As I write these words, demonstrations are unfolding in the public squares of Syrian cities and towns, as they have done every Friday for the last eleven months, since the people of Dir’a first took to the streets to manifest their discontent at the indignities imposed upon them by the Asad regime.

Grainy scenes of crowds heaving, swaying, chanting slogans, singing revolutionary songs flash across the screens of Arab satellite channels, scenes of jubilant defiance and anger.

And, as I write, the violent repression of these protests continues. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and al-Jazeera (in Arabic) report that 25 individuals have been killed already in the besieged city of Homs and the countryside of Damascus. Another 83 died yesterday across Syria, according to the Observatory, while the Local Coordination Councils put the figure higher still, at 126 – 107 of them in Homs alone.

Overnight, army tanks entered the Insha’at neighbourhood of Homs, prompting fears of a broader ground assault, to follow the week-long artillery campaign on the city, which activists estimate has led to the loss of more than 400 lives.

Reports emerging from the city testify to the use of long-range shells and mortar to pound the residential neighbourhoods of Bab ‘Amru, al-Khalidiyya, al-Insha’at, and Bayyada, and to a worsening humanitarian situation. Human Rights Watch reports that hospitals are unable to cope with the number of casualties, while Al-Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Rula al-Amin reports that medical supplies and food are running dangerously low (see links above).

There is no doubt that armed contingents of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are present in several neighbourhoods of Homs. However, these deserters number no more than a few hundred or thousand men – a stark reminder of the deep asymmetries of power between these dissident forces and the Syrian regime, which has insistently claimed that it is faced an uprising by ‘armed bands’ (‘isabat), while using to the fullest its military superiority.

In other places, including the coastal cities of Banias and Latakia, in the ‘Alawi heartlands, and the Damascus suburbs of Duma and Daraya, troops have deployed to prevent demonstrators from congregating after Friday prayers.

Meanwhile, several car explosions went off in the northern city of Aleppo, killing 25 and injuring more than 175 according to Syrian state television, which has blamed the attacks on “armed terrorist gangs”.

The General Council for the Syrian Revolution, for its part, has accused the regime of plotting the attacks to foment unrest. This claim was echoed by an activist in the city itself who, citing ‘suspicious activity by security personnel’ in the moments before the explosion, told the BBC that “we hold the Syrian regime entirely responsible for this action”.

Further confusion has arisen from the conflicting claims of different contingents within the FSA. While one officer reportedly told Al-Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Rula al-Amin that the FSA was responsible for the attacks, the Syrian National Council has issued a statement from the FSA in which it categorically denies any role in the attacks.

This latest blast will only increase the virulent controversy in the blogosphere between supporters of the regime, who see in them confirmation of government claims that the protests of the past year are born of a ‘terrorist’ ‘conspiracy’, and its opponents, who believe that they are one more cynical act of official violence, designed to keep the populations of first Damascus, and now Aleppo, quiescent.

Syria, it is clear, has entered a vicious spiral of violence. The spectre of instability, which the Baathist regimes of Hafiz and Bashar al-Asad have long boasted of holding at bay while neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq were consumed by internecine strife, is now at the door.

Many within the country, of course, had already resigned themselves to protracted unrest before the failure of the UN Security Council to reach agreement on a Draft Resolution supporting the Arab League’s efforts to secure a negotiated transition of power in Syria on the Yemeni model.

However, it does seem that the decision of Russia and China to veto this Draft Resolution has galvanized both the regime and the opposition to ramp up their activities.

While the regime has seen this veto as a license to continue in its repression, the continuing division of the international community on the vexed question of Syria has only added to the intransigence of many activists; despairing at their enforced isolation, they have become more obdurate still in their desire not to give in.

Thus, in a video message circulated on social networks on 6 February, the Humsi activist Khalid Abu Salah allied a call for assistance with a message of resilience. After appealing to ‘every noble human being to save us here in Baba ‘Amr, to save the children and the women in Baba ‘Amr’, he turns away from the camera for a brief moment, as gunfire resounds outside, and the clip seems to draw to an end.

Then, turning back, he addresses words of defiance to the Syrian president: ‘Ya Bashar, don’t think we’re going to surrender, if you killed all of us we wouldn’t surrender … if you killed all of us we wouldn’t surrender’.

Khalid Abu Salah’s “Appeal to the Free World”

There is no doubt whom Syrian opposition activists blame for the lack of support they receive. While the Local Coordination Committees have in the past berated the general inaction of the international community, naming one of their Friday demonstrations, in a sharp rejoinder to the international community, ‘Your silence is killing us’, they have chosen to call this Friday ‘Russia is killing our children’.

Russia has responded in kind to this deliberately emotive message. In a statement issued earlier today, its Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, accused the West of being “accomplices in the process of inflaming the crisis”, and insisted that the opposition’s refusal to enter into talks with the regime of Bashar al-Asad meant that it “bears full responsibility for improving the situation”.

It is clear that Russia feels stung by what it regards as a deliberate manipulation of the Security Council to prosecute regime change in Libya, and many critics of intervention have echoed its claims that any international action in Syria would be ruinous.

In a particularly caustic piece, the Columbia professor Joseph Massad has claimed that intervention of one kind or another would only serve what he calls ‘American imperialism in the Middle East’, berating the ‘exile opposition’ for having ‘hijacked the popular uprising against the Asad dynasty’.

But such claims overlook two crucial factors.

The first is that there exists no stark divide between opponents of the regime within the country and those in the Syrian mahjar, or diaspora. Opposition activists certainly disagree on key issues – not least that of international intervention – but the schism does not run along geographical lines.

The Syrian National Council itself, despite repeated assertions to the contrary, is not simply an exilic organization with few ties to those within Syria. While its figurehead, Barhun Ghaliun, has long been settled in France, other members of its executive committee, like Samir Nachar, have only very recently left Syria.

In a note posted on its Facebook page a few weeks before the official announcement of its formation on 1 October 2011, the SNC itself claimed that while 60% of its members were abroad, another 40% remained within Syria itself.

Moreover, it is clear that the SNC, far from the pipe-dream of ambitious émigré schemers, developed from reformist trends within Syria in the early to mid-2000s, such as the Damascus Declaration of 2005.

The second is that Russia and China, by blocking the proposed resolution, have themselves intervened in this internal conflict. Though some have justified their claims by pointing to the need to respect the sovereignty of the Syrian state, the notion that the West is, alone, contemplating intervention is harder to countenance.

To intervene, one need not put troops on the ground, send fighter planes or frigates – though, of course, Russia has already done so, having despatched a naval flotilla led by the aircraft carrier Kuznetsov to its own naval base in Tartus in November 2011, in a show of support for the regime of Bashar al-Asad…

Zhang and Harper meet in Ottawa on February 1. (c) Reuters

The Chinese Ambassador to Canada, H.E. Zhang Junsai, spoke at a luncheon at the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations today. The Montreal Gazette has an article on his talk, emphasizing the fact that he twice affirmed that China is committed to peace in the Arctic.

A member of the audience that the newspaper reported to be a “specialist in Arctic and northern security issues” asked Zhang about the region, and he responded, “We hope that this will be solved by peaceful means. I don’t know much about this but we would like to participate and be (an) observer. We hope that the countries (on the council) would support China’s request.”

CBC quoted Zhang: “My understanding, not of my government, is we should have a joint scientific research in this area because a lot of things are unknown.” Scientific research has been one area in which China has been able to contribute a lot, whether with its research expeditions on its icebreaker or its station on Ny-Alesund.

China seeks to gain permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, which Canada will begin chairing next year. There are a number of other countries on the Arctic Council, but all of them are European; none from the Far East have been admitted. Currently, Denmark supports China’s bid. This is not surprising given the recent increase in trade between the two countries and China’s high hopes for investing in Greenland’s minerals. Yet Norway dropped its support of Chinese observer status after Beijing cut off political and human rights dialogues with Oslo when the Nobel Committee awarded imprisoned Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo with the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2010. Beijing also took other retaliatory measures such as enforcing stricter controls on Norwegian salmon imports, causing their sales to fall dramatically. Though the Nobel Committee is made up of five members appointed by the Storting, Norway’s parliament, they are not beholden to it, so it is somewhat misguided for Beijing to take out its displeasure on Oslo.

This excerpt, taken from the Nobel Committee’s website, describes Alfred Nobel’s vision in setting up the committee and the prize.

“Nobel may also have feared that the highly political nature of the Peace Prize would make it a tool in power politics and thereby reduce its significance as an instrument for peace. A prize-committee selected by a rather progressive parliament from a small nation on the periphery of Europe, without its own foreign policy and with only a very distant past as autonomous military power, may perhaps have been expected to be more innocent in matters of power politics than would a committee from the most powerful of the Scandinavian countries, Sweden.”

The awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese activist has altered not just Chinese-Norwegian relations, but also Arctic relations. This is a world a century away from that of Nobel, indeed.

In the Guardian, Karsten Klepsvik, the senior Arctic official at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying, “I can neither confirm nor deny this story, but I can say bilateral contacts between Norway and China are at a low level.” Norway’s decision to counteract China’s snubs by blocking it in the Arctic Council shows that it is upping the stakes in the dispute by moving the chess pieces north. The Arctic, and membership in the region’s most important multilateral body, are now important enough to be used as bargaining chips. If China doesn’t back down, it will need to shore up support with other countries, like Canada, instead. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be visiting China next week, so the government will have another opportunity to convince the leader of the upcoming Arctic Council chair of its merit.

China has already invested millions in the Athabaska oil sands. It is also planning to invest in Quebec’s Plan Nord, the province’s strategy for developing its northern half. Last August, Quebec Premiere Jean Charest traveled to China and Japan to promote Asian investment in his province. On January 12, Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., China’s third-largest steelmaker, successfully closed the deal to create a joint venture with Adriana Resources, a Canadian iron ore producer, to develop deposits in Lac Otelnuk, in Nunavik, Quebec. Jilin Jien Nickel also recently announced a CAN $400 million investment in a nickel mine near Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, and it has signed agreements with three Inuit communities to pay royalties. An in-depth article that examines “la grande séduction Québec-Asie,” or Quebec’s attempts to attract Chinese and Indian investment, is a great read from Cyberpresse (in French).

China needs resources, and it will get them from the Arctic. But it might not receive a helping hand from Norway anytime soon unless it changes tack.

An animal rights activist for nearly 8 years, Mr. Anthony Stark finally decided to do something useful in saving dogs or in this case, preventing their premature death, by starting a slew campaign against the US military for using dogs in combat. This may be the 1st time an activist from PETA has decided to [...]

PETA Activist Grows a Pair, Goes After US Military is a post from: PakMediaBlog All Rights Reserved.

Faisal Khan (in cap) with Tara Gandhi, giving Khudai Khidmatgar membership to Tanzila. Photo: courtesy TCN

The Khudai Khidmatgar (Red Shirts) movement will be launched in India on Jan 20, 2012, marking the 24th death anniversary of the ‘Sarhadi Gandhi’ Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, with a membership drive, and addresses by distinguished peace activists, writers and poets
Date: January 20, 2012
Time: 3.30-5.30 pm,
Place: 5 Tees January Marg New Delhi
Contact: +91-9911292235 and +91-999050543

Speakers include

Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan: A great and enduring legacy of peace

Prof. V. K. Tripathy, Sadbhav mission, IIT Delhi, Tara Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Bharat Dogra, writer and activist, Manimala, Director, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, Majid Menon well known human rights activist and Subbar Rao well known Gandhian and president Sarvoday Samaj. Young activist Faisal, Khan (TCN Person of the Year 2011), who is behind the revival of Khudai Khidmatgar movement in India, will present a brief report.

In an email of Jan 16, 2012, Faisal Khan writes: “On January 20, 2011, at the time of launching Khudai Khidmatgar’s nation-wide membership drive at Birla House, Tees January Marg (the place, where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated), we had not anticipated such an overwhelming response from various sections of society. We had set a difficult target of enrolling 5,000 Khidmatgars (members) by January 20, 2012, i.e., within one year of revival, and started state-wise drive for membership, soon thereafter. We are likely to meet our membership target.

“All Khidmatgars may not be very active right now, but as a Khudai Khidmatgar, each one of us subscribes to, dreams of, and wishes to work towards, a society that is based on justice, empathy, and compassion, and where all-round peace and prosperity reign.

“On 20th January 2012, on the 24th death anniversary of Sarhadi Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Khudai Khidmatgars propose to initiate a wing that will actively work during disasters, man-made (such as communal- and caste- violence) and natural (cyclone etc.), both. It will be a befitting tribute to the sacrifices of Sarhadi Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi, both, and also send out the signal that Khudai Khidmatgars truly stand for the welfare of humanity.”

SOME MEDIA ON THE REVIVAL OF KHUDAI KHIDMATGARS IN INDIA

1. Frontier Gandhi: A forgotten hero – NDTV, Jan 7, 2011

2. ‘Countering communal poison has to be an ongoing process’ -TIMES OF INDIA, March 16, 2011

3. Khudai Khidmatgar revived with fifty members taking oath to serve the humanity – KHYBER WATCH, Feb 4, 2011

4. Khudai Khidmatgars in India to revive movement, INTERNATIONAL The NEWS, Feb 5, 2011

5. Membership drive of Khudai Khidmatgar conducted in 3 states, TwoCircles.net, April 21, 2011

Citizens’ statement of concern about the democratic process in Pakistan democratic and safety of human rights defenders, to be released to the media on Jan 5, 2012 (to endorse, please enter your information in the form at this link)

We, the undersigned, express our grave concern that Pakistani human rights defenders are being threatened and intimidated for their stance in the ‘memogate’ case. We are also concerned at the danger this crisis poses to Pakistan’s democratic political process that had taken a step forward with the elections of 2008.

No elected civilian government in Pakistan has yet completed its tenure and handed over power to the next government following democratic elections. If the current government manages to do this, it will be a first step in an ongoing process that is essential to Pakistan’s peace, progress and prosperity in the long run.

Those under threat include former Ambassador of Pakistan to the US, Husain Haqqani, who returned to Pakistan and tendered his resignation in order to ensure a free and fair inquiry into the ‘memogate’ matter that he is accused of engineering.

The so-called ‘memogate’ affair revolves around a letter that Amb Haqqani is accused of sending to then US Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen allegedly at the behest of Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, seeking American help to prevent a military coup in Pakistan. Mansur Ijaz, an American businessman of Pakistani origin, delivered the note to former US National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones to pass on to Adml Mullen allegedly at Amb Haqqani’s behest. Amb Haqqani has denied writing any such memo at anyone’s behest or asking Ijaz to deliver it to anyone.

Amb Haqqani has been barred from leaving the country, which is a denial of his fundamental right as a free citizen of Pakistan. Under threat both by the ‘religious’ extremists and the security agencies, he is currently a virtual prisoner confined for his own safety to the Prime Minister’s residence.

Also facing threats is his lawyer, former Supreme Court Bar Association President, Asma Jahangir, who has termed the Supreme Court judgment of Dec 30, 2011 a “victory” for the security establishment that she alleges is behind the case.

Amb Haqqani’s wife, Farahnaz Ispahani, a Member of Pakistan’s Parliament, also threatened, is currently in the US where she had come for medical checkups. Columnist Marvi Sirmed, who has written fearlessly against the ‘religious’ extremists and in support of Amb Haqqani, has also been receiving threats, Columnist Marvi Sirmed, who has written fearlessly against the ‘religious’ extremists and in support of Amb Haqqani, has also been receiving threats, as has senior journalist Najam Sethi. There are numerous other journalists and activists who live under threat for their outspoken views; some are forced to seek politial asylum abroad. This is essentially the case with anyone in Pakistan who counters or challenges the narrative of the ideological security state.

Without going into merits of the case, obvious contradictions in the ‘evidence’, or political motivations behind it, it is evident that it is at the crux of a matter vital to Pakistan’s politics, that is, whether Pakistan is going to be run by a civilian elected government along the lines of a parliamentary democracy that ensures fundamental rights, or along the lines of a ideological narrative dictated by the security establishment that holds fundamental rights subservient to its interpretation of ‘national security’.

Too many people in Pakistan have fallen to the ideological monster unleashed by the establishment pursuing a narrow, ideological interpretation of ‘national security’. It is time for a fundamental paradigm shift in Pakistan’s politics, to allow the nation to fulfill its potential as a progressive, forward looking South Asian nation at peace with its neighbours and the world. We urge the Pakistan government, judiciary and security establishment to play their constitutional roles, cooperate with each other and focus on re-establishing the rule of law and in order to make this possible.

In the meantime, be aware that the world is watching to ensure that no harm comes to those who are taking a stand towards this end.

Endorsed (listed alphabetically; names still coming in are being updated; please endorse at this link):
• A. Chhachhi, Sociologist, Netherlands
• Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry Social Activist Canada
• Abdul Hamid Bashani Khan, Barrister, Solicitor & Notary Public, Canada
• Abdullah Hussein Novelist Lahore
• Afzal Tahir Kashmir International Front/United Kashmir Journal, London, United Kingdom
• Ahmad Rafay Alam, Lawyer
• Ali Kazmi Student Islamabad, Pakistan
• Ali Arqam Blogger, Social Activist Peshawar
• Ammar Yasir, Marketing Head, Tea Break Networks Karachi
• Annie Syedah Student United States
• Anushka Jatoi Student Karachi
• Asif Khan Earth Day Network Washington DC
• Ayesha Humayun Khan Citizen of Pakistan Dubai
• Ayesha Jalal, historian, Boston/Lahore
• Ayesha Siddiqa, Political Scientist, Pakistan
• Beena Sarwar, journalist
• Faisal Mahmood Officer in National Bank Malir
• Faraz Sheikh, social activist, Lahore
• Farooq Tariq, spokesperson Labour Party Pakistan, Lahore
• Fazil Jamili, Poet, Journalist
• Fakhar Ul-Islam Project Manager United Kingdom
• Fayaz Ahmad Historian Peshawar
• Ghazi Salahuddin, journalist and columnist, Karachi
• Hamad Ur Rehman CEO/ a human and social rights activist. Lyallpur.
• Haris Gazdar, researcher
• Harsh Kapoor, South Asia Citizens Web (sacw.net)
• Ibrahim Sajid Malick, Technologist, New York
• Dr. Ijaz Khan Professor of International relations University of Peshawar
• Dr. Ilmana Fasih, physician, health activist, blogger Canada
• Iqbal Alavi, social activist
• Irfan Mufti South Asia Partnership Pakistan Lahore, Pakistan
• Kamyla Marvi Citizen Karachi
• Khawar Mumtaz, Shirkat Gah. Pakistan
• Kiran Nazish Journalist, Activist, Lahore
• Karamat Ali, Labour Rights and Peace activist
• Meera Ghani, Environmental and Peace Activist, Belgium
• Mehmal Sarfraz, Journalist, Lahore
• Mehr Alwy Finance Manager UK
• Michael Renner Researcher U.S. / Germany
• Dr. Mohammad Taqi, Physician & Columnist
• Muhammad Idris Khattak Researcher OSI Pakistan
• Mohsin Sayeed Journalist Karachi
• Moniza Inam, journalist, Dawn, Karachi
• N. D. Pancholi, Secretary, Indian Renaissance Institute, Ghaziabad (UP), India
• Nadeem Yousafi Businessman Peshawar, Pakistan.
• Noman Quadri, student
• Noorjehan Bilgrami Artsist Karachi
• Dr. Osama Siddique, Law Professor, Pakistan
• Pervez Hoodbhoy, Physicist
• Dr Pritam Singh DPhil, Reader in Economics, Faculty of Business, Oxford Brookes University, UK
• Qurratulain Zaman Media Consultant, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
• S. Abbas Raza, Editor, 3QuarksDaily.com
• S. M. Naseem, economist
• Saba Hamid, Actor, Pakistan
• Saba Quraishi, activist, United States
• Sabahat Ashraf (“iFaqeer”) Communcator. Citizen. Fakir. Silicon Valley, California
• Sadiqa Salahuddin, educationist, Indus Resource Centre, Pakistan
• Saleha Haque Student University of Salford, UK
• Sana Saleem Activist, Blogger Karachi
• Sarah Suhail Lawyer
• Sehba Sarwar Writer
• Shahla Haeri, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Boston University
• Shandana Mohmand, Political Scientist, UK
• Shahnawaz Student Karachi
• Shama Noman Educationist
• Shayan Afzal Khan, Citizen and activist, Pakistan
• Shahzad Ahmad Country Coordinator, Bytes for All, Pakistan
• Siddharth Nayak Managing Director , The Jurists ; President : All India Law Students Association New Delhi
• Soulat Pasha director Titan Energy Karachi
• Tahera Ahmad Physician Germany
• Tahir Saeed Senior clinical psychologist Ireland
• Tazeen Project Director, Intermedia
• Waqas Ali CRSD Peshawar
• Yasser Latif Hamdani, Lawyer
• Zeeba T. Hashmi Citizen Lahore
• Zohra Yusuf, human rights activist
• Zulfiqar Shah, The Institute for Social Movements, Pakistan Hyderabad

Zarteef Afridi's latest photo. Courtesy: HRCP

A tribute to the human rights activist Zarteef Khan Afridi who was shot dead recently – my article in The News on Sunday. Latitude News earlier published a shorter, different version titled In Pakistan, an unlikely hero dies for his cause. 

The tribesman who showed the way

There was the letter from an anonymous writer saying he was going to hunt down and kill her. And then there was the letter from an Afridi tribesman offering to come down and protect her.

This was in the mid-1990s. The recipient of the letters was the fiery human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, under threat for having taken on the case of Salamat Masih, the illiterate Christian boy sentenced to death for ‘blasphemy’ for having allegedly written sacrilegious words on the walls of a village mosque.

Little would anyone have thought that the writer of the second letter, Zarteef Khan Afridi, would one day himself face death threats for his stand on human rights issues. But he would have no armed guards protecting him when he rode his motorcycle, fully exposed and vulnerable, to the school where he taught for two decades in Jamrud, Khyber Agency. He was the school’s headmaster when unidentified militants, also on motorcycles, intercepted and gunned him down on his way to the school on Dec 8, 2011.

Salamat Masih

The slightly built, clean-shaven Afridi was also Coordinator, Khyber Agency, for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), founded by Jahangir and others in 1986. His association with the HRCP began even before he offered to come down to Lahore from Khyber Agency with an armed ‘lashkar’ to protect her — an offer all the more commendable for having being made in a situation that was so fraught with risk.

The frenzy had been building up. Masked gunmen had opened fire after a court hearing in April 1994, wounding Salamat and killing Manzoor Masih, one of the co-accused in the blasphemy case. Glossy, full-colour stickers and posters cropped up all over Lahore, calling for “believers” to find and kill Jahangir. In July, a mob outside the Lahore High Court attacked her car. Luckily, she was not in the vehicle but her driver was assaulted and the car smashed. It was a few days later that that the letter vowing to hunt down and kill Jahangir was delivered to her office.

Asma Jahangir

Zarteef’s letter arrived after eight armed men broke into Jahangir’s family house in October and beat up her brother and his wife when they found her out. The assailants ran away when the house guards opened fire. One of them arrested later admitted that the aim had been to kill Jahangir and her sister Hina Jilani.

In that atmosphere of threats and intimidation, Afridi’s letter of support was a message of hope, particularly coming as it did from an area known for its religious conservatism. It showed that even there, conservative opinion is not homogenous and there are people willing to counter retrogressive trends.

“Born in this tribal milieu, Zarteef Afridi is peculiar for his pacifism and his commitment to the cause of education. Prevented in 1982 by maternal pressure from going to Soviet Russia for a degree in engineering, he turned to teaching instead,” to quote ‘In the eye of the storm’ an essay profiling Afridi’s work, published a couple of years ago by South Asia Partnership Pakistan (SAPPk).

“When he started out as a teacher (in 1983), the Afghan jihad, funded by the West, was in full flow and young men from all over the province made their way to the battlefield to either be killed or to become utterly criminalised. (But) children under the tutelage of the idealistic Zarteef were learning of the reality of the so-called jihad. Looking back, he can proudly claim that not one of the youngsters who passed through his hands went to the fight (although) many have risen to …become college professors and medical practitioners. Some have gone abroad while others have remained in their native land and in their own ways have been useful against the tide of obscurantism.”

Zarteef Khan Afridi: educationist, activist and visionary. Photo courtesy: Idrees Kamal

Although he was persuaded not to come down with armed tribesman to protect Jahangir, Zarteef Afridi continued to work for human rights. He participated in the first HRCP workshop in Peshawar conducted by the senior journalists and former newspaper editors I.A. Rehman and Hussain Naqi in 1991. The workshop trained volunteers to become correspondents to HRCP’s quarterly newsletter ‘Jehd-e-Haq’ (Fight for Rights).

Afridi was already “a practising progressive,” as Naqi puts it. “The extremists were more annoyed when he succeeded in arranging a jirga (tribal council) to oppose extremism and terrorism. He also succeeded in persuading a tribal industrialist to contribute funds for a children’s school for internally displaced refugees in camps.”

I met Zarteef Afridi at an HRCP meeting in Peshawar in 1996. All of us drove to Jamrud, where he proudly showed us the small public library he had built under the banner of the Fata Education and Welfare Society.

Since then, he catalysed 15 registered NGOs and CBOs in and around Jamrud. With a USAID endowment of Rs800,000 each, these groups focus on child rights, democracy and good governance. “In an area where women’s education did not merit much importance, Zarteef had long been a vocal proponent for it,” notes the SAPPk essay. “While he spoke for it in the hujras, he had a somewhat covert operation in progress within the homes as well. His training as an electrician and expertise in this field frequently took him into people’s homes. As he worked on their electrical appliances, he shamed the women of the household for their illiteracy. He says that over the years, this surreptitious campaign made for an increase in girls’ enrollment in schools, as well as that, it prepared older women for school.”

A primary girls' school in Khyber Agency: Zarteef Afridi furthered the cause

Zarteef Afridi’s organisation helped establish seven adult literacy centres in villages around Jamrud, for women between 17 and 65 years old. Although meant for about 30 students each, these schools cater to more than three times the number, totaling over 750 women.

In his work, Zarteef faced opposition even from his own family members. I remember him saying, “I want my daughters to marry of their own choice and not wear burqa (veil), but my wife gets angry. She says she will leave me if I encourage such ‘dishonorable’ behaviour.”

But his persistence made a dent. He ensured that no one in his family, starting with himself, received a vulvar, or bride price when marrying off their daughters. This spoke volumes for his commitment, countering the all too common hypocrisy visible in Pakistani politics, where activists who talk of human rights often stop short at practicing what they preach when it comes to their own daughters.

Zarteef Afridi was up against much bigger forces than his wife when he publicly advocated against these long-entrenched traditions. Besides countering bride price, he campaigned tirelessly for girls’ education and secular education, for women’s right to vote, and for Pakistani laws to be extended to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). He met some success in all these areas.

In August this year, President Zardari extended Pakistan’s Political Parties Act to the Fata, allowing political parties to operate there as they do elsewhere in the country. Increasing numbers of women and girls are attending school. Women voters are now visible on polling day in Jamrud.

Activists in Peshawar protest against the murder of Zarteef Khan Afridi. Photo courtesy: Idrees Kamal/Citizen Rights & Sustainable Development (CRSD), Peshawar

“Zarteef was the one who campaigned for women’s right to vote at elections and he took his family females to vote,” says Husain Naqi. “Both Nasim Wali and Benazir Bhutto contested and won seats in that area where the political parties had agreed that ‘their’ women will not vote!”

Even these limited gains are anathema to the extremist and criminal forces aligned with the Taliban. Afridi is the third HRCP coordinators to be murdered during 2011. “He was surely the most consistent and committed,” says Hussain Naqi.

Zarteef Afridi may be dead, but his consistency and commitment will live on in his legacy of peace, education and human rights values, shared by his community of activists in Pakistan and around the world. The loss is great and painful, but in the long run, his sacrifice and that of others killed in this path will not be in vain.

(ends)

An image released by Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Nov. 30 shows smoke rising apparently after a cross-border NATO air strike on Pakistani border posts on a mountain in the Mohmand tribal district on Nov. 26, 2011.

Amid rising anger, Pakistan’s military has released a set of images which it says show the remote border posts attacked by NATO helicopters and fighter jets on Saturday in an incident that has soured relations between Pakistan and the United States.

Faisal Mahmood / Reuters

Young supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious and political party, yell anti-American slogans while protesting in Islamabad against a NATO cross-border attack along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Nov. 27. Pakistan buried 24 troops killed in a NATO cross-border air attack that has pushed a crisis in relations between the United States and an ally it needs to fight militancy towards rupture.

The word “shaheed,” or martyr is written on the caskets of soldiers killed in a cross-border attack along the Pakistan-Afghan border, as their bodies are being carried for funeral prayers in Peshawar, Nov. 27.

 

Khuram Parvez / Reuters

A roadsign shows the distance to cities in Afghanistan and trucks parked along the roadside after traffic was halted at the Pakistani border town Torkham, Nov. 27. Pakistan blocked vital supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and demanded Washington vacate a base used by American drones after coalition aircraft allegedly killed 24 Pakistani troops.

Athar Hussain / Reuters

A Shi’ite cleric speaks to protesters after clashes between two religious sects of Islam in Karachi Nov. 27. Two people were killed and two others wounded in an exchange of fire between militants from majority Sunni and minority Shi’ite communities in the southern city of Karachi. Angry mobs set fire to several cars and motorcycles.

Athar Hussain / Reuters

Drivers, some of whom were carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, sleep on top of their trucks at a fuel terminal in Karachi Nov. 26.

Faisal Mahmood / Reuters

Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani, left, speaks beside Chinese General Hou Shusen, the deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), during a news conference after joint military exercises in Jhelum, in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Nov. 24.

B.k.bangash / AP

Pakistan’s former Information Minister Sherry Rehman talks to reporters in Islamabad, Nov. 23. Pakistan appointed democracy activist Sherry Rehman, who has faced militant death threats, as its new ambassador to the United States, moving quickly to replace the old envoy who resigned after upsetting the country’s powerful military in a scandal dubbed “memo-gate.”

Arshad Arbab / EPA

Local residents look at the debris of a girls school after it was bombed by alleged Taliban militants on the outskirts of Peshawar. Nov. 13. Hundreds of educational institutions including dozens of girls schools have been bombed by the Taliban militants in past months in country’s militancy-hit north-west region.

B.k.bangash / AP

Pakistani children takes ride during at a local park during the last day of the religious festival Eid-al- Adha in Islamabad, Nov. 9.

On December 1st, 1961, the Dutch flag which had flown over the peninsula of West Papua for more than 130 years was taken down, replaced by the “Morning Star” flag which signified the new nation’s break from colonialism. By the end of the decade, Indonesia had forcefully annexed West Papua (also known as West Irian at the time) with tacit support from the United States. Fifty years later — an anniversary which was marked yesterday — National Flag Day is remembered by the West Papua independence movement as resistance leaders and human rights advocates recall the brutal military takeover of the country by Suharto’s Indonesia as well as the hope which the “Morning Star” flag still epitomizes today.

Indonesia was granted independence from the Netherlands in 1949, but the Dutch maintained control over West New Guinea. US-sponsored mediation between the former colonizer and colonized led to Indonesia assuming full control of the region by the end of 1962 on the condition that Jakarta would allow a local vote on the issue of self-determination under United Nations supervision. What followed was a decade long crackdown on any manifestations of political opposition and dissent by Suharto. The “Act of Free Choice,” held under dubious conditions in 1969 in which Jakarta handpicked elders of the Papuan community to agree to become part of Indonesia, was supported and recognized by the West and the UN. The ”community elders” have been widely quoted since then that they were forced to vote at gunpoint to be part of Indonesia.

Indonesia’s crimes in Timor-Leste during the Cold War era until the end of the 20th century are well documented. But Indonesia’s behavior in West Papua over the past half century has been underreported in mainstream news outlets. During this timeline, approximately 100,000 Papuans were killed; almost ten percent of the population. The Yale Law School has labeled it genocide. Evidence of Indonesia’s repression is revealed in the exploitation of West Papua’s land and resources, as well as scores of accounts of rape, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

The separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was set up in the mid-1960s in response and began waging a guerrilla struggle against the Indonesian military. The erosion of Papuan culture and tradition was the raison d’etre for leaders of the movement, and an armed struggle has persisted on and off in the decades since. In the 1980s, Jakarta launched Operation Clean Sweep, which targeted family members of OPM fighters in an effort to defeat the movement. Electric shocks, public rapes, and death by means of bayonets were just some of the methods employed by Indonesian soldiers.

In Jakarta’s attempt to exploit the region’s wealth of gold, copper and timber, West Papuan villagers were routinely uprooted from their homes without any compensation and without the required labor skills to survive such a transition. Forced labor of many indigenous tribes in West Papua was also common practice; resistance was typically met with torture. Moreover, West Papua has long been a victim of socioeconomic neglect: access to education is minimal, 41.8% of the population live below the poverty line, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has exploded.

Today, it is a crime to fly the “Morning Star” flag, as the world found out through the infamous incarceration of activist Yusak Pakage, a prisoner of conscience according to leading human rights groups. The OPM have no plans to abandon the ceremony on the 50th anniversary of National Flag day on the first of December, 2011. Rallies and demonstrations took place in West Papua, and Jakarta responded by directing additional security service personnel to the region.

West Papua was given special autonomy status in 2001, but human rights abuses, committed by Indonesian paramilitary forces, persist to this day. The West has gradually begun to apply additional pressure on Jakarta to ease its treatment of civilians in West Papua, but it has not nearly matched the effort that observes have seen exerted on governments in other, well-publicized areas of the world.

Indonesia needs the West as much as the West needs Indonesia. It is a complex area of US foreign policy, but the success of such symbiotic relationships is predicated on transparent dialogue and communication between the two parties. The 50th anniversary of National Flag Day should be used by Washington and other Western governments as a way of highlighting the situation of the West Papuans so as to bring a certain level of justice to this continued struggle, as well as an attempt to modify Jakarta’s Papuan policy even further.

Unified Confederation of Workers (CUT) (photo Haiti Liberte)

“Haiti is a country that supported the fight for freedom in Latin America, a country that terrified slave owners across America and is now subjugated to foreign occupation that has nothing to do with humanitarian purposes, as proposed,” said Julio Turra, president of Unified Confederation of Workers (CUT French acronym). “It’s embarrassing,” added Turra during a Nov. 5 meeting of more than 600 multinational in Sao Paolo, Brazil. “Therefore, the Latin American people, Brazil in particular, owes a debt to Haiti, which is a historic duty,” he added.

According to Haiti Liberty, a Haitian weekly, personalities representing advocacy groups, political parties, student and labor organizations rallied, in Sao Paolo capital’s Hotel de Ville, around their preoccupations with the UN Mission for Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH French Acronym). Participants from the U.S., France, Uruguay, Argentine, Bolivia, Haiti, among other countries participated in the four-hour meeting to lend a shoulder to Haiti’s anti-UN movement. “We must express our solidarity, as we cannot accept a gradual troop withdrawal because we do not know when it will end,” said Turra adding, “We must ask the immediate withdrawal of troops and defend the sovereignty of Haiti, as it faces occupation.”

These multinationals were not lone anti-UN advocates; many other organizations also called for troop withdrawal, including Jubilee South (JS), a global network of anti-debt movements. In an interview with Rebecca Burns, reporting for nonprofit and independent newsmagazine In These Times, Beverly Keene of JS agreed U.N. presence in Haiti “does not respond in any way with the reality of an occupying force.” Jubilee South enacted “Haiti No MINUSTAH,” a campaign endorsed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Perez Esquivel, Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Betty Williams, calling for troop withdrawal.

Keen also said the campaign would oppose U.N.’s ideals: using Haiti as a laboratory for new forms of interventions and control in Latin America. Furthermore, Burns also reported that School of the Americas as well as hundreds of organizations in troop contributing countries also backed this campaign. “Haiti is the only country in the world where peacekeeping mission operate under a U.N. Chapter VII mandate, permitting it to use force, absent an active conflict or an enforceable peace agreement,” wrote Burns in her article “Haitians to U.N.: Please Leave.”

Peacekeeping entered their eight-year of operations in Haiti, following the October 14 U.N. Security Council unanimous vote to extend MINUSTAH’s mandate another year. The Security Council also authorized a force reduction from 13,000 troops and police to about 10,500. However, the 15 percent reduction did not appease anti-U.N. sentiments that intensified amid serious allegations of sexual and human rights abuses, as well as the incidental introduction of the country’s cholera epidemic. Haitians grew particularly contentious over the issue given U.N.’s persisting denial of responsibility, though plenty of scientific evidence placed Nepalese peacekeepers stationed near the Artibonite River at the origin of the outbreak, dumping sewage in the water consumed by locals. Recently, some Haitian organizations called for a redirection of MINUSTAH’s $800 million annual budget as reparation for cholera victims, families of more than 6,000 killed by the disease since its October 2010 detection and to fund cholera prevention.

Anti-UN demonstration in Haiti (photo In These Times)

“In order for Haiti to become a fully functioning democratic state, MINUSTAH needs to continue building the country’s institutions,” explained spokesperson Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, justifying U.N.’s presence on the island to Burns. However, as her article revealed, “a recent report from the group Harvard HealthRoots charged that MINUSTAH failed in its mandate to support the democratic process when, despite being charged with monitoring the 2010 national elections, it raised no objections to the exclusion of the country’s most popular political party.” A large majority of Haitians, some 65 percent according to a recent perspectives survey on the troops in Port-au-Prince, wanted the departure of U.N. troops either immediately or within a year, reported Burns.

Echoing Haiti’s frustration in Sao Paolo, “The occupations are examples of the politics of oppression,” declared Hugo Dominguez of the Uruguayan Metallurgical Union PIT-CNT, referring to last summer’s video of Uruguayan Soldiers allegedly assaulting a young Haitian male that invaded the Internet. “As Uruguayans,” Dominguez continued, “We are ashamed because of the actions of Uruguayan troops in Haiti.” Moreover, rights activist Colia Clark characterized U.N.’s presence in Haiti as a violation of all the norms about international human rights. “In spite of seven years of an unjustified occupation, there is nothing positive that resulted from its presence,” added Nelson Guevara Aranda representing more than 5,000 workers of the Union of Bolivian Miners of Huanuni. “On the contrary, it has consistently violated the sovereignty and dignity of Haiti,” he added.

1. The Sao Paolo meeting produced the Continental Committee for the Immediate Withdrawal of U.N. Troops in Haiti that pledged to lead an official international campaign on four requirements:
2. Focusing on medical doctors, engineers, teachers and technicians, rather than troops occupation.
3. Forgiving Haiti’s debt.
4. Reparations for both the immoral debt imposed on Haiti following its independence and for families victimized by cholera and human violations
5. Immediate withdrawal of U.N. trips in Haiti.

Laura C. Gonzalez who covered the event for Haiti Liberte described as a moving illustration what she perceived as a growing movement of solidarity with the Haitian people throughout North and South America. Participants, as she reported, left the meeting projecting to stage worldwide Anti-U.N. demonstrations on June 12, 2012 to mark the eight anniversary of MINUSTAH’s official launch with the Day of Continental Action for the Withdrawal of Troops from Haiti.

Portrait of Dishonour
By Farieha Aziz 27 JANUARY 2011

Niilofur Farrukh. Photo: Jamal Ashiqain

“No Honour in Killing: Making Visible Buried Truth,” a show intended to raise social awareness through art, was initiated as a project in 2008, soon after the Naseerabad ‘honour’ killings made the headlines. According to its curator Niilofur Farrukh, it began as an attempt to fight the helplessness that had gripped society when news of the murders broke.

Dedicated to the four women who were buried alive in Naseerabad, the exhibition, which went on display at the VM Gallery last month, showcases the work of 35 artists – some very well known, others young and upcoming – with each work exploring a different dimension of violence against women.

The first work that catches the eye comprises two white muslin sheets suspended from the ceiling covered with fiery orange text and screen print. Titled ‘Wajud-e-zan say hai tasveer-i-kainat mein rang,’ artist Meher Afroz conveys her thoughts on ‘honour’ killings through the use of specific words and phrases on her canvas. Words such as amal, masawaat, akhuwat, yaqeen, rawadari are scattered around a poem that reads: Nai ho ya purani/ zann ka nigehban hai faqat mard/ jis qaum ne iss zinda haqeeqat/ ko na paya/ uss qaum ka khursheed bohat jaldi/ huwa zard.

‘Honour’ by Khuda Bux Abro features moustaches floating around a burqa-clad woman. Men who brandish these moustaches – which are viewed as a source of pride and honour in society – think nothing of laying to waste a woman’s life in the name of honour. The painting depicts the entrapment of women by such men and their code of honour.

In Naima Dadabhoy’s work, a screen print on canvas, the map of Pakistan placed at the centre of the canvas, is surrounded by text that documents facts, figures and perceptions relating to ‘honour’ killings. More impressive, however, is Dadabhoy’s life-size skeletal structure of a woman resembling a mummy lying on the floor in wrought iron and tin foil – much like a corpse in a coffin.

Maham Mujtaba depicts the debasement of the concept of honour by draping a wild boar in her painting with a red sheet that has the word ‘honour’ embroidered on it. The background shows 18 women wrapped in white sheets – all victims of ‘honour’ killings.

What look like two double-sided axes strung on the wall are the product of a collaborative effort by Abdullah Syed, an artist based in Sydney, and Roohi Ahmed, currently a teacher at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Titled ‘Kullah-Re,’ on one side of the wooden stick is the metal component of an axe whereas on the other is a kullah (form of turban) made of fabric. Together, they denote the perpetrator of violence and the tool he uses to perpetrate it – the tribal lord and the axe.

Covering most of the wall space on one side of the gallery, Marium Agha’s ‘72 virgins for my suicide lover,’ references the promise of 72 virgins to all martyrs in a Hadith in an unusually interesting manner. Instead of using figurines, Agha uses biological sketches of the vagina to illustrate the reduction of women to mere objects, offered as reward in heaven – and on earth.

Strikingly different is Maria Aftab’s work in mixed media. Done in bright red fabric with a checkered rug on the floor and a floral design on the wall, Aftab’s bathroom scene and fittings – a sink and a mirror with a towel rack next to it – according to her represent “items of daily use … which usually provide comfort yet simultaneously give the effect of a nightmare.”

On a more positive note, Sana Arjumand uses a portrait of a woman wearing a crown to depict Mukhtaran Mai. It is her way of paying tribute to a woman who was the victim of a heinous crime – gang-rape – but stood strong in the face of slander, threat and coercion and came out of the trauma as a stronger and better person – a role model for victims of similar tragedy.

“At some level or the other, art communicates – sometimes directly and at other times, not so much,” remarked Farrukh of the show. According to her, the aim of the exhibition was to dispel the widely held notion “that art is merely an elitist activity and expresses itself in an esoteric idiom.” In her address at the two-hour discussion/dialogue prior to the exhibition’s inauguration in Karachi on December 6, Farrukh stated that the initiative aimed to do three things: take the exhibition to different parts of the country, include the work of local artists and initiate a dialogue.

While the exhibition could not travel to several cities listed on the scheduled programme due to the worsening law-and-order situation in the country, it made it to Jamshoro, Khairpur, Islamabad, Lahore and finally Karachi. Similar discussions as the one in Karachi were held at these locations. Most of the students, particularly those in Jamshoro and Khairpur, were well aware of the crimes committed in the name of honour and the perceptions that existed in their respective societies. Not only were they very forthcoming in their discussions, but also contributed to the exhibition – selected works were added to the core exhibition.

At the event in Karachi, after the screening of Beena Sarwar’s nine-minute award-winning documentary Mukhtaran Mai: A Struggle for Justice, several speakers addressed the audience. Khadija from Shirkat Gah, one of the researchers who travelled to Naseerabad on a fact-finding mission, presented an overview of the widely practiced – and accepted – cultural practices in Naseerabad and its five adjoining districts. She said watta-satta, siyakari and karo-kari were rampant in the areas. Women were killed in the name of family honour – even on the pretext of leaving home unaccompanied or without the permission of a male member – and commonly used as barter for hefty sums of money

Amar Sindhu, an activist from Hyderabad, added to the discussion by informing the audience that the notion that the jirga system provides “cheap and easy justice,” did not hold true. As much as 1 crore 16 lakh rupees has been given as compensation money to settle disputes. ‘Honour’ crimes, said Sindhu, had become part of the country’s political economy, with feudal lords – some of whom are sitting in the assemblies – getting a percentage of the compensation money. Sindhu added that the perpetration of these crimes against women in particular was due to a lack of female representation in the jirgas. She gave the example of a female politician from Sindh, who despite being an elected representative of the area, was not allowed to intervene while an all-male jirga was in session. And despite the Sindh High Court’s ban on jirgas in 2004, they still operate, with ‘honour’ killings rising with each passing year.

Poet and activist, Attiya Dawood recited her poem, ‘To My Daughter,’ originally written in Sindhi but translated into Urdu, with “pyaar zaroor kerna” being the constant refrain. The floor was then thrown open to the audiences and a lively discussion ensued. One member suggested that events such as these should be held in areas where these crimes are perpetuated instead of urban centres. A female in the audience countered by saying that while women may not be killed as blatantly as they are in rural societies, the concept of family honour is linked to women even in the urban areas.

Moreover, members in the audience pointed out that it was people based in the urban centres who could effect change by approaching the relevant people and authorities, and further through their activism and agitation. The powerful and the influential needed to be converted, for even if they were not sanctioning the crimes directly, they were on occasion guilty of abetting the act. And some anti-women laws needed to be changed, as was pointed out by WAF (Women’s Action Forum) member Nuzhat Kidvai, and other laws in favour of women needed to be implemented.

All in all, the exhibition-cum-discussion managed to strike the right chord in most hearts.

Kanak collecting the earth from Fatehgarh Sahib outside Sialkot, the childhood village of 96-year-old Barkat Singh 'Pahalwan' of Jalandar, India at his special request.

I’m sure the Dixits – Kanak, Shanta and Eelum – have soon share photos, video and stories about their Spinal Beetle fundraising drive from Kathmandu to Peshawar but meanwhile, this brief update.

Many things about their journey were striking and moving. There’s the romance of driving from Kathmandu via Lucknow, Delhi, Agra, Amritsar, Lahore and Rawalpindi to Peshawar, much of it along the ancient Grand Trunk Road that dates back to the Maurya Empire (3rd century BC), later extended by Sher Shah Suri in the 16h century, from Calcutta to Kabul.

There’s the cause – raising funds and awareness for spinal injury rehabilitation, especially since Kanak miraculously made almost a full recovery from a spinal injury, and established the Spinal Centre Nepal.

There’s the touching request from 96-year-old Barkat Singh ‘Pahalwan’ of Jalandar, India who asked Kanak to bring back earth from his childhood village of Fatehgarh Sahib outside Sialkot. Here’s a photo of Kanak digging up the soil – which Barkat Singh’s family have already seen and commented upon on facebook and I’m sure showed him.

Barkat Singh’s family runs the Mayuri restaurant outside Jalandar – where Kanak (being Kanak) left all passports and documents and drove off. “The proprieter family, Prajapati, saved the day for us,” he writes.

The Spinal group spent Eid at the Taj Mahal in Agra and were at the Golden Temple on Guru Nanak’s birthday. After crossing Wagah border on Nov 14th, they watched Lahore’s Ajoka troupe perform their play Bhagat Singh. “Amazing, after the hyper-nationalistic flag-lowering tamasha at Wagah-Atari!”

They visited the Sher Shah Suri Dak post “left forlorn and uncared for by the GT Road post” near Wazirabad, and on to a grand welcome in Islamabad — “Beetle Heaven!” (They are now honorary members of the Volkswagen Society of Pakistan). Along the way, “Mayo Hospital Lahore offers two fellowships for post-doc in rehabilitation medicine for Spinal Centre-Nepal. Wow, Southasian solidarity!”

At a meeting organised by activist Tahira Abdullah and others organised, chaired by Kishwar Naheed, Kanak made these important points (outlined in an email):

* The Spinal Beetle Rally was to strike a blow for ‘land connectivity’, because only that will guarantee high volume people-to-people connectivity.
* There must be many networks across Southasia, and not all of them have to be across all Southasian countires.
* The problem child of Southasia is North Southasia, so we must concentrated on connectivity across the land borders of the various countries of the northern half.
* A person from Nepal has every right to speak about India-Pakistan rapprochement
* There should be networks of Southasia, such as for spinal injury rehabilitation, for Volkswagen beetle and a million other things.
* These networks may not even be talked of as ‘southasian’, as long as they connect people across borders. ‘Let ten thousand networks bloom…‘
* The religio-militarist coagulation is so deep in all countries of Southasia (in different forms) that you need commerce to pry open the fist. Also, culture, through audio-visual media, especially cinema. This is why documentaries and features films should now be made of a kind that should be able to do for all of Southasia what the Bollywood cinema has done for India.

They’re now headed to Rohtas Fort, then Taxila and Peshawar, where they will end their journey at the Paraplegic Centre.

Here’s a great comment to end with, from activist Bobby Ramakant who hosted in Lucknow along the way: “Friends, Kanak sahab told me the unbelievable – that Nepal citizens can get visa on arrival in Pakistan or on border – they needed special permission to take their car in, but look how easy it is already for people from Nepal to travel to Pakistan – Sandeep (Panday) bhai’s vision of visa free South Asia is so much a possibility and a compelling need!”