Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Letter to the Editor: Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's Rohinga Muslims' plight

November 15, 2012

Letter to the Editor:

RE : Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's Rohinga Muslims' plight

Two persons died in police firing on a rally protesting against the Burmese Government genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign that killed and displaced hundreds and thousands of Rohinga Muslims. Now that Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is in India and meeting External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, India as a neighbour and signatory of International Human Rights covenants, should raise the matter with her and seek urgent remedial, rehabilitation actions to remedy the situation in Myanmar, through her intervention. India has a duty to raise Human Rights issues with friendly neighbouring countries to amicably solve the problem now engaging world attention and condemnation. Aung San Suu Kyi should not forget how the world stood for her for decades, in her fight for her personal human rights. She owes it to the world and to her own people, to give human rights the first and foremost priority, in her quest to seek world approval of her country joining the free and democratic international community.

Ghulam Muhammed,
IDRAAK, Mumbai

<Idraak@gmail.com>
<ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com>

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http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/suu-kyi-to-meet-salman-khurshid-today_811037.html

Suu Kyi to meet Salman Khurshid today

Last Updated: Thursday, November 15, 2012, 09:53

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Myanmar's opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will meet External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday, on day 3 of her visit to India.

On Wednesday, the pro-democracy leader Kyi on Wednesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed the process of national reconciliation and democratisation in her country.

She also noted that while New Delhi had once "drawn away" from the struggle for democracy in Myanmar, she hoped that India will now stand by her in "the last difficult phase" ahead.

Suu Kyi’s six-day visit to India, where she studied, is her first visit to the country in a quarter century.

India has rolled out the red carpet for Myanmar's pro-democracy icon - part of diplomatic outreach to build across-the-spectrum linkages with the energy-rich Southeast Asian country which has embraced democratic reforms after decades of the all-powerful junta rule.

On Friday, Suu Kyi will visit the Lady Shriram College, or LSR, as the college is known, to meet the principal, students and faculty.

"The college will felicitate her and try to make her feel good and nostalgic," Veena Ravikumar, an associate professor at the LSR's political science department, said.

"She will meet final year students of the political science department. We will present a little programme," she added.

"Two of my students will interview her for the department journal," she added.

One of Suu Kyi's cloest friends from her younger days, Malavika Karlekar, has described the Myanmar leader as a "quiet, obedient girl with a great flair for creating writing".

She lived with her mother Aung San or Daw Khin Kyi as she was known on 24, Akbar Road, which is now the Congress party headquarters.

Her mother had been named the ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960.

The young woman, who later battled the Myanmar military junta, did her schooling here at the Convent of Jesus and Mary before joining LSR, one of Delhi's most reputed colleges.

For higher education, she moved to St Hugh's College at Oxford. She was also a Fellow for two years at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. Over the years, she came to be influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and Buddhist thoughts.

(With IANS inputs)

S. Africa's Public Prosecutor to investigate Israel's 2010 attack on Gaza aid ship

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Media Releases <media@bdssouthafrica.com>
Date: Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 5:23 PM
Subject: S. Africa's Public Prosecutor to investigate Israel's 2010 attack on Gaza aid ship
To: ghulammuhammed3@gmail.com


MEDIA STATEMENT: S. Africa's Public Prosecutor to investigate Israel's 2010 attack on Gaza aid ship
14 November 2012

Today's decision by  South Africa's National Directorate of Public Prosecutions to investigate Israel’s 2010 boarding and attack on the Gaza humanitarian aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, has been welcomed by BDS South Africa (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel in South Africa) and the Palestine Solidarity Alliance.


The aid ship was en-route from Turkey to the Gaza Strip when it is was boarded in international waters by Israeli commandos resulting in the deaths of 9 humanitarian workers. The aid ship was carrying one South African passenger, Ms Gadija Davids, a Cape Town based journalist.


At a press conference earlier this morning, lawyers representing Ms Davids explained that the South Africa's Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU), a Division of South Africa's National Director of Public Prosecutions, as well as the South African Police Services (SAPS) has taken a decision to officially investigate as well as communicate the matter to the International Criminal Court.

Attorney Ziyaad Patel, explained that Ms Davids together with other civilians on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, were subjected to "inhumane treatment" by Israel, which is considered a violation of their rights, crimes against humanity (Schedule 1 of the Rome Statute) and war crimes (Schedule 3 of the Rome Statute). Davids treatment included  being handcuffed with plastic cable ties, being left to sit in the sun for hours, all whilst guarded by "balaclava-clad Israeli naval soldiers". Davids was later incarcerated in an Israeli prison and denied access to South African consular assistance.

On the 27th of September 2010, a fact-finding report into the2009 Israeli attacks on the Mavi Marmara aid ship was published by the United Nations.  The UN report found that Israeli forces had violated international law during and after their lethal attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship, the report said: "The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law." Four months later, in January 2011, Davids together with her legal representative requested the South African Police Services and South Africa's National Director of Public Prosecutions to institute a criminal investigation and prosecute those Israelis responsible for international crimes committed during the attack.
Today, in a letter addressed to Davids' legal representative, South Africa's Priority Crimes Litigation Unit, a Division of South Africa's National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, stated that: "After due consultation with the South African Police Services (SAPS)...we are of the opinion that reasonable grounds exist for an investigation into this matter and therefore have opened a case docket...the jurisdictional requirements contained in the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the Criminal Court Act 27 of 2002 and our law in general (especially our criminal procedure) are met".

Ms Davids welcomed today's decision: “[It] instills my faith and credibility in South Africa’s commitment to the protection of human rights".

Davids' legal representative also welcomed the decision: "[It] enforces the rule of law, respect for human rights and South Africa’s responsibility in meeting its international obligations. The South African Police Services and [South Africa's] National Directorate of Public Prosecutions should therefore be commended and supported for this decision.”

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Letter to the Editor: Mushrooming of Muslim outfits - By Ghulam Muhammed

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Letter to the Editor

Mushrooming of Muslim outfits

In the backdrop of withdrawal of support to Congress coalition government in Andhra Pradesh by MIM (Majlise Ittehadul Muslameen), that threatened the state government which has come into minority, the use of the new term for Muslim assertion: Mushrooming of Muslim outfits, by Congress General Secretary, Digvijay Singh, points to a new phase in Muslim politics in India. Not confined to Andhra Pradesh, the movement to float new Muslim led political parties all over the country in different states, poses a grave threat to Congress as a ‘national’ party that could rule in the centre, with support from its own tally of Members of Parliament and from coalition partners, as all such Muslim political parties – derogatorily and contemptuously branded by Digvijay Singh as ‘OUTFITS’, are directly eroding the Congress Muslim vote bank, that had assured Congress continuous supremacy in the pecking order of political parties. Though the trend is still in its infancy, the results, say in Uttar Pradesh, where Muslim parties, had registered an impressive showing, as the formula of inclusiveness, now borrowed by these new comers from Congress itself,  is giving the Muslim outfit across the board support from all communities. These political parties, are fully aware of the power of mixed constituencies, and are ready to offer tickets to other community members, who represent majority vote bank in their local constituencies. Since it is only the beginning, all such Muslim political parties have more flexibility than the two Brahminical bigwigs, who are reluctant to share power with others. Muslim political parties have no such hang-ups. They know the limits of their voting power, and now concentrating on wheeling and dealing first to destruct the vote banks of other parties, and later build up their own distinct identities. Congress and BJP, the two Brahminical outfits that proudly present themselves as natural party of governance to rule India, are now finding a new entrant with some past reference to rule and govern India and that too in a more celebratory secular ethos than that practiced by the both the Brahminical exclusivist outfits.

Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai