Paying the true price: Africa whistleblowers an endangered lot

Five and a half years after announcing the end of violence, ETA unilaterally handed over their remaining weapons to the French authorities in an act last weekend. It is a landmark that, although late, will be important to return political and social normality to the Basque Country.

Although the move was welcomed by Basque society, its clear that the final goal has yet to be fully achieved: the total dissolution of the armed group that during 43 years of activity caused more than 800 deaths in the name of Basque independence.

ETA’s defeat was inflicted mainly by the Spanish and French security forces. But at the same time, the struggle of a civil society that increasingly refused to accept the use of violence to achieve political objectives was also crucial. However, the absence of an official peace process in the Basque Country, such as in Northern Ireland with the IRA or in Colombia with the FARC, adds to the difficulty of achieving such purposes.

To a large extent, the incumbent Popular Party's unwillingness to negotiate with the Basque separatist group has indeed been an obstacle to the peace process. It was, moreover, the only Spanish party to disqualify the handing over of ETA’s weapons. While all other parties spoke of a "historical moment," the PP simply referred to the disarmament as "a media stunt."

Despite clearly supporting the peace process in Colombia, PP does not show the same tolerance within its own territory. Acting in a narrow-minded way, instead of defending the general interest, the PP has not only refused to collaborate but has even obstructed the peace process in the Basque Country. For decades, the conservative party has tried to use ETA's violence to garner political support in their hard-line opposition and consequently continues to take no part in peace negotiations.

In order for Basque and Spanish society to finally close the chapter of decades marked by bloodshed and violence, it’s vital that both sides are willing to move on from the violent past. If, on one hand, ETA must take the final step of apologising for the atrocities committed, it would be, on the other hand, beneficial in facilitating the closure of the peace process if Madrid changed its penitentiary policy in dealing with ETA prisoners and recognised victims of violence carried out by the State itself.

Admittedly, it's not the best title, but this article has been called something deliberately banal - something dull and descriptive for an uneventful thing. By-elections are normally not anything special, but the one which took place yesterday has left six people dead, and many more injured.

Protestors stormed polling stations in the Srinagar district, causing damage to electronic voting machines and other equipment - but it has not emerged whether they directly injured any other citizens. Paramilitary forces (an extra 20,000 Indian troops were deployed to the region for the election - just to give you an idea of what is at stake during a Kasmiri by-election) then opened fire on the crowds in several separate areas. They used bullets and shotgun pellets to fire into crowds of protestors - leaving six people dead.

The protestors were challenging Indian-rule - a decades long struggle for millions of Kashmiris, who feel more closely aligned with Pakistan. The division of the region into Indian- and Pakistani-administered zones has been a point of high controversy since India achieved independence and Pakistan was created in 1947. Indeed, the first war between the nations took place in 1947 and was precipitated by the problem of Kashmir's sovereignty. Since then, two other wars have been fought over the region.

A by-election therefore, is not a banal issue.

Kashmiri separatists are diverse in their aims; With many favouring handing over control of the region to Pakistan, and others seeking to create a totally independent state. In some sense however, the region is more than a flashpoint between two nuclear nations (and potentially three, since China administers a third, smaller portion of Kashmir) - but it represents the classic conflict of our time: How does identity shape politics?

Identity politics might have come to denote 'micropolitics' and 'structural bias', and related concepts, but in many parts of the world, identity politics is politics. It is the entire way in which politics is conceived - from Northern Ireland to Northern India, the ways in which people come to understand and relate to history shapes the entire way they think about the future. This is why people who do not want to be politically aligned with India fight against it - they see a history of oppression, of religious intolerance and exclusion: Not the multicultural paradise India projects itself as. Some more troubling news might be that India has recently hardened in its attitudes towards political expression, with Modi's Far-Right party in charge. The flashpoint of Kashmir will ignite again, and it will be caused by an argument over who we are, and who we want to be.

Image: Getty/ BBC

News of the recent killings of six humanitarian aid workers in South Sudan has shaken the international community but reignited debate on the growing threats aid workers face even as they work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of humanity in the wake of catastrophes.

In one of the most atrocious and brazen attacks to have been meted on humanitarian workers since the civil war erupted in 2013, the aid workers, some who had barely worked for a month in their new stations, were accosted by armed militia who forced them out of their cars, ransacked and looted before shooting them in the head and back and leaving them in the streets of one of South Sudan’s hinterlands.

This ambush is the latest in a series of attacks that have now killed 12 aid workers this year alone and 79 since the war broke out in 2013. Ironically the aid workers have been in the country to address the twin catastrophes of the effects of war and the unprecedented hunger that has put over 7.5 million lives at risk of starvation.

In the same week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, two foreign UN contractors who were in the country to understand the causes and sources of conflict with a view to looking at lasting peace, had earlier been kidnapped and were later found dead with one of them having been decapitated, an incident that has sparked international furore.

Growing conflicts occasioned by emergence of new threats to peace like mutating terror groups, scramble for limited resources and climate change have exacerbated humanitarian needs especially in Africa. Indeed according to statistics global humanitarian aid spending has skyrocketed to unprecedented highs, reaching 400 per cent since 2000 to hit over $30 billion currently. The number of international aid workers has also tripled during the same period.

As the aid workers navigate unforgiving terrain and work under harsh conditions to ameliorate the suffering of those affected, it is unacceptable that they have to face torture and death.

The international community must step forward and make a strong case, which goes beyond stern warnings, to parties to conflicts to respect those who have taken up the unenviable yet noble cause of offering humanitarian aid. The firm assertion by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres following the attacks that the body would do everything possible to bring justice to the case must move beyond rhetoric to tough action. It is unimaginable what life would be without the aid workers who have rescued children caught in cross fires and spent nights in the cold to give those affected shelter and warmth. The International community must rally behind aid workers if we are to have a safe world.

The complex process of the UK exiting the European Union has repeatedly highlighted the British government´s lack of foresight in dealing with the dire consequences of Brexit. The greatest geopolitical issues have arisen in regions that voted "remain” and are being forced to leave such as Scotland, whose claims for independence have strengthened and Northern Ireland, where the possibility of a returning "hard border" threatens stability in the region and the achievements of the peace process, started 20 years ago.

In recent days, however, another British region has been hitting the headlines. With little more than 30,000 inhabitants, the often-forgotten territory of Gibraltar, situated on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, has become the latest Brexit headache, threatening to put a spoke in the wheel of negotiations with the EU. An overwhelming 95% of Gibraltarians voted to remain in the EU. Now, the possibility of border control between “the Rock” and mainland Spain has once again ignited the on-going conflicts with Madrid, backed up by Brussels.

Spain has never given up on claims to sovereignty over Gibraltar, but for several decades, the fact that both countries were in the European Union, subject to the same rules, relieved tensions. In a dramatic twist to the countries’ relations British politicians have even threatened Spain with war, reminding how the UK once confronted Argentina to keep the Falkland Islands. Once again, in order to overcome such hurdles, representatives from the UK and the EU must negotiate in a pragmatic and sensible way. Safeguarding the rights of the local population must be regarded as a priority ahead geopolitical disputes.

You sometimes get the feeling you're reading an old book, not today's paper. The descriptions are all wonky, the tropes ancient - when, for example, a country or a people is described as having certain traits (the noble, quiet Japanese culture, for example), or when a politician comes out to say that their country will go to war for honour (see: Michael Howard, Brexit, Gibraltar - oh man). But you get the feeling you're reading some kind of pre-Renaissance text when you come across how people talk about Muslims, these days, particularly when it comes to the city of Birmingham.

I grew up in Birmingham. I know what it's like. It's fun, ugly, boring and beautiful all at once. It's people are friendly and intolerant, open and welcoming, a little bit mean, a little bit generous. It's a city like many others across Europe - somehow a bit depressing, but also incredibly fun. Post-industrial, the second city, London's little brother - people from all over the world, getting on, not getting on, just chilling, working hard. What can I say? It's a city. You know what cities are like.

So when I read that the city of Birmingham is a city of Muslims, by which the writer obviously means it's a city of terrorists or something similar, I feel personally offended - obviously offended by the insinuation that generally Muslims=terrorists, but also, offended by the lack of research, the lack of enquiry. You might as well be reading Marco Polo crossing into a Land of the Mohammedan, an early venture in to the strange tribal rites of the Mussalman.

Obviously, some of my fellow Brummies feel the same way - check out this article from Al Jazeera. The city's Muslim population feels castigated - it feels threatened. And it is - after the attack on Westminster last week, several of the city's residents were arrested - and released - without charge. Never mind, as soon as the arrest is made, it's once again a case of all Muslims being bad, etc. The thing is, people from Muslim communities are well aware of the tensions and pressures which exist in their community, and in broader society, which may lead to certain people to potentiate beliefs into something more violent. However, this is a fact always overlooked - instead, the media repeats the dumb equation ad infinitum - all Muslims are terrorists. It's absurd, ridiculous, unsubtle, archaic and belongs to the old world.

Instead, let's amplify voices from communities which are increasingly marginalised. Voices like Abdullah's, from Birmingham:

"They [the media] make out that it's the community here that's responsible for this whole problem, but we've got nothing to do with it.

"It was one person who did it but we all get the blame.

"We live side by side with our neighbours, we have no problem here."

Defying threats of terrorism, the American University of Afghanistan this week re-opened its gates in the war-riddled capital Kabul after months of closure due to a brazen militant attack last year.

This one-of-a-kind university in Afghanistan has made its mark over the years in educating and grooming a new generation of leaders in various fields. Fate of hundreds of students was in limbo as the varsity - one of the leading high-education facility in region, remained close for more than seven months. Students in the land-locked country have long remained away from modern studies, and opportunities for them to seek higher education abroad are still quite slim.

In August last year, four Taliban militants stormed the compound located on a busy street in the western part of the Afghan capital. The deadly 10-hour assault ended early on Thursday August 24, leaving at least 13 people dead, including 7 young students. Despite being purely an academic institution, the AUAF has been on the militants’ hit list merely for its association with the U.S. Two faculty members of this university American Kevin King and Australian Tim Weeks, who were abducted last year, remain in the custody of the Taliban.

The AUAF administration has been forced to acquire the services of a foreign security firm among other measures to evade any potential terrorist attack from barring the Afghans seek knowledge and wisdom.

One of AUAF’s student Rahmatullah Amiri’s return to the campus signified the resilience of the Afghans in the wake of decades’ old unrest in the country. He received three bullets during the deadly assault on the campus last year. “We will never give-up on our quest for knowledge”, he said on the occasion.

All factions involved in the Afghan conflict must realize they have to adhere to the law of the land as well as the human values to be accepted as a legitimate force in any future set-up. Attacks on academic institutions are no less than a war crime, and there should be no impunity for those involved in such blatant acts of terror.

Photo: US Embassy Kabul Afghanistan

Opportunist far right parties hurried, once again, to link the recent terrorist attack on Westminster, which killed four people, with immigration. The message is not new: we heard it after the attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels and Berlin. "We must control our borders," said Marine Le Pen, while former UKIP leader Nigel Farage claimed that Donald Trump's anti-Muslim policy was correct.

Manipulation is commonplace amongst populist politicians, who try to capitalise on atrocities and people’s fear in order to gain votes. Mixing immigration and religion with terrorism, the far right, imposing a discourse of "us and them" has tried to foster a distorted view of immigration and the Muslim community, blindly ignoring that Muslims themselves are the main victims of extremists, in countries such as Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.

Fortunately, the citizen response following the London attack showed that tolerance is overwhelmingly present in the UK. Numerous rallies took place all over Britain condemning the terrorist attack, including one symbolic act featuring Muslim women on Westminster Bridge showing their solidarity. Moreover, London, the most multicultural capital city in Europe, is a great example of progression, integration and diversity. The Muslim mayor of the city, Sadiq Khan said precisely that the terrorists target cities like London because its citizens "respect, embrace and celebrate one another". This is the only way to tackle extremism: demonstrating tolerance and respect. However, on the other hand, racist and islamophobic right-wing propaganda only contributes to exacerbate it.

As the world embraced the global goals for sustainable development in 2015, with a clarion call to communities of the world to actively champion an end to poverty, protect the environment and ensure prosperity for all, Africa was equally charting its own destiny with the declaration of a 50 year development plan dubbed Agenda 2063 and chaperoned by the African Union.

Indeed it is a noble and ambitious plan that if executed to the letter, could transform the continent thanks to the seven distinct pillars that seek to actualize it including one of a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development, a peaceful and secure Africa, An African whose development is people driven among others. It goes on to capture what ails Africa and prescribes the most prolific and life changing solutions. But therein lies the problem. Africa has been here before. Tons of researches, declarations and recommendations following high powered African Union conferences are still gathering dust in shelves unimplemented even after millions of dollars were spent on them.

Majority of Africans still ponder. Why do we need another declaration or plan yet since the existence of the AU predecessor the Organization of African Union it has been the same old tune that doesn’t translate to better lives for Africans.

Policy makers can harp all the praises to the populace but if the benefits of all these declarations and agendas do not trickle down to them, it is all flogging a dead horse.

Every African need to be made an active part of this agenda. National governments should be made to adopt it into their own national plans, schools should embrace it as part of the curriculum, right from primary schools up to institutions of higher learning. There should be clear cut predefined periods and metrics of measuring how the execution of the agenda is progressing. Otherwise before we know it, it will be 2050 and all we will have is the same continent and an agenda that will be relegated to the books of history.

Arrival of spring marks the beginning of New Year in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin and the Balkans. The first day of the New Year ‘Nauroz has been celebrated in many traditional ways in this part of the world for centuries. There are, however, resistance to these traditions from more orthodox and extremist forces who see it as a pre-Islamic era practice that needs to be dropped.

This year, the day fell on Tuesday, March 21. On this very day, a group of students associated with the Islamist party- the Jamiat-e-Islami Pakistan, stormed a Nauroz party on the Punjab University campus. The ‘Islami Jamiat Talba’ beat those gathered there to welcome the New Year, and set their belongings on fire. The IJT is a right-wing student body that often operates in university campuses across the country as the de facto moral police. IJT members have in the past objected to Valentine's Day celebrations and the playing of music at certain cultural events.

The day is meant to embrace each other, celebrate the gifts of nature and promote the culture of coexistence.

In Afghanistan for instance, people prepare ‘Haft Mewa’ (the Seven Fruits) on the New Year's Day-made from seven different dried fruits served in their own syrup, for the friends, relatives and neighbours who visit each other’s homes on this day. Similar traditions of sharing happiness exist in Iran, the Central Asian states, Turkey, Iraq, Albania, Armenia, China, Georgia and many other countries.

In some countries, the farmer community are commemorated for their services throughout the year.

None of these practices disrespect any religion or community. As part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Nauroz belongs to everyone, and those trying to resist it with force, and impose their agenda violently needs to be stopped.