the enemy is extremism and not Islam the religion.

At the moment thousands of common Americans are protesting the construction and one cannot blame them either because they are being governed by their emotions and if the tragedy had happened in Bangladesh then common Bangladeshis would have reacted the same way. Hypothetically speaking, imagine a Pakistani entering the martyr's cemetery in Rayerbazar; The knee jerk reaction form many would be outrage but rationally speaking, the whole of present Pakistan has nothing to do with the atrocities carried in 1971. It was the then administration in Pakistan that was guilty and so there is no reason to hate the country and its people forever.

The mosque near ground zero also has a political purpose: winning back trust of Muslims all around the world. Suffice to say that if USA wants to win its war against terror then it must have support of Muslim nations.

It's true that when it comes to accepting America, most people remember Vietnam and Iraq and therefore, the sincerity of America in matters of human rights, tolerance and diversity is often doubted. This mosque will not only reinforce the tolerance message but dispel much of that doubt.

Those who are protesting the construction perhaps don't know that among the killed in the twin tower attack were Muslims too and so, the enemy is not Islam but radicals who are using the shield of a religion to create terror.

Ground Zero will be a shrine for those who were victims of madness and their spirits should be surrounded by the positive force of religion: that force may be Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and even Islam. No religion endorses

Violence as a means to achieving something and on that plateau all faiths are same. By protesting a mosque, Islam as a religion is being opposed and since no religion espouses evil acts, in the end, without knowing, people are going against good and not bad. Perhaps, we should think not from emotion and with a little reason.

With 267 people being born every minute and 108 dying, the world's population will top 7 billion next year, according to Population Reference Bureau, a research group based in Washington.

-By 2050 Russia and Japan will be deleted from the list of 10 most populous countries and will be replaced by Congo and Ethiopia.

The population of Africa is projected to at least double by mid-century to 2.1 billion, and Asia will add an additional 1.3 billion. Bangladesh will have a population of 200 million by 2020.

While the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will continue to grow, population will shrink in most European countries, Russia, Japan and South Korea. According to another report, in the next 30 years the labour force in Germany will shrink from 41 million to 21 million, and from 23 million to 11 million in Italy.

According to the European Commission, the percentage of Europeans older than 65 will nearly double by 2050. In the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree in advanced economies, and by 2050 the ratio in the European Union will drop to 1.3 to 1.

Figures as reported in the media show that gross public social expenditure in the European Union has increased from 16% in 1980 to 21% in 2005, compared with 15.9% in the US.

In France, the figure is 31%, with state pensions making up more than 44% of the total and health care making up 30% , the highest in Europe.

In Sweden and Switzerland, 7 of 10 people work past 50, in France, only half do. The legal retirement age in France is 60, while Germany recently raised it to 67 for those born after 1963 (below 50 years).

Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Union, reported that deaths will outpace births in five years, a trend that has already occurred in Bulgaria, Latvia and Hungary.

World Population Day, observed on July 11, seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The theme of this year's World Population Day was "Everyone counts."

To be counted is to become visible. Censuses and population data play a critical role in development and humanitarian response and recovery. Reliable data makes a difference, and the key is to collect, analyse and disseminate data in a way that drives good decision making. The numbers that emerge from data collection can illuminate important trends.

This is especially important for women and young people. Data that is sorted by gender and age can foster increased responsiveness by national decision-makers to the rights and needs of women and youth and help build a more equitable and prosperous society.

Good demographic data is critical for planning schools, health systems, and public transportation, for designing policies based on future population projections, for monitoring the effectiveness of service delivery, and much more.

With quality data governments can track the trend better and make greater progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and promoting and protecting the dignity and human rights of all the people. It is reported that Bangladesh's next census will begin in March next year.

The population pressure in the developing countries will have adverse effect on:

As the population rises in South Asia, regional cooperation is imperative for addressing water management, effects of global climate change, energy, and food security.

To check the rise of population, Bangladesh needs to bolster family planning programmes through measures such as reduction of poverty, maternal care before and after child birth, easy access to family planning clinics in villages and education and motivation of male partners. Furthermore, the imams of the mosques must be employed to advocate the necessity of family planning and assert that family planning is not against Islamic precepts.

The declining rate of population in advanced economies may attract the skilled youth of Bangladesh to industrialised countries. The need for coordination and cooperation between the government and the private sector is imperative for making them skilled through establishment of technical institutes at the upazila level. Hopefully, all stakeholders will play their parts with regard to utilisation of rising population in Bangladesh.

Messages for the Pope and Catholic laity in Asia read at congress in Seoul by Bernardo Cervellera

Benedict XVI is thanked for his support. Asian Catholics are a "small flock", but they have an important mission because this continent "thirsts for the living water that only He can give." All those who bear witness in persecution are thanked in the message for Catholic laity. The contribution of Christians is necessary to Asia at this time of great economic development. Prof Thomas Han, the driving force behind the congress, becomes the new ambassador of South Korea to the Holy See.

The Congress of Asian Catholic Laity ended today in the South Korean capital with a message for Benedict XVI and one for lay Catholics in Asia. The affectionate message for the Pontiff was a response to a letter, also affectionate, the Pope had sent to the congress.

In it, the deep awareness that has developed in the last few days about the specific mission of the laity was stressed, "not only in building up their local Christian communities but also in making new pathways for the Gospel in every sector of society."

The message for Benedict XVI also underscored the inadequacy of the tasks given to the "small flock" of Asian Christians. Yet despite everything, congress participants were enthusiastic because they knew that "the peoples of Asia need Jesus Christ and his Gospel" and that this continent "thirsts for the living water that only He can give".

"Holy Father," the message said, "we live in difficult times and it seems that almost everywhere the Church faces strong headwinds and waves that prevail against her. At times, we even fear being shipwrecked. But, in these moments, we hear again those reassuring words of the Lord: "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid (Mt, 14:27)."

The message to the Catholic laity of Asia stressed the "greatness and timeliness of this mission that stems from the grace of our Baptism." Thus, "bearing witness to Jesus Christ, the universal Savior" is the "great mission", the "supreme service and greatest gift that the Church can offer to the people of Asia."

"Asia is currently undergoing unprecedented processes of growth and social transformation. Its immense population and rapid economic growth make it a significant epicenter at the international level. Nevertheless, it faces serious problems regarding the promotion of freedom, justice, solidarity and the development of more humane living conditions. In light of this, we are convinced that the unique Christian contribution could be essential towards the resolution of these problems for the good of our people."

The message is full of gratitude for "those who bear courageous witness to their faith in civil societies where the religious freedom of the individual is either denied or restricted, or those who suffer hostility from religious fundamentalists, or those who because of their faith, are threatened and persecuted by government authorities.

It is also full of enthusiasm. "How true, also for our times and continent is the maxim of Tertullian: "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church!"

It goes further. "Take courage friends!" it said. "The Risen Christ has won for us the final victory! Evil no longer has the final word. Love has proved itself stronger than death, hatred, indifference! The power of the God's grace strengthens our weakness."

The message to Asian Catholic laity was read by Prof Thomas Han, who was the driving force and organiser of the congress. At the end of the acknowledgements, Card Stanislaw Rylko said that Prof Han, who is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, was going to be the new ambassador of South Korea to the Holy See.

A day dedicated to martyrdom and persecution of the Churches of Asia in present times. The vitality of the community is precisely a result of this testimony to the spilling of blood. Violations of religious freedom are an attempt to oppress not only faith, but society. An "overdevelopment" without God leads to a "moral underdevelopment," which is the enemy of true human development. The cases of China, India, Vietnam. Support for the persecuted communities.

The Congress of Catholic laity in Asia today dedicated the entire day to martyrs and religious freedom. The Asian churches are those that have counted the greatest number of martyrs throughout history, with periods of persecution that lasted entire centuries. Even today, the persecution and violations of religious freedom profoundly mark the life of Christian communities in Asia. The commitment to religious freedom and solidarity towards the persecuted communities is the mission of the whole Church and especially the laity. The theme of martyrdom and religious freedom was addressed this morning by the director of AsiaNews, Fr Bernardo Cervellera, with an intervention entitled "Courageous witness of faith." It was followed by a deep debate, in which so many experiences of prayer, and support for persecuted communities in India, China, Sri Lanka, North Korea emerged. The situation in neighbouring North Korea is deeply felt by local Catholics, who try in every way to alleviate the hardships and press for glimpses of freedom in the Northern regime. A priest calls for Korean Martyrs' Day - the fathers of the faith of this region - that is celebrated in South Korea in September, also be the day for the martyrs of North Korea, those of today. Catholics define Korea, "the land of martyrs, those of yesterday and those of today". In the afternoon, all participants in the congress visited the shrine of the martyrs erected on the place of their martyrdom (Jeoldusan, the hill of beheadings) and celebrate Mass in honour of the Korean martyrs. Below the intervention of the Director of AsiaNews.

I would like to express my gratitude for having been invited to take part in this Congress. My thanks to the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the Korean Bishops' Conference, to all of you lay representatives of the Asian Churches, Churches that are among the most heroic and vibrant in the universal Church.

Allow me to also express my gratitude to those who are the fathers of the faith here in Korea and who, thanks to the universality of the Church, I can also define as "my" fathers in faith.

We have just celebrated the 400th anniversary of the death of an Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, who brought the Gospel to China, creating a strong cultural and religious bridge between East and West. Unfortunately, during the celebrations for Matteo Ricci, it was not sufficiently emphasized that the Gospel spread to Korea through laity who had read a text written by him in Chinese, and hence the evangelization of Korea. Very soon, persecution arose and the first Korean baptized, Peter Yi Sung-hun, the son of a dignitary, was killed for the faith in 1801, along with many of his companions.

Our faith today, this very conference, owes its existence to the testimony of these our fathers in faith.

Peter Yi Sung-hun was baptized in 1784. During those same years, in Austria the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed the Solemn Vespers of the Confessor, one of the high points in sacred music by Mozart and perhaps in history.

This work encompasses the entire spectrum of expressions of the confession of faith: the dramatic promise of the Messiah's victory over his enemies (Dixit Dominus - Ps 108); the resolve of the man who fears God whose mercy, compassion and justice is spread among the poor and society (Beatus Vir, Ps. 111), to the airy sweetness of the "Laudate Dominum" (PS 116), which embraces all peoples of the earth in the victory of Peace and Truth.

Then comes the robust Magnificat, which thrusts the humble servant Mary and all humble into the light with triumphant sounds that are a contrast between loud and soft, a harmony of bass and treble that unites heaven and earth.

It is curious that still today no-one knows to which confessor these Solemn Vespers are dedicated. I think they can be rightly applied primarily to Peter Yi Sung-hun, a contemporary of Mozart - although unknown - and then to all the martyrs, the renowned and the unheard of, whom John Paul II defined "unknown soldiers of the great cause of God".

In the encyclical he wrote in preparation for the Jubilee of 2000, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, he says: "At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs. The persecutions of believers -priests, Religious and laity-has caused a great sowing of martyrdom in different parts of the world. The witness to Christ borne even to the shedding of blood has become a common inheritance of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants... In our own century the martyrs have returned, many of them nameless, "unknown soldiers" as it were of God's great cause. As far as possible, their witness should not be lost to the Church"(N.37).

Martyrdom is a blessing for Churches. "The blood of martyrs, says Tertullian, is the seed of new Christians". In our communities we never really fully appreciate how much we are in debt to the martyr, even for the conversions that his death inspires. In China, due to persecution and martyrdom of many Christians, university students, intellectuals wonder if Christianity is not exactly what China needs to establish a society based on respect for the inalienable human rights of the individual. And in the new China of savage capitalism, many professionals are wondering what is so important in Christianity that it defeats love of money, wellbeing, tranquillity, that pushes ordinary people to give their lives for Christ.

It is worth mentioning that "thanks" to the communist persecution Catholics have more than quadrupled in the last 60 years. In 1949 there were only 3 million, today, official and underground Catholics are more than 12 million and there are tens of thousands of newly baptized (adults) each year.

Martyrdom is a also blessing for society: the fact that in the many hells of the world there are people who give their lives for the love of Christ and man, reconciling and forgiving, gives us a chance to see the earth not as an apocalyptic place, doomed to destruction and violence, but a place predisposed to hope.

With great pastoral sensitivity on November 24, 2008 the bishops of Japan beatified the 188 martyrs of Nagasaki. One of my PIME confreres, a missionary in Japan, said at the time: "People in Japan are searching for strong values. They are faced every day with painful problems such as suicide, juvenile delinquency, the disintegration of families, the economic crisis ... All these things are destroying their old securities and this leads them to search for values that are more durable and demanding. People are really looking for God. The beatification of the martyrs may suggest an answer to this desire for truth for life. "

Not all Christians are called to martyrdom. The theologian Hans Urs von Bathasar said there are two types of martyrs: there are those who give blood once and for all, and those who give their blood drop by drop, by the daily witness of their faith and the transformation of their lives. This second type of martyrdom is also a blessing for the Church and society.

In a reflection of August 11th , Pope Benedict XVI explained that martyrdom is based on the invitation of Jesus to his disciples to "take up his cross daily and follow the path of total love for God and humanity" . The martyr therefore expresses a total love of God, which "enriches" and "enhances" his freedom: "The martyr - he said - is a supremely free person, free from the power of the world".

Of course, Benedict XVI stated, not all are called to martyrdom, " but none of us are excluded from the divine call to holiness, to live our Christian life to high standards and that means taking the cross upon ourselves every day".

He concluded: " Everyone, especially in our time when individualism and selfishness seem to prevail, must make our first and fundamental commitment that of growing every day in a greater love for God and for mankind, to transform our lives and in doing so transform our world.i].

To enable the faith and Christians to transform the world there is, however, one condition: religious freedom is necessary, a human right that is still struggling to establish itself in Asia.

Religious freedom - and this is true also for the UN - implies the freedom to practice or not practice a faith, freedom to associate with people of the same faith, to travel, to be led by teachers of one's chosen faith, to change religion according to one's own personal search for truth.

Freedom of religion is not only one right among others. It is a kind of synthesis of all human rights. As John Paul II and Benedict XVI have always stated, religious freedom is the foundation of all rights[ii], the litmus test[iii] that checks whether there is real freedom in a society.

Suffocating religious freedom also means suffocating civil liberties group. Religious freedom actually entails the freedom to publicly profess and express the reasons for one's belief (freedom of conscience); freedom to spread one's faith by voice, writing, film and other media (freedom of speech and press); freedom to meet members of one's community at home and abroad (freedom of association). Limitations on religious freedom in fact limits the civil liberties of speech, press, publication and dissemination, of association, of movement.

Asia, this continent which is by now a protagonist in the global economy and international politics, still presents far too many imbalances and violations of religious freedom.

In 2008, Aid to the Church in Need published the "2008 Report on Religious Freedom in the World". AsiaNews has for some time now collaborated in drafting the Asian section of this report. From this, one can clearly see that violations of religious freedom largely take place on the continent of Asia. In a list of 13 countries where there are "serious limitations to religious freedom", 10 are Asian: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, China, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and North Korea. African nations such as Nigeria and Sudan keep them company, along with Cuba

And that is not all: 15 other Asian countries are among those where there are "restrictions on religious freedom". Again, all over the rest of the world there are only nine.

These violations come in a variety of forms: ranging from Saudi Arabia which, in declaring itself "entirely" Islamic, continues to prohibit any public expression of faith that is not Islamic (carrying a Bible, wearing a crucifix, a rosary, a pendant of Buddha, praying in public, having a meeting place) to Bhutan, where non-Buddhist missionaries are prevented from entering, where the building of non-Buddhist places of worship is restricted or not permitted, where all citizens must wear clothes of the Ngalop ethnicity, which is mostly Buddhist, in public offices, monasteries, schools and during official ceremonies.

From Myanmar, and the bloody suppression of Buddhist monks, to North Korea, where the practise of any faith is forbidden still there is no trace of a single priest or monk, in all likelihood killed in the past decades. According to testimonies collected by the few Christians who practice their faith in secret, after the division of the Korean peninsula, 300 thousand Christians were massacred in the North.

And then there is India, infamous for the anti-Christian pogroms in Orissa, and China, with the systematic oppression of Churches, Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uyghurs, with priests and pastors in prison; and even the tourist paradise of the Maldives where the Constitution reserves all political judicial and administrative offices to Muslims, where the government applies Sharia, and prohibits any public display of other religions.

Currently, out of more than 52 Asian countries, at least 32 in some way limit the mission of religions: Islamic countries (from the Middle East to Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia) make it difficult for those who want to convert to a religion other than Islam but also create problems and violence for Muslim minority groups. We only have to look at Pakistan, home to sporadic violence by Sunnis against Shiites and against the Ahmadi minority.

Even in India and Sri Lanka there is an increasingly insistent lobby for anti-conversion laws. In India, indeed, there are five states that include it in their legislative body.

Central Asian countries limit religious freedom: just look how they treat groups linked to the Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants and even some Islamic groups are not guaranteed by these States.

The communist countries (China, Laos, Vietnam, North Korea) suffocate or even persecute the Catholic Church, Protestant domestic churches, Buddhism, all religions.

Violence against religious freedom is first and foremost an attack on people. But it is also an attack against society and the social and economic progress of a country. Whoever oppresses or stifles religious freedom in fact chooses to keep his or her people in a state of underdevelopment.

The pogrom against Christians in Orissa in 2008-2009 had as its slogan: "Kill the Christians, destroy their institutions". In eliminating religious freedom it is not enough to suppress people, you must also seek to destroy the institutions: hospitals, community centres and schools in particular.

The destruction of schools (or gagging them) is an element of persecution that is almost a trend: in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia (even universities - in the Moluccas), Nepal, India, Pakistan. In this case not only do they want to stifle the faith of a community (which perhaps through education would communicate their faith to the younger generation) they also want to destroy the possible social influence of the religion, particularly Christianity.

School means the end of illiteracy, it means learning a trade, obtaining a degree, education, career, social transformation. Therefore schools are destroyed not only to kill a faith, but also to impoverish, to frustrate the people, to smother social perspectives.

Hindus who fight against the Protestant and Catholic schools want to keep the outcastes in a slave like status under their dominion, Muslims (in cahoots with the army) that burn the University of Ambon do not want Christians to find work or the Moluccas to fall prey to external influences.

In China, the government said OK to private schools. But then imposed a veto: no religiously motivated schools. Other schools teach techniques, careers, productions, but no freedom. The regimes are increasingly seeking slaves, not interlocutors.

Hong Kong Catholic schools are recognized by all as having the best quality, modern and far-reaching education. Yet Beijing is doing everything it can, to close them down or gain control of them.

A few months ago a news report spoke of a bus of 50 young Christians targeted in an attack in northern Iraq[iv]. The students "were travelling by bus from the University of Mosul, despite the constant threats under which they live," said Nissan Karoumi, Mayor of Hamdaniya. The university has been in the crosshairs of Islamic extremist groups fighting for the conversion of young students for over five years. Often leaflets circulate in the universities that promise to "kill every Iraqi girl who does not wear a veil" and threatening to kill anyone wearing "Western" clothes.

In Iraq, the persecution of Christians goes hand in hand with eliminating Iraqi intelligentsia. Sunni and Shia violence is in fact targeting the intellectuals and university professors, physicists, engineers, journalists, so-called moderate Muslims who are opening dialogue with other cultures, and are likely to "pollute" the purity of Islamic fundamentalism. From this point of view, the killing, kidnapping, of intellectuals and scientists in Iraq is impoverishing the nation and condemning its people to underdevelopment more than the war and insecurity.

In Islamic countries, governments support the fundamentalist Islamic schools is laying the foundations for the Islamic terrorists of tomorrow (Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan), instead of supporting the freedom of education and giving space to different religions.

Our conclusion is that the power that stifles religious freedom, lays the foundations for the destruction of society. In Muslim countries because there will be a growth of fundamentalism. In atheist countries, because the lack of religious freedom creates an increasingly intense social conflict. Without human dignity guaranteed by the religious dimension and without social solidarity, technical progress creates injustice, division and conflict. Think about what happens in China. According to figures from the Ministry of Security of China, last year there were over 100 thousand "mass incidents", in other words, clashes between police, army and population, with deaths on both sides.

It could be argued that China, India, Maldives, Vietnam, although they stifle religious freedom, they are now highly developing countries. In reality, violence against religions is a sign of a profound imbalance present in their society, which undermines the "human quality" of this development.

Let us analyze for example the price paid by China for this development: death in its mines; unemployment, pensioners without help, families without health care and schools, migrants who work like slaves, desperate and suicidal young people, capital punishment; corruption.

Added to this the enormous ecological and agricultural problems created by this savage and "not religious" development, disrespectful of God, nature and man. According to official figures 90% of rivers and lakes are polluted in China. Over 320 million peasants have no sources of drinking water and 190 million drink contaminated water, which is also used to irrigate the fields. Among them there are high rates of cancer patients. According to government experts pollution problems cost the country between 8 and 13% of Gross Domestic Product[v]. Even literacy, pride of Mao, has become a luxury item, at least 80% of the children of peasants leave school to go work in cities as desperate migrants. As you know the fast and chaotic economic development is creating a storm of protest that is sweeping through Hunan, Guangdong, Henan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Shaanxi with dozens of deaths and arrests. According to the Communist Party itself, social injustice - the result of unbalanced development - is now the greatest danger to the stability of China.

The case of Vietnam is also significant: here religious persecution is linked to an attempt to eliminate or at least marginalize minority groups of the so-called Montagnards, the mountain tribes, which are denied not only the expression of their faith, but also the minimum services to aid their development: schools, healthcare, roads, land, homes. The faster the pace of industrial and economic development in Vietnam, the faster it expropriates houses, churches, lands in the name of the party, only to be pocketed by some local leader as private property to be resold on the housing market. This is also happening with the probable complicity of those Western companies that are investing in Vietnam, transferring their production chains to this wonderful country famed for its natural beauty and capacity for production.

These imbalances and inequities are created by the lack of religious freedom, the marginalization of the religious dimension in society.

It is worth mentioning here as Benedict XVI said in his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate: "God is the guarantor of the true development of man," because, "the deliberate promotion of religious indifference or practical atheism on the part of many countries obstructs the requirements for the genuine development of peoples, depriving them of spiritual and human resources ". And again: " When the State promotes, teaches, or actually imposes forms of practical atheism, it deprives its citizens of the moral and spiritual strength that is indispensable for attaining integral human development and it impedes them from moving forward with renewed dynamism as they strive to offer a more generous human response to divine love". Without religious freedom, the "super growth" of many Asian countries, remains plagued by "underdevelopment" which damages "authentic development"[vi].

I think I can say that violations of religious freedom are increasingly motivated by power and contempt for the human and social development of mankind. In the past it was much more common to find motives of fanatic fundamentalism that wanted to annihilate other confessional communities; the rejection of religions (like Christianity) connected to a colonial past, the Marxist ideological motivations, which wanted to destroy religion as the "opiate of the people" . Now it is clear that even in communist countries the struggle against religions is a struggle against freedom, to save the power and business affairs of the party oligarchy.

Even the persecution in India, although with a strong dose of Hindu religious fundamentalism, is motivated by interests of political parties and land-owners to keep enslaved tribals and Dalits who convert to Christianity and open to a new social and economic emancipation of their lives.

From this point of view muzzling religion means muzzling the voices that speak of freedom of expression, justice against corruption, development and dignity. The forces of power which struggle against religious freedom want to keep their countries closed, locked, without economic development, to preserve their monopolies and interests.

It must also be said that there is less and less interest on the part of world governments in the issue of religious freedom. Globalization has made worldwide civil society more cohesive, but it has also made governments subservient to the economy. And I fear that with the global recession we are seeing, this neglect will become increasingly abysmal.

It is true that in the world there are parts of civil society, who take to heart this or that situation, inform, demonstrate, support, sympathize. These links and these relationships that are created against the prevailing trend - against indifference and blind mercantilism - are also seeds of hope for the world.

Christians must contribute to this by offering the testimony of a commitment to the dignity of man, made in the image of God and loved by Jesus Christ. All this is a duty that comes from our mission.

I end with the words of Benedict XVI, from his encyclical "Deus caritas est", quoted in abundance in his Letter to Chinese Catholics. What our Holy Father says can be applied to all of us, Asians and Europeans, East and West: "The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply ".

1. First of all, we should inform and be informed on the repression of religious freedom. AsiaNews the agency for whom I work has made the information on religious freedom one of its pillars. And this is not for the love to have a journalistic scoop. Our world is moved only for its own interest: the arrest of a bishop, the killing of a Christian is not an important news, unless you are able to take advantage of this for your own political interest. It is important to inform so that we may share the sufferings of our brothers and sisters.An underground Chinese bishop is arrested continuously and confined for months, to oblige him to denounce the bond with the Pope. Few weeks ago he was freed and thanked me and AsiaNews for our work, because we are the voice of his voiceless silence and in his seclusion he perceives the communion with the universal Church.

2. We have to pray for those who are persecuted. In Italy some of my friends have started to pray the rosary of the martyrs for some months already. Every mystery is dedicated to a situation or person. This prayer, they say, serves to give courage in their daily life: the martyrs become the measure of our dedication to Christ.In this way, the prayer can burn our meanness, our bourgeois lifestyle, our small conflicts between priests and laity. Praying for the persecuted is also a way of overcoming our own local boundaries, embracing the borders of the universal Church.

3.We must serve the persecuted Church, visiting, sustaining it, as it is written in the letter to the Hebrews: "Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body" (13,3). I can say that my priestly vocation was born due to the example given to me by many persecuted Christians in eastern Europe and China.

Committing oneself to defend religious freedom also means to defend the beauty of Christianity even in moments of darkness. Two days ago the choir of the school children of Incheon continued to sing Gloria with all the lights, but also in the darkness, with the dim light of the torch. I believe that this is the symbol of the Church in Asia: to know how to sing the beauty of God and the world even through the periods of darkness.

[i] Ref. AsiaNews.it 24/11/2008 [In Japan 188 martyrs to quench the thirst for God]

[ii] Ref. Benedict XVI, address to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See 7th January 2008, n.11: "Even religious freedom, "an essential requirement of the dignity of every person [and] a cornerstone of the structure of human rights" is often undermined. There are many places where this right cannot be fully exercised. The Holy See defends it, demands that it be universally respected, and views with concern discrimination against Christians and against the followers of other religions"

[iii] Ref. John Paul II, address to participants in the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE, 10 October 2003, n.1

[iv] Ref. AsiaNews.it 03/05/2010, Car bomb targets Christian student's bus near Mosul

[v] Ref AsiaNews.it 14/03/2007 In Yixing 80,000 people are without water for a month

Investing in church structures must not stifle the testimony in work, family, politics. The specific mission of the laity is to be in contact with the world and with non-Christians. The teaching of Ratzinger. The testimony of Mgr. Dao and Jess Estanislao, a former member of the Philippine government.

Lay Catholics in Asia have been likened to a "sleeping giant", held back by too many commitments within the clerical structures. It is now time to awaken them to their specific mission, which is to live in the world like a leaven, transforming it, showing the diversity of their life of faith so as to arouse admiration and questions in those who are non-believers . This is a summary of the contents of discussions and conversations held today, the second day of the Congress of Asian Catholic laity here in Seoul which has stressed the present moment as one of transition to an all encompassing lay mission, in family life, the workplace, media in politics.

An authoritative support for this thrust towards the world was founding the intervention of Mgr. Josef Clemens, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Thanks to his personal experience as a close collaborator of Josef Ratzinger until his election as Pope (he was his personal secretary), Mgr. Clemens highlighted many of Ratzinger's interventions in defense of a lay commitment "not in church structures, but as leaders in society", in contact with the world

He also outlined the continuing relevance of the Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici asking for its implementation, 22 years on from its promulgation.

But the contributions that have aroused most interest were those of the first two Asians to speak to the Congress.

The first, Mgr. Dao Dinh Duc, a professor at the Seminary in Xuan Loc (Vietnam) emphasized that any commitment of the Church that does not include the mission ad gentes (to non-Christians) is not a true ecclesial commitment. This commitment is borne mainly by lay people, who live in daily contact with the world. What is to be feared, he said, is to have lay people who "are only in the structures of the Church and are insignificant in society".

The mission in the world should not rely on abused slogans, but tend to enliven the faith in culture. For this, he added, it is not enough to "serve the poor": we must ensure that the Gospel reaches "even the rich, the powerful, the intellectuals, policy makers, university students because the fate of the poor also depends on them."

The second person, the first Asian layman to make an address, was Jess Estanislao, who was actively involved in the world of politics, as a member of the Philippine government and former entrepreneur. A member of Opus Dei, Estanislao presented the scope of lay mission: professionalism and perfection in the workplace, commitment to family and life (he still battles alongside the Filipino Church against the law to control population that the government in Manila would like to see approved); freedom and personal responsibility in social decisions, fighting so that priests do not engage directly in political life, friendship with all; cultivating friends in the media. In this regard, as an example, he spoke of how important it is to maintain good relations with the authors of the television soap operas in the Philippines, full of sex, ambiguity and ignorance towards Christianity. "Only through these friendships - he said - can we help these authors to change their work and fill it with new values."

Every intervention stressed the importance of formation of the laity, placing of value on study and understanding of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.

Among the signs of a "new approach" in the commitment of the laity, Mgr. Martinus Situmorang, bishop of Padang (Indonesia), cited two instances: a rural school in his diocese, founded by the laity without any "cue" from priests, the commitment of a Christian businessman who wants to structure his mines giving a better and more dignified life for its miners.

The first morning of the Congress was marked by a strong typhoon that passed off the coast of Seoul, which caused high winds and rain, but did not stop the work.

The intervention of the card. Rilke, Fr Felipe Gomes of Manila and Cardinal. Toppo. Rediscovering baptism for the challenges of Asia: globalization, poverty, violation of human rights, relativism and fundamentalism. The continent has seen many waves of evangelization, but also many persecutions. The history of successful conversion of tribals. The song in the light and dark.

Lay Catholics in Asia are a "creative minority" and have a decisive role in the present and the future of the continent. This was the message stressed by card. Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity to members of the Asian churches attending a Congress that opened today in Seoul on the theme "Proclaiming Jesus Christ in Asia today."

About 400 lay people from 20 countries in Asia (excluding Middle East) gathered in an ultra-modern conference hall, flanking the Myongdong Cathedral: faithful from the young churches of Central Asia and Mongolia, the older Churches of India or Korea; the poor Churches such as Nepal and Pakistan, the modern and wealthy churches, such as that of Japan.

The only communities that have not responded to the Pontifical Council's invitation are those of mainland China (but there are some from Hong Kong and Taiwan), Cambodia and Bangladesh, and of course North Korea, oppressed by a ruthless dictatorship.

From now until September 5, there will be a multitude of interventions and discussions all measures aimed at the lay missionaries of this continent that is now in the limelight as a leader in the economic, social and political world.

Card. Rylko delivered an overview of the situation, as well as the challenges that present themselves to the witness of Christians. Asia is the continent which covers two thirds of humanity and is perhaps the area in which globalization and the economy are rapidly, and at times even violently, growing. But this rampant development is also the bearer of huge social problems: extreme poverty in many areas and human rights abuses. Because of this wild modernization which penetrates and disrupts many traditions and religions, the continent is also witnessing a growth in fundamentalism (Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, ...), while in cities a way of life dictated by commercial materialism and relativism spreads.

Card. Rylko and all of today's speakers also stressed the minority that the Catholic Church represents in Asia: only 120 million believers out of a population of about 4 billion, a figure that barely reaches 2%. Yet, this "minority" is growing 4-5% annually and is not "timid", but "full of vitality."

The enormous task facing Asian Catholics can not be solved with strategies and organizations, but with a deepening in personal relationships with Jesus Christ. For this, the first step that card. Rylko called for at the meeting is for Christians to "rediscover their baptism" to increasingly become the "salt" and "leaven" of the continent. "Salt in food is often a minority - he said - but it gives flavour. The real problem - he said - "is not being a minority, but being irrelevant" in society.

The faithful are called to be an organic part of the Church and "to be Christians not only in worship, but in society", showing without inferiority complexes all the joy, freedom, the beauty of being Christians.

Two other speakers outlined the history of this mystery of the Church in Asia "in size and poverty." Fr Felipe Gomes, a teacher at the East Asian Pastoral Institute in Manila showed that Asia is the continent marked by Jesus Christ (who is "Asian"), where the majority of the apostles died, where there were epic missionaries already in the first centuries spread Christianity, to Armenia, Persia, India, China, so that until 1200 there were at least 21 million Christians. But then, the growth of Islam, the lack of communications, struggling to adapt to local cultures and persecution decimated the church. However, the Church has the pride of Asian Martyrs: Persians (190 thousand) Japanese (200 thousand)) Korean (10 thousand)) Chinese (over 32 thousand) only in the Boxer persecution of the in 1900), Armenians (2.1 million), etc. ...

"Maybe - concluded Fr Gomes - God's clock beats at a different pace for Asia and we should revere this mystery. "

A very positive and successful history is that instead that of the evangelization of tribal India, presented by Cardinal. Telesphore Toppo, himself a tribal. In the 1800's thanks to Jesuit Fr Constant Lievens, in just 7 years, more than 80 thousand tribal converted in Chotanagpur (a belt of central India). Their conversion was also marked by an impressive educational and social development, which has given fruit to the Church which now has 12 dioceses in the area with local bishops, thousands of priests and thousands of religious.

Before the interventions, greetings and messages from the Pope and President Lee Myung Bak, while the whole assembly attended Mass presided over by Card. Rylko in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which was also concelebrated by Card. Nicholas Cheong of Seoul.

The Congress - organized in a masterly way by the Commission for the Laity of Korea, led by Prof. Thomas Han - also witnessed a moment of great emotional participation: the performance of a children's choir from middle school in Incheon, who sang a Polish song, one inspired by Rossini and the Glory. As they sang the Glory in the full light, at a certain point according to the script, the lights were dimmed and the choir of children's voices continued in the dark illuminated by the faint glimmer of tiny coloured torches. And that glory in the light and darkness is a symbol for the witness of the Church of Asia, the tiny "creative minority" in the great continent, that does not fear even the darkness of persecution.

Lay Catholics, witnesses of hope, for the good of the peoples of Asia by Card. Stanislaw Rilko

The final report by the president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity contains a summary of the activities of the congress as well as new vision of the laity's mission. Asia is also facing post-ideological nihilism and relativism, which are watering down the announcement of the Good News. To proclaim Jesus Christ is not a contrary to dialogue. The importance of movements and cooperation with the bishops is reiterated. Gratitude is expressed for today's martyrdom and the Korean Church.

We publish the address by Card Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, at the end of the Congress of Asian Catholic Laity on the topic of "Proclaiming Jesus Christ in Asia today, which took place in the South Korean capital.

In his final report, the prelate highlighted some important aspects that emerged during the proceedings, namely the wealth of local lay experiences of evangelisation in Asia, the need for hope in a continent and a world dominated by nihilism, the importance of a Christian identity that is expressed without complex or relativism, a synthesis between announcing the Good News and dialogue, movement and parishes. Despite martyrdom and the lack of religious freedom, lay Catholics have an irreplaceable role.

1. As the Congress of Catholic Laity in Asia draws to a close, our hearts are filled with joyful gratitude for the gift that it has been for each one of us and for the Church on this continent. The days we spent together have been truly blessed by the Lord. They have been a time of profound and unforgettable experience of ecclesial communion: bishops, priests, religious and laity gathered together-all listening attentively to what the Spirit has to say to the Church in Asia at this particular moment in history. There was an, almost tangible, atmosphere of Pentecost, confirming the words of Christ: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses [...] to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1.8). Moreover, during these days of intense work, we have felt spiritually accompanied by the legions of Asian saints, martyrs and confessors, who have been raised to the honours of the high altar, as well as all those "unknown soldiers of the great cause of God" (John Paul II) in Asia, whose names are known to the Eternal Father alone. And we have also been encouraged by the shining example of the great missionaries who brought the message of Jesus Christ to this boundless land: St. Francis Xavier, the Servant of God Father Matteo Ricci . . . .

Today, images of the moving liturgical celebrations, that marked the rhythm of our reflections, come to mind. The testimonies, the many personal interventions, conferences and round tables discussions we heard echo within us. This Congress has helped us to discover unsuspected aspects of the life and mission of the Church in Asia. It has revealed a variety and richness of content, which begs the question; what is the common denominator of experiences that have emerged? What has its leitmotif been? Well, I think the answer is contained in one word: "hope". I think for everyone - pastors, religious and lay faithful - this Congress has been above all else, a school of hope, that hope of which Pope Benedict XVI masterfully speaks in his encyclical Spe Salvi. We live in a world that, despite its outstanding and celebrated scientific and technological progress, is permeated by a painful inability to hope. Postmodern humanity has forgotten God and burned by the failure of false paradises promised by the ideology of a not too distant past, it shows the signs of a profound loss of direction. All too often, it falls victim to a practical nihilism that renders its very existence meaningless. Because man cannot live without hope! The Pope writes: "anyone who does not know God, even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph 2.12). Man's great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God-God who has loved us and who continues to love us 'to the end,' until all 'is accomplished' (cf. Jn 13.1-19.30)".1 The Holy Father tells us that this hope that comes from Christ is not only a hope for me, the individual, but for the entire community, because it "is linked to a lived union with a 'people', and for each individual it can only be attained within this 'we' ".2 This is the hope that the Church and every Christian is called to witness to the world, making it an important service to humanity in our time. This is how St. Peter encourages the recipients of his first letter and indeed, all of us: "But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you! Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope" (1 Pt 3.13-15). This is the great mission that is looming before the Christians in Asia: they must account for the hope that is in them... This is the mandate that Christ gives us at the end of our Congress: announce hope to this continent. "Each Christian's words and life must make this proclamation resound: God loves you, Christ came for you, Christ is for you 'the Way, the Truth and the Life!' (Jn 14:6)",3 wrote the Servant of God John Paul II in Christifideles Laici. And this is always possible, even when we are denied religious freedom. But, let us consider together - and precisely in light of this word, hope - some of the key issues discussed during the Congress.

2. "The Church today ought to take a giant step forward in her evangelization effort, and enter into a new stage of history in her missionary dynamism".4 This statement contained in Christifideles Laici is still very relevant today, and the role of lay Catholics in this process remains irreplaceable. For this reason during the Congress Christ's invitation: "You too go into my vineyard" (Mt 20.3-4) resounded as a leitmotif, so that lay faithful - men and women - come to understand in increasing numbers that this is a clear call to them to take on their part of responsibility in the life and mission of the Church, namely in the life and mission of all Christian communities (dioceses and parishes) scattered throughout this vast continent and of which they are part. The commitment of the laity to the work of evangelization is in reality changing ecclesial life,5 and this is a great sign of hope for the Church in Asia.

The scale of the evangelical harvest on this continent gives great urgency to the missionary mandate of the Divine Master: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature" (Mk 16.15). But today, unfortunately, even among Christians a relativistic mind-set that creates no small amount of confusion about mission has taken root and is spreading. Some examples: the propensity to replace mission with a dialogue in which all positions are equal, the tendency to reduce evangelization to the simple task of human development, believing that it is enough to help people to become more human or more faithful to their own religion, a false concept of respecting the freedom of others, which leads to a relinquishing of the call to conversion. The response to these and other doctrinal errors are contained firstly in the encyclical Redemptoris Missio and then the declaration Dominus Iesus, as well as the Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - all documents that deserve to be subjected to detailed study. Evangelization is an explicit mandate of Our Lord. Therefore, evangelization is not an ancillary activity of the Church, rather the very reason for being of the Church, the Sacrament of salvation. Evangelization, Redemptoris Missio states, is an issue of faith, "an accurate indicator of our faith in Christ and his love for us".6 As Paul says, "love of Christ impels us" (2 Cor 5.14). Therefore it is not inappropriate to say that "There can be no true evangelization without the explicit proclamation of Jesus as Lord"7 by word and witness of life, since "people today put more trust in witnesses than in teachers, in experience than in teaching, and in life and action than in theories".8 In addition - and again I quote Redemptoris Missio - "the Church sees no conflict between proclaiming Christ and engaging in interreligious dialogue. Instead, she feels the need to link the two in the context of her mission ad gentes. These two elements must maintain both their intimate connection and their distinctiveness; therefore they should not be confused, manipulated or regarded as identical, as though they were interchangeable".9

3. The three fundamental laws of evangelization as set out by the future Benedict XVI in a lecture in 2000 are a helpful guide to our missionary commitment and worth remembering here. The first is what the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger called the law of expropriation. We Christians are not masters, but humble servants of the great cause of God in the world. St. Paul writes: "For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus" (2 Cor 4.5). Thus, Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out forcefully that "evangelizing is not merely a way of speaking, but a form of living: living in the listening and giving voice to the Father. 'He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak,' says the Lord about the Holy Spirit (Jn 16.13). Our Lord and the Holy Spirit build the Church, they communicate through the Church. Christ's proclamation, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God supposes the listening to his voice in the voice of the Church. 'He will not speak in his own name' means: to speak in the mission of the Church".10 Thus evangelization is never a private matter, because God is always behind it and there is the Church. Joseph Ratzinger said: "We ourselves cannot gather men. We must acquire them by God for God. All methods are empty without the foundation of prayer. The words of proclamation must always be bathed in an intense life of prayer".11 This certainty is a great support for us and gives us the strength and courage needed to meet the challenges that the world places in the path of the mission of the Church.

The second law of evangelization is the one that emerges from the parable of the mustard seed "that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants" (Mk 4.31-32). "Great realities often have humble beginnings",12 stressed the then Cardinal Ratzinger. Indeed, God has a particular predilection for the small "the small remnant of Israel", bearer of hope for all the chosen people, the "little flock" of disciples that the Lord urges not be afraid, because it is to them the Father gifts his kingdom (cf. Lk 12.32). The parable of the mustard seed says those who proclaim the gospel must be humble; they should not expect immediate results - either qualitative or quantitative. Because the law of large numbers is not the law of the Church. And because the Lord of the harvest is God and he alone decides the pace, timing and mode of growth of the seed. Therefore, this law protects us from discouragement in our missionary commitment, without lessening our desire to give our all, because as St. Paul reminds us, "whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (2 Cor 9.6).

The third law of evangelization is, finally, the law of the grain of wheat that dies in order to bear fruit (cf. Jn 12, 24). Evangelization is always the logic of the Cross. Cardinal Ratzinger said: "Jesus did not redeem the world with beautiful words but with his suffering and his death. His Passion is the inexhaustible source of life for the world; the Passion gives power to his words".13 Hence the weight of the martyrs witness to faith in the work of evangelization. The very reason for which Tertullian writes: "The more numerous we become, whenever we are cast down [...] the blood of Christians is seed",14 a sentence more familiarly known in the version: "The blood of martyrs is seed of confessors". The testimony of faith sealed with the blood of her many martyrs is the great spiritual patrimony of the Church in Asia and a bright sign of hope for its future. Together with the Apostle Paul, Christians in Asia may say, "We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor 4.8-10).

4. The correct approach to the relationship between faith and culture is of capital importance for the Church's evangelizing mission. And this is especially true for Asia, the cradle of ancient cultures and religions. Great missionary figures understood this very well, such as Matteo Ricci, whose work Pope Benedict XVI has called "a unique case of a happy synthesis between the proclamation of the Gospel and dialogue with the culture of the people to whom he brought it; he is an example of balance between doctrinal clarity and prudent pastoral action".15 This presents a vast and delicate field of mission for the laity and one that requires a sound and thorough theological training. The inculturation of the Christian proclamation is a very complex question, of strong doctrinal value, and not the result of mere logic of efficiency. It has been dealt with in the utmost clarity by the recent Popes. "What matters is to evangelize man's culture and cultures (not in a purely decorative way, as it were, by applying a thin veneer, but in a vital way, in depth and right to their very roots)",16 Paul VI wrote in the historic apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi. Because, he added, "the split between the Gospel and culture is without a doubt the drama of our time, just as it was of other times". Again the Venerable Servant of God John Paul II devoted great attention to the issue, about which he stated, among other things, that "if [...] it is true that faith is not identified with any one culture and is independent of all cultures, then it is no less true that, for this very reason, faith is called upon to inspire, to impregnate every culture. Man in his entirety, in the reality of his daily existence, is saved by Christ and, therefore, it is man in his entirety who must realize himself in Christ. A faith that does not become culture is a faith that is not fully accepted, not entirely thought out, not faithfully lived".18 And in Redemptoris Missio, a fundamental text for this issue, following on from Evangelii Nuntiandi he defined inculturation as "the intimate transformation of authentic cultural values through their integration in Christianity and the insertion of Christianity in the various human cultures".19 Therefore, he added, "the process is thus a profound and all-embracing one, which involves the Christian message and also the Church's reflection and practice. But at the same time it is a difficult process, for it must in no way compromise the distinctiveness and integrity of the Christian faith".20 In fact the risk of a lurking syncretism and of a dangerous irenicism is ever present, as the2 International Theological Commission observes in the document Faith and Inculturation, where it states: "However great the respect should be for what is true and holy in the cultural heritage of a people, this attitude does not demand that one should lend an absolute character to this cultural heritage. No one can forget that from the beginning, the Gospel was a 'scandal for the Jews and foolishness for the pagans'".21 Even Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, devoted memorable pages to the issue of inculturation. At a conference held in Hong Kong, addressing bishops of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), he stated that "we should no longer speak of inculturation but of the meeting of cultures or [...] 'inter-culturality'. For 'inculturation' presupposes that, as it were, a culturally naked faith is transferred into a culture that is indifferent [...] But this description is first of all artificial and unreal, because there is no such thing as a culture-free faith and - outside modern technical civilisation - there is no such thing as religion-free culture".22 He then went on to explain that "the first thing we must say [is] that faith itself is culture. It does not exist in a naked state, as sheer religion. Simply by telling man who he is and how he should go about being human, faith is creating culture, it is culture [...] It would accordingly be nonsense to offer a Christianity that was, so to speak, precultural or deculturalized, as such a Christianity would be deprived of its own historical power and reduced to an empty collection of ideas".23 He then drew the important conclusion that "anyone entering the Church has to be aware that he is entering a separate, active cultural entity with her own many-layered intercultural character that has grown up in the course of history. Without a certain exodus, a breaking off with one's life in all its aspects, one cannot become a Christian".24 This statement is important and reminds us that our "being Christian" is born from our personal encounter with Christ and that it must always be accompanied by a profound wonder at the incredible newness of life the Master gifts his disciples in Baptism. In the Christian's life of faith - as in the life of Abraham, our "father in faith" - everything starts from an exodus: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk...". So when we speak of inculturation of the Gospel, we must never forget that faith is not identified with any one culture, but is capable of permeating all cultures.

5. The question of the formation of a mature laity, conscious of their vocation and mission in the Church and the world was a central part of discussions during the Congress. The Fathers of the Synod on the laity have recommended that "the formation of the lay faithful must be placed among the priorities of a diocese. It ought to be so placed within the plan of pastoral action that the efforts of the whole community (clergy, lay faithful and religious) converge on this goal".25 Formation is in fact a duty, and at the same time a right of the laity,26 and has as its aim to lead them to a constant review of their Christian commitment, active participation in the life of the Church and constant deepening of their shared responsibility for the Church's mission in the world. Therefore, pastors must promote this process within the parish, entrusting to the laity those tasks, services and offices to which they are called in virtue of their Baptism. They must also aim to exploit the growing presence and contribution of women, as stated in Christifideles Laici, where we can read: "The acknowledgment in theory of the active and responsible presence of woman in the Church must be realized in practice".27 In this collaboration of the laity we should nevertheless bear in mind the inter-dicasterial Instruction which refers to the need for "particular care to safeguard the nature and mission of sacred ministry and the vocation and secular character of the lay faithful. [Because] 'collaboration with' does not [...] mean 'substitution for'".28 It is also true that we must contrast a "clerical mentality" that at times renders priests unable to really collaborate with the laity. Nor is it less important to avoid a withdrawal of the Catholic laity within the Christian community. According to the opportunities guaranteed by the civil laws of respective countries, the lay faithful - because of their secular state - are in fact called upon to contribute in society, guided by the principles of the Church's social doctrine, conveniently summarized in the renowned Compendium,29 and which are part of the process of evangelisation.30 Formation concerns everyone: lay people and clergy. Therefore, it is advisable that every new generation of priests and lay faithful take in hand the council documents that concern them and the lay faithful, in particular, the apostolic exhortation Christifideles Laici, which is their real Magna Charta.

Parishes are the primary site of lay formation. Parishes are the true schools of Christian life, major points of reference, of communion and witness of faith. In them, the Church is embodied as a significant social fact. Faced with the challenges that the world launches at the Church today, in Asia too the parish must be supported and assisted in its mission to educate in the faith by small communities, such as the greatly appreciated "base ecclesial communities". But not only. Here I would like to mention the new and flourishing era of group endeavours of the lay faithful, which are cause for great hopes for the Church.31 John Paul II wrote in Redemptoris Missio: "I call to mind, as a new development occurring in many churches in recent times, the rapid growth of 'ecclesial movements' filled with missionary dynamism. When these movements humbly seek to become part of the life of local churches and are welcomed by bishops and priests within diocesan and parish structures, they represent a true gift of God both for new evangelization and for missionary activity properly so-called. I therefore recommend - added the Venerable Servant of God - that they be spread, and that they be used to give fresh energy, especially among young people, to the Christian life and to evangelization, within a pluralistic view of the ways in which Christians can associate and express themselves".32 How many people, adults and young people with these new gifts bestowed generously by the Holy Spirit upon the Church, have discovered the beauty of being Christians! How many baptized have found renewed missionary zeal and courage! Pope Benedict XVI sees in these new associations and communities, the renewing flame of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and encourages pastors to be ever more open to this great gift: "After the Council - he said - the Holy Spirit has given us the "movements" [...] places of faith where young people and adults try out a model of life in faith as an opportunity for life today. I therefore ask you to approach movements very lovingly. Here and there, they must be corrected or integrated into the overall context of the parish or Diocese. Yet, we must respect the specific character of their charism and rejoice in the birth of communitarian forms of faith in which the Word of God becomes life".33 Therefore, my heartfelt thanks go to the representatives of ecclesial movements and new communities working on this continent. Thank you for the priceless testimony that you brought to our Congress and thank you for everything that you do to serve the Church in Asia, which can only benefit from these new charisms, from an ever greater openness, in pastoral charity, to this gift of the Holy Spirit that is a precious sign of the hope which does not deceive.

The end goal of every itinerary of authentically Christian formation is holiness. It is important to speak about this at the end of this Congress, which saw the participation of a significant representation of the Catholic laity of Asia. As I said at the beginning, during these days we have felt supported by the saints, martyrs and confessors of the faith in Asia. And we felt their strong spiritual closeness, especially during the celebration in memory of the Korean Martyrs in the beautiful sanctuary dedicated to them. The saints are the great masters of Christian life. They speak of the centrality of God - the God who revealed himself in the face of Jesus Christ - in human life. They instil in us the courage to wager our entire existence on God and, by their example, confirm that it's worth it, that it gives happiness. And in this way they challenge us to leave the prison of our human certainties, from a mediocrity that sees us put up with the spirit of this world, willing to compromise with the secular culture that now dominates the scene here in Asia too - a mediocrity which sees us become insignificant and invisible. The saints remind us that salt should give flavour and the lantern spread light. That following the Master involves radical choices, it means going against the trend, being a "sign of contradiction" there, where the Lord calls us to be. Not least, the saints - especially the martyrs - are extraordinary builders of unity. John Paul II spoke of the "ecumenism of the martyrs": Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, united beyond confessions by the same love for Christ: "Amor Dei usque ad contemptum sui" (love of God even to contempt of self), as St. Augustine wrote in the City of God. Let us listen to the voices of saints, allow them to convince us that holiness is not a utopia, but the fascinating goal which Christ promises to all the baptized. Here, one more reason for hope that comes from this Congress.

6. The scope of the tasks facing the Church in Asia at the dawn of the third millennium of the Christian era leaves us feeling inadequate and powerless. The great cause of God and the Gospel in the world is constantly hampered and opposed by hostile forces of various natures. But the words of hope of Benedict XVI help us to take heart. He said in a homily on the "failures of God" during mass with the Swiss bishops on their ad Limina visit: "Initially God always fails, he lets human freedom exist and this freedom constantly says 'no'; but God's imagination, the creative power of his love, is greater than the human 'no' [...] What does all of this mean for us? First of all, it means one certainty: God does not fail. He 'fails' continuously, but it is because of this that he does not fail, because from this he creates new opportunities for ever greater mercy, and his imagination is inexhaustible. He does not fail because he always finds new ways to reach mankind and to open wide the doors of his great home to him".34 This is why we should never be without hope. The Successor of Peter assures us that God "today too, [...] will find new ways to call men, and he wants to have us with him as his messengers and servants".35

Dear brothers and sisters, I conclude by making my own the exhortation of the Apostle to the Gentiles: "So, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught" (Col 2. 6).

10 J. Ratzinger, La nuova evangelizzazione, "L'Osservatore Romano", 11-12 dicembre 2000, 11.

5 15 Benedict XVI, Discorso durante l'udienza alle diocesi marchigiane per il quarto centenario della morte di Matteo Ricci, "L'Osservatore Romano", 30 maggio 2010, 8.

8 18 John Paul II, Ai partecipanti al Congresso nazionale del Movimento Ecclesiale di Impegno Culturale "Insegnamenti" V, 1 (1982), 131.

1 21 International Theological Commission, Vol 1 Texts and Documents 1969-1985, Ignatius Press San Francisco 2009, 17.

2 2 J. Ratzinger, Truth and Toleration. Christian belief and world religions, Ignatius Press San Francisco 2004, 66.

8 28 Instruction on Certain Questions regarding the Collaboration of Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priest, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1997, 7.

9 29 Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2004.

3 3 Benedict XVI, Discorso ai presuli della Conferenza episcopale della Repubblica Federale di Germania in visita "ad limina", "Insegnamenti" II, 2 (2006), 637.

4 34 Benedict XVI, Omelia durante la concelebrazione eucaristica con vescovi della Svizzera, "Insegnamenti" II, 2 (2006), 570 and 573.

Any changes in the personnel of the Afghan government on the grounds of combating corruption, however, will not alter the puppet character of the regime. The rampant payoffs, bribery and outright theft flow inexorably from a colonialist foreign occupation that is hated and opposed by the majority of the Afghan people, writes James Cogan

A series of leaks to the New York Times and the Washington Post over the past week has revealed that members of the Afghan government headed by President Hamid Karzai are paid agents and informers of the CIA.

The revelations began on August 25 when senior Times correspondents Dexter Filkins and Mark Mazzetti reported that a close aide of Karzai who is accused of corruption, Mohammed Zia Salehi, had been on the CIA payroll for 'many years'. The information was provided by anonymous sources 'in Kabul and Washington', suggesting it came from high up within the US military or the Obama administration itself.

Two days later, the Washington Post cited other US sources alleging that the 'CIA is making secret payments to multiple members of the Karzai administration.' The Post stated: 'The CIA has continued the payments despite concerns that that it is backing corrupt officials and undermining efforts to wean Afghans' dependence on secret sources of income and graft.'

Mohammed Zia Salehi, who is the chief of administration of the Afghan National Security Council, is at the centre of a controversy between Washington and Karzai. In July, he was arrested by a US-created anti-corruption investigation unit. Wiretaps allegedly documented him requesting a $10,000 car for his son, as his price for stopping an investigation into a money transfer company, New Ansari.

President Karzai intervened, and within seven hours had the arrest overturned and Salehi released. Karzai has also blocked attempts to arrest senior executives of New Ansari.

Any investigation of the company is clearly opposed by a significant section of the Afghan establishment linked to Karzai's administration. New Ansari is accused of transferring hundreds of millions of dollars in cash out of Afghanistan each year on behalf of warlords, government officials and drug traffickers. A United Arab Emirates custom official said $1 billion in cash had arrived in that state last year alone.

The Times noted that 'many Afghan officials maintain second homes' in Abu Dubai 'and live in splendorous wealth.' Since 2001, the amount of money that has been plundered from the 'international aid' sent to Afghanistan must run into the tens of billions. Large amounts also appear to have been simply handed over by the CIA in pay-offs and bribes.

On August 29, Karzai's office denounced the allegations that the CIA has much of his government on its payroll, as 'groundless allegations' that could 'negatively impact the alliance against terrorism' and which 'cast [a] slur on the reputation of the Afghan responsible executives.'

There are, however, no reasons to doubt that the claims are true. The CIA's operations in Afghanistan date back to the late 1970s and 1980s, when it financed and armed Islamist groups that were fighting the Soviet military occupation of the country. Several years before the events of 9/11, CIA agents were back in Afghanistan, bribing various warlords to support a US invasion.

In 2001, Mohammed Zia Salehi was a spokesman for one of the most powerful and murderous of the anti-Taliban warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was openly taking money from the US government. CIA operatives worked with his militia during the invasion to crush Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan and took part in the cold-blooded murder of thousands of Taliban prisoners.

Karzai was selected as president on the basis of his decades-long ties with US intelligence agencies. The US official with whom Karzai maintains the closest relations is the current CIA station chief, known only as 'Spider'. The pair has been working together since before the 2001 invasion. One obvious question is the role that the CIA and the many Afghans on its payroll played in the blatant rigging of the 2009 presidential election, which returned Karzai to power.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the CIA station chief's prominence and close relations with Karzai provoked opposition from the US embassy and the State Department, but they were overruled earlier in the year by Obama.

A possible motive for the latest leaks is to prompt a refashioning of the Afghan government, perhaps involving some high-profile trials of corrupt officials. Popular hatred and contempt for Karzai's administration is increasingly blamed by the White House and the US military for the growing support for the Taliban-led resistance movement and soaring US and NATO casualties. Seven more American troops were killed over the weekend, pushing the 2010 American death toll to 308, just nine less than all of 2009.

Indicating the concerns in US political and military circles, the Institute for the Study of War stated in a recent report on the situation in the major southern city of Kandahar 'that the population views government institutions as predatory and illegitimate, representing the interests of key power-brokers rather than the populace.'

Kandahar is essentially ruled by Karzai's half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who has been publicly accused of both presiding over a massive drug cartel and being on the CIA payroll. Karzai's older brother, Mahmoud, who holds American citizenship, has become one of the richest men in the country, with Toyota dealerships and government-allocated contracts in the cement industry.

The CIA revelations underscore the cynical nature of the American propaganda used to justify the war since 2001. Venal individuals who take payments from a foreign occupying power and plunder the country have been portrayed as the representatives of a democratic future for Afghanistan. The Afghans who have resisted the occupation and fought for the liberation of the country have been labelled terrorists, killed in their tens of thousands and hunted down by 150,000 foreign troops.

How capitalism and us imperialism have underdeveloped Bangladesh (part V) by Melissa Hussain

WHAT does the reproduction of capitalism in peripheral economic formations have to do with the US? Of course, as I have pointed out, the US has been present in Bangladesh since-and even before-its birth as a nation-state. To speak of the US is to speak of the US government as well as the current phase of imperialism-US imperialism. This imperialism, as I suggested, is both economic and cultural, and its economic operations cannot be dissociated from the operations of the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and even from so-called 'donor' agencies and NGOs invading and intervening in peripheral economies under capitalism. My earlier account of the World Bank did not directly mention the role of the US there, but I should point out here that the World Bank in Bangladesh, from time to time, has sought assistance and suggestions from the US while the US also gave suggestions to the World Bank since the days of the so-called 'green revolution' in Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan) in the 1960s, an initiative which actually began with both support and suggestions from the US.
Here I will dwell on other aspects of US imperialism, while keeping the connections between US imperialism and international financial institutions in sight. Let me then begin by historicising the nature of US imperialism in Bangladesh. When India was partitioned by the British in 1947, the region known as East Bengal became East Pakistan. Resistances to rule by Pakistan and to US imperialism grew in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), particularly headed by the East Pakistan Communist Party. In the 1960s, as Badruddin Umar relates in volume two of his The Emergence of Bangladesh: Rise of Bengali Nationalism, 1958-1971:
At this [1968] Congress [of the East Pakistan Communist Party] a programme of the East Pakistan Communist Party was adopted. It was prepared on the basis of the documents adopted in the conference of eighty-one parties in Moscow in 1960. The principal strategic objective of the programme was to end the exploitation by the US imperialists and the exploitation and rule of monopoly capitalists, to complete the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-capitalist national democratic revolution and to advance along the path of non-capitalist development with a view to attaining the socialist stage. (131)
The East Pakistan Communist Party aimed for a broad-based alliance of 'workers, peasants, middle-class intellectuals and a section of the national bourgeoisie' (131) in order to oppose-as Umar puts it-'US imperialism, the big bourgeoisie, feudal landowners, and the central government which represented their interests' (131). The objective of this alliance was, then, to establish an independent, socialist nation-state.
From the very beginning, Washington was unambiguous in its support of Pakistan and opposition to the movement for independence in East Pakistan. The US government simply did nothing to intervene, then, while hundreds of thousands-and some say millions-of Bengalis were brutally killed by the Pakistani army in Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence. Rather, the US remained solidly on the side of Pakistan. In a phone conversation with secretary of state Henry Kissinger on March 29, 1971, President Nixon had this to say of Bangladesh: 'The real question is whether anybody can run the god-damn place' (US Dept of State, South Asia Crisis 36). And in another phone conversation with Kissinger the next day, President Nixon said, 'The main thing to do is to keep cool and not do anything' (US Dept of State, South Asia Crisis 37). It was around this time that Kissinger famously characterised Bangladesh as 'an international basket case' (Hitchens 50). While these statements were made in casual conversations, they are indicative of the Nixon administration's position vis-à-vis Bangladesh. It should be emphasised here that when the Bengali freedom-fighters were sacrificing their lives to achieve a new nation-state and were indeed in the midst of their liberation war, the US government did not merely diplomatically oppose the liberation movement, but even militarily opposed it by sending its seventh fleet to the Bay of Bengal in support of Pakistan as a direct threat to Bangladeshi freedom-fighters.
Despite the pronounced and increasing US imperial opposition to the national liberation movement of Bangladesh, the country finally achieved its independence in 1971 in exchange for millions of lives and a war-devastated land. Indeed, the land was not only devastated and the economy completely ruined, but a widespread famine also broke out soon after independence in 1974. That famine killed 27,000 people according to official estimates, although the toll was probably closer to 100,000, as Rehman Sobhan relates in The Crisis of External Dependence: The Political Economy of Foreign Aid to Bangladesh (44). While Sobhan argues that the politics of external dependence on aid was to blame for the famine, he also points to the fact that the US government made the decision to withhold food shipments to Bangladesh in 1974, in order to register its disapproval of Bangladesh's trade ties to socialist countries, particularly Cuba. And in her essay 'Food Politics'-which appeared in Foreign Affairs in 1976-Emma Rothschild even argues that the US government played a decisive role in the widespread extent of the famine by withholding desperately-needed food aid at that critical point. The New Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst Devinda Sharma has more recently documented this history thus:
At the height of the 1974 famine in the newly born Bangladesh, the US had withheld 2.2 million tonnes of food aid to 'ensure that it abandoned plans to try Pakistani war criminals'. And a year later, when Bangladesh was faced with severe monsoons and imminent floods, the then US Ambassador to Bangladesh made it abundantly clear that the US probably could not commit food aid because of Bangladesh's policy of exporting jute to Cuba. And by the time Bangladesh succumbed to the American pressure, and stopped jute exports to Cuba, the food aid in transit was 'too late for famine victims'. ('Famine as Commerce' par. 14)
The fallout of the restricted flow of aid meant that Bangladesh turned to the World Bank in desperation, and made the pact to trade in its original ideals of socialism and nationalism that had been established in the constitution for economic liberalisation and the development of the private sector. In other words, it is because of the pressures of US imperialism and the World Bank-and also in the interest of the national ruling classes-that the ideals of socialism in particular, the ideals that at least partly informed the liberation war of Bangladesh, were all abandoned.
The initial nationalisation efforts were abandoned as well in the direction of de-nationalisation, rather privatisation. Since the time of Ziaur Rahman (from the mid-1970s onwards), the privatisation efforts gathered momentum and kept progressively increasing through each successive government. Indeed, as Naila Kabeer points out in 'The Quest for National Identity: Women, Islam and the State of Bangladesh', 'The rapid de-nationalisation of the economy under Zia created a newly rich class of entrepreneurs and traders whose interests were tied to those of the government in power and who became its allies' (42). Indeed, the de-nationalisation of the economy under Zia involved a number of elements. For one, there was a massive increase in foreign aid. Because Bangladesh dropped its declaration of socialism and of secularism, it garnered more donors from the West (for the move away from socialism) and from the Persian Gulf (for the religious posture). Secondly, international agencies-which were already present in Bangladesh since the early seventies-began to play a larger role in state governance, while the role of the state became rather marginal.
In fact, the role of the state-although marginal-is nevertheless not inconsequential in the sense that it has remained willingly subservient to the dictates of US imperialism and the World Bank and other financial institutions, and even NGOs. As far as the bourgeois government is concerned, it has always been an ardent ally of the US. As Azfar Hussain maintains emphatically in his Bengali essay 'Markin Shamrajjer Shamprotik Bakyaron [The Contemporary Grammar of US Imperialism]',
Not a single bourgeois administration of Bangladesh since 1971 has been able to say no to the pressures, dictates, suggestions, and recommendations of the US, while in many instances each administration has even welcomed the interventions of the US and the World Bank and other financial institutions, linked as they are, from time to time. For instance, even the so-called founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, despite his initial socialist postures and pronouncements, became increasingly pro-American, while Ziaur Rahman was an open boot-licker of the US administration. The two major bourgeois parties in Bangladesh that have alternately run the country since 1971 have been equally pro-US imperialist and thus themselves have threatened the sovereignty and security of the country itself. But who are anti-imperialists in Bangladesh? The answer is simple: the people-the toiling masses whose so-called cheap labour is routinely exploited by multinational corporations or US imperialist capitalism. (36)
Indeed, the US has either refused to provide aid to Bangladesh in critical times, or it has stepped in to provide 'aid' with strings attached, aid that set Bangladesh up for exploitation, an imperialist relationship with unequal power-relations and production-relations. Consider these observations, for instance, from Badruddin Umar in his relatively recent foreword to Mahfuz Chowdhury's book, Economic Exploitation of Bangladesh. Umar maintains that the United States is
the most important factor in this process [of exploiting the people in Bangladesh] as an imperialist country which in pursuit of its 'new world order' and 'open market policy' is pressurizing the Bangladeshi ruling classes and their governments to systematically dismantle and destroy industries, to throw millions of workers out of employment and push the country's economy towards rapid ruination. ('Foreword' xv)
Umar has been writing-and organising-in resistance to US imperialism in Bangladesh for almost forty years now, and his basic critique of US imperialism has been consistent. In 1972, for instance, just after the formation of Bangladesh, Umar made the following observations in Politics and Society in Bangladesh, in the chapter unambiguously titled 'The Ascendancy of US Imperialism in Bangladesh':
No sensible man [sic] in this country can any longer deny the fact that within seven months of the overthrow of Pakistan, Bangladesh has fallen under the grip of world imperialism, particularly its leader, the United States of America. But uninformed persons, men used to stupid political rigmarole, anti-social elements and lackeys of the ruling classes still continue to believe and propagate that it is not so. They also charge and openly make accusations against all sections of political opposition by saying that they are trying to frustrate all anti-imperialist, particularly anti-US, policies of the government of Bangladesh. These latter groups of men still continue their talk about anti-imperialism, socialism, etc. and without the slightest scruple of conscience proceed to build 'socialism' with money and commodities supplied by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc and their patron and principal, the government of the United States. (60)
Umar makes an explicit connection between the World Bank, the IMF, and US imperialism, a point that I have already dwelt on. But Umar is also talking about the functioning of hegemony here: the ruling class in Bangladesh talks of socialism, while reproducing capitalism. Also, a number of left intellectual-activists from Bangladesh-such as Serajul Islam Choudhury, Anu Muhammad, and Nurul Kabir-have all variously examined and interrogated the history of the changing but continuous relationship between US imperialism and the national ruling classes in Bangladesh.
US imperialism in Bangladesh also has to do with how US multinational corporations keep exploiting the domestic markets, the labour markets, and natural resources in Bangladesh. My purpose here is not to provide an exhaustive account of the involvement of US multinational corporations in Bangladesh, but to point out certain trends. A number of US-based multinational corporations have invested in Bangladesh, such as Chevron and the former Unocal Corporation (which merged with Chevron in 2005) which invested in the natural gas sector, a number of US-based clothing industries, with Wal-Mart being the giant among them, which have invested in the Export Processing Zones. Since 1971, the role of US multinational corporations has increasingly gathered momentum, targeting the country's 'cheap' labour-in other words, the labour of women and even children-as well as the country's natural resources, particularly oil and gas reserves.

A diocese in northwestern Bangladesh, which schools extremely poor non-Christian tribal students, is now trying to reinforce academic knowledge with values and ethics.

Some 70 grade 10-12 students attended a seminar on ethics, values and spirituality at Saint John Bosco sub-parish in Lokkhikol on Aug. 31.

Rajshahi diocese's education commission and local the Caritas Bangladesh office organized the event, the very first of its kind for indigenous non-Christian students in the area.

"You're the future architects of the nation. You need to listen to your conscience and control your indifference and emotions," Father Ignatius Bindu Hembrom told them.

"Learned people with a conscious heart can make a difference for the country," he said.

Most indigenous people in the area are very poor and many mortgage their lands to moneylenders. Poverty often means they are not sincere about learning, said Caritas education development officer Suklesh George Costa.

"Poverty often leads to unsocial activities. We provide them with an education and are trying to keep them on track through instilling values and morality," he said.

Education commission secretary Father Sunil Daniel Rozario said it is a struggle for indigenous people to keep body and soul together.

"These poor people often can't afford one meal a day. How can they educate their children? So, we are doing it in order to change their future," he said.

"It helped me realize that money is not everything. Values and ethics make life meaningful and beautiful," said Sonjit Ekka, 22, an 11th grader.

"Even though I'm from a very poor family and we live in a house on another man's land, I can make a better future when I finish my studies," he said

Officials in northern Bangladesh are battling to contain an anthrax outbreak that has infected more than 250 people.

It is thought to have been caused by people slaughtering anthrax-infected cattle and selling or eating the contaminated meat.

The outbreak was first detected in the district of Sirajganj in late August. It has now spread to four out of the country's 64 districts.

Often deadly, anthrax exists naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock, especially during or after the monsoon when water brings it up to the surface.

Officials say all the cases in Bangladesh are cutaneous, or skin anthrax, which causes wound-like lesions.

"This type of anthrax is not that much dangerous to humans because there's treatment available," Mahmudur Rahman, director of Bangladesh's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, told the BBC.

The latest outbreak has already caused concern in the capital, Dhaka, where sales of beef and mutton have slumped.

A meat seller in central Dhaka said: "I used to sell about 200kg of beef every day, but now I am selling only 20-25kg. People are scared to buy beef because of anthrax."

The government has already launched a vaccination drive for cattle, so that the disease does not spread.

Over 50,000 cyclone Aila victims of Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira have no joy in their minds over Eid-Ul-Fitr because they are passing days half-starved just as they did last year.

Even after 15 months, Aila-hit people are living under open sky on the embankment. Their main livelihood was farming shrimps, but they lost all that in the devastating cyclone.

For most at Padmapukur and Gabura, two most affected unions in Shayamnagar, life has become a miserable existence as they have no job opportunities available.

Akhtar Banu is one of them. On a recent day she simply vented her anger at the way things are unfolding before her family.

Asked about how she going to prepare for the Eid, she told bdnews24.com: "We used to arrange many things before Iftar and Sehri before Aila, but now we cannot do that."

"We complete our Iftar and Sehri just with puffed rice and chickpeas. In addition, we cannot always take Sehri, let alone celebrate Eid. We have neither Eid nor joy."

Banu of Padmapukur union's Pakhimara village said, "We would have grown many things at our homesteads before Aila, but now we've to buy from market."

"Also, my husband cannot earn much due to lack of employment. We, a three-member family, often keep our stomach half full."

At least 190 people died from the Aila that caused huge damage at the southern coastal belts of Satkhira's Shayamnagar and Khulna's Koira Upazila.

Over 50,000 people of the unions won't be able to celebrate Eid for the second year. There is no enthusiasm about the upcoming Eid among them. Many have no ability to buy new things for their family members.

Monowar Sheikh Monu of Gabura union's Chakbara village said, "We cannot eat to our heart's content, let alone celebrate Eid."

Khodeza Khatun, who lives on the embankment near Gabura's Dumuria ghat, said, "I have no ability to buy new clothes for my children, but it would be better if we could only have sugar and vermicelli."

Aila-affected locals alleged that embankments have not been repaired even after 15 months of the cyclone.

Padmapukur union chairman Amazadul Islam told bdnews24.com: Six tons of rice have been allocated for the Aila victims ahead of Eid on the government's behalf."

In addition, Aila victims didn't receive any significant amount of aid from non-government or private initiative.

Gabura union chairman Shafiul Azam Lenin told bdnews24.com: "A total of 52 tons of rice have been allocated for my union ahead of Eid."

However, those who live in the unions said that such assistance from the government is 'not adequate'.

On July 23, prime minister Sheikh Hasina opened a programme to distribute housing allowances among the Aila-affected people in Satkhira. Under the programme, every family will get Tk 20,000.

Satkhira deputy commissioner Abdus Samad told bdnews24.com that all the allowance money has been sent to bank accounts of the affected, but they are yet to be permitted to withdraw it.

However, local MP HM Golam Reza petitioned the High Court, alleging that the list of names for distributing allowance was not right and so it took more time to check out the list, he said.

Necessary action will be taken after Eid so that the affected may withdraw their money, he said.

IF we look at today's world scenario, surely women and children's condition is one of the measurement indices of good governance. The World Bank defines governance as the exercise of political authority and the use of institutional resources to manage society's problems and affairs. Peace and security, rule of law, human rights and participation, sustainable development, and human development are also considered by the new World Governance Index (WGI) to be pertinent indicators of good governance.

In this era of globalisation, new terms like "global governance," "corporate governance," "IT governance," "participatory governance" and many others are being invented. But, what's about "gender governance" or "indigenous governance"? People might wonder why I am trying to introduce these two terms. The reason is that post-modern philosophers have categorised the women of the world as the "Fourth World" and the indigenous people of the planet as the "Fifth World" besides the conventional division of the world into first, second and third. In this article I will focus on the concept of "gender governance."

Readers, don't get alarmed at the term "gender governance!" I am not outlining the sphere of a woman-dominated republic as Begum Rokeya sketched in her novel Sultana's Dream. In a striking contrast to Rokeya's "dream," women hold only 18% of parliamentary seats worldwide.

Bangladesh can, however, be proud because the PM, the leader of the opposition, and the ministers of home, foreign affairs and agriculture are women. But, is that enough?

Basically, the basic goal of gender equality (also known as gender equity, gender egalitarianism, or sexual equality) is to bring about equality of the genders. Only after all the requirements for gender equality are fulfilled can the march towards gender governance be commenced.

World bodies have defined gender equality as related to human rights, especially women's rights, and economic development. Unicef defines gender equality as "leveling the playing field for girls and women by ensuring that all children have equal opportunity to develop their talents." "Gender equity" is one of the goals of the United Nations Millennium Project, to end world poverty by 2015.

The history of the feminist movement has gone through different phases like liberal feminism, Marxist/material feminism or radical feminism. But how much have women across the planet actually achieved over the decades? Robert B. Zoellick, the World Bank president, recently observed: "In only a few decades, health and education levels of girls and women have improved significantly, but economic opportunity has not. Women consistently trail men in labour force participation, access to credit, entrepreneurship, inheritance and ownership rights and in the income they generate, and this is neither fair nor smart economics. Studies show that investment in girls and women yield very large economic and social returns."

But, with due respect to the WB president's observation, a state cannot be expected to attain significant improvement in women's condition until positive changes in policy are adopted. In Bangladesh, on International Women's Day, 2008, the chief adviser announced the adoption of the National Women's Development Policy, to a broadly positive national and international response.

The original policy of 1997 had been changed surreptitiously in 2004 to seriously curtail women's equal rights in financial matters, and over property, land and inheritance; and also in participating in direct elections to seats reserved for women in Parliament.

The policy amended in 2008 was broadly similar to that of 1997, other than an increase of the duration of the maternity leave provisions (from four to five months), creation of the necessary environment for increased participation of women in the foreign labour market, reservation of one-third seats in the Parliament for women, and taking steps to ensure transparent elections to the reserved seats. Women's rights activists raised questions regarding a major omission in the 2008 Policy, as compared to the 1997 Policy, regarding any reference to equal inheritance rights of women.

In an extraordinary development, the 2008 Policy was suddenly condemned by a section of Islamist groups and clerics as being "un-Islamic." On April 17, 2008, the government again amended the announced Policy with concession to the demands of the clerics (Source: Rights of Women, Chapter 14 in the Human Rights in Bangladesh 2008, p. 163-172, published in 2009). Not only that. Our state is yet to take any steps for withdrawal of reservations on Sections 2 and 16 (1) of the UN Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women - (CEDAW, ibid).

Even though we have women as PM, leader of the opposition, and ministers of home, foreign affairs and agriculture, both our state and civil society should be more pro-active in terms of making positive policy changes to ameliorate the over-all condition of gender equality, equity and governance

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has severely criticised admission trade in colleges and coaching business of teachers. She was also highly critical of the teachers of public universities, who prefer to take classes in private universities and do consultancy for various institutions.

While inaugurating a course and unveiling the plaque of the Naem's administrative building on August 17, the prime minister pointed out some of the malpractices in the field of education. She said that values had deteriorated so much that students were often not given pass marks if they did not go for coaching to particular teachers. She also castigated the admission trade in colleges in which some teachers were also involved.

Running of coaching centres by teachers has become a lucrative business these days. The malpractice has reached an alarming level with a huge number of coaching centres being run by some serving teachers at the expense of classroom teaching. Naturally, the students are bound to suffer, as the time allotted to teachers for conducting classes at the school is diverted to their coaching centres.

Some teachers also induce the students, saying that those who want to secure good marks should seek help from the teacher outside the school hours, preferably at the coaching centre run by the teacher. Many walls in the cities are covered with posters proclaiming that such and such "sir" is offering coaching with guaranteed A+ result in such and such subject. But these teachers never give such a guarantee in classroom teaching.

Now, the government has put a bar on private coaching by teachers with the caveat that schools can arrange extra classes for the meritorious and weaker section of the students, and that too only after school hours, for which the teachers will get remuneration. This directive has several aspects that need to be cogitated upon.

One of the aspects is that it acknowledges the harmful consequences of the lucrative business called private coaching, and also recognised the reality that some students do need extra efforts to get through in certain subjects, while some need extra coaching to secure outstanding marks.

Neither of the aspects can be ignored. But the most painful part of it is that no one had ever heard of private coaching on such a large scale, while giving little attention to classroom teaching.

It was not long ago that schools always attended to the extra needs of their students. If there was need for extra coaching, the schools would arrange it on their own accord. Neither were the students charged for it nor did the teachers asked for remuneration for the extra effort they put in. The all-pervasive private coaching was not known to anybody then.

The BNP-led four-party government did many wrong things, but its education minister did a splendid job by eliminating mass copying in the public examinations, which had engulfed the whole nation. The education minister of the incumbent government can also set another such example by eliminating private coaching.

The government should stop the MPO to those mercenary teachers. It should also withhold financial assistances to schools and colleges that are engaged in admission trade. The government may initiate legislative ban on advertisement of private coaching, the way advertisement of cigarettes has been banned. But imposition of a ban does not work without strict enforcement. Printing and selling of notebooks has also been banned but notebooks could not be banished from the market.

The 64 Deputy Commissioners (DCs), who attended a 3-day annual conference in July, brought another evil into focus. The DCs found that teachers' involvement in local politics seriously hampered education, both qualitatively and quantitatively. They have suggested that non-government teachers' job be made transferable.

The DCs suggestion deserves serious consideration. Prolonged stay at one place makes teachers enter partisan politics. This keeps them busy with matters other than their academic pursuits, which hampers their efficiency as teachers. Besides, this renders the whole purpose of government spending on non-government teachers' salary futile.

Nearly 3,81,000 teachers of 30,845 non-government schools, colleges and madrasas are now being paid by the government from the taxpayer's purse. So, these institutions should be brought under strict accountability and the spending must be on the purpose for which it is meant.

According to a newspaper report, academic activities in the public universities are being hampered as nearly 2,000 teachers of these universities are engaged in part-time teaching in private universities and consultancy in NGOs, while some 1,300 teachers are staying abroad in the name of higher studies.

In fact, out of a total of 8,068 teachers of public universities nearly 4,500 are detached from teaching. The absence of the teachers adds to the sufferings of the students because some teachers frequently miss regular classes, class tests and other duties.

Against this backdrop, the education minister has directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to formulate guidelines for the teachers of the public and private universities to check part time jobs and negligence in routine class teaching. The UGC has developed software to identify the public university teachers who are engaged in part time teaching in private universities.

The anger aired by the prime minister against the teachers who are playing foul with education is quite justifiable. Surely, she has given vent to a seething resentment of the people, which has been simmering for long. But only airing of anger is not enough. The government cannot shrug off its responsibility for the deteriorating quality of education.

The teachers are now being paid enough to make ends meet. Private tuition or part time teaching is now a matter of greed, not of sustenance. The mercenary teachers need some moral teaching to make them committed to the noble cause of the profession. Only then will the quality of education improve and coaching centres and part-time teaching may be stopped.

Six rich economies joined a website unveiled here yesterday detailing pledges in short-term aid they made at last December's climate summit, a move aimed at restoring damaged trust with developing countries.

The portal www.faststartfinance.org showed that Britain, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Norway had so far allocated the equivalent of 3.2 billion dollars in climate funds.

Twenty-seven poorer countries are named as beneficiaries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Morocco and the Philippines. Details of the projects and the timescale of funding were not given.

A sixth donor, Germany, said it had promised 1.26 billion euros (1.61 billion dollars), but has yet to say how the money would be allotted.

"It will give trust that promises are being kept," Dutch Environment Minister Tineke Huizinga, who conceived the project, told reporters.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of an informal meeting on climate finance in Geneva, gathering more than 40 countries.

The commitments are part of an overall package of 30 billion dollars that rich countries declared in "fast-start" aid for 2010, 2011 and 2012 at the Copenhagen summit to help the poor tackle global warming and its impacts.

The money was seen as a show of good faith in the troubled negotiations under the banner of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In the long term, according to a parallel but sketchier pledge made in Copenhagen, rich countries have promised to mobilise jointly 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.

But the infighting that marred Copenhagen left scars of mistrust among developing countries.

Poorer nations are keeping a watchful eye on the fast-track finances, insisting that donors honour the Copenhagen vow that funding be "new and additional."

Suspicions are high that a big chunk of the money will come from development aid or other budgets, thus damaging poverty alleviation in order to fulfil a political commitment.

"This initiative is a step in the right direction, but the question of additional funds is essential if trust is to be rebuilt," Romain Benicchio, Oxfam's policy advisor, told AFP.

Huizinga acknowledged that the information was provided by donor countries and the new portal "will not answer that particular debate" about additional sources.

She said agreeing on finance was a "golden key" to unlock success at the UNFCCC's upcoming conference in Cancun, Mexico.

The November 29-December 10 parlay aims at reviving negotiations with an eye to sealing the elusive climate treaty a year later.

Figueres on Thursday pleaded for tolerance if money disbursed in 2010 came in part from existing budgets, given that the promises were made at the end of 2009.

"It would be understandable if not all 100 percent of the 10 billion for this year to be new and additional because those budgets have already been set," she said.

The Copenhagen Accord declared developed countries were committed "to provide new and additional resources... approaching 30 billion dollars" for 2010-2012.

This included forestry and investments through international institutions. Allocations for tackling emissions of greenhouse gases and for coping with the effects of climate change would be "balanced."

"Funding for adaptation will be prioritized for the most vulnerable developing countries, such as the least developed countries, small island developing states and Africa," the summit statement added.

Indigenous villagers in northwestern Rajshahi have won a battle to reclaim their century-old road after a massive protest.

The villagers were at loggerheads with two local men who sought to prevent road improvements by claiming a portion of the Gopalpur village road at Poba sub-district as their own property.

The vital one kilometer road served an average 2,000 local villagers, including 500 indigenous Catholics.

"This is the only road for our movement and communications and we have used it for over 100 years," local resident Michael Hembrom told ucanews.com.

"For a long time it remained in miserable condition. However, recently the government began to develop it," added Hembrom, whose property was one of those affected by the claim on the land.

"We requested the local Union Council chairman to solve the problem but there was no remedy," he said.

Eventually after several meetings, agitated indigenous people armed with traditional bows and arrows as well as sticks blockaded the Rajshahi-Chapai Nawabgonj highway on Aug. 22 to claim their rights over the road.

"People had no other choice," said Father Patras Hasdak, an indigenous Santal Catholic in the village. "It is the only road and is meant for people's movement to the marketplace, to church, and to schools," he added.

The two-hour blockade ended after local officials and law enforcement agencies intervened to reassure the people that their lawful demands would be met.

"Using roads is a basic human right for all," said Bazle Rizvi Al-Hasan, a local official.

"We have bought the land from the two men who claimed it. Construction work has now begun again and we hope it will end within 10 days," Al-Hasan said.

The protest drew the attention of several national daily newspapers and of government officials.

Activists say that the rate of violence against women in Bangladesh is among the world's highest and rising.

"Violence against women is increasing day by day as a result of family disputes, dowry system and eve teasing," says Rosaline Costa, from Hotline (Human Rights) Bangladesh, a Church-based human rights organization.

"Every day 17 out of 100 women become victims of violence at home or in the workplace and 25% of them die", Costa explained.

"Although people are more aware of the issues because of the media, poor law enforcement and male dominance are major barriers to preventing violence against women," Costa told ucanews.com during the recent National Day of Prevention of Violence against Women on Aug. 24.

The nation has observed the event, which is also known as "Yeasmin Day," since 1996 to commemorate the brutal rape and killing of garment worker Yeasmin, 14, by three policemen in northwestern Dinajpur district.

Yeasmin, a Muslim girl, was on her way home from work in Dhaka when she was molested, killed and her body abandoned beside the road.

Three accused were arrested and brought to trial in Sept. 1996. All initially received life sentences. However, they were later sentenced to death in 2004.

Although the Yeasmin case remains as an example of extreme violence against women, Father Albert Thomas Rozario, secretary of Episcopal Commission for Justice and Peace, says that such brutality is absent from the history of the Catholic Church in the country.

"The Catholic Church has taken many initiatives against such violence in our six dioceses," he said.

"Mental and physical clashes do take place in Christian communities, but not to such an extent", concluded Father Rozario, who is also a lawyer in the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Council.

The most important distinguishing factor between a refugee and an internally displaced person (IDP) is cross border movement. Unlike refugees, who cross the international border for fear of persecution, IDPs do not cross a border. There is very limited legal protection offered to IDPs due to this unique context, as the state itself is the perpetrator of violence instead of providing protection to the IDPs.

The United Nation's working definition of the internally displaced is, "...persons who have been forced to flee their home suddenly or unexpectedly in large numbers, as a result of armed conflict,

internal strife, systematic violations of human rights or natural or man-made disasters, and who are within the territory of their own country."

Another report by Janie Hampton, the editor of IDP: A Global Survey states, "Unlike refugees who cross international borders, those who stay within their own country must rely upon their own governments to uphold their civil and human rights.

If the state chooses not to invite external assistance, then the international community has limited options to protect these people. In many countries, it is the government or its military forces that have caused the displacement or prevent access to their citizens." Numbers of IDPs from the region are unfortunately growing. The reason for them to be displaced range from being forced to flee their home because of an armed conflict (Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Burma, Iraq), environmental disasters (Indonesia, Burma, China), construction of dams (China, India, Bangladesh), industrialisation, famine and economic upheavals (the Philippines, Cambodia).

Internal displacement of the Pahari people in Bangladesh is the result of post-colonial nationbuilding and identity conflict. Known as Paharis or Hill People they are easily distinguishable from the people of the plains in terms of their features, socio-cultural practices and economic activities. Because of their traditional practice of shifting cultivation they are also collectively referred as "Jumma" people. This self-identification is also used by various CHT political communities to frame their own Pahari/Jumma nationbuiliding strategies.

The CHT has geo-political and strategic significance for Bangladesh and South Asian security due to its location and proximity to India and Burma, and the porosity of the border; its richness in commercial natural resources; and historical, political and social contexts that constitute the communities of the CHT as the "other" within a Bangladeshi state. A low-intensity conflict that is deeply embedded in the struggle over land and existence in the CHT has contributed to massive internal displacement over the years.

While the long-term benefits from the construction of Kaptai Dam in order to generate hydro-electricity in 1962 should not be underestimated, the massive dislocation caused by this decision; the seeds of conflict that it sowed; the militarisation of the region and its effect on the society; and the huge economic costs of the conflict in the CHT should not be ignored either. It flooded 54,000 acres area and displaced 100,000 people, most of whom were Chakmas (IDMC Report, 2006). According to Amnesty International, more than 40,000 Chakmas left for Arunachal Pradesh in India, where a majority still remain as stateless persons. The construction of the dam led to the initial crisis of internal displacement, loss of control over natural resources, threats of forced assimilation, construction of non-permanent army camps, and oppression by the Bangladeshi state and resulted in an armed insurgency in the CHT in 1976. As a counter-insurgency strategy the government relocated over 400,000 poor and landless Bengalis to the region between 1979 and 1983. Many of the Chakmas crossed the border to Mizoram and Tripura. By 1983, nearly 40,000 Chakmas had arrived in Mizoram and by May, 1986 another 50,000 Chakmas had taken shelter in five refugee camps in Tripura.

There are no accurate statistics on conflict-induced displacement in the CHT and the ethnic composition of the figures often cited. The Government task force on internal displacement stated in 2000 that there were 90208 tribal and 38156 non-tribal families or 500,000-555,000 people. Ironically, the Bangladesh government also considers the Bengali settlers displaced and pushed for their resettlement in CHT. NGOs, Bangladeshi scholars and indigenous leaders argue that this figure is inaccurate. Amnesty International has estimated that 60,000 Adivasis were internally displaced between August 1975 and August 1992.

The Peace Accord signed between the Awami League government and the Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS) on 2 December, 1997 was expected to empower people, withdraw non-permanent army camps from the region and deal with the repatriation of the Pahari people. While at the time of the signing, this was considered internationally a successful case of conflict resolution, it involved no third-party mediation or direct intervention by international actors, nor was civil society involved in the peace process.

These factors contributed to the weakness of the Accord. IDMC suggests that while in 2007, only 35 of the 500 non-permanent army camps were withdrawn from the CHT, by December, 2009, there were still around 300 military camps in the region. Deeply embedded distrust and vast power inequalities between the state (and the armed forces) and the Pahari communities made it impossible to achieve peace and stability in the region. Following the Peace Accord, the Indian government repatriated 65,000 Chakma refugees from Tripura. Many of the families, upon their return found their homes occupied by Bengali settlers and properties appropriated either by the army or the local administration. They became internally displaced.

Various international and national human rights organisations pointed out human rights violations of the newly displaced Pahari communities. For example, the CHT human rights groups alleged that many of their leaders have been arrested and imprisoned during the state of emergency that was declared in Bangladesh in January, 2007 and the election in December, 2008. They also alleged that during the caretaker government, the army used the state of emergency to exert pressure on the region.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Accord, the London-based Survival International (SI), a worldwide support group for indigenous people, stated that violence, land grabbing and intimidation have still continued in the region and have been a major source of displacement. Over fifty Pahari activists have been arrested during 2007 and 2008, often on false charges. One example was the displacement of the Mru people. The Mru, one of the Pahari communities, rely on their land as their only source of survival. 750 Mru (or Mro) families were either evicted from their land or were forced to flee from their home and moved to remote villages of the Bandarban Hill District of the CHT in December 2006.

After protesting against the eviction of his people from their land to make way for an army training centre, one of the leader of the Mru people and the Chairman of Sulaok Union Parishad in Bandarban, Ranglai Mro, was arrested and allegedly tortured by the police and army in February, 2007. He was charged with possessing illegal firearms and had been sentenced to 17 years in jail in July, 2007. It was further alleged that the charges were invented in retaliation for his defence of the Mru's rights to their land. While Ranglai Mro was eventually freed in January, 2009, this case demonstrates that intimidation still continues even after the Accord was signed, and intense fear of the authority as the source of internal displacement is still very real even after the rhetoric of peacebuilding by the state.

The situation remains volatile even after the election of the Awami League government in December, 2008. Both the BNP and the military elite repeatedly advocate that the state has to maintain a strong military presence in the area because of the risk of transnational crime networks operating in some of the impenetrable areas, illegal movement of people, drugs, arms and other goods on the porous borderland and potential armed insurgency. It is also alleged by the opposition and at least some of the enforcement agencies that the IDPs shelter armed groups and cross the border illegally to be trained in India. As a consequence, it is not only the military, but the functions of the police and border patrol have been increased over the years in the CHT.

In December, 2007, Bangladesh issued an official statement that rejected the allegations of continuing abuse of rights of Pahari people in the CHT as false and baseless and stated they enjoy more privileges than other citizens. A senior official of the Ministry of CHT Affairs was quoted in the media, "The allegation of any violence against the Pahari is totally false. We have found no evidence of it." The attack on 14 villages under Sajek Union in February, 2010 and the government's subsequent denial to allow access in the area is the most recent example of the state's extreme sensitivity, regardless of the change of government, when it comes to CHT.

The displaced and dislocated people live in insecure conditions. They are subjected to violence and intimidation with little or no justification. When members of the Pahari community are taken into custody for breaking the law the perception is that they receive harsher punishment than the Bengalis for similar offences that is also not proportionate to the behaviour. A significant aspect of their persecution is land grabbing.

The state repeatedly invokes its moral authority through the lens of national security and state sovereignty in dealing with the Pahari people. There is of course a historical context to it. While civil society does not always draw upon the paradoxical history in its justice advocacy campaign for the rights of indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, members of the law enforcement authorities often justify their mistreatment of the Paharis based on this "good" citizens model. For them, disloyalty to the idea of a Bangladeshi statehood is demonstrated over and over again by the Pahari communities, such as when the Adivasi leaders sought to be part of India and Burma in 1947, when the community was divided in its support of the Bengali national movement and the war of 1971, and when the armed resistance started in the Hills in the late 1970s.

This is very similar to the Burmese military regime and some of its Rakhine population's arguments about the Rohingyas as disloyal people who also opted for a separate homeland for themselves, and whose citizenship was eventually taken away from them. Unlike the Rohingyas, who could be forcefully evicted because they became effectively stateless due to a change in the Burmese Citizenship Act, for the Pahari community in the CHT the situation is more complex.

The status of protection that was granted by the British to the indigenous people in the Hills is unique and saved them from the fate of the Rohingyas across the border. Many members of the government are also sympathetic to the Adivasi causes. However, when members of the law enforcement authorities are posted in the CHT, they are confronted by differences in physical features, lifestyle, culture and religion, but "disloyalty" is the key protagonist. Many remember the history, and for many it is indeed an "us versus them" situation. If the Paharis could prove that they are law-abiding "good citizens" then they are less likely to be treated like "aliens" or non-citizens.

However, for the dislocated Pahari, civil disobedience is never a question of breaking the law, rather advocating for her or his rights as a member of the indigenous community that exists beyond the idea of a Bangladeshi state. When Pahari communities demonstrate for their rights to land it becomes a political statement for the whole community. Such actions have lost their private or individual claim. Pahari causes are inherently public and are the subject of an intimate violence constantly produced and reproduced by the state-Pahari dynamic.

The gruesome violence, abduction and killings that occur here, the fire that burns houses and sacred spaces such as temples, are all elements of the spectacle of violence that has two different kinds of audiencesthe Bengalis and the Paharis. The demonstrations that take place on the streets or in the bazaars, and in the presence of the media, the NGOs and the activists, all are part of this public spectacle of violence in the place called 'the Hills'. The janus-faced narrative of nationbuilding has taken over everything that is sacred. How can this dislocation be ever resolved?

An 'imagined' dislocation?
The violence that ruptures the everyday life in the CHT is persistent in producing and reproducing trauma for the Pahari community. For them, this violence has not discontinued either with the signing of the Peace Accord, or with regime changes in Dhaka. The deep resentment has permeated in various levels of the community, and is the source of periodic physical (real) and constantly imagined displacements. By imagined, I mean the psychological effects of prolonged physical displacement for communities. In their collective memory, often passed through generations of oral history, displaced communities remember their shared history as that of an unsettled and displaced people (also disenfranchised and also marginalised, in various border narratives starting with the British rule) even after resettlements. This perception produces a legitimacy to continue their struggle to gain control over their land.

In December, 2009, it claimed that seven of its activists were kidnapped allegedly by the supporters of PCJSS from Munsi Abdur Rouf square at Manikchhari, some twenty kilometres from Rangamati. Media reported other clashes, for example the death of UPDF activist Kalapa Chakma in July and revenge killing of two PCJSS members, the village chief Karbari Anil Bikash Chakma and an activist, Kaya Prue Marma in the same month.

PCJSS also claims that UPDF intimidates its members and their families. Intra-community clashes have also caused temporary and permanent displacement of people from their homes. The government must consider community confidence building measures that involve shared activities for youth groups and dialogues as effective ways to address radicalisation.

While during difference political regimes, the state's engagement with the Pahari community in terms of confidence-building measures and integration in the broader Bangladeshi society have been somewhat arbitrary, it is the INGOS and NGOs that have provided key development assistance in the CHT through community development activities. However, many of their projects in the area of health, education and micro-credit are framed as "development" projects and deliberately left out human rights as a key component due to government sensitivity. Human rights is perceived as the desired outcome that would automatically be realised if development projects in the area succeed. As such, development projects that are carried out with the communities have not been successful in responding to the concerns of displacement and dislocation.

The Bangladeshi state has been relatively uncompromising in recognising the rights and diversity of its population, and has consistently failed to integrate the Pahari voices in its national security policies. Also, ambiguous and inconsistent management of CHT's development policies failed to take account of anxieties faced by displaced Pahari communities. The first step towards achieving meaningful peace for the CHT remains in initiating a comprehensive, all-inclusive and sincere dialogue between various interest groups.

Bina D'Costa is a member of the Drishtipat Writers Collective, which published the book "Between Ashes and Hope: Chittagong Hill Tracts in the Blind Spot of Bangladesh Nationalism" where an abbreviated version of this essay appears.

A group of nuns, who have been trained to work in big hospitals, say they have found even more fulfillment serving poor Hindu villagers.

The Medical Mission Sisters' work in villages started in 1980 when three nuns from the south came to Selud village in central India and lived with a Hindu family.

"We felt our big hospitals don't serve the poor," says Sister Augustine, who has been working in the village for the last 10 years.

The nuns, who work among tribal people, former "untouchables" of the caste system and other underprivileged groups, have formed 135 self-help groups for women and farmers in 56 villages.

The villagers are able to manage the groups and "we can now move to other places," said another nun, Sister Annu Thomas.

The congregation owned nine major hospitals in India, but gave up the ownership and management of six of them. "Many of our sisters are now working in villages," said Sister Thomas.

After 30 years of "experimentation," the sisters have found that their mission is "rewarding," said one nun, Sister Theramma.

The idea for the village mission arose after the congregation in 1967 "rediscovered" their original charism "to be the active presence of Christ, the healer."

The nuns also work with other groups such as the Indian Network of Action Groups, the Delhi-based National Alliance of Women's Organization, the Catholic Health Association of India and the Raipur archdiocesan social work center.

The nuns, who began to wear the sari in 1967, are also among the first Religious in India to wear secular dress.

More efforts are needed to implement a pro-poor education policy that Indian bishops released three years ago, say Church educators.

Thirty-six delegates from across India, during a recent meeting in Hyderabad, evaluated the implementation of the All India Catholic Education Policy that the bishops released in 2007.

The document stressed that "all Catholics are admitted to our schools on the essential merit that they are Catholics" and that no Catholic child should be deprived of quality education because of lack of means.

Delegates, during their Aug. 26-29 meeting, sought ways to better implement the policy in Catholic schools across India.

"Though all the [Church] regions are keenly implementing the policy, the workshop decided to accelerate the implementation in a scientific manner," said a participant.

Delegates said they wanted "scientific and accurate reports" from regions presenting the achievements and challenges in implementing the policy.

They suggested that the bishops' Commission for Education and Culture, which organized the meeting, together with regional teams organize awareness programs on policy implementation.

An action plan to advance the implementation of the policy was also released during the meeting.

The Catholic Church runs more than 20,000 educational institutions serving more than 10 million students in the country.

Most schools, about 59 percent, operate in villages and serve poor, rural people.

Religious and social workers met recently to discuss how to help poor villagers fight for their "right to food," as guaranteed in various government schemes.

Many villagers do not know their rights and thus are unable to demand them from the administration, said Holy Cross of Chavanod Sister Gracy Sundar, one of 40 Religious and lay participants at a two-day workshop that ended on Sept. 1.

The Justice, Peace and Development Commission of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India (CBCI) organized the event in Konchowki on the outskirts of Kolkata.

The workshop highlighted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act as means of claiming entitlements for the poor.

Eleven members from the Jesuit Udayani (awakening) Social Action Forum, from six districts of West Bengal state, also participated in the workshop.

West Bengal villagers, mostly illiterate people, are unaware of government schemes for their welfare, said Udayani director Jesuit Father Irudaya Jothi.

His organization will train youths, self-help groups, farmers and women groups on their entitlements and help them to claim these benefits from the government, he said.

The Justice, Peace and Development Commission has been advocating the rights-based approach for claiming benefits under at least eight schemes, said commission secretary, Capuchin Father Nithiya Sagayam.

The organization has conducted over 700 workshops in the past four years on people's right to food, said the priest, who is also secretary of the Office of Human Development of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences.

In 20 villages in Kandhamal District hit by anti-Christian pogroms in 2008, Hindus continue to prevent Christians from participating in social life, including the use of public fountains and cutting wood in the forest. "they need to live a dignified life. The Orissa State government has an obligation to do something about it and protect Christians from this inhuman treatment," the archbishop Cuttack-Bhubaneswar said.

Two years after anti-Christian pogroms broke out in the Indian state of Orissa, Hindus in some 20 villages in Kandhamal District continue to treat more than 4,000 Christians as social outcaste, pressuring them with force to convert. Beside fears, threats and total banishment from the local economy, Christians are not allowed to use public fountains or collect wood in the forest.

"People are living in misery," said Mgr Raphael Cheenath, SVD, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, at a press conference in Bhubaneswar last Monday. "They need to live a dignified life. The Orissa State government has an obligation to do something about it and protect Christians from this inhuman treatment," he added.

The prelate urged local authorities to compensate those who suffered losses during the pogroms and now find themselves homeless. He slammed the puny sums given out so far, US$ 1,000 for destroyed homes and US$ 400 for damaged homes.

"The Orissa State Government must raise compensation, from Rs. 5 lakhs (US$ 1,000) to Rs. 20 lakhs (US$ 4,000) to rebuild damaged Churches, religious and public institutions, NGOs, including the furniture and other fixtures that were destroyed with the buildings in the violence," Archbishop Cheenath said.

At the start, the government made an "arbitrary" assessment to determine victims' compensation, and did so without consulting them to find out their needs. Thus, "About 12,500 people have been resettled in their houses;" however, "About 17,500 people are still displaced and have a right to be resettled by the state government," the archbishop added.

Between December 2007 and August 2008, Hindu extremists killed 93 people, sacked and torched more than 6,500 homes, destroyed 350 churches and 45 schools. The pogroms displaced more than 50,000 people.

So far, most of the perpetrators of these crimes are free. Many witnesses scheduled to appear at trials taking place at the Kandhamal courthouse have been silenced through threats and acts of discrimination.

Between 22 and 24 August, victims, human rights activists and religious leaders organised a people's court in New Delhi to shed light on what happened and push India's central government to intervene.

An Indonesian volcano spewed a vast cloud of smoke and ash high into the air on Monday, disrupting flights and sending thousands more people into temporary shelters.

Airlines were warned to avoid remote Mount Sinabung in northern Sumatra as it erupted for a second day after springing to life for the first time in four centuries.

'It erupted again at 6:30am (2330 GMT) and lasted about 15 minutes. The smoke and ash reached at least 2,000 metres,' government volcanologist Agus Budianto said.

The eruption was bigger than Sunday's when the 2,460-metre Sinabung rumbled into action for the first time since 1600, adding its name to the list of 69 active volcanoes in the sprawling Southeast Asian archipelago.

About 27,000 people are staying at the temporary shelters on Monday and 7,000 more are expected, Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said.

'We're expecting the number to rise to 34,000. That's the total number of people living within the six-kilometre radius of the volcano. The rest are on their way,' he added.

Authorities have ordered everyone within the six-kilometre 'danger zone' to leave.

Twenty shelters have been set up to accommodate people who began to evacuate their villages as ash and stones fell around the fertile farming area early Sunday.

'They're all quite happy to stay at the shelters - nobody thinks it's safe to go home yet,' Kardono said.

Witnesses said a strong smell of sulphur filled the air and many people fled their homes on foot before receiving the order to evacuate.

Marsita Sembiring, a vegetable farmer, said she fled Sukanalu village - which is about four kilometres from the volcano - with her husband and four children.

They spent Sunday at a shelter in the town of Kabanjahe, 20 kilometres from Sinabung, but returned to the village for the night to protect their home from looters.

'It also rained last night and we were sure that the volcano would become calmer, so we decided to stay overnight in our house,' she said.

'This morning it erupted again. We panicked as the smoke was rising very high. I'm so worried that the smoke is poisonous,' the 41-year-old woman said.

Aircraft were ordered to avoid the area and travellers to North Sumatra province were warned of possible delays, transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said.

'It may affect flight traffic to and from the province. It all depends on the direction of the wind,' he said. Several domestic flights had to be cancelled on Sunday due to the smoke, he said.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific 'Ring of Fire', where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity. It has more active volcanoes than any other country.

Television footage showed black smoke shooting up into the sky and lava overflowing from the crater as residents fled the area in pickup trucks and cars.

Government volcanologist Budianto said the volcano's long sleep had made it difficult for experts to read.

'We hope that the eruptions have significantly reduced the energy accumulated inside the mountain. But we must remain on alert for unpredictable events as this mountain has been dormant for hundreds of years,' he said.

Earlier this month four people went missing after the 1,784-metre Mount Karangetang erupted on the island of Siau, North Sulawesi province.

The human and social costs of the war, on all the warring sides, the invader and the invaded, appeared beyond imagination. A land littered with blood sank into sectarian strife. An occupation disclosed limits of military might of the occupier, manipulations in the political machinery that claimed to be transparent and accountable, and loopholes in the system that allowed a cabal to confuse taxpayers, writes Farooque Chowdhury in the first instalment of an article serialised in two parts

THE Iraq mission that began with false statements, falsification of facts, fabrication and forgery remains unaccomplished for the empire although the last combat troops, theoretically, left the country, and although George W Bush made the 'accomplishment' announcement, another falsification also, years ago. A report of the Associated Press described the rolling out of the last stryker carrying combat troops from Iraq on an August day.

'Justification' for the Iraq War was fabricated by Bush and Tony Blair. The 'Bush-Blair 2003 Iraq memo' or the 'Manning memo', a five-page once-secret memo, was first reported by Philippe Sands, a professor at University College, London, in his book Lawless World. The leaked document classified as 'extremely sensitive' was collected by The New York Times: 'Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Advisor Says' (March 27, 2006). The NYT confirmed the authenticity of the memo prepared by Manning, Blair's chief foreign adviser. It was of a White House meeting between Bush and Blair on January 31, 2003. The memo revealed that the Bush administration had already decided on the US invasion of Iraq, six weeks before the war started. In the meeting, Bush floated the idea of painting a U-2 spy plane, the most sophisticated US reconnaissance aircraft, in UN colours, let it fly over Iraq to provoke or allure Saddam to shoot it down, and create pretext for the Anglo-US invasion. Bush told Blair in the meeting, as the Lawless World said: 'If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach' of UN resolutions. The two leaders of the much propagated democratic world, as the memo showed, made a secret deal to carry out the invasion regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction were found by the UN arms inspectors.

According to the memo, Bush said: 'The start date for the military campaign was now pencilled in for 10 March. This was when the bombing would begin' (BBC news online, March 27, 2006). A Guardian exclusive referring to the same memo said: Blair backed Bush when told that the US was intent on war - UN resolution or not and evidence or not that Iraq was hiding its WMD. Blair told Bush that he was 'solidly' behind American plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about its legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution. Lawless World said the meeting focused on the need to identify evidence that Saddam had committed a material breach of his obligations under the existing UN Resolution 1441. There was concern that insufficient evidence had been unearthed by the UN inspection team, and by then it was clear that there was no credible evidence of WMD, the stated justification for the moves against Saddam. Bush made clear, according to the book also featured on Channel 4 News, that he would go to war irrespective of whether there was a second UN resolution. 'The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would "twist arms" and "even threaten". But he had to say that if, ultimately, we failed, military action would follow anyway.'

Referring to the book The Times wrote: Bush made it clear that he had already decided to go to war, despite still pressing for a UN resolution. Bush said it was also possible that a defector could be brought out who would give a public presentation about Saddam's WMD, and there was a small possibility that Saddam would be assassinated. The story thus gained momentum.

In 2008, the non-partisan Centre for Public Integrity identified 935 false statements made by Bush and six other top members of his administration in a 'carefully launched campaign of misinformation' during the period 2001-2003, in order to rally support for the invasion of Iraq. In 2004, the Duelfer Report said Iraq did not have a viable WMD programme. US diplomat Wilson found the claims of the so-called 'yellow cake' uranium purchase by Iraq 'unequivocally wrong'. The Bush administration made the claim and in this 'endeavour' cited British intelligence sources. Wilson in his The New York Times op-ed piece in June 2003 stated that the claim was fraudulent. Wilson's and his wife's subsequent 'story' exposed another face of a section of a state leadership. Saddam's aluminium tubes story also came out a hollow one.

A number of mainstream media confirmed Iraqi allegation that US intelligence agents included in the UN inspection team supplied the US with information. Powell's admission to presenting an inaccurate case to the UN on Iraqi weapons is now a known fact. He also said the intelligence he was relying on was, in some cases, 'deliberately misleading'. The 'Downing Street memo' (The Sunday Times, May 1, 2005) told of a secret meeting of British officials in July 23, 2002. They discussed the build-up to the war. The memo said: 'Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.' Reports also came out in media that Bush, ten days after taking office in January 2001, instructed his aides to look for a way to overthrow the Iraqi regime. A secret memo, 'Plan for post-Saddam Iraq', was discussed in January and February 2001. The document 'Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts' (March 5, 2001) included a map of potential areas for petroleum exploration. Oil is really alluring, and the peak oil curve is a compelling factor, it seems.

Bush's admission that '[his] biggest regret of [the entire] presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq' was actually the confirmation of trampling of facts and losing moral justifications by a military machine. His announcement of the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq could not legalise the invasion in the court of world public opinion. The invasion failed to gain legitimacy in the world of people. Rather, an illegitimate stance of a state was exposed. Between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the war in Iraq (Socialist Worker, March 19, 2005). On September 16, 2004, Kofi Annan said the invasion was 'not in conformity with the UN Charter. From our point of view, from the Charter point of view, it was illegal.' In November 2008, Lord Bingham, the former British Law Lord, described the war a serious violation of international law, and accused Britain and the US of acting like a 'world vigilante.' He also criticised the post-invasion record of Britain as 'an occupying power in Iraq' (The Guardian, November 18, 2008). In July 2010, Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom, condemned the invasion of Iraq as illegal. Opinion polls showed disapproval of the invasion and occupation. Section of intelligence community considered the invasion a 'fatal mistake'.

But the empire anyhow deconstructed facts to construct fabricated facts in an inert UN-world. Iraq was invaded. An atrocious war machine raged on. A rapid and decisive Iraq-victory expected by the mightiest empire turned into its long, unconventional war-quagmire, the second longest war in US history rivalled only by its Vietnam War. The human and social costs of the war, on all the warring sides, the invader and the invaded, appeared beyond imagination. A land littered with blood sank into sectarian strife. An occupation disclosed limits of military might of the occupier, manipulations in the political machinery that claimed to be transparent and accountable, and loopholes in the system that allowed a cabal to confuse taxpayers. Wisdom was lost to war-mongering. A centuries-old political system disclosed its incapacity to deliver peace.

The demise of Saddam's autocracy has not still ushered in a New Dawn for the dignified Iraqi people. Bush's Mission Accomplished assertion made from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the backdrop of a 2003 May day setting sun still remains illusive. Obama is aware of the reality that restrained him from making similar claims, writes Farooque Chowdhury in conclusion of an article serialised in two parts

THE Human Cost of the War in Iraq, A Mortality Study, 2002-2006 (Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University; School of Medicine, Al Mustansiriya University, Baghdad; in cooperation with the Centre for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) estimated that '654,965 or 2.5% of the Iraqi population has died in this, the largest major international conflict of the 21st century,' which 'should be of grave concern to everyone.' The study found that death rates were 5.5/1,000/year pre-invasion and, overall, 13.2/1,000/year for the 40 months post-invasion while the post-invasion violent death rate was 3.2 deaths/1,000/year in March 2003-April 2004, 6.6 deaths/1,000/year in May 2004-May 2005, and 12.0 deaths/1,000/year in June 2005-June 2006.

Gunfire remained the most common reason for death. Air strikes caused about 13 per cent of deaths. The US air force and navy flew thousands of sorties annually as 'close air support' of ground operations; 'how much ordnance is dropped is not reported. Thousands more helicopter gunship operations are flown. Between 200 million to one billion small-calibre rounds of ammunition or more have been expended ... by the US forces .... In 2006, according to Central Command and Air Force Link websites, these sorties were averaging about 1,200 or more monthly.' Increasing deaths from car bombs developed later. The study estimated that through July 2006, there were 654,965 'excess deaths'-fatalities above the pre-invasion death rate-as a consequence of the war. Of post-invasion deaths, 601,027 were due to violent causes. The study concluded: The number of persons dying in Iraq has continued to escalate with each year.

Marc Herold, an economist on the independent UK-based project Iraq Body Count, believes thousands of deaths may go unreported. A UN report in September 2006 also stated that Iraqi civilian casualties have been significantly under-reported. A study found that the number of journalists killed from 2003 to 2007 was 112. Of them 90 were Iraqis. The number, according to another count, goes up to141, 94 by murder and 47 by acts of war. The number of Iraqi physicians murdered since the 2003 invasion was 2,000. An Opinion Research Business survey estimated 1,033,000 violent deaths up to August 2007. The number is on an increasing-journey.

A destructed and dislocated life began wandering there in Iraq. 'Deaths from non-violent causes', the above mentioned Human Cost ... Study said, 'have increased for 2005 and 2006 suggesting a trend in deaths due to deterioration in health services and the environment health threats, as well as decreasing access to health services.' A World Food Programme study found that 17 per cent of children were underweight and 32 per cent chronically malnourished or stunted (Baseline food security analysis in Iraq, 2004).

The invasion and war have destroyed vital infrastructures for food, water, security, and sanitation. The Red Cross observed in March 2008 that Iraq's humanitarian situation was among the most critical in the world, with millions of Iraqis forced to rely on insufficient and poor-quality water sources (Iraq: No let-up in the humanitarian crisis). Joseph Chamie, former director of the UN Population Division said. 'They were at the forefront,' referring to healthcare system just before the 1991 Gulf War. 'Now they're looking more and more like a country in sub-Saharan Africa.'

The Brookings Institution's Iraq Index informs: millions of Iraqis were displaced inside Iraq due to the war, unemployment rate ranged from 27 per cent to 60 per cent, consumer price inflation in 2006 rose to 50 per cent, 40 per cent of the professionals have left Iraq since 2003, the number of Iraqi physicians before the invasion was 34,000 and the number of Iraqi physicians who have left Iraq was 12,000. Seventy per cent of the Iraqis are without access to adequate water supplies while 37 per cent of the Iraqi homes are connected to sewer systems and 22 per cent water treatment plants have been rehabilitated. In the pre-invasion days, Baghdad homes, on an average, had 16 to 24 hours of electric supply daily. In May 2007, it went down to 5.6. Estimate of average daily availability of electricity in Iraqi homes vary: 1-2 hours to 10.9 hours.

Black Hawk helicopters over a land with its 16 per cent of the population (about 4.7 million) refugees (more than 2 million of them were in countries including Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran), and 35 per cent of its children (about 5 million) orphans failed to prevent the disgraced exit of hawks, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. Thousands of Iraqis burned Bush-effigy in Baghdad, the city that witnessed toppling of a Saddam-statue, also a symbol of autocracy. Dividends to oil lobby being paid by the Iraqi and the American peoples nullify the argument to justify the invasion. Iraq, the fifth in the 2008 and the sixth in the 2009 Failed States Index, is now one of the major clients of the US armaments industry. The billion-dollar Iraqi arms marketing list begins with rifles, moves on armoured vehicles and tanks, and then flies with helicopters, transport planes and F-16 planes.

Contradictions, hostile in character, among groups and factions remain unresolved there in Iraq. Death squads and ethnic strife appear routine phenomenon in a barely functioning life. The basic questions of Iraqi people's interests concerning a peaceful, prosperous, and stable life remains undetermined, and the camarilla of oil robbers, arms merchants and private defence contractors carry all the powers to subdue the interests of the Iraqi people. The demise of Saddam's autocracy has not still ushered in a New Dawn for the dignified Iraqi people. Bush's Mission Accomplished assertion made from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the backdrop of a 2003 May day setting sun still remains illusive. Obama is aware of the reality that restrained him from making similar claims.

OBAMA, as a senator, in a speech in Charleston on March 20, 2008, said: the war costs each US household about $100 per month (PolitiFact April 1st, 2008). Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E Stiglitz, and Professor Linda J Bilmes of Harvard University in their book The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict arrived in the same arithmetical conclusion: The bill for the Iraq war is likely to top $3 trillion. It is a 'conservative estimate', they said. Stiglitz and Bilmes say: Iraq War, the second most costly, surpassed only by the World War II, is more than double the cost of the Korean War. 'The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. economy....These costs ... are now running at $12 billion a month. ...President Bush tried to sell the American people on the idea that we could have a war with little or no economic sacrifice. Even after the United States went to war, Bush and Congress cut taxes, especially on the rich - even though the United States already had a massive deficit. So the war had to be funded by more borrowing.' They added: 'But the costs to our society and economy are far greater. When a young soldier is killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, his or her family will receive a US government check for just $500,000 ... far less than the typical amount paid by insurance companies for the death of a young person in a car accident. The stark "budgetary cost" of $500,000 is clearly only a fraction of the total cost society pays for the loss of life - and no one can ever really compensate the families.' The economists warned that the US 'will be paying the price of Iraq for decades to come. The price tag will be all the greater because we tried to ignore the laws of economics.' To compare facts, they cited: '[In the WWII] the cost per troop was less than $100,000 in 2007 dollars. ... [T]he Iraq war is costing upward of $400,000 per troop.' Stiglitz and Bilmes continued: 'The costs to society are obviously far larger than the numbers that show up on the government's budget... Needless to say, this number represents the cost only to the United States. It does not reflect the enormous cost to the rest of the world, or to Iraq... [T]he social costs in the UK are similar to those in the US' (The Three Trillion Dollar War... and 'The Iraq War Will Cost Us $3 Trillion, and Much More', washingtonpost.com, March 9, 2008). The invasion has not only wrecked havoc in the lives of the Iraqis but has also intensified woes in the American society.

History shall not cease haunting the perpetrators of invasion with questions: the costs the democracy- and freedom-loving American people paid with their beloved sons and daughters, thousands in number, for the interests of a Naked Imperialism bent on grabbing all the resources of this planet, many of them were young, smiling as morning flowers, to many of them the world owed scores of springs; the sufferings of the Iraqi people and the number of deaths the Iraqi children and mothers witnessed; the hunger of an ever-accumulating economy; the logic of an illogical economy that needs wars, invasions, deaths and destruction. The unemployed millions, the homeless millions, the starving millions, the sick millions around the world shall question the logic of spending taxpayers' trillions of dollars for an invasion that takes out to billions of dollars each month, thousands of dollars each second, about four hundred thousand dollars for deploying one soldier for one year in Iraq, and billions of dollars due to lost and unaccounted money, spare parts, guns, rifles, missing tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, machine guns, grenades, due to mismanagement, wastage, unreasonable and unsupported overcharges by the private defence contractors, misappropriations. The tragic lessons of the war will intensify world people's peaceful march, a march free from hatred and violence, a march of love and solidarity, a march that perceives dynamics of history and socio-economy, a march that does not use terror as terror cannot replace political struggle and as lessons of political struggle unequivocally discard terror.

Farooque Chowdhury contributes on socioeconomic issues. The Age of Crisis is one of his recent books.

“An accord of hypocrisy signed with the blood of migrants and the complicity of bilateral economic interests”, stated the Conference of Italian missionary institute (CIMI) in defining the so-called Italian-Libyan “friendship accord”, sealed in the past days with a visit to Rome of Libya’s leader Colonel Muammar Kaddafi. “As missionaries, we do not recognise ourselves in this ‘friendship accord’, which in reality is a Liberalist style criminal association”, continues a statement issued by the CEI Justice and Peace Commission. The accords on migration policies drew most criticism, allowing the Italian navy and coast guard to reject and send back to Libya dozens of boats crowded with migrants. The CIMI denounces that in relations between Rome and Tripoli, the only law respected “is that of economic profit”. During his visit in Rome, the Libyan leader met with Italy’s top business leaders and managers, ranging from the Unicredit and ENI electric group to the Finmeccanica military technological provider. [BO]

Japan began Tuesday to destroy chemical weapons left over in China from its brutal World War II invasion, a move mandated by its international treaty obligations, state press said.

Hideo Hiraoka, vice minister of Japan's cabinet office, announced the beginning of the disposal of thousands of left-over weapons at a ceremony in east China's Nanjing city, Xinhua news agency said.

"Today's move marks a new phase in the disposal of abandoned chemical weapons in China, in which the work has shifted from excavation and recovery to destruction," the report quoted Hiraoka as saying.

"This is the result of years of efforts made by Japanese and Chinese authorities, and will have far-reaching effects on the bilateral relationship."

Japan is responsible for the destruction of the weapons, as a signatory to the UN Chemical Weapons Convention, the report said.

Tokyo and Beijing have agreed that up to 400,000 chemical weapons, left in China as Japan surrendered and withdrew, remain in the country although the figure has long been the subject of debate.

Most of the weapons were located in northeast China, but caches of chemical bombs have been found in numerous places occupied by Japanese armies, Japanese diplomats in Beijing said.

Beijing has been pressing Japan to work faster on the issue. Over 2,000 Chinese citizens have been injured or killed by leftover Japanese chemical munitions since the end of the war, Xinhua said earlier.

Such mishaps invariably lead to a resurgence of anti-Japanese sentiment in China, where lingering anger over Japan's wartime past routinely sours relations

Netanyahu ignores president, and wife by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler

Thousands of Israelis have protested in a central park here demanding that their government revoke its decision to deport 400 children of migrant workers.

"The children must be allowed to stay, this is a moral imperative," the crowd was told by left-wing legislator Dov Henin.

Earlier this month the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu decided to expel the 400 children while allowing another 800 to remain.

Israel is confronting an issue with which many wealthy Western societies are also grappling: should birth confer citizenship?

The right to citizenship for anyone born in a particular country dates back to 17th Century English Common Law. But in many western countries with large minorities of migrants -- legal and illegal -- those who would continue that enlightened policy are being challenged by nationalists stoking hatred and intolerance of 'the other'.

Since the early '90s when it started to bar most Palestinians from working inside Israel, successive Israeli governments have encouraged tens of thousands of foreign workers to take jobs in building, farming and home care services.

Some of them, mainly from south-east Asia and Africa, overstayed their work visas, continued to work illegally and raised families here. Israeli interior ministry officials estimate there are currently over 200,000 migrant workers in the country, more than half without permits. About 1,200 children who were born in the country remain here.

What to do with those children has been hotly debated by Israelis for the past year.

The government continually put off a decision. But two weeks ago it finally decided on a "compromise" -- allowing 800 who have lived in Israel for more than five years, speak Hebrew and attend school to remain, but giving the 400 others, most of whom are less than five years old, until the end of the month to leave voluntarily with their parents or face expulsion to their parents' home countries.

Netanyahu tried to straddle both sides. He told his cabinet, "On one hand, this is a humanitarian problem. We all feel and understand the hearts of children. But on the other hand, there are Zionist considerations. We must ensure the Jewish character of the State of Israel."

The prime minister called it a "demographic threat": "We do not want to create an incentive for the influx of hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants."

As the deadline for the deportations draws near, Netanyahu suddenly finds his policy challenged from several unexpected sources -- from Aliza Olmert, the wife of his predecessor, from his own wife, Sarah, and from Shimon Peres, Israel's state President.

In a letter to the hardline Interior Minister Eli Yishai, a crucial partner in the Netanyahu coalition, and the spearhead of the expel-the-children campaign, Sarah Netanyahu wrote, "As the mother of two sons, and a psychologist in the public service, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to use your authority -- allow most of the 400 children to stay in Israel."

Mrs. Netanyahu's letter made clear that she had taken up the issue with her husband: "Long before the government decision, I approached my husband, the prime minister, and told him I believed the State of Israel must find a solution for the children. I would like to believe this contributed somewhat to the prime minister's position to allow 800 of the children to remain in Israel," she wrote.

She added, "I'm confident that within the context of the government resolution and your powers as minister you can find a creative solution in a manner that does not harm immigration policy or Israel's national interests as a Jewish state."

In a separate letter, to the prime minister, an umbrella organisation of Holocaust survivors also expressed revulsion at the planned expulsions. "The State of Israel is founded on a Jewish heart and conscience. We who experienced the Holocaust are overcome by a sense of suffocation and shame."

Another left-wing legislator, Ilan Gilon, told the rally here that should the deportation go ahead, he personally would be willing to hide children from the immigration authorities and their special Oz unit which tracks illegal workers.

Aliza Olmert, when interviewed on Israeli Army Radio, intimated that she would do the same. "This decision is a moral scar on our society. If the government carries it through, it will provide ammunition for all those in the international community who are laying in wait to ambush us," the wife of the former premier said.

She scoffed at the contention that allowing the children to stay would encourage more illegal migrants to try to get into Israel and therefore accelerate the transformation of Israel.

Yishai, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, rejected all the appeals for a change of policy, including that of the prime minister's wife: "These foreigners came to Israel, some of them illegally, and gave birth to illegal children here," he said.

He had earlier accused the migrant workers of using their children as "human shields" and of "bringing diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatatis and AIDS."

When asked whether Yishai was guilty of racism, Mrs. Olmert said, "His arguments are nothing but cheap demagoguery and primitive demonisation."

With many of the 400 families scurrying to get an exemption from the expulsion sword hanging over their heads, President Peres spoke out forcefully: "It is unthinkable that 400 children born in Israel who feel Israeli, and who live like Israeli children should be expelled," he said. He urged the government to reconsider the move, arguing that "the deportations would be harmful to Israel and to the country's moral fibre."

Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureatte, carries moral authority both within Israel and in the international community. But the government has pointedly ignored his call completely.

Meanwhile, Yishai's racist slurs cut little ice with eight-year old Maria, born in Tel Aviv after her mother came here from the Phillipines to care for an elderly Israeli couple. Holding her mother's hand after the rally she said in unaccented Hebrew, "I'm staying here. This is my home."

The US together with the EU, UN and Russia (known as the Quartet) in April 2003, released its roadmap that outlined a three-stage program leading to an independent Palestinian State by 2005.

By 2010, no Palestine State has been constituted because of Israel's defiant policy towards the Quartet and continuing illegal settlements in Palestinian lands with impunity.

On 21st February, 2010, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, said that "One can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian State, and its immediate recognition by the international community even before negotiating borders."

Later under pressure from the President, he retracted his statement and the issue is back to square one.

King Abdullah II of Jordan some time ago made it clear that "the continued denial of Palestinian rights is a fire-starter. If you do not fix the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you cannot have stability in the region. We will pay the price for what I think may be the last opportunity."

Other voices from the region share the King's urgency. Amr Moussa, the long-serving Secretary General of Arab League, said a Palestine State should be brought into being to restore calm in the region.

King Abdullah's view is right and the US knows about it. Many suggest the revival of the Arab plan of 2002 proposed by Saudi Arabia that offered peace and full recognition of Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories to pre-war 1967 border. But it was a non-starter with Israel.

On 20th August the US Secretary of State announced that the administration has invited both the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestine Chairman Abbas to Washington on 2nd September with an aim of reaching a peace agreement within one year. The Quartet also joined the call for Israel and Palestinians to resume direct negotiations aimed at creating a Palestinian state within 12 months.

In three statements, the Quartet said Israel should stop building settlements in the West Bank and agree to a Palestine state within the borders of land it has occupied since 1967. For the Palestinians, the Quartet statement constitutes a minimum guarantee of the terms of reference.

Peace talks between Israel and Palestinians were halted since Israel launched a devastating attack on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and allegedly committed crimes against humanity. In May this year, the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell proposed US-brokered "proximity talks" as a way of getting around the impasse between the two sides. Mitchell has been working for weeks to get Abbas to agree to upgrade the process by resuming direct negotiation with Israel.

Israel has rejected any preconditions to talks, in particular in halting the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. It is reported that almost 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built on occupied territory. 271,000 live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and 191,000 live around Jerusalem. The Israeli population is growing at the rate of 4.6% in the settlement since 1990, as distinct from only 1.5% per cent in mainland Israel.

The annexation of Palestinian territory has been reinforced by the construction of 85 percent of the separation wall-256 of a planned 435 miles has been completed-on occupied Palestinian territory. The barrier cuts the West Bank off from Israel and has been built in a configuration which plunges deep into the West Bank.

The settlements and the land to the west of the wall have already been absorbed into Israel. The seizure of nearly 40 percent of the West Bank includes Israeli control of most of the Palestinians' water supply. The Jewish settlers in the West Bank are allotted per capita four to five times the amount of water allotted to Palestinians by the Israeli government.

Most Israelis would have no contact on any given day with a Palestinian. Israelis were surprised at the international backlash against their war in Gaza last year and continue to be wounded by the UN Goldstone report that said both Israel and Hamas had been guilty of committing crimes against humanity.

President Obama held separate meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas in recent weeks. Some analysts believe that the two sides will quickly turn to the US to provide "bridging proposals" to help close the gap, in particular to such issues as return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland in Israel, border demarcation, and status of East Jerusalem.

While the details of the talks are not yet public, the one-year time limit is viewed as crucial for Palestinians to get on board.

President Obama faces what may be the biggest test of his credibility in the Middle East unless the road to peace progresses between Israelis and Palestinians because on June 4 2009 in Cairo he said: "The situation for Palestininian people is intolerable. America will not turn back our backs on the legitimate aspiration for dignity opportunity and a state of their own.... That is why I intend to personally pursue this outcome will all the patience that the task requires."

The Quartet must put pressure on Israel to halt illegal settlements in occupied West Bank including in East Jerusalem and create an environment in which both States-Israel and Palestine-can live peacefully with secure and viable borders. Palestinian state must not be fragmented by Israeli illegal settlements in between the territories of Palestine State.

A dimension of equity in this case is the single standard of morality and law for all countries in the region. One law is for Israel and another for Palestinians will never work because it constitutes a double standard. To enforce a policy of double standard on Palestinians will only generate resistance and defiance among people in the region.

As President Obama on Wednesday initiates the ninth U.S. attempt in the last 30 years to bring about a final Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, expectations are low and pessimism is high.

It's precisely why the talks may just succeed. That, however, may be over- optimistic.

Even if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is genuine in his declaration that "Israel comes to the negotiating table out of a desire to proceed with the Palestinians to an agreement that would end the conflict and ensure peace, security and good neighbourly relations," he has a mountain to climb to convince Israelis that the talks are worthwhile.

On the eve of his departure for Washington Netanyahu had to neutralise a virulent anti-Palestinian tirade by the spiritual head of one of his main coalition partners.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, effectively the leader of the Orthodox party Shas, declared in his weekly sermon on Saturday evening that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should be "smitten by a plague".

Rabbi Yosef, 89, notorious for making comments which many Israelis consider outrageous, said, "Abu Mazen [Abbas] and all these evil people should vanish from the earth. God should strike him and his Palestinians, evil haters of Israel, with a plague."

The future of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank added to the pre-talks pressure on Netanyahu when, during the weekend, 53 prominent Israeli actors, directors and playwrights signed a petition calling for an anti- occupation boycott on performances in a new cultural centre in the major settlement town of Ariel.

Drawing a comparison between what he called "the international de- legitimisation assault on Israel," and the proposed theatre boycott, Netanyahu said, "The last thing we need during this assault is an attempt to wage boycotts from within."

Netanyahu's sternest test in proving that he is serious about advancing towards peace is whether he insists on Israel's "right" to resume settlement building once a ten-month construction freeze ends on Sep. 26.

With his right-wing coalition demanding that he not extend the settlement freeze, Netanyahu told the cabinet, "We made no such proposal to the U.S. We said that the future of our communities (in the occupied West Bank) will be discussed as one of the elements of a final status agreement. We promised the Americans nothing more."

Until now, Netanyahu has managed to tame his hard-line coalition's wish to plough on with settlement building. He maintained that he had succeeded in convincing the U.S. Administration -- in turn, forcing the Palestinian Authority's acquiescence -- that the peace bid should start without preconditions.

Although the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told IPS that "continuation of the settlement freeze" was "not a precondition", but rather "a condition for the success of the peace talks," the Palestinian president has time and again warned that if Israel resumes settlement building in a month's time, that would bring the talks to an abrupt end.

The most important positive change is a firmer U.S. stance towards the need to end the Israeli occupation.

For all contentions in some quarters that Obama has buckled under Israel pressure (on the settlement issue), the president appears far more resolute than any of his predecessors.

The fact that he has designated upfront that the peace talks should conclude within a maximum of one year should embolden the Palestinians to give him a chance to prove that he means business.

All the more so when the international community -- as reflected in the attitude adopted by the Quartet (the U.S., the E.U., Russia and the U.N.) -- supports the Palestinian position that the pre-1967 armistice lines should constitute the basis of the border between Israel and the future Palestinian state.

During previous peace attempts, Israel was the party within the troubled relationship calling all the shots -- even to the extent of adopting unilateralist positions.

Now, however, with the political and economic backing of the international community, it is the Palestinians who are grasping the initiative by gradually creating the foundations of their state -- with or without Israeli consent.

The third and perhaps most important change is the active involvement of the Arab world in peacemaking efforts.

King Abdullah of Jordan and Egypt's President Mubarak both accepted Obama's invitation to join the opening of the talks. And, Erekat has stressed publicly that he expects both Jordan and Egypt to play an active role when the core issues of the conflict -- borders, security, Jerusalem and refugees -- are addressed. At Camp David in 2000 the Arab states stood aloof from the U.S. peace drive.

In a rare interview on Israel public television on Saturday night, the King stressed the centrality of the Arab League's commitment to a full-scale regional peace if the Palestinians and Israelis are able to resolve their differences.

"I don't think we should put a one-year target date," Abdullah said in the interview. "Why wait for one year? The longer we wait, the more we give people a chance to create violence."

Israeli leaders continually say that the success of the one-year peace drive depends on Israel's security concerns being fully addressed.

Abdullah met that demand head-on: "Is it going to be fortress Israel, or are we going to have the courage to break down those walls and bring peoples together and eventually bring full security to the Israeli people?" he asked. "If Israelis and Palestinians are able to solve their problems together, then all of those elements that are trying to work for the destruction of Israel will have no longer a justification.

"What will happen in Washington is not just about Israelis and Palestinians. It's about Israel's future with the Arabs, and Israel's future with the Muslim world," the Jordanian monarch concluded.

The Catholic Church in Myanmar wants to make known the role of Christians in the history and the development of the nation.

Twenty-one participants joined an Aug. 28 forum on this theme organized by the Public Relations Commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar.

Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon, who chairs the Public Relations Commission, told ucanews.com that the aim was to highlight the role played by the Church in the development of the country since ancient times.

"We want to make known to the younger generation the legacy of the treasures contributed by the early Christians," Archbishop Bo said.

"We want to make clear that the Church has contributed to civil society not only in the religious aspect, but also in education, health and in building up the country," he added.

Venerable U Pyinnya Thiha Linkhaya, who heads the Theravada Buddhist University, Yangon, agreed.

"It will be good for the younger generation to acquire the spirit of the old missionaries who have worked zealously in education, health and social works for building up the nation," agreed he said.

Speakers at the forum included Father Alphonse Ko Lay and Ms Monica from the Public Relations Commission who presented the history of the Catholic Church in Myanmar, including the role of the missionaries in building the nation.

Forum participants also included representatives of the Myanmar Council of Churches (MCC) and Myanmar Institute of Theology.

Aid groups and U.N. agencies are raising the alarm over the vulnerability of pregnant women and babies in flood ravaged Pakistan.

Over the past month the unprecedented monsoon-induced floods have affected nearly 18 million people - 1,600 lives have already been lost, according to U.N. estimates.

"We know that mothers are giving birth in flimsy or crowded shelters, steps away from stagnant water and debris," said Sonia Kush, director of emergency preparedness and response at Save the Children. "And we know the dangers for newborns are extreme - the first hours and days of a child's life in the developing world are the riskiest, even without the added complications posed by a disaster of this scope. Displacement, increased impoverishment, crowded living conditions, disease and infection are further imperilling the lives of mothers and their newborn babies in Pakistan."

Save the Children says that 100,000 women are due to give birth in the next month and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately 500,000 flood-affected pregnant women are currently in their second or third trimesters. Nearly 500,000 newborns are expected to be born in the coming half year.

"We must ensure the health and safety of all these women and their babies," U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Martin Mogwanja said. "This disaster has already affected almost 18 million people. We don't want it to also affect half a million babies who are not born yet."

Paul Garwood, communications officer for WHO's Health Action in Crises program, told IPS that the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) has been particularly active in providing reproductive health care in the relief efforts thus far. The U.N. humanitarian office says that UNFPA has assisted in the safe delivery of an estimated 5,600 babies since the floods began and have helped to establish 36 mobile and fixed health clinics that are equipped to handle childbirth and emergency obstetric care.

"WHO is working with other U.N. agencies, government and NGOs to get health facilities operational again as rapidly as possible and also support the sending of mobile teams into affected communities to deliver primary health care and reproductive health services," Garwood told IPS.

Khush said that Save the Children's fixed and mobile clinics in Pakistan see hundreds of flood-affected people seeking health care daily - including pregnant women, new mothers and children.

In addition to the establishment and restoration of health service centres, another key means to help mothers deliver their babies safely, Garwood told IPS, is "having health workers - often preferably females depending on the social settings - to support and monitor pregnant women leading up to and during their pregnancy."

But UNFPA says that it has encountered challenges in recruiting women health workers, especially female gynaecologists, in the flood-affected areas. And according to the latest U.N. figures, only twenty percent of the six million dollars required for reproductive health care services has been funded thus far. An additional 4.8 million dollars is needed.

Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), was in Pakistan on Monday and Tuesday to visit flood-affected areas.

"We must step up our humanitarian operations to stave off a potential second wave of disease and misery for millions of families, especially the most vulnerable, women and children," Lake said.

Meanwhile, the U.N. says it still needs forty helicopters to aid in the relief efforts. The floods have drowned bridges and roads, leaving 800,000 people stranded in the western and southern parts of the country, according to the U.N.'s humanitarian office. Helicopters remain the only way to administer aid in certain areas.

The U.N.'s latest figures say that 600,000 square kilometres - an area larger than England - is underwater, over 1.2 million homes have been wiped out, 4.8 million people are still without shelter and 4.3 million hectares of crops have been destroyed, threatening the country's food security.

An estimated 2.4 million children younger than five-years-old still need food aid, raising concerns about malnutrition, while 3.5 million children are threatened by the onset of water-borne diseases, Save the Children says.

"This is a child survival crisis," said Khush. "Dengue, malaria, diarrhoea and other infections are sickening hundreds of thousands of people. All of these diseases are treatable but can be fatal - especially to children - if not addressed."

And as the floods continue, the number of people who need assistance has risen to eight million since the U.N. launched an appeal for 460 million dollars to fund its emergency response nearly three weeks ago. So far, over seventy percent of this amount has been funded, but officials say the initial appeal was underestimated as needs continue to rise. The appeal is expected to be revised in mid-September.

The Philippines' new chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights has urged all the country's religious groups to play a more active role in creating a society that is just and free of abuse.

"If we want to nurture a culture of human rights in the Philippines, the Church must be proactive," said Loretta Ann Rosales in her acceptance speech on Friday Sept. 3.

"Different Churches can have their own beliefs and idiosyncrasies and we respect them. But we must address and underscore the international human rights instrument and we have to consolidate and speak the same language," she said.

Among her priorities will be an investigation into the torture of a crime suspect by police officers in Tondo, Manila. The incident, which was captured on video, shown on TV and posted on the internet, provoked public outrage and media condemnation.

"Police brutality will be an immediate concern," said Rosales, who was herself a victim of military torture and sexual molestation during the Marcos administration. "Tondo is just right under our noses and thanks to modern technology this atrocity has been brought to light."

Another issue she intends to address is the case of the 'Morong 43,' a group of health workers detained on suspicion of being members of the Communist New People's Army.

She said she has visited the group at Camp Bagong Diwa detention center in Bicutan and the military has been "very cooperative."

"Police and military atrocities are committed because of government's failure to enforce the social justice policies mandated by law," Rosales said.

Police Superintendent Father Noel Ponsaran, a Catholic priest, shares his experience of how a police officer has opportunities to serve as peacemaker.

Father Ponsaran of the Military Ordinariate is among the Country's Outstanding Policemen in Service (COPS) cited this year by the Rotary Club of New Manila East-Metrobank Foundation.

He spoke with ucanews.com Aug. 31 about his view of priesthood and police service, his ministry to police, their families and communities, and his hopes social transformation.

Before I entered the seminary in 1991, I had already graduated from civil engineering and worked for a year. Then I decided to [re-take] the qualifying exams for the seminary. I had passed the tests before, but it was so difficult for me to go into the seminary because of my status as an only son.

I took theology as a regular student for five years as a scholar of the military diocese. Archbishop (Ramon) Arguelles ordained me in 1999.

I believe my call started with my attraction to vestments when I was still in grade one.

When I was in high school, the seminary building was very visible from our school. I wanted to study and train there, especially after I heard stories about the sacrifices and struggles of a priest. I used to say, 'Someday I will be in that building.'

My family was not opposed to the priesthood for me. We are Catholics. I understand their sentiments in not wanting me to enter the seminary immediately [as] I'm the only boy in the family.

I had some inclination to military life. My father was a police officer, now retired.

I was officer of the ROTC [at college]. I became battalion commander and I took training in army.

After ordination we are recommended by the bishop, but the final decision is ours. The bishop recommended me for the police force and I said yes.

We were seven ordained and only two of us joined the police force. That time the PNP (Philippine National Police) was still new. Somehow most in the diocese became more inclined to the military.

I served in several regions, but my exposure to Mindanao (southern Philippines) started in 1996 when I was still a seminarian. I was assigned in Zamboanga for summer apostolate for almost two months in police and army life.

Q: How do you function as a priest with police rank falling under the police chain of command?

We can only be called chaplains if we are in the service as active officer. Although we have our positions, special assignment and responsibility, we have to follow the chain of command.

We are assigned as regional chaplain, provincial chaplain or district chaplain. We have the mission to spearhead the development of spiritual and moral values of our PNP and their dependents physically, and extended to the community as beneficiary.

We say Masses and Sacraments aside from conducting moral and spiritual and value formation sessions, guidance counseling, helping with the Church's religious education thrust. We have a program in the PNP police civil relations where we work hand in hand with other Church services with programs in the community.

If we are regional chaplain, our area of responsibility is the whole region composed of sometimes up to six provinces. Our scope is more than that of a bishop of a territory which is usually just one province. It can reach up to 3,000 policemen and our responsibility includes their families and relations as well as their community.

We have to conduct pastoral visitation of police stations over a broad area. But we work with imam and other Christian chaplains. In 2005, I had a companion who was an imam in Mindanao.

It's very challenging. It needs a lot of adaptation to culture. You have to adjust to the system. You struggle with the image of the PNP, you have to go in a uniform and you have to address the spiritual aspect.

One negative incident in the news becomes generalized in media. When I go to communities in uniform even if I wear a small cross on my right breast, it is sometimes difficult for many to look on me as priest. When I wear vestments for Mass, that's the time there seems to be a paradigm shift in people's attitude towards us.

Having learned about their beliefs, culture and practices, I've been able to change my perspective of Muslim people in Mindanao. It adds more color to my ministry, it helps me to be human. I told that to my spiritual director. I've found another ministry in Mindanao, including the lumad.

The first time I stepped on Mindanao in 1996 as a seminarian, the first family that "adopted" me were Muslims in Zamboanga. When I ... took studies for my doctoral degree in Notre Dame, Cotabato, I had Muslim classmates who challenged me to read more.

I learned that terms we were very used to, such as "Moro," can be derogatory to many Muslims. That word originating from Spanish colonizers can trigger conflict.

I'm getting ready to defend my dissertation on conflict transformation for a doctorate in philosophy, peace and development studies. I presented my study on the culture of peace. I am looking into the process of transformation and stages toward building a culture of peace.

Q: Did you feel any conflict in roles of priest and police, pastor and law enforcer?

Before my entry into the service, that was also my perspective but since I entered the service, I've learned that police are not only law enforcers but also peacemakers.

We are allowed to carry a gun in the service. But according to the Geneva Convention, chaplains should not carry guns. Sometimes, we cannot impose this strictly to others.

We have to consider the system and the policies and guidelines because each institution is connected with the other. By law, any active officer is entitled to carry a gun. But there is the Geneva Convention, so the person has a choice.

I was trained for bomb disposal. When I took that special course, even churches were being bombed. I found it interesting as an engineer to learn what to do, how to disassemble a bomb.

I have seen police and their relatives who are just as religious and prayerful as [anyone else]. Police are viewed as authority figures but if you look around carefully in different regions, you can see police as persons who are faithful, pious and religious. I have seen how for many police witnessing is very important.

Genocide Ideology and Sectarianism Laws Silencing Critics? by Aprille Muscara

Among its unstable and conflict-ridden neighbours, Rwanda stands out. It has been pegged as a model of development and one of Africa's success stories: Since the 1990's, when a civil war ravaged the country, average incomes have doubled, its people have become healthier and less hungry and it has the highest proportion of women parliamentarians worldwide. Yet, maintaining this stability is a government accused of muzzling its opponents and committing human rights abuses.

For the last 16 years, Rwandans have lived under the shadow of the infamous 1994 genocide that eliminated one-tenth of its population in a mere 100 days. During that period, 800,000 ethnic Tutsi along with some peaceful Hutu were systematically murdered at the hands of a violent Hutu regime until Tutsi forces led by current Rwandan president Paul Kagame was able to wrest control.

Over the last decade, Kagame's government has implemented laws against speech and conduct that espouse "sectarianism" or a "genocide ideology" in order to prevent a repeat of 1994. "Revisionism, negationism and trivialisation of genocide are punishable by the law," states the Rwandan constitution.

But an Amnesty International (AI) report released today claims that these laws are unclear, broadly defined and used to silence critics.

"Prohibiting hate speech is a legitimate aim, but the Rwandan government's approach violates international human rights law," the report states. "The vague wording of the laws is deliberately exploited to violate human rights."

The AI report follows revelations last week of a leaked draft of a U.N. publication that documents the conflict in Rwanda's neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the early '90's. The 545-page report, which officials say will be formally released soon, claims that Kagame's government is itself guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including possibly genocide, against tens of thousands of Hutu who fled Rwanda after the Civil War and settled in the DRC.

The forthcoming report's findings challenge the accepted history of the Rwandan Civil War and have caused outrage in Kigali, which released a statement calling the report "immoral and unacceptable" and blamed the U.N. for failing to prevent the 1994 genocide and subsequent refugee crisis.

Today, Rwanda's foreign minister announced that it was preparing contingency plans to withdraw the country's troops from U.N. peacekeeping missions if the world body publishes the report as is - with the inclusion of the so-called double-genocide theory.

But those in the country who publicly voiced sentiments consistent with the U.N. draft report have often been detained using the "genocide ideology" and "divisionism" laws - including leading opposition figure Victoire Ingabire and humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina.

Christian Davenport of the University of Notre Dame and Allan Stam of the University of Michigan, both political science professors, have been working to document the civil war violence and its aftermath in Rwanda and surrounding areas using data from the Rwandan government and human rights organisations.

"The leaked [U.N.] report is very consistent with what we found," Davenport told IPS. "The Kagame-led government engaged in systematic violent activity during the violence of 1994... and they pursued those who engaged in violence in Rwanda in the DRC, but consistently overshot where most estimated that these perpetrators were located so that they could extract resources from the country."

Accused of revisionism, Davenport and Stam's visas were revoked during a visit to Rwanda in 2003 to present their findings.

"In the Rwanda civil war case, a genocide against the Tutsi took place, but it was part of a broader and far longer lasting civil war in which there were large numbers of victims on both sides," Stam told IPS. "The problem in Rwanda today is that to simply observe this historical fact puts one on the wrong side of the law. One does not have to deny the fact that a genocide occurred, but simply make the additional point that the genocide occurred in a context where a lot of Hutu died, to violate the genocide ideology provisions of the genocide denial statute."

The AI report also documents the use of the genocide ideology and sectarianism laws to silence the government's political opponents and the independent media in the run-up to this year's Aug. 3 presidential elections, during which two leading figures and one journalist were murdered. Kagame won by a landslide 93 percent.

"Genocide ideology is a form of intimidation," said a human rights activist quoted in the report, which says the genocide ideology and sectarianism laws cause a "chilling effect" on the population and contribute to a culture of silence due to fear of government reprisal.

In April 2010, the government announced plans for a review of the genocide ideology and sectarianism laws.

"Unfortunately, we have received very little information within what time frame this review would take place and whether there will be a broader consultation, including with civil society, during the review process," Erwin van der Borght, Africa Program Director at AI, told IPS.

Sri Lanka ought to be well positioned to successfully project itself as a country that is recovering now that over a year and a quarter have elapsed since the end of the war against LTTE. The war left tens of thousands of internally displaced persons who still remain destitute. Indian International Film Awards in May went off without any security hitch, which showed the world that Sri Lanka was once again a safe country for tourism and investments.

Despite such successes Sri Lanka's international image is still accompanied by a question mark. The end of the three decades long war ought to have brought a sparkle to Sri Lanka's image. There continue to be controversies that have dogged the country and spoilt its international image.

The latest incident that is harming the country's international image is the one involving a ship carrying 492 Tamil refugees, including women and children, and which entered Canadian waters. While Canadian media has given front page prominence to the story, other international media has also been following it. The influx of refugees in such large numbers and outside of established individual asylum procedures poses political problems in the countries to which those refugees seek entry.

At the end of the Vietnam war, in the late 1970s, many thousands of Vietnamese fled in small boats to countries where they could seek safety and asylum. They were followed by Cambodians who fled the despotic Pol Pot regime.

The Sri Lankan government has every reason to be displeased with this development that puts the country in a negative light, as a country from which people are willing to flee at any price, including their lives. The government's position is that with the end of the war there is a return to normalcy, no terrorism and the prevalence of the rule of law. The boat people however give another message that is more convincing to the international audience as their perilous journey is itself evidence of what they escaped from. The Canadian immigration official hearing the case of the 492 Sri Lankans have permitted the media to come and listen to their evidence.

The fact that so many people are willing to flee Sri Lanka at grave risk to themselves is a negative reflection on what is happening today in the country. The refugees will obviously claim a maximum of harassment and that their lives will be at risk if they are returned to Sri Lanka. No government of a self-respecting country will wish its citizens to flee and claim refugee status in other countries. The Sri Lankan government is no exception in this regard, and is cooperating with other international governments to prevent human trafficking. Ironically some of the statements of government spokespersons have made the claims of the refugees appear real.

For instance, in their bid to discredit the sincerity of the claim of the refugees to foreign asylum, government spokespersons have claimed that those aboard the ship are LTTE members, and hard core ones at that. There is evidence that the ship that arrived in Canada is part of an LTTE-linked human smuggling operation. But to say that the Tigers might be trying to regroup in Canada, a country that has historically been a large source of their fund-raising is unlikely to influence the outcome of the decision that the Canadian authorities will make. In a similar incident in October 2009, 76 Tamil refugees arrived on a ship to Canada where they were held but eventually released after none were determined to belong to the LTTE.

While this tactic of linking the refugees to the LTTE might work within Sri Lanka, it will not work so well out of Sri Lanka, where those adjudicating these claims and counter claims are not under Sri Lankan government influence. Further, government spokespersons have said that they are arresting LTTE cadre at a high rate in the welfare centres in Sri Lanka, numbering no less than 1500 in recent weeks. Such statements can be shown by the fleeing Sri Lankan refugees to be evidence of the dangers that await them should they be returned to Sri Lanka as they too may be considered to the Tiger operatives and imprisoned.

After the end of the war Sri Lanka has much to commend itself to the world. Unlike its neigbouring countries of South Asia, Sri Lanka has been totally free of terrorist attack. The government has been improving its relations with the United Nations after it plummeted with the death fast by a government minister regarding the appointment of an UN advisory committee on war crimes. The numbers of internally displaced persons in the camps has been further reduced. The UN recently reported that it helped 852 out of more than 70,000 Tamil refugees based in India to return to Sri Lanka in the first half of this year. Although these figures may be small in relation to the total refugee population, the UN also stated that more than 1000 refugees in India returned on their own which indicates improvements on the ground.

However, the government has to so much more to improve its performance with regard to two important issues if it is to turn around world opinion. It needs to show evidence of systematic progress in the resettlement of internally displaced persons. At the moment it appears that the government is satisfied with simply getting them to leave the welfare camps. But this is not enough. They need to be provided with houses to go to and to viable means of livelihood. Although the Indian government pledged to build 50,000 houses for the displaced persons, there has been a failure to facilitate its implementation on the ground. Land for the housing projects and lists of beneficiaries have not been identified by the Sri Lankan government even though more than three months has passed since the Indian offer was made. The appearance of neglect on the part of the Sri Lankan government arouses concern that its interest is more in putting more military bases in the North than in caring about the welfare of the people.

Who are the real losers and winners in Sri Lanka? Why, after crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May, 2009, does the tear drop shaped country remain in a state of pathetic instability? The insurgent group waged a war against the government of Sri Lanka for almost three decades demanding a separate state, which would have been one-third of the country and two thirds of a maritime area called Eelam.

The war against the LTTE was not a victory or the creation of any one person. Perhaps it was a result of the misleading struggle by the LTTE, internal conflicts and the failure of political wisdom of the movement.

The leadership of the LTTE always believed in military strength rather than political ideology, even though the LTTE created bitter conflicts within the community they also eliminated all other insurgents groups. According to the The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, a wishful political ideologist in ancient Western history, correctly pointed out; "A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank.

And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states." (Chapter XIV ). Eventually the LTTE leader, Mr. Velupillai Prabhakaran (November 26, 1954 May 19, 2009) started the military struggle and he believed the solution must come through military victory not the political/negotiation path. Perhaps the LTTE decided to eliminate the political ideology of the Tamil Community by killing prominent democratic politicians and ideologists.

However we cannot claim that only Tamil politicians helped the LTTE. Especially A. Amirthalingam, the late leader of the TULF helped the LTTE to emerge as a powerful force. Two of its prominent youth wing members, Uma Maheshawaran, joined the LTTE as its co-chairman and Urmila Kandiah, as its first female member. Furthermore the LTTE's first international representative N.S. Krishanan was introduced by Amirathalingam. Krishnan was the person who introduced Antion Blasingham to Prabhakran, who later became the theoretician of the LTTE. Amirathalingam also introduced T. S. Pathmanathan or simply 'KP' to Prabakaran."When the pressure was mounting, we took a boat from Valvettiturai and sought refuge in India. At that time crossing the Indo-Lanka maritime boundary was no problem. The then TULF leader A. Amirthalingham introduced me to Prabhakaran in mid 70s, most probably in 1976 and since then we worked together." ( KP speaks out in an interview with the Island , Colombo based daily on July 29, 2010)

In 2008 during the discussion about the Tamil insurgency, Mr. Rajasingham who is the father of late Mrs. Rajini Thiranagama, told the writer that the LTTE killed his daughter because they wanted to turn their struggle into a permanent militant operation and that they believed the solution could only come through military means. They decided to eliminate anyone brave enough to have moderate views and ideas on the struggle. In my view, the LTTE's highest point was during the potential political settlement during 2000-2004. However, the serious internal conflict in March 2004 marked the beginning of the end. It was a nightmare.

History has taught us that the struggle between the GoSL and the LTTE brought far greater benefits for the Regime than ever before.

Since Sri Lanka received independence from the British in 1948, there have been three main insurgents against several regimes, which were dominated by lower caste Sinhalese and Tamil youth. The three uprisings were brutally defeated by the military which killed a large number of people who belonged to the organisations. Sources reveal that Sinhalese and Tamil insurgents against the Central government actually started in the mid 60s, but there were only few minor incidents were reported until the 70s.

Indeed, the 70s was a land mark decade in Sri Lankan history during which many incidents took place against the government. After that thousands of people were wounded, disappeared and killed with total disregard for any norms and standards. In April 1971 a rebellion by Sinhalese youth in the South led by Patabandi Don Nandasiri Wijewwera or Rohan Wijewwera (July 14, 1943-November 13, 1989), ended with the killing of at least 15,000 -20,000 lives in five weeks. The average was 3,500 deaths per week.

It was first major mistake by the political rival groups against the regime. It was unbelievable how the so-called Marxist leader like Rohana Wijeweera consulted his horoscope to ascertain the best time to declare war against the GoSL. This does not speak well of the mentality of the so-called leaders. What we had was a Marxist leader who followed Brahmani rule to declare his communist campaign. This joke is everywhere in the country's political system.

The offensive against the 1971 rebels was the first time the Regime carried out extrajudicial killings in Sri Lanka, even the defeated the JVP insurgency was much easier for the regime to deal with because the main opposition, the United National Party also backed the military. "The event of 1971, the first JVP insurrection and the state response to it, when rebels were frog marched to the nearest cemetery or bridge over a river and shot in cold blood." (pp. 620) has pointed out in his book the Sri Lanka in Crisis: A lost generation - Untold Story by Prins Gunasekara.

The regional Leader of the JVP in the Baduraliya Police area, 25-year-old Naranbedde Piyadassi, an ex-Buddhist monk when pleading guilty to the charges of conspiracy to overthrow the Government by attacking police stations in the area said before the Commission

"The JVP is not a proletarian political party. It does not serve the purposes of proletariat. They tried to fulfil the middle class selfish intentions. What the leaders wanted was to make the youths who brave and loyal to their motherland targets to attacks by the bullets , the bombs, the rifles and the armoured cars and kill them and take over the leadership over their dead bodies and rivers of blood. That proved futile and we were happy. If they came into power it would have been harmful to the workers and the ordinary masses. In one of the books I read, a certain philosopher made a statement like this, every individual who had tried to change a historically immature social system become a traitor in history.' Today we too have become real traitors of this era attempting to change the social system. These traitors are not the comrades by the leaders including me who held responsibility." (pp. 271 The JVP -1969 -1989 by A.C Alles.) This is a reflection of the JVP's uprising against the regime, and the harvest of the insurgency in Sri Lanka.

Even after the '71 uprising the leaders of the JVP, Wijeweera made confessions before the Criminal Justice Commission that the experiment to overthrow the Government lacked of vision even though they followed a political ideology.

According to Rohana Wijeweera, "In April 1971 the revolutionary preconditions for the seizure of power by the proletariat and for and armed revolutionary struggle were absent. This is my view. In the absence of a revolutionary situation -- i.e. both objective and subjective conditions -- an armed uprising was not possible. My view is that the conditions were not ripe for organising an armed revolutionary uprising to size state power. The objective conditions were maturing fast, but they were still unripe. It had not reached a stage where the masses saw no other solution but revolution. It is true, however, that then, as now, society was moving in that direction. The subjective conditions were also lacking; that is a revolutionary party that has steeled itself, won the support of the masses and is fit to lead them in an armed struggle for power. The Janath Vimukthi Peramuna was developing and moving towards that goal, but had not reached full maturity. We failed at that time to establish the J.V.P. in the Northern and Eastern provinces and in the estate sector as a political force. And then there was the question of mass support ... the J.V.P. had not reached the stage where the masses could see is as a real alternative to the government, accept its leadership and join in the class struggle under its banner. In our Marxist conception, a revolution armed uprising -- is not something done behind the backs of the masses; ... I reject the position that it was a J.V. P. decision to seize state power on April 5, 1971. I do not admit that. But as I discovered later and something I do not deny is that there have been instances when certain comrades of the J.V.P. in the face of intolerable repression, resorted to a struggle against such repression." (pp 267, The J.V.P 1969-1989 authored by A.C. Alles.).

It was not only in the '71 insurgency but also during the '88-'89 periods, the same things happened and Wijeweera was executed by the Government. Eventually many Tamil organisations faced the same fate when sat for negotiations, settlement or confrontation with the military.

There were as many as 32 Tamil insurgent groups in Jaffna peninsula during 80s and they were taking logistic and financial support from Tamil Nadu, India and also a few Middle Eastern countries as well. During that crucial period some sentimental views arose in Tamil and Sinhalese youth. Tamil youth were believed by Indians to be their guardians, while Sinhalese youth were considered a common enemy.

However India's role in Sri Lanka is very complicated. There have been no efforts by any central Indian Government to resolve the root causes of the problem in Sri Lanka apart from calling for a "sustainable political solution." Even during the final phase of last battle between the LTTE and the Government forces, the Indian role was crucial and they were fully backed the Government.

Now India and China have entered into a cold war in an effort to win Sri Lanka's local market. According to Bruce Douglas Haig, former Deputy High Commissioner of Australia to Sri Lanka in 1994 , "Sri Lanka wrongly believes that it can be very cleaver and play China and India off against one another for advantage to the Sri Lankan Government. It will end in tears with Sri Lanka losing autonomy. It was a big mistake to get into bed with China, particularly under the nose of India. The Sri Lanka Government has stupidly, in my opinion, stupidly transgressed Indian notions of its sphere of influence. My own government has behaved just as stupidly and clumsily toward India." (Interview with the Writer to the Sri Lanka Guardian on June 10, 2010)

The farcical death unto fast by Minister Wimal Weerawansa was political drama which was seen as a ploy by the president to escape the political debacle after he conducted fake discussions with opposition leader Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe for so-called "constitutional reforms." Mr. Ranil Wickramasingha is a politician who has never shown concern for anything else other than remaining in the leadership of the UNP. It is obvious that nothing can be done to reform the UNP without the resignation of the failed leader. However today the opposition party of Sri Lanka is the guardian of the Rajapaksha administration and it's all mistakes can be covered by the UNP.

According to former President of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew, "fights a cringe, as if fighting off a bad memory-or my bad analogy. He starts to say something, then stops, then leaves it at referring to Sri Lanka's president: 'I've read his speeches and I knew he was a Sinhalese extremist. I cannot change his mind." (Citizen Singapore: How To Build A Nation - Conversations with Lee Kwan Yew by Prof Tom Plate ). Furthermore, he status: "The present president of Sri Lanka believes he has settled the problem; his Tamil Tigers are killed and that is that." ( Ibid) This is what we now have in Sri Lanka, they believe eliminating an opponent is the solution and they are forcing others to justify the kind of acts they have done and continue to do.

Today, Sri Lanka is facing three critical situations, one is the policing system in Sri Lanka is very weak, second is the unlimited corruption from top to bottom and third is the religious based discrimination.

The policing system in Sri Lanka is weak and relies on torture in order to carry out "investigations" into crime and corruption to fill their pockets. However, the vision statement of Sri Lanka Police reads: "Towards a Peaceful environment to live with confidence, without fear of Crime and Violence." And its mission statement says,"Sri Lanka Police is committed and confident to uphold and enforce the law of the land, to preserve the public order, prevent crime and terrorism with prejudice to none equity to all."(Quoted: police.lk) This is absolutely false when compared to the present situation of policing in Sri Lanka. We do not have to look far to see examples of the unfortunate situation of policing in Sri Lanka. Today even retired police officers speak out against the police department in Sri Lanka.

Recently Seetha Kumarasinghe, a fifty-six year old retired woman police sergeant, gave an interview to the Asian Human Rights Commission and revealed, "... the relationship between the police and torture is like the relationship between the tree and the bark. These two things are so close and inseparable. Large number of police officers, the majority, believe that they cannot find any information or correct evidence without the use of torture." (AHRC statement: AHRC-STM-153-2010). This is the real face of the police in Sri Lanka and there is no hope of progress in society without urgent reforms of the police department.

The second problem in Sri Lanka is corruption which has spread into all institutions in Sri Lanka today. From top to the bottom corruption is common. It is nothing more than an illusion for the Regime to talk about constitutional reforms without properly implementing the 17th Amendment to the Constitution which introduced independent commissions for human rights, policing and elections.

In his article former Inspector General of Police in Sri Lanka, Frank de Silva said, "The weakening of the administrative structure, ... at least in respect of the police, had the result of nullifying many of the relevant provisions of the Police Disciplinary Code and the Establishment Code. Any administrative action had to await the conclusion of the bribery case in court. The vagaries of court decision and the time-lapse are well-known. These added to the problem for the administration to take effective preventive action against bribery. Effective supervision by the administration, such as it was, was barely feasible in an immediate sense. The argument may be advanced that this result was not the intention of the new law. Such explanation does not stand ground." (Measures for control of corruption Sri Lanka Guardian - July 26, 2010). As he says, Sri Lanka has no need of more laws or regulations but that the implementation of the laws which already exist.

The third problem in Sri Lanka is their religious based discrimination. In my previous writings, I have said that Sri Lanka never practiced real Buddhism but instead only a type of Buddhism that is a replica of the Brahmanism of India.

Our Buddhist monks are not true Buddhists and do not practice what Lord Buddha preached. A true Buddhist monk will value the Chiratha Bikkawa Charikan bahujana hithaya sukayaâ [Most readers will not know what this means] at any cost. But this does not happen in Sri Lanka. They behave like the Hindu Brahmins wearing yellow shawls and pretending to help the poor people. Most of the Buddhist monks are following the so-called caste system which was received from Brahmanism. Very recently a leading Monk in Anuradhapura, the most sacred city of Buddhists, said that he wanted a few "Govigama" caste boys to train. There are plenty of examples outside Colombo, especially in rural areas, as to how lower caste people are discriminated by other who claimed that they are higher caste.

There was a case reported in Walapane, Central province of Sri Lanka, about a school girl who went to school wearing slippers because she did not have money to buy shoes. The school principal called the student to him, took her slippers and burned them. He told the student that she belonged to a lower caste and if she did not have shoes she should not come to school. Caste based mentality is everywhere in Sri Lanka from top to bottom. Caste is main fact of the control wheel of the present regime as well.

The answer to the question that I raised in the beginning is simple. The losers are always the ordinary people who suffer from both sides; from the acts of the rebels and the military regime.

What is the point of talking about free and fair elections if they have no right to elect the leader of their choice? What is the point of talking about free education if there is no independent access to the government schools? What is the point talking on equality if discrimination is everywhere? What is the point talking of human rights if the relationship between the police and torture is like the relationship between the tree and the bark. The evil is within us, not from the outside. It is laughable to talk about sovereignty. "Presence of mind . . . is nothing but an increased capacity of dealing with the unexpected," says Carl von Clausewitz. Presence of mind can solve the root causes of the problems in Sri Lanka. Without it there is nothing to hope for in seeing genuine leadership in Sri Lanka other than players and jokers who bring us their nightmares.

Nilantha Ilangamuwa is a editor of the Sri Lanka Guardian. He can be reached at editor@srilanka guardian.org

Mgr Vianny Fernando presents this way the movie on the life of the Blessed Joseph Vaz, considered the second founder of the Church in Sri Lanka. His apostolate occurred during the persecution of Catholics by Dutch Protestants. The Jubilee Year celebrates the 300th anniversary of his death.

The "Blessed Joseph Vaz was our beloved Apostle. In many ways, he was a pioneer in the history of our country and the Christian faith. In fact, after Dutch persecution, which lasted 150 years, there would be no priest on the island without him," said Bishop Vianny Fernando, president of National Joseph Vaz Secretariat as he presented a movie last Wednesday on the life of the Blessed at the auditorium of Caritas-Sri Lanka in Colombo. Dutch Protestants ruled the island in the 17th century and systematically discriminated against Catholics who had emerged under the previous Portuguese rule. "It is a story of a person burning with God's love, who wanted to bear all the risks and serve the Church in Sri Lanka," the bishop added.

The Sinhala-language film is an hour and 40 minutes long and has met with great acclaim for the quality of its direction, script, music and lighting. It is the story of a missionary who dedicated his entire life to set up and develop the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka (pictured a scene from the movie). Many bishops, priests and nuns as well as a large crowd and some politicians and the actors attended the screening.

The event is part of the 300th anniversary of the Blessed's death on 16 January 2011. Mgr Malcolm Ranjith proclaimed Vaz's Jubilee Year last 17 January 2010, feast day of the Blessed, in the church dedicated to him in Makola, Colombo archdiocese.

For the entire year ending on 16 January 2011, a special hymn and prayers will be recited in most of the country's churches at the end of festive Masses.

Fr Alex Dassanayake, vice-postulator of the National Joseph Vaz Secretariat, which sponsored the movie, thanked Sanjaya Nirmal, the author of the script who also directed the movie.

The movie was made possible by the contribution of LKR 800,000 (US$ 7,000) by Sri Lanka's Ministry of Christian Affairs and donations from bishops and the faithful.

It is hoped that the movie will be released in December with subtitles in English and Tamil.

Mgr Winston Fernando, bishop of Badulla, told AsiaNews that the "movie is a true source of inspiration, especially for non-Christians. We appreciate the talent of the writer; it would almost seem that he was divinely inspired."

Neeta Fernando, a Catholic actress, told AsiaNews that she was happy to be in the movie. "It was very emotional with most actors non-Christians. It was incredible that we could do everything in ten days."

The Blessed Vaz, the 'Apostle of Sri Lanka', was born on 21 April 1651 in Goa. He began his missionary work in Sri Lanka in April 1687 at a time of persecution by Dutch colonisers, and continued it until his death in 1711. Pope John Paul II declared him a Blessed in 1995.

Caritas Vietnam is planning to set up a fund for pro-life activities as well as hold courses on the topic for Church workers, workshop participants learnt recently.

Upholding the value of life is among the organization's main activities, Father Antoine Nguyen Ngoc Son, director of Caritas Vietnam, told some 200 participants at an Aug. 26-29 workshop in Ho Chi Minh City.

He said he hoped the Caritas-organized workshop would help participants teach youths the value of life, love and sex so as to reduce abortions among them.

Some 200 priests, Religious and laypeople engaged in pro-life work from across the country attended the event, which saw participants sharing their experiences.

For years, pro-life activists have quietly buried aborted fetuses from hospitals and clinics, and provide accommodation and health care for abandoned pregnant women, said Father Pierre Nguyen Van Dong, Caritas head in Kontum diocese.

Since he founded the first cemetery for aborted fetuses in Pleiku city, in the Central Highlands, in 1992, over 40 such cemeteries have been built in the country and 195,000 aborted fetuses have been buried in them, he said.

Other participants shared their experiences of persuading unwed pregnant women, who were considering abortion, to live at Church-run facilities until they have given birth.

Participants also learnt from one another how to care for pregnant women and provide sex education to youths.

Some doctors and priests spoke of the Church's teaching on natural family planning methods, and the ill effects of abortion and artificial contraception.