First of all, it has been impossible to initiate the peace process between non-Arab rebels and pro-Arab Sudanese government (which has militia support). Between these, the life of people of Darfur stands totally displaced and destroyed. Darfur has access to UN peace-keeping force and WFP but the condition in camps set up for the victims of conflicts and displaced is shocking. Camps are overcrowded and regularly attacked by rebels and dacoits in search of food and more recruits. Instead of 2,000 calories per day, people are being forced to survive on 1,400 calories due to ration-cuts. Malnourished children with big bellies are common sight at the ZIM ZAM camp sheltering nearly 62,000 people just outside Darfur. Surplus food products are available in Darfur markets but prices are too high due to rising inflation. These markets cater mainly to UN personnel, militia and the rich and unaffected.

What mainly ails UN’s operation is lack of troops, funds and proper logistics of the relief operation. They are unable to provide protection to its own personnel, food stocks and people in the camps. WFP has been forced to cut rations. Instead of much needed and available 1,800 metric tons of food, it is able to distribute only 900 metric tons. Why? It is difficult to airlift large food stocks due to lack of funding and transportation by trucks is difficult because of bad roads and rebel attacks on food convoys. They are unable to protect food convoys because UNAMID has to manage with 9,000 troops instead of allotted 26,000 troops. Sudanese government and UN agreement insist that troops should come from African countries only. This diplomatic and bureaucratic issue is unlikely to be resolved soon.

Since 2003, conflicts have left nearly 2 lakh people dead and more than 2.5 m people homeless. Hundreds of women and girls have been abused and raped. Just strong UN presence in the form of peacekeeping force, International Aid agency, WFP is not enough to heal scars of Darfur. Root cause of the problem needs to be addressed urgently. Rebel attacks and conflicts must stop. Peace process must begin. More troops should be deployed unconditionally. Food rations should not be cut. UN must operate in full capacity or else UN will fail in its own mission.

source: reuters

That the situation in Iraq is changing from bad to worse after the US invasion has been proved once again in a recent United Nations report that said that the militia in Iraq are recruiting children for suicidal attacks. The Al-Qaeda is training children to use guns and carry out kidnapping and other terrorist activities. This trend is growing since 2004. The prevalence of large-scale poverty has increased the number of school dropouts in Iraq. Currently only 50 percent of Iraqi children are attending primary schools down from 80 percent in 2005. They do not have access to clean drinking water and adequate healthcare facilities. The impoverished country where resentment against the US and its allies are high has become the fertile spot for creating young jihadis.

The recruitment of children as suicide bombers and terrorists is meant to send the children to heaven according to the Al-Qaeda philosophy. The young militants are taught that children receive special consideration in death. They are not held accountable for any sins committed by them until puberty and if they are killed in a jihad, they will go to heaven. In heaven they would instantly grow up, become young adults, and enjoy access to virgins and other heavenly benefits meant for martyrs. However, the Islamic law says that it is unlawful to kill children, women, the old and the infirm. For the Islamic militia the laws of the prophet do not matter and they have no inhibition in falsifying the Islamic laws to serve their deadly purpose.

Source:BBC

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In Baghdad, people now can be found roaming on the streets, going to bars and generally conducting the normal peace time activities, though restricted to aware confines of their own districts. Tension, though, is prevalent across the land. The usual kidnapping, suicide attacks, and assassinations still occur but added to that is the question of what after the US withdrawal? The internal and difficult question over the distribution of power in the future is as yet unsettled and unanswered and thus, a cause of uneasiness among the competing groups.

The US invasion has brought out the communal divides of the region into an open and seemingly unending chaos. The Shias and the Sunnis are still hammer and tongs at each other. Their fear and resultant hatred is deep and historic, though hopefully not permanent. The issue of Kurdish nationality has not yet been resolved and then there are these various armed militia including the Al Qaeda which are now omnipresent in Iraq. Even the state armed forces are no less than local mobs.

Also, this temporary thaw cannot be a permanent one unless the international power play that is operational in the region is resolved. America is debating its claim on Iraqi oil in lieu of the price it paid to bring ‘freedom’ to the Iraqis. Its recent proposal to control Iraq’s skies and establish its troops forever in Iraq was rejected by the Maliki government. Iran also has its interest involved in Iraq being vacuumed of American presence and Turkey is actively involved in the Kurdish question.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Wild passion can be dangerous, especially when it comes from extremist groups like the al-Qaeda. Their latest weapon, according to The US Army is to deploy women for terrorist attacks, as women have the advantage of becoming almost sure shot live weapons, both emotionally and physically! Captain Matthew Shown, the intelligence officer for Sabre Squadron, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, which is based in southeast Diyala, Baghdad, says,

Some Women are easy prey because their husband or children have been killed or detained by US forces. They will try to use whatever works best for them to attempt to exploit whatever political or cultural restrictions we have. Now they’ve adapted to try to use female suicide bombers.

It is to be noted here that it is almost impossible to frisk females for carrying weapons or bombs due the cultural and religious bindings by the male security staff and there are very few women in the army to be always present wherever needed! Moreover, these women attackers are generally so emotionally charged in the name of Jihad, blackmail, lust or love that they are able to camouflage their evil plan so well, that no one can make out what lies beneath their innocent faces.

To exploit their services, the al-Qaeda members even go to the extent of marrying women and then letting other men rape them. The dishonoured women have no options but to end their lives and they easily fall prey to becoming suicide bombers! The terrorists even kidnap their children and threaten them to kill the children if they refuse to help them. In such a situation, these women have no option left but to be an active aid in their terror plan.

However, the US Military is trying hard to combat this problem. It is hiring women guards to stand at every check post so that they can do a full body search of these women and thus avert attacks. The women guards will join about 80,000 men. They protect their neighbourhood under a programme that has lured many former Sunni insurgents to turn against al-Qaeda.

Source: TimesOnline

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Hamas wants to control and rule over 1.5 million Palestinians in the coastal Gaza strip. On Saturday, in retaliation to earlier bombing, Hamas attacked the Hilles clan, whose chief had been associated with Fatah. Interestingly, the clan members sought refuge at Israeli border. More intriguing part unfolded when Fatah too tried to distance itself from this clan. So, members of Hilles, who fled during the attack by Hamas, had no option but to be at mercy of Israel!

This twisted drama unfolded after clash between the Hilles clan and Hamas on Saturday which left 11 people dead. Scores of clan members ran towards Israeli border to escape death. Israel, which is negotiating peace with Fatah in West Bank in order to isolate Hamas, allowed some 181 people to cross into Israel. Twenty two of them had to be hospitalized and rest had to be put up in military base. The basic understanding was that they’ll be transferred safely to West Bank, but Fatah leaders in West Bank did’t want these 181 people, making it clear that the relation between the Hilles clan and Fatah is not good. Officially, though Fatah leaders in West Bank are not making any such statement.

Israel tried sending clan members back to Gaza in groups. But the moment first group entered Gaza it was arrested by Hamas. After uproar from human rights groups, the rest were not sent back. Later right wing groups within Israel urged to detain these people. Hence some of them are being questioned at military base in Israel itself. They now face charges of being terrorists, of having engaged in anti-Israel activities and for having shot Israeli soldiers and launched rockets at Israeli town. In short Hilles,clan got saved and arrested by Israel while trying to escape death from Hamas.

In a way, Israel did gain a moral advantage for respecting the negotiations with Fatah and letting in 181 fleeing people from Palestine. Infighting in Gaza is making Israel-Palestine conflicts more complex to resolve through peace negotiations mediated by Egypt.

source: IHT

To bring peace to Sadr City a truce has been signed between Sadr and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Maliki brokered by the Iranians who now seem to enjoy as much influence on the Iraqi government as the Americans. However, the battle is continuing and shows to sign of abating. The Shiite cleric is not prepared to disband his army and surrender its medium and heavy grade weapons. It now wants the Iraqi government to demolish the wall. With the Maliki government, still being unable to garner wide spread popular support and with US remaining a predominant power in the country, no concrete barrier can bring peace in the city.

via:New York Times

After the Iraqi governemnt’s recent offensive against militants in Basra, a stung Shia strongman Moqtada Al Sadr, has moved his men into Sadr city, his stronghold in Baghdad. The US and Iraqi government forces are fighting a continuous war against the militants since the last few days.

The decision to wall in the area came as a result of that. The aim is to secure it. The US army put it across with a sugary coating. Lieutenant Colonel Dan Barnett, commander of the First Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry Regiment, currently attached to the Second Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division said,

You can’t really repair anything that is broken until you establish security. A wall that isolates those who would continue to attack the Iraqi Army and coalition forces can create security conditions that they can go in and rebuild

Building these kind of walls is not going to solve the basic issues in Iraq. These are security measures. What are needed are political and economic measures. What is needed is a real Iraqi governemnt of national reconciliation, which looks after the interests of not only Shias, but also Sunnis, Kurds and Christians. If Iraq is to stay one country, this is indispensable.

Otherwise Balkanisation of the nation on community lines is inevtable. Building walls will lead to nothing. The Iraqis hate the walls anyway. US should realiize that they may build walls in certain areas of Baghdad, but it is not possible to build a wall around the whole country.

Source: NYT

Clashes between the militia and security forces continued in Baghdad which was fit by rockets in the Green Zone and areas near the diplomatic and government compound. Curfew was imposed to bring the situation under control.

The militant outbreak comes at a time when Iraq is about to face fresh elections and it is very strategic for the Sadrists to restrain the fighting and re-impose law, failing which their claim will be undermined that Iraq is moving towards appeasement and the country is forming a stable political atmosphere.

The British forces choose to retreat to a army base outside Basra and did not participate in the fighting to curb the insurgency.
Such civil wars and militant outbreaks have made normal life difficult for the civilians who live under constant fear of another militant outbreak; the war had brought unrest in the country ever since the American forces set foot in Iraq in 2003 and it has been 5 years of fear and terror that fills the minds of innocents citizens who want to live in peace and watch their children grow up. What the UN did for Iraq can be called as a ‘complete failure’ to restore normal life in the country.

VIA:BBC

Another important point to be noted is that the US and British troops in Iraq were neither able to curb the tension that broke out here and there intermittently nor were they able to provide a strong government. The mere presence of troops itself sometimes incite violence.

The Civil war that has started may seem to have curbed now because of the interference of American and British troops, but it will not continue to be so in the long run, unless the Iraqi government is efficient enough to face these turmoils.

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Via: Timesonline

The dwindling patches of common ground between Tehran and the West - a 560 mile long stretch of dikes and trenches along Afghan border - may soon look desolate. This would be the dream-turn-true situation for the international drug lords of Afghanistan. Since Iran has repeatedly refused to back off from its uranium enrichment program, it is time to break the deadlock. Under the twist-or-break-arm tactics, European Union is now considering to link the fight against drug menace to making Iran uranium-free.

Prez Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s love of rhetoric supported by an unflinching support of the Islamic clerics only now can be seen as a grave threat to the ambition of a drugs-free world. Without western assistance Iran would not be able to fund its fight against drug lords. A ‘heroin tsunami’ in Europe is predicted by none other than United Nations Organization. Going by official revelations, 900 tons of narcotics were seized in the Iran-Afghanistan border area last year - a whopping 80 percent of total opium seized worldwide.

However, it is still not sure whether it can really be implemented as Washington has praised Iran’s anti-drug steps. The Iranian fight against drug cartels has cost it the lives of more than 3,500 officers in clashes with heavily armed drug traffickers. It has definitely earned Iran many credit points. Roberto Arbitrio, head of the U.N. drugs and crime office in Iran, said the war on drugs should be viewed as ‘a non-political area of mutual interest.’

This credit can not be discounted by any European country as they are the most vulnerable ones to drug abuse.

Source : Fox News