Globalaffairs

Issue 7/February-March 2008
By Salman Ali

Pakistan came into existence on 14 August 1947 when Muslims of the British ruled Indian sub-continent rallied behind Quaid-e-Azam (1) Mohammad Ali Jinnah to create a separate homeland.

Pakistan was constitutionally named the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with majority of the population being Muslim; however, specific provisions were made in the constitution to ensure protection of rights of minorities in the country. Urdu is the national language and the current estimated population is 165 million, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are the major cities.

Pakistan occupies a position of great geo-strategic importance, bordered by Iran on the west, Afghanistan on the northwest, China on the northeast, India on the east, and the Arabian Sea on the south. The total land area is estimated at 803,940 square kilometers.

From their creation Pakistan and India failed to develop a healthy relationship and developed a major dispute over Kashmir, which was an independent princely State at the time of partition and as per division understanding States with Muslim majority were to become a part of Pakistan but the then King of Kashmir decided to join India although as per the 1940 census 94% of Kashmir’s population was Muslim. The government took the matter to the UN and it was decided that the people of Kashmir have a right of self determination and therefore, a plebiscite must be held. The countries went to war in 1948, 1965 and 1971 but the matter still stands unresolved. The two countries now have armies equipped with Nuclear weapons.

Continue reading »

Issue 7/February-March 2008
By Salahuddin Ghaznavi

Benazir Bhutto left Pakistan in the early 1970s to study first at Harvard University, and then at Oxford University, seeking to enter a diplomatic career. The 1977 military coup forced her into politics and exposed her to enemies like the late Gen Zia, an increasingly militant Islamist movement, and the more conservative political parties opposed to the left-leaning PPP.

Benazir was the first female head of state in a Muslim country, elected in 1988 at the age of 35, and again from 1993 to 1996, however, on both occasions she was removed from power by the President on the basis of corruption.

During both her stints in power, the role of her husband, Asif Zardari was very controversial, as he has been accused by many of looting the Pakistani exchequer on a number of occasions (allegations which have not yet been proved in court). Analysts have often claimed that her husbands’ alleged greed lead to the downfall of Benazir Bhutto’s popularity in Pakistan.

Benazir was exiled from Pakistan in 1999 and moved to Dubai, where she lived with her three children, and was joined later by her husband in 2004, after he was released from prison. She returned to Pakistan after almost eight years on the 18th of October 2007, as part of a deal brokered with President Musharraf, who dropped all corruption charges against her under the infamous ‘National Reconciliation Ordinance’ (NRO).

Continue reading »

Issue 6/ December-January 2008
By Paul M. H. Buvarp

With specific focus on water-issues of the region, what effect will global warming have on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

This article documents that global warming leads to draught in certain regions of the world. Israel and the Mediterranean West-Asian region is one of those regions. Water shortage is already a problem in the region, and officials predict war if that problem persists. There have already been political disputes between Israel and Lebanon over precious water supplies. In the future, things are likely to get worse with global warming. Droughts will become more frequent due to increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation. Such a development will not be good for an already tense situation.

It is not without slight reservation that I submit this discourse into a long string of prophesies foretelling the fate of Israel; I am in titanic company. Nevertheless, the thesis that I present to you here is not so much a prediction as an issue. It is not mere prophesy, it is understanding. The Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has declared that evidence for global warming is “unequivocal” (Solomon, Qin, Manning, Chen, Marquis, Averyt, Tignor, Miller 5) and that it is “very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” (Solomon, Qin, Manning, Chen, Marquis, Averyt, Tignor, Miller 10) I postulate that global warming will, if it is not dealt with in time, greatly exacerbate the issue of water stress in the Mediterranean Middle-East region, in turn inflaming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a catastrophic level.

Continue reading »

Issue 6/ December-January 2008
By Zana Rwandizi

Anyone, who knows about the history of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), knows that the problem between the two parties had started ever since the PKK noticeably started its military activities against the Turkish army in 1984.

Though there is a big debate, like over any other military opposition, whether PKK is a terrorist organization or a group of freedom fighters; however, no one, who is neutral and knows the history of the conflict, would able to deny that PKK’s strong reaction against Turkey was caused by Turkish government’s complete denial to the existence of Kurds, as ethnicity, let alone nation, in Turkey.

By the Turkish Constitution the identity, language, cultural, social and educational rights of around 18 million Kurds in Turkey are ignored. According to the Turkish Constitution “everyone in Turkey is Turk”. The roots of the constitution go back to the ideology of the Turkish nationalist leader, Musataf Kamal Ata Turk, his affectionate name (Ata Turk) which means the father of Turks, who established the Turkish Nationalist state following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The constitution, by itself, is against the Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 16 December 1996, which Turkey is a signatory of both.

Continue reading »

Issue 5/ October - November 2007
By Naiara Cáliz

Some weeks ago Israel labelled the Palestinian land of Gaza as enemy state. The continuous flow of Al Kasam missiles from the border between both territories has made the situation uncontrollable for the Israeli government that has decided to stop the problem and whose statements, despite violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all international laws, make him strong facing the enemy. For greater security, Israel is backed up by the government of governments, the USA.

Once more the good communication campaign of the American government over the evil axis has been successful. Palestine is also included and a few changes can be regarded as encouraging.

The Oslo treaty identified Jerusalem as neutral city but when someone visits this city can realize that especially in Eastern Jerusalem Muslim suburbs and its citizens are subdued. At twilight when there are a lot of people in streets the soldiers occupied the streets. Arms are present for controlling the law enforcement. From the Damascus Gate next to the Eastern Lamentations Wall, a soldier guards a crowd of people from the old wall. Just a simple children game ends up with a punishment for one of them, a teenager that is becoming fed up of the situation. He forced him to sit down behind him as a punishment for an action that the soldier dislikes. He feels stronger when humiliating the weakest. This is the daily routine of Palestinians. Submission to an imposed army and to orders from individuals whose land is not their land.

Issue 4/August-September 2007
By Charles Krauthammer

Just end the occupation of the West Bank, say the Arabs, and we will guarantee Israel peace. Lebanon proves otherwise.

If you want to know where the Israeli-Palestinian war is going, watch Lebanon. If the war goes — literally — ballistic, the fuse will have been lit by the Iran-backed Hezbollah guerrillas now firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon. But did Israel not withdraw from Lebanon almost two years ago? Why is there still a problem with Lebanon?

Indeed, Israel had been in Lebanon for about 20 years. It was a classic defensive occupation. Israel laid claim to not an inch of Lebanese soil. It diverted not a drop of water. It had no interest in staying. It was in there for one reason: to protect Israel’s northern frontier from various guerrillas — first Yasser Arafat’s PLO, then the Lebanese Shiite Party of God (Hezbollah) — using south Lebanon to attack Israel.

Yet for two decades, Israel was hectored to comply with U.N. resolutions demanding Israel’s withdrawal. In May 2000, it complied. To ensure that there could be no possible residual territorial dispute, Israel asked the United Nations to draw the line demarcating the true Israeli-Lebanese border — the so-called Blue Line — then pulled back behind it.

Continue reading »

Issue 3/June-July 2007
By Mohamed Hassan

In a state established on a founding myth that the native Palestinian population left of their own accord, rather than that they were ethnically cleansed- and in one that seeks its legitimacy through a host of other lies, deception becomes a political way of life. Israel’s Ambassador to Kenya, Mr Emmanuel Seri, demonstrated this in his article on January 12.

A relative calm has followed Israel’s month-long pounding of Lebanon since last year, a calm in which Israelis may no longer be dying but the Lebanese most assuredly are as explosions of US-made cluster bombs greet the south’s returning refugees, and the residents of Gaza perish by the dozens each week.

Many of Israel’s war lies have already been deeply implanted in Western consciousness by the media:

Continue reading »

Issue 2/ April-May 2007
By Naiara Cáliz Fernández

No one would say that chemicals were going to cause so much hectic activity among world leaders. No one would say that uranium will become a far-reaching new and no one would say that they prefer a part of the population will continue getting into debt because they can not generate their own energy.

The conflict of enriched uranium keeps multilateral institutions on tenterhooks. The world against Iran.

On one hand, it is the right of the Iranian government to enrich uranium for social purposes, in other words, this process generates energy for electricity. On the other hand, institutions through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) maintain that Iran enriches uranium for military purposes because in this way it can make a nuclear bomb.

Since the most popular towers in the world - the 11th of September 2001- were destroyed by radical Islamists, specific countries became part of the called ‘axis of evil’; these countries became quickly the worst enemies of the USA. The Bush Administration pointed out Afghanistan and Iraq, both countries are suffering the consequences of the north-American rage, but the proofs of such accusations have not been verified.

Continue reading »

Issue 1/February-March 2007
By F. Rwnadizi

No doubt that there are many nations in the world, for one reason or another, do not have their own states, but the Kurds are the biggest amongst them. The Kurdish question, which has remarkably existed in the agenda of world politics since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is yet to be resolved. Ever since then the Kurds have been divided among countries in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The Kurds speak Indio-European language that is from the same language family of Persian, Pashto and Baluchi. In the pre-Islam history Kurds were Zoroastrians, Christians and some were Jewish, and some without religion. Nowadays, most of the Kurds are Sunni Moslems with some Shiites who are far less in number; but there also others who are Jezzidies, Christians, Jewish, Kakayees and some Zoroastrians who are believed to have clung to the native religion.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following the defeat of Central Powers, in the “Program of World Peace” the Kurds, like other non-Turkish nations under the rule of the Empire, it was supposed to have independence.

Continue reading »