Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki issued an ultimatumtoday calling upon Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army or face a ban from upcoming provincial elections. The declaration follows a series of intense clashes in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad over the weekend. The International Herald Tribune reports Iraqi forces, backed by US troops, entered Sadr City killing at least twenty Iraqis. In an interview with Mother Jones, middle east correspondent Patrick Cockburn saidspeaking of al-Sadr: "If there were elections tomorrow he would probably sweep Shia Baghdad and most of the south." Renewed fighting, after relative calm and an ostensible ceasefire, also comes at a time when al-Sadr is organizing a massive protest on April 9 in Baghdad against the US military presence in Iraq. Only last week, al-Maliki issued a nationwide moratorium on raids against Sadr supporters.
London calling
Around 2,000 London Metropolitan police ensured the relative safe journey of the Olympic torch yesterday through the British capital. However, thirty-seven people, most protesting against China's human rights record and its position on Tibet, were arrested. At one point, a protester attempted to grab the torch but was quickly subdued. Torchbearers were surrounded by a Chinese mobile security unit and police officers. China has denounced the protest in London "as vile behaviour". Counter demonstrators and pro-China supporters were also on hand.
The toD verdict: Billed as a journey of harmony and peace, the Olympic Torch Relay that wound its way through fifty kilometers of London streets carried along with it the burden of enduring consequences. Lest we forget that among those is China's relentless oppression of ethnic minorities, in particular, the Turkic-speaking Uighur Muslims in the Xinjian province as well as indigenous Tibetans. Only last week, Chinese police allegedly gunned down another eight Tibetans. Media and internet censorship, extrajudicial house arrests, repression of civil society and the Falungong, abuse of migrant construction workers, forced evictions, and the recent lengthy jail sentence of human rights advocate Hu Jia figure as well.
To suggest the "spirit of the Olympics" should not be used as a stage to draw attention to China's grave human rights record, forgoes not only the spirit itself, but how these games have successfully condemned other gross injustices. For twenty years South African athletes were barred from participating in the Olympics drawing world attention to the country's brutal apartheid regime. Enuga S. Reddy, the former UN Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the Centre against Apartheid said: "In South Africa, as nowhere else, sports boycott made a great contribution to liberation."
So just outside 10 Downing Street, behind a heavy barricaded steel gate, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown greeted the torch bearer with hands in his pockets and made it perfectly clear to the watching world - the UK has no public policy strategy to address China's human rights issues. As the Prime Minister made his exit, a white Chinese dragon followed, dancing upon number 10's doorstep to the rhythm of a beating drum droning out yet another lesson lost to history. In the meantime the relay is promoted as a sacrosanct event whose origin is, according to a conspicuously succinct explanation on the Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Torch Relay, rooted in ancient Olympia. A closer, more detailed explanation reveals an altogether different, more sinister legacy - lest we forget that lesson as well.
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Indian police in the Narsinghpur district have detained ten activists from the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) on Saturday. The most recent arrests follow the detention of thirteen SIMI leaders two weeks ago. SIMI is allegedly responsible for the July 11, 2006 rail bombings that killed 185 and injured 800 people.
Missile defense system
Yesterday's meeting between US President George Bush and Russia's Vladmir Putin failed to resolve the dispute over a proposed missile defense plan in eastern Europe. Russia sees Washington's desire to station interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar system in the Czech Republic as a threat to its own security. Washington, on the other hand, says the missile defense system would serve as shield against "rogue states" like Iran. Instead, the two leaders signed a "road map" leaving the debacle for future presidents. In a joint news briefing with Bush, Putin nonetheless praised the US president for his "superior human qualities: honesty, openness and an ability to hear a partner."
Heavy fighting in Afghanistan
A battle Sunday, between the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force and insurgents in the remote area of province of Nuristan, near the Pakistan border, has allegedly cost the lives of twenty-two civilians. The US Military and Defense, however, said no civilians were killed in the operation to drive out militants loyal to Hezb-e Islami faction led by former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The Frontier Post reports no confirmed civilian causalities though several dozen wounded civilians were evacuated by ISAF after NATO airplanes dropped bombs on three villages.
Mortar attack in Yemen
A complex housing Westerners and offices of the Safer oil company in the Yemeni capital came under mortar fire yesterday. Three blasts were reported causing structural damage. No injuries or fatalities were reported. Yemeni security forces say the attack was perpetrated by al-Qaida operatives.