Jordan boosts military presence on Iraq border

Elisa Oddone
July 1, 2014

RUWEISHED, Jordan — Scores of armored vehicles and Humvees with mounted machine guns have replaced the swarm of truck convoys on the gritty Jordanian desert border with Iraq after Sunni insurgents reportedly captured key crossings to Jordan and Syria earlier in June.

At least 10 tanks were seen dotting the border town of Karameh after Jordanian army units had been put on a state of alert in recent weeks along the country’s 200-kilometer (120-mile) eastern border, one of the Middle East’s busiest trade arteries.

Officials said rebels took over two key crossings in the predominantly Sunni Anbar governorate in western Iraq, the Treibel crossing with Jordan and the Walid crossing with Syria after Iraqi government forces had pulled out.

Initial reports suggested that fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) had taken over the Iraqi-Jordanian border crossing. However, Jordanian military personnel, speaking anonymously at the border, dismissed the claim, telling Al-Monitor that Iraqi troops loyal to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were officially still holding the crossing point, though they suspected Sunni tribes were in control of the surrounding area.

“The border is the most important link in the national security chain,” commander Maj. Gen. Saber al-Mahayrah told reporters at the headquarters of Jordan's border guard ahead of a visit to the border area.

“National interests go as far as securing the borders so that radical groups do not infiltrate neighboring countries. Our duty is to protect the kingdom’s border from illegal crossings.”

Despite possible threats, the border remains open.

“Those who want to travel from and to Jordan cross via legal areas can do it. Outside of these we would not allow anyone to come in or leave Jordan,” added Mahayrah.

Jordan, the most stable country in a region in turmoil and one of the closest US allies in the Middle East, faces threats on two of its four borders. The army has beefed up defenses on the kingdom’s 370-kilometer (230-mile) northern border with Syria, fearing the return of Jordanian Islamist fighters now seen as a direct national security threat to the country.

To the east, there is fear that ISIS fighters might try to cross into Jordan to expand their medieval-esque Islamic caliphate, wiping out the colonial borders they refuse to recognize.

ISIS has declared a caliphate in the territories it has seized across Iraq and Syria, renaming itself the “Islamic State” and proclaiming its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, caliph of the Muslim world.

Jordanian Interior Minister Hussein Majali shrugged off the ISIS threat to the kingdom after the ISIS proclamation in a cabinet meeting behind closed doors June 30, the local media reported. The minister referred to a security buffer zone of around 400 kilometers (250 miles) separating Jordan’s border from the military operations inside Iraq.

The minister said he was confident about the kingdom’s capacity to deal with any attempt to target its borders from Iraq or Syria.

Since June 17, the army has boosted its ability to protect the Karameh border, 360 kilometers (220 miles) east of Amman, 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the nearest civilian center and 560 kilometers (350 miles) from the Iraqi capital, after sweeping gains by the Sunni Islamist fighters inside Iraq.

“The border guards are living in a 24/7 state of caution supported by the Jordanian armed forces because of what is happening in Iraq. Our borders are safe and secure,” Mahayrah told reporters.

While armored vehicles were stationed at the Karameh border crossing, scores of open-topped Humvees, heavy machine-gun platforms able to carry anything from fully armed troops to anti-aircraft missiles, were seen on the road heading toward Karameh. Troops in battle dress uniform were seen patrolling the border outpost.

Officers refused to state the exact number of troops deployed, but told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that security had stepped up its presence along the long desert border, deploying dozens of British-manufactured tanks, rocket launchers and mortar guns.

“We are strengthening the presence of the forces on the border with both land and air units in case anything happens. But nothing has happened so far. We have not witnessed any clash,” a military officer told Al-Monitor at the border.

Traffic through the crossing is lighter than normal, but still flowing. Two single-engine Cobra attack helicopters hover low overhead to ward off any threat from across the border.

About 70 trucks could be seen crossing from Iraq in two hours, while less than 20 went the other way, Al-Monitor estimated. One driver said most truck drivers in Iraq were not working due to security concerns.

Ismail Kaoud, a truck driver arriving from the Iraqi town of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar governorate partly controlled by the militants since January, said he had not seen clashes or ISIS fighters on the road to Jordan.

“There is no ISIS. There were only tribal Sunni militias. Fallujah and Mosul are in the hands of militants. Maliki is inventing ISIS. The Treibel crossing is held by Iraqi forces and everything is normal. The Iraqi army is present on the border outpost with tanks and artillery. There is no ISIS on the border,” Kaoud said, indicating support for the Sunni rebellion.

No Iraqi has so far sought refuge in Jordan, said the officers. They said they were prepared in case refugees attempted to cross into the kingdom, citing concerns about a deluge of Iraqi refugees. The largely desert country with little natural resources has already been straining under the burden of some 600,000 Syrians fleeing the over three-year-old conflict, UN figures show.

Truck driver Obeid Mallah, from Baghdad, said the Iraqi police were in control of the crossing and that the highway between Baghdad and Amman was open. He sees no possibility of route closures.

“Crossing points were closed inside Iraq only for a couple of hours last week. Everything is back to normal now, except that it is very difficult to find fuel and prices surged inside the country. Work is fine. No one has threatened or attacked me on the road over the past weeks. Tribal militants are in control of the territory 150 kilometers [90 miles] from the border.”

Despite the threats from across the borders, military personnel showed little fear of the jihadist war entering their kingdom, saying, “There is no danger inside Jordan. Everyone loves [Jordan] and would step up to defend his country.”

But the military buildup along its border shows Jordan is not about to take any chances.

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/jordan-isis-iraq-caliphate-border-jihadist-terror.html.

Jordan admits to barring entry of Palestinian refugees from Syria

Aaron Magid
July 8, 2014

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s leaders regularly highlight the country’s assistance to refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict. Jordan’s minister of planning and international cooperation, Ibrahim Sarif, told The New York Times that the presence of so many refugees from Syria in Jordan is equivalent to “the United States absorbing the entire population of Canada.”

Jordan’s embassy in Washington consistently posts self-complimentary messages from its Twitter account, such as a July 2 tweet: “#UNHCR’s @And_Harper praises #Jordan for its continued aid to #Syrian #refugees despite hurdles.” Yet the Jordanian government’s discrimination against Palestinian refugees fleeing the war in Syria — both at the border and inside Jordan — presents an alternative narrative.

At the beginning of the conflict in 2011, Jordanian authorities permitted Palestinian refugees from Syria to enter the country. However, the situation soon changed in the fall of 2012. Adam Coogle, a Human Rights Watch researcher based in Amman, explained to Al-Monitor that the organization received reports at that time of Jordanian border guards refusing to admit Palestinian refugees from Syria. When the organization first approached the Ministry of Interior with its reports, the authorities denied the practice, Coogle said.

However, by January 2013 Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour finally confessed to the non-admittance policy toward Palestinian refugees from Syria, telling Al-Hayat, “Jordan has made a clear and explicit sovereign decision to not allow the crossing to Jordan by our Palestinian brothers who hold Syrian documents.” Discussing Jordan’s regional challenges, Ensour added, “They should stay in Syria until the end of the crisis.”

Even for those who do manage to enter Jordan, Palestinian refugees from Syria face a precarious existence. Since many Palestinians are forced to assume a false identity to enter Jordan or cross into the country through unofficial routes, Palestinian refugees from Syria are not able to attain legal residency. United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Christopher Gunness told Al-Monitor, “UNRWA has received reports that [Palestinian refugees from Syria] have had their Jordanian documents confiscated when they approached government offices and when refouled (expelled or returned) to Syria.” Gunness noted that UNRWA has learned of over 100 such cases since the policy of non-admission began.

Jordanian parliament member Tarek Khoury expressed his frustration with the government’s handling of the Palestinian refugees from Syria. Given the danger that Palestinians face returning to Syria, he exclaimed in an interview with Al-Monitor, “They don’t care. They are telling him: 'Go and die!'”

Rami, a Palestinian refugee from Syria, expressed similar disillusion with the Jordanian policies toward his fellow refugees. Rami requested that his full name not be disclosed due to the sensitivity of the issue. He crossed into Jordan in 2012, during the early period when Palestinians were still permitted entry. However, while his Syrian counterparts soon moved out of the temporary holding facility, Rami remained stuck in those crowded confinements. “[The Jordanian authorities] treated me like a war criminal,” Rami told Al-Monitor. “I did not know that being born to a Palestinian-Syrian father was a transgression.” He also noted that with the new non-admittance policy, his family remains endangered in Syria and unable to join him in Jordan.

In forcibly repatriating Palestinian refugees back to Syria, the Jordanian authorities “are in violation of the principle of non-refoulement,” emphasized Coogle. They are sending back refugees to a “place [where] they face persecution.”

Coogle also suggested that by refusing to admit Palestinian refugees from Syria, Jordan was in violation of its obligations as a signee of the International Convention against Torture. The treaty prohibits countries from sending individuals back to a place where they face a high likelihood of torture. Since torture is so “widespread and rampant” in Syria, Jordan’s insistence on returning Palestinian refugees appears to fit this scenario.

The 3-year-old civil war in Syria has significantly impacted all of its neighbors, especially Jordan. The Hashemite Kingdom has absorbed approximately 600,000 refugees, of which 14,200 Palestinian refugees from Syria have asked for assistance from UNRWA, the UN agency that works only with Palestinian refugees. However, many more Palestinian refugees likely live in Jordan, as registering with UNRWA is not mandatory.

Although countless Syrians have faced dreadful conditions throughout the war, the Syrian government’s treatment of Palestinians has been especially gruesome. Syrian authorities have sporadically besieged the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, leaving the 18,000 inhabitants without food for days at a time. People living in the camp have been forced to eat animal feed to survive.

While many Palestinian refugees from Syria are living precariously in Amman, 190 of them are currently confined to a closed facility near the border town of Ramtha, also known as “Cyber City.” Gunness said that most of these refugees entered Jordan in 2012. They have remained confined here since the government ended its policy of allowing Jordanians to vouch for Palestinian refugees, as is the case with all other asylum seekers from Syria. Even when families are separated, the Jordanian authorities are unwilling to allow the refugees to reunite with their loved ones.

If refusing to admit Palestinian refugees from Syria causes such a humanitarian crisis, why does the Jordanian government continue with this practice? Jordanian society is divided between those of Palestinian origin and the so-called East Bankers. By absorbing another wave of Palestinians from Syria, this “piles onto the problem and makes it even worse,” Musa Shteiwi, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, told Al-Monitor. “Jordanians are worried about an influx of Palestinians because this will change the balance of power, demographics and the structure of the country.”

Despite receiving repeated inquiries, the Jordanian Ministry of Interior declined to comment for this article.

Noting the precarious treatment of Palestinian refugees from Syria, Gunness explained, “Palestinian refugees have fled the conflict in Syria for the same reasons as other civilians. UNRWA has appealed to the government of Jordan to provide Palestinian refugees from Syria the same humanitarian consideration provided to other refugees and allow them to enter and remain in Jordan without discrimination.”

Source: al-Monitor.
Link: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/jordan-palestinians-syria-refugees-unrwa-hrw.html.

Tunisian Ramadan dramas take on taboos

By Monia Ghanmi in Tunis and Siham Ali in Rabat for Magharebia
09/07/2014

Ramadan television dramas are drawing a large audience in Tunisia, a success that many attribute to the shows' bold take on modern social ills.

The series "Naourat al Hawa" and "Maktoub" shed light on several social issues experienced by Tunisian society, including the exploitation of street children, trade in human organs, organized prostitution networks, torture in prisons, as well as the promotion and consumption of drugs and alcohol among young people.

For 50-year-old housewife Aicha Ben Sassia, the topics are taboo despite the fact they are at the heart of the Tunisian reality and affect different groups and social circles.

"We do not disagree with the directors of these productions," she said. "All topics that are addressed are rampant in our society, especially with the increasing crime in the country. We remain hopeful that these series and what they reveal will help push to reduce these problems and address them."

Her husband Ahmed Souri, a bric-a-brac dealer, said, "I think that the series this year expressed the hidden social reality of Tunisia or what Tunisia wants to hide."

"We need such purposeful work to reveal our truths that we should not be ashamed to address in public. This leads us to think about how to find solutions to our issues," he added.

For his part, Majdi Jaouadi, a 27-year-old-doctoral student, commented that what was portrayed in the Ramadan dramas was the essence of the truth.

"The scenes of corruption, moral decay and suffering that have been filmed in the slums and high-end places, are manifestations of present in Tunisian society," he stated.

"I wish these issues would be taken seriously and that attention would be drawn to them before further tragedies are caused," Jaouadi said.

Despite these dramas' positive reception by the majority of Tunisians, some scenes aired by the series "Maktoub" from inside prisons, which depicted the living conditions of the detainees and ill-treatment by agents, were subjected to criticism by the prison's union.

The series gave an inaccurate picture of what is happening in prison, according to Makrem Chahbani, the assistant secretary-general of the Union of Prisons and Reform. He said that the content had nothing to do with reality.

Moroccan Ramadan TV lambasted by viewers

Ramadan is also the high season for Moroccan television production. Although the public criticizes the mediocrity of the new programs aired by Moroccan channels every time, they are still excited to watch the home-made shows broadcast during the holy month.

"The artists who mess things up and present a mediocre series or soap to the public must revise their working methods," remarked Hicham Salmi, a public sector worker. "Their careers are at stake. It's a big disappointment for us. But we mustn't generalize. The TV films that have been shown so far have been of good quality."

However, Communications Minister Mustapha El Khalfi has given repeated assurances about the quality of national programs broadcast during the holy month. During his most recent speech before MPs on June 24th, he explained that the ministry was gradually introducing competition to encourage an improvement in quality.

When contacted by Magharebia, some Moroccans said they watched Arab channels and shunned local ones.

"Why should I keep on watching mediocre Moroccan programs when Arab television channels offer me a whole range of things? And then there are the football matches that are broadcast by international channels, which many people love," said Karima Sikhi, an accountant.

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://magharebia.com/en_GB/articles/awi/features/2014/07/09/feature-03.

Japan's Abe declares peace goals in historic Australia visit

Sydney (AFP)
July 08, 2014

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Tuesday declared his determination to pursue peace in Asia, as he strengthened defense ties with Australia and signed an ambitious free-trade agreement.

Abe used an historic address to a joint sitting of Australia's parliament to say that Japan "is now determined to do more to enhance peace in the region and peace in the world".

"It is to put that determination into concrete action that Japan has chosen to strengthen its ties with Australia," said Abe, the first Japanese leader to address parliament.

"Our countries both love peace. We value freedom and democracy and we hold human rights and the rule of law dear," he added, calling the relationship "special".

Prime Minister Tony Abbott described Japan as "a very, very close friend".

"Japan and Australia have so much in common and I am sure that our relationship will go from strength to strength as a result of this visit, and as a result of the annual leaders' meetings that will henceforth take place," Abbott said.

The two leaders inked an agreement allowing for the transfer of Japanese defense equipment and technology to Australia, just days after Tokyo declared its powerful military had the right to fight in defense of allies.

The declaration irked China, Australia's largest trading partner, which has a fractious relationship with Japan including tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Abe said his country's push to "change its legal basis for security" was so it could work with other nations and "build an international order that upholds the rule of law".

"Our desire is to make Japan a country that is all the more willing to contribute to peace in the region and beyond," he said in his address, which was delivered in English.

"It is for this reason that Japan has raised the banner of proactive contribution to peace."

Abe at a press conference played down recent tensions with China, saying his door was always open for dialogue.

"The door to China is open from the Japanese side and we hope that the Chinese side take the same posture," he said.

He added that the "fundamental position of Japan is that we want to improve our relationship with China".

- 'Making his mark on history' -

Abbott echoed Abe's emphasis on the push for peace in the Asia-Pacific as he welcomed Tokyo's decision to be "a more capable strategic partner in our region".

"Ours is not a partnership against anyone; it's a partnership for peace, for prosperity and for the rule of law," he said, offering China reassurance.

"Our objective is engagement. We both welcome the greater trust and openness in our region that's exemplified by China's participation in this year's RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) naval exercises."

Abbott hailed Abe as "making his mark on history" as they rubber-stamped a free-trade agreement -- the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement.

The deal, which was agreed during a trip by Abbott in April to Tokyo, is Japan's first with a major economy.

It will see tariffs cut for Japanese exports of electronics, white goods and cars, while Australia's exports of beef, dairy, wine, horticulture and gain products will gain increased access.

The Australian leader said the agreement showed the two nations were serious about boosting economic growth.

"This is the message that both Japan and Australia will bring to the G20 leaders' meeting in Brisbane in November -- freer trade means more economic growth and more economic growth means more prosperous people and fairer societies," Abbott said.

The sensitive issue of whaling was only briefly raised, with Abbott and Abe saying their differences over an annual hunting program would not detract from their closer friendship.

New Zealand and Australia hauled Japan before the International Court of Justice over its "scientific" whaling program in Antarctic waters, which led to a ruling in April that it was a commercial venture.

Abe will travel to Australia's resources-rich state of Western Australia on Wednesday, where he is set to visit its capital Perth as well as Rio Tinto's West Angeles mine in the Pilbara region.

He departs for Papua New Guinea on Thursday.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Japans_Abe_declares_peace_goals_in_historic_Australia_visit_999.html.

Divisions appear among Ukraine's eastern rebels

July 10, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Divisions are appearing among the pro-Russia separatists fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine.

The head of one influential rebel battalion in the region said Thursday he will not submit to the command of the military leader of the separatist insurgency. Vostok commander Alexander Khodakovsky also said he would not abandon the rebel-held city of Donetsk even if ordered to do so. No such order has been issued, but rebel troops did flee from their stronghold in Slovyansk last weekend.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine over the past three months has claimed hundreds of lives. In the past two weeks, Ukrainian government troops have halved the amount of territory held by the rebels in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, which declared independence from the central government in Kiev. Now government forces are vowing a blockade of Donetsk, a city of 1 million people close to the Russian border.

In another sign of deteriorating morale among rebels, several dozen militia fighters in Donetsk abandoned their weapons and fatigues Thursday, telling their superiors they were returning home. "Russia abandoned us. The leadership is bickering. They promise money but don't pay it. What's the point of fighting?" said 29-year old Oleg, a former miner who served in the Kalmius battalion.

The rebels have drawn much of their manpower and reportedly also equipment from Russia, although Moscow denies it has provided support. Oleg, who refused to give his last name to an Associated Press journalist in a war zone because he said he feared retaliation for desertion, had served for a month in ranks of the militia. He said he will go home to Makiivka, where the Vostok battalion is now stationed.

At a press conference Thursday, the leader of the self-proclaimed separatist Donetsk People's Republic dismissed any talk of infighting. "These are lies and disinformation. There are no disagreements. We are now organizing our joint work," Alexander Boroday said.

The rebels, meanwhile, have several Ukrainian border posts along the border with Russia under their control. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had demanded them back and even let a cease-fire expire when the posts were not returned.

In Moscow on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Moscow was prepared to invite its Ukrainian counterparts to jointly monitor the border. Lukashevich added, however, this would only be possible in case of a cease-fire.

Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this report.

Russia closes 3 border crossings with Ukraine

July 11, 2014

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials say they have closed three major border crossings in the wake of heavy fighting in Ukraine.

Russian news agencies on Friday quoted Vasily Malayev, spokesman for the Federal Security Service in the Rostov region, as saying that three crossings east of Donetsk were temporarily closed late Thursday night because of fighting on the other side.

Ukraine says it regained control of one crossing which had been controlled by rebels. Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine have declared independence and have been fighting Ukrainian government troops for more than three months. Government forces have been advancing in the recent days, pushing the insurgents closer to the Russian border.

Malayev told RIA Novosti on Friday customs staffers had been evacuated from the border crossing while border guards remained at their positions.

Pro-Kiev Ukrainians face intimidation in the east

July 09, 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Since April, when pro-Russia rebels took over her city, Maria Oleinik hasn't slept in the same house for more than one night running.

Fearing abduction at the hands of separatists, thousands of residents have fled Donetsk, an eastern province where separatists have declared independence from Ukraine's new, pro-Western government. But not this spry, spirited 70-year-old. Oleinik says she is going nowhere and is determined to help people who run afoul of the rebels, no matter what the risks.

"Eastern Ukraine is turning into a black hole where people disappear without a trace, where daily theft and murder go unpunished," said Oleinik, who runs the local branch of a Ukrainian cultural organization.

The insurgency in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk began this spring after protests drove the pro-Russian president of Ukraine from office. What began with poorly attended protests over the new government's perceived bias against Russian-speakers snowballed into the armed takeover of dozens of town and cities by rebels.

Within that territory, anybody displaying fealty to Ukraine or viewed as opposed to the rebels has good reason to be nervous. Human rights monitors, politicians, journalists and members of the clergy have faced intimidation from the rebels and are disappearing with chilling regularity.

The self-proclaimed authorities of what rebels have dubbed the Donetsk People's Republic make no effort to deny the wave of detentions, arguing that it's an inevitable outcome of the fighting between rebels and government troops that has taken more than 400 lives since April.

"The laws of war are now in effect in the DPR. And we are not to blame for that," said the group's deputy prime minister, Andrei Purgin. He declined to say how many captives there are. Oleinik said that in Donetsk province alone, the rebels are holding around 200 Ukrainian activists.

All the leading officials of Ukraine's major political parties have left the east or gone into hiding. "Living in Donetsk is simply unbearable. Every day, there are attacks and threats to one's life," said Yegor Firsov, a national lawmaker representing Donetsk.

After a senior Donetsk People's Republic official placed a $500,000 bounty on his head, Firsov was shot at in an apparent attempted kidnapping. He fled to Kiev. Alexander Lydin, a 41-year-old mechanic who attended rallies supporting Ukrainian unity, apparently came to the attention of militiamen after visiting a National Guard enlistment office. On June 2, Lydin was abducted from a Donetsk street and taken to the nearby town of Makiivka.

"I was kept in a wet, rat-infested basement," he said. "Over 19 days of captivity, I was fed only three times." While he was being held, Lydin said, burglars emptied his apartment of all its furniture.

"This is standard practice. Ukrainian activists are kidnapped and their property is then stolen by the so-called militia," he said. In the city of Slovyansk, which had been the rebels' military base until government troops drove them out last weekend, several dozen activists and reporters were detained in the basement of the security services building.

Images of the dank, cramped and filthy rooms, taken by reporters who visited the building after it was recaptured, indicate the misery endured by the detainees, who were held there for up to three months.

There are no reliable estimates for how many people have been abducted in the neighboring province of Luhansk, which has also declared independence. Oleinik's colleague, local historian Volodymyr Semistyaga, was snatched off a street there on June 23. His whereabouts are unknown.

"It was me who persuaded Semistyaga not to leave Luhansk, and now I must bear responsibility for him," Oleinik said. Still, Oleinik said she has managed to negotiate the release of about 30 people, "through contacts in the UN and local officials."

Members of the clergy from churches not subordinated to the Moscow-led Orthodox Church have also been targeted. On Tuesday evening, an archpriest with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was abducted near his home in Donetsk after performing a service, according to his church. Last week, a priest with Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Donetsk went missing; Oleinik has been trying to track him down ever since.

Accounts also abound of militia profiting from abductions by demanding ransoms. Human Rights Watch researcher Tanya Lokshina wrote this week about seeing a woman in a Luhansk village whose son had been taken captive.

"She said the insurgents demanded $5,000 for his release but the family had no money," she wrote, without identifying the woman or her son. "He called her recently from his captors' phone, crying and saying he'd be killed unless the ransom is paid promptly."

There is no word on the young man's fate.

Germany kicks out top US spy over spy spat

July 10, 2014

BERLIN (AP) — Germany announced Thursday it is kicking out Washington's top spy in Berlin, a dramatic response from a key U.S. ally to a yearlong spying dispute over eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone calls that flared anew this week.

The immediate trigger for Thursday's move was the emergence of two new cases of alleged American spying. More deeply, it appears to reflect a Germany at the end of its patience with what it sees as a pattern of American disrespect and interference in a nation that has cherished traditions of privacy.

U.S. officials described Germany's move as extraordinary. A former U.S. official said he couldn't remember a time in recent history when an intelligence official was asked to leave a country. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss intelligence issues publicly.

The spy saga began last year with reports that the National Security Agency targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone and conducted mass surveillance of Internet traffic in Germany. Those allegations have resulted in a criminal investigation and the creation of a parliamentary panel tasked with probing the NSA's activities in Germany.

"The representative of the U.S. intelligence services at the United States embassy has been asked to leave Germany," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. "The request occurred against the backdrop of the ongoing investigation by federal prosecutors as well as the questions that were posed months ago about the activities of U.S. intelligence agencies in Germany," he added. "The government takes the matter very seriously."

Shortly before the announcement, Merkel told reporters that Germany and the United States had "very different approaches" to the role of intelligence agencies. White House press secretary Josh Earnest wouldn't comment on Germany's decision but said the U.S. takes intelligence matters "very seriously."

"I don't want you to come away from this exchange thinking we take this matter lightly," he said, adding that the U.S. and Germany continue to have a strong partnership. Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that police raided properties in the Berlin area on "initial suspicion of activity for an intelligence agency." They did not elaborate. Afterward Seibert told reporters that the case involved "a very serious suspicion" of espionage.

German media reported that the man being investigated Wednesday worked at Germany's Defense Ministry in a department dealing with international security policy, and had aroused the suspicion of Germany's military counter-intelligence agency because of his close contacts to alleged U.S. spies.

Last week, a 31-year-old German intelligence employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for foreign powers since 2012. German media have reported that he spied for the CIA and came to authorities' attention when he recently offered his services to Russian officials in Germany by email.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he could not comprehend why the U.S. would spy on his country: "We speak to each other all the time, and nobody keeps their views secret," he said in an interview published Wednesday by the Saarbruecker Zeitung.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the political fallout outweighed any harm done to Germany by the alleged spying. "If the situation remains what we know now, the information reaped by this suspected espionage is laughable," de Maiziere said in a statement. "However, the political damage is already disproportionate and serious."

Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Nedra Pickler and Ken Dilanian in Washington contributed to this report.

Ramadan in Sweden with no dusk, no dawn

Cajsa Wikstrom
07 Jul 2014

Kiruna, Sweden - During this year's holy month of Ramadan, when consumption of food and water is prohibited between dawn and dusk, how do Muslims observing the fast manage in the far north of Scandinavia, where the sun never sets?  

An estimated 700 Muslims are spending Ramadan in the mining town of Kiruna, located 145km north of the Arctic Circle and surrounded by snowcapped mountains throughout the summer. Many of them are recent asylum seekers, sent to Kiruna while their claims are processed.

The sun stays up around the clock from May 28-July 16, which constitutes half of the fasting period this year.

"I started Ramadan by having suhoor with the sun shining in my eyes at 3:30 in the morning," said Ghassan Alankar from Syria, referring to the meal just before dawn.

"I put double curtains in my room and still, there's light when I'm going to sleep."

Since there is no central authority in Sunni Islam that could issue a definite religious ruling, or fatwa, Muslims in the north are using at least four different timetables to break the fast.

Alankar sticks to Mecca time, Saudi Arabia, "because it's the birthplace of Islam". But he is worried about whether his fast will be accepted by God.

"I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing," said Alankar, who arrived in Kiruna seven months ago after a hazardous journey via Lebanon, Turkey, and Greece. "Only when I'm in God's house, if I make it to heaven, I will know."

No dusk, no dawn

The start of Ramadan is determined by the sighting of the new moon, which  moves about 11 days back in the Gregorian calendar each year. About every 33 years, Ramadan falls at the same time.

A majority of those who fast in Kiruna follow the timings of the capital Stockholm, 1,240km further south, after being advised by the European Council of Fatwa and Research (ECFR), a Dublin-based private foundation composed of Islamic clerics.

"In Stockholm, there's day and night," Hussein Halawa, secretary-general of the council, told Al Jazeera, explaining the decision. He was personally invited to northern Sweden from Dublin this year to experience the lengthy daylight and give advice.

Idris Abdulwhab, from Eritrea, follows the ECFR fatwa, which means his longest period of fasting will be 20 hours.

"Zero, 15, 25 or 45 hours, it doesn't matter as long as you believe in what you're doing," he said. "But we're human beings; of course it's hard sometimes."

One of those who has chosen to fast according to the local prayer times listed online is Fatima Kaniz. In a homely apartment overlooking mountains and mining facilities, she prepares a Pakistani fast-breaking dinner, or Iftar, for 8:30pm as the persistent sun penetrates the window blinds. Oil sizzles in a pan as she drops in pakoras, a vegetable snack made with chickpea flour.

She recalls her first day in Kiruna five years ago, in June.

"I waited for the sun to go down so I could pray maghreb," she said, referring to the sunset prayer. "I waited until 3am, until my Chinese roommate at the asylum centre found me and explained it was pointless to wait. I thought, 'What kind of strange place is this?'"

The fare of the day consists of the Pakistani Ramadan staples chapati and pakoras served with raita, with the addition of Swedish fish fingers and lentil stew.

During two-thirds of Ramadan, following the Kiruna prayer times means that Kaniz fasts for about 18 hours. But due to the sun's movements, she will fast for a whole 23 hours during one of those days.

"I live in Kiruna, and I pray according to Kiruna time all year round. Why should I change this during Ramadan and suddenly follow Stockholm?" she asked.

She followed the same system during four previous Ramadans - the last one also at the height of summer.

"Sometimes I got tired and took the bus home from work instead of walking, but otherwise, I felt fine," she said. "But I looked at the clock many times."

The weather in Kiruna varies widely during the summer months. Within a day, 25 degrees Celsius and sunshine can turn into 10 degrees and pouring rain.

December Ramadan: Perpetual darkness

When Ramadan falls in December, however, Muslims will face the opposite of midnight sun: polar night. For two weeks, the sun does not rise above the horizon.

"Why don't they come to me to ask about Ramadan then?" asks Halawa of the ECFR. He said a conference will be held later this year to issue a winter timetable for both fasting and prayers.

Muslim prayer times also follow the sun - which means that during winter, all five prayers can fall within a time span of two hours.

Abdulnasser Mohammed, of Somali origin, was new to Sweden and Kiruna the last time Ramadan fell under the Midwinter night, in 2000.

"There was no really established Islamic organization at the time, or information on the internet. I had to make up my own rules", he said. "I fasted for about five hours."

Mohammed, who is now the chairman of the Islamic association in Kiruna, follows the fasting times of Istanbul in the summer, since Turkey is the Muslim country closest to Sweden.

But he explains, in his view, everyone is free to choose.

"Islam isn't rigorous," he said. "Ramadan is not about starvation or about inflicting injury on yourself. People must choose what works for them."

Apart from the Syrians, who have fled the war in their homeland, Eritreans form the largest Muslim community in Kiruna.

Hawa Fidel and Alia Hassen host a plentiful Iftar at Stockholm's fast-breaking time, 10:10pm, in the apartment they share. They have prepared seating on the floor and filled trays with sponge-like injera flatbread, spicy beef stew, pastries, and other traditional Eritrean food.

The men chatting in the living room are already planning their next communal meal. They have set up a system to share the costs fairly, with participants paying different amounts depending on their incomes. Some have jobs. Others, whose applications for asylum have been rejected, get by on a monthly $200 grant provided by the government.

"Eating together with friends remind me of Eritrea," said Fidel, who is still waiting for permanent residency after living in Kiruna for three years. But she misses going to a mosque for tarawih, the special prayers at night during which long portions of the Quran are recited.  

The Muslim community in Kiruna is using a hall in an apartment block as a mosque, but so far it is only open for Friday prayers.

On the first Friday of Ramadan, as the rain trickled down, about 40 men and four women, including Fidel, gathered there at Stockholm's dhuhr prayer time.

Safwaan al-Taieb, who used to do the call to prayer in his neighborhood mosque in Syria's Deraa before he fled the country last year, recited a melodious adhan.

Al-Taieb's sister came with him to Sweden, but because she fasts according to Mecca timings and he Stockholm, they do not eat together.

Besides the rest of the family, he said the social nature of Syrian society is what he misses the most - during Ramadan and the rest of the year.

"In Syria, you don't eat only with your family. Everyone is welcome, we bring plates of food to our neighbors, we invite others. If you do that with Swedish people, they think you're crazy."

"Next Ramadan, God willing, I'll be back in Syria."

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/07/ramadan-sweden-with-no-dusk-no-dawn-20147614423642407.html.

Lithuania to treat injured Ukrainian troops

Vilnius (AFP)
July 09, 2014

NATO member Lithuania said Wednesday it will provide free medical care for Ukrainian troops injured in clashes with pro-Russian rebels.

A first group of four soldiers will arrive in the Baltic EU state for treatment next week, foreign ministry spokeswoman Rasa Jakilaitiene told AFP.

Formerly Soviet-ruled Lithuania, a nation of three million, is a vocal advocate of stronger EU ties with Ukraine and has viewed Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis with suspicion.

Vilnius already provided free treatment to 22 Ukrainians injured in pro-EU protests that erupted in Kiev late last year, leading to the ouster of its pro-Russian president.

Ukraine on Tuesday rejected talks with pro-Moscow rebels on a truce to halt the bloody insurgency that broke out following the ouster, costing nearly 500 lives and inflaming East-West ties.

Lithuania, the first republic to break free from the Soviet Union in 1990, joined the European Union and NATO in 2004 and now is firmly anchored in the West.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Lithuania_to_treat_injured_Ukrainian_troops_999.html.

'Sad' third anniversary for South Sudan

2014-07-09
By Aymeric Vincenot - Juba

Thousands of South Sudanese waved flags at military parades to mark three years of independence Wednesday, despite little to celebrate in a war-torn young nation ravaged by ethnic atrocities and threatened with famine.

The streets of the capital were lined with banners proclaiming "One People, One Nation", as the government of President Salva Kiir put on a show of force with a military parade and speeches intended to celebrate the breakaway from the repressive government in Khartoum.

Security was heavy at the events, underscoring the bitter divisions in the world's youngest nation where a nearly seven-month-old civil war rages on.

"It's a sad anniversary," admitted Juba resident Gideon, 23, saying he had hoped for better three years on from the fanfare and optimism that swept the country in July 2011.

At government-organized celebrations in the heart of capital, dance troupes draped in the national flag sang and danced, as drummers banged out beats to shrug off the mood of gloom.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has sent in troops to prop up Kiir's government, was one of the few senior regional leaders to attend, with old enemies Sudan sending their second vice-president.

South Sudan has been wracked by war since mid-December, when presidential guards loyal to Kiir clashed with troops supporting ousted vice-president Riek Machar, who fled to the bush and rallied a huge rebel army.

The fighting has been marked by widespread atrocities against both members of the Nuer people, to which Machar belongs, and Kiir's Dinka group, the single largest tribe.

- 'Sick' leaders -

Civilians have been massacred and dumped in mass graves, patients murdered in hospitals and churches, and entire towns flattened as urban centers including key oil-producing hubs changed hands several times.

The most conservative estimates put the toll at 10,000 dead, although aid workers say the real figure is likely far higher.

Almost 100,000 civilians are sheltering in squalid camps inside UN bases fearing revenge attacks if they leave.

Aid group Oxfam said South Sudan was "currently Africa's worst crisis with nearly four million -- a third of the country's population -- at risk of severe hunger and an aid effort that has only so far reached half of those in need".

"The world's attention is elsewhere as Africa's worst humanitarian catastrophe descends into more misery. We will be staring into the abyss and fail to avert a famine if funds do not start arriving soon to help the people of South Sudan at risk of starvation, disease and violence," said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

"If the aid effort does not increase 50,000 children could die from malnutrition. Since the current crisis began in December last year fighting has forced 1.5 million people from their homes and numbers continue to rise."

On the eve of the anniversary, the departing UN representative in the country issued a scathing attack on the country's leaders, calling them a "self-serving elite" responsible for a looming "man-made famine".

"Thousands and thousands have been killed," said Hilde Johnson of the UN mission in South Sudan, lashing out at both the government and rebels, warning that one of world's least developed nations has "been set back decades".

Leaders were sick with "the cancer of corruption" with the country's billions of dollars worth of oil "a curse rather than a blessing", she said.

Peace talks in luxury hotels in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa have made little progress and last month they halted indefinitely, with both sides refusing to attend the discussions.

"If there are further delays, and the blame games go on, whether from those wanting to remain in office or those wanting to get back in, we can draw only one conclusion; that this is only about a scramble for power," Johnson added.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=67017.

Newfound Frozen World Orbits in Binary Star System

by Pam Frost Gorder
Jul 11, 2014

A newly discovered planet in a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth is expanding astronomers' notions of where Earth-like-and even potentially habitable-planets can form, and how to find them.

At twice the mass of Earth, the planet orbits one of the stars in the binary system at almost exactly the same distance from which Earth orbits the sun. However, because the planet's host star is much dimmer than the sun, the planet is much colder than the Earth-a little colder, in fact, than Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

Four international research teams, led by professor Andrew Gould of The Ohio State University, published their discovery in the journal Science.

The study provides the first evidence that terrestrial planets can form in orbits similar to Earth's, even in a binary star system where the stars are not very far apart. Although this planet itself is too cold to be habitable, the same planet orbiting a sun-like star in such a binary system would be in the so-called " habitable zone" -the region where conditions might be right for life.

"This greatly expands the potential locations to discover habitable planets in the future," said Scott Gaudi, professor of astronomy at Ohio State. "Half the stars in the galaxy are in binary systems. We had no idea if Earth-like planets in Earth-like orbits could even form in these systems. "

Very rarely, the gravity of a star focuses the light from a more distant star and magnifies it like a lens. Even more rarely, the signature of a planet appears within that magnified light signal. The technique astronomers use to find such planets is called gravitational microlensing , and computer modeling of these events is complicated enough when only one star and its planet are acting as the lens, much less two stars.

When the astronomers succeeded in detecting this new planet, they were able to document that it produced two separate signatures-the primary one, which they typically use to detect planets, and a secondary one that had previously been only hypothesized to exist. Searching for planets within binary systems is tricky for most techniques, because the light from the second star complicates the interpretation of the data.

"But in gravitational microlensing," Gould explained, "we don't even look at the light from the star-planet system. We just observe how its gravity affects light from a more distant, unrelated, star. This gives us a new tool to search for planets in binary star systems."

The first was a brief dimming of light, as the planet's gravity disrupted one of the magnified images of the source star. But the second effect was an overall distortion of the light signal.

"Even if we hadn't seen the initial signature of the planet, we could still have detected it from the distortion alone," Gould said, pointing to a graph of the light signal. "The effect is not obvious. You can't see it by eye, but the signal is unmistakable in the computer modeling."

Gaudi explained the implications.

"Now we know that with gravitational microlensing, it's actually possible to infer the existence of a planet-and to know its mass, and its distance from a star-without directly detecting the dimming due to the planet," he said. "We thought we could do that in principle, but now that we have empirical evidence, we can use this method to find planets in the future."

The nature of these distortions is still somewhat of a mystery, he admitted.

"We don't have an intuitive understanding of why it works. We have some idea, but at this point, I think it would be fair to say that it's at the frontier of our theoretical work."

The planet, called OGLE-2013-BLG-0341LBb, first appeared as a "dip" in the line tracing the brightness data taken by the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) telescope on April 11, 2013. The planet briefly disrupted one of the images formed by the star it orbits as the system crossed in front of a much more distant star 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.

"Before the dip, this was just another microlensing event," Gould said. It was one of approximately 2,000 discovered every year by OGLE, with its new large-format camera that monitors 100 million stars many times per night searching for such events.

"It's really the new OGLE-IV survey that made this discovery possible," he added. "They got a half dozen measurements of that dip and really nailed it." From the form of the dip, whose "wings" were traced out in MOA (Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics) data, they could see that the source was headed directly toward the central star.

Then, for two weeks, astronomers watched the magnified light continue to brighten from telescopes in Chile, New Zealand, Israel and Australia. The teams included OGLE, MOA, MicroFUN (the Microlensing Follow Up Network), and the Wise Observatory .

Even then, they still didn't know that the planet's host star had another companion-a second star locked into orbit with it. But because they were already paying close attention to the signal, the astronomers noticed when the binary companion unexpectedly caused a huge eruption of light called a caustic crossing.

By the time they realized that the lens was not one star, but two, they had captured a considerable amount of data-and made a surprising discovery: the distortion.

Weeks after all signs of the planet had faded, the light from the binary-lens caustic crossing became distorted, as if there were a kind of echo of the original planet signal.

Intensive computer analysis by professor Cheongho Han at Chungbuk National University in Korea revealed that the distortion contained information about the planet-its mass, separation from its star, and orientation-and that information matched perfectly with what astronomers saw during their direct observation of the dip due to the planet. So the same information can be captured from the distortion alone.

This detailed analysis showed that the planet is twice the mass of Earth, and orbits its star from an Earth-like distance, around 90 million miles. But its star is 400 times dimmer than our sun, so the planet is very cold-around 60 Kelvin (-352 degrees Fahrenheit or -213 Celsius), which makes it a little colder than Jupiter's moon Europa. The second star in the star system is only as far from the first star as Saturn is from our sun. But this binary companion, too, is very dim.

Still, binary star systems composed of dim stars like these are the most common type of star system in our galaxy, the astronomers said. So this discovery suggests that there may be many more terrestrial planets out there-some possibly warmer, and possibly harboring life.

Three other planets have been discovered in binary systems that have similar separations, but using a different technique. This is the first one close to Earth-like size that follows an Earth-like orbit, and its discovery within a binary system by gravitational microlensing was by chance.

"Normally, once we see that we have a binary, we stop observing. The only reason we took such intensive observations of this binary is that we already knew there was a planet," Gould said. "In the future we'll change our strategy."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Newfound_Frozen_World_Orbits_in_Binary_Star_System_999.html.

Space junk damages ISS US segment

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Jul 08, 2014

Space debris has damaged a cooling system radiator of the International Space Station US, the NASA website said. Images of the ISS surface captured by external cameras were being analyzed and there was no leak from the cooling system.

The NASA delegation to the Russian Mission Control Center has made no comment on the situation.

The ISS is manned by Russia's Alexander Skvortsov, Oleg Artemyev and Maxim Surayev, U.S. astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman and German astronaut Alexander Gerst.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Space_junk_damages_ISS_US_segment_999.html.

Colonizing The Venusian Cloudtops

Moscow (Voice of Russia)
Jul 09, 2014

US scientists and science-fiction writers alike have made a strong case for the possible colonization of Venus. While so many space enthusiasts are keeping their eyes on Mars, there might be a planet with more prosperous opportunities for the human race. There is a strong case for creating a floating colony above Venus, according to writer Charles Stross.

The sci-fi author suggested that a constructed floating city on Venus could be made, but would need the help of billionaires' bank accounts.

Venus, the second planet away from the Sun may not seem like the coziest place to live as the surface temperature is so hot, it could melt lead. However, the air on Venus thins out as it rises above the ground and cools off, around an estimated 30 miles up, human habitation could be a very possible plan.

It is believed that it would be like the temperature of the Mediterranean with the barometric pressure being at sea-level. The most plausible place to establish a floating city would most likely be the planet Venus, as stated in an article on citylab.com.

Though the concept sounds far-out, a floating city may just be a do-able project. Scientist and sci-fi writer Geoffrey Landis introduced a concept in a paper he called "Colonizing Venus" during the Conference of Human Space Exploration, Space Technology and Applications International Forum that was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2003.

Air, that is considered to be breathable, exists in Venus' atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide. This means that on the planet Venus, a blimp would be able to use air to lift it up, the way other blimps take advantage of helium to float in an atmosphere that is much thinner.

Landis is not alone in his way of furturistic thinking. An entire group of sci-fi authors and scientists have been talking about the concept on the blog entitled Selenian Boondocks, in which its founder Jonathan Goff describes it as "a blog I founded to discuss space politics, policy, technology, business, and space settlement," as stated in a citylab.com article.

Still, a huge problem with a lunar colony is the fact that astronauts' bones and muscles start to break down in a low gravity environment. For the time being, nobody is sure how much gravity a human really needs to prevent this deterioration from happening.

However it is important to point out that Venus' gravity is the closest to Earth, if compared to other planets, at about 9/10ths. If Mars is looked into, it only has a third of the gravity that planet Earth has, and the moon just has a sixth.

Another crucial factor that needs to be looked into is atmospheric pressure. Mars is not at all suitable as it would suck oxygen out of a human's surroundings on its planet at a rapid speed. However, 30 miles above Venus, the oxygen would just seep out. This also means that a colony above Venus would not need to have such strong support.

Other pluses about Venus-its atmosphere is so rich it actually protects against radioactivity and could be mined for useful supplies. Additionally, the temperature is just right, not too hot nor cold which would allow for a lot less energy to be consumed on heating or cooling the city.

Hurdles still exist though. Landing on Venus' surface would be a difficult task to accomplish at 30 miles above the surface of the planet, but Landis thought of a way it could be executed.

Thick titanium skin could live through reentry and float above the surface of the planet. Goff, who considers himself as a space entrepreneur as well as a space settlement advocate, believes that rocket stages (the pieces that pull off of a rocket during its liftoff phase) could be made to float after being used and be used again.

This would be one way of giving a route to and from the colony to allow for building supplies to be mined from the surface area. Selenian Boondocks also assisted Goff in figuring out the chemical combination needed to extract breathable air, water, fuel, and other necessary supplies. Goff is planning on looking into the details with a closer eye in the near future.

"I still need to talk about chemicals that seem easy to get to from the raw materials," Goff said, as stated on citylab.com in a recent article, then he continued "and how those impact colony design."

Life dangling above planet Venus may feel rather odd for some, while others may have no idea what to expect. Commentator George Turner on Selenian Boondocks described how a colonist on Venus could hold meat into the planet's harsh acidic atmosphere as a way of cooking:

"Well let me tell you, acid is good for meat, and breaks down connective tissue, fats, and tenderizes it. Run the pH the other way and it turns into soap and you might as well bite into a urinal cake.

"Venus is not for the timid, or people too afraid to shove a fat bird out the airlock and let the harsh laws of thermodynamics do the work. Venus is for men. Men who like to eat meat - cooked in fire and acid and seasoned with the Devil's own mix of volatiles boiled up from the pits of hell.

"If the thought of Thanksgiving Dinner on Venus gives you the heebie jeebies, you don't even need to think about plunging into the roiling atmosphere with nothing but a cheap plastic heat shield and a thin balloon to save you from the crematorium that yawns down below.

"So man up, dangle the bird into the depths of the Stygian hell, feast as someone who walks between worlds and lives on an airship that rides the hell born winds 30 miles above a surface so hot it glows visibly red," Turner wrote according to an article on citylab.com.

In the end, there will have to be a good enough reasons to spend an endless amount of money on such a daring project. Perhaps if the world becomes too over-crowded or there is a nuclear explosion that leaves Earth a mess, Venus could be the next best choice for the human race to live on.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Colonizing_The_Venusian_Cloudtops_999.html.

India's Unholy Mess

By Neeta Lal

NEW DELHI, Jul 7 2014 (IPS) - One of the first things that Narendra Damodardas Modi did after being anointed as the Indian prime minister on May 26 was to set up an exclusive ministry (Ganga Rejuvenation) under Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti to clean up the country’s national river, the Ganges.

However, the Ganges’ largest tributary, the Yamuna – also one of the most polluted in the world and which provides the capital city of Delhi with 70 percent of its water needs — was barely mentioned in Modi’s rhetoric.

Critics point out that after a landslide win in the recent Lok Sabha (lower house) elections, Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party has made numerous references to the Ganges’ pollution (including organizing a pan-India meet on the river on Jul. 7 featuring top experts) while totally ignoring the Yamuna.

Such neglect is hardly new. Despite millions of dollars being pumped into numerous ambitious and state-funded schemes, as well as direct intervention by the Supreme Court and government agencies, the fabled Yamuna – revered by Hindus as a ‘living Goddess’ — has been reduced to a stinking drain.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, the country’s premier pollution monitoring agency, Delhi alone contributes up to 80 percent of the pollution load of the 1,370-km river. In 2010, the Indian Supreme Court even referred to the Yamuna as a “ganda nullah” (“dirty drain”) rather than a dirty river.

The Yamuna plays a pivotal role in Delhi’s life, providing water for nearly 57 million people who live in its floodplains. Most importantly, 92 percent of the river’s waters are used to irrigate 12.3 million hectares of agricultural land that feeds a sizeable portion of India’s 1.2 billion people.

The river’s pristine beauty even prompted the Mughals to build one of their most spectacular monuments on the Yamuna’s banks — the Taj Mahal.

Yet today, the river is impacted deeply by pollution as garbage from millions of households, municipal disposals and soil erosion due to deforestation sullies the river each day. Toxic chemical substances — insecticides, fertilizers, pesticides – only worsen the situation.

A World Health Organization urban air quality database released on May 9 this year rang alarm bells in Delhi’s power corridors, forcing the administration to sit up and take note. According to the report, the air quality in Delhi is the worst in the world, with polluting industries brazenly discharging much of their refuse into the Yamuna in the absence of strong punitive action.

Following the report, Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung constituted a high-powered committee – consisting of scientists and ecologists – to examine all aspects of air pollution, including pollution in the Yamuna caused by industrial and sewage discharges. The committee has been tasked with suggesting steps to check pollution and to devise both long-term and short-term measures to tackle this serious issue.

Experts say the extent of pollution of the Yamuna River is so shocking that it now has a permanent thick layer of foam covering it completely. Yamuna is often also described as a ‘dead river’ since its pollution has seriously inhibited the survival of fish or other marine life in its waters.

Unfortunately, the State Pollution Control Board as well as the Central Pollution Control Board have also failed to address Yamuna’s pollution. All the past directives of the apex court have also been flagrantly ignored.

“The Central Air and Water Pollution Prevention Act gives unrestricted powers to these statutory bodies to proceed against polluters but entrenched corruption has stymied all attempts to address the problem. River cleaning is simply not a priority on the national agenda,” says an ecologist with Kalpavriksh, a pan-India green NGO.

Although a large number of NGOs, pressure groups and citizens’ movements have been active in cleaning up the Yamuna, given the size and dimension of the problem, these piecemeal and sporadic efforts have not yielded any tangible benefits, adds the activist.

Environmentalists assert that treatment of effluents before their release into the river is far more vital than keeping a tab on the river and drains.

“We should learn from how countries abroad are scientifically recycling these wastes and using them for construction of new buildings and roads. Singapore recycles 98 per cent of its construction and demolition (C&D) waste. We need to better the existing systems,” says Delhi-based environmentalist Anumita Roy Chowdhury.

Until now, experts say, the Centre has spent approximately 300 million dollars under the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) I and II to clean the river. The YAP’s first phase was launched in 1993. It then covered Delhi, eight towns in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and six towns in the state of Haryana.

Under YAP II, the focus was on the Yamuna’s 22-km stretch in Delhi. The government plans to spend another billion dollars in the next phase to clean the river.

Experts add that pesticide traces in the water cannot be removed with conventional treatment as has been the case so far. “It’s like trying to slay a dragon with a pen knife,” explains B.R. Rao, an environmental scientist formerly with the ministry of environment and forests.

“For micro pollutants such as pesticides, only more freshwater can reduce the percentage of traces in water. These cannot be dissolved or assimilated, but they can certainly be diluted to an extent which will gradually help whittle down the levels of pollution in the river,” adds Rao.

The Yamuna has a dilution requirement of 75 percent, explains Rao, which implies that for every 100 liters of wastewater, 75 liters of freshwater needs to be pumped into the river. With this fresh flow of water, pollutants (especially organic pollutants) dissipate to a large extent.

But at every step, this purified water is abstracted, and ever larger loads of pollution make their way into the river.

However, according to the Delhi-based think tank Center for Science and Environment, the main problem lies in the sub-optimal utilization of the city’s sewage treatment plants (STPs).

Says Sushmita Sengupta of CSE, Delhi’s 17 STPs have a capacity to treat 2,445 MLD (million liters per day). “Going by the Comptroller Auditor General 2013 Report sewage generation estimate of 3,060 MLD, the city can treat about 80 per cent of its waste, but it actually treats 1,651 MLD, approximately 54 percent Why is Delhi unable to treat its sewage completely?”

Of its installed capacity of 2,445 MLD, about 585 MLD remains unutilized (as of 2011-12). With only 1,218 MLD of sewage being treated, there exists a wide gap between what is treated and what is not. In other words, about 46 per cent of the total waste generated by Delhi goes untreated into the river Yamuna.

Water experts also point out that the problem of sewage not reaching a treatment plant is also what scuppers the plans to clean the Yamuna. The city depends on its 6,400-km sewerage network to convey its waste to treatment facilities. But most of the time, this network does not function, leaving the treatment plants starved for sewage.

Illegal or unauthorized colonies only worsen the situation. Almost 50 per cent of Delhi lives in such colonies, generating ‘illegal’ sewage – sewage which is not transported in official sewers to official treatment plants. These colonies do not have drains to transport sewage.

The people living in these areas either defecate in the open or connect their wastewater drains to an open channel, which flows into a larger drain and eventually into the river.

“A paradigm shift is required in Delhi’s approach to clean the river. The city planners must swivel their attention from the standard hardware – sewer and STP – to comprehend the linkages between water, sewage and pollution and most importantly, the need for authentic data. The science on river cleaning needs a drastic change in India,” sums up Sengupta.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/07/indias-unholy-mess/.