Wednesday, September 17, 2008
New ambassadors appointed to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) also announced the appointment of Randolph Mank as the High Commissioner to Pakistan. It named Robert McDougall as High Commissioner to Bangladesh.
Caron, Ambassador to Japan until August this year, has also served as Ambassador to China (1998-2001) with dual accreditation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Mongolia.
Among his many appointments over a long foreign service career, Caron was Assistant Deputy Minister Ottawa (Asia Pacific and Africa), at DFAIT (1998-2001),Senior Official for Asia Pacific Economic Community (1998-2001), Minister (Political) and Head of Chancery Tokyo Canadian Embassy (1994-1998),Director Ottawa North Asia Relations Division (China, Japan, Koreas,Indochina), DFAIT(1993-1994), Director Ottawa International Economic Relations Division responsible for Canadian participation in G8 Economic Summits and APEC (1990-1993)
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Labels: ambassadors, appointed, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, DFAIT, india, Joseph Caron High Commissioner, Nepal, pakistan, Randolph Mank, responsible, Robert McDougall
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Musharraf's resignation after nine years in office is victory for democracy
But particularly given the meltdown the country has endured in recent weeks, there are still many obstacles to effective civilian governance. Although the United States will expect things to change in a hurry, they are unlikely to do so right away.
Three of Pakistan's past four military rulers have been driven from power by popular movements, but the politicians who followed the military all failed to take advantage of the people's desire for democracy and economic development and were eventually forced out by the military on charges of corruption and incompetence.
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Labels: Asif Ali Zardari, charges, corruption, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, military, pakistan, Pakistan's politics, PPP, President Pervez Musharraf, resignation, United states, Victory
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Learning from history, will South Asia move on to EEC-style community?
His round-spectacled eyes surveying the India of 2008, at its gated and air-conditioned communities in Faridabad, and the call centers in Bangalore, and the film studios of Mumbai, would Mahatma Gandhi -- had he been around today -- thought this was the India of his ideals?
Or, with Pakistan's thousands of Saudi financed madrassas churning out Talibans and with violence in Karachi claiming on an average six lives a day, would Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah been happy with the result of all his labors?
Although conventional history refers to it as an orderly and peaceful transfer of power, the independence of India came hand in hand with an unprecedented slaughter of brother by brother.
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Labels: Britain, EEC, Faridabad, history, Independence Day, india, Lal Qilla, Mahatma Gandhi, pakistan, Talibans, Twins, World War II
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Democrats Barack Obama calls for better India-Pakistan ties
Obama, who is on a foreign fact-finding trip and visited Afghanistan over the weekend, described Afghanistan as the central front in the war against terrorism and said the situation there was "perilous and urgent".
Trying to reduce tensions between traditional rivals India and Pakistan could help, he said.
"A lot of what drives, it appears, motivations on the Pakistan side of the border, still has to do with their concerns and suspicions about India," Obama told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman.
"We haven't had a conversation between the Indians and the Pakistanis that has been sustained and meaningful about how they can arrive at a more sensible arrangement between the two countries that could relieve some of the pressure and help us go after ... some of these forces along the border regions."
Relations between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, have become strained again despite an ongoing peace process.
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Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, calls, concerns, india, militants, pakistan, peace, traditional rivals, United states, Washington
Friday, July 4, 2008
Shyam Bhatia's book says Bhutto gave nuclear secrets to North Korea
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, on a state visit to North Korea in 1993, smuggled in critical data on uranium enrichment - a route to making a nuclear weapon - to help facilitate a missile deal with Pyongyang, according to a new book by a journalist who knew the slain politician well.The assertion is based on conversations that the author, Shyam Bhatia, had with Bhutto in 2003, in which she said she would tell him a secret "so significant that I had to promise never to reveal it, at least not during her lifetime," Bhatia writes in ‘Goodbye, Shahzadi,' which was published in India in May.
Bhutto was slain in December while campaigning to win back the prime minister's post.
The account, if verified, could advance the timeline for North Korea's interest in uranium enrichment. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a research organization on nuclear weapons programs, said the assertion "makes sense," because there were signs of "funny procurements" in the late 1980s by North Korea that suggested a nascent effort to assemble an uranium enrichment project.
Pakistan - and, in particular, a nuclear smuggling ring run by Pakistani metallurgist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was instrumental in develop ing a Pakistani nuclear bomb - has long been suspected as a source of expertise for North Korea, but such high-level government involvement always has been denied.
In 2002, after observing a series of suspect North Korean purchases, the Bush administration accused Pyongyang of having a clandestine program to produce highly enriched uranium - a charge that helped sink a Clinton-era deal that had frozen North Korea's plutonium-based reactor. North Korea insists that it had no such program, though it recently agreed to "acknowledge" U.S. concerns as part of an agreement to disable its nuclear reactor.
Nadeem Kiani, spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy, denounced Bhatia's account as "an absurd and baseless claim," adding, "It has no iota of truth and not even worth commenting."
Bhatia is a London-based investigative reporter who has written four other books, including one of the earliest accounts of India's nuclear program. Bhatia said he first met Bhutto at Oxford University in 1974 and kept contact with her until just weeks before she was killed.
George Perkovich, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, knows Bhatia and cited his book in Perkovich's own study of the Indian program. "He is very smart, a serious guy, and the work he did on the Indian nuclear program has held up really well," Perkovich said.
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Labels: author, Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Goodbye, North Korea, nuclear weapon, Oxford University, pakistan, Shahzadi, Shyam Bhatia, Uranium
Sunday, June 29, 2008
War hero Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, 94
His handlebar moustache and his ramrod stiff gait gave Field Marshal Sam Hor musji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw a commanding presence on the battle field, but to the troops that served under him he was their beloved "Sam Bahadur", a soldier's general who put their well- being before his own.Manekshaw, 94, who died at the military hospital at Wellington in Tamil Nadu early on June 27 after developing acute bronchopneumonia, will be best remembered for the decisive campaign he crafted during the 1971 India-Pakistan war that saw the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation after the surrender of over 90,000 Pakistani troops in what was then the eastern wing of the country.
That campaign was the defining moment of his tenure as the Indian Army chief 1969-73 and led to his elevation as India's first field marshal, a largely ceremonial post but which ensured he maintained close links with the 1.1 million-strong force till the very end.
Ever the one to speak his mind out on matters military, Manekshaw, a highly decorated officer who was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the Burma campaign of the Second World War, often found himself in a minority of one - but firmly stood his ground.
Three instances stand out vividly.
The first was when he famously refused to address then prime minister Indira Gandhi as "Madam", saying the sobriquet was reserved for occupants of a "certain kind of house".
"I shall stick to prime minister", he maintained.
The second was during the 1971 war when he had signboards reading "Hands in your pockets, You are entering Pakistani territory, Indian girls are prettier" erected at various spots as Indian troops advanced along the western frontier.
Manekshaw was panned as being sexist and accused of insulting Indian womanhood but he stood his ground.
"It's the best way of telling the troops to behave and to concentrate on the job at hand," he contended.
The third happened at the very end of his career, days after he had retired from the army.
A young reporter from a tabloid, at the fag end of an interview, asked a seemingly innocuous question, "What would have happened had you opted for Pakistan at the time of independence (in 1947)?"
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Labels: 1971 India-Pakistan war, battle field, Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Hero, independence, Indian Army, Indira Gandhi, moustache, pakistan, Pakistani territory, Tamil Nadu, troops, War, Wellington
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Washington, Islamabad joint investigation into border incident
While the Bush administration 'regreted' the incident, and may be in favor of Islamabad making peace with tribes in the North west frontier, it would not brook any negotiations with terrorists, Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, speaking to media in Paris on June 13, on the sidelines of the Afghanistan donor countries' meeting, said.
He called the Rice-Qureshi meeting 'positive', a significant follow-up in the backdrop of Pakistani accusations that the U.S. military was trigger happy on the border. Qureshi is expected to visit Washington by mid July, Boucher indicated during the briefing.
"They did talk about the border incident. They discussed and supported the idea of a joint military investigation. That's been agreed between our militaries. They agreed that we are partners in the war on terror; we need to work together. The terrorism coming from Pakistan/Afghanistan border region is a threat to both peoples, Pakistan - actually Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and elsewhere," Boucher said.
"The Secretary expressed our regret for the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in particular, knowing that they too are allies in the war on terror," he added.
The two leaders also discussed overall problems of extremism, including need for development in the border regions, as well as security, the problems that Pakistan is facing in financial matters, in energy and food, he said.
Boucher will visit Pakistan in early July and Qureshi is expected in Washington after that in a bid "to continue our high-level dialogue with the new government," Boucher indicated.
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Labels: bombings . US forces, incident, investigation, Islamabad, pakistan, Pakistan border, Pakistan Foreign Minister, Pakistani soldiers, President George W. Bush, terror, Washington
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Journalist deaths hit decade peak - 5 killed in Pakistan and Sri Lanka
Journalists were killed in unusually high numbers in 2007, making it the deadliest year for the press in more than a decade, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists' end-of-year analysis.
Worldwide, CPJ found 64 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2007-up from 56 last year-and it is investigating another 22 deaths to determine whether they were work-related.
CPJ has recorded only one year with a higher death toll: 1994, when 66 journalists were killed, many in conflicts in Algeria, Bosnia, and Rwanda.
For the fifth straight year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press. Its 31 victims account for nearly half of the 2007 toll.
Most of the victims were targeted and murdered, such as Washington Post reporter Salih Saif Aldin, who died in Baghdad from a single gunshot wound to the head. In all, 24 deaths in Iraq were murders and seven occurred in combat-related crossfire.
Unidentified gunmen, suicide bombers, and U.S. military activity all posed fatal risks for Iraqi journalists. All but one of 31 journalists killed were Iraqi nationals.
They worked mainly for local media, although nine worked for international news organizations such as The New York Times, ABC News, Reuters, and The Associated Press.
The 2007 toll in Iraq is consistent with that of 2006, when 32 journalists died.
Twelve media support workers, such as bodyguards and drivers, also died in Iraq. Since the beginning of the war in March 2003, 124 journalists and 49 media workers have been killed, making it the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history. More than one-third worked for international news organizations.
Somalia was the second-deadliest country for the media in 2007, with seven journalist deaths. "Horrific violence in Iraq overshadowed the increasingly deteriorating environment for the media in Somalia," said Simon.
"Journalists reporting in Somalia face great risks every day."
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Article taken from the issue: 28 Dec 2007
Labels: iraq, journalists, media, pakistan, reports death rate, somalia, srilanka
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
With blood and fire in backdrop, great actors strode freedom struggle stage
When Mother History gave birth to the twins -- India and Pakistan -- in 1947, could anyone have foreseen how differently the two would shape up in the next 60 years? The lines that the great Irish poet, W.B. Yeats, wrote on the pain of childbirth and on whether, adding up the achievements and disappointments of age, all that price was worth paying, must find echoes in our hearts (with a few words changed) as we look at India and Pakistan at age 60.
"With 60 or more winters on their heads, Are they any compensation for the pang Of their birth, or the uncertainty Of their setting forth?"
After many off-again, on-again sputtering starts, India seems to be moving towards becoming a global economic power. One hopes that Pakistan's tottering constitutional walk too, will someday steady into a purposeful march towards democracy. In the meanwhile, let us have a look -- not at the carnage that preceded the Partition, but the colorful characters who strode the Indian stage during the enactment of the tragedy.
Two recent books take us back to the pang of the birth of the two nations, and the uncertainties of their setting forth -- ‘An American Witness to India's Partition,' by Phillips Talbot; and ‘'The Shadow of the Great Game,' by Narendra Singh Sarila.
Both Talbot and Sarila were at the bedside of Mother History during the blood-splattered delivery of the two nations. The accounts of the momentous events they witnessed have a freshness that professional histories often lack. The official history of Partition has been told before; in these columns we will refrain from a retelling.
But, apart from the big outline, these two books give us telling details, making historic figures step down from their pedestals and seem human.
In 1938, the New York-based Institute of Current World Affairs awarded 23-year-old Talbot a fellowship with a mandate: visit South Asia and learn about the intricacies of life in India.
Until 1950, Talbot graphically recounted the buildup to Indian and Pakistani independence, and the early experiences of the new states, in the form of a series of letters to the institute. (Talbot is President Emeritus of the Asia Society; he was Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Kennedy Administration and Ambassador to Greece.) Sarila was an ADC to Lord Louis Mountbatten, last British viceroy and first governor general of independent India, being at Mountbatten's elbow not only at conferences and political meetings, but also when the viceregal family was on vacation or at play. Among the illustrations in ‘The Shadow' are photos of SarilaTo read the complete article click here..
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article taken from the issue:23 Nov, 2007
Labels: 60years, independence, india, indian and pakistani, pakistan
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