[DAWN] IT will indeed be a rare feat for an Afghan ruler to leave office alive and hand over the charge to his elected successor. The historical presidential election in Afghanistan is over but the outcome is still far away with no clear winner in sight.
It is certainly heading towards a run-off. No candidate is likely to win 50pc of the votes cast last week. Partial results indicate that it would most probably be a run-off between the two candidates -- Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , a suave former foreign minister and Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank senior executive -- leading the race.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] ... The United Nations fiddled while Rwanda imploded 20 years ago, and has sporadically been wringing its hands ever since. The helpless Ban knows that, in the context of CAR, a six-month wait means leaving it much too late. Cue: another bout of vigorous hand-wringing.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
An area gone mad with nearly half a century of sectarian violence. The UN should be blamed for only one thing, attempting to stop it. These people dance to a different synaptic drummer. Leave them to their work.
#2
The unintended farce here is this is exactly the excuses the Europeans used in their colonization of the continent. The locals can't handle it. It's for peace and progress. The difference being now its to be done by the kleptocrats of the UN under the multi-national banner who are largely a bunch of left wingers. Remember these are the people who referred to the European colonial experience as 'evil'.
#3
The colonizers built roads and schools and health clinics. The UN troops aren't doing any such thing, which proves them ever so much better than the evil ones of that earlier time.
#4
Correct TW, reading & writing, maths, modern medicine, religions of all types, the basic elements of modern civilization. Unfortunately, that won't end the popular 'blame game' set against the long departed colonizers. The jungle drumbeat and legacy of oppressive colonialism, apartheid, Zionism, and slavery must continue.
#5
You can bring religion, schools, technology, but time and time again, all of this will do nothing to jump a people through evolution. They are 2000 years behind western civilization, to think that with a few books, roads, and Christ you can catch them up in a few decades is foolish.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/16/2014 11:20 Comments ||
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#6
UN's first three involvements were Kashmir, Israel and Korea and all three are still global hotspots. Why would anyone want the UN involved?
#7
In fact I read an article that suggested that smaller factions know that in the modern era they will be bailed out before being destroyed and this helps keep conflicts going longer than in the past.
[DAWN] IN the ebb and flow of negotiations between the federal government and the outlawed TTP, the government appears to have lost its way of late.
Everything seems to be taking place on the TTP's timeline and to the TTP's liking, be it the extension of the ceasefire or the release of prisoners or when and how to engage the government in the next round of talks.
Meanwhile, ...back at the alley, Slats Chumbaloni was staring into a hole that was just .45 inch in diameter and was less than three feet from his face ... the government seems reduced to, if not quite grovelling, waiting around for the TTP to decide if it still wants to talk and which further concessions it will demand from the government.
Sadly, even the most forceful public criticism of the government's negotiations strategy is also proving to be myopic with the PPP seemingly focused on just the release of two scions of party members instead of a broader criticism of a process that is turning out to be lopsided.
If there is anything that can be discerned about the government's approach to negotiating with the TTP it is this: keep the ceasefire going as long as possible.
Beyond that there is little that can be said about what the government has demanded so far of the TTP. Abiding by the Constitution and keeping any deal confined to a geographical area where the TTP is in the ascendant were the baselines set by the government.
But what do those mean in practice? Where, for example, are the demands to hand over turbans who are caught violating the ceasefire? And if even that small demand has not been made, then what of the more significant, and important ones, such as renouncing violence, expelling foreign turbans and allowing the state apparatus to function freely again in Fata and parts of KP? Unhappily, the show being run by Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan with the explicit backing of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... is drifting towards farce with the government making many promises while the TTP merrily goes along their way.
In fact, so lopsided has the process become that the TTP has turned to deal with internal schisms and fighting first while essentially telling the government to wait until the TTP leadership is ready to focus on talks again. Surely, this is not what dialogue was meant to be?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/16/2014 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] IN the ebb and flow of negotiations between the federal government and the outlawed TTP, the government appears to have lost its way of late.
Nawaz Sharif
