By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
North Korea pardoned and released two detained American journalists after former president Bill Clinton met in Pyongyang on Tuesday with the country's ailing dictator, a transaction that gives Kim Jong Il a thin slice of the international legitimacy that has long eluded him.
Although the White House and the State Department steadfastly insisted that the former president -- the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- was on a "private humanitarian mission," the trip came about only after weeks of back-channel conversations involving academics, congressional figures, and senior White House and State Department officials, said sources involved in the planning.
North Korea rejected the administration's first choice for the trip -- former vice president Al Gore, who co-founded the television channel that employs the journalists -- and Bill Clinton left the United States only after North Korea provided assurances that the reporters would be released, the sources said.
U.S. officials said they hoped Clinton's trip would give Kim a face-saving way to end North Korea's provocative actions, such as recent missile launches and a second nuclear test, and begin the process of returning to the negotiating table on its nuclear programs. The American effort also appears to have been aided by South Korea's government, which in recent weeks has sought to ease tensions with its neighbor.
In Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the release of Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, was ordered after Kim issued a "special pardon." The two had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after they were captured in March near the Chinese border while making a documentary about the trafficking of North Korean women to China.
The journalists and Clinton left North Korea on a plane en route to Los Angeles, where the women were to be reunited with their families.
"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists," KCNA reported. "Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them."
U.S. officials denied late Tuesday night that any apology was offered.
During the visit, Kim hosted a banquet in Clinton's honor, and U.S. officials said the men held talks that lasted more than three hours. State media broadcast images showing a dour-looking Clinton and a smiling Kim. And the KCNA report summarizing the trip was remarkably positive, speaking of "building the bilateral confidence" and "improving the relations between the two countries."
Ling and Lee were in many ways pawns in a test of wills between North Korea and the United States. After their sentencing in June, North Korea reportedly kept them in a guesthouse near Pyongyang, allowing them to make occasional phone calls to relatives in the United States. The sentence to hard labor was not carried out.
North Korea had long made it clear that it expected a high-profile visit on behalf of the journalists, but Gore may not have been acceptable because he was viewed as their boss and thus not an appropriate symbol of the United States. Other potential envoys considered by the administration included Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and a former ambassador to South Korea, Donald Gregg.
The discreet discussions to secure the women's release continued even as Hillary Clinton slammed North Korea last month, saying it had "no friends" and was acting like an unruly child. But in critical ways, she also moderated her tone with regard to the case, moving from declaring in June that the charges were "absolutely without merit or foundation" to saying last month that the journalists "are deeply regretful, and we are very sorry it's happened."
Some officials said the success of former president Clinton's trip could result in the first U.S.-North Korea bilateral meeting of the Obama administration. They also think the United States will have a somewhat stronger hand because China for the first time has backed tougher sanctions in the wake of North Korea's May nuclear test.
No government officials appeared to be aboard Clinton's plane, but the nature of the delegation gave the mission a quasi-official status. It included John Podesta, Clinton's White House chief of staff, who served as chief of Obama's transition team and is president of the Center for American Progress. Also seen in photos released by the Korean media were David Straub, a former head of the Korea desk at the State Department who is now at Stanford University; longtime Clinton aide Douglas J. Band; and Justin Cooper, who has worked with the William J. Clinton Foundation.
It is not clear who funded the trip. News of Podesta's role came as a surprise to staffers at the Center for American Progress; he was thought to be on vacation in Truckee, Calif. Colleagues of Straub's at Stanford were also surprised.
Clinton and his party were greeted early Tuesday at an airport in Pyongyang, the capital, by Yang Hyong Sop, vice president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, according to KCNA. Kim is the chief nuclear negotiator for North Korea, suggesting that Pyongyang hoped to use the visit to make progress on the impasse over its nuclear weapons program.
The visit offered the United States its first direct look at the increasingly frail-looking Kim Jong Il, 67, who is thought to have suffered a stroke a year ago and whose health has triggered speculation that he has picked his third son to take over Asia's only communist dynasty.
"One of the most beneficial things that could come of this is that smart American observers can describe how sharp he is, how lucid he sounds," said Robert Carlin, a former U.S. intelligence analyst who has made nearly 30 visits to North Korea and is dubious about reports of a succession crisis. "It might put to rest a lot of garbage rumors."
The most senior U.S. official previously to have met Kim was then-Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright in 2000, who traveled to Pyongyang aiming to arrange a presidential visit by Clinton. That visit did not take place as he turned his concentration to faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the waning days of his presidency. "The visit that never happened has now happened," said a source involved in the talks with North Korea, noting that the meeting could help fill a gap in Kim's perceived legacy.
Special correspondent Stella Kim in Seoul, correspondent Blaine Harden in Seattle and staff writer Garance Franke-Ruta in Washington contributed to this report.
Aug 5, 2009
Editorial - Burma Must Come Clean
The evidence is now overwhelming of an alliance between Burma and North Korea. The vital question for Thailand is whether whatever ventures the two rogue states have started up pose a threat to our neighbourhood.
Political cartoonAny project involving nuclear weapons paints a new bull's-eye over the region, not to mention that Burma would be in gross and unforgivable violation of the Asean agreements it has signed.
First, the known facts.
Burma, with experts from North Korea, has undertaken huge earthworks in areas where foreigners and most Burmese are not allowed. Truck-sized tunnels have been burrowed into the ground and hills in the general region of the heavily secured new capital, Naypyidaw, in remote central Burma.
Commercial satellite photos show more than 600 tunnel complexes. Other photographs, taken on the ground and smuggled out of the country, show that some of the tunnels are fortified with blast-proof doors.
During construction of these tunnels, which was begun by 2003, Burma renewed official relations with North Korea, cut off in 1983 after state-sponsored terrorists from Pyongyang attempted to assassinate South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan in Rangoon with three deadly bombs.
Relations resumed in April, 2007. At the time, the chief concern of Burma's neighbours and the United Nations was that the twin rogue states would collude against human rights, chiefly with Burma purchasing weapons from North Korea.
The Burmese military continues to abuse citizens at the whim or acquiescence of the ruling junta. But the tunnel projects and increasingly warm relations between Burma and North Korea raise major questions that get to the very basis of Southeast Asian diplomacy, cooperation and peace.
Burma and its dictatorship have clearly violated major tenets of Asean. Indeed, as details of the tunnel projects emerged to the public, Burmese officials were attending the Asean Regional Forum in the southern Thai resort island of Phuket. The purpose of the ARF is specifically to encourage openness among all members in order to build trust.
Even the most peaceful and innocent nuclear project requires Burma - by Asean and by United Nations law - to fully reveal the work. It must be remembered that the junta has stated that it wants a small nuclear reactor, such as the one in Bangkok. Russia announced it would help to achieve that aim; then the subject was dropped from public discussion. But even that proposal must be fully public, and conducted through the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
There also has been speculation that the tunnels are part of a plan to mine uranium, and again Burma would be breaking international law not to discuss that.
On general principles of regional agreement, Burma must quickly disclose what it is up to with the tunnel complexes. The generals can prove that reports of nuclear cooperation with North Korea are wrong.
But by their silence they also can encourage even more distrust and suspicion about the intentions of their violent regime.
Bangkok Post, Aug 8
Defiant Iran President Takes Oath
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sworn in for a second term as Iran's president, after weeks of post-election unrest.
In an address after the ceremony, he criticised foreign powers who have cast doubt on the validity of the election, saying Iran would resist them.
Opposition supporters protesting outside parliament were met by hundreds of riot police.
Germany, France, Britain and the US all said they would not be sending letters of congratulation to Mr Ahmadinejad.
Jon Leyne, BBC Tehran correspondent The formalities have been observed. Iran's authorities will be pleased that the show of unity was maintained as Mr Ahmadinejad was sworn in for his second four-year term.
The BBC's Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, says forming an acceptable, credible government could be the real challenge for the president.
He has been dogged by controversy in recent weeks, becoming embroiled in a series of disputes with conservative politicians who would normally be his allies.
More than 100 people, including some members of the opposition movement, went on trial in Iran on Saturday for their alleged involvement in the post-election violence.
Foreign media, including the BBC, have been restricted in their coverage of Iran since the election protests turned into confrontations with the authorities in which at least 30 people were killed.
In an address after the ceremony, he criticised foreign powers who have cast doubt on the validity of the election, saying Iran would resist them.
Opposition supporters protesting outside parliament were met by hundreds of riot police.
Germany, France, Britain and the US all said they would not be sending letters of congratulation to Mr Ahmadinejad.
At least 30 people died during the street protests which followed the 12 June poll.
Mr Ahmadinejad now has two weeks to form a government that must then be approved by parliament.
'We will resist'
Taking his oath of office, broadcast live on state TV, Mr Ahmadinejad promised to "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution".
**
Mr Ahmadinejad now has two weeks to form a government that must then be approved by parliament.
'We will resist'
Taking his oath of office, broadcast live on state TV, Mr Ahmadinejad promised to "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution".
**
ANALYSIS
Jon Leyne, BBC Tehran correspondent The formalities have been observed. Iran's authorities will be pleased that the show of unity was maintained as Mr Ahmadinejad was sworn in for his second four-year term.
For the moment the fractured Iranian establishment has come together to agree on the one thing that unites them - decrying foreign interference in their domestic affairs.
Nevertheless, there was a substantial boycott by reformist members of parliament, and by leading opponents of Mr Ahmadinejad, including former President Rafsanjani.
Already the conservative press is speculating about the new cabinet. The conservative Hamshahri newspaper called for the new ministers to be "efficient, religious and prudent" - a strong hint that conservatives have not been happy with the calibre of past ministers.
**
The opposition has kept up its pressure on the streets. The appearance of calm and normality in Iran's affairs of state may not last very long.
Nevertheless, there was a substantial boycott by reformist members of parliament, and by leading opponents of Mr Ahmadinejad, including former President Rafsanjani.
Already the conservative press is speculating about the new cabinet. The conservative Hamshahri newspaper called for the new ministers to be "efficient, religious and prudent" - a strong hint that conservatives have not been happy with the calibre of past ministers.
**
The opposition has kept up its pressure on the streets. The appearance of calm and normality in Iran's affairs of state may not last very long.
In the address that followed, he called for "a national will, a national resolve", and told his audience: "We need to join forces."
"I do not have any incentive other than serving the people and the country and I do not think of anything but the progress and development of the nation," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
Following the swearing-in, he used his first address to defend the official results of the election - which gave him an overwhelming victory - and criticised Western powers' response to the disputed poll.
"Some governments should feel responsible for their words and deeds," he said.
"The people of Iran are for a constructive dialogue... We will resist violations of law and abuse...
"[Foreign governments] just want democracy at the service of their own interests - they do not respect the rights of other nations. They see themselves as the yardstick of democracy - our people oppose this, that's what our people are resisting," he said.
Several states which have criticised the elections said they would not be sending customary letters of congratulations to Mr Ahmadinejad to mark his reappointment as president, including the US, Germany, France and the UK.
"Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations," said Mr Ahmadinejad, to the laughter of listening deputies.
Outside, hundreds of demonstrators gathered. There were reports of clashes with riot police and at least one arrest.
Khamenei endorsement
There were some notable absences for Wednesday's inauguration ceremony, though envoys from the European Union and the UK did attend.
"I do not have any incentive other than serving the people and the country and I do not think of anything but the progress and development of the nation," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
Following the swearing-in, he used his first address to defend the official results of the election - which gave him an overwhelming victory - and criticised Western powers' response to the disputed poll.
"Some governments should feel responsible for their words and deeds," he said.
"The people of Iran are for a constructive dialogue... We will resist violations of law and abuse...
"[Foreign governments] just want democracy at the service of their own interests - they do not respect the rights of other nations. They see themselves as the yardstick of democracy - our people oppose this, that's what our people are resisting," he said.
Several states which have criticised the elections said they would not be sending customary letters of congratulations to Mr Ahmadinejad to mark his reappointment as president, including the US, Germany, France and the UK.
"Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations," said Mr Ahmadinejad, to the laughter of listening deputies.
Outside, hundreds of demonstrators gathered. There were reports of clashes with riot police and at least one arrest.
Khamenei endorsement
There were some notable absences for Wednesday's inauguration ceremony, though envoys from the European Union and the UK did attend.
Mr Ahmadinejad's predecessors as president - Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - were missing, as they were from a formal ceremony to endorse his presidency on Monday.
Also missing were two defeated opposition candidates - Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi - who continue to contest the results.
In addition, a reformist faction of about 70 MPs said only about 13 of its members attended - and some of those who did attend reportedly left during Mr Ahmadinejad's speech in a show of protest.
Mr Ahmadinejad has received the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has supported him throughout the unrest.
Mr Khamenei said Mr Ahmadinejad was the rightful winner and that Iranians had "voted in favour of a fight against arrogance, to confront destitution and spread justice".Also missing were two defeated opposition candidates - Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi - who continue to contest the results.
In addition, a reformist faction of about 70 MPs said only about 13 of its members attended - and some of those who did attend reportedly left during Mr Ahmadinejad's speech in a show of protest.
Mr Ahmadinejad has received the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has supported him throughout the unrest.
The BBC's Tehran correspondent, Jon Leyne, says forming an acceptable, credible government could be the real challenge for the president.
He has been dogged by controversy in recent weeks, becoming embroiled in a series of disputes with conservative politicians who would normally be his allies.
More than 100 people, including some members of the opposition movement, went on trial in Iran on Saturday for their alleged involvement in the post-election violence.
Foreign media, including the BBC, have been restricted in their coverage of Iran since the election protests turned into confrontations with the authorities in which at least 30 people were killed.
USIP Addresses Refugee Crisis in Pakistan
July 2009 | Congressional Testimony by Imtiaz Ali
The following is his full statement to the Senate subcommittee:
Thank you, Senator Casey and distinguished members of the subcommittee for providing me with the opportunity to testify before you on the internally displaced persons (IDP) crisis in the Swat Valley and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. This is a phenomenon that poses a serious threat to Pakistan and ultimately to American security interests, but if handled correctly, can be an opportunity to promote them.
I am currently a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. I am a journalist by training and have spent a great deal of time reporting on Pakistan's tribal belt and North West Frontier Province along the Afghan border. The views I express today are my own and not those of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which does not advocate specific policy positions.
As you know, the crisis in Pakistan is by most metrics the biggest internal displacement in recent history. According to Pakistani officials and several U.N. agencies, the number of people forced to flee since fighting began this spring between Taliban militants and the Pakistani Army is more than two million. Most of these refugees fled to the neighboring districts of Mardan and Swabi, the closest and most accessible regions still unaffected by the fighting.
A lesser-known but equally critical fact is that less than 20 percent of the IDPs took shelter in the refugee camps set up by the government and aid organizations. Instead, the majority of the IDPs have sought refuge in the homes of local Pashtun "host" families. In many of the Pashtun villages in Mardan and Swabi, elders have assembled meetings and pooled resources to provide shelter for the IDPs from Swat, despite limited resources. Tellingly, these "host families" tend not to refer to the new guests as IDPs or refugees, but as community members entitled to the benefits of the centuries-long tradition of Pashtun hospitality.
The Pakistani government did a good job responding to this crisis, especially considering its limited resources -- which is why it was compelled to solicit international aid. Though, many Pakistanis have mixed feelings about the fair distribution of aid and some other aid related concerns. However, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the people supported military operations in the Swat Valley.
Last month I went to Pakistan with the special envoy, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, as part of the presidential mission to look into the IDP crisis. I went with Ambassador Holbrooke to the IDP camps in Mardan and talked to a number of people residing there. After the official trip, I stayed on for few days to visit my hometown in District Mardan, where I saw first-hand the hospitality my own village people extended to IDPs from Swat. Lower and middle class families in Mardan and Swabi districts shared food, bedrooms and washrooms. When asked about the IDPs, even the poorest Pashtun in Mardan and Swabi said, "They are our guests. Don’t call them IDPs. Don’t call them refugees. It is part of our Pashtun tradition and culture to help them out."
And yet it was evident that hosting so many people has put an immense strain these predominantly poor communities. Meanwhile, most of the well-intentioned national and international aid is being directed towards camps serving only a small portion of the community in need, with too few resources reaching the communities absorbing the majority of the IDPs. Many fallacious reports underrepresented the number of IDPs living with the local host families, which has led to a lack of focus on communities as de-facto refugee camps.
One attempted means of reaching out to the overwhelming majority of the IDPs in need of aid was to employ the network of District Government system led by an elected district Nazim (mayor). But, it was not properly used because of an ongoing power struggle between the District Nazims and the bureaucracy.
Pakistani higher ups and international dignitaries paid visits to some of the camps which, in my opinion, were what I would call "VIP Camps" because they were set up as show-cases with all the necessary facilities and more than enough food, deliberately hiding the real situation on the ground.
Few of the influential people who have visited Pakistan have gone to see host families in order to thank them for their generosity in giving shelter to the IDPs in their moments of need. That said, this was a unique crisis in many ways: the sheer number of the displaced people, the speed of the mass exodus, and then the overwhelming response from the local people and the rest of Pakistan to support the displaced people.
The problems of the displaced people are both short-term and long-term. In the short-term, the problem was to provide immediate relief, especially shelter, food, drinking water, medicine, etc. That part will soon come to an end with the repatriation of the Swat IDPs. However, the long-term problem is a daunting task: the IDPs need rehabilitation in their hometowns and substantial help is needed to rebuild and reconstruct the damaged infrastructure.
IDPs started returning to their hometowns on July 13 and, according to official figures, over 600,000 individuals have so far been returned to Mingora, the capital of Swat, and to the adjacent areas in Swat and neighboring parts of Buner. However, the problem is still far from over.
IDPs will face three immediate problems when returning and reaching their home areas:
Repatriation of the IDPs to their hometowns will largely depend on the security situation. The Army claims that militants have been routed from most parts of Swat. Local journalists have confirmed that several important Taliban commanders have been killed and many had been arrested during the operation. According to them, however, the situation is still far from stable. Still, there are some pockets of resistance that scare the returning IDPs. Reports reaching Washington suggest that Taliban militants are still holding their positions in the Kabal area of Swat. However, the big concern raised by not only the IDPs but throughout Pakistan is the fate of the Taliban leadership.
If Maulana Fazlullah -- the Taliban leader in Swat -- and his top commanders are still at large and they are able to make headlines through their audio messages and sometime through their resurfaced illegal FM radio stations, then it will be hard for those IDPs who have gone back to safely live there, and next to impossible for those who are still in the camps and with host families to safely return.
A shortage of food and continuous curfew in many areas where people have recently returned are also serious problems. Curfews prevent people from leaving their homes after dark in Kabal, Matta, Kanjoo, even though a family member may have become seriously ill. When those still living in camps come to know about this situation, they will likely be frightened and reconsider returning.
Another problem, as I see it, is that many of the politicians and landlords with second homes in Islamabad or Peshawar have also left Swat in the wake of fighting and are not willing to go back. They are influential layers of society. If they do not return, the ordinary people will be unable to ward off the militants, especially when the top leadership of the Taliban is still intact.
Not only the people of Swat, but the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis has been demanding a more effective military operation against the Taliban so that the militants and their leadership do not find ways to flee the conflict areas and then filter back into Swat valley when quiet has returned. This is, I believe, a critical issue in the wake of unprecedented sacrifice by the IDPs.
By some conservative estimates, the rehabilitation of the IDPs will cost billions of dollars. Earlier estimates mentioned by the government were over $60 billion - both infrastructure and compensations. However, assessments are underway and new figures are yet to be made public. The government has provided IDPs families with ATM cards each worth $312.00 (or equivalent of 25,000 Pakistani rupees) to get cash for their daily use. Twenty-five thousand Pakistani rupees is fine for a few days when a family goes back to its ruined home, but it cannot feed a family for any longer period of time. Many families have problems getting the cards because of wrong registration numbers, non-registration as IDPs, etc.
In my view the Obama administration realized the scope of the crisis quickly and its response thus far has been encouraging. President Obama's special envoy went twice to the region to see the IDP situation.
If local newspapers are to be believed, Ambassador Holbrooke spent more time in the refugee camps talking to the IDPs than the Pakistani ruling elites did. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a "Text Swat" SMS campaign – whereby you could text the word "SWAT" to the number "20222" and $5 would be donated to the U.N. Pakistan Relief Fund to provide food, water, medicine, clothing, shelter, and other basic necessities to the IDPs.
These efforts are commendable, and to those in Pakistan that are aware of them, an example of the United States’ capacity and inclination to render aid. Still, there is a persistent question of whether the aid has been effective, especially whether it has gone to the right people.
It’s pertinent to mention here that Nasim Ashraf, executive director of Pakistan Studies Center at the Middle East Institute, has been quoted in the media that he has conducted a survey about the IDPs and found that when they were asked if they had received any help from the U.S., 72 percent said "No." He was quoted in a news article saying, "The common man [in Pakistan] doesn’t know that, you know, Secretary Clinton here has announced $200 million [in aid] because they don’t think that it ever gets there to them."
This is a big dilemma for the U.S. The people on the ground do not know about American aid. The Obama administration should work on how to reach out to the Pakistani people.
Policing: The United States should help the NWFP government develop community policing at the village level to give people a sense of security. There is an urgent need for a strong, well-trained and well-equipped police system in the Swat valley that can resist intimidation and overcome violence on the street. When the Taliban extended their writ in the Swat region few months back, the police force completely collapsed and put up no resistance. One sympathizes with the ill-prepared and ill-equipped policeman confronting the relatively well-equipped and adept Taliban fighters. There has already been an interest on the part of the U.S government in reforming the Pakistani police system. However, the fall of the Swat to the Taliban and now its takeover by the Pakistan Army makes it urgent to have a strong regular police force in the valley to protect the return of militancy. The Army can launch military operations at anytime, but its police responsibility is to maintain law and order and do the routine patrolling in the streets and keep a vigilant eye on miscreants and militants. The Pakistani government has decided to increase the number of police stations and police forces in Swat in order to fulfill the requirements of the people. The U.S. can assist in these efforts.
Compensation: The United States should help the Pakistani government and local NGOs to give a compensation package to the victims of military operations. The packages should include enough money to reconstruct damaged homes, restart businesses and meet the living requirements for a meaningful period of time as former IDPs get back on their feet. It should be much larger than the current amount of $312 for a family that can range in size from four to eight and sometimes 10 members. Since Pakistani government officials have a trust problem due to the widespread accusations of corruption even in this humanitarian crisis, I suggest that it would be useful to involve local NGOs in Swat and the Malakand region to help conduct loss assessments and then involve local community leaders for the distribution of financial and other aid and rehabilitation support.
Schools, Hospitals, Roads: Most people are aware that the United States has been using drones and missiles in the tribal region to target and attack militant hideouts. The attacks also incur collateral damage -- loss of lives and injuries to innocent civilians including women and children. As a part of the rehabilitation of the IDPs, the United States should help rebuild schools and hospitals destroyed by the Taliban militants. This will be a great help to the people of war-hit areas of Swat and other parts of the tribal region. The U.S. should also help the Pakistani government rebuild the destroyed buildings from the Swat conflict on an accelerated basis.
Microfinance/banking: With the help of the Pakistani government and NGOs, the U.S. can also help launch microfinance banking facilities for the people of Swat and FATA to create sustainable livelihood opportunities, including support farmers, smalls industries and skill development programs for men and women. Local NGOS can be involved in the interest-free loans for launching small businesses.
Local Pashtun Media: Establishing, promoting and encouraging local Pashtun media is needed at this time. In the absence of a strong local Pashtun media, people of Swat and FATA have become "captive audience" to the Taliban pirated FM radio stations. Fazlullah's FM radio station, which earned him the nickname "FM Mullah," contributed to the fall of Swat into the hands of the Taliban. A local independent Pashtun media is necessary to provide alternative radio stations and content that people will want to listen to. This will also help improve the U.S image in the long run by engaging Pashtuns in the political discourse. A Pashtun media would ultimately support Pashtun nationalism, which is one way to help combat Taliban militancy. I would argue that a Pashtun social movement is needed to raise the voices for their identity, culture and heritage – which are the anti-thesis of the Taliban.
Cultural/Sports: This area has long been ignored by the successive Pakistani regimes as well as international donors. There is a lack of sports and cultural facilities for the youth of Tribal region and many parts of NWFP. But this is one of the potential area in which a long term investment can stop the drift of young people to extremism. The revival of secular Pashtuns’ culture and traditions is must for stopping the march of Taliban in the border region.
Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions.
The following is his full statement to the Senate subcommittee:
Thank you, Senator Casey and distinguished members of the subcommittee for providing me with the opportunity to testify before you on the internally displaced persons (IDP) crisis in the Swat Valley and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan. This is a phenomenon that poses a serious threat to Pakistan and ultimately to American security interests, but if handled correctly, can be an opportunity to promote them.
I am currently a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. I am a journalist by training and have spent a great deal of time reporting on Pakistan's tribal belt and North West Frontier Province along the Afghan border. The views I express today are my own and not those of the U.S. Institute of Peace, which does not advocate specific policy positions.
As you know, the crisis in Pakistan is by most metrics the biggest internal displacement in recent history. According to Pakistani officials and several U.N. agencies, the number of people forced to flee since fighting began this spring between Taliban militants and the Pakistani Army is more than two million. Most of these refugees fled to the neighboring districts of Mardan and Swabi, the closest and most accessible regions still unaffected by the fighting.
A lesser-known but equally critical fact is that less than 20 percent of the IDPs took shelter in the refugee camps set up by the government and aid organizations. Instead, the majority of the IDPs have sought refuge in the homes of local Pashtun "host" families. In many of the Pashtun villages in Mardan and Swabi, elders have assembled meetings and pooled resources to provide shelter for the IDPs from Swat, despite limited resources. Tellingly, these "host families" tend not to refer to the new guests as IDPs or refugees, but as community members entitled to the benefits of the centuries-long tradition of Pashtun hospitality.
The Pakistani government did a good job responding to this crisis, especially considering its limited resources -- which is why it was compelled to solicit international aid. Though, many Pakistanis have mixed feelings about the fair distribution of aid and some other aid related concerns. However, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the people supported military operations in the Swat Valley.
Last month I went to Pakistan with the special envoy, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, as part of the presidential mission to look into the IDP crisis. I went with Ambassador Holbrooke to the IDP camps in Mardan and talked to a number of people residing there. After the official trip, I stayed on for few days to visit my hometown in District Mardan, where I saw first-hand the hospitality my own village people extended to IDPs from Swat. Lower and middle class families in Mardan and Swabi districts shared food, bedrooms and washrooms. When asked about the IDPs, even the poorest Pashtun in Mardan and Swabi said, "They are our guests. Don’t call them IDPs. Don’t call them refugees. It is part of our Pashtun tradition and culture to help them out."
And yet it was evident that hosting so many people has put an immense strain these predominantly poor communities. Meanwhile, most of the well-intentioned national and international aid is being directed towards camps serving only a small portion of the community in need, with too few resources reaching the communities absorbing the majority of the IDPs. Many fallacious reports underrepresented the number of IDPs living with the local host families, which has led to a lack of focus on communities as de-facto refugee camps.
One attempted means of reaching out to the overwhelming majority of the IDPs in need of aid was to employ the network of District Government system led by an elected district Nazim (mayor). But, it was not properly used because of an ongoing power struggle between the District Nazims and the bureaucracy.
Pakistani higher ups and international dignitaries paid visits to some of the camps which, in my opinion, were what I would call "VIP Camps" because they were set up as show-cases with all the necessary facilities and more than enough food, deliberately hiding the real situation on the ground.
Few of the influential people who have visited Pakistan have gone to see host families in order to thank them for their generosity in giving shelter to the IDPs in their moments of need. That said, this was a unique crisis in many ways: the sheer number of the displaced people, the speed of the mass exodus, and then the overwhelming response from the local people and the rest of Pakistan to support the displaced people.
The problems of the displaced people are both short-term and long-term. In the short-term, the problem was to provide immediate relief, especially shelter, food, drinking water, medicine, etc. That part will soon come to an end with the repatriation of the Swat IDPs. However, the long-term problem is a daunting task: the IDPs need rehabilitation in their hometowns and substantial help is needed to rebuild and reconstruct the damaged infrastructure.
IDPs started returning to their hometowns on July 13 and, according to official figures, over 600,000 individuals have so far been returned to Mingora, the capital of Swat, and to the adjacent areas in Swat and neighboring parts of Buner. However, the problem is still far from over.
The Challenges Ahead
As the intensity of military operation in the Swat valley winds down and the displaced people make their way back to their hometowns, the next phase involving the rehabilitation of the IDPs is expected to be as challenging as the first phase of immediate relief. The provincial government in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has set up a Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority (PaRRSA) which, according to official statements, will be responsible for planning and coordinating the overall rehabilitation and resettlement of internally displaced persons and reconstruction of the areas affected by military operations. PaRRSA is part of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA)--a separate body already set up for dealing with the IDPs issue.IDPs will face three immediate problems when returning and reaching their home areas:
- Security
- Economic development and employment
- Education
Security: Taliban Leadership Still At Large
Of course, IDPs want to go back to their homes. They want to live again in the place that they lost to the Taliban militants. The Pakistani government has also been telling people that most areas have been cleared of militants and now they can go back to their homes. However, despite the government claims of clearing Swat from militants, many IDPs regard the situation as somehow deceptive -- people are still confused about whether to return or not, mainly because of the security concerns.Repatriation of the IDPs to their hometowns will largely depend on the security situation. The Army claims that militants have been routed from most parts of Swat. Local journalists have confirmed that several important Taliban commanders have been killed and many had been arrested during the operation. According to them, however, the situation is still far from stable. Still, there are some pockets of resistance that scare the returning IDPs. Reports reaching Washington suggest that Taliban militants are still holding their positions in the Kabal area of Swat. However, the big concern raised by not only the IDPs but throughout Pakistan is the fate of the Taliban leadership.
If Maulana Fazlullah -- the Taliban leader in Swat -- and his top commanders are still at large and they are able to make headlines through their audio messages and sometime through their resurfaced illegal FM radio stations, then it will be hard for those IDPs who have gone back to safely live there, and next to impossible for those who are still in the camps and with host families to safely return.
A shortage of food and continuous curfew in many areas where people have recently returned are also serious problems. Curfews prevent people from leaving their homes after dark in Kabal, Matta, Kanjoo, even though a family member may have become seriously ill. When those still living in camps come to know about this situation, they will likely be frightened and reconsider returning.
Another problem, as I see it, is that many of the politicians and landlords with second homes in Islamabad or Peshawar have also left Swat in the wake of fighting and are not willing to go back. They are influential layers of society. If they do not return, the ordinary people will be unable to ward off the militants, especially when the top leadership of the Taliban is still intact.
Not only the people of Swat, but the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis has been demanding a more effective military operation against the Taliban so that the militants and their leadership do not find ways to flee the conflict areas and then filter back into Swat valley when quiet has returned. This is, I believe, a critical issue in the wake of unprecedented sacrifice by the IDPs.
Economic Development and Employment
It is too early to assess the actual damages to economic development and employment. However, initial reports suggest large-scale destruction and robberies of businesses and homes. The government's initial figures mention losses to infrastructure at $390 million. Crops have been ruined in many areas. According to local journalists, the Army has now told people not to grow the maize (corn) crop this season because it is used by the Taliban as cover to hide themselves in the fields. But, people say they have no other means of ensuring sufficient food and if the government stops them from sowing maize and other food crops, then the government should support them with cash to support their families. In this situation, many people who go back to their homes in farming areas will not have jobs or crops in their fields. This is one of the most important areas to be addressed.By some conservative estimates, the rehabilitation of the IDPs will cost billions of dollars. Earlier estimates mentioned by the government were over $60 billion - both infrastructure and compensations. However, assessments are underway and new figures are yet to be made public. The government has provided IDPs families with ATM cards each worth $312.00 (or equivalent of 25,000 Pakistani rupees) to get cash for their daily use. Twenty-five thousand Pakistani rupees is fine for a few days when a family goes back to its ruined home, but it cannot feed a family for any longer period of time. Many families have problems getting the cards because of wrong registration numbers, non-registration as IDPs, etc.
Education
Close to 200 girls schools have been destroyed by the Taliban militants. This has left thousands of girls without any means of education. Reconstructing schools and providing security necessary for parents to be comfortable sending their daughters to school is significant project in its own right. Before the uptick in violence, around 70,000 to 80,000 girls were enrolled in schools in the Swat district. Following Taliban threats, many stopped going to school because of fear for their safety.IDPs Crisis: The U.S. Response
The United States has a good role model of 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan and Kashmir when it act expediently and tactfully and found a favorable rating among Pakistanis for the first time in recent history. This spring, the U.S. was again presented with an opportunity to prove itself a positive force when the IDP crisis began in the north west of Pakistan. The United States has a much bigger opportunity today to improve its image in a region that is reeling under the deep-rooted anti-Americanism.In my view the Obama administration realized the scope of the crisis quickly and its response thus far has been encouraging. President Obama's special envoy went twice to the region to see the IDP situation.
If local newspapers are to be believed, Ambassador Holbrooke spent more time in the refugee camps talking to the IDPs than the Pakistani ruling elites did. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a "Text Swat" SMS campaign – whereby you could text the word "SWAT" to the number "20222" and $5 would be donated to the U.N. Pakistan Relief Fund to provide food, water, medicine, clothing, shelter, and other basic necessities to the IDPs.
These efforts are commendable, and to those in Pakistan that are aware of them, an example of the United States’ capacity and inclination to render aid. Still, there is a persistent question of whether the aid has been effective, especially whether it has gone to the right people.
It’s pertinent to mention here that Nasim Ashraf, executive director of Pakistan Studies Center at the Middle East Institute, has been quoted in the media that he has conducted a survey about the IDPs and found that when they were asked if they had received any help from the U.S., 72 percent said "No." He was quoted in a news article saying, "The common man [in Pakistan] doesn’t know that, you know, Secretary Clinton here has announced $200 million [in aid] because they don’t think that it ever gets there to them."
This is a big dilemma for the U.S. The people on the ground do not know about American aid. The Obama administration should work on how to reach out to the Pakistani people.
Suggestions for the Best Utilization of U.S. Aid
Winning hearts and minds of the Pakistani people will take years and will require long-term as well as short-term policies.Policing: The United States should help the NWFP government develop community policing at the village level to give people a sense of security. There is an urgent need for a strong, well-trained and well-equipped police system in the Swat valley that can resist intimidation and overcome violence on the street. When the Taliban extended their writ in the Swat region few months back, the police force completely collapsed and put up no resistance. One sympathizes with the ill-prepared and ill-equipped policeman confronting the relatively well-equipped and adept Taliban fighters. There has already been an interest on the part of the U.S government in reforming the Pakistani police system. However, the fall of the Swat to the Taliban and now its takeover by the Pakistan Army makes it urgent to have a strong regular police force in the valley to protect the return of militancy. The Army can launch military operations at anytime, but its police responsibility is to maintain law and order and do the routine patrolling in the streets and keep a vigilant eye on miscreants and militants. The Pakistani government has decided to increase the number of police stations and police forces in Swat in order to fulfill the requirements of the people. The U.S. can assist in these efforts.
Compensation: The United States should help the Pakistani government and local NGOs to give a compensation package to the victims of military operations. The packages should include enough money to reconstruct damaged homes, restart businesses and meet the living requirements for a meaningful period of time as former IDPs get back on their feet. It should be much larger than the current amount of $312 for a family that can range in size from four to eight and sometimes 10 members. Since Pakistani government officials have a trust problem due to the widespread accusations of corruption even in this humanitarian crisis, I suggest that it would be useful to involve local NGOs in Swat and the Malakand region to help conduct loss assessments and then involve local community leaders for the distribution of financial and other aid and rehabilitation support.
Schools, Hospitals, Roads: Most people are aware that the United States has been using drones and missiles in the tribal region to target and attack militant hideouts. The attacks also incur collateral damage -- loss of lives and injuries to innocent civilians including women and children. As a part of the rehabilitation of the IDPs, the United States should help rebuild schools and hospitals destroyed by the Taliban militants. This will be a great help to the people of war-hit areas of Swat and other parts of the tribal region. The U.S. should also help the Pakistani government rebuild the destroyed buildings from the Swat conflict on an accelerated basis.
Microfinance/banking: With the help of the Pakistani government and NGOs, the U.S. can also help launch microfinance banking facilities for the people of Swat and FATA to create sustainable livelihood opportunities, including support farmers, smalls industries and skill development programs for men and women. Local NGOS can be involved in the interest-free loans for launching small businesses.
Local Pashtun Media: Establishing, promoting and encouraging local Pashtun media is needed at this time. In the absence of a strong local Pashtun media, people of Swat and FATA have become "captive audience" to the Taliban pirated FM radio stations. Fazlullah's FM radio station, which earned him the nickname "FM Mullah," contributed to the fall of Swat into the hands of the Taliban. A local independent Pashtun media is necessary to provide alternative radio stations and content that people will want to listen to. This will also help improve the U.S image in the long run by engaging Pashtuns in the political discourse. A Pashtun media would ultimately support Pashtun nationalism, which is one way to help combat Taliban militancy. I would argue that a Pashtun social movement is needed to raise the voices for their identity, culture and heritage – which are the anti-thesis of the Taliban.
Cultural/Sports: This area has long been ignored by the successive Pakistani regimes as well as international donors. There is a lack of sports and cultural facilities for the youth of Tribal region and many parts of NWFP. But this is one of the potential area in which a long term investment can stop the drift of young people to extremism. The revival of secular Pashtuns’ culture and traditions is must for stopping the march of Taliban in the border region.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I salute the IDPs and the rest of the Pakistani people, particularly the Pashtuns of Mardan and Swabi for their sacrifices in helping the IDPs. I must say that the future of the war against terrorism in Pakistan now depends more profoundly than anyone expected on how well the situation of IDPs is addressed. If properly treated, these Pashtuns can be a bulwark against Taliban militants, irrespective of their ethnic background. The Pashtuns have long been accused as the supporters and sympathizers of Taliban and al-Qaida militants. However, because of the IDP crisis that position has changed and now they should be regarded as the bulwark against militants. I wish and pray that all the people of Swat, Buner and other parts of the Tribal region will return to their homes and once again start living a peaceful life in their valley once known as Switzerland of Pakistan. Being a Pashtun myself, I would like to believe that one day these IDPs will say that during their most difficult times, not only the whole of Pakistan but the world, stood with them.Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions.
Life under the Flip-flop
The night before I left, grass fires lined the hills, like bleeding gums.
I had been asking myself over and over again, toying with in my head, how Dili could be this calm, this “ok” only three years after the violence. The calm, at times almost giddy, sense of prosperity.
In 2006, people were pulled out of mikrolets and forced to prove they could count to ten without the wrong accent. Those who failed to effortlessly say “h-at” for four were beaten, or worse dragged away. People lived wracked with fear of their neighbors. Of strangers. They lived in fear of themselves. There was no longer a jackboot, it was a terrifying Timorese shinelo.
All that remains on the city landscape of 2006 is the memorial for the police killed in Caicoli.
But what happened to the dead civilians?
More importantly, the roadblockers? The mask-wearing rock throwers? The rama-ambon makers? The house burners? The civilians who FDTL distributed arms to?
During tours of the city limits of Dili — through Becora, down through Bidau Santana, then out to Cristo Rei, and back out up the back of Delta Comoro, back down through Fatumeta, then up Taibesse’s up and around China Rate and back down Lahane – I wonder how much is stored up there — how is stress and anger contained. Where does it go? Is it swallowed? Is it buried? Is it literally stored away like an unused rama ambon?
I met some young people who have made a conscious decision to leave Dili, to go to Indonesia, to go to England. Dili is too small to contain all of their stress and anger.
It is hard to transmit how it felt in 2006, so it is hard to capture the strange dissonance with today’s Dili.
The mad construction keeps the city busy, and Prime Minister’s spokesman gloats over 12% growth in GDP.
Heaps of carpenters buzzing away making window and door frames with deslokadu money; the massive $400,000+ Civil Society Fund renovation of Motael Church, and the bigger and more expensive work on the Cathedral; the new wooden crocodile heads around the Monument to the Discoveries in front of the Palace of Government (a symbolic encircling of the colonial object); the traditional houses going up like lightening around the new Presidential palace, and in time for the big party in August.
While most people display a dangerous level of distrust in their political leaders, Dili seems perfectly lanu and mosu at the moment.
Have people begun to tell 2006? How can it ever be told?
I had been asking myself over and over again, toying with in my head, how Dili could be this calm, this “ok” only three years after the violence. The calm, at times almost giddy, sense of prosperity.
In 2006, people were pulled out of mikrolets and forced to prove they could count to ten without the wrong accent. Those who failed to effortlessly say “h-at” for four were beaten, or worse dragged away. People lived wracked with fear of their neighbors. Of strangers. They lived in fear of themselves. There was no longer a jackboot, it was a terrifying Timorese shinelo.
All that remains on the city landscape of 2006 is the memorial for the police killed in Caicoli.
But what happened to the dead civilians?
More importantly, the roadblockers? The mask-wearing rock throwers? The rama-ambon makers? The house burners? The civilians who FDTL distributed arms to?
During tours of the city limits of Dili — through Becora, down through Bidau Santana, then out to Cristo Rei, and back out up the back of Delta Comoro, back down through Fatumeta, then up Taibesse’s up and around China Rate and back down Lahane – I wonder how much is stored up there — how is stress and anger contained. Where does it go? Is it swallowed? Is it buried? Is it literally stored away like an unused rama ambon?
I met some young people who have made a conscious decision to leave Dili, to go to Indonesia, to go to England. Dili is too small to contain all of their stress and anger.
It is hard to transmit how it felt in 2006, so it is hard to capture the strange dissonance with today’s Dili.
The mad construction keeps the city busy, and Prime Minister’s spokesman gloats over 12% growth in GDP.
Heaps of carpenters buzzing away making window and door frames with deslokadu money; the massive $400,000+ Civil Society Fund renovation of Motael Church, and the bigger and more expensive work on the Cathedral; the new wooden crocodile heads around the Monument to the Discoveries in front of the Palace of Government (a symbolic encircling of the colonial object); the traditional houses going up like lightening around the new Presidential palace, and in time for the big party in August.
While most people display a dangerous level of distrust in their political leaders, Dili seems perfectly lanu and mosu at the moment.
Have people begun to tell 2006? How can it ever be told?
Can Students Learn Without Books?
It’s hard enough to get through high school. It just became more so in East Timor, where students and teachers often spend valuable class time speaking different national languages.
“At our public high school in Aileu, that’s what we have--a mix of four languages,” said Maryknoll Sister Julia Shideler. “Is it a surprise that students are confused, teachers are frustrated, and parents disappointed?”
Sister Julia teaches full-time in Aileu, a small city not far from the northern coast of this Southeast Asian island the country shares with Indonesia. That country ruled East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, for years until the Timorese voted to oust Indonesia in a UN referendum ten years ago this August.
East Timor is now an independent state. Portuguese, long banned in East Timor, has been declared a new official language. Education is seen as a way out of poverty--and a national literacy rate of only 43 percent. But with all the changes taking place here, how do families find security in daily life following the political violence that took place after the referendum?
Sister Julia is a calming presence. Her background as a teacher is helping East Timor make the transition to a literate society. Sister Julia mentors a youth group at her school, sings in a teachers' choir, and takes part in children's advocacy, teaching, and pastoral tasks.
Some new textbooks in Portuguese are finding their way into East Timor's classrooms, but not enough. Religion and civics classes education are still taught in Tetum, the local language, while English is taught to all. The Indonesian language still dominates in most Timorese schools.
“For me, I take it all in stride as one of those things to accept, adapt to, and approach positively,” Sister Julia said. In addition to having a college degree in Spanish, Sister Julia also knows French and Tetum, as well as English.
“Many people wondered, knowing I have a background in Spanish, why I’d chosen to mission in East Timor. Little did I know that it would help me learn and teach Portuguese, which resembles Spanish.”
Watch Sister Julia's video and discover the ways children benefit from her ministry.
“At our public high school in Aileu, that’s what we have--a mix of four languages,” said Maryknoll Sister Julia Shideler. “Is it a surprise that students are confused, teachers are frustrated, and parents disappointed?”
Sister Julia teaches full-time in Aileu, a small city not far from the northern coast of this Southeast Asian island the country shares with Indonesia. That country ruled East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, for years until the Timorese voted to oust Indonesia in a UN referendum ten years ago this August.
East Timor is now an independent state. Portuguese, long banned in East Timor, has been declared a new official language. Education is seen as a way out of poverty--and a national literacy rate of only 43 percent. But with all the changes taking place here, how do families find security in daily life following the political violence that took place after the referendum?
In East Timor, children suffer when schools lack enough resources.
Still, can students learn if they don't have the right textbooks?
“Not only do most Timorese teachers understand and speak Portuguese poorly, they also lack textbooks and materials to facilitate this transition,” Sister Julia said. “So most second- and third-year classes are still using Indonesian textbooks, curriculums, and exams.” Some new textbooks in Portuguese are finding their way into East Timor's classrooms, but not enough. Religion and civics classes education are still taught in Tetum, the local language, while English is taught to all. The Indonesian language still dominates in most Timorese schools.
“For me, I take it all in stride as one of those things to accept, adapt to, and approach positively,” Sister Julia said. In addition to having a college degree in Spanish, Sister Julia also knows French and Tetum, as well as English.
“Many people wondered, knowing I have a background in Spanish, why I’d chosen to mission in East Timor. Little did I know that it would help me learn and teach Portuguese, which resembles Spanish.”
Watch Sister Julia's video and discover the ways children benefit from her ministry.
Aug 4, 2009
Fears of Fraud Cast Pall Over Afghan Election
KABUL, Afghanistan — Little more than three weeks before the presidential election, problems that include insecurity and fears of fraud are raising concerns about the credibility of the race, which President Obama has called the most important event in Afghanistan this year.
With Taliban insurgents active in half the country, many Afghans remain doubtful that the Aug. 20 election will take place at all. The Taliban issued a statement last week calling for a boycott, a threat that could deter voters in much of the south, where the insurgency is strongest.
Election officials insist that the election will go ahead. But they concede that the insecurity will prevent as many as 600 polling centers, or roughly 10 percent, from opening. Western officials acknowledge that the election will be imperfect, but say they are aiming for enough credibility to satisfy both Afghans and international monitors.
Even that goal will be hard to meet. Though increasingly unpopular here and abroad, President Hamid Karzai is still the front-runner in a field of about 40 candidates, and only one, Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister for Mr. Karzai, has emerged as a serious challenger. Many Afghans are convinced that foreign powers will choose the winner and fix the result.
But no matter who prevails, the multitude of problems and what is expected to be a low turnout in conflict areas are likely to reduce the next president’s mandate.
Western officials and Afghans alike worry that the election could be so flawed that many Afghans might reject the balloting and its results, with potentially dangerous consequences.
If they cannot vote because of insecurity in the south, Pashtuns, the country’s largest ethnic group and the one most closely associated with the Taliban, could become even more alienated from the government and the foreign forces backing it, political analysts say.
They also warn of Iranian-style protests and instability if the population in the north, which largely supports a change of government, feels its vote has been manipulated.
“We are worried about voter registration fraud, and we are worried about voters who will be unable to reach polling places because of insecurity,” Richard C. Holbrooke, the American special envoy, said during a visit last week. “And we are worried about the accuracy of the vote count, and we are worried about the ability of women to vote.”
Philippe Morillon, the outspoken retired French general who leads the European Union election observer mission to Afghanistan, said his top priority was to prevent fraud. “It is you who will choose your president, and we are there simply to guarantee that your choice is not betrayed,” Mr. Morillon told Afghan journalists at a news briefing in Kabul.
In an effort to speed the results and reduce the opportunity for rigging, ballots will be counted at individual polling stations. Afghan officials have said there will be a preliminary result within 48 hours, followed by a two-week period for complaints and confirmation procedures.
But Western officials say it could take longer to declare a winner, anticipating challenges from around the country’s 34 provinces, where votes will also be cast for provincial councils.
“It could be like 34 Minnesota Senate races,” one Western official said, referring to the disputed race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman, which took nearly eight months to resolve in Mr. Franken’s favor.
Other officials warn that public frustration with the war, corruption and lagging reconstruction and development is so high that many people may shun the polls.
In the south, election officials said they were expecting a turnout below 30 percent, said Abdul Qader Nurzai, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission office in Kandahar.
“The people are not that interested in the elections,” said Abdul Hadi, the election commissioner in the adjoining province of Helmand, where thousands of Marines have been deployed to regain towns from the Taliban in time for the elections.
“They voted before, and they did not see any result from that,” Mr. Hadi said. “And they don’t want to put their lives in jeopardy for one vote.” An estimated 70 percent of Afghan voters turned out for the country’s first presidential election, in October 2004.
In Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, the election will take place only in safe zones in the main towns, Mr. Hadi said. One third of districts are under Taliban control and will not be able to take part, he said. In some districts, like Kajaki, the Taliban have besieged administrative centers and will not allow civilians in to vote, he said.
In the eastern Paktika Province, which borders Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, more than 20 percent of the voting centers will have to be moved or abandoned because of security, officials said.
Afghan election officials in the capital, Kabul, insist that voters will turn out. About 4.5 million people registered for new voting cards this year, far exceeding expectations, said Azizullah Ludin, the election commission chief.
Yet irregularities are widespread. As many as 3 million duplicate voter registration cards may be circulating among the 17 million issued, according to one election observer, who asked not to be named because of the delicacy of the subject.
Twenty percent of the new cards went to under-age boys and another 20 percent were duplicates, an Afghan election observer organization, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, found in the centers it was able to monitor.
For security and cultural reasons, women’s registration has been low. Yet the number of registered women exceeded the number of registered men in some areas, indicating more irregularities. Male family members were able to obtain voting cards for women simply by providing a list of women’s names, the Afghan election monitors reported in May.
This election is unlike Afghanistan’s first presidential contest five years ago in that most balloting and monitoring is being run by Afghans, with only a small number of international advisers and observers, most prominently the 120-member mission from the European Union.
So far, the Taliban have generally refrained from specific attacks on the election process or on voters, and have even agreed to allow voting to take place in some areas.
Yet violence has increased, and in some places the Taliban are ordering communities not to take part. In a rambling statement issued Thursday through a spokesman, the Taliban leadership urged people to boycott and fighters to sabotage the process.
“We are requesting all mujahedeen to do their best to sabotage the malicious election process anywhere in Afghanistan,” it said. “They should carry out operations on enemy bases, and ban people from going to vote one day before the election.”
Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting from Kabul, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan.China Seals Off Remote Town in Northwest After Three Die of Pneumonic Plague
By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
BEIJING, Aug. 3 -- Chinese authorities have sealed off a remote town in northwestern China after three people died of pneumonic plague and eight others were infected with the highly contagious lung disease.
The Qinghai province health bureau said a 32-year-old herdsman and a 37-year-old neighbor in Ziketan, a Tibetan town of 10,000, have died. A doctor at a nearby hospital where patients are being treated said a third victim, who was 64, died about 6:40 a.m. Monday.
Chinese authorities have said most of the other infected patients are in stable condition, but Wen Xin, a physician at the Tibetan Hospital of Xinghai County in Qinghai, said the wife of the herdsman was in serious condition and coughing up blood. He said an additional 13 people are being quarantined at the hospital for observation.
"City leaders, plague experts and cadres from national and local disease control and prevention departments are all in the village," Wen said.
Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacterium as bubonic plague, or Black Death, which is estimated to have killed 25 million people during the Middle Ages. While bubonic plague is transmitted by infected fleas, pneumonic plague moves person-to-person through the air, according to the World Health Organization. Patients typically become infected by being in close contact with someone who has the plague and is coughing, or by handling contaminated articles. If left untreated, pneumonic plague can cause death within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms.
Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the WHO in Beijing, said that the origin of the pneumonic plague outbreak in China is unknown but that similar outbreaks have occurred sporadically over the years in Africa, the former Soviet Union, the Americas and some Asian countries. In 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, 2,118 people in nine countries were infected and 182 died.
Tan said that the agency was informed of the infections over the weekend and that it is monitoring the situation but has not sent personnel to the affected region. "According to the information we received, the situation is under control and the Chinese authorities have the experience to deal with this," she said.
Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, during which China's slow and secretive response was blamed for the spread of SARS worldwide, the government has overhauled how it deals with disease outbreaks. Its aggressive approach to swine flu in recent months is credited with keeping the number of infected within its borders to a minimum.
Staff researchers Liu Liu and Wang Juan contributed to this report.
Iran: Feisty Opposition Starts New Protest Campaign
Phase 2 has begun. Six weeks after millions took to the streets to protest Iran's presidential election, their uprising has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign.
The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, "Don't buy that. It's from an advertiser." It includes calls to switch on every electric appliance in the house just before the evening TV news to trip up Tehran's grid. It features quickie "blitz" street demonstrations, lasting just long enough to chant "Death to the dictator!" several times but short enough to evade security forces. It involves identifying paramilitary Basij vigilantes linked to the crackdown and putting marks in green — the opposition color — or pictures of protest victims in front of their homes. It is scribbled antiregime slogans on money. And it is defiant drivers honking horns, flashing headlights and waving V signs at security forces. (See pictures of Iran's presidential election and its turbulent aftermath.)
The tactics are unorganized, largely leaderless and only just beginning. They spread by e-mail, websites and word of mouth. But their variety and scope indicate that Iran's uprising is not a passing phenomenon like the student protests of 1999, which were quickly quashed. This time, Iranians are rising above their fears. Although embryonic, today's public resolve is reminiscent of civil disobedience in colonial India before independence or in the American Deep South in the 1960s. Mohandas Gandhi once mused that "even the most powerful cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled." That quotation is now popular on Iranian websites.
Its impact varies, but Phase 2 has begun to exact a price from those who ignore the popular will. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of parliament, told me that some companies have cut back on TV advertising, and some stores have dropped advertised brands. A new boycott of text messaging could be costing a state company more than $1 million a day. "There is optimism that protests will continue one way or another," says Farideh Farhi, an Iranian analyst at the University of Hawaii, "because people who are normally not rabblerousers are finding ways to counter the government crackdown."
The new camaraderie of resistance was visible at the July 17 Friday prayer sermon given by former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani at Tehran University. Nonreligious Iranians turned up for political reasons. The devout showed them how to carry out the rituals, with strangers handing out newspapers as substitute prayer mats for overflow crowds. Men and women prayed together, a regime taboo. When Rafsanjani referred to detainees, the crowd interrupted by roaring, "Political prisoners must be freed!" Calling for support of Iran's Supreme Leader, who backed the crackdown, another prayer official intoned, "We are all your soldiers, Khamenei! We await your orders!" But supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi shouted back, "We are your soldiers, Mousavi! We await your orders!" And when told to shout "Down with America!" the crowd instead chanted "Down with Russia!" — whose leaders had congratulated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election and hosted him four days later. (See pictures of people around the world protesting Iran's election.)
The protests tap into a long Iranian tradition. The seeds of the 1905-11 Constitutional Revolution — which produced Iran's first parliament and constitution — were planted in the Tobacco Protest of the 19th century, when even women in the royal harem stopped smoking their water pipes to protest an exclusive concession given by the Shah to a British company. Protests, strikes and boycotts prevented Iran from becoming a British protectorate in 1920, secured the reappointment of reformist Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh in 1952 and — most significant of all — ended 2,500 years of dynastic rule in 1979 and ushered in the Islamic Republic.
The current uprising is nowhere near as widespread as that of 1979. Yet the activism is creating a new political space in Iran. The public is defining its own agenda, with Rafsanjani, Mousavi and other opposition figures responding to sentiment on the street rather than directing it. After meeting on July 20 with the families of people detained following the election, Mousavi warned the power structure, "You are facing something new: an awakened nation, a nation that has been born again and is here to defend its achievements."
As Iran's second phase of protests takes shape, the regime's future may depend on whether it heeds that warning.
The ‘Green Revolution’
A screenshot of Naveen Naqvi’s Twitter page. Naveen’s ingenious approach to combining social networking with traditional broadcast journalism is truly remarkable. –File Photo
Carrying on my theme from last month’s column about social networking, I must report that social media (also known as Web 2.0) has caught fire in Pakistan as well as the rest of the world. Facebook has been immensely popular for the last year or so.
Everyone I know signed up to the worldwide network where you can post photographs, status updates, send public messages to your friends, play a host of games and take silly quizzes that promise to reveal what kind of person you are (examples of this include ‘What famous literary character are you?,’ ‘How Asian are you?’ and ‘What Beatles song describes your life right now?’).
The pros of Facebook: you can keep up with all your friends and relatives in a quick, amusing and up-to-date manner, spanning distance and generation gaps in a genuinely innovative way.
The cons: you’ll waste all your time online and burn out all your brain cells, which can result in family tension, unemployment and divorce if taken to extremes.
It’s probably too soon to assess the results of its use over a long-term period, although psychologists are already warning that social networking sites can harm children’s brain development and turn them into anti-social creatures unable to carry on a conversation face to face with a real person.
But beyond Facebook, Twitter is the next big thing in Pakistan’s online world. For those of you that are avowed Luddites, Twitter is a micro-blogging site, where the only thing asked of you is to tell the world what you’re doing — in 140 characters or less.
This is not a problem for young, tech-savvy Pakistanis, who, spoiled by MTV and cartoons, don’t want to have to spend more than 30 seconds absorbing any kind of information; but it’s going to be tough for some of our older generation, who are used to droning on for hours and hours at public-speaking engagements, or at parties, and would have a hard time confining themselves to one very abbreviated sentence (no, Uncle, I didn’t mean you!).
Still, Twitter has electrified the way we communicate and gather information in our country, where we can’t completely trust mainstream media and government propaganda has turned us all into cynics to make Oscar Wilde proud.
My very unofficial estimate is that there are currently less than 1,000 Pakistanis on Twitter, but that number will grow exponentially in the next year as more and more people catch on to what Twitter can do and how it can be applied to already existing technology to make our worlds ever more wired. The media and tech-savvy people have already caught on and are using Twitter to great advantage.
For example, broadcast journalist Naveen Naqvi has a Twitter account; she announces what she’s going to be discussing on ‘Breakfast at Dawn’ the next day, and asks her followers to send comments, questions and suggestions.
In the morning, during her broadcast, she not only raises questions she’s received from her viewers, but keeps on getting feedback through Twitter while on air from people who are watching the show and want to ask questions of her guests. She’s already something of a rock star in the Pakistani Twitter world, and her ingenious approach to combining social networking with traditional broadcast journalism, turning it into a truly interactive platform, is truly remarkable.
Will Twitter take the place of traditional media completely, though? After all, BBC, CNN and a host of western media outlets already send breaking news to their followers through the 140-character ‘tweets.’ It’s only a matter of time before Pakistani newspapers and news channels follow suit. So will we soon abandon our televisions and newspapers for our mobile phones and for social networking web sites?
The answer is a simple no. Pakistan is not a literate society, and the vast majority of our people still get their news from the radio and the television, as well as by word of mouth. There’s a mobile phone revolution underway in Pakistan at the moment, but again, our literacy rate is too low to truly take advantage of the social media revolution which is largely visual and text-based. This could change in the future, but for now, we have yet another example of how our poor education levels restrain us when it comes to keeping up with the rest of the world.
Which brings me to another interesting debate going on through Twitter these days: as Pakistan Day approaches, many Pakistani users are showing their patriotism by changing their Twitter display pictures (a small picture of yourself or anything that represents you) to one with a green background which features the Pakistani star and crescent.
The message is to ‘Go Green’ for August 14 and is meant to show a strong Pakistani presence on Twitter. Twitter lacks Pakistani content, according to popular blogger Dr Awab Alvi, and there are many Twitter folk who believe that this is the best way of bringing about a ‘green revolution’ online.
However, the horrific events in Gojra have prompted other Twitter users to change their display pictures to black in protest; and while some Pakistanis feel Twitter should be used to broadcast patriotic messages, others are condemning the riots, voicing their opinions of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, and showing the world that we are politically alive and aware of the injustices in our system.
Whether you go green or black on Twitter is probably a non-issue for most Pakistanis, and we have to be aware of the fact that in their eyes this is still a plaything for the elite. I will confess that the most useful thing I got out of Twitter for this August 14 was a simple message that came through in my Twitter feed.
‘Wouldn’t it be great,’ it said, ‘if, for Independence Day, each of us sponsored a child’s education for this year?’ What a great idea, I thought to myself, and I’m going to spread the word. In 140 characters or less.
The writer is a novelist.
India: Overhaul Abusive, Failing Police System
Mumbai police officers stand on a roughly made watchtower near the Gateway of India monument on New Year’s Eve, 2008.
India is modernizing rapidly, but the police continue to use their old methods: abuse and threats. It’s time for the government to stop talking about reform and fix the system.
(Bangalore) - The Indian government should take major steps to overhaul a policing system that facilitates and even encourages human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. For decades, successive governments have failed to deliver on promises to hold the police accountable for abuses and to build professional, rights-respecting police forces.
The 118-page report, "Broken System: Dysfunction, Abuse and Impunity in the Indian Police," documents a range of human rights violations committed by police, including arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and extrajudicial killings. The report is based on interviews with more than 80 police officers of varying ranks, 60 victims of police abuses, and numerous discussions with experts and civil society activists. It documents the failings of state police forces that operate outside the law, lack sufficient ethical and professional standards, are overstretched and outmatched by criminal elements, and unable to cope with increasing demands and public expectations. Field research was conducted in 19 police stations in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and the capital, Delhi.
"India is modernizing rapidly, but the police continue to use their old methods: abuse and threats," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "It's time for the government to stop talking about reform and fix the system."
A fruit vendor in Varanasi described how police tortured him to extract confessions to multiple, unrelated false charges:
"[M]y hands and legs were tied; a wooden stick was passed through my legs. They started beating me badly on the legs with lathis (batons) and kicking me. They were saying, ‘You must name all the members of the 13-person gang.' They beat me until I was crying and shouting for help. When I was almost fainting, they stopped the beating. A constable said, ‘With this kind of a beating, a ghost would run away. Why won't you tell me what I want to know?' Then they turned me upside down... They poured water from a plastic jug into my mouth and nose, and I fainted."
Read additional accounts from victims of police abuse.
Several police officers admitted to Human Rights Watch that they routinely committed abuses. One officer said that he had been ordered to commit an "encounter killing," as the practice of taking into custody and extra-judicially executing an individual is commonly known. "I am looking for my target," the officer said. "I will eliminate him. ... I fear being put in jail, but if I don't do it, I'll lose my position."
Almost every police officer interviewed by Human Rights Watch was aware of the boundaries of the law, but many believed that unlawful methods, including illegal detention and torture, were necessary tactics of crime investigation and law enforcement.
The Indian government elected in May has promised to pursue police reforms actively. Human Rights Watch said that a critical step is to ensure that police officers who commit human rights violations, regardless of rank, will face appropriate punishment.
"Police who commit or order torture and other abuses need to be treated as the criminals they are," said Adams. "There shouldn't be one standard for police who violate the law and another for average citizens."
Human Rights Watch also said that while not excusing abuses, abysmal conditions for police officers contribute to violations. Low-ranking officers often work in difficult conditions. They are required to be on-call 24 hours a day, every day. Instead of shifts, many work long hours, sometimes living in tents or filthy barracks at the police station. Many are separated from their families for long stretches of time. They often lack necessary equipment, including vehicles, mobile phones, investigative tools and even paper on which to record complaints and make notes.
Police officers told Human Rights Watch that they used "short-cuts" to cope with overwhelming workloads and insufficient resources. For instance, they described how they or others cut caseloads by refusing to register crime complaints. Many officers described facing unrealistic pressure from their superiors to solve cases quickly. Receiving little or no encouragement to collect forensic evidence and witness statements, tactics considered time-consuming, they instead held suspects illegally and coerced them to confess, frequently using torture and ill-treatment.
"Conditions and incentives for police officers need to change," Adams said. "Officers should not be put into a position where they think they have to turn to abuse to meet superiors' demands, or obey orders to abuse. Instead they should be given the resources, training, equipment, and encouragement to act professionally and ethically."
"Broken System" also documents the particular vulnerability to police abuse of traditionally marginalized groups in India. They include the poor, women, Dalits (so-called "untouchables"), and religious and sexual minorities. Police often fail to investigate crimes against them because of discrimination, the victims' inability to pay bribes, or their lack of social status or political connections. Members of these groups are also more vulnerable to arbitrary arrest and torture, especially meted out by police as punishment for alleged crimes.
Colonial-era police laws enable state and local politicians to interfere routinely in police operations, sometimes directing police officers to drop investigations against people with political connections, including known criminals, and to harass or file false charges against political opponents. These practices corrode public confidence.
In 2006, a landmark Supreme Court judgment mandated reform of police laws. But the central government and most state governments have either significantly or completely failed to implement the court's order, suggesting that officials have yet to accept the urgency of comprehensive police reform, including the need to hold police accountable for human rights violations.
"India's status as the world's largest democracy is undermined by a police force that thinks it is above the law," said Adams. "It's a vicious cycle. Indians avoid contact with the police out of fear. So crimes go unreported and unpunished, and the police can't get the cooperation they need from the public to prevent and solve crimes."
"Broken System" sets out detailed recommendations for police reform drawn from studies by government commissions, former Indian police, and Indian groups. Among the major recommendations are:
- Require the police to read suspects their rights upon arrest or any detention, which will increase institutional acceptance of these safeguards;
- Exclude from court any evidence police obtain by using torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in suspect interrogations;
- Bolster independent investigations into complaints of police abuse and misconduct through national and state human rights commissions and police complaints authorities; and
- Improve training and equipment, including strengthening the crime-investigation curriculum at police academies, training low-ranking officers to assist in crime investigations, and providing basic forensic equipment to every police officer.
Selected Accounts from ‘Broken System'
"She was kept in the police station all night. In the morning, when we went to meet her, they said she had killed herself. They showed us her body, where she was hanging from a tree inside the police station. The branch was so low, it is impossible that she hanged herself from it. Her feet were clean, although there was wet mud all around and she would have walked through it to reach the tree. It is obvious that the police killed her and then pretended she had committed suicide."
- Brother-in-law of Gita Pasi, describing her death in police custody in Uttar Pradesh in August 2006
"We have no time to think, no time to sleep. I tell my men that a victim will only come to the police station because we can give him justice, so we should not beat him with a stick. But often the men are tired and irritable and mistakes take place."
- Gangaram Azad, a sub-inspector who heads a rural police station in Uttar Pradesh state
"They say, ‘investigate within 24 hours,' but they never care about how I will do [that]; what are the resources. ... There is use of force in sensational cases because we are not equipped with scientific methods. What remains with us? A sense of panic surrounds our mind that if we don't come to a conclusion we will be suspended or face punishment. We are bound to fulfill the case, we must cover the facts in any way."
- Subinspector working near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
"Often, it is our superiors who ask us to do wrong things. It is hard for us to resist. I remember, one time, my officer had asked me to beat up someone. I said that the man would be refused bail and would rot in jail and that was enough punishment. But that made my officer angry."
- Constable in Uttar Pradesh
"With all the mental stress, the 24-hour law-and-order duty, the political pressure, a person may turn to violence. How much can a person take? ... We have to keep watch on an accused person, their human rights, but what about us? Living like this 24 hours. We are not claiming that our power makes us born to work all the times. Sometimes we beat or detain illegally, because our working conditions, our facilities are bad. So we are contributing to creating criminals, militants."
- Inspector in charge of a police station in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh
Fatah Holds Key Party Congress
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction has begun a congress - its first in 20 years.
Speaking at the congress, Mr Abbas said Palestinians sought peace with Israel but "resistance" remained an option.
Fatah is widely seen as corrupt and ineffective, the BBC's Middle East correspondent Tim Franks says.
Our correspondent says there will be close interest in who is elected to the faction's main internal positions of power.
Some 2,000 delegates are convening for Fatah's three-day congress in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.
An estimated 400 Fatah delegates who live in the Gaza Strip were banned from travelling to Bethlehem for the conference by the territory's rulers, Hamas.
“ The Palestinians of course are committed to a peaceful solution, however, we maintain the right for armed struggle when it is necessary and as an option ”
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas
Israel had allowed about 500 delegates who live abroad to travel to the congress.
"Having the conference at all is a miracle, and having it in the homeland is another miracle," Mr Abbas said on Tuesday.
Commenting on the conference, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, said: "Israel seeks peace and reconciliation with our Palestinian neighbours - reconciliation that must be based on both sides recognising the rights of the other: Israel recognising that the Palestinians have national rights, and the Palestinians recognising that Jews have national rights too."
Renewal
The congress will be discussing a new platform that seeks to rejuvenate the movement.
Another key test will be whether the conference alters the wording of Fatah's charter, which refers to eradicating Israel.
The draft document proposes to keep the option of "armed struggle" if peace talks with Israel fail.
It also says that an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank is a precondition for any further talks with Israel.
The congress comes as the US is hoping to broker a new round of peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Maybe more important is the issue of who the delegates elect to the internal positions of power, our correspondent says.
He adds that - in the words of one reformer - the current leaders are like princes in the Gulf.
Opinion polls still suggest that Fatah is currently more popular than its main rival - the Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip.
But without a strong infusion of freshness, in the long-term Palestinians say that Fatah will only decline, our correspondent says.
Australia Detains Terror Suspects
Australian police have arrested four people in the city of Melbourne after uncovering what they say was a plot to launch a suicide attack.
The group was planning to carry out the attack on an army base, police said.
More than 400 officers were involved in searching 19 properties across the city before dawn on Tuesday.
The suspects are Australian nationals of Somali and Lebanese descent; one man, aged 25, has been charged with conspiring to plan a terrorist act.
Nayaf El Sayed, from the Glenroy district of Melbourne, was remanded in custody until 26 October.
He did not enter a plea or apply for bail, and refused to stand for the magistrate in court.
His lawyer told the hearing: "He believes he should not stand for any man except God."
Police were granted extra time to question three others - Saney Aweys, Yacqub Khayre and Abdirahman Ahmed.
A fifth man, who had been detained earlier, was also being questioned about the alleged plot.
'Sobering'
"Police believe members of a Melbourne-based group have been undertaking planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia and [are] allegedly involved in hostilities in Somalia," a police statement said.
"The men's intention was to actually go into the army barracks and to kill as many soldiers as they could before they themselves were killed," said Tony Negus, acting chief commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.
Holsworthy Barracks on the outskirts of Sydney was one of the planned targets, according to police.
The attack would have been the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil, Mr Negus added.
"Members of the group have been actively seeking a fatwa or religious ruling to justify a terror attack on Australia," he said.
Prosecutors told the court they had evidence some of the men had taken part in training and fighting in Somalia.
They also said there were phone conversations, text messages and surveillance footage, including footage of one of the suspects outside the Holsworthy army base, linking the suspects to an alleged attack.
The court heard the men planned to seek a fatwa, or religious ruling, to support an attack on the Holsworthy army base.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: "The sobering element of today's development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well, and this requires continued vigilance on the part of our security authorities."
The country's security level is unchanged at medium, where it has been since 2003.
The police said the raids followed a seven-month operation involving several state and federal agencies.
Police believe those arrested are linked to the Somali-based al-Shabab group, which seeks to overthrow the weak UN-backed Somali government and is believed to have links to al-Qaeda.
Tracking Development and Governance in the Pacific 2009
The second annual Tracking development and governance in the Pacific report has found that the Pacific region is seriously off track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
The report monitors progress towards the MDGs in the region and assesses the performance of Pacific island countries and development partners. The report focuses on the Pacific island countries of Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. It includes Timor-Leste—in this case as a reference country—because it shares many characteristics of Pacific countries.
While some countries in the Pacific have made good progress against, and even achieved some MDG targets, the same cannot be said of the entire region.
Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have more than halved their rates of malaria infection between 2003 and 2008 showing that quick development gains are possible with strong commitments from government and development partners.
However, around 400,000 children across the region are still not making it into a primary school. Around 64 out of every 1,000 children in the region are still dying before the age of five. This is despite significant investments by development partners.
The report concludes that a new development framework is required to ensure the Pacific keeps pace with better international development practice. Transparent and accountable use of all development resources is necessary to increase progress towards the MDGs. Clear and measurable commitments are required to improve coordination and accelerate progress towards mutually agreed development outcomes.
The Pacific Partnerships for Development commit Australia and Pacific island countries to work together to address these challenges.
More information:
Report: Tracking Development and Governance in the Pacific 2009
Speech: The Role of Foreign Aid in Responding to the Economic Crisis in the Pacific Islands Region
Media Release: Tracking Development and Governance in the Pacific
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