24 years have passed when Late Rajiv Gandhi dreamt of taking India into 21st century. Today, India is emerging as a strong country and Rahul Gandhi, who is following the footprints of his father, has tossed an important question and the question is; from where does India gets it' s strength?...
In the course of Lok Sabha election 2009, Rahul often raised this question and he tried to find the answer himself. He talked about his visit to Amethi with a British minister (David Milliband) where they had food and spent night with villagers. Rahul said, “The British minister asked me as to where do India gets it's strength? I told him that if he wanted to feel the strength of India he would have to go to villages. The strength of India could not be understood in an air-conditioned room in Delhi. Thereafter Rahul went on telling as to how he took Milliband to Amethi, had food, talked to people and spent a night. He said that a foreigner easily understood the strength of India but BJP could not understand it. He criticized opposition for not recognizing the hard labour, struggle, optimism and honest values of the villagers and said that the opposition was trapped in the complete hangover of India shining and urbane glitter.
When Rahul talks about the villages and hinterland, Rajiv Gandhi appears again before people in their mind. Due to IT revolution, Rajiv Gandhi is considered as the symbol of urban development but the silent revolution Rajiv Gandhi initiated through Panchati Raj has become Rahul’s main campaign plank.
Rahul Gandhi is showing the world how villages are being transformed through Panchayats. There is great similarity between the father and the son; both are great listeners as experienced by this correspondent during various tours with both leaders.
Rajivji listened to the villagers for hours as Manishankar Aiyyar a long time associate of Rajivji recalls. “When Rajivji talked to villagers it was difficult to guess how much time had passed. It is interesting that Rahul Gandhi does not tell one thing about his visit to Amethi with Milliband that he played the role of a translator for hours between Milliband and the villagers.
Rahiv Gandhi strengthened the base of grass root democracy by empowering villages through Panchayati Raj. On the same line, Rahul is making new experiments in Youth Congress and student organization of the party by bringing democracy within them. He has successfully conducted elections of Youth Congress and NSUI in Punjab and Uttarakhand under the supervision of ex-CEC J M Lyngodh. The party swept the election in both these states bagging all the five seats in Uttarkhand and 9 out of 13 in Punjab. However, Rahul’s strategy in winning these seats are yet to be analyzed.
excerpts from http://pressbrief.in/
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Monsoon clouds gather on Bengal
The monsoon is likely to hit Bengal in the next two or three days, at least 10 days earlier than usual, the Met office today said.
Before that, the next two days could see heavy rain in Calcutta and the south Bengal districts, raising the hope that this summer’s heat wave-like conditions may now be over.
The Met office issued a cyclone alert tonight, warning of heavy rain in south Bengal in the next 48 hours and asking fishermen not to go to sea. The expected cyclonic storm and the early monsoon onset are related.
A depression formed over the west central Bay of Bengal today and was 600km from Calcutta, Met officials said tonight. It is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm and move towards Bengal and the Bangladesh coast, triggering the next two days’ rain.
“The rapid progress of the monsoon is also being caused by the depression, which is dragging the monsoon currents faster towards the state,” said G.C. Debnath, the director of the weather section at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore. “We expect the monsoon to set in within the next two or three days. We expect the depression to drag the monsoon into north and south Bengal on the same day.”
The monsoon usually hits north Bengal on June 5 and south Bengal three days later. The last time these rain-bearing winds had arrived in south Bengal so early was 10 years ago, on May 28, 1999.
A Met official said that once the monsoon currents set in, the maximum temperature is not expected to rise beyond 35-36°C. Debnath said the next two days’ rain “may cross 250mm at one or two places”.
The monsoon today moved into Kerala nine days before the normal arrival date of June 1. An early onset, though, has no apparent correlation with monsoon behaviour. The India Meteorological Department has predicted 96 per cent of the average rainfall this year.
Before that, the next two days could see heavy rain in Calcutta and the south Bengal districts, raising the hope that this summer’s heat wave-like conditions may now be over.
The Met office issued a cyclone alert tonight, warning of heavy rain in south Bengal in the next 48 hours and asking fishermen not to go to sea. The expected cyclonic storm and the early monsoon onset are related.
A depression formed over the west central Bay of Bengal today and was 600km from Calcutta, Met officials said tonight. It is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm and move towards Bengal and the Bangladesh coast, triggering the next two days’ rain.
“The rapid progress of the monsoon is also being caused by the depression, which is dragging the monsoon currents faster towards the state,” said G.C. Debnath, the director of the weather section at the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore. “We expect the monsoon to set in within the next two or three days. We expect the depression to drag the monsoon into north and south Bengal on the same day.”
The monsoon usually hits north Bengal on June 5 and south Bengal three days later. The last time these rain-bearing winds had arrived in south Bengal so early was 10 years ago, on May 28, 1999.
A Met official said that once the monsoon currents set in, the maximum temperature is not expected to rise beyond 35-36°C. Debnath said the next two days’ rain “may cross 250mm at one or two places”.
The monsoon today moved into Kerala nine days before the normal arrival date of June 1. An early onset, though, has no apparent correlation with monsoon behaviour. The India Meteorological Department has predicted 96 per cent of the average rainfall this year.
China now bigger threat than Pak: IAF chief
Taking China’s dramatic military expansion seriously, the Indian Air Force chief has said China poses a more real and potent threat to India than Pakistan, which remains caught in a vortex of conflict and instability.
Talking to HT, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said India was rapidly upgrading its fighter bases in the country’s northeast to boost its military deterrence against China.
“China is a totally different ballgame compared to Pakistan,” the air chief said. “We know very little about the actual capabilities of China, their combat edge or how professional their military is…they are certainly a greater threat.”
The comments are bound to lend urgency to the new government’s China agenda and the need to understand the security implications of the rapidly modernising Chinese military.
The Chinese air force is ridding itself of obsolete platforms from the 1960s such as the J-6 and J-7 (equivalent to MiG-19s and MiG-21s). The People’s Liberation Army Air Force is pushing full steam ahead with the induction of first-rate fighter jets such as Sukhoi-30s, JF-17 Thunder light combat aircraft, J-10 strike fighters, airborne early warning aircraft and midair refuellers to expand the operating radius of its fighter jets.
“The way he (China) is growing, he definitely has the capability. But we should neither put China on a pedestal and say it will chew us up nor lose sight of the fact that they have (acquired) huge capabilities,” Major said.
Talking to HT, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said India was rapidly upgrading its fighter bases in the country’s northeast to boost its military deterrence against China.
“China is a totally different ballgame compared to Pakistan,” the air chief said. “We know very little about the actual capabilities of China, their combat edge or how professional their military is…they are certainly a greater threat.”
The comments are bound to lend urgency to the new government’s China agenda and the need to understand the security implications of the rapidly modernising Chinese military.
The Chinese air force is ridding itself of obsolete platforms from the 1960s such as the J-6 and J-7 (equivalent to MiG-19s and MiG-21s). The People’s Liberation Army Air Force is pushing full steam ahead with the induction of first-rate fighter jets such as Sukhoi-30s, JF-17 Thunder light combat aircraft, J-10 strike fighters, airborne early warning aircraft and midair refuellers to expand the operating radius of its fighter jets.
“The way he (China) is growing, he definitely has the capability. But we should neither put China on a pedestal and say it will chew us up nor lose sight of the fact that they have (acquired) huge capabilities,” Major said.
Choosing when to die was "truly what she wanted to do," says friend
With hands twisted by arthritis, Linda Fleming was no stranger to pain.
But the 66-year-old Sequim woman met the limits of her endurance when she was diagnosed last month with terminal pancreatic cancer.
Rather than die in agony or spend her final days in a drug-induced haze, Fleming swallowed a fatal dose of barbiturates in her apartment Thursday night — becoming the first person in Washington to end her life under the state's new "Death with Dignity" law.
Family members, her beloved Chihuahua, Seri, and a physician were with her when she died, according to Compassion & Choices Washington, the organization that sponsored the measure adopted by Washington voters in November.
Fleming's friend and neighbor, Sharon Lake, came out on her porch at the Vintage apartment complex for senior citizens when she heard medics and police arrive.
"They told me: 'Linda is gone,' " said Lake, who had signed legal documents weeks earlier witnessing Fleming's decision.
"It was very hard on me, but I know this is truly what she wanted to do," Lake said.
At first, Fleming didn't tell many people about her intentions, for fear that opponents might turn her into a cause célèbre, said her friend Virginia Peterhansen. "She didn't want people picketing in her yard."
But Fleming did discuss her situation with representatives from Compassion & Choices, and left behind a statement.
"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death," she wrote. "The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them."
She said she was grateful that Washington's law provided her "the choice of a death that fits my own personal beliefs."
One opponent of the law called Fleming's death a "sad day" and criticized her choice as "egotistical."
"It's saying: 'I want to go out of life on my own terms, even though the vast majority of us accept the natural conclusion of our lives,' " said Chris Carlson, of the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide, one of the groups that raised $1.6 million to fight the measure.
Supporters raised $4.9 million, making the initiative the costliest on last year's ballot.
Retired Seattle cardiologist Dr. Tom Preston, medical director for Compassion & Choices, said Fleming's experience shows that the law can work as intended to give dying patients another option.
"The prescribed medication gives patients peace of mind that they can take control of their dying if suffering becomes intolerable," he said.
Peterhansen watched her friend decline rapidly after her diagnosis in early April.
Fleming had loved walking all over town and on Dungeness Spit, Peterhansen said. She had recently bought a car — a 1982 Oldsmobile station wagon — and was looking forward to delving more into pottery and contra dancing.
"She was allowing herself to enjoy things," Peterhansen said.
But the cancer and pain drugs dulled her mind, and the disease made it hard to swallow and left her with stomach pain. She couldn't keep down her food and began to lose weight.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms, and the disease usually progresses quickly and relentlessly.
"It can be very painful," said Preston, who during his years as a physician has attended more than 100 patients in their final days.
Washington is only the second state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patients.
The state's law is modeled on a 10-year-old measure in Oregon, where about 400 people have ended their lives.
Washington's law applies only to people age 18 or older, who are able to exercise sound judgment and have been diagnosed with six months or less to live. Though the drugs are prescribed by a physician, the sick person must self-administer them.
The patient must make two oral requests for the drugs, 15 days apart, and also must present a written request witnessed by two people.
As of Friday, lethal drugs have been dispensed to six Washington residents, according to the state Department of Health. Physicians have 30 days to file documents reporting deaths under the law.
About a third of Washington hospitals have barred their caregivers and pharmacies from helping patients die. But most individual doctors are free to decide whether to participate.
Lake, a Lutheran, was reluctant at first to serve as a witness for Fleming.
"I wondered, would God forgive us for that?" asked the former dairy farmer. "I told her: This is really going to upset your family."
But after conferring with her minister and listening to Fleming's arguments, she agreed.
"There's a lot of people who are suffering and wasting all the money for the families," Lake said. "They know they're not going to live, so why prolong it?"
As Fleming's health deteriorated, her daughter adopted Seri, the dog — but brought the animal back for a final visit. Fleming also gave away most of her possessions, including her car.
"That was Linda," Lake said. "Always helping the other person."
But the 66-year-old Sequim woman met the limits of her endurance when she was diagnosed last month with terminal pancreatic cancer.
Rather than die in agony or spend her final days in a drug-induced haze, Fleming swallowed a fatal dose of barbiturates in her apartment Thursday night — becoming the first person in Washington to end her life under the state's new "Death with Dignity" law.
Family members, her beloved Chihuahua, Seri, and a physician were with her when she died, according to Compassion & Choices Washington, the organization that sponsored the measure adopted by Washington voters in November.
Fleming's friend and neighbor, Sharon Lake, came out on her porch at the Vintage apartment complex for senior citizens when she heard medics and police arrive.
"They told me: 'Linda is gone,' " said Lake, who had signed legal documents weeks earlier witnessing Fleming's decision.
"It was very hard on me, but I know this is truly what she wanted to do," Lake said.
At first, Fleming didn't tell many people about her intentions, for fear that opponents might turn her into a cause célèbre, said her friend Virginia Peterhansen. "She didn't want people picketing in her yard."
But Fleming did discuss her situation with representatives from Compassion & Choices, and left behind a statement.
"I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death," she wrote. "The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them."
She said she was grateful that Washington's law provided her "the choice of a death that fits my own personal beliefs."
One opponent of the law called Fleming's death a "sad day" and criticized her choice as "egotistical."
"It's saying: 'I want to go out of life on my own terms, even though the vast majority of us accept the natural conclusion of our lives,' " said Chris Carlson, of the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide, one of the groups that raised $1.6 million to fight the measure.
Supporters raised $4.9 million, making the initiative the costliest on last year's ballot.
Retired Seattle cardiologist Dr. Tom Preston, medical director for Compassion & Choices, said Fleming's experience shows that the law can work as intended to give dying patients another option.
"The prescribed medication gives patients peace of mind that they can take control of their dying if suffering becomes intolerable," he said.
Peterhansen watched her friend decline rapidly after her diagnosis in early April.
Fleming had loved walking all over town and on Dungeness Spit, Peterhansen said. She had recently bought a car — a 1982 Oldsmobile station wagon — and was looking forward to delving more into pottery and contra dancing.
"She was allowing herself to enjoy things," Peterhansen said.
But the cancer and pain drugs dulled her mind, and the disease made it hard to swallow and left her with stomach pain. She couldn't keep down her food and began to lose weight.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms, and the disease usually progresses quickly and relentlessly.
"It can be very painful," said Preston, who during his years as a physician has attended more than 100 patients in their final days.
Washington is only the second state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication for terminally ill patients.
The state's law is modeled on a 10-year-old measure in Oregon, where about 400 people have ended their lives.
Washington's law applies only to people age 18 or older, who are able to exercise sound judgment and have been diagnosed with six months or less to live. Though the drugs are prescribed by a physician, the sick person must self-administer them.
The patient must make two oral requests for the drugs, 15 days apart, and also must present a written request witnessed by two people.
As of Friday, lethal drugs have been dispensed to six Washington residents, according to the state Department of Health. Physicians have 30 days to file documents reporting deaths under the law.
About a third of Washington hospitals have barred their caregivers and pharmacies from helping patients die. But most individual doctors are free to decide whether to participate.
Lake, a Lutheran, was reluctant at first to serve as a witness for Fleming.
"I wondered, would God forgive us for that?" asked the former dairy farmer. "I told her: This is really going to upset your family."
But after conferring with her minister and listening to Fleming's arguments, she agreed.
"There's a lot of people who are suffering and wasting all the money for the families," Lake said. "They know they're not going to live, so why prolong it?"
As Fleming's health deteriorated, her daughter adopted Seri, the dog — but brought the animal back for a final visit. Fleming also gave away most of her possessions, including her car.
"That was Linda," Lake said. "Always helping the other person."
Leadership Long Delayed
Macrobiotic living -- a one-with-nature philosophy heavy on the whole grains and vegetables -- is riding the wave of interest in organic and healthy foods to new popularity.
The macrobiotic diet, part of a greater doctrine of living a happy, healthy life in harmony with the environment, was brought to the U.S. in the 1950s by Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa, and has cycled in and out of fashion ever since. Right now, it is riding high -- Los Angeles has even seen the opening of several new macrobiotic restaurants in recent months.
"My phone's ringing more, students are showing up for classes more," says David Briscoe, a macrobiotic consultant and co-founder of Macrobiotics America in Oroville. "It's definitely an increasing trend."
Practitioners credit their diet for preventing diseases including colds and cancer. "Our kitchen is our pharmacy," says Mina Dobic, a macrobiotic counselor and state-certified nutritional advisor in Los Angeles. "When you eat well and you also live well, then you live a longer life."
Dobic's personal enthusiasm for macrobiotic food dates back 22 years, to the time when she was diagnosed with cancer and, she says, given two months to live. She credits macrobiotic living for her recovery and subsequent stellar health -- not a single cold in two decades, she says.
But to suggest macrobiotics is a panacea is a step too far, says Andrea Giancoli, a registered dietitian in Los Angeles and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Assn. It does, however, have healthful features -- it is high in fiber and low in saturated fat and cholesterol. A diet packed with vegetables, fruits and whole grains is associated with reduced risk for heart disease and some cancers, according to the American Heart Assn. and American Cancer Society.
Macrobiotics categorizes foods as "expansive" or "contractive" -- the yin and yang, respectively, of macrobiotic eating. Cool, fresh expansive foods (such as apples) enhance relaxation; warm, salted contractive foods (such as fish) promote focus. Getting too much of one or the other can imbalance the body, Briscoe says, leading to health problems.
The primary macrobiotic prescription: whole grains. Vegetables and plant-based proteins, such as beans and soy products, are also key. The diet deemphasizes acid-forming foods such as dairy products.
Vegan principles -- no animal products at all -- are a common complement but not required; many macrobiotic menus include the occasional fish dish.
Macrobiotics' Asian origins also show in the recommended foods. Seaweed, high in minerals, is an essential component. Miso soup, made from a paste of fermented beans and grains, is also a top macrobiotic choice. Miso is the "bodyguard of the immune system," Dobic says.
Some research suggests that elements of the macrobiotic diet may have cancer- and infection-fighting properties, says Jane Teas, who studies seaweed and cancer at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
For example, in a 2001 study, Japanese scientists found that a seaweed extract suppressed breast tumor growth in rats and caused human breast cancer cells growing in a dish to commit cellular suicide. Another Japanese research group has reported that a starch from algae has antiviral properties and prevented death in mice infected with the influenza virus.
"In my opinion, in 20 years seaweed will be part of that dietary pyramid," Teas says.
Collecting data to link macrobiotics to cancer prevention or treatment in humans is difficult, Teas adds. That's because people interpret the tenets of macrobiotics in a variety of ways. When she interviewed macrobiotic eaters for one study, "the range of what people said was macrobiotics was incredible." That variability, combined with the fact that the population of macrobiotics followers is small, makes rigorous scientific study challenging.
Though a macrobiotic diet includes many healthy characteristics, it isn't the only diet that has those advantages. And Giancoli has a few reservations about macrobiotic eating. Macrobiotics recommends that people minimize members of the nightshade family, such as tomatoes and potatoes, as well as many fruits because of their sugar content. "That's just silly," Giancoli says. "People shouldn't be afraid of fruit."
People considering a macrobiotic diet, particularly if they are vegan, should be careful about getting enough vitamin B-12, which is found only in animal products. After giving up meat and dairy, a person can live off the body's B-12 stores for five or six years, Giancoli says, but eventually supplements would be advisable. The U.S. government recommends adults get 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B-12 daily.
In many ways, macrobiotics has been ahead of the curve, says Lawrence Kushi, a cancer epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland. The son of macrobiotics leader Michio Kushi, he has watched as Americans have discovered the foods that he grew up with.
The government's dietary recommendations have certainly come to look more and more like macrobiotic guidelines, emphasizing plant foods and minimizing animal products. "Things that I thought were weird when I was in elementary school . . . now everyone has kind of moved in that direction," Kushi says
.
The macrobiotic diet, part of a greater doctrine of living a happy, healthy life in harmony with the environment, was brought to the U.S. in the 1950s by Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa, and has cycled in and out of fashion ever since. Right now, it is riding high -- Los Angeles has even seen the opening of several new macrobiotic restaurants in recent months.
"My phone's ringing more, students are showing up for classes more," says David Briscoe, a macrobiotic consultant and co-founder of Macrobiotics America in Oroville. "It's definitely an increasing trend."
Practitioners credit their diet for preventing diseases including colds and cancer. "Our kitchen is our pharmacy," says Mina Dobic, a macrobiotic counselor and state-certified nutritional advisor in Los Angeles. "When you eat well and you also live well, then you live a longer life."
Dobic's personal enthusiasm for macrobiotic food dates back 22 years, to the time when she was diagnosed with cancer and, she says, given two months to live. She credits macrobiotic living for her recovery and subsequent stellar health -- not a single cold in two decades, she says.
But to suggest macrobiotics is a panacea is a step too far, says Andrea Giancoli, a registered dietitian in Los Angeles and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Assn. It does, however, have healthful features -- it is high in fiber and low in saturated fat and cholesterol. A diet packed with vegetables, fruits and whole grains is associated with reduced risk for heart disease and some cancers, according to the American Heart Assn. and American Cancer Society.
Macrobiotics categorizes foods as "expansive" or "contractive" -- the yin and yang, respectively, of macrobiotic eating. Cool, fresh expansive foods (such as apples) enhance relaxation; warm, salted contractive foods (such as fish) promote focus. Getting too much of one or the other can imbalance the body, Briscoe says, leading to health problems.
The primary macrobiotic prescription: whole grains. Vegetables and plant-based proteins, such as beans and soy products, are also key. The diet deemphasizes acid-forming foods such as dairy products.
Vegan principles -- no animal products at all -- are a common complement but not required; many macrobiotic menus include the occasional fish dish.
Macrobiotics' Asian origins also show in the recommended foods. Seaweed, high in minerals, is an essential component. Miso soup, made from a paste of fermented beans and grains, is also a top macrobiotic choice. Miso is the "bodyguard of the immune system," Dobic says.
Some research suggests that elements of the macrobiotic diet may have cancer- and infection-fighting properties, says Jane Teas, who studies seaweed and cancer at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
For example, in a 2001 study, Japanese scientists found that a seaweed extract suppressed breast tumor growth in rats and caused human breast cancer cells growing in a dish to commit cellular suicide. Another Japanese research group has reported that a starch from algae has antiviral properties and prevented death in mice infected with the influenza virus.
"In my opinion, in 20 years seaweed will be part of that dietary pyramid," Teas says.
Collecting data to link macrobiotics to cancer prevention or treatment in humans is difficult, Teas adds. That's because people interpret the tenets of macrobiotics in a variety of ways. When she interviewed macrobiotic eaters for one study, "the range of what people said was macrobiotics was incredible." That variability, combined with the fact that the population of macrobiotics followers is small, makes rigorous scientific study challenging.
Though a macrobiotic diet includes many healthy characteristics, it isn't the only diet that has those advantages. And Giancoli has a few reservations about macrobiotic eating. Macrobiotics recommends that people minimize members of the nightshade family, such as tomatoes and potatoes, as well as many fruits because of their sugar content. "That's just silly," Giancoli says. "People shouldn't be afraid of fruit."
People considering a macrobiotic diet, particularly if they are vegan, should be careful about getting enough vitamin B-12, which is found only in animal products. After giving up meat and dairy, a person can live off the body's B-12 stores for five or six years, Giancoli says, but eventually supplements would be advisable. The U.S. government recommends adults get 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B-12 daily.
In many ways, macrobiotics has been ahead of the curve, says Lawrence Kushi, a cancer epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Oakland. The son of macrobiotics leader Michio Kushi, he has watched as Americans have discovered the foods that he grew up with.
The government's dietary recommendations have certainly come to look more and more like macrobiotic guidelines, emphasizing plant foods and minimizing animal products. "Things that I thought were weird when I was in elementary school . . . now everyone has kind of moved in that direction," Kushi says
.
U.S holds journalist without charges in Iraq
: May 22, 2009
For anyone eager to see the United States take a serious leadership role on the issue of global warming, this week was enormously encouraging.
Greenhouse Gas EmissionsIt began with the White House’s announcement that it will impose the first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It ended with a House committee approving a comprehensive energy and global warming bill — an important first step on legislation that seeks to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, reverse emissions of carbon dioxide and create millions of clean energy jobs.
In fairly short order, President Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress have made the lassitude and indifference of the Bush years seem like ancient history. And they have greatly improved the prospects that American negotiators will arrive at the next round of global climate negotiations in Copenhagen with a credible strategy in hand and with the leverage to encourage other major emitters like China to get cracking.
The trick now will be to sustain the momentum — at home and internationally.
The legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee must survive scrutiny by other committees and, of course, the whole House. Even after the strong endorsement of expert scientists, only one of the committee’s Republicans — Mary Bono Mack of California — voted for the bill. And then comes the Senate, where 60 votes are required to overcome a filibuster and where a climate change bill crashed to defeat last year.
The House bill’s main architect, Representative Henry Waxman of California, and his chief lieutenant, Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts, have politically tailored this bill to do better.
It calls for a 17 percent reduction in 2005 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 — and 83 percent by 2050. It would put a price on carbon through a cap-and-trade system that would impose a steadily declining ceiling on emissions while allowing polluters to trade permits, or allowances, to give them more flexibility in meeting their targets. It also mandates greater use of renewable power sources like wind and solar, sets tough new efficiency standards for buildings and invests in cleaner energy technologies, largely through the sale of carbon allowances.
To placate politicians from industrial states that rely heavily on coal, and whose energy costs are likely to rise, the bill includes a variety of mechanisms to help industries make the near-term transition to cleaner and more efficient ways of creating energy. The most prominent of these are “ offsets” that would allow polluters to satisfy their own emissions-reduction obligations by investing in carbon-reducing programs elsewhere, like preventing deforestation.
Critics says these and other provisions are too generous to polluters, and in truth the bill is not as strong as it should be. But anything more might well fail, as other bills have failed, and then the country would be back to Square 1. As it is, the bill represents an ambitious first step toward a solution too long delayed for a problem too long denied.
For anyone eager to see the United States take a serious leadership role on the issue of global warming, this week was enormously encouraging.
Greenhouse Gas EmissionsIt began with the White House’s announcement that it will impose the first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It ended with a House committee approving a comprehensive energy and global warming bill — an important first step on legislation that seeks to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, reverse emissions of carbon dioxide and create millions of clean energy jobs.
In fairly short order, President Obama and a Democratically controlled Congress have made the lassitude and indifference of the Bush years seem like ancient history. And they have greatly improved the prospects that American negotiators will arrive at the next round of global climate negotiations in Copenhagen with a credible strategy in hand and with the leverage to encourage other major emitters like China to get cracking.
The trick now will be to sustain the momentum — at home and internationally.
The legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee must survive scrutiny by other committees and, of course, the whole House. Even after the strong endorsement of expert scientists, only one of the committee’s Republicans — Mary Bono Mack of California — voted for the bill. And then comes the Senate, where 60 votes are required to overcome a filibuster and where a climate change bill crashed to defeat last year.
The House bill’s main architect, Representative Henry Waxman of California, and his chief lieutenant, Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts, have politically tailored this bill to do better.
It calls for a 17 percent reduction in 2005 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 — and 83 percent by 2050. It would put a price on carbon through a cap-and-trade system that would impose a steadily declining ceiling on emissions while allowing polluters to trade permits, or allowances, to give them more flexibility in meeting their targets. It also mandates greater use of renewable power sources like wind and solar, sets tough new efficiency standards for buildings and invests in cleaner energy technologies, largely through the sale of carbon allowances.
To placate politicians from industrial states that rely heavily on coal, and whose energy costs are likely to rise, the bill includes a variety of mechanisms to help industries make the near-term transition to cleaner and more efficient ways of creating energy. The most prominent of these are “ offsets” that would allow polluters to satisfy their own emissions-reduction obligations by investing in carbon-reducing programs elsewhere, like preventing deforestation.
Critics says these and other provisions are too generous to polluters, and in truth the bill is not as strong as it should be. But anything more might well fail, as other bills have failed, and then the country would be back to Square 1. As it is, the bill represents an ambitious first step toward a solution too long delayed for a problem too long denied.
U.S holds journalist without charges in Iraq
The soldiers came at 1:30 a.m, rousing family members who were sleeping on the roof to escape the late-summer heat.
They broke down the front door. Accompanied by dogs, American and Iraqi troops burst into the Jassam family home south of Baghdad in the town of Mahmoudiya.
"Where is the journalist Ibrahim?" one of the Iraqi soldiers barked at the grandparents, children and grandchildren as they staggered blearily down the stairs.
Ibrahim Jassam, a cameraman and photographer for the Reuters news agency, stepped forward, one of this brothers recalled. "Take me if you want me, but please leave my brothers." The soldiers rifled through the house, confiscating his computer hard drive and cameras. And then they led him away, handcuffed and blindfolded.
That was Sept. 2.
Jassam, 31, has been in U.S. custody ever since. His case represents the latest in a dozen detentions the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has documented since 2001.
No formal accusations have been made against Jassam, and an Iraqi court ordered in November that he be released for lack of evidence. But the U.S. military continues to hold him, saying it has intelligence that he is "a high security threat," according to Maj. Neal Fisher, spokesman for detainee affairs.
The Obama administration harshly criticized Iran for its imprisonment of Roxana Saberi, the U.S.-Iranian journalist who was convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison before being freed last week. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Iran's treatment of Saberi as "non-transparent, unpredictable and arbitrary."
Washington also has called upon North Korea to expedite the trial of two U.S. journalists being held there on spying charges.
Yet the United States has routinely used the arbitrary powers it assumed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks to hold without charge journalists in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists points out.
None of the detained journalists has been convicted of any charge, said Joel Simon, executive director of the group, undermining the United States reputation when it comes to criticizing other countries on issues of press freedom.
"The U.S. has a record of holding journalists for long periods of time without due process and without explanation," he said. "Its standing would be improved if it addressed this issue."
Reuters has expressed disappointment at Jassam's detention and has said there is no evidence against him.
Sami Haj, a cameraman for the Al Jazeera TV network, was detained by Pakistani authorities as he tried to cross into Afghanistan in 2001 to cover the offensive against the Taliban. He was turned over to the U.S. military, which held him for six years at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was accused him of being a courier for militant Islamic organizations, but was never charged. He was released a year ago.
In Iraq, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was held for two years without trial before he was released last April on the orders of an Iraqi judge under the terms of an Iraqi amnesty law. The U.S. military maintained that Hussein had links to insurgents, but the AP insisted that the allegations were based on nothing more than the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs of insurgents that he had taken on the streets of Ramadi, in western Iraq.
Jassam is the only Iraqi journalist still in U.S. custody, the last to be detained under wartime rules in force prior to a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement signed in December. Under the new accord, U.S. forces are required to obtain a warrant before they can arrest an Iraqi citizen.
Jassam was detained without a warrant "as the result of his activity with a known insurgent organization," Fisher alleged.
No evidence against Jassam was presented at his court hearing in November, Fisher said, because the military intelligence against him had not yet been verified.
Under the wartime rules in place at the time, he said, "there was no requirement to link the military intelligence with rule of law type of evidentiary procedures."
After the court ordered Jassam's release, Fisher said, fresh evidence came to light that suggested he was a "high security threat."
The journalist committee's Simon said it was possible for someone to use the cover of journalism to conduct other activities.
"No one is suggesting that journalists should have a get out of jail free card," he said. "But if you accuse someone of something there needs to be a fair legal process. That's what we said in the Roxana Saberi case, and that's what we say in the Ibrahim Jassam case."
Jassam will have to wait for the requirements of the security pact to play out before he receives another day in court or his release. Under the agreement, the U.S. is supposed to release low-threat detainees in a "safe and orderly" fashion, while referring "high threat" cases to the Iraqi Justice Ministry for review.
The decision to release him or transfer him to the Iraqi legal system will be made by the Iraqi government. The only timetable for that to happen is "by the end of the year," Fisher said. By that time, Jassam will have been in custody for more than a year.
Jassam's brother, Walid, visited him recently in Camp Bucca, the desolate, tented U.S. prison camp in the desert in southern Iraq, and found him close to breaking point.
"He used to be handsome, but now he's pale and he's tired," said Walid, who insists his brother had no contacts with insurgents. "Every now and then while we were talking, he would start crying. He was begging me, 'please do something to get me out of here. I don't know what is the charge against me."
"I told him we already tried everything
They broke down the front door. Accompanied by dogs, American and Iraqi troops burst into the Jassam family home south of Baghdad in the town of Mahmoudiya.
"Where is the journalist Ibrahim?" one of the Iraqi soldiers barked at the grandparents, children and grandchildren as they staggered blearily down the stairs.
Ibrahim Jassam, a cameraman and photographer for the Reuters news agency, stepped forward, one of this brothers recalled. "Take me if you want me, but please leave my brothers." The soldiers rifled through the house, confiscating his computer hard drive and cameras. And then they led him away, handcuffed and blindfolded.
That was Sept. 2.
Jassam, 31, has been in U.S. custody ever since. His case represents the latest in a dozen detentions the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has documented since 2001.
No formal accusations have been made against Jassam, and an Iraqi court ordered in November that he be released for lack of evidence. But the U.S. military continues to hold him, saying it has intelligence that he is "a high security threat," according to Maj. Neal Fisher, spokesman for detainee affairs.
The Obama administration harshly criticized Iran for its imprisonment of Roxana Saberi, the U.S.-Iranian journalist who was convicted of espionage and sentenced to eight years in prison before being freed last week. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Iran's treatment of Saberi as "non-transparent, unpredictable and arbitrary."
Washington also has called upon North Korea to expedite the trial of two U.S. journalists being held there on spying charges.
Yet the United States has routinely used the arbitrary powers it assumed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorism attacks to hold without charge journalists in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Committee to Protect Journalists points out.
None of the detained journalists has been convicted of any charge, said Joel Simon, executive director of the group, undermining the United States reputation when it comes to criticizing other countries on issues of press freedom.
"The U.S. has a record of holding journalists for long periods of time without due process and without explanation," he said. "Its standing would be improved if it addressed this issue."
Reuters has expressed disappointment at Jassam's detention and has said there is no evidence against him.
Sami Haj, a cameraman for the Al Jazeera TV network, was detained by Pakistani authorities as he tried to cross into Afghanistan in 2001 to cover the offensive against the Taliban. He was turned over to the U.S. military, which held him for six years at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He was accused him of being a courier for militant Islamic organizations, but was never charged. He was released a year ago.
In Iraq, Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein was held for two years without trial before he was released last April on the orders of an Iraqi judge under the terms of an Iraqi amnesty law. The U.S. military maintained that Hussein had links to insurgents, but the AP insisted that the allegations were based on nothing more than the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs of insurgents that he had taken on the streets of Ramadi, in western Iraq.
Jassam is the only Iraqi journalist still in U.S. custody, the last to be detained under wartime rules in force prior to a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement signed in December. Under the new accord, U.S. forces are required to obtain a warrant before they can arrest an Iraqi citizen.
Jassam was detained without a warrant "as the result of his activity with a known insurgent organization," Fisher alleged.
No evidence against Jassam was presented at his court hearing in November, Fisher said, because the military intelligence against him had not yet been verified.
Under the wartime rules in place at the time, he said, "there was no requirement to link the military intelligence with rule of law type of evidentiary procedures."
After the court ordered Jassam's release, Fisher said, fresh evidence came to light that suggested he was a "high security threat."
The journalist committee's Simon said it was possible for someone to use the cover of journalism to conduct other activities.
"No one is suggesting that journalists should have a get out of jail free card," he said. "But if you accuse someone of something there needs to be a fair legal process. That's what we said in the Roxana Saberi case, and that's what we say in the Ibrahim Jassam case."
Jassam will have to wait for the requirements of the security pact to play out before he receives another day in court or his release. Under the agreement, the U.S. is supposed to release low-threat detainees in a "safe and orderly" fashion, while referring "high threat" cases to the Iraqi Justice Ministry for review.
The decision to release him or transfer him to the Iraqi legal system will be made by the Iraqi government. The only timetable for that to happen is "by the end of the year," Fisher said. By that time, Jassam will have been in custody for more than a year.
Jassam's brother, Walid, visited him recently in Camp Bucca, the desolate, tented U.S. prison camp in the desert in southern Iraq, and found him close to breaking point.
"He used to be handsome, but now he's pale and he's tired," said Walid, who insists his brother had no contacts with insurgents. "Every now and then while we were talking, he would start crying. He was begging me, 'please do something to get me out of here. I don't know what is the charge against me."
"I told him we already tried everything
U.S. Relies More on Allies in Questioning Terror Suspects
The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current and former American government officials.
The change represents a significant loosening of the reins for the United States, which has worked closely with allies to combat violent extremism since the 9/11 attacks but is now pushing that cooperation to new limits.
In the past 10 months, for example, about a half-dozen midlevel financiers and logistics experts working with Al Qaeda have been captured and are being held by intelligence services in four Middle Eastern countries after the United States provided information that led to their arrests by local security services, a former American counterterrorism official said.
In addition, Pakistan’s intelligence and security services captured a Saudi suspect and a Yemeni suspect this year with the help of American intelligence and logistical support, Pakistani officials said. The two are the highest-ranking Qaeda operatives captured since President Obama took office, but they are still being held by Pakistan, which has shared information from their interrogations with the United States, the official said.
The current approach, which began in the last two years of the Bush administration and has gained momentum under Mr. Obama, is driven in part by court rulings and policy changes that have closed the secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency, and all but ended the transfer of prisoners from outside Iraq and Afghanistan to American military prisons.
Human rights advocates say that relying on foreign governments to hold and question terrorist suspects could carry significant risks. It could increase the potential for abuse at the hands of foreign interrogators and could also yield bad intelligence, they say.
The fate of many terrorist suspects whom the Bush administration sent to foreign countries remains uncertain. One suspect, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who was captured by the C.I.A. in late 2001 and sent to Libya, was recently reported to have died there in Libyan custody.
“As a practical matter you have to rely on partner governments, so the focus should be on pressing and assisting those governments to handle those cases professionally,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
The United States itself has not detained any high-level terrorist suspects outside Iraq and Afghanistan since Mr. Obama took office, and the question of where to detain the most senior terrorist suspects on a long-term basis is being debated within the new administration. Even deciding where the two Qaeda suspects in Pakistani custody will be kept over the long term is “extremely, extremely sensitive right now,” a senior American military official said, adding, “They’re both bad dudes. The issue is: where do they get parked so they stay parked?”
How the United States is dealing with terrorism suspects beyond those already in the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was a question Mr. Obama did not address in the speech he gave Thursday about his antiterrorism policies. While he said he might seek to create a new system that would allow preventive detention inside the United States, the government currently has no obvious long-term detention center for imprisoning terrorism suspects without court oversight.
Mr. Obama has said he still intends to close the Guantánamo prison by January, despite misgivings in Congress, and the Supreme Court has ruled that inmates there may challenge their detention before federal judges. Some suspects are being imprisoned without charges at a United States air base in Afghanistan, but a federal court has ruled that at least some of them may also file habeas corpus lawsuits to challenge their detentions.
American officials say that in the last years of the Bush administration and now on Mr. Obama’s watch, the balance has shifted toward leaving all but the most high-level terrorist suspects in foreign rather than American custody. The United States has repatriated hundreds of detainees held at prisons in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan, but the current approach is different because it seeks to keep the prisoners out of American custody altogether.
How the United States deals with terrorism suspects remains a contentious issue in Congress.
Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., said in February that the agency might continue its program of extraordinary rendition, in which captured terrorism suspects are transferred to other countries without extradition proceedings.
He said the C.I.A. would be likely to continue to transfer detainees from their place of capture to other countries, either their home countries or nations that intended to bring charges against them.
As a safeguard against torture, Mr. Panetta said, the United States would rely on diplomatic assurances of good treatment. The Bush administration sought the same assurances, which critics say are ineffective.
A half-dozen current and former American intelligence and counterterrorism officials and allied officials were interviewed for this article, but all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the detention and interrogation programs are classified.
Officials say the United States has learned so much about Al Qaeda and other militant groups since the 9/11 attacks that it can safely rely on foreign partners to detain and question more suspects. “It’s the preferred method now,” one former counterterrorism official said.
The Obama administration’s policies will probably become clearer after two task forces the president created in January report to him in July on detainee policy, interrogation techniques and extraordinary rendition.
In many instances now, allies are using information provided by the United States to pick up terrorism suspects on their own territory — including the two suspects seized in Pakistan this year.
The Saudi militant, Zabi al-Taifi, was picked up by Pakistani commandos in a dawn raid at a safe house outside Peshawar on Jan. 22, an operation conducted with the help of the C.I.A.
A Pakistani official said the Yemeni suspect, Abu Sufyan al-Yemeni, was a Qaeda paramilitary commander who was on C.I.A. and Pakistani lists of the top 20 Qaeda operatives. He was believed to be a conduit for communications between Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and cells in East Africa, Iran, Yemen and elsewhere. American and Pakistani intelligence officials say they believe that Mr. Yemeni, who was arrested Feb. 24 by Pakistani authorities in Quetta, helped arrange travel and training for Qaeda operatives from various parts of the Muslim world to the Pakistani tribal areas.
He is now in the custody of Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, but his fate is unclear. The Pakistani official said that he would remain in Pakistani hands, but that it would be difficult to try him because the evidence against him came from informers.
American officials said the United States would still take custody of the most senior Qaeda operatives captured in the future. As a model, they cited the case of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd who is said to have joined Al Qaeda in the late 1990s and risen to become a top aide to Osama bin Laden, and who was captured by a foreign security service in 2006. He was handed over to the C.I.A., which transferred him to Guantánamo Bay in April 2007. He was one of the last detainees shipped there
The change represents a significant loosening of the reins for the United States, which has worked closely with allies to combat violent extremism since the 9/11 attacks but is now pushing that cooperation to new limits.
In the past 10 months, for example, about a half-dozen midlevel financiers and logistics experts working with Al Qaeda have been captured and are being held by intelligence services in four Middle Eastern countries after the United States provided information that led to their arrests by local security services, a former American counterterrorism official said.
In addition, Pakistan’s intelligence and security services captured a Saudi suspect and a Yemeni suspect this year with the help of American intelligence and logistical support, Pakistani officials said. The two are the highest-ranking Qaeda operatives captured since President Obama took office, but they are still being held by Pakistan, which has shared information from their interrogations with the United States, the official said.
The current approach, which began in the last two years of the Bush administration and has gained momentum under Mr. Obama, is driven in part by court rulings and policy changes that have closed the secret prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency, and all but ended the transfer of prisoners from outside Iraq and Afghanistan to American military prisons.
Human rights advocates say that relying on foreign governments to hold and question terrorist suspects could carry significant risks. It could increase the potential for abuse at the hands of foreign interrogators and could also yield bad intelligence, they say.
The fate of many terrorist suspects whom the Bush administration sent to foreign countries remains uncertain. One suspect, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who was captured by the C.I.A. in late 2001 and sent to Libya, was recently reported to have died there in Libyan custody.
“As a practical matter you have to rely on partner governments, so the focus should be on pressing and assisting those governments to handle those cases professionally,” said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.
The United States itself has not detained any high-level terrorist suspects outside Iraq and Afghanistan since Mr. Obama took office, and the question of where to detain the most senior terrorist suspects on a long-term basis is being debated within the new administration. Even deciding where the two Qaeda suspects in Pakistani custody will be kept over the long term is “extremely, extremely sensitive right now,” a senior American military official said, adding, “They’re both bad dudes. The issue is: where do they get parked so they stay parked?”
How the United States is dealing with terrorism suspects beyond those already in the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was a question Mr. Obama did not address in the speech he gave Thursday about his antiterrorism policies. While he said he might seek to create a new system that would allow preventive detention inside the United States, the government currently has no obvious long-term detention center for imprisoning terrorism suspects without court oversight.
Mr. Obama has said he still intends to close the Guantánamo prison by January, despite misgivings in Congress, and the Supreme Court has ruled that inmates there may challenge their detention before federal judges. Some suspects are being imprisoned without charges at a United States air base in Afghanistan, but a federal court has ruled that at least some of them may also file habeas corpus lawsuits to challenge their detentions.
American officials say that in the last years of the Bush administration and now on Mr. Obama’s watch, the balance has shifted toward leaving all but the most high-level terrorist suspects in foreign rather than American custody. The United States has repatriated hundreds of detainees held at prisons in Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan, but the current approach is different because it seeks to keep the prisoners out of American custody altogether.
How the United States deals with terrorism suspects remains a contentious issue in Congress.
Leon E. Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., said in February that the agency might continue its program of extraordinary rendition, in which captured terrorism suspects are transferred to other countries without extradition proceedings.
He said the C.I.A. would be likely to continue to transfer detainees from their place of capture to other countries, either their home countries or nations that intended to bring charges against them.
As a safeguard against torture, Mr. Panetta said, the United States would rely on diplomatic assurances of good treatment. The Bush administration sought the same assurances, which critics say are ineffective.
A half-dozen current and former American intelligence and counterterrorism officials and allied officials were interviewed for this article, but all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the detention and interrogation programs are classified.
Officials say the United States has learned so much about Al Qaeda and other militant groups since the 9/11 attacks that it can safely rely on foreign partners to detain and question more suspects. “It’s the preferred method now,” one former counterterrorism official said.
The Obama administration’s policies will probably become clearer after two task forces the president created in January report to him in July on detainee policy, interrogation techniques and extraordinary rendition.
In many instances now, allies are using information provided by the United States to pick up terrorism suspects on their own territory — including the two suspects seized in Pakistan this year.
The Saudi militant, Zabi al-Taifi, was picked up by Pakistani commandos in a dawn raid at a safe house outside Peshawar on Jan. 22, an operation conducted with the help of the C.I.A.
A Pakistani official said the Yemeni suspect, Abu Sufyan al-Yemeni, was a Qaeda paramilitary commander who was on C.I.A. and Pakistani lists of the top 20 Qaeda operatives. He was believed to be a conduit for communications between Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and cells in East Africa, Iran, Yemen and elsewhere. American and Pakistani intelligence officials say they believe that Mr. Yemeni, who was arrested Feb. 24 by Pakistani authorities in Quetta, helped arrange travel and training for Qaeda operatives from various parts of the Muslim world to the Pakistani tribal areas.
He is now in the custody of Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, but his fate is unclear. The Pakistani official said that he would remain in Pakistani hands, but that it would be difficult to try him because the evidence against him came from informers.
American officials said the United States would still take custody of the most senior Qaeda operatives captured in the future. As a model, they cited the case of Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, an Iraqi Kurd who is said to have joined Al Qaeda in the late 1990s and risen to become a top aide to Osama bin Laden, and who was captured by a foreign security service in 2006. He was handed over to the C.I.A., which transferred him to Guantánamo Bay in April 2007. He was one of the last detainees shipped there
Scientists admit: we were wrong about 'E'
It was billed as the one of the most dramatic warnings the world has ever received over the dangers of ecstasy. A study from one of America's leading universities concluded that taking the drug for just one evening could leave clubbers with irreversible brain damage, and trigger the onset of Parkinson's disease.
The study, published in the eminent journal Science last September, had an immediate impact. Doctors and anti-drug crusaders spoke of a 'neurological time bomb' facing the young. Others suggested that taking one of the tablets was the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with the brain, and demanded tighter 'anti-rave' laws to deal with it.
But today, scientists are facing up to the humiliation of admitting that the stark results they reported in the study were not a breakthrough but a terrible, humiliating blunder.
The study was based on the fact that laboratory monkeys and baboons had a severe reaction to the drug when it was injected in small doses. But it emerged this weekend that the vials of liquid did not contain ecstasy. Instead, the animals received a dose of methamphetamine, or speed - a drug widely known to affect the body's dopamine system. The tubes had somehow been mislabelled by the supplier.
In this week's Science, the scientists will publish a retraction of their original study, reigniting the row over the role of those who investigate ecstasy, as well as the real risks or benefits of the drug.
In academic circles, the mistake is a severe embarrassment to Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, which attracts millions of dollars of research funding from both government and companies. Questions are already being asked about whether the lead researcher, George Ricaurte, was inherently biased against the drug.
The mistake only came to light when follow-up tests gave conflicting results. The original study reported how two out of 10 animals died quickly after their second or third dose. Six weeks later, the dopamine levels in the surviving animals were down by 65 per cent, leading Ricaurte and his colleagues to conclude that it could provoke the onset of Parkinson's, which is linked to a loss of dopamine-producing cells.
He said at the time: 'It is possible that some of the more recent cases of suspected young-onset Parkinson's disease might be related, but that this link has not been recognised.'
When the study was published last September, a chorus of experts saw it as evidence of drug damage. Professor Colin Blakemore of Oxford University, soon to be the new head of the Medical Research Council, said it provided further evidence that 'ecstasy can be toxic to nerve cells'.
Dr Alan Leshner, chief executive of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal, went as far as to describe taking ecstasy as playing 'Russian roulette' with brain function.
He added: 'This study showed that even very occasional use can have long-lasting effects on many different brain systems. It sends an important message to young people - don't experiment with your brain.'
Yesterday, Ricaurte was attempting to put a brave face on the calamity. He is under attack from all sides, and has already been accused of rushing his study into print because Congress was looking at a bill known as the Anti-Rave Act, which would punish club owners who knew that drugs such as ecstasy were being used on their premises.
Ricaurte has denied political bias. He said yesterday that his laboratory made 'a simple human error', adding: 'We're scientists, not chemists.' Asked why the vials of liquid were not checked before being used on the animals, he replied: 'We're not chemists. We get hundreds of chemicals here - it's not customary to check them.'
It is unusual for Science to have to publish a retraction, but that is exactly the right thing to do, according to Joe Collier, professor of medicines policy at St George's Hospital Medical School.
'People must realise that mistakes are made, even by scientists,' said Collier. 'It is embarrassing - a lot of self-questioning will be going on over there - but it's important we learn from this.'
Over the past five years, controversy has raged about the real dangers of ecstasy, a drug which is taken by around a million clubbers in Britain every weekend.
Some studies have suggested that ecstasy has no long-term impact on the levels of the hormone serotonin in the brain, while others have suggested that it leaves clubbers feeling depressed and unable to concentrate.
The controversy is not likely to go away quickly while the scientists themselves are caught up in such a political and academic minefield
The study, published in the eminent journal Science last September, had an immediate impact. Doctors and anti-drug crusaders spoke of a 'neurological time bomb' facing the young. Others suggested that taking one of the tablets was the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with the brain, and demanded tighter 'anti-rave' laws to deal with it.
But today, scientists are facing up to the humiliation of admitting that the stark results they reported in the study were not a breakthrough but a terrible, humiliating blunder.
The study was based on the fact that laboratory monkeys and baboons had a severe reaction to the drug when it was injected in small doses. But it emerged this weekend that the vials of liquid did not contain ecstasy. Instead, the animals received a dose of methamphetamine, or speed - a drug widely known to affect the body's dopamine system. The tubes had somehow been mislabelled by the supplier.
In this week's Science, the scientists will publish a retraction of their original study, reigniting the row over the role of those who investigate ecstasy, as well as the real risks or benefits of the drug.
In academic circles, the mistake is a severe embarrassment to Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, which attracts millions of dollars of research funding from both government and companies. Questions are already being asked about whether the lead researcher, George Ricaurte, was inherently biased against the drug.
The mistake only came to light when follow-up tests gave conflicting results. The original study reported how two out of 10 animals died quickly after their second or third dose. Six weeks later, the dopamine levels in the surviving animals were down by 65 per cent, leading Ricaurte and his colleagues to conclude that it could provoke the onset of Parkinson's, which is linked to a loss of dopamine-producing cells.
He said at the time: 'It is possible that some of the more recent cases of suspected young-onset Parkinson's disease might be related, but that this link has not been recognised.'
When the study was published last September, a chorus of experts saw it as evidence of drug damage. Professor Colin Blakemore of Oxford University, soon to be the new head of the Medical Research Council, said it provided further evidence that 'ecstasy can be toxic to nerve cells'.
Dr Alan Leshner, chief executive of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal, went as far as to describe taking ecstasy as playing 'Russian roulette' with brain function.
He added: 'This study showed that even very occasional use can have long-lasting effects on many different brain systems. It sends an important message to young people - don't experiment with your brain.'
Yesterday, Ricaurte was attempting to put a brave face on the calamity. He is under attack from all sides, and has already been accused of rushing his study into print because Congress was looking at a bill known as the Anti-Rave Act, which would punish club owners who knew that drugs such as ecstasy were being used on their premises.
Ricaurte has denied political bias. He said yesterday that his laboratory made 'a simple human error', adding: 'We're scientists, not chemists.' Asked why the vials of liquid were not checked before being used on the animals, he replied: 'We're not chemists. We get hundreds of chemicals here - it's not customary to check them.'
It is unusual for Science to have to publish a retraction, but that is exactly the right thing to do, according to Joe Collier, professor of medicines policy at St George's Hospital Medical School.
'People must realise that mistakes are made, even by scientists,' said Collier. 'It is embarrassing - a lot of self-questioning will be going on over there - but it's important we learn from this.'
Over the past five years, controversy has raged about the real dangers of ecstasy, a drug which is taken by around a million clubbers in Britain every weekend.
Some studies have suggested that ecstasy has no long-term impact on the levels of the hormone serotonin in the brain, while others have suggested that it leaves clubbers feeling depressed and unable to concentrate.
The controversy is not likely to go away quickly while the scientists themselves are caught up in such a political and academic minefield
HEART DISEASE& STROKE: THE FACTS
The UK has one of the highest rates of death from heart disease in the world - one British adult dies from the disease every three minutes - and stroke is the country's third biggest killer, claiming 70,000 lives each year.
Heart attacks occur when blood flow is blocked, often by a blood clot, while strokes are caused either by blocked or burst blood vessels in the brain. A range of other conditions, including heart failure, when blood is not pumped properly around the body, and congenital heart defects can also cause long term problems, and even death, for sufferers.
Left atrium - The blood returns from the lungs to the upper left chamber of the heart where it is again briefly stored until the atrium fills, before flowing on to the left ventricle.Right atrium - “Impure” or “blue” blood returning from the atrium enters the heart here, where it is held until the atrium - or chamber - fills up.Left ventricle - This is the most powerful chamber of the heart. It pumps the newly oxygenated blood to the rest of the body through the aorta, or main artery.Right ventricle - This powerful pump propels blood into the pulmonary artery, the tube which carries blood to the lungs, where carbon dioxide in the blood is removed and oxygen added.
Heart attacks occur when blood flow is blocked, often by a blood clot, while strokes are caused either by blocked or burst blood vessels in the brain. A range of other conditions, including heart failure, when blood is not pumped properly around the body, and congenital heart defects can also cause long term problems, and even death, for sufferers.
Left atrium - The blood returns from the lungs to the upper left chamber of the heart where it is again briefly stored until the atrium fills, before flowing on to the left ventricle.Right atrium - “Impure” or “blue” blood returning from the atrium enters the heart here, where it is held until the atrium - or chamber - fills up.Left ventricle - This is the most powerful chamber of the heart. It pumps the newly oxygenated blood to the rest of the body through the aorta, or main artery.Right ventricle - This powerful pump propels blood into the pulmonary artery, the tube which carries blood to the lungs, where carbon dioxide in the blood is removed and oxygen added.
Former South Korea president leaps to death in ravine
South Korea was in a state of shock yesterday following the suicide of Roh Moo-hyun, its former president, who had been embroiled in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal.
Roh, 62, died from massive head injuries after leaping into a ravine while on a climbing trip near his home in Bongha village near the south-east coast, according to local media reports.
The former democracy activist, whose five-year term ended in February 2008, was said to have been under intense pressure amid allegations that he had accepted US$6m in bribes while in office.
Roh, who rose from an impoverished childhood to occupy the presidential Blue House, left a suicide note in which he hinted at ill health and talked of being unable to confront "countless agonies down the road".
The note, the text of which was released by the Yonhap news agency, said: "The rest of my life would only be a burden for others. I can't do anything because I'm not healthy. I can't read books, nor can I write. Don't be too sad. Isn't life and death all part of nature? Don't be sorry. Don't blame anybody. It's fate. Please cremate me. And please leave a small tombstone near home. I've long thought about that."
Lee Myung-bak, the country's present leader, said Roh's death had left him "stricken with sorrow and deep sadness". He broke away from talks with Vaclav Claus, the Czech president, to instruct authorities to organise a state funeral.
Roh's predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, speculated that his "lifelong comrade in democracy" had been unable to bear the "intense pressure" caused by media reports about his family's alleged involvement in the scandal.
Roh had faced police questioning over allegations that he had taken the bribes from a wealthy shoemaker via his wife and other relatives. He admitted that his wife had accepted US$1m but insisted it was to settle a debt, not a bribe. He said that he believed that US$5m given to another relative was intended as a legitimate business investment.
Despite his denials, late last month Roh publicly apologised for the disruption caused by the reports. "I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens," he said, before being led away by prosecutors for questioning. "I am sorry for having disappointed you."
Local reports said that Roh had left home early yesterday to climb a nearby peak with a bodyguard and fell 20 to 30 metres after jumping from a cliff known as Owl Rock. He was taken to Busan University Hospital but pronounced dead at around 9.30am local time.
Despite the corruption charges, reports said Roh had been leading a quiet life and was often seen around the village, smoking cigarettes and drinking with locals.
Roh, a self-trained lawyer who defended students accused of sedition during South Korea's period of military rule, won a surprise victory in 2002 and took office the following year with promises to fight corruption and strengthen South Korea's fledgling democracy.
Critical of the Bush administration's foreign policy, Roh sought to improve ties with North Korea, and in 2007 signed a string of economic agreements with the secretive regime's leader, Kim Jong-il, at a rare inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
However, initial support for his "sunshine policy" of engagement - begun by his predecessor - and unconditional aid weakened towards the end of his presidency.
Roh, 62, died from massive head injuries after leaping into a ravine while on a climbing trip near his home in Bongha village near the south-east coast, according to local media reports.
The former democracy activist, whose five-year term ended in February 2008, was said to have been under intense pressure amid allegations that he had accepted US$6m in bribes while in office.
Roh, who rose from an impoverished childhood to occupy the presidential Blue House, left a suicide note in which he hinted at ill health and talked of being unable to confront "countless agonies down the road".
The note, the text of which was released by the Yonhap news agency, said: "The rest of my life would only be a burden for others. I can't do anything because I'm not healthy. I can't read books, nor can I write. Don't be too sad. Isn't life and death all part of nature? Don't be sorry. Don't blame anybody. It's fate. Please cremate me. And please leave a small tombstone near home. I've long thought about that."
Lee Myung-bak, the country's present leader, said Roh's death had left him "stricken with sorrow and deep sadness". He broke away from talks with Vaclav Claus, the Czech president, to instruct authorities to organise a state funeral.
Roh's predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, speculated that his "lifelong comrade in democracy" had been unable to bear the "intense pressure" caused by media reports about his family's alleged involvement in the scandal.
Roh had faced police questioning over allegations that he had taken the bribes from a wealthy shoemaker via his wife and other relatives. He admitted that his wife had accepted US$1m but insisted it was to settle a debt, not a bribe. He said that he believed that US$5m given to another relative was intended as a legitimate business investment.
Despite his denials, late last month Roh publicly apologised for the disruption caused by the reports. "I feel ashamed before my fellow citizens," he said, before being led away by prosecutors for questioning. "I am sorry for having disappointed you."
Local reports said that Roh had left home early yesterday to climb a nearby peak with a bodyguard and fell 20 to 30 metres after jumping from a cliff known as Owl Rock. He was taken to Busan University Hospital but pronounced dead at around 9.30am local time.
Despite the corruption charges, reports said Roh had been leading a quiet life and was often seen around the village, smoking cigarettes and drinking with locals.
Roh, a self-trained lawyer who defended students accused of sedition during South Korea's period of military rule, won a surprise victory in 2002 and took office the following year with promises to fight corruption and strengthen South Korea's fledgling democracy.
Critical of the Bush administration's foreign policy, Roh sought to improve ties with North Korea, and in 2007 signed a string of economic agreements with the secretive regime's leader, Kim Jong-il, at a rare inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
However, initial support for his "sunshine policy" of engagement - begun by his predecessor - and unconditional aid weakened towards the end of his presidency.
New light on Down's cancer link
Scientists may have solved the mystery of why people with Down's syndrome seem to have a lower risk of some cancers.
The extra copy of chromosome 21 which causes Down's appears to contain a gene that protects from solid cancerous tumours, tests on mice suggest.
The gene seems to interfere with signals a tumour relies on to grow. The finding raises hope of new ways to prevent and treat cancer.
The study by the Children's Hospital of Boston appears in the journal Nature.
Humans usually have two copies of the 23 chromosomes that together contain all our genetic information, one from each parent.
Down's syndrome is a genetic disorder which results from the presence of an extra, third copy of chromosome 21.
It has been known for some time that individuals with Down's syndrome get certain types of cancer less often than those without the condition.
However, the reason why has been unclear.
The latest study showed that having an extra copy of one of the genes located on chromosome 21 - a gene called Dscr1 - is sufficient to slow cancer growth in mice.
The gene seems to work in combination with another gene also found on chromosome 21 to interfere with the signals a tumour relies upon to stimulate growth of its own blood vessels.
Without those vessels feeding the tumour with its own supply of blood it cannot thrive.
Inspiration
Writing in the journal, the researchers, led by Dr Sandra Ryeom, said: "It is, perhaps, inspiring that the Down's syndrome population provides us with new insight into mechanisms that regulate cancer growth and, by so doing, identifies potential targets for tumour prevention and therapy."
Dr Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke, a Cancer Research UK scientist at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "This finding raises several important questions about the roles of other chromosome 21 genes that might help regulate tumour growth.
"The next stage is to think about how we might be able to exploit this research to improve cancer treatments in the future."
Stuart Mills, of the Down's Syndrome Association, said: "We have known for some time that people with Down's syndrome have lower incidences of cancer, apart from leukaemia, than the rest of the population.
"This is one of the first studies to examine the reasons why, and we welcome its findings. We will be following further research with great interest."
The extra copy of chromosome 21 which causes Down's appears to contain a gene that protects from solid cancerous tumours, tests on mice suggest.
The gene seems to interfere with signals a tumour relies on to grow. The finding raises hope of new ways to prevent and treat cancer.
The study by the Children's Hospital of Boston appears in the journal Nature.
Humans usually have two copies of the 23 chromosomes that together contain all our genetic information, one from each parent.
Down's syndrome is a genetic disorder which results from the presence of an extra, third copy of chromosome 21.
It has been known for some time that individuals with Down's syndrome get certain types of cancer less often than those without the condition.
However, the reason why has been unclear.
The latest study showed that having an extra copy of one of the genes located on chromosome 21 - a gene called Dscr1 - is sufficient to slow cancer growth in mice.
The gene seems to work in combination with another gene also found on chromosome 21 to interfere with the signals a tumour relies upon to stimulate growth of its own blood vessels.
Without those vessels feeding the tumour with its own supply of blood it cannot thrive.
Inspiration
Writing in the journal, the researchers, led by Dr Sandra Ryeom, said: "It is, perhaps, inspiring that the Down's syndrome population provides us with new insight into mechanisms that regulate cancer growth and, by so doing, identifies potential targets for tumour prevention and therapy."
Dr Kairbaan Hodivala-Dilke, a Cancer Research UK scientist at Queen Mary, University of London, said: "This finding raises several important questions about the roles of other chromosome 21 genes that might help regulate tumour growth.
"The next stage is to think about how we might be able to exploit this research to improve cancer treatments in the future."
Stuart Mills, of the Down's Syndrome Association, said: "We have known for some time that people with Down's syndrome have lower incidences of cancer, apart from leukaemia, than the rest of the population.
"This is one of the first studies to examine the reasons why, and we welcome its findings. We will be following further research with great interest."
UN chief flies into Sri Lanka as Tamils' tales of terror emerge
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday visited a mass displacement camp packed with Tamil civilians as he appealed to Sri Lanka's triumphant government to "heal the wounds" after three decades of civil war. As he surveyed the beleaguered and shell-shocked refugees held there and as the army searched for Tamil Tiger fighters among them, he would not have found time to talk to Sopika, aged 10.
Sopika is one of at least 250,000 Tamil civilians being held in Menik Farm in the north of the country. Barbed-wire fences encircle the endless rows of white tents, preventing civilians from getting out and journalists from getting in, as the government continues to prevent the stories of Sopika and thousands like her from being told.
Yesterday, Sri Lanka's health ministry announced that it is investigating three doctors detained by the military accused of giving false information about war zone casualties to the media. The physicians were among the few sources of information on those wounded and killed in the fighting, since most journalists were banned from the area.
But slowly the stories of ordinary Tamils are emerging. And Sopika's harrowing account of her recent ordeal, related via intermediaries, helps explain why the authorities are so keen to restrict the flow of information.
Her story is testimony to the brutality of both the Tamil Tiger fighters and the government during the final stages of a 26-year conflict, during which each side accused the other of acts of unspeakable cruelty. Both, it seems, were telling the truth and it is the Tamil civilians who paid the price.
Sopika was born on the island of Kayts, off the northern tip of Jaffna. Until eight months ago, she and her older brother and younger sister lived with their parents in a village overlooking the Indian Ocean.
Then they left to visit the town of Madhu on the mainland. As the government unleashed its military offensive against the Tigers, their route home was shut off. Desperate to escape the shelling, they were driven ahead of the advancing government forces, further into LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) territory, moving from place to place, dodging air strikes and artillery.
Human rights groups and international officials have accused the government of heavily shelling areas densely populated with civilians in the last weeks of the war. The government has denied using heavy weapons. But by the time the family reached Mullaitivu, Sopika said she found the noise of the jets and artillery overwhelming. Her parents decided they had to make a break for it. It was 2am when they set off with several other families.
"As we were walking, the Tigers started to fire and the young boy walking in front of me got shot," she said. "My face and clothes were splattered with the blood of this boy. He died.
"We turned back because we were afraid of more death," she said.
Sopika said she remembered the moment when a sniper's bullet killed a relative sitting close by.
"I saw the bullets hit her head... half her face fell off," she said.
The family decided to try again to escape. This time they headed for the shore, again setting out at 2am, hoping that the darkness would provide them with cover from the guns of the Tamil Tigers and the government forces.
"We were walking in between the shooting from both sides, and we realised that we could be seen in the moonlight," she said.
In front of her, a 12-year-old boy and his mother were caught in the crossfire, collapsing dead on the ground. "We missed death by a few feet," she said. They turned back again.
The next day, there was no food, so the children went to bed hungry. They awoke again at 2am, and joined another family walking towards the shore.
"We started to walk a long way... no, really we started to run, we were scared we would get caught by the LTTE, we would get beaten," she said.
Dodging the bullets, they pushed on through shrubs and thorn bushes. "There was no road or path, there was a lot of mud and ditches," she said. "Once I fell over a dead body."
Nearing the shore of the lagoon, they started to crawl on their bellies across the sand, terrified of being caught by the Tigers. Entering the water, Sopaki found the waves crashing down on her head. She could not swim; she had never learnt.
"I was terrified because the water was up to my neck," she said. "I could barely stand as the current kept pulling me down. The navy's searchlights kept beaming into the water. I cried out 'Appa Appa' [father, father] when I fell into a trough. I nearly drowned. During the entire journey, we just wanted to run, but we couldn't."
Finally emerging from the water, they could see the army ahead of them. "We were told to lie down. They wanted to search us," she said. The soldiers gave them biscuits, dates and water and put them on a bus. "People were shouting and crying because many of them had lost their relative during the search operation," she said. Sopaki was also crying because her father and brother were missing, but the next day they were reunited.
The family arrived at Menik Farm eight days ago, just as the fighting reached a climax. Two days later, the government announced that the war was over. But their ordeal is not.
Conditions inside the camps are squalid: food and water are in desperately short supply and even the government admits the toilets are inadequate.
Others imprisoned behind the wire have their own tales of hardship and horror. According to private UN documents, at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of fighting in the war. The Red Cross says it evacuated 13,769 sick and wounded people and their relatives from the war zone.
"It is a great relief that the war is over, but peace has come at a very high price, with thousands of civilians killed, including large numbers of children," said James Elder, the Unicef spokesman in Sri Lanka. "There is no end to the gut-wrenching stories of death and destruction that scar these children."
Sopika is one of at least 250,000 Tamil civilians being held in Menik Farm in the north of the country. Barbed-wire fences encircle the endless rows of white tents, preventing civilians from getting out and journalists from getting in, as the government continues to prevent the stories of Sopika and thousands like her from being told.
Yesterday, Sri Lanka's health ministry announced that it is investigating three doctors detained by the military accused of giving false information about war zone casualties to the media. The physicians were among the few sources of information on those wounded and killed in the fighting, since most journalists were banned from the area.
But slowly the stories of ordinary Tamils are emerging. And Sopika's harrowing account of her recent ordeal, related via intermediaries, helps explain why the authorities are so keen to restrict the flow of information.
Her story is testimony to the brutality of both the Tamil Tiger fighters and the government during the final stages of a 26-year conflict, during which each side accused the other of acts of unspeakable cruelty. Both, it seems, were telling the truth and it is the Tamil civilians who paid the price.
Sopika was born on the island of Kayts, off the northern tip of Jaffna. Until eight months ago, she and her older brother and younger sister lived with their parents in a village overlooking the Indian Ocean.
Then they left to visit the town of Madhu on the mainland. As the government unleashed its military offensive against the Tigers, their route home was shut off. Desperate to escape the shelling, they were driven ahead of the advancing government forces, further into LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) territory, moving from place to place, dodging air strikes and artillery.
Human rights groups and international officials have accused the government of heavily shelling areas densely populated with civilians in the last weeks of the war. The government has denied using heavy weapons. But by the time the family reached Mullaitivu, Sopika said she found the noise of the jets and artillery overwhelming. Her parents decided they had to make a break for it. It was 2am when they set off with several other families.
"As we were walking, the Tigers started to fire and the young boy walking in front of me got shot," she said. "My face and clothes were splattered with the blood of this boy. He died.
"We turned back because we were afraid of more death," she said.
Sopika said she remembered the moment when a sniper's bullet killed a relative sitting close by.
"I saw the bullets hit her head... half her face fell off," she said.
The family decided to try again to escape. This time they headed for the shore, again setting out at 2am, hoping that the darkness would provide them with cover from the guns of the Tamil Tigers and the government forces.
"We were walking in between the shooting from both sides, and we realised that we could be seen in the moonlight," she said.
In front of her, a 12-year-old boy and his mother were caught in the crossfire, collapsing dead on the ground. "We missed death by a few feet," she said. They turned back again.
The next day, there was no food, so the children went to bed hungry. They awoke again at 2am, and joined another family walking towards the shore.
"We started to walk a long way... no, really we started to run, we were scared we would get caught by the LTTE, we would get beaten," she said.
Dodging the bullets, they pushed on through shrubs and thorn bushes. "There was no road or path, there was a lot of mud and ditches," she said. "Once I fell over a dead body."
Nearing the shore of the lagoon, they started to crawl on their bellies across the sand, terrified of being caught by the Tigers. Entering the water, Sopaki found the waves crashing down on her head. She could not swim; she had never learnt.
"I was terrified because the water was up to my neck," she said. "I could barely stand as the current kept pulling me down. The navy's searchlights kept beaming into the water. I cried out 'Appa Appa' [father, father] when I fell into a trough. I nearly drowned. During the entire journey, we just wanted to run, but we couldn't."
Finally emerging from the water, they could see the army ahead of them. "We were told to lie down. They wanted to search us," she said. The soldiers gave them biscuits, dates and water and put them on a bus. "People were shouting and crying because many of them had lost their relative during the search operation," she said. Sopaki was also crying because her father and brother were missing, but the next day they were reunited.
The family arrived at Menik Farm eight days ago, just as the fighting reached a climax. Two days later, the government announced that the war was over. But their ordeal is not.
Conditions inside the camps are squalid: food and water are in desperately short supply and even the government admits the toilets are inadequate.
Others imprisoned behind the wire have their own tales of hardship and horror. According to private UN documents, at least 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of fighting in the war. The Red Cross says it evacuated 13,769 sick and wounded people and their relatives from the war zone.
"It is a great relief that the war is over, but peace has come at a very high price, with thousands of civilians killed, including large numbers of children," said James Elder, the Unicef spokesman in Sri Lanka. "There is no end to the gut-wrenching stories of death and destruction that scar these children."
Iran 'blocks access to Facebook'
Iran's government has blocked access to social networking site Facebook ahead of June's presidential elections, according to Iran's ILNA news agency.
ILNA suggested the move was aimed at stopping supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi from using the site for his campaign.
Facebook, which claims to have 175m users worldwide, expressed its disappointment over the reported ban.
So far there has been no comment from the authorities in Tehran.
'Access not possible'
"Access to the Facebook site was prohibited several days ahead of the presidential elections," ILNA reported
It said that "according to certain Internet surfers, the site was banned because supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi were using Facebook to better disseminate the candidate's positions".
CNN staff in Tehran reported that people attempting to visit the site received a message in Farsi that said: "Access to this site is not possible."
Facebook expressed disappointment that its site was apparently blocked in Iran "at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions".
Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, is seen as one of the leading challengers to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 12 June elections.
His page on Facebook has more than 5,000 supporters
ILNA suggested the move was aimed at stopping supporters of reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi from using the site for his campaign.
Facebook, which claims to have 175m users worldwide, expressed its disappointment over the reported ban.
So far there has been no comment from the authorities in Tehran.
'Access not possible'
"Access to the Facebook site was prohibited several days ahead of the presidential elections," ILNA reported
It said that "according to certain Internet surfers, the site was banned because supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi were using Facebook to better disseminate the candidate's positions".
CNN staff in Tehran reported that people attempting to visit the site received a message in Farsi that said: "Access to this site is not possible."
Facebook expressed disappointment that its site was apparently blocked in Iran "at a time when voters are turning to the Internet as a source of information about election candidates and their positions".
Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, is seen as one of the leading challengers to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 12 June elections.
His page on Facebook has more than 5,000 supporters
David Cameron forces MP out as grassroots anger mounts
David Cameron displayed his ruthless streak yesterday when Andrew MacKay, his former adviser who has been heavily criticised over his expenses, announced that he was to stand down as an MP at the general election.
The end of MacKay's 26-year parliamentary career followed a private conversation with Cameron. His decision to go was seen as evidence of the Tory leader's "zero tolerance" approach to misdemeanours within the party.
The announcement from MacKay - who bowed to intense public anger in his Bracknell constituency - stoked a sense of crisis and nervousness at Westminster ahead of the 4 June local and European elections. The three main parties fear they could be severely punished as voters desert to smaller parties untainted by the expenses scandal.
While sources insisted it was purely MacKay's decision, he quit only after a phone call from the leader during which they discussed a stormy meeting between the 59-year-old MP and his constituents on Friday night at which the politician was accused of committing fraud and letting down his constituents.
The spotlight will now inevitably turn on MacKay's wife, 48-year-old Julie Kirkbride, the Tory MP for Bromsgrove. Shoppers queued in Bromsgrove town centre yesterday to sign a petition calling for her to resign. In a statement yesterday, her husband insisted his decision was not taken as a result of Friday night's meeting, but added: "I believe I could be a distraction at a time when [David Cameron] is working to get elected as prime minister with the good working majority necessary to take the tough decisions to turn this country around.
"I would never forgive myself if my candidature distracted voters from the key issues, particularly David's rousing call for change. I understand why people are angry. I hope my decision to step down goes some way to showing my constituents how sorry I am."
The departure, marking Cameron's
first loss from his inner circle, came after two weeks in which Labour had appeared more damaged than the Conservatives by the stream of revelations in the Daily Telegraph. The MP for Bracknell had pledged to put himself up for reselection in an attempt to appease constituents and had insisted that he "owed it" to people to continue.
Local party members said they were not satisfied with his explanations, with one describing him as a "dead duck".
MacKay's expenses claims came to light as a result of checks by Tory officials ahead of publication in the Daily Telegraph. Paperwork showed that while he claimed the couple's London home, for which both were named on the mortgage, as his second home, he did not appear to have a main home of his own since he did not have a house in Bracknell. MPs with only one home are not entitled to a second home allowance.
Tory officials have defended Kirkbride on the grounds that she did have homes in both London and Bromsgrove and was therefore entitled to allowances. But she has also faced an angry response from constituents, with a brick being thrown through the windows of her constituency office.
Last night, as cabinet ministers, including the health secretary, Alan Johnson, made clear that sweeping constitutional reform, encompassing a switch to a new proportional representation voting system for Westminster, might be the only way to restore faith in politicians, Kirkbride came under further pressure as the News of the World reported that her brother, Ian Kirkbride, had lived at the couple's Worcestershire home since 2004.
Kirkbride rushed out a statement saying that her brother spent time at both of their homes but insisted she had nothing to apologise for. "My brother Ian stays in my Bromsgrove apartment and in my London home from time to time to help look after my son," she said. "I claim no expenses for my brother and neither do I pay him or claim for his help. He also acts as a volunteer in helping me with office work and administration."
Claims that he had been living there "rent-free" at taxpayers' expense were a "total distortion," she said.
With dozens of MPs across all parties now said to be considering stepping down, former cabinet minister Ian McCartney announced he would quit at the next election. Colleagues said although he was not regarded as having been a particularly excessive claimant, he had suffered a furious backlash from constituents in Makerfield over his published expenses. He had already offered to pay back around £15,000 after purchasing items including champagne flutes and an 18-piece dinner set.
McCartney, who has undergone heart surgery, said he was quitting because of ill health, adding that he had been urged to retire by his family. McCartney, who is close to former deputy leader John Prescott, was for many years regarded as an invaluable and trusted bridge between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Another former cabinet minister said there was likely to be a wave of retirements among MPs too depressed by the expenses scandal to stay: "Emotions are running very high and there are a lot of surprising people saying, 'I've had enough, I'm getting out'."
Last night the Sunday Telegraph placed senior Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce in the spotlight, saying he claimed for thousands of pounds towards the running of both his London flat and his constituency home, where his wife worked for him. Normally MPs can only claim expenses for their second homes.
He was one of 200 MPs, the newspaper said, who had been able to claim money for a main home, in addition to their second home, because their spouses worked there on parliamentary business.
The paper said that Derek Conway, the MP expelled last year from the Tory party over payments to his two sons, was able to claim for office expenses at a family home in Morpeth, Northumberland, as well as mortgage interest on his designated second home in London, although the Morpeth house is more than 300 miles from his Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency.
Labour minister Quentin Davies is said to have claimed more than £10,000 to repair window frames at an 18th-century mansion in Lincolnshire designated as his second home.
The end of MacKay's 26-year parliamentary career followed a private conversation with Cameron. His decision to go was seen as evidence of the Tory leader's "zero tolerance" approach to misdemeanours within the party.
The announcement from MacKay - who bowed to intense public anger in his Bracknell constituency - stoked a sense of crisis and nervousness at Westminster ahead of the 4 June local and European elections. The three main parties fear they could be severely punished as voters desert to smaller parties untainted by the expenses scandal.
While sources insisted it was purely MacKay's decision, he quit only after a phone call from the leader during which they discussed a stormy meeting between the 59-year-old MP and his constituents on Friday night at which the politician was accused of committing fraud and letting down his constituents.
The spotlight will now inevitably turn on MacKay's wife, 48-year-old Julie Kirkbride, the Tory MP for Bromsgrove. Shoppers queued in Bromsgrove town centre yesterday to sign a petition calling for her to resign. In a statement yesterday, her husband insisted his decision was not taken as a result of Friday night's meeting, but added: "I believe I could be a distraction at a time when [David Cameron] is working to get elected as prime minister with the good working majority necessary to take the tough decisions to turn this country around.
"I would never forgive myself if my candidature distracted voters from the key issues, particularly David's rousing call for change. I understand why people are angry. I hope my decision to step down goes some way to showing my constituents how sorry I am."
The departure, marking Cameron's
first loss from his inner circle, came after two weeks in which Labour had appeared more damaged than the Conservatives by the stream of revelations in the Daily Telegraph. The MP for Bracknell had pledged to put himself up for reselection in an attempt to appease constituents and had insisted that he "owed it" to people to continue.
Local party members said they were not satisfied with his explanations, with one describing him as a "dead duck".
MacKay's expenses claims came to light as a result of checks by Tory officials ahead of publication in the Daily Telegraph. Paperwork showed that while he claimed the couple's London home, for which both were named on the mortgage, as his second home, he did not appear to have a main home of his own since he did not have a house in Bracknell. MPs with only one home are not entitled to a second home allowance.
Tory officials have defended Kirkbride on the grounds that she did have homes in both London and Bromsgrove and was therefore entitled to allowances. But she has also faced an angry response from constituents, with a brick being thrown through the windows of her constituency office.
Last night, as cabinet ministers, including the health secretary, Alan Johnson, made clear that sweeping constitutional reform, encompassing a switch to a new proportional representation voting system for Westminster, might be the only way to restore faith in politicians, Kirkbride came under further pressure as the News of the World reported that her brother, Ian Kirkbride, had lived at the couple's Worcestershire home since 2004.
Kirkbride rushed out a statement saying that her brother spent time at both of their homes but insisted she had nothing to apologise for. "My brother Ian stays in my Bromsgrove apartment and in my London home from time to time to help look after my son," she said. "I claim no expenses for my brother and neither do I pay him or claim for his help. He also acts as a volunteer in helping me with office work and administration."
Claims that he had been living there "rent-free" at taxpayers' expense were a "total distortion," she said.
With dozens of MPs across all parties now said to be considering stepping down, former cabinet minister Ian McCartney announced he would quit at the next election. Colleagues said although he was not regarded as having been a particularly excessive claimant, he had suffered a furious backlash from constituents in Makerfield over his published expenses. He had already offered to pay back around £15,000 after purchasing items including champagne flutes and an 18-piece dinner set.
McCartney, who has undergone heart surgery, said he was quitting because of ill health, adding that he had been urged to retire by his family. McCartney, who is close to former deputy leader John Prescott, was for many years regarded as an invaluable and trusted bridge between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Another former cabinet minister said there was likely to be a wave of retirements among MPs too depressed by the expenses scandal to stay: "Emotions are running very high and there are a lot of surprising people saying, 'I've had enough, I'm getting out'."
Last night the Sunday Telegraph placed senior Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce in the spotlight, saying he claimed for thousands of pounds towards the running of both his London flat and his constituency home, where his wife worked for him. Normally MPs can only claim expenses for their second homes.
He was one of 200 MPs, the newspaper said, who had been able to claim money for a main home, in addition to their second home, because their spouses worked there on parliamentary business.
The paper said that Derek Conway, the MP expelled last year from the Tory party over payments to his two sons, was able to claim for office expenses at a family home in Morpeth, Northumberland, as well as mortgage interest on his designated second home in London, although the Morpeth house is more than 300 miles from his Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency.
Labour minister Quentin Davies is said to have claimed more than £10,000 to repair window frames at an 18th-century mansion in Lincolnshire designated as his second home.
Pakistan army 'in Taliban city'
Fierce fighting is taking place between Pakistani troops and Taliban militants in Mingora, the main city in the militant-controlled Swat valley.
At least 17 militants have been killed in the clashes, the army says. The Taliban deny the deaths.
The push into Mingora is seen as a key phase of an offensive aimed at crushing the militants, whose influence extends across a wide area of the north-west.
The fighting began after a peace deal broke down earlier this month.
"Street fights have begun," Maj Gen Athar Abbas told reporters
He said soldiers had cleared parts of the city, but added that the pace of the offensive was "painfully slow".
"This is an extremely difficult, extremely dangerous operation, because clearance has to be done street by street, house by house."
The military says the city is surrounded, most of the militants' ammunition dumps are destroyed and their supply routes cut off.
The BBC's Shoaib Hassan, in Islamabad, says it is the most important battle yet in the army's offensive against the Taliban in Swat.
A swift victory would bolster public support for a greater fight against the militants, our correspondent adds.
Exodus
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the military had entered Mingora, but denied that any militants had been killed.
The spokesman also said the Taliban would fight the security forces to their last breath.
Residents say the militants are still in control of the city.
Nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced by this month's fighting in the north-western region, and about two million since last August, the United Nations refugee agency says.
One resident who fled the Mingora area told the BBC that he was among many who had lost everything.
"Our homes were destroyed - we left behind our cattle and our properties," he said. "We walked all the way and had to walk for two days on the mountains."
On Friday, the UN appealed for $543m in humanitarian aid to help those displaced by the conflict.
Pakistan's army began an offensive against the Taliban on 2 May after the peace deal broke down and the militants began expanding their area of influence.
A recent investigation by the BBC suggested that less than half of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), which contains Swat Valley, and the neighbouring Federally Administered Tribal Areas is under full government control.
In Swat, the army says that about 15,000 members of the security forces are fighting between 4,000 and 5,000 militants.
It says more than 1,000 militants and more than 50 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began.
At least 17 militants have been killed in the clashes, the army says. The Taliban deny the deaths.
The push into Mingora is seen as a key phase of an offensive aimed at crushing the militants, whose influence extends across a wide area of the north-west.
The fighting began after a peace deal broke down earlier this month.
"Street fights have begun," Maj Gen Athar Abbas told reporters
He said soldiers had cleared parts of the city, but added that the pace of the offensive was "painfully slow".
"This is an extremely difficult, extremely dangerous operation, because clearance has to be done street by street, house by house."
The military says the city is surrounded, most of the militants' ammunition dumps are destroyed and their supply routes cut off.
The BBC's Shoaib Hassan, in Islamabad, says it is the most important battle yet in the army's offensive against the Taliban in Swat.
A swift victory would bolster public support for a greater fight against the militants, our correspondent adds.
Exodus
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the military had entered Mingora, but denied that any militants had been killed.
The spokesman also said the Taliban would fight the security forces to their last breath.
Residents say the militants are still in control of the city.
Nearly 1.5 million people have been displaced by this month's fighting in the north-western region, and about two million since last August, the United Nations refugee agency says.
One resident who fled the Mingora area told the BBC that he was among many who had lost everything.
"Our homes were destroyed - we left behind our cattle and our properties," he said. "We walked all the way and had to walk for two days on the mountains."
On Friday, the UN appealed for $543m in humanitarian aid to help those displaced by the conflict.
Pakistan's army began an offensive against the Taliban on 2 May after the peace deal broke down and the militants began expanding their area of influence.
A recent investigation by the BBC suggested that less than half of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), which contains Swat Valley, and the neighbouring Federally Administered Tribal Areas is under full government control.
In Swat, the army says that about 15,000 members of the security forces are fighting between 4,000 and 5,000 militants.
It says more than 1,000 militants and more than 50 soldiers have been killed since the offensive began.
TWO SIDES TO DEMOCRACY
In the early hours of May 17, while the rest of India was asleep after an election conducted honestly and won fairly, a massive contingent of police and paramilitary descended on a Gandhian ashram in the interior of Chhattisgarh. They woke up the sleeping social workers, and gave them exactly one hour to pack their belongings. The Gandhians were then escorted outside the ashram that had been their home, thus making way for the bulldozers that had been sent to demolish it. The machines were supervised by some 500 men in uniform, variously owing allegiance to the Central Reserve Police Force and the Chhattisgarh state police. Over the course of that Sunday, as the rest of India was considering the consequences of the election just held, the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram in Dantewada was razed to the ground. The office, the training hall, the staff quarters, even the tubewells — nothing was spared.
In the summer of 2006, I had myself eaten several meals in that ashram in Dantewada. Its founder, Himanshu, is a sharp-eyed, well-built, and forever smiling man in his late forties. Originally from Meerut, he was inspired by Vinoba Bhave and Nirmala Deshpande to devote his life to the adivasis of central India. In 1992, he moved with his wife to Dantewada to fulfil his calling. He recruited a group of local boys and girls, and with their assistance worked on bringing education and healthcare to the adivasis.
By the time I visited the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, it had established a solid presence in the district. Its campus lay in the little village of Kanwalnar, about 10 miles from Dantewada town. Ringed by mango trees, the ashram contained a set of low, modest buildings where the members lived. From this home in the forest they ventured out into the surrounding countryside, to work among the Gonds and Koyas and Murias of the district.
The activities of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram would be reckoned by most people in most times to be uncontroversial. But these are dangerous times in Dantewada, with a civil war raging between Maoist revolutionaries and a vigilante group promoted by the state administration and known as Salwa Judum. In this war, the tribals are caught in-between — so are Gandhian social workers. No one living in the district of Dantewada is now allowed to be neutral, to condemn even-handedly the barbaric acts of the Naxalites as well as the barbaric acts of the Salwa Judum.
As a consequence of the civil war, more than 50,000 tribals in Dantewada have been uprooted from their homes. Some left voluntarily; while many others were forcibly displaced by the Salwa Judum or by the Maoists. These refugees live in camps strung along the main road, in leaking and unstable tents, and without proper access to food, water, and means of employment. Many victims of the civil war fled across the border to Andhra Pradesh, where they live in equally pathetic conditions.
After months of living in this way, some tribals asked that they be allowed to return to their villages, so that they could live in their own homes, and close to their lands and their livestock. While the state wanted them to stay on in the camps, the villagers were encouraged to go back by the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram. Thus Himanshu and his co-workers set about rehabilitating those adivasis who wished to have no more of life in the camps.
The pretext behind the demolition of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram is that the campus has ‘encroached’ on government forest land. The Gandhians, on the other hand, insist that they built on revenue land acquired legally and with permission from the local panchayat. The case is currently being heard in the local courts. Rather than await the court’s verdict, the district authorities uniliaterally chose to demolish the ashram, in what is very clearly an act of vindictive retaliation against the refusal by these Gandhians to wholly condone the support to the Salwa Judum of the Chhattisgarh state government.
As it happened, four students from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore were visiting Dantewada on the weekend of 16/17 May. They were thus eye-witnesses to the ashram’s demolition. One scholar I spoke to said that the sub-divisional magistrate directing the operations, Ankit Anand, was particularly belligerent. When a student weakly protested, Anand commanded the police to have him silenced. The boy was taken away, beaten up, and asked to confess that the good Gandhian Himanshu was (a) an agent of the Naxalites; and (b) running a prostitution racket.
It was surely not an accident that the state of Chhattisgarh chose the very weekend that the election results were being declared to carry out this savage act of retribution. Who, at a time like this, would care about a violation of democracy in a remote and inaccessible corner of the country while the world was celebrating the victory of democracy in India as a whole? For this writer, the juxtaposition of these two events was powerfully symbolic. For I have long argued that India is a ‘50-50’ democracy. In the formal, institutional sense of holding fair elections contested by many parties, allowing freedom of movement for its citizens, and nurturing a free press, India is indeed democratic. But in other respects, it falls short of the democratic ideal. Kin and caste play far too important a part in politics and governance. Levels of corruption among politicians and officials are unacceptably high. The autonomy of the judiciary is somewhat compromised. The use of force by the State is often capricious and arbitrary.
Even in safe and (mostly) peaceable places like my hometown, Bangalore, one can occasionally encounter the dark side of Indian democracy — as in tax officials who take bribes, or politicians who fill in common waterbodies and sell them to private builders. But it is in the conflict zones of Kashmir, the Northeast, and central India, that the State shows itself at its most unappealing. To be sure, there are extenuating circumstances, such as separatist movements and revolutionary struggles. But to explain is not to apologize. One must condemn the violence used by the Naxalites and by the Kashmiri insurgents. One must yet insist that the Indian State, our State, be held to a higher order of morality and accountability.
Over the past few years, the government of Chhattisgarh has had a particularly undistinguished record in this respect. The burning of adivasi villages under the government-sponsored Salwa Judum has been documented in a series of independent reports. Then there is the unconscionable incarceration without bail of the respected social worker and doctor, Binayak Sen, on the very flimsy charge of carrying a letter from one Naxalite to another. Now comes this savage act of retribution against a group of law-abiding, peace-loving, and utterly non-violent Gandhians.
Supporters of the Chhattisgarh government deflect such criticism by pointing to the fact that the chief minister of the state has won a series of elections. But democracy does not begin and end with the counting of votes. Those elected to political office are sworn to uphold the rule of law, and to honour the ideals of the Indian Constitution. This holds true at the national as well as provincial levels. It applies equally to Congress-led governments as to Bharatiya Janata Party-led ones. So long as incidents such as the demolition of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram occur and recur, India will not count as much more than a 50 per cent democracy.
ramguh
In the summer of 2006, I had myself eaten several meals in that ashram in Dantewada. Its founder, Himanshu, is a sharp-eyed, well-built, and forever smiling man in his late forties. Originally from Meerut, he was inspired by Vinoba Bhave and Nirmala Deshpande to devote his life to the adivasis of central India. In 1992, he moved with his wife to Dantewada to fulfil his calling. He recruited a group of local boys and girls, and with their assistance worked on bringing education and healthcare to the adivasis.
By the time I visited the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, it had established a solid presence in the district. Its campus lay in the little village of Kanwalnar, about 10 miles from Dantewada town. Ringed by mango trees, the ashram contained a set of low, modest buildings where the members lived. From this home in the forest they ventured out into the surrounding countryside, to work among the Gonds and Koyas and Murias of the district.
The activities of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram would be reckoned by most people in most times to be uncontroversial. But these are dangerous times in Dantewada, with a civil war raging between Maoist revolutionaries and a vigilante group promoted by the state administration and known as Salwa Judum. In this war, the tribals are caught in-between — so are Gandhian social workers. No one living in the district of Dantewada is now allowed to be neutral, to condemn even-handedly the barbaric acts of the Naxalites as well as the barbaric acts of the Salwa Judum.
As a consequence of the civil war, more than 50,000 tribals in Dantewada have been uprooted from their homes. Some left voluntarily; while many others were forcibly displaced by the Salwa Judum or by the Maoists. These refugees live in camps strung along the main road, in leaking and unstable tents, and without proper access to food, water, and means of employment. Many victims of the civil war fled across the border to Andhra Pradesh, where they live in equally pathetic conditions.
After months of living in this way, some tribals asked that they be allowed to return to their villages, so that they could live in their own homes, and close to their lands and their livestock. While the state wanted them to stay on in the camps, the villagers were encouraged to go back by the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram. Thus Himanshu and his co-workers set about rehabilitating those adivasis who wished to have no more of life in the camps.
The pretext behind the demolition of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram is that the campus has ‘encroached’ on government forest land. The Gandhians, on the other hand, insist that they built on revenue land acquired legally and with permission from the local panchayat. The case is currently being heard in the local courts. Rather than await the court’s verdict, the district authorities uniliaterally chose to demolish the ashram, in what is very clearly an act of vindictive retaliation against the refusal by these Gandhians to wholly condone the support to the Salwa Judum of the Chhattisgarh state government.
As it happened, four students from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore were visiting Dantewada on the weekend of 16/17 May. They were thus eye-witnesses to the ashram’s demolition. One scholar I spoke to said that the sub-divisional magistrate directing the operations, Ankit Anand, was particularly belligerent. When a student weakly protested, Anand commanded the police to have him silenced. The boy was taken away, beaten up, and asked to confess that the good Gandhian Himanshu was (a) an agent of the Naxalites; and (b) running a prostitution racket.
It was surely not an accident that the state of Chhattisgarh chose the very weekend that the election results were being declared to carry out this savage act of retribution. Who, at a time like this, would care about a violation of democracy in a remote and inaccessible corner of the country while the world was celebrating the victory of democracy in India as a whole? For this writer, the juxtaposition of these two events was powerfully symbolic. For I have long argued that India is a ‘50-50’ democracy. In the formal, institutional sense of holding fair elections contested by many parties, allowing freedom of movement for its citizens, and nurturing a free press, India is indeed democratic. But in other respects, it falls short of the democratic ideal. Kin and caste play far too important a part in politics and governance. Levels of corruption among politicians and officials are unacceptably high. The autonomy of the judiciary is somewhat compromised. The use of force by the State is often capricious and arbitrary.
Even in safe and (mostly) peaceable places like my hometown, Bangalore, one can occasionally encounter the dark side of Indian democracy — as in tax officials who take bribes, or politicians who fill in common waterbodies and sell them to private builders. But it is in the conflict zones of Kashmir, the Northeast, and central India, that the State shows itself at its most unappealing. To be sure, there are extenuating circumstances, such as separatist movements and revolutionary struggles. But to explain is not to apologize. One must condemn the violence used by the Naxalites and by the Kashmiri insurgents. One must yet insist that the Indian State, our State, be held to a higher order of morality and accountability.
Over the past few years, the government of Chhattisgarh has had a particularly undistinguished record in this respect. The burning of adivasi villages under the government-sponsored Salwa Judum has been documented in a series of independent reports. Then there is the unconscionable incarceration without bail of the respected social worker and doctor, Binayak Sen, on the very flimsy charge of carrying a letter from one Naxalite to another. Now comes this savage act of retribution against a group of law-abiding, peace-loving, and utterly non-violent Gandhians.
Supporters of the Chhattisgarh government deflect such criticism by pointing to the fact that the chief minister of the state has won a series of elections. But democracy does not begin and end with the counting of votes. Those elected to political office are sworn to uphold the rule of law, and to honour the ideals of the Indian Constitution. This holds true at the national as well as provincial levels. It applies equally to Congress-led governments as to Bharatiya Janata Party-led ones. So long as incidents such as the demolition of the Vanvasi Chetna Ashram occur and recur, India will not count as much more than a 50 per cent democracy.
ramguh
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