The Tharwa Review

CIVILIANS DRIVEN FROM GARMSIR BY FIGHTING

Helmand governor says major international operation is causing humanitarian crisis.
By Aziz Ahmad Tassal and Mohammad Ilyas Dayee in Helmand, Sefatullah Zahidi in Garmsir, and Abaceen Nasimi in Kabul

Much of the formerly bustling district of Garmsir in southern Helmand province now resembles a ghost town, with villages largely emptied of their populations.

An IWPR reporter visited one village, Loy Kalai, from which almost 4,000 families had fled. More than half the houses were destroyed, and abandoned farm animals were beginning to die.

The smell of decay hung over the area. In one house, a man who had died from shrapnel wounds lay unburied.

"I could not believe what I was seeing," a resident who witnessed the scene told IWPR. "It was a tragedy."

Garmsir district is the focus of a large-scale NATO operation codenamed "Azada Wosa" ("Be Free" in Pashto), launched on April 28 and led by a 2,400-strong United States Marine Expeditionary Unit which arrived in Afghanistan earlier this spring.

Supported by troops from NATO's International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, the Marines have spent the last month engaged in a fierce battle with the Taleban in southern Helmand province, attempting to drive the insurgents out of territory they have held these past two years.

HOPES DASHED FOR AFGHAN JOURNALIST’S RELEASE

Confusion and anger as judge orders indefinite postponement in blasphemy trial of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh.
By Jean MacKenzie in Kabul

The mood was almost festive at the start of the latest appeal hearing in the case of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, who has spent over seven months in prison facing execution on a charge of defaming Islam and the Prophet Muhammed.

A large sign in English proclaimed “This Way” with arrows pointing to the courtroom, and the large group of observers had simultaneous translation into English laid on, complete with special interpreting equipment.

The Afghan and international press corps, representatives of foreign embassies and human rights groups, civil society activists including a long row of brightly dressed and very intense Afghan women had turned out in force at the Kabul Appeals Court for what everyone expected would be the last chapter in a long and dismal saga.

Two previous sessions had ended in adjournment – the first, on May 18, because there was no defence lawyer present, and the second, on May 25, because Kambakhsh complained of ill health.

Everyone was sure this would be the last time the court needed to gather.

The rumour mill had been working overtime, confidently predicting that Kambakhsh would be released at the June 1 session.

TURKEY AND IRAQI KURDS TURN OVER NEW LEAF?

Business appears to trump political differences as long-standing foes build closer ties.
By Azeez Mahmood in Sulaimaniyah

Kurdish leaders are making efforts to build stronger ties with Turkey, in order to boost trade, say analysts

However, some argue that Turkey is only interested in better relations to stem the threat posed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, which is based in northern Iraq, and warn that increased cooperation will not be popular among Iraqi Kurds.

Turkish and Kurdish officials held their first meeting earlier this month, hosted by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, during which they discussed how to deal with the PKK, as well as Turkish investment in Kurdistan, according to sources close to Kurdish officials.

Also attending the meeting, which was held in Baghdad on May 1, were Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, prime minister Nechirvan Barzani, Ahmet Davudoglu, chief foreign policy adviser for Turkish prime minister Recep Tayip Erdogan, Turkish special envoy for Iraq Murat Ozcelik, and Turkey's ambassador to Baghdad Derya Kanbay.

Since 1984, the PKK and Turkey have engaged in bloody battles that have claimed thousands of lives in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. Human rights groups accuse Ankara of oppressing Kurds and other minorities.

Iraqi Kurdish and Turkish leaders have sparred in the past over the PKK’s presence in the north of Iraq. Turkey has long demanded that Iraq expel the group, which is considered a terrorist organisation by both Ankara and Washington.

GIRLS DENIED EDUCATION

Parents concerned about militia violence are pulling their daughters out of school.
By Samah Samad in Kirkuk

Thirteen-year-old Huda Ahmed’s world was turned upside down when her classmate was kidnapped two years ago.

The girl was snatched by armed men on her way to school in Kirkuk, and was only released three days later when her family paid 40,000 US dollars in ransom.

Fearing harm may come to their only daughter, Huda’s parents pulled her out of school. Often depressed, she now spends her days cleaning the house and watching television when there’s electricity.

Huda envies her classmates and two brothers, who still attend school, and says she is deeply conflicted about her parents’ decision. She calls it "an ugly crime perpetrated against me", although in the next breath, says she understands her parents’ logic.

"I’ll go back to school the first chance I get, but for the time being I will respect my parents’ decision," said Huda.

A survey released earlier this year by NGO Women for Women International found that Iraqi girls are being removed from school at an alarming rate. Three-quarters of the 1,510 women surveyed said girls in their families were being denied an education, and just over half said the trend began following the US-led invasion in 2003.

Taking steps forward: economic and political fronts

Mara Rudman

BETHLEHEM—For those who have long advocated for improvement on movement and access issues, the Palestine Investment Conference experience illustrates Israeli capabilities on the positive side of the ledger. The Palestine Investment Conference in Bethlehem, held May 21st-23rd, turned out to be the milestone its sponsors had promised. For those who recognise the mutual Palestinian, Israeli, US and regional interests served by the establishment of a sustainable, functioning Palestinian state alongside Israel as soon as possible, it was a glass half full. The conference brought together local, regional and international investors, and demonstrated the potential for economic development and security cooperation necessary for political progress.

I attended last week's conference with low expectations. Palestinian and Israeli friends and colleagues had warned me for months in advance: Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad was doing this only because the Americans had pushed him, and the conference would be an embarrassment; it could never come together in time. He was being set up for failure, said some Palestinian colleagues. Others cautioned that those who did want to come from Arab countries would have too difficult a time with Israeli travel restrictions at Ben-Gurion Airport or the Allenby Bridge, a main border crossing from Jordan—difficulties that would be compounded by the hassles from Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers at checkpoints that would await them if they were admitted.

One thing evident from this pre-conference pessimism is that Israelis and Palestinians share far more than they like to acknowledge, including a need to insulate themselves from too many harsh realities with protective layers of cynicism.

Zionism and power

Rabbi Michael Cohen

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania—Within the rubric of national sovereignty come many challenges; the use of power is paramount to how a nation defines itself.

One raison d'être for the Zionist movement was the reintroduction of Jewish might back into the vocabulary of world history. Zionism, as well as pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism, were influenced by the late 18th century ideas of democracy and liberty promoted in the American and French revolutions. In addition, early 18th century romanticism and mid-19th century modern nationalism helped the development of these parallel nationalisms in the Middle East.

Woven into this was Zionist thinking that 2,000 years of the Jewish people being stateless and by extension powerless was no longer tenable. The Jewish longing to return to Zion had been carried in Jewish liturgy and ritual since the end of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel following the Bar-Kochba Revolt of 135 CE, and the changing of the name of Israel to Palestine by the Romans in an attempt to cut off all Jewish connections to the land.

The reestablishment of that sovereignty 60 years ago, following the catastrophic destruction of one-third of the world's Jewish population by the Nazis and their collaborators, reconstituted in the state of Israel sovereign Jewish power. That Jewish power allowed Israel to win the war of independence, which began immediately after David Ben-Gurion declared Israel's independence on 14 May 1948.

Misreading the messenger

Lawrence Pintak, Jeremy Ginges and Nicholas Felton

CAIRO and NEW YORK—"Arabic TV does not do our country justice," President George W. Bush complained in early 2006, calling it a purveyor of "propaganda" that "just isn't right, it isn't fair, and it doesn't give people the impression of what we're about."

The president's statement, along with the decision by the New York Stock Exchange to ban Al-Jazeera's reporters in 2003, is a prime example of how the Arab news media have been demonised since the September 11th attacks. As a result, America has failed to make use of what is potentially one of its most powerful weapons in the war of ideas against terrorism.

For proof, in the last year we surveyed 601 journalists in 13 Arab countries in North Africa, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. The results, to be published in The International Journal of Press/Politics in July, shatter many of the myths upon which American public diplomacy strategy has been based.

Rather than being the enemy, most Arab journalists are potential allies, whose agenda broadly track the stated goals of US Middle East policy and who can be a valuable conduit for explaining American policy to their audiences.

What Syrian-Israeli talks mean

Hasan Abu Nimah

AMMAN—There was a surprise announcement last week that Syrians and Israelis started indirect peace negotiations under Turkish patronage in Istanbul. That was confirmed in both countries' capitals soon afterwards.

Almost simultaneously, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that the two sides had already reached understanding as a result of secret talks in Europe two years earlier, between September 2004 and July 2006, and that the two sides would sign an agreement of principles, and once they had fulfilled their commitments, a peace agreement would be signed.

The terms include Israeli commitment to withdraw from the Golan Heights to the lines of 4 June 1967, without agreement on a timetable for the withdrawal. Syria demanded five years while Israel demanded 15.

Although Syrian sovereignty would be acknowledged on the evacuated land, the agreement includes the establishment of a public park on a "significant area of the Golan" for joint Syrian-Israeli use, but the Israeli presence there "will not be dependent on Syrian approval".

The agreement, described as an unsigned "non-paper" also speaks of a demilitarised zone on the Golan; a buffer zone in between the two sides on the basis of a ratio of 1:4 (in terms of territory) in Israel's favour; and Israeli control over the use of the waters of the Jordan River and the Lake Kinneret.

US professor shares Israeli prize with Palestinians

Barbara Ferguson

WASHINGTON—Here's a story of a man with guts... and a big heart. The recipient of one of Israel's most prestigious prizes donated his $33,333 portion of the shared award yesterday to a Palestinian university and an Israeli human rights group that tries to ease Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinian students.

US mathematician David Mumford, a professor at Brown University's Applied Mathematics Division, was co-winner of the Wolf Prize on Sunday for his groundbreaking theoretical work in algebraic geometry. Mumford announced yesterday he would donate his prize money to Bir-Zeit University in the West Bank and to Gisha, an Israeli lobby that works to help Palestinian students travel to their places of study.

He received the award at a ceremony on Sunday from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Knesset in recognition of his groundbreaking theoretical work "on algebraic surfaces; on geometric invariant theory; and for laying the foundations of the modern algebraic theory of the moduli space of curves and theta functions."

"Mathematics in Israel flourishes today on this high international plane. Its lifeblood is the free exchange of ideas with scholars visiting, teaching, learning from each other, travelling everywhere in the world," Mumford, professor emeritus at Brown University and Harvard University, said in a statement. "But this is not so in occupied Palestine where education struggles to continue and travel is greatly limited."

CAUCASUS NEWS UPDATE MAY 29

May 29 Four police officers were reported wounded by a bomb blast in South Ossetia.

May 29 Georgian foreign minister Eka Tkeshelashvili held talks with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Stockholm.

May 29 The European Court of Human Rights held Russia responsible for the presumed death of two Chechen civilians, Lecha and Ibragim Betayev "following their unacknowledged arrest by [Russian] State servicemen" in 2003. The parents of the two were awarded 70,000 euros in damages.

May 28 Both Armenia and Azerbaijan marked the 90th anniversary of their declaration of independence in 1918.

May 27 Officials from the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, meeting in Kiev, said Armenia had made few tangible steps to comply with a PACE resolution relating to the disputed election and March 1 bloodshed in Yerevan.

May 26 The United Nations said it had concluded that a Russian air force plane shot down an unmanned Georgian spy drone over Abkhazia on April 20. Russia contested the report.

May 26 A court in Moscow ordered the closure of the main opposition website in Ingushetia,

www.ingushetiya.ru.

May 26 The Georgian opposition held a mass rally to demand that the parliamentary election results of May 21 be annulled.

May 26 Georgia marked the 90th anniversary of its declaration of independence in 1918. Polish president Lech Kaczynski was the guest of honour.

May 23 US state department spokesman Tom Casey said that Georgia's parliamentary elections appeared to have gone better than the presidential ones in January.

May 21 Leading Armenian human rights activist Mikael Danielian was lightly wounded when Tigran Urikhanian, the former leader of the Armenian Progressive Party, fired an air gun at him.

COMING UP...

May 30 Twelve European Union ambassadors or senior diplomats based in Tbilisi are due to visit Abkhazia

GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PLANS BOYCOTT

Political standoff continues as opposition plans to boycott new parliament
By Tamar Khorbaladze in Tbilisi

Several of the opposition parties which won seats in Georgia's new parliament are planning to boycott the legislature, alleging that the May 21 parliamentary election was rigged against them.

With the governing National Movement party set to receive 120 out of the 150 seats, according to official results, the confrontation between the authorities and the opposition looks set to continue.

President Mikheil Saakashvili, who said he was surprised by the scale of the victory achieved by his National Movement, said he hoped "the parliament won't be left without representatives of the opposition".

The nine-party coalition United Opposition and the Labour Party, which received 17.7 and 7.4 per cent of the vote, respectively, announced they would not be taking up their seats at a mass opposition rally in Tbilisi on May 26. Tens of thousands of people attended the rally.

"We don't recognise the results of a poll that was rigged by the authorities," said United Opposition leader David Gamkrelidze.

Most of the parties involved then signed a memorandum proposing the creation of an "alternative parliament".

ARMENIAN WAR VETS STILL IN JAIL

Karabakh war veterans' association under pressure after arrests.
By Diana Markosian in Yerevan

One of the lingering consequences of the political crisis in Armenia is that dozens of members of the influential veterans' group Yerkrapah remain in custody, creating a division between between the authorities and men who fought in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.

The Yerkrapah members were among the opposition supporters detained during or after the March 1 violence that followed the country's disputed presidential election. Ten people died in the centre of Yerevan, eight of them opposition protestors and two law enforcement officers, and dozens of people were arrested.

Fifty-two people are still in custody charged with instigating violence, organising mass disorder in order to "overthrow the constitutional system", or illegal possession of weapons.

Yerkrapah, which in Armenian means "custodian of the land", is a union of volunteers who fought in the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. Founded during the war in 1993, the association supports veterans and their families and seeks to instil patriotic values in young people. It is estimated to have 27,000 or 28,000 members around the country.

Five of its members have so far been convicted by the courts, 24 remain under arrest and four are still wanted by the police.

Catch 22

The political effects of rising prices 1/3
an interview with Leila Farsakh

BI: What kind of effect will rising food prices have on Palestinian society?

Farsakh: Rising food prices will have major effects on the Palestinian economy. The first way we're noticing it is with inflation. Inflation in Gaza has increased by 4.6 percent and in the West Bank by around two percent. People are already complaining about oil prices, which is one factor that affects food prices, and we know today that 36 percent of Palestinians are food insecure. That increase in prices is just going to increase demand for food aid.

So if you combine the fact that you have poverty at around 65 percent, which means that 65 percent of the population are living under two dollars a day, and all predictions are that food prices are going to double, that means two things: the international community will have to increase its aid and this aid will go mostly on food security. If the predictions are right, food insecurity will double and that's a significant amount.

The second is how to alleviate this food insecurity: is it going to be with cash, which then can raise inflation, or food, which will create unemployment. So we are in a catch 22 situation that can only aggravate the political and economic catastrophe we are living.

Egypt: social unrest and deteriorating politics

The political effects of rising prices 2/3
Amr Hamzawy

In diverse Arab countries such as Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, a burgeoning social crisis caused by out-of-control global inflationary pressures, a crippled welfare system and persisting high levels of poverty and unemployment is further complicated by a broader political deterioration. Taken together, the simultaneous trajectories of social unrest and deteriorating politics call into question the prospects of stability in those countries.

Over the past two years, Egypt has come to be a case in point for the dangers inherent in that kind of development. On April 6, 2008 a number of civil society organizations including independent unions, syndicates and networks of young activists--some of whom belong to political parties--organized a national strike day to express their frustration with deteriorating social and economic conditions. Although government security forces contained the strike in most Egyptian cities, they could not stop workers in state-owned industrial complexes in Mahalla, a city in northern Egypt, from orchestrating massive demonstrations. There were numerous reports of violent confrontations and clashes between thousands of protesters and security forces that went on for two days.

Workers' strikes have become frequent in Egypt. Hundreds of strikes and protests have been carried out over the past two years, but none escalated to the levels witnessed in early April. The primary demand of workers has been to link their wages to commodity price levels. Inflation has been a problem for many years in Egypt, settling at around eight percent in late 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund. Earlier in March, unanticipated shortages of subsidized bread caused considerable popular agitation, prompting President Husni Mubarak to instruct army bakeries to boost their production.

The fallout from rising prices in Jordan

The political effects of rising prices 3/3
Yusuf Mansur

Jordan's enduring dilemma of the dual challenge of endemic high poverty and unemployment rates is joined by a third equally dangerous contingent, inflation, especially as global food prices rise. The political impact and reactions to this third test of the political-economic environment are hard to gauge.
Ordinary Jordanians have become numb to the double-digit poverty and unemployment rates (around 14 percent each). These rates have hovered steady over the last decade without any marked improvement. Hence, there is a settled realization in the Jordanian psyche that little can be done. Past and present promises of improvement and a departure from what has sadly become recognized as the status quo quickly hit the receptacle of unfulfilled dreams and soon became forgotten. The frequent changes of guard, the similarity of promises from one cabinet to the next and their dismal achievements have helped douse the possibility of emergence from the catacomb of policy ineffectiveness. Blame, played like a broken record, is fashionably but quietly heaped upon those that preceded the incumbents.

Inflation, however, is a new phenomenon and a challenge that increases the severity of the other two. The consumer price index rose by almost 11 percent in the first quarter and an inflation rate of 10 percent is expected for 2008. Not only are prices too high in Jordan, which according to some sources is the region's most globalized economy, but the price increase is due to rising food and energy prices, thus severely impacting the poor. Moreover, in a country where income has not grown while income disparities have, inflation erodes the purchasing power of all. Since inflation is mainly in food prices, low income groups, the poor and the unemployed will be further immiserized at a time when the majority of the people have not benefited from the fruits of the economic growth of the past four years. As in the rest of the world, the gap between rich and poor has risen in Jordan.

Don't forget African American Muslims

Aminah Beverly McCloud

Chicago, Illinois - That there needs to be a conduit between America and the Muslim world for better communication is an understatement given the tensions between the two cultures. The American Muslim community is composed of two distinct groups – indigenous Americans and their children, and immigrants and their children.

There is a feeling among the indigenous Muslims that they have been mostly overlooked, omitted and ignored in the role of building such a bridge. On one side, immigrant Muslims and their children refuse to recognise the existence of American Muslims as representatives of American Islam, just as Americans refuse to recognise their presence as Muslims. However, as the largest single ethnic group of indigenous Muslims, African American Muslims seem the best-equipped and well-placed to bridge the widening gap between America and the Muslim world.

African American Muslims have roots in America that are centuries old, and more importantly, a history of social and political participation in the 20th and 21st centuries through their families and the general black community. They have participated and sometimes even led organisations and movements during the Civil Rights Era, such as voter registration drives, Feed the Children campaigns and inner city programmes for the poor. Some of the current elected and appointed officials across the nation come from African American Muslim families.

Though the American government has rarely considered African Americans worthy of having a say on foreign policy, when appointed, they have proven to be up to the task. The arena of African American work has largely been on the domestic scene, with normal cycles of success and failure.

Dignifying Lebanon's past

César Chelala

New York, New York - The settlement reached in Doha last week between warring factions in Lebanon puts an end to an 18-month national crisis and raises hopes for a stable future for that beleaguered country. It may also make real my father's dream for his country, and prompt a wider movement for peace in the region.

In the 1920s, my father emigrated from Lebanon to Argentina, but not for one day did he stop thinking or dreaming about his beloved country. He was a man of wide cultural interests, but economic setbacks in his new home left him in a precarious position. It affected his health and he died in 1971, relatively young and having never fulfilled his dream to return to his native Lebanon for a visit.

My father had emigrated to Tucumán, a town in Northern Argentina with a substantial Arab and Jewish population. There, he tried to make real his commitment to promoting culture and peace. Together with a group of friends, he founded the cultural Athenaeum Gibran Khalil Gibran, named after the famous Lebanese writer. During the 1950s and early 1960s, famous writers from all over Latin America gave lectures on a wide variety of subjects that brought hundreds of people to the Syrian and Lebanese Society, where the Athenaeum was located.

To the surprise of many, from the stalwarts of that organisation my father was able to obtain permission to allow Jewish professionals and students to attend the lectures. What may seem like a simple action was in fact a notable accomplishment, since it was the first time in the conservative society's history that Jews were welcomed. The memory of lively intellectual discussions created by those lectures persist even today, several decades after the Gibran Athenaeum stopped its activities.

Muslim youth feel the communication gap

Kaleem Hussain

Birmingham, England - There is a marked language gap between the discourse used by religious community leaders and that used by Muslim youth in western societies. This communication gap is why many Muslim youth are becoming increasingly divorced from the key tenets of the Islamic tradition – respect for teachers, elders, moral virtue, and high ethical values – and are following a path radically different from that of their parents.

Although the language of the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad is uniformly Arabic, the Qur'an teaches us that God has created human beings in various colours, speaking a variety of languages. Furthermore, Muslims are reminded how the prophets, sent to propagate the faith, conversed in the language of the communities in which they lived. It is therefore imperative to speak to people in a language they can understand.

Unfortunately in England, many of the religious leaders who have immigrated here cannot speak English, leaving British Muslim youth disenfranchised from the true message of Islam based on humanitarian ideals and respecting the laws of the land.

While these leaders converse in languages like Urdu, Punjabi, Arabic, Swahili and other continental dialects that strike a cord with certain segments of the older, first-generation immigrants, these languages may not be commonly or easily understood by the youth of the host country whose main language is English.

~Youth Views~ Western students exceed Lebanese expectations

Beirut - Despite the political and economic turmoil that Lebanon has endured for many years – which culminated in violence weeks before the recent Doha accord – I recently noticed that the number of international students around the American University of Beirut (AUB) campus has grown. One only has to attend a course on Middle Eastern studies to notice the diversity of nationalities, with students coming from the United States and throughout Europe.

In addition to their obvious interest in learning more about Middle Eastern culture through studying abroad, most foreign students have very openly embraced and adapted to life in Beirut.

I must admit that I was surprised why anyone would voluntarily choose to come and live in Beirut, especially given Lebanon's seemingly constant conflict and the fact that some of the best universities in the world exist in Europe and the United States. But when I asked students what was so attractive about Lebanon I received a recurrent and rather simplistic answer.

Kevin describes his story succinctly: "I came here in 2006 for a short visit, and I loved it. It's so vibrant. As soon as I graduated from college in the United States, I decided to return to Beirut, so I applied to AUB for my masters, got accepted, and moved here."

Most international students live close to the university in the Hamra area, and become familiar with the rhythm of the city within months of arriving. Surprisingly, they do not need help getting around and know places that we Lebanese are not even aware of.

Nathalie Nahas

The photographer from Kabul

Bonn, Germany - Photographers occasionally share the same lot as literary translators – people know their work, but not their names. Massoud Hossaini, for instance, has had his photos emblazoned across the front pages of international newspapers in Hong Kong, New York, and Germany. The 28-year-old Kabul native works in the Afghan capital as photographer for the AFP news agency.

The path he has taken has been anything but simple. Photography was forbidden under the Taliban, and college-level courses in photography were not – nor are they now – offered in Afghanistan. Only with the arrival of aid organisations after the fall of the Taliban did the situation change.

Massoud Hossaini completed a two-year training programme in photojournalism offered by the AINA Media Initiative. In 2003, much of Afghanistan lay in ruins, recalls his teacher. "We then gathered together old 35 mm cameras, even odd parts, whenever they fell into our hands. This way we were able to repair broken cameras. Some of the youngest course participants weren't even 18 yet."

His first hands-on experience with a camera was in Iran, where Massoud Hossaini and his family spent almost 20 years in exile because of war and then civil war in Afghanistan.

"At first, I would walk for hours through fields of rubble. I found children playing there and I tried to depict everything that I saw with my own colours," says Hossaini, remembering the months following his return. "Despite all the destruction, Kabul at twilight has its own special light and dust, creating a unique beauty and aesthetic," he explains.

Martin Gerner