Posted on 02/24/2005 3:41:23 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
[World News]: As the first month of emergency rule in Nepal, imposed by King Gyanendra after sacking the government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Feb 1, draws to a close, a coordinated international response to the suspension of democracy and civil rights in this Himalayan kingdom is taking shape.
On Tuesday, India let it be known that it has decided to freeze military aid to Nepal. On the same day, Britain made a similar announcement. While the US has not yet officially declared its intentions, it is likely to put on hold the planned $24 million aid during fiscal 2006 while its $1.5 million security assistance for fiscal 2005 is "at risk".
Arms supplies and related aid from these three countries are crucial for the Royal Nepal Army, which is directly controlled by the king, to continue its battle against the far-left Maoist insurgency raging in large parts of Nepal.
The Maoists have successfully imposed a blockade of Nepal's highways, its lifelines, since Feb 13, further crippling the landlocked country's decrepit economy. Reports indicate that soon Kathmandu and other towns will face severe food and fuel shortages that could erupt in street riots.
King Gyanendra, who was hopeful of launching an all-out war on the Maoists by removing the buffer provided by mainstream political parties between Narayanhity Palace and the insurgents, now finds himself caught in a pincer move by two unrelated forces opposed to his "royal coup".
On the one hand, India, Britain and the US, which have been shoring up Nepal's security, are loath to rescue King Gyanendra from the political mess in which he finds himself. On the other, the Maoists, making full use of the king's isolation, are trying to make the best use of the situation to their advantage.
While India and Britain have been clamorous in seeking restoration of multiparty democracy in Nepal with the king as the country's constitutional head, there has been no direct response to these concerns from Narayanhity Palace. Curiously though, the king seems to have conveyed his plans to the Americans.
US Ambassador to Nepal James Moriarty, who has been called to Washington for consultations, disclosed on Monday that "authorities in Nepal" have pledged to produce a plan within 100 days for restoring democracy. "I have been reassured," Moriarty told journalists, "that the government (the king's council) realises that it must work to re-establish the constitutional freedoms that Nepal has enjoyed."
Meanwhile, a report, "Nepal's Royal Coup: Making a Bad Situation Worse", issued by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which actively seeks to influence EU foreign policy initiatives towards conflict spots, makes some revealing points that indicate possible responses by European governments.
According to this report, European diplomats posted in Nepal have been increasingly interacting with the Maoists, ostensibly to ensure that development projects funded by the EU are not derailed. The EU and its member states give Nepal more than 100 million euros a year in assistance.
"European diplomats have engaged with the Maoists in the field in order to ensure continuation of development projects," the ICG report says. It adds that, "The European Union has generally been well received by the Maoists - 'a bit embarrassing', as an EU official put it, 'but not entirely negative: we can work in Maoist-affected areas'."
This would suggest that if push comes to shove, the European Union and its member states will not hesitate to do business with the Maoists - better the far-left insurgents than a king who believes in absolute monarchy, seems to be the message. The ICG believes that King Gyanendra's will fail to achieve his declared objective of crushing the Maoists in the absence of multi-party democracy and experience in governance.
According to the ICG report:
* The Royal Nepal Army lacks the capacity to maintain military rule and wage a successful campaign against the Maoists. It could never be the alternative state that the military has become in Pakistan.
* Political parties still have considerable support. Despite much frustration over their behaviour, about a third of Nepalese maintain an affiliation with a party.
* Even if talks are held between the Maoists and the king, no agreement negotiated without the support of the mainstream political parties is likely to endure.
* Peace is unlikely without a broad national consensus on the problems of poverty, ethnic and caste exclusion and corruption that plague the country and fuel the conflict.
* Coming to the throne unexpectedly in his 50s, the king has little political experience and few solid international connections.
All considered, a rather bleak scenario for King Gyanendra and the "military leadership", who according to the ICG report, "pressed the king into taking this step".
The EU and its member states are not alone in driving home the point that King Gyanendra lacks the wherewithal, material and political, to take on the Maoists and defeat them. There appears to be some coordination between India and the EU on this score, too.
The Government of India is believed to have conveyed to the emergency regime in Kathmandu that it is willing to initiate back channel discussions with the Maoists for a peaceful settlement if the king restores status quo ante.
Some analysts have advised caution on this front because Nepal's Maoists are irrevocably opposed to what they describe as "Indian expansionism" and have been actively promoting an alliance with far-left Maoists in several Indian states who pose a serious internal security threat to India. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or Comrade Prachanda as he is known, who leads the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist), has on more than one occasion promised to turn on India after seizing Nepal.
A second caution would also be in order. Pushed to the wall, especially by India, King Gyanendra may just decide to go for broke. Claiming that India has violated the letter and spirit of the 1950 and 1965 treaties that impose restrictions on Nepal seeking arms from another country, he may turn to China and Pakistan who have refused to comment on the "palace coup".
Both China and Pakistan have been systematically working towards lessening Kathmandu's material dependence on New Delhi and diluting Nepal's emotional linkages with India. The "royal coup" and its political fallout provide an excellent opportunity for Beijing and Islamabad to shore up their relations with Kathmandu.
If such a closing of ranks were to happen, it would adversely impact on India more than on either the EU or the US. That is a given which cannot be ignored by India's foreign policy and political establishments.
Which, in turn, precludes the use of coercion to force King Gyanendra to restore status quo ante and hand over executive powers to a representative multi-party government till elections can be held.
A thin line divides coercive tactics from coercive diplomacy. India must tread cautiously so that the line is not crossed.
About the International Crises Group - ...Crisis Group is co-chaired by President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie Gelb and the former European Commissioner for External Relations Lord Patten of Barnes; and its President and Chief Executive since January 2000 has been former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans...
...Foundation and private sector donors include Atlantic Philanthropies, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, Ford Foundation, Fundacao Oriente, Henry Luce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Moriah Fund, Open Society Institute, Ploughshares Fund, Pro Democratia Stiftung, Rockefeller Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Sarlo Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, Smith Richardson Foundation, United States Institute of Peace, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Leslie H. Gelb
Co-Chairman, Crisis Group
Former President of Council on Foreign Relations, U.S.
Lord Patten of Barnes
Co-Chairman, Crisis Group
Former European Commissioner for External Relations, UK Gareth Evans
President & CEO
Former Foreign Minister of Australia
Executive Committee
Morton Abramowitz
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Emma Bonino
Member of European Parliament
Former European Commissioner
Cheryl Carolus
Former South African High Commissioner to the UK
Former Secretary General of the ANC
Maria Livanos Cattaui*
Secretary-General, International Chamber of Commerce
Yoichi Funabashi
Chief Diplomatic Correspondent & Columnist, The Asahi Shimbun, Japan
William Shawcross
Journalist and author, UK
Stephen Solarz*
Former U.S. Congressman
George Soros
Chairman, Open Society Institute
William O Taylor
Chairman Emeritus, The Boston Globe, U.S.
*Vice-Chairs
Adnan Abu-Odeh
Former Political Adviser to King Abdullah II and to King Hussein; former Jordan Permanent Representative to UN
Kenneth Adelman
Former U.S. Ambassador and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Ersin Arioglu
Member of Parliament, Turkey; Chairman Emeritus, Yapi Merkezi Group
Diego Arria
Former Ambassador of Venezuela to the UN
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Former U.S. National Security Advisor to the President
Victor Chu
Chairman, First Eastern Investment Group, Hong Kong
Wesley Clark
Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
Pat Cox
Former President of European Parliament
Ruth Dreifuss
Former President, Switzerland
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Mark Eyskens
Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Stanley Fischer
Vice Chairman, Citigroup Inc.;
former First Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund
Bronislaw Geremek
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland
I.K. Gujral
Former Prime Minister of India
Carla Hills
Former U.S. Secretary of Housing;
former U.S. Trade Representative
Lena Hjelm-Wallén
Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Sweden
James C.F. Huang
Deputy Secretary General to the President, Taiwan
Swanee Hunt
Founder and Chair of Women Waging Peace;
former U.S. Ambassador to Austria
Asma Jahangir
UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions;
former Chair Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Senior Advisor, Modern Africa Fund Managers;
former Liberian Minister of Finance and Director of UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa
Shiv Vikram Khemka
Founder and Executive Director (Russia) of SUN Group, India
James V. Kimsey
Founder and Chairman Emeritus of America Online, Inc
Bethuel Kiplagat
Former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenya
Wim Kok
Former Prime Minister, Netherlands
Trifun Kostovski
Member of Parliament, Macedonia; founder of Kometal Trade Gmbh
Elliott F. Kulick
Chairman, Pegasus International, U.S.
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Novelist and journalist, U.S.
Todung Mulya Lubis
Human rights lawyer and author, Indonesia
Barbara McDougall
Former Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada
Ayo Obe
Chair of Steering Committee of World Movement for Democracy, Nigeria
Christine Ockrent
Journalist and author, France
Friedbert Pflüger
Foreign Policy Spokesman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag
Victor M. Pinchuk
Member of Parliament, Ukraine; founder of Interpipe Scientific and Industrial Production Group
Surin Pitsuwan
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Thailand
Itamar Rabinovich
President of Tel Aviv University;
former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and Chief Negotiator with Syria
Fidel V. Ramos
Former President of the Philippines
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen
Former Secretary General of NATO; former Defence Secretary, UK
Mohamed Sahnoun
Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Africa
Ghassan Salamé
Former Minister, Lebanon;
Professor of International Relations, Paris
Salim A. Salim
Former Prime Minister of Tanzania;
former Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity
Douglas Schoen
Founding Partner of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, U.S.
Pär Stenback
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finland
Thorvald Stoltenberg
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Grigory Yavlinsky
Chairman of Yabloko Party and its Duma faction, Russia
Uta Zapf
Chairperson of the German Bundestag Subcommittee on Disarmament, Arms Control and Non-proliferation
Ernesto Zedillo
Former President of Mexico;
Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Chairmen Emeritus
Martti Ahtisaari
Former President, Finland
George J. Mitchell
Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Wow. It's like a neo-Comintern board of directors meeting!
Ping.
...interesting enough for a ping?
WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- The World Bank Wednesday said would not make any more loans to Nepal until political unrest there settles down.
The agency postponed a $70 million loan last week.
"The World Bank will need more time to make a ground level assessment of whether the environment would allow for the continuing implementation of ongoing projects," the agency said in a statement announcing its decision.
The bank also said "in the next one to two months, the government should be able to demonstrate its stated commitment (for economic growth) through its actions."
IMF funds to Nepal in jeopardy?
Kathmandu, March 10 (IANS) Nepal could lose the third slice of a funding by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), partly due to King Gyanendra's populist announcement of a roll back in some of the fuel prices.
Amnesty to take on Nepal at UN rights meet
Kathmandu, March 11 (IANS) As the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNHRC) holds its 61st session in Geneva March 14-April 22, rights watchdog Amnesty International will take on Nepal to press for absolute prohibition of torture and ill treatment.
Peter Splinter, Amnesty's representative at the UN in Geneva, has described Nepal as being "on the verge of a human rights catastrophe".
Splinter said Amnesty wants the UNHRC to give the king of Nepal "a clear and loud signal that human rights must be protected and the rule of law must be re-established".
Splinter told Voice of America that the situation in the kingdom was very serious with "disappearances, torture, summary executions, suspension of constitutional guarantees and safeguards".
"The judicial process is not able to work as it should," he said. "Things can get worse and we are concerned that if the international community does not act, things will get worse."
Amnesty will also press for a special UN investigator to be appointed and human rights observers to be sent to the Himalayan kingdom to monitor the situation.
Amnesty will have to cross swords at the Geneva meet with Nepalese Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey, who is leaving Kathmandu Saturday for attending the session.
Nepal's new cabinet headed by the king met Wednesday to decide Pandey should go to Geneva to defend the Feb 1 royal takeover on the ground that it was imperative to tackle the nine-year-old Maoist insurgency that has killed over 11,000.
An Amnesty team had visited Nepal in February after King Gyanendra ousted the Sher Bahadur Deuba government, usurped executive powers and imposed a state of emergency with the suspension of fundamental rights.
The team found that the state of emergency had "aggravated the existing culture of non-accountability and lack of transparency".
"It has increased the pattern of militarisation and restricted the space for political dialogue, thereby reducing the chances of peace," the report said.
"The attacks on the media, human rights defenders, trade unionists and others following the state of emergency are crippling Nepal's dynamic civil society. Those who were exposing and condemning the human rights abuses perpetrated both by the security forces and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) are being muzzled. This will fuel the current environment of impunity and increase the vulnerability of the civilian population."
The Geneva meet is to be attended by over 3,000 delegates from member and observer states as well as NGOs.
International court alerted on Nepal rights abuse
[World News]: Kathmandu, March 8 : Fourteen human rights and academic groups in Asia have jointly alerted the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and its state parties to "grave human rights violations in Nepal that could amount to crimes against humanity".
The court, whose purpose is to prevent such serious offences, should do whatever it can to help stop and avert any mass rights violations, the groups said.
"We urge the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC and the state parties to take all feasible steps to stop the ongoing crimes that fall within the mandate of the ICC as well as to take preventive measures, by way of diplomatic channels and other means, to avoid further crimes against humanity," the groups said in a joint statement. The statement was issued in Bangkok Sunday after a regional meeting on the ICC campaign.
On Monday, the Hong Kong-based AHRC sent a letter to Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the ICC in The Hague, to urge him to initiate appropriate action over the situation in Nepal after King Gyanendra assumed absolute powers Feb 1.
"People in the Himalayan kingdom, particularly political leaders, lawyers, journalists and human rights defenders, face daily threats and dangers posed by the authoritarian and military rule of the country," the statement said.
"Reports of attacks, arrests, torture, extra-judicial killings, rape and forced disappearances are alarming. Civil liberties are being suppressed.
"The Feb 1 coup in Nepal has brought the country under the control of the military, which has undermined the rule of law and cast doubt upon Nepal's ability to fulfil its international obligations.
"If the ongoing violations are to continue on a mass scale, which is very likely, they may amount to crimes against humanity; the very purpose of the ICC is to prevent such crimes," the statement noted.
The groups demanded that the government of Nepal and the insurgent Maoists put an immediate end to arbitrary detention, torture and extra-judicial killings. They also called on the United Nations to intervene with the relevant Nepali authorities before the country's situation reached a "catastrophic level".
"We specifically urge for a UN envoy to be permanently present within Nepal so as to facilitate the return to democracy, and that the UN appoint a special rapporteur to constantly monitor the human rights situation in Nepal," they said.
The 14 groups include the AHRC, FORUM-ASIA in Thailand, the Asian Network for the International Criminal Court, the Bangladesh Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Odhikar from Bangladesh, the Cambodia Human Rights and Development Association, the East Timor People's Action, the Women's Research and Action Group in India, the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy in Indonesia, Minbyun - Lawyers for a Democratic Society in South Korea and the Pakistan Coalition on the International Criminal Court.
the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy in Indonesia
It looks like this is their website:
ELSAM: The Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy
Organisation:
Full name: Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat
Address: Jalan Siaga II No.31, Pasar Minggu (Pejaten), Jakarta Selatan 12510 Tel: +62 21 7972662, 79192564 Fax: +62 21 79192519 e-mail : ELSAM@nusa.or.id web page: http://www.elsam.or.id
Date of establishment of organisation, Legal status, date of registration
ELSAM was established in August 1993, ELSAM's legal entity was changed from a Foundation to that of a Limited Association in July 2002 .The objective of this alteration is to make the organization becomes more democratic and accountable to its constituents.The Public Notary was legalized with the Article of Agreement and enrolled with the new form to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
Organisational structure
Chairman: Asmara Nababan Secretary: Hadimulyo Treasurer: Joseph Adi Prasetyo Members : Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara (National Human Rights Commissioner), Agustinus Rumansara (Bussinessman), Sandra Moniaga (NGO activist), Maria Hartiningsih (Journalist), Lies Marcoes (Researcher), Ery Seda (Academic), Suraiya Kamaruzzaman (women activist), Raharja Waluya Jati (Victim of Human Right Abuses), Jhoni Simanjuntak (Lawyer), Khofifah Indar Parawangsa (Former Minister of Women Affairs), Ifdhal Kasim, Agung Putri, Rini Pratnawati.
32 Staffs
History
ELSAM, the institute for Policy Research and Advocacy was establishes in 1983 in the spirit of encouraging the development of a democratic political order, by means of strengthening civil society through advocacy and promotion of human rights in Indonesia. Having worked for more than six years on promotion of responsibility mechanism of gross human rights violation, civil and political rights in particular, in the few years ahead ELSAM will initiate more advocacy works to encourage the development of accountability mechanism of economic social and cultural rights violations. This choice was deliberately decided in regards of indivisibility and interdependence of the two categories.
The reform period began with the downfall of the Soeharto regime in 1998. During this period, many human rights defender organizations and civil society has been encouraged to reveal the gross human rights violations taking place during the authoritarian regime. Among these efforts are: the establishment of human rights court ad hoc for East Timorese cases, as well as for Tanjung priok, the promotion of the establishment of Truth Commission and Reconciliation, the establishment of independent inquiry team for Trisakti and Semanggi cases in 1999. The development of accountability mechanisms as has mentioned above could put the impunity to an end. The latest development showed that those instruments are likely to be an impunity instrument for the gross human rights violations. Thus the few years ahead the struggle for fighting against impunity will still be the main work to guarantee better enjoyment of human rights, victims in particular. In this regards, revealing the truth about gross human rights violation in the past would provide important step in bringing the perpetrator to justice and provide reparation to the victims.
Besides, many developments in political structure have also taken place during this period. The implementation of autonomy policy brings about important changes in relation between central government and local government. In one side, this encourage human rights organization of better enjoyment of human rights, but in the other side, this lead to the spread out of gross human rights violations pattern among the regions. The escalating of violence caused by conflicts over natural resources management obviously indicates this symptom. The question of justice comes along this line, poverty, low quality of education and health mainly in remote areas, disparity of welfare between central and peripheral areas are some of the main question increasing presently. Considering this situation the challenge to reveal the gross human rights violation of Economic, social and cultural rights couldn't be abandoned. The enjoyment of these rights will strongly encourage the better enjoyment of human rights as a whole.
Responding these situations, within the internal organization, the spirit of encourage the development of democratic organization has motivated ELSAM to change its form from foundation to the more constituent based organization that is Association. This change was also coincided with the effort in responding a tendency of the government to control NGO through stipulating Foundation Act in 2002. This change is expected to provide strong support to its works in the future.
ELSAM held internal meeting, particularly strategic planning meeting from 5th - 12th August 2002 to reformulate its mission and advocacy activities. Having this meeting, Institute for research policy and Advocacy (ELSAM) deliberately decided to continue its works on the settlement of gross human rights violations taking place during the new order era, as well as the development of accountability mechanism of gross human rights violation to fights against impunity and delivering justice to the victims. In this regards, ELSAM will also take the effort to reveal the Economic Social and Cultural Rights violation as gross human rights violations into account.
Overall program of the organisation
Vision: ELSAM believes that human rights and respect towards human rights are the main prerequisite for the establishment of a democratic civil-society that attains socio-economic justice. Mission: Such vision is translated into ELSAM's mission is to promote the existence of a society that respects the values of human rights and democracy and attains social justice as well as gender sensitivity.
Goal: In general, ELSAM's overall programs goal is aimed to encourage and stimulate the realization and establishment of a social order within society respecting human rights values, democracy, social and economic justice, and gender perspective throughout Indonesia. Main programs: * Accountability of gross human rights violations of Civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights. * Responsibility for Past Human rights Abuses through revealing the truth, usage of sanction, and reparation. * General service and Institutional development
Strategic objectives:
1.Encouraging and promoting effective mechanisms of accountability of gross human rights violations of Civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights 2.Responsibility for Past Human rights violations through revealing the truth, usage of sanction, and reparation. 3.Establishing acknowledgeable, democratic and sustainable association
Main activities
Research and study of alternative policy development The program is design to provide strong analysis in developing policy advocacy. The program covers three main activities namely (1) study of policy or legal impacts on human rights, particularly policy regarding the settlement of human rights violation in the past, policy that has legal impact on the enjoyment of ESC Rights, (2) study on international human rights instruments and other peaceful human rights settlement mechanism, (3) study on accountability mechanism of gross human rights violation in ESC Rights. (4) Legal drafting.
Advocacy and Campaign
The program is design to foster public opinion through seminars, conferences, public debates, and mass media program.
Publication
The program is designed to collect and process data information related to human rights violations and to disseminate information to networks and society at large including producing ELSAM publication.
Workshop and training
This program is designed to offer human rights education and training program in the priority regions and sectional network of ELSAM. Besides human rights training are also provided initiative workshop on ESC rights monitoring, human rights mechanism in general for student, human rights defenders and lawyers.
Monitoring and investigation
This program is design to facilitate the ongoing rapid changes and its implication to the human rights violations. Besides, it provides necessary data to conduct study and research to develop alternative policy in preventing gross human rights violations.
Lobby
This program is designed separately from advocacy and campaign program in order to intensify its function in policy advocacy. This program is specifically addressing the important of establishing policies that adopted human rights perspective standards through lobbying the parliament and related government institution
Planning, Monitoring and evaluation
This program is designed to develop good planning, monitoring and evaluation system to support the implementation of overall programs of ELSAM.
Co-operation
ELSAM develops co-operation and collaboration to support its programs' implementation. The collaboration and cooperation has been developed by facilitating and establishing a network for human rights defender, human rights lawyers association, monitoring and promoting ESC Rights, organizations that work for the victims of Past human rights violation, and Victims' organizations of past human rights violation in different regions. Besides relation and cooperation has also developed with the government institutions, members of parliament, and the National Committee of Human Rights
There are two different kinds of human rights network supported and facilitated by ELSAM. Firstly, networks that based on geographical position in which ELSAM provides technical assistance support. Together with them ELSAM develop human rights advocacy both in civil and political rights campaign as well as in Economic Social and Cultural Rights campaign. Among them are Komite Ham Kaltim, LBH Ham Kalbar, Koalisi NGO Aceh, and Tapak Ambon. Besides ELSAM also develop network and collaboration with local NGOs particularly in conflict areas such as Papua working groups on Justice and Peace in Jayapura, ELSHAM and Alliance of Indigenous People of the Archipelago.
In the public policy research and Advocacy, ELSAM develop collaboration with many national level NGOs, namely; in promoting human rights for natural resources policy ELSAM develops collaboration with WALHI, Working group on natural resources management (POKJA PSDA), lawyers association for environment activists (TAPAL). In promoting peaceful settlement of past human rights violations ELSAM develops collaboration with (KONTRAS), Voluntary Team for Humanity (TRuK), which was established after the May tragedy 1998 in Jakarta; the specific issues ELSAM take part actively in several networks namely, NGO Coalition for New Constitution, NGO Coalition on Human Rights Court, Consortium of migrant worker defenders (KOPBUMI), Indonesian Secretariat for the development of human resources in Rural Areas (BINA DESA), Ministry of justice and human rights, National Commission on human rights (KOMNAS HAM), National commission on violence against women (KOMNAS Perempuan).
In addition to the network in national level, ELSAM also develops cooperation with several educational institution particularly Center of human rights studies, among them are Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta, Parahyangan University Bandung, Islamic University of Indonesia Yogyakarta, and Syah Kuala University Aceh.
In international level, ELSAM also enter into cooperation and collaboration with NGOS at regional and international level. There are Human Rights Watch and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York, Alternative Law and Development Center (Alterlaw) of Philippine, Law and Society trust of Sri lanka. Asian Human rights Commission (AHRC) Hong Kong, Redress-UK on torture and reparation, Forum Asia - Thailand, International Crisis Group- Brussels, Organicasio Mondiale Contra La Tortura, Canadian Human Rights Foundation (CHRF), and is being involved intensively in INFID.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The implementation of ELSAM program is to be monitored by board of Association and Executive Director. Each chief of division will prepare monitoring mechanism day by day, each month, and once in three months, which then will be worked out with the chief of divisions. Internal evaluation on the implementation of each program is designed of being conducted once in a year, in addition to making overall evaluation every three years.
The overall evaluation conducted every three years is opened an opportunity for the participation of the partner NGOs and also supervision conducted by an independent external evaluator.
Address:
Jl. Siaga II No 31, Pasar Minggu, Jakarta 12510, INDONESIA.
Telephone: +62-21 797.2662 atau 7919.2564
Facsimile: +62-21 7919.2519
E-mail: elsam@nusa.or.idatau advokasi@indosat.net.id
Website: http://www.elsam.or.id
In international level, ELSAM also enter into cooperation and collaboration with NGOS at regional and international level. There are Human Rights Watch and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York
Who is behind Human Rights Watch?
Cynically summarised, Human Rights Watch arose as a joint venture of George Soros and the State Department. . .Human Rights Watch is organised approximately by continent. The Europe section was established in 1978, originally named 'Helsinki Steering Committee' or 'Helsinki Watch'. It is the core of the later Human Rights Watch organisation. . .The committee is now called the Europe and Central Asia Advisory Committee. It is still affiliated with the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, which co-ordinates the "Helsinki committees". The membership now includes fewer ex-diplomats than in the 1990's, more academics, and a few HRW donors. This web page and other similar publicity, has probably influenced the change in style. (By appointing his tax lawyer to the HRW Board, Soros exposed himself to ridicule and charges of cronyism). The list below is the March 2004 version.
Peter Osnos, chair
George Soros' publisher. He is Chief Executive of Public Affairs publishers.Alice Henkin, Vice Chair
Human Rights lawyer, Director of the Justice and Society Program at the Aspen Institute. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the most influential elite foreign-policy lobby. The President and CEO of the Aspen Institute is Walter Issacson, who is also Chairman and CEO of CNN News.Henri Barkey
Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University, advised the State Department on Turkish and Kurdish issues. Married to Ellen Laipson, former Special Assistant to Madeleine Albright, when Albright was UN Ambassador. Considered anti-Turkish by some Turkish media. See: Columnist on US Plans for Cyprus, 1999.Jonathan Fanton, ex-member
Chair of the HRW International Committee until 2003, and still a member. President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, itself a HRW donor. Former Vice President of the University of Chicago, in 1982 appointed as President of the New School for Social Research, now the New School University. He is active in building US academic contacts with eastern Europe, directed at the new pro-western elites, see the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) page.Morton Abramowitz, ex-member
A link to the foreign policy establishment, one of several at HRW. Abramowitz was U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (1989-91) and Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research (1985-89), among other posts: see his personal details at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is a Fellow. The CFR is the heart of interventionist US policy since 1921 (and hated by the isolationist right).Stephen Del RossoHe directed the CFR Balkan Economic Task Force, which published a report on "Reconstructing the Balkans".
Ex-diplomat, also member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Works for the Carnegie Corporation as 'Senior Program Officer' International Peace and Security, and before that for the Pew Trust. See his biography at the Carnegie website - a typical international affairs career.Barbara Finberg
A donor of HRW, see the list below. A retired vice president with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, who donated $1 million to Stanford University.Felice Gaer
Human rights specialist at the American Jewish Committee, and Chairperson of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is primarily active against Islamic countries and China. According to this JTA report, Gaer praised Madeleine Albright for her "outstanding human rights record", apparently meaning that she would not allow any criticism of Israel's housing policy in Jerusalem. Gaer was also chair of the Steering Committee for the 50th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Declaration, see this biography:Michael Erwin Gellert
"Ms.Gaer is Director of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. Author, speaker, and activist, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation, a member of the International Human Rights Council at the Carter Center, ...Vice President of the International League for Human Rights."In 1999, Felice Gaer was a non-governmental member of the United States delegation to a United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva, where (according to the Voice of America) she denounced Sudan, saying the the U.S. "cannot accept those who invoke Islam or other religions as justification for atrocious human rights abuses." More interesting ( with hindsight) is this speech at the Geneva meeting, where she suggested the UN should no longer investigate prison rapes in the US: "we would urge the Special Rapporteurs to focus their attention on countries where the situation is the most dire and the abuses the most severe."
The disclosures about abuse of prisoners in Iraq illustrate the ethical problem here. One thing you can't say, is that 'America doesn't treat its own prisoners like that'. Americans do treat their fellow citizens like that - in American jails, which have a consistently bad record on prisoner abuse. But Felice Gaer suggested that it somehow isn't as bad, if the US authorities do such things. The United States, she said, was committed to human rights and... "When violations occur, we have the mechanisms and protections in place to prosecute."
In reality, US authorities responded as at Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay: they obstructed outside investigators. The Report of the mission to the United States of America on the issue of violence against women in state and federal prisons says:
"...on the eve of her visit to Michigan, the Special Rapporteur received a letter dated 12 June 1998 from the Governor of Michigan informing her that she would not be allowed to ... visit any of the women's prisons... The Special Rapporteur found this refusal particularly disturbing since she had received very serious allegations of sexual misconduct occurring at Florence Crane Women's Facility and Camp Branch Facility for Women in Coldwater, Michigan, as well as at Scott Correctional Facility for Women in Plymouth, Michigan."
Virginia and California also obstructed the Special Rapporteur. Felice Gaer knew that, because the report had already been published. She was lying when she told the UN that "we welcome outside investigations". Instead of condemning the obstruction, she diverted attention to abuses in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and China. The United States, she explained, is an open, democratic society.
That sounds like Donald Rumsfeld speaking about Abu Ghraib. It is dangerous attitude: it implies that America can ultimately do no wrong, since its open society is a perfect defence against abuse of power. Human Rights Watch does promote that attitude - that 'human rights abuse' is essentially something done by foreigners, and that American institutions are somehow immunised against it. Now, the US soldiers who abused and killed prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan don't see themselves as comparable to the previous regimes: they see themselves as the good guys, defenders of a system which is infinitely better. Certainly under wartime conditions, that attitude inevitably leads to abuses.
So Human Rights Watch itself must accept some of the blame, for what happened to the prisoners. HRW divides humanity in two: on the one side are the supporters of American values. On the other, worthless criminal barbarian rapists and torturers. In this logic 'human rights' does not imply that Iraqi prisoners should be treated with respect, but rather the opposite. From "our torture is different" it's a small step to "our torture is acceptable because it is anti-torturer" and then another small step to "human rights means torturing torturers". Or their friends, or their family, or the subversives who want to appease them...
Vice Chairman of the Board at Fanton's New School for Social Research. Partner in the private investment company Windcrest Partners, and Chairman of the Board of the Carnegie Institute. Gellert is or was a director of Premier Parks Inc., owner of the Six Flags and Walibi theme park chains.Paul Goble
Director of Communications and political commentator at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Cold War propaganda transmitters that survived the end of the Cold War. From their websiteBill Green, ex-member"Free Europe, Inc., was established in 1949 as non-profit, private corporations to broadcast news and current affairs programs to Eastern European countries behind the Iron Curtain. The Radio Liberty Committee, Inc., was created two years later along the same lines to broadcast to the nations inside the Soviet Union. Both were funded principally by the U.S. Congress, through the Central Intelligence Agency, but they also received some private donations as well. The two corporations were merged into a single RFE/RL, Inc. in 1975."
It is still funded by the US Government, through Congressional appropriation.
Former Republican member of Congress, a trustee of the New School for Social Research (where Fanton is President), with many other public and business posts: see the biography at the American Assembly, an academic/political think-tank.Stanley Hoffman
A pro-interventionist theorist (of course that means US intervention, not a Taliban invasion of the US). Professor at Harvard, see his biography. Note that his colleagues include Daniel Goldhagen, who openly advocated occupation of Serbia, to impose a US-style democracy: see A New Serbia.Jeri Laber
Longtime HRW staff member, since the Helsinki Watch period. Now an advisor, without executive tasks,Kati Marton, ex-member
President of the Committee to Protect Journalists. However this 'protection' did not extend to journalists killed by NATO bombing of the Belgrade TV studios: she declined to condemn it. This may, perhaps, have something to do with not embarrassing her husband: Richard C. Holbrooke, former Special Envoy to Yugoslavia, and US Ambassador to the United Nations. For an idea of the social world behind Human Rights Watch, and a glimpse of of how US foreign policy is made, see this article about their cocktail parties...Prema Mathai-Davis, ex-memberDick Holbrooke, who's been U.N. ambassador since August, has a different idea of what sort of people the suite should be filled with. Tonight, he's hosting a dinner for General Wesley Clark, the granite-faced, soft-spoken nato chief, who is leaving his post in April. .... Dressed in a formal pin-striped suit, crisp white shirt, and red tie, Holbrooke still manages to look comfortably rumpled -- his unruly hair is the secret to this effect -- as he banters his way around the room. Introducing Clark to billionaire financier George Soros and Canadian press lord Conrad Black, Holbrooke teasingly calls the general, whose formal title is supreme Allied commander for Europe, "The Supreme,"...
Holbrooke's wife, the author Kati Marton, is equally adept at the art of the cocktail party. Dressed in an elegant white pantsuit, she ushers guests into the dining room, where four tables are set for a meal of crab cakes and sautéed duck. Marton and Holbrooke, who have been giving twice-a-week diplomatic dinners, have a carefully choreographed act. "I give the opening toast, which is unorthodox in the U.N. village," she explains. "Richard and I are making the point we're doing this together."
Ambassador A-List, from the January 3, 2000 issue of New York Magazine.As 'journalist protector', Kati Marton lobbied for the Soros-funded B92 radio in Belgrade, which played a central role in the opposition under Milosevic, at least until his last year in power. The campaign for B92 is illustrative of the symbiotic relationship of interventionist lobbies and interventionist governments. Marton was lobbying to protect an 'independent' radio station which was already part-funded by the US government (National Endowment for Democracy). Partly as a result, it got even more western funding.
Immediately after the station was banned, Ivor Roberts, the British ambassador, showed his support by visiting its offices on the fifth floor of a run-down socialist-style building in downtown Belgrade. Carl Bildt, then the international High Representative in charge of the civilian side of the Dayton peace agreement in Bosnia, the US State Department, and Kati Marton of the Committee to Protect Journalists also made protests on behalf of the station.
Internet technology and international pressure proved to be effective weapons against Milosevic. After two days he withdrew his edict forbidding B-92 to broadcast. It seems likely that he was convinced that lifting the ban would win Western praise and deflect international attention from his electoral fraud. Immediately afterward, B-92 was able - through funds provided equally by the BBC, the British Foreign Office, USAID, the European Union, and George Soros's Open Society Foundation-to gain access to a satellite that linked twenty-eight independent local radio stations, covering 70 percent of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which is now made up of Serbia and Montenegro.
1997 article from the New York Review of Books
A token non-westerner, an Indian immigrant. She was, however, also CEO of the YWCA (Young Womens Christian Association), which is as American as can be.Jack Matlock, ex-member
US Ambassador to the Soviet Union during its collapse, 1987-1991. Author of Autopsy On An Empire: The American Ambassador's Account of the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Random House, 1995).Walter LinkMember of the large Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council. The Atlantic Council is more than a pro-NATO fan club: it supports an expansionist US foreign policy in general. Note their recent paper (in pdf format) Beyond Kosovo, a redesign of the Balkans within the framework of the proposed Stability Pact.
The Atlantic Council is a delight for corporate-conspiracy theorists. Yes, it is all paid for by the Rockefeller foundation, the Soros foundation, the Nuclear Energy Institute, Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, Exxon, British Nuclear Fuels, the US Army and the European Union. And, no surprise to conspiracy fans, Matlock attended the 1996 Bilderberg Conference.
Chairman of the Global Academy Institute for Globalization, Human Rights, and Leadership - obviously not a man to limit the scope of his activities. Promoter of the Blue Planet Run, a global foot-race starting in San Francisco, which will improve the global water supply. That's what it says at the website anyway. The Academy is associated with the futurist John Naisbitt.Michael McFaul
Hoover Institution Fellow at Stanford University. See his biography. A lobbyist for the 'democratisation' of Russia, and relatively hostile to the Putin government. Note, that there is no lobby in Russia, that seeks to decide the form of government of the United States.Sarah E. Mendelson
Senior Fellow at the Center For Strategic and International Studies. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Chechnya specialist. See her CV.Karl Meyer
Editor of World Policy Journal, published by the World Policy Institute. The WPI supports an expansionist and interventionist American foreign policy: it is part of Jonathan Fanton's New School University.Joel Motley
Also on the main HRW Board. Managing Director, Carmona Motley, Inc. Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he was a member of their Task Force on Non-Lethal Technologies. This is what Mr. Motley wants to do the poor, to improve their human rights:Herbert Okun
- jamming or destruction of communications, together with the ability to transmit television and radio programs of ones choice, potentially useful for reducing inflammatory, sometimes genocidal, messages or separating murderous rulers from army and populace;
- slickums and stickums to impede vehicle or foot traffic;
- highly obnoxious sounds and smells, capable of inducing immediate flight or temporary digestive distress.That would have helped in Somalia, concludes the CFR Task Force. Needless to say there was no Somali on the Task Force either. Motley is also on the Advisory Board of LEAP, an educational charity, where they develop courses in, among other things, conflict resolution. Their website doesn't say whether the children are trained to use digestive distress agents.
Career diplomat, former Special Advisor on Yugoslavia to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia. Member of the Board of the Lawyers Alliance for World Security (LAWS) and its affiliate the Committee for National Security (CNS) which gives this biography:Jane OlsonAmbassador Herbert Okun is the U.S. member and Vice-President of the International Narcotics Control Board, and Visiting Lecturer on International Law at Yale Law School. Previously, he was the Deputy Chairman on the U.S. delegation at the SALT II negotiations and led the U.S. delegation in the trilateral U.S.-U.K.-USSR Talks on the CTBT. From 1991 to 1993 Ambassador Okun was Special Advisor on Yugoslavia to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Personal Envoy of the U.N. Secretary General, and Deputy Co-Chairman of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia. He also served as Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN from 1985 to 1989 serving on the General Assembly, the Disarmament Committee and the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Amb. Okun was also U.S. Ambassador to the former German Democratic Republic.
He was from 1990-97 Executive Director of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, "a non-profit organization providing voluntary assistance to help establish free-market financial systems in former communist countries", see his biography at International Security Studies at Yale University, where he is also a board member. This Corps is a de facto agency of USAID, see how it is listed country-by-country in their report. Although it is not relevant to Human Rights Watch, this curriculum vitae gives a good impression of the kind of international elite created by such programs.
Okun is also a member emeritus of the board of the European Institute in Washington, an Atlanticist lobby. It organises the European-American Policy Forum, the European-American Congressional Forum, and the Transatlantic Joint Security Policies Project. Okun is a special advisor to the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict funded by the Carnegie Corporation. (It links pro-western international elite figures advocating a formal structure for control of states by the "international community").
Okun was a member of a Task Force (including Bianca Jagger and George Soros) on war criminals: see their report . Although it also demands "UN Sanctions Against States Harboring Indicted War Criminals" it is unlikely that the Task Force members meant the man quoted at the start of their report, President Clinton.
A curiosity: this human rights supporter is accused of an attempt to destroy the right to free speech, in his post at the International Narcotics Control Board: see A Duty to Censor: U.N. Officials Want to Crack Down on Drug War Protesters in the libertarian Reason Magazine.
Represents HRW Southern California on the main HRW Board, see her biography. One of the few who are simply human rights activists, although her views are clearly 100% acceptable to the US Government. She was appointed a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1991 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Moscow. The biography notes that she "...participated in many investigation delegations to the former USSR, Yugoslavia, the Caucasus, Cuba, Vietnam and Cambodia". There is even a photo gallery: Jane with helmet in front of an armoured car in Bosnia, Jane at Tianmen Square, Jane in Red Square, Jane celebrates Ukrainian independence, Jane in Cambodia with Queen Noor of Jordan.Hannah PakulaAgain note, that US citizens consider it normal to travel to Europe, to decide on Europe's 'Security and Cooperation'. However, there is absolutely no equivalent "Conference on North American Security and Cooperation", where Europeans arrive, to tell Americans what to do. And no Bosnians are allowed to drive armoured vehicles around the United States.
Author, member of the Freedom to Write Committee at PEN, the international writers organisation. Widow of film director Alan Pakula. Co-organiser of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.Kathleen Peratis
Also Chair of the HRW Women's Rights Advisory Committee. Lawyer in New York, see the biography. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom - Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, which campaigns for a dual-state solution in Israel. Also a Board Member at B'nai Jeshurun, "a Zionist congregation"Barnett Rubin"Collectively and individually, BJ members love and support the State of Israel. The continuing violence in Israel deepens our commitment as it saddens our hearts. We pray together for peace. At the same time, we assume our obligation as sacred communities to take action that will both encourage ongoing dialogue about the situation and explore the myriad ways that we - collectively and individually - can support Israel fulfill the vision put forth in its Declaration of Independence."
Peratis bought her way onto the Committee, she is listed in the 1995 donor's list.
Academic and Soros-institutes advisor. Director of the "Center for Preventive Action" at the Council on Foreign Relations.The center is funded by the US Government through USIP, and by the Carnegie Corporation as part of their program Preventing Deadly Conflict. "Preventive Action" means intervention.Colette ShulmanHe is a member of the centers South Balkans Working Group, and edited a 1996 Council on Foreign Relations study Towards Comprehensive Peace in Southeast Europe: Conflict Prevention in the South Balkans. Rubin is an Afghanistan specialist, also on the Board of the Asia division of HRW. He authored and edited several works on Afghanistan. Rubin apparently had a curious attitude to the Taliban, he saw them as a bulwark against Islamic radicalism. No doubt he changed his attitude after 11 September 2001. See this letter to NPR, entitled Afghanistan Whitewash:
While the Lyden-Rubin conversation made no mention of US support for the Taliban, they referred several times to US "pressure" on the Taliban to now respect human rights. This is a total white wash which distorts the historical record beyond recognition.Rubin is on the Advisory Board of the Soros Foundation Central Eurasia Project. He is an advisor of the Forced Migration Project of Soros' Open Society Institute, and he is also on the Board of the Soros Humanitarian Fund for Tajikistan. Perhaps most interesting is that the U.S. Institute of Peace (a de facto government agency) gave him a grant to research "formation of a new state system in Central Eurasia".
Barnett Rubin articles on Central AsiaThis may be repetitive, but note once again that there are absolutely no Foundations or Institutes in Central Asia, which pay people to design "new state systems" in North America. For people like Rubin "human rights" mean simply that the US designs the world. See this article at the Soros Central Asia site, The Political Economy of War and Peace in Afghanistan, advocating a de facto colonial government in Afghanistan financed by oil revenues. He wasn't talking about the present Karzai government, which meets the description, but about the Taliban regime. Although they might prefer to forget this now, western foreign policy circles did consider recognising the Taliban, in a sort of oil-for-sharia swop.
Rubin is also a member of the US State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad. The Final Report of this Committee also sums up what the United States can do, when it finds religious freedom has been infringed. The list begins at "friendly, persuasive: open an embassy" and ends with "act of war".
Rubin was also involved in the 1997 New York meeting, where the United States attempted to create a unified Yugoslav opposition, with among others Vuk Draskovic. The effort failed at the time: the opposition never united until Milosevic fell.
Womens' rights specialist. Works for the US 'National Council for Research on Women', where she is editor of 'Women's Dialogue', a Russian-language magazine for Russian women. Does the Russian Federation have a national research council which publishes English-language magazines for American women? I doubt it: it is the American obsession to redesign the rest of the world, in detail.Leon Sigal, also known as Lee Sigal
Director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council, specialist on North Korea, author of 'Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea'. It is not clear why he is on the Europe Advisory Committee, instead of the Asia committee. See his biography:Malcolm Smith...member of the editorial board of The New York Times from 1989 until 1995. In 1979 he served as International Affairs Fellow in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs at the Department of State and in 1980 as Special Assistant to the Director. He was a Rockefeller Younger Scholar in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution from 1972-1974 and a guest scholar there in 1981-1984. From 1974 to 1989 he taught international politics at Wesleyan University as a professor of government. He was an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs from 1985 to 1989 and from 1996 to 2000, and visiting lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School in 1988 and 2000.
Sigal is a member of the Board of Advisors at Globalbeat Syndicate, part of the New York University Dept of Journalism.
Senior Consultant, former President, at General American Investors Company, Inc.George Soros
In some ways the 'Osama bin Laden' of the human rights movement - a rich man using his wealth, to spread his values across the world. See this overview of his role in Eastern Europe: George Soros: New Statesman Profile (Neil Clark, June 2003). The Public Affairs site gives this short biography of George Soros, chief financier of HRW and of numerous organisations in eastern Europe with pro-American, pro-market policies.Marco StoffelGeorge Soros was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1930. In 1947 he emigrated to England, where he graduated from the London School of Economics. While a student in London, Mr. Soros became familiar with the work of the philosopher Karl Popper, who had a profound influence on his thinking and later on his philanthropic activities. In 1956 he moved to the United States, where he began to accumulate a large fortune through an international investment fund he founded and managed.
Mr. Soros currently serves as chairman of Soros Fund Management L.L.C., a private investment management firm that serves as principal investment advisor to the Quantum Group of Funds. The Quantum Fund N.V., the oldest and largest fund within the Quantum Group, is generally recognized as having the best performance record of any investment fund in the world in its twenty-nine-year history.
Mr. Soros established his first foundation, the Open Society Fund, in New York in 1979 and his first Eastern European foundation in Hungary in 1984. He now funds a network of foundations that operate in thirty-one countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union, as well as southern Africa, Haiti, Guatemala, Mongolia and the United States. These foundations are dedicated to building and maintaining the infrastructure and institutions of an open society. Mr. Soros has also founded other major institutions, such as the Central European University and the International Science Foundation. In 1994, the foundations in the network spent a total of approximately $300 million; in 1995, $350 million; in 1996, $362 million; and in 1997, $428 million. Giving for 1998 is expected to be maintained at that level.Open Society Institute Staff Directory
Open Society Institute Budapest
Founder and director of the Third Millennium Foundation. Although it sounds harmless, the Foundation promotes a pseudo-ethical theory aimed at children, in which morality is reduced to 'empathy'. It also funds some human rights research.Ruti Teitel
Professor of Constitutional Law at the New York Law School, see his biography. In the last few years he has specialised in the Constitutions of eastern European countries, and advised on the new Ukrainian constitution.Mark von Hagen
Director of the Harriman Institute - an International Relations institute of Columbia University in New York. A Soviet and post-Soviet specialist, with a long list of publications, see his profile at the institute website.Patricia M. Wald
US Judge, appointed to the Yugoslavia Tribunal (ICTY) in The Hague, until 2001. See this interview. Incidentally, the Soros Foundation also paid for the equipment of the Tribunal - so much for its judicial impartiality.Mark Walton
This is apparently a British specialist in human rights and mental health, but I can not link him definitively to HRW.William D. Zabel
George Soros legal advisor, on foundation and charity law. A estate and family financial lawyer for the rich at Schulte, Roth, and Zabel. His biography lists his involvement with these Soros Foundations: "Newly Independent States and the Baltic Republics, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Central European University and Open Society Fund". See this biographical article originally from the National Law Journal:Warren Zimmermann
When fate knocks, rich ring for ZabelHe is a trustee of Fanton's New School of Social Research, and member of the Advisory Board of the World Policy Institute at the New School.
Zabel is a director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights is one of the partners in the "Apparel Industry Partnership", a group set up by the Clinton administration and the US clothing and footwear industries to defuse criticism of conditions in their factories. The (not particularly radical) US trade union federation refuses to co-operate with it.
Zabel is also on the Board of Doctors of the World, the USA branch of Médecins du Monde, founded by Bernard Kouchner in 1980. Kouchner was later appointed the UN Representative ( the "governor") in Kosovo - and he has been suggested as a possible 'UN Governor' in Iraq. Despite the name, Médecins du Monde is a purely western organisation, see the affiliate list.
US Ambassador to Yugoslavia during its break-up, author of Origins of Catastrophe: Yugoslavia and Its Destroyers. A Cold-War career diplomat, long active in US human rights campaigns against eastern Europe. See this site for an extreme pro-Bosniac assessment of his book by Branka Magas, alleging he appeased Milosevic: "In the event, by pursuing Yugoslavia's unity rather than supporting Slovenia and Croatia in their demands for either the country's confederal transformation or its peaceful dissolution, the United States helped ensure its violent break-up". (I think it is logically consistent with US values and interests, that the US supported one policy around 1990 and another in Kosovo. The real problem is that so many people in Europe expect the US to design their states and write their Constitutions. It is because of this attitude, that people like Zimmermann, and organisations like HRW, can flourish) Zimmermann is now a professor of Diplomacy at Columbia University. If you think the 'amoral diplomat' is a stereotype, look at how his 1997 Contemporary Diplomacy course taught future diplomats:Imagine that you are a member of Secretary Albright's Policy Planning Staff. She has asked you to write a strategy paper for one of the following diplomatic challenges:
- Dealing with NATO expansion and with the countries affected;
- Crafting a more energetic and assertive US approach to the Israeli-PLO deadlock;
-Raising the American profile in sub-Saharan Africa;
- Developing a US initiative to improve relations with Cuba;
- Forging an American approach to Central Asia and its energy wealth;
- Making better use of the UN and other multilateral organizations like OSCE;
- Weighing the relative priorities between pursuing human rights and keeping open lucrative economic opportunities;
- Increasing interest in, and support for, US foreign policy among the American people.With Barnett Rubin, Zimmermann is a member of the Advisory Board of the Forced Migration Project at Soros Open Society Institute.
With Felice Gaer, Zimmermann is also on the Board of the quasi-commercial International Dispute Resolution Associates. (Peacemaking has become big business, but IDR is also funded by the US Government through the USIP).
He is a Trustee of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
SNIP
Taken from an older version of the HRW website, this 1995 list is apparently the only information available. In the United States, HRW is not legally obliged to disclose who donates money. About half its funds come from foundations, and half from individual donors, in total about $20 million.
In its Annual Reports, HRW always claims that it "accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly." However, that was a lie according to the 1995 list, and it is still a lie. The Dutch Novib - now part of the Oxfam group - is a government-funded aid organisation, and in turn it funded the activities of Human Rights Watch Africa in the Great Lakes region and Angola. Oxfam itself is primarily funded by the British government and the European Union, see their annual report. It is also funded by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID. Oxfam in turn partly funds Novib, so some of that money finds it way to HRW. Both Oxfam and Novib funded the HRW report on the Rwanda genocide. So, if it is as accurate as HRW's claim not to accept any indirect government funding, look elsewhere for the truth.
DONORS OF $100,000 OR MOREDorothy and Lewis Cullman
The Aaron Diamond Foundation
Irene Diamond
The Ford Foundation
The Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett Fund
Estate of Anne Johnson
The J. M. Kaplan Fund
The Fanny and Leo Koerner Charitable Trust
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The John Merck Fund
The Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation
Novib, The Dutch Organization for Development Corporation,
The Overbrook Foundation
Oxfam
Donald Pels
The Ruben and Elisabeth Rausing Trust
The Rockefeller Foundation
Marion and Herbert Sandler, The Sandler Family Supporting Foundation
Susan and George Soros
Shelby White and Leon LevyDONORS OF $25,000 - $99,999
The Arca Foundation
Helen and Robert Bernstein
Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
Nikki and David Brown
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Compton Foundation, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Davis
The Dr. Seuss Foundation
Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller
Jack Edelman
Epstein Philanthropies
Federation Internationale des Ligues des Droits de L'Homme
Barbara Finberg
General Service Foundation
Abby Gilmore and Arthur Freierman
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
Katherine Graham, The Washington Post Company
Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
Hudson News
Independence Foundation
The Isenberg Family Charitable Trust
The Henry M. Jackson Foundation
Robert and Ardis James
Jesuit Refugee Service
Nancy and Jerome Kohlberg
Lyn and Norman Lear
Joshua Mailman
Medico International
Moriah Fund, Inc.
Ruth Mott Fund
Kathleen Peratis and Richard Frank
Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation
Ploughshares Fund
Public Welfare Foundation, Inc.
Anita and Gordon Roddick
Edna and Richard Salomon
Lorraine and Sid Sheinberg
Margaret R. Spanel
Time Warner Inc.
U.S. Jesuit Conference
Warner Brothers, Inc.
Edie and Lew Wasserman
Maureen White and Steven Rattner
Malcolm Wiener and Carolyn Seely Wiener
The Winston Foundation for World Peace
...Chinese expansionism, that is. That's only my guess. You might have more knowledge of the situation than I and something more to contribute.
The Pro-Terror Internacional: NGOs championing the narco-terrorists of Colombia. - It is important to note that the NGOs condemn human rights abuses by both sides – to deny the FARC’s participation in them would thoroughly undermine their credibility. But by acting to create an equivalence between the two groups, the NGOs indirectly support the FARC by creating a political climate that effectively isolates the Colombian government. Reports of human rights abuses issued by NGOs such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Washington Office on Latin America, which found "overwhelming evidence of the Colombian government’s failure to meet the human rights conditions," were used by left-wing politicians to block military aid to the Colombian government. Prominent Democratic Senators such as Ted Kennedy, Christopher Dodd and Pat Leahy, who have rarely displayed any hostility towards left-wing causes, successfully blocked aid packages that would have allowed the Colombian military to effectively combat the insurgents and bring some semblance of order to the country.
The latest ‘useful idiot’ to serve the cause of the FARC is none other than John Kerry, the presidential hopeful who also happens to sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Answering a question about U.S. drug policy following a recent speech in Boston, he claimed that the Marxist insurgents have "legitimate complaints," echoing the moral equivalence set forth by FARC apologists and reflecting a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation on the ground.
Colombia's Uribe Denounces Rights Groups as Cowards and Terrorist Sympathizers - "When the terrorists begin to feel weakened, they immediately send their spokespeople for the human rights (groups)," Uribe said, challenging them to "take off their masks ... and drop this cowardice of hiding their ideas behind human rights."
Amnesty International Calls for Suspension of Military Aid to Nepal
Aid suspension 'will fuel terrorism in Nepal' - “They have to choose between supporting us and helping the terrorists.”
Exactly--those are the culprits.
So, essentially, the same groups that have been supporting Castro's network in Latin America are involved in this move in Nepal.
India and Britain froze military aid to the Himalayan kingdom but Washington, though under pressure to follow suit, fears the move could undermine Katmandu's fight against Maoist rebels. On contrary, it plans to extend 2 million dollar in security assistance to Nepal this year.
The human rights watchdog has warned against the move saying it has given wrong signals to an already defiant King.
"The United States is part of the problem because they see the problem in Nepal as part of the war against terror. They are trying to ignore the ground realities, which prevail in Nepal. The fact that the US has not suspended military aid, basically contributes to the problem because the King perceives this as a support to his rule since February 1," AHRC Director Suhas Chakma told a news conference here.
Nepal's King Gyanendra is being criticised across the world for his decision to sack the Sher Bahadur Deuba government on February 1 and imposing state of emergency and suspending the civil rights. According to the king, the steps were required to crush a nine-year-old Maoist insurrection.
The officials, however, said that the U.S. in addition to replacing antique rifles with M-16s to help Nepal fight the Maoists was helping train the Nepali military "in values as well as skills."
Recent media reports have quoted top Washington officials that the US is pressing the Nepalis to investigate and punish soldiers responsible for abuses.
But the AHRC maintains that the royal takeover had only reduced the accountability of the army, thereby increasing the risk of disappearances and greater abuses at the hands of the army, in the Himalayan kingdom.
The Maoists, who control much of the countryside, are widely accused of executing, capturing and torturing critics and opponents, and recruiting children to work for them but the rights groups say security forces play almost as dirty.
" Money is the factor. Democracy is to be seen beyond dollars. They have to initiate immediately this process and there is already a process the government of Nepal and Maoists are discussing about signing a joint human rights so we are calling for international monitors. It is basically to reduce both by Maoists and security force because both side they don't want to be identified and known as grossing as human rights for which they could be prosecuted," added Suhas Chakma.
The AHRC said more than a 1000 people had disappeared in the last few months as the state tries to "break the backbone" of the revolt. Nepal's army has denied the claims saying it is committed to protecting people's rights.
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Int’l meeting to praise A special joint meeting of representatives from the international democratic organizations and friendship and solidarity organizations in different countries and regions of the world was held on December 15, 2004, through phone and e-mail to make arrangements for the meeting for praising the great persons of Mt. Paektu to be held in the Mt. Paektu area in August 2005 that marks the 60th anniversaries of the Workers’ Party of Korea and Korea’s liberation. It was attended by senior officials from international democratic organizations and friendship and solidarity organizations. A major agenda item of the meeting was the organization of an international preparatory committee for holding the meeting for praising the great persons of Mt. Paektu as a political and cultural festival of the world’s progressives. The international preparatory committee was inaugurated amidst the full support of the participants. Romesh Chandra, honorary president of the World Peace Council; Jitendra Sharma, president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers; and Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, were chosen as honorary chairmen of the committee and C.P. Mainali, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) and chairman of the Nepalese National Commission for Remembering the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung; N.T. Mawema, chairman of the African Regional Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with the Korean People; Gilberto Zapata Isaza, secretary general of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Committee for Supporting the Reunification of Korea; Anders Kristensen, secretary general of the Nordic Cooperation Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with the Korean People and chairman of the Denmark-DPRK Friendship Association; J. Tsevelma, vice-chairperson of the Mongolia-Korea Friendship Society and the promoter of the meeting; Marcia de Campos Pereira, president of the Women’s International Democratic Federation; and Mun Jae Chol, chairman of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World’s People, co-executive chairmen. Fifteen personages from international democratic organizations, political parties and friendship and solidarity organizations were selected as executive members of the committee. The meeting discussed such issues as calling on different regions and organizations to set up preparatory committees for the meeting for praising the great persons of Mt. Paektu and dispatch delegations and congratulatory groups to the meeting. It also called on the friendship and solidarity organizations with the Korean people and personages in different countries to make a tangible contribution to making arrangements for the meeting. On the same day, the Asian regional preparatory committee was also formed. Compiled from KCNA |
That's basically the talking points, the Maoists serve a noble cause and are unbeatable. Downright Stalinist.
Then there's this from Inter Press Service.
Maoist Deal with Nepal's Political Parties May Doom Monarchy"It’s not a coincidence that Inter Press Service has the same IPS acronym as the Institute for Policy Studies; it was created by radicals from the Marxist think tank in 1981 and the two have been joined at the hip ever since." - LINKAnalysis - by Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Mar 16 (IPS) - A new deal in the offing between Nepal's main political parties and Maoist rebels has the potential not only of returning the Himalayan kingdom to democracy but also ending a constitutional monarchy that has so far enjoyed New Delhi's support.
Last weekend, representatives of Nepali Congress, Nepali Congress (Democratic), Nepal Communist Party (United Marxists-Leninists) or UML, People's Front Nepal Party and the Nepal Sadbhavana Party meeting in Bangkok issued a joint-call to redraft the country's constitution through a constituent assembly and force the ouster of King Gyanendra who seized power in a 'royal coup' on Feb 1.
''This move poses the biggest challenge yet to Nepal's monarchy as well as to Indian policy on Nepal,'' S. D. Muni, India's most-respected expert on South Asian affairs and professor at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University told IPS.
New Delhi has consistently laid emphasis on the ''twin pillars of constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy'' in Nepal but this policy took a knock after the king ignored India's advice and used the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) to seize power and dismiss the elected government -- saying it failed to deal with a bloody Maoist insurgency that has left 11,000 Nepalis dead.
''We want the promulgation of a constituent assembly, and through the constituent assembly we will decide whether to have the king or not to have the king,'' said Ramesh Rizal, a central committee member of the centrist Nepali Congress (Democratic), speaking for all the five political parties in Bangkok.
The demand of the political parties is in consonance with the Maoist stand that the people of Nepal be given a fair chance to decide on a kingless republic through a new, popularly elected constituent assembly which would be charged with drawing up a new constitution.
Muni said the coming together of the political parties and the Maoists was ''a surprise though not an altogether unexpected development and was the natural result of the two groups realizing that they could not take on the monarchy unless they joined forces.''
Soon after the Feb. 1 coup independent commentators in Kathmandu, notably editor and publisher Kanak Mani Dixit, opined that the king had put the monarchy in jeopardy through his actions in dismissing the elected government (which served as a buffer between the palace and the Maoists), clamping down on civil liberties and muzzling the media.
The political parties whose second-line leadership managed to escape to India and set up base in New Delhi have been demanding that the host country support the idea of democratic republic that would replace constitutional monarchy, which they said never worked in practice
''If a democratic republic is good enough for India it should be good enough for Nepal too,'' is the unassailable argument put forward by Sujata Koirala of the Nepali Congress to Indian leaders whom she has been in contact with.
India, which enjoys more clout in Kathmandu than any other country, has nevertheless preferred to play it safe and coordinate sanctions against Nepal with major donor countries like the United States and Britain.
But the pressure on India to be more pro-active is greater because more than ten million Nepalis live in India taking advantage of the Indo-Nepal treaty of 1950 which allows them to freely reside, own property, find employment and carry on business in this country.
Indian nationals enjoy similar privileges in Nepal on a reciprocatory basis and many large Indian companies have made significant investments in the kingdom.
Although the 1950 treaty has been constantly under fire in Nepal as being more advantageous to India, no Nepali government to date has called for its abrogation.
Since January 2003, the number of Nepalis crossing over the border into India has gone up to 2,000 persons a day according to a study conducted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-sponsored study on internal displacement as a consequence of the Maoist insurgency.
Right-wing political leaders in India, notably those from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have opposed any dialogue with the Nepali Maoists on the grounds that they have links with India's violent Maoists groups such as the Maoist Communist Centre and the People's War Group. Also the Indian right-wingers have been quite supportive of the monarchy.
Opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani who was deputy prime minister until the BJP lost the national elections in May last year has repeatedly warned that Nepal's Maoists were trying to create a 'Maoist belt' that extends through the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
Advani has in fact publicly accused the Congress Party that leads the communist-backed United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ruling coalition of winning the elections through a secret understanding with Maoist groups.
But there is a view that Marxist groups in the Indian state have had a positive role in forcing badly needed socio-political changes including steps towards land reforms.
India's Maoist groups participate indirectly in electoral processes and have at various times come out openly to hold public rallies and negotiate reforms with elected governments which see wisdom in having a tolerant approach to them, so as to co-opt their left-leaning supporters.
In Nepal such tolerance is impossible since the Maoists and the monarchy are not only inimical but deadly opposed to each other's existence.
According to leading economist and parliamentarian Ashok Mitra, who has served as finance minister in Marxist-run West Bengal, Nepal's political parties have had an ambivalent attitude towards the monarchy and are reluctant undertake drastic reforms demanded by the Maoists, such as that involving land tenure.
The reason, Mitra says, is that land reforms could hurt not only Nepal's aristocracy which controls vast tracts of the kingdom but also the leadership of political parties that come from elitist and landed backgrounds.
For those who would care to understand the real situation in Nepal, Mitra recommends a book written by top-ranking Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai, entitled 'Underdevelopment and Regional Structure in Nepal: A Marxist Analysis.''
Originally submitted as his doctoral thesis while studying at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi during the late 1970s, the book details the grossly inequitable land ownership pattern in Nepal which has remained steeped in medievalism, oblivious to reforms around it either in China to the north or India to its south. (END/2005)
Damned pinkos can just taste the blood of the Nepali "bourgeoisie."
Thanks for keeping up on this.
I'm wondering, is this pressure on Nepal primarily a Communist effort to seize Nepal itself, or does it have a strategic significance in relation to a larger war plan involving Nepal's neighbors.
On Inter Press Service, they and their US distributor Interlink Press Service stem from the same pro-Castro Latin American Communist network as Human Rights Watch. Their founder Roberto Savio was linked to Orlando Letelier and Philip Agee's associate Phil Kelly. Kerry's pro-Sandinista friend Tom Harkin was on Interlink's board of directors along with IPS' Peter Weiss (the VVAW's former lawyer and a participant in the Winter Soldier Investigation) and Richard Falk (who also participated in the Winter Soldier Investigation).
He had earlier proclaimed "socialism is not dead" at the "World Social Forum" hosted by the Brazilian Landless Movement and announced an "agrarian revolution."
"We have to invent the socialism of the 21st century."
Late last year on a trip to Beijing, Chavez had declared, "Capitalism is the road that leads to hell."
Last year's "World Social Forum" was held in India and there were reports of Maoist "Naxalites" amongst the various Marxist groups present.
A United Nations Development Program report from 2004 urged "land redistribution" and "agricultural reform" to deal with the problem of "Landlessness" in Nepal. New York Times propaganda about the "landless" who are "kept down" by the evil military. National Strategy for Sustainable Development (nssd) - Nepal
"Human Rights Groups" will give the same treatment to India that they are giving Nepal.
It's no coincidence that the Maoist insurgency thrives on the narcotics trade just like the FARC and the Shining Path. FARC is branching out into Peru and helping the Shining Path to gain a foothold there. The Nepali Maoists are inspired by the Shining Path.
In Bolivia, Chavez is funding Evo Morales, who has links to Bolivia's Landless Movement and to ELN-B narco-terroristst. The former President Sanchez de Lozada claimed that Morales orchestrated his ouster after he announced he supported a $5 billion pipeline to export liquefied natural gas to the US and Mexico through a port in Chile. In 2003, Chavez suggested Bolivia "has a legitimate and historic territorial right" to sea access.
Venezuela Pushes for Hemispheric Social CharterHumberto Márquez
CARACAS, Mar 3 (IPS) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called for the creation of a debtor nations' club, the adoption of a Social Charter by the Organisation of American States (OAS), and the forging of a new socialist model for the 21st century during the 4th Social Debt Summit in Caracas.
The Venezuelan president advocated ”endogenous development”, while Oswaldo Sunkel of Chile stated that ”development is either endogenous or it isn't development at all, because the only way out of underdevelopment is for countries to acquire the capacity to develop themselves.”
In countries like those of Latin America, Sunkel added, ”there is a socio-centralist phase emerging, in which society must impose upon the state a series of policies that are needed for society to satisfy its needs.”
Shafik Handal, leader of El Salvador's leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), noted that ”a new kind of integration is being built in Latin America, taking into account the economic and social components of countries.”
In order to provide its proposals with an institutional backing in the hemisphere, Venezuela is also striving to promote the adoption by the OAS of a Social Charter, as a complement to the Inter-American Democratic Charter adopted in Lima in 2001.
”The question of a Social Charter that takes into account the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is changing the ideological outlook of the OAS,” said Venezuelan OAS ambassador Jorge Valero.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2000, encompass specific targets to be reached in the areas of development, health care, education, gender equality and the environment, including the goal of halving the proportion of the world's population suffering from extreme poverty and hunger by the year 2015.
Venezuela has formulated a draft Social Charter with 129 points, establishing commitments on the part of the hemisphere's governments with regard to the right to a decent living, above the poverty line, along with the rights to health care, education, employment, social protection, housing and land ownership.
The draft Charter also contemplates environmental rights, indigenous and family rights, as well as the rights to territorial and cultural identity, public participation, information, and sports and entertainment.
Nepal's Maoists follow Peru's Shining Path game plan
Analysts see the uprising as the biggest threat to the world's only Hindu kingdom, sandwiched between China and India, since it became a democracy 14 years ago.
New Delhi also fears the revolt could spill over into India where security forces are battling ultra-leftists in the states of Bihar, Jharkand and Andhra Pradesh, creating a "red corridor" from Nepal.
A few weeks after the Asian Tsunami struck in 2004 killing 330,000 people, Piper received an unusual phone call that spun his life around. He was asked whether he wanted to work as chief of staff to former US President Bill Clinton in the Tsunami relief effort. At that time, Piper recalls being in Rome with his wife Maggie and their four children winding up an earlier assignment in Kosovo with UNDP, which was also considered a challenging spot.
Instead of being sent to Aceh or Colombo, where relief efforts were being coordinated, Piper was told to report to New York as the UN´s number one person for the mission! Piper showed much promise on the job particularly from the humanitarian side, though there appeared to be political fissures in coordinating assistance among a few external donors, which again was beyond the assignment capacity. Piper had stated to the media on his role there, that he was totally dedicated to former President Bill Clinton, whose multifaceted personality seldom projected his global humanitarian concerns, not only in containing the Asian Tsunami´s relief coordination effort but also a more serious concern in the form of stopping the burgeoning HIV/AIDS cases globally.
President George W. Bush Sr. also had a major role to play in that effort particularly boosting efficient coordination and encouraging Tsunami project ground staff to tackle the post-recovery efforts. Both President Bush Sr. and President Clinton had visited several Tsunami affected countries during the humanitarian assistance period.
Speaking from New York, where he spent endless, tiring hours co-coordinating Mr Clinton's visit to the region, Piper was earlier quoted stating he truly liked the job and working for Clinton whom he described as an extraordinary man, very warm, inspiring, and in a hurry to make a difference with a charismatic all round supportive presence.
Earlier in the 1980s, Piper had pursued arts at the Australian National University in the late 1980s, where hundreds of Nepalese students currently study and work. He was also an accomplished street performer and a one time aspiring actor. In fact, in 1985, he tried to spend some time in Paris learning French at Sorbonne and see if he could train himself further at the L'Ecole de l'Acteur Florent, one of Frances´s reputed international theatre training institutions. He even acted for some time with the Doug Anthony Allstars, and after some period decided he wanted a more stable career to make his ends meet. Thus, he joined AusAID as a program officer. From there he progressed in a period of 20 years to various prized UN locations including Thailand, Cambodia, Fiji, the United States and Kosovo handling bizarre assignments.
Piper has stated to the Nepali media, "I feel privileged to be taking up this assignment at such a historic time. Perhaps more than ever in our 40-year history in Nepal, the UN's development and humanitarian organizations has a critical role to play in lending our expertise, energies and resources to the government and people of Nepal. Peace and development are the two sides of the same coin."
True, but Piper must not forget to balance the political act. Recently when the Nepal police charged and injured Tibetean refugees protesting Chinese rule in front of his UN office, he quipped, "We did not invite them."
Thanks for the update! Hmmm, Clinton and money, something always smells when I see that combination.
EU observers commend Nepal on successful elections - Kathmandu, Apr.16: The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) has praised the way the Constituent Assembly elections were held in Nepal, saying the poll represents a crucial step towards introduction of inclusive democracy in that country.Josep Borrell is a Spanish Socialist who recently called the Gaza strip a "concentration camp" and criticized the "isolation" of "Islamic Resistance Movement" HAMAS. It's clear that Jimmy Carter and the EUnuchs want to repeat in Israel the success they've had in Nepal legitimizing and enabling ruthless terrorists."I commend the people of Nepal for the largely peaceful way in which voting took place despite the difficult circumstances. Voters turned out in large numbers and showed a genuine commitment to an inclusive election," said Jan Mulder, Chief Observer of the EU EOM.
"It is now our sincere hope that, as the counting process gets underway across the country, all political parties and their leaders will respect the will of the people and the rule of law by waiting patiently for the election results," he added.
"This long awaited election has demonstrated the enthusiasm of Nepalese people for multi-party democracy and constitutional reform." said Josep Borrell, the head of a delegation from the European Parliament, which is part of the EU observation mission.
Jan Mulder is a Dutch liberal on the steering committee of something called LUFPIG, the Land Use and Food Policy Intergroup in the European Parliament.