an end to Afghanistan’s suffering requires an end to external interference in its internal affairs

[Indian officials like to make sweeping pronouncements about Afghan security, but you will never hear any of them admitting that they too, are interfering in Afghanistan in their quest to gain advantage over Pakistan (SEE:  The Stunning Investigative Story on the Birth of Balochistan Liberation Army–Mar 1, 2005 ), even though previous RAW officials have admitted to sponsoring retaliatory terrorist attacks inside Pakistan in the past (SEE:  RAW: India's External Intelligence Agency).  There will be no progress in Afghanistan until everyone stops their strategic meddling and begins to actually help.]

Afghanistan should not be allowed to ‘slip-back’: India

Place: United Nations | Agency: PTI

As international forces prepare to leave Afghanistan by 2014, India has said the global community has to ensure the war-torn country is not allowed to “slip-back” and called for political will to deal with terrorist safe havens outside Afghan borders.

“It is important that we draw the right lessons from our past mistakes and should not let Afghanistan slip back,” Charge D’ Affaires of India to the UN Manjeev Singh Puri said during a UN Security Council debate on Afghanistan.

He said the international community needs to avert the possibility that Afghanistan is let down or made to feel abandoned by a withdrawal of assistance post-2014.

“We must ensure that Afghanistan’s security is ensured through non-interference in its internal affairs,” he said.

“India believes in a strong, independent, sovereign, stable, democratic Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neighbours. Recent history has shown that an end to Afghanistan’s suffering requires an end to external interference in its internal affairs.”

Pointing out that Afghanistan faces deficits on four key fronts – security, governance, development and investment, Puri said the country will require enormous assistance for a long period of time if it is to address these four deficits adequately.

“There is a real danger that as international forces withdraw from a combat role and in numbers, there will be a transition ‘recession’ one in which attention and aid will decline, just as the Afghan government’s security demands increase.”

Puri said India is seriously concerned that the insurgency in Afghanistan remains resilient with no let up in terrorist violence.

Balochistan Killing Field

[Interactive Map HERE]

Russia urges NATO to investigate Libyan deaths

A British Typhoon jet (L) and Eurofighter approach a Canadian Boeing CC-150 Polaris during a refuelling operation above the Mediterranean sea as part of the NATO operation over Libya (AFP Photo / Alberto Pizzoli)

NATO officials claim the military bloc was not responsible for a single civilian casualty during its seven-month bombing campaign in Libya. Moscow is skeptical and is calling for an investigation, with the help of the UN if necessary.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN Ambassador, says he has been asking NATO to provide “a definitive report” to the UN Security Council summing up its activities in Libya but “unfortunately” the alliance has only provided “piecemeal, rather perfunctory reports.”

Churkin told reporters he would raise the issue of civilian casualties when the Security Council discusses Libya on Thursday.

Critics of the military operation – including Russia, China and the African Union – have argued that NATO overstepped the bounds of a UN resolution which imposed a no-fly zone and authorized the protection of civilians, going so far as to take sides with the anti-government rebels.

“Unfortunately, NATO adopted the pure propaganda style, claiming zero civilian casualties in Libya which was completely implausible first of all, and secondly, not true,” Churkin said.

He said it was “cruel and cynical” for people who lost their homes and loved ones “to be told that actually nothing of this kind happened.”

The UN could provide help in investigating civilian casualties from the NATO aerial bombing campaign if the alliance is reluctant to do it on their own, he added.

Russia’s UN Ambassador added weight to his accusations when he praised UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for saying “there must be no misunderstanding about civilian casualties in Libya.”

During NATO’s seven-month campaign, which ended on October 31, its fighter aircraft flew 26,000 sorties, including more than 9,600 strike missions.

Captured by rebel forces on October 20 near his hometown of Sirte, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is believed to have been shot dead by his captors without the benefit of a democratic trial, which adds yet another stain to the NATO operation, not to mention Russia-US relations.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said US special forces were involved in the assassination of the former Libyan leader.

“Who did this?” Putin asked last week during his annual nationwide Q&A session. “Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then using the radio — through the special forces, who should not have been there — they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation.”

Robert Bridge, RT

Progress Comes To Uzbekistan

the first escalator in the country causes havoc

Progress Comes To Uzbekistan, posted with vodpod

Chronicles from FATA: Your story or your life?

Tribal journalists intentionally spread distorted versions of the stories in oder to protect themselves.

Two powerful stakeholders of Fata, the armed forces and the militants, are not happy with the work of tribal journalists. They are constantly warring with each other and each wants the media on its side. In the end, a journalist can report either a factual account and get killed, or craft a vague story and save his skin.

In situations like these, tribal journalists undergo immense pressure. They fear the potential wrath of one party but win support from the other. Usually, their writings miss the main ‘who’ and ‘why’ without which a story cannot be complete, accurate or fair. It is not because of their professionalism that they miss these two Ws, but the fear of potential attacks from the above mentioned parties, which force them to drop the essential facts.

Here’s why this happens:

According to locals, six people allegedly detained by the army during search operations in the Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency were found dead  earlier this month. However, despite knowing all the facts local reporters reported in their daily newspapers that six people were killed by unidentified gunmen. They further said that their bodies were handed over to their relatives by the political administration.This report infuriated the militants of the banned Lashkar-e-Islam, led by Mangal Bagh. One of his commanders contacted the reporters and said everyone in the area was aware that the offence was committed by the armed forces. He also threatened to shoot dead reporters  who hid the cruelties carried out by security forces. The commander said that Bagh has already issued directives to ‘fix’ one of the reporters.

The predicament of the journalist is, thus, clear.

Sometimes, a balanced story is not a viable option for reporters – it is a threat to their lives. Unbiased reporting is often unacceptable to a powerful party because it wants to keep the real facts hidden from people as well as the international community to maintain a “good image”. The main difference is that the armed forces don’t convey their anger directly; combatants and insurgents hurl direct threats to journalists when a story offends them.

Earlier in November, a high ranking official of the political administration in Khyber held a meeting with tribal journalists seeking their support for security forces in their operation against militants. The official said that the armed forces were angry with the media for it presented the army as the “cruel party” in the conflict.  He said that 18 soldiers were killed and more than two dozen injured in that encounter. But the armed forces were disappointed by the reporting of innocent casualties caused by indiscriminate heavy shelling. I believe they are of the view that they should not be blamed for the death of civilians, as it is a war between the two parties. They also hid the innocent casualties to cover the ineffectiveness of the military operation.

Similarly, the militants publicly executed six people under the charges of adultery, on two separate occasions over the last two months in Tirah valley and the Bara area. The event was covered by tribal reporters as ‘six people being killed by unidentified persons for unknown reasons.’

Tribal journalists are forced to present half the picture instead of the whole story. But can we blame them? Why should they express their professionalism by unearthing harsh realities of conflict zones when there is no one to protect them? They have learnt enough from the murders of around dozen of tribal journalists who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty during the last six years. The faceless killers are still at large and the families of slain journalists have stopped seeking justice. These dangerous circumstances do not apply solely to tribal journalists only; reporters in Peshawar also hide judicial killings by the police.

Due to imbalanced reporting, the well informed population of  Fata doesn’t trust journalists anymore. They openly criticize them for siding with a party without keeping in mind their position. In short, a new form of compromise journalism is taking place in the tribal belt and the adjoining settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which will encourage more extra judicial acts with the passage of time.

In conflict reporting training we are told that no story is worth your life. But the truth is that in an area like Fata, every other story bears the price of your life.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of The Express Tribune.

Saudis Taking Control of Twitter Revolution?

Saudi prince buys $300 million Twitter stake

Alwaleed already owns stake in News Corp, plans cable news channel

By Sitaraman Shankar

 

DUBAI — Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor in some of the world’s top companies, has bought a stake in Twitter for $300 million, gaining another foothold in the global media industry.

Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi Arabia’s king and estimated by Forbes magazine to be the 26th richest person in the world with a $19.6 billion fortune, already owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp and plans to start a cable news channel.

The purchase is remarkable because Twitter was a key means of communication for protesters in the Arab Spring revolts this year, violence that threatened Saudi Arabia until the kingdom unveiled a populist $130 billion social spending package.

Twitter, which allows people to send 140-character messages, or Tweets, to groups of followers, is one of the internet’s most popular social networking services, along with Facebook and Zynga.

The Twitter stake, bought jointly by Alwaleed and his Kingdom Holding Co investment firm, resulted from “months of negotiations”, Kingdom said.

Bernhard Warner, co-founder of analysis and advisory firm Social Media Influence, said: “The Arab world, of course, knows full well the value of Twitter. In the past year, it has been a force in politics, in regime change, so there is not a single person in that region in a position of influence who is not following the increasing power of Twitter.

“(Alwaleed) must see Twitter as something that is going to be a really powerful broadcast channel,” he said, adding the Saudi had got into the internet boom belatedly, with mixed results, and appeared to be “kind of late” to the game again.

Investors in Saudi Arabia were more bullish, sending shares in Kingdom up 7 percent to 8.40 riyals.

“One of the few sectors to record significant revenue gains in the last three years has been technology, which is why Kingdom would see Twitter as a good addition to its diversified portfolio,” said Hesham Tuffaha, head of asset management at Bakheet Investment Group in Riyadh.

Saudis are increasingly turning to satellite television, online news providers and social networking to stay abreast of world events. The world’s No. 1 oil exporter announced a series of stricter regulations for journalists earlier this year.

Alwaleed, who has a sizeable stake in Citigroup, has spoken in favor of broader political participation, fair elections and effective job creation across the Arab world.

IPO hopes
Investors are eagerly anticipating an initial public offering from Twitter, which said in September it was in no hurry to go public. It raised $400 million in venture capital financing this summer.

It now counts more than 100 million active users who log onto the service at least once a month. Facebook, the world’s largest social network has more than 750 million active users.

Internet search giant Google recently launched a social networking service dubbed Google+ which some observers say could lure users away from Twitter.

Shares in online games developer Zynga ended at a 5 percent discount to their issue price on their trading debut on Friday, and analysts said any valuation for Twitter could be misleading.

“You could put any number of zeroes behind a valuation of a private company. Before it goes public, it is almost meaningless,” said Warner.

“This is a very small group of investors which has put money into this thing. That will be diluted and diluted and diluted again until it goes public. And that is when we will see what the value is. These are kind of magic numbers at the moment.”

Kingdom owns a near-30 percent stake in Saudi Research and Marketing Group, which runs a range of media titles.

“Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact,” Alwaleed said.

Alwaleed subscribed $500 million to last year’s General Motors IPO. In August, he unveiled plans to build the world’s tallest tower in Jeddah.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters

Egyptian beatings at Tahrir Square

Shocking Video: ‘Blue bra’ girl brutally beaten…, posted with vodpod

Kremlin to host 4 summits of former Soviet republics today

Kremlin to host 4 summits of former Soviet republics

MOSCOW.

KAZINFORM Moscow will host four summits of the leaders of the former Soviet republics on Monday and Tuesday, December 19-20.

The Kremlin will host the negotiations between the leaders of the member-countries of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan), the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) and an anniversary CIS summit, which is dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Commonwealth of the Independent States (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine).

According to Itar-Tass, the summits will begin with the negotiations of the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Dmitry Medvedev, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told Itar-Tass. They will meet at a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which was formed by the Customs Union states, first in an eye-on-eye format, then in an enlarged format involving the experts.

On Monday afternoon, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan (Armenia has an observer status in the EurAsEC) and newly elected Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, who participates for the first time in the summits, will join the foresaid presidents at a summit of the Eurasian Economic Community that is intended for about two hours.

Already late on Monday evening Medvedev will give a festive reception at the Kremlin on the occasion of the 20th CIS anniversary. All presidents of the EurAsEC states are invited for the reception.

On Tuesday, the leaders of the countries will meet at a CSTO summit in narrow and enlarged formats. An anniversary CIS summit is due on Tuesday afternoon.

Prikhodko note that brief 20-minute press conferences are scheduled after each of four two-hour stages of the summit. The presidents will discuss over 50 various issues.

On the days of the summits Medvedev will have several bilateral meetings. The Russian president will meet with his counterparts from Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, Prikhodko said.

To learn more go to www.itar-tass.com

Gen. John Allen Admits That “Afghan Withdrawal” Promise A Major Deception

General: ‘We’re not leaving’ Afghanistan

by Tom Vanden Brook

 USA Today News

Top American officials in Afghanistan say the U.S. military intends to maintain a troop presence here beyond a 2014 deadline for Afghan troops to take over.

Marine Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said the Taliban and other forces in the region need to know the U.S. military will make sure the Afghans can handle the job.

“If you been waiting for us to go, we’re not leaving,” he said.

NATO forces agreed last year to set a deadline of the end of 2014 for turning over security to Afghan forces and ending combat operations.

The United States has 90,000 troops in Afghanistan. There are more than 30,000 troops from NATO allies.

By the end of the summer of 2012, U.S. forces are slated to drop to about 68,000.

Allen did not say how many American troops would remain or what role they would have beyond training the Afghan air force into 2016.

Among the capabilities Afghanistan’s security forces lack are high-end intelligence gathering and superior counterterrorism techniques.

“This is a work in progress,” Allen said. “The continued work beyond ’14 in terms of development of economic capability and governance will continue. We will also see, probably, a U.S. military capability beyond ’14.”

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday it was important for the region to know that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan does not expire in three years. Dempsey said the Taliban can’t think it will prevail by waiting for a U.S. withdrawal, and American fighters need to know their efforts to secure the nation will be safeguarded.

Before 2014, the role of U.S. troops will shift from leading combat missions to advising as Afghan forces become more capable, Allen said.

Dempsey said that whether the military keeps trainers or counterterrorism troops beyond 2014 will be negotiated but that he was “not predicting tens of thousands” of U.S. troops.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker stressed that a key to Afghanistan’s stability lies with Pakistan’s. He said Pakistan must go after extremists who use havens on its side of the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

“It’s going to be very hard to succeed in Afghanistan if there is not action taken to reduce the safe havens in Pakistan,” Crocker said at his residence here. “Some of our Afghan colleagues use the image of a hornet’s nest. You can whack the hornets here, but the nest is not here.”

Crocker said the U.S. administration has no intention of taking out the safe havens in Pakistan.

“We have means of reaching across the border,” he said. “But the notion of U.S. troops actually moving into Pakistan has never been on the table. … It would be effectively a declaration of war on a country of 170 million people with nuclear weapons. It is not an option.”

Pakistan has cooperated with NATO in the past, but its leaders shut down a border crossing used to supply U.S. troops last month after 24 Pakistani troops were killed by NATO aircraft. NATO said it targeted militants on the Pakistan side of the border after coalition troops in Afghanistan took fire. Pakistan says the attack was unprovoked and has refused to cooperate with a NATO investigation of the incident.

Crocker and Allen said negotiations continue to ease tensions.

“The safe havens are going to play an extraordinarily important role in the end in the success of this conflict,” Crocker said.

Copyright © 2010 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Central Asia, the next domino

Paul Quinn-Judge , Gabriela Keseberg Dávalos , Foreign Policy in Spanish

So slowly but surely, material and human infrastructure of Central Asia is disappearing: roads, power plants, hospitals and schools as well as the latest generation of specialists, those involved in its operation and were trained by the Soviets. Post-independence regimes made little effort to maintain or replace both the technology that is wearing out, and the staff who are retiring or dying.The funds for this purpose have been eaten away by corruption and the collapse has generated protests. It has even overthrown a government.

All countries in the region are affected by this situation one way or another.However, the two poorest, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are desperate. Their own experts say that in the coming years there will be teachers for their children and doctors to treat patients. Power cuts in Tajikistan in winter and are a tradition.Last up to more than twelve hours in rural areas. Kyrgyzstan also in the electrical system failures are increasingly common. Experts in both countries are concerned about the catastrophic collapse likely general, especially in the energy sector. Unless you take out a policy change, will face a future of eroded roads, schools and medical institutions run by retirees, or a new generation of teachers, doctors or engineers, whose shares will be purchased rather than earned by its own merits. These problems are exacerbated by other political vulnerabilities, including the expansion of the insurgency, the aging of an autocrat in Tajikistan and Kyrgyz State dangerously weakened.

Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are in the same direction. It is difficult to say how serious is the situation, since there is no reliable information or is secret. What it is obvious that extravagant and optimistic public statements are not reflected at all in reality. Hospitals marble facade model of Turkmenistan and the false prosperity of Uzbekistan statements are not the solution to the problems of these countries. Even Kazakhstan, the only country operating in the region will go through an ordeal because of deficiencies in their infrastructure. It has major problems especially in the area of ​​transportation and the training of technical staff. Any dream of economic diversification and modernization will wait.

The current dilemma living these five countries has several causes. When they were part of the USSR, were incorporated into one system, especially in the areas of transportation and energy. These interdependencies have been difficult to undo, and produced serious imbalances. During the Soviet era, everyone was forced to work together. Now however do not need or have good relations between them, especially when it comes to energy issues. Education and health services were affected by the term social safety net. But far worse is that governments in the region seem to have believed that the Soviet legacy would last forever. The funds should be allocated to reforms in education, training and maintenance were often misused and insufficient.

The consequences of this neglect are too terrible to be ignored. The rapid deterioration of infrastructure will deepen poverty and alienation of the state.The disappearance of the basic services provided to the radical Islamists, already strong in many Central Asian states, more arguments against regional leaders. They give you space to build support networks and influence. Economic development and poverty reduction will become an illusion, while the poorest countries will become even more dependent on the export of labor. In fact, anger at the sharp decline in basic services played a key role in the unrest that led to the ouster of Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev in April 2010. This resentment can be expressed similarly in other states in the region in the not too distant future, especially in Tajikistan.

Also, events in one of the five countries may have an adverse effect on its adjacent. In fact, a polio outbreak in Tajikistan in 2010 required an immunization campaign in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and infections were reported as far afield as Russia. Similarly, Central Asia may be adversely affected by its neighbors in the region: further decline in infrastructure is likely to match more instability in Afghanistan and a possible spillover of insurgency from there.

The needs are clear, and there are solutions to the weakening of the infrastructure. The fundamental problem is that Central Asia’s ruling elites are unwilling to take steps to meet the basic prerequisites. This amounts to nothing less than total repudiation of the values ​​and behavior of regional leaders. Need to purge the corruption of their governments to stop using the resources of their countries for themselves and their families and create a meritocracy with decent salaries would free up officers need to rely on corruption. These changes are so far from the current reality that foreign governments and donors surely struck from idealists. But without an organized change from above, there is a serious risk of chaotic change from below.

Donors are not doing anything to prevent this. His cautious approach seems largely inspired by the desire not to upset regional leaders to use the financial means at their disposal to create real change. Financial aid is generally used to meet annual or plans to move forward with broader geopolitical objectives.Without the participation of donors, the status quo will remain for some years but not more than that. The collapse of the infrastructure could weaken the regime, creating huge uncertainty in one of the most fragile parts of the world.
Paul Quinn-Judge is the Project Director of Crisis Group’s Central Asia 
Gabriela is Keseberg Dávalos Crisis Communications Group

Spanish Foreign Policy

Pakistan’s Options

This is a Pakpotpourri Exclusive

By: Yasmeen Ali

Ever since 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan by USA, the world in Pakistan changed in many ways. Pakistan, USA’s ally in WOT , the biggest sufferer in this expedition was just slapped with Congress passing a bill imposing more conditions on aid to Pakistan, especially linking it to Islamabad’s cooperation in war on terror and its efforts in curbing terrorists, including Haqqani network.

Myra McDonald in her recent article states,” “Our society which is being shaped by the Afghan war in ways which neither Pakistan’s neighbors, nor western powers, would choose.  The airstrikes, coming soon after the forced resignation of Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington Husain Haqqani for allegedly seeking American help to curb the power of the military, have added fresh oxygen to a combustible mix of anti-Americanism and religious nationalism enveloping Pakistan”.

Where should Pakistan go from here?

For starters, Pakistan must strategize. Whereas interests of both Pakistan and USA converge on many points, especially in Afghanistan, on many deeper, vital points, they do not. USA, understandably, wants a greater involvement of India in Afghanistan. This of course, is diametrically opposed to Pakistani interest. The problem in Afghanistan is neither the Haqqanis, nor anyone else. The problem in Afghanistan is foreign involvement. The presence of foreign forces. Pakistan lies ravaged, her economy destroyed owing to the deep involvement in WOT. Until and unless NATO troops withdraw, there will be no peace. With no peace, Pakistan continues on the path of destabilization. However, their departure does not seem imminent in near future. According to Ben Farmer of the British Telegraph, the Obama administration is now negotiating a “pact” with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai that could leave American military “trainers” — thousands of them — as well as special operations forces, and the U.S. Air Force settled into some of the enormous Afghan bases the Pentagon has built there until… 2024.

Pakistan should strategize to hasten the departure of NATO forces from her neighborhood. If Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in cooperation with Iran can outmaneuver Bush & US military leadership and convince USA to sign the US-Iraq Withdrawal Agreement, Pakistan too, can convince NATO that the presence of their forces in Afghanistan is self defeating in reconstruction and stabilization of post-conflict Afghanistan. Ahmed Rashid, in his article,” The Way Out of Afghanistan”, states,” None of the attempts at rebuilding the Afghan state over the past nine years have really worked. What assurance is there that they will work by 2014?”

Secondly, Pakistan must expand on her trade base on two levels; regional and international. On the first level, she must strengthen friendly relations with nations of South West Asia Region. Entering into trading contracts and other “soft” interaction with Turkey, Sri Lanka(According to Sri Lanka Customs statistics, value of total trade between both countries was $345 million in October, 2011 recording 4.5 percent average growth from $169 million in 2005), China, Iran. More especially with Nepal.

On the second level, Pakistan must press not for aid, but for market access to western countries. US has recently suspended some $800 million in aid to Pakistan. This may be set off by China, our largest trading partner, particularly in infra structure & mining, worth almost $9 billion last year! However, Pakistan must increase trade with other western countries. Removing eggs from the USA’s basket just to place it in Chinese one, can make for uncomfortable sleeping partners! The policy of restricting her major economic interactions has given USA immense leverage to call the shots where Pakistan is concerned. There are lessons to be learnt here. Political independence & sovereignty is the outcome of economic independence.

Is Pakistan ready to be finally politically independent?

(The writer is a lawyer & university professor based in Lahore,Pakistan.She can be reached at yasmeen.a.9@gmail.com).

Zardari could be back in Pak tonight

[SEE:Pakistan PM rules out military intervention ;  Is Pakistan’s Military Dictatorship Returning?]

Zardari could be back in Pak tonight: Report

PTI

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari, who was treated for a heart condition in Dubai, could return to Pakistan late tonight, according to a media report.

Zardari had been declared “completely fit” by doctors and was told he could resume his normal duties, Geo News channel quoted its sources as saying.

The 56-year-old President may fly to the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in his special aircraft tonight, the report said. The President’s aircraft was on stand-by at the airport, the channel reported.

His personal staff was expected to return with him. Zardari’s abrupt departure for Dubai on December 6 to seek treatment for a heart condition triggered speculation that he might be facing pressure from the powerful military to resign following the emergence of a secret memo sent to the US military.

The memo had sought US help to prevent a coup in Pakistan in the wake of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

The government dismissed reports that Zardari had suffered a stroke and that he would step down.

However, it has not set a date for his return. Several leaders of the ruling Pakistan People’s Partyhave indicated that Zardari could be back home in time to attend events to be held on December 27 to mark the death anniversary of his slain wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Is Pakistan’s Military Dictatorship Returning?

[SEE: Kayani calls Zardari, says country's interests supreme ]

By Express / PPI

PM-army chief meet: Gilani, Kayani go three hours, one-on-one

By Irfan Ghauri

General Kayani and Prime Minister Gilani met for three hours on Friday. PHOTO: FILE/NASEEM JAMES/ EXPRESS

ISLAMABAD: Amidst a rapidly-shifting and charged political scenario, the prime minister and the army chief held a meeting.

It was one-on-one, closed-door and over three hours long.

Little is known about what was discussed, except an official statement – but the language of the statement is telling. Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani appeared to be backtracking from the assertions he, himself, and his party men have been making over the past few days on the Memogate controversy.

The official statement issued by the media office of the prime minister termed murmurs of a civilian-military stand-off mere ‘rumors’.

“Taking serious note of the rumors regarding a confrontation over the Memo issue, the prime minister strongly rejected the notion,” the statement said.

As the Memogate controversy unfolded, the rhetoric of the PPP and some of its allies has been vehemently accusatory – alleging that a fledgling democratic phase was being conspired against.

A few hours before this meeting, Gilani, while jointly chairing a meeting of PPP parliamentary party along with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, told party members that the memo issue was created by ‘certain forces’ to pack up the democratically-elected government.

According to insiders he had also castigated the armed forces for approaching the Supreme Court directly with its replies in the memo case instead of coming through the ministry of defence.

“They (army and ISI) should have adopted the proper channel in filing their replies,” sources quoted PM as saying during the meeting.

But the statement following the Kayani-Gilani meeting had the contrary to say.

“The prime minister and the army chief also agreed that replies forwarded by the COAS and DG ISI were in response to the notice of the Honourable Court, through proper channel and in accordance with the rules of business and should not be misconstrued as a standoff between the Army and the government,” read the brief statement issued after the meeting.

“The prime minister reiterated that the Government of Pakistan and its institutions remained committed to their constitutional roles and obligations to a democratic and prosperous future for Pakistan,” it added.

Addressing a Senate session few days ago, Gilani is on the record expressing fears that a confrontation over the memo issue could be devastating for the entire system.

According to his spokesman, the prime minister told the army chief that the government’s stance regarding the jurisdiction of the court on the memo issue was still to be heard by the court.

Another backtrack

The federal government was not the only one backtracking.

Mansoor Ijaz, the Pakistani-American businessman at the centre of the memogate scandal, has backtracked on his text message about ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha’s tour of some Arab states allegedly to muster support for a possible military coup.

A blog published in The Independent referred to a text message in which Ijaz reportedly said that a senior US official had informed him that Gen Pasha had approached senior Arab leaders in a bid to gather support for deposing President Zardari.

“I was just informed by senior US intel that GD-SII Mr P asked for, and received permission from senior Arab leaders a few days ago to sack Z. For what its worth,” read Ijaz’s message.

It is clearly written in the message that permission was asked for and given.

However Ijaz speaking on television on Friday said the following: “no one ever said to me that General Pasha received permission from somebody to conduct a coup, that’s not what they said.”

Ijaz goes on to say: “What they said was that he had toured Arab countries right after the bin Laden raid taken place, and that he had in fact made clear to those Arab leaders that he met with that there were a significant degree of stress, if you will, between the civilian sector and the establishment about laying blame on what. Again, these are intelligence sources talking to me; I don’t have a transcript that says that; I don’t have the notes of a meeting in which any of those things were said.”

(Read: Prime minister’s address)

Published in The Express Tribune

Obama’s Sneaky Byzantine Style in the ‘Greater Middle East’

Obama’s Byzantine Style in the ‘Greater Middle East’

 

ORIENTAL REVIEW

By Andre Fomine

For the last few years the incumbent US administration was getting adhered to a new, more sophisticated principle in foreign policy: to act overseas by means of its allies and to promote American initiatives as multilateral through the international organizations.

Thus, the war against Libya was unleashed by France, and the US was carrying out merely ‘supportive’ functions. The Modern Silk Road project is initiated by Turkey while the United States is a “neutral but enthusiastic supporter” [1]. The Arab League is churning out petitions to overthrow legitimate, but undesired leaders. In October 2011 the UN resolution against Syria was proposed by France, UK, Germany and Portugal, and the US was just ‘seconding’ it together with Colombia, Nigeria, Gabon and Bosnia. This is indeed a smarter and subtle tactics if compared with the cowboy pounces of the previous administration: now the wastes and risks lay on the others. A comprehensive theoretical backing for such approach was made by Joseph Parent from the University of Miami and Paul MacDonald from the Wellesley College in their latest article in the Foreign Affairs [2].

The United Nations Organization, the major mechanism for conflict management, is being turned into multilateral extension of the State Department aimed to legitimize its one-side initiatives internationally. Washington is also trying to get use of separate UN bodies in American interests. The IAEA for example serves to pressure Iran. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime is an instrument to interfere into post-Soviet Central Asia. The Hague-based International Criminal Court, another UN institution created in 2002 to fight crimes against humanity, serves to prosecute the leaders of the states who have refused to enter global matrix designed by the US strategists. Ironically, the 1998 Rome Statute establishing the ICC was never ratified and was ‘unsigned’ by the US in 2002. Most recently UNESCO, another UN body located in Geneva, was financially ‘punished’ by the United States and several allies for admittance of Palestine into this organization.

Another favorite American maneuver is to facilitate ‘regional’ organizations thousands of miles away from its borders being joined by the US as a member or observer. The Washington curators used to repeat to local authorities: ‘It is your idea, your structure, we are just assisting you…’, but at the same time obtain efficient mechanisms and abundant opportunities to influence remote domains.

As a pretext to create such mechanisms the United States prefers raising the flag of ‘cooperation in the name of common interests’. Now, when the standard bugaboo of international terrorism turns politically unsuitable (since quite recently the global elites decided to use the blind Islamist underground as anagent of regression for the third world), they have returned to play off a card of ‘anti-narcotic cooperation’, this time in post-Soviet Central Asia. The paradox of argumentation applied to justify the deeper US penetration into this region still under strong Russian influence is that it should be done ‘to dispel Russian concerns over the consequences of withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan’. If the United States is so much concerned about the drug trafficking in Central Asia, why did they refuse to fight it inside Afghanistan where they had 140 thousand-strong contingent? They still maintain clandestine contacts with a number of ‘field commanders’ who are ‘securing’ US/NATO convoys and drug-trafficking routes at the same time. Nevertheless they prefer to wait until the stuff is spread throughout thousands of locations in Central Asia and then to establish operational, training and intelligence-sharing cooperation with the states subject to heroin attack. One of such mechanisms is the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre for Combating Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors (CARICC) launched in 2009 under the aegis of UNODC. The institution uniting several anti-narcotics agencies of post-Soviet Central Asian states, is funded by a number of NATO countries (US, UK, Italy, Canada, Turkey, France, Czech Republic), Finland and Luxemburg, all investing $15,4 million into the project. These states plus Afghanistan and Pakistan have acquired the status of observers and have access to all data bases of the Centre. According to the documents revealed by Wikileaks, CARICC mandate might be ‘broadened to encompass all transnational crime rather than just counter-narcotics’.

Interestingly, after the failure of US attempts to channel several CARICC training programs through NATO-Russia Council or OSCE (Washington tried not to publicize the fact that US CENTCOM was among the key sponsors of these programs), Assistant Secretary William Brownfield, the head of the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has announced a new Central Asian Counternarcotics Initiative, (CACI) in June 2011. This initiative would apparently lead to the creation ofelite special units similar to notorious CIA-backed death squads that committed a number of resonant extrajudicial killings in Latin America and other countries during the Cold war. Mr. Brownfield’s background and his Central Asian agenda were perfectly analyzed by Nil Nikandrov quite recently [3].

The Canadian political analyst Peter Dale Scott has concluded in his famous book ‘American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan’ that the increase of drug trafficking occurs because of, and not despite of, American efforts. He is seconded by another well-known researcher of the CIA involvement into drug trade, Alfred McCoy, who stated that where and when the United States conduct ‘a war against narcotics’, the production of stuff usually increases [4].

Those in Central Asia who are ready to play American game should be aware of their destiny. It is equal to one of several Central American countries in 1980s: the role of cannon-fodder on service of American interests, years of bloody civil wars, and backwardness for decades. Do their leaders understand the rules of the game they are being involved? Do they want the same future as it is the present in Afghanistan, where the nation is torn by both internal extremism and foreign occupation? The point of non-turn is still not crossed. The sequence of coup-d’états carried out by narco cartels supervised by the US intelligence agencies, widespread massacres and foreign occupation are a likely, but not imperative future for Central Asia.

Notes:

1. Andrew Kuchins, Thomas Sanderson, David Gordon: The Northern Distribution Network and the Modern Silk Road – Planning for Afghanistan’s Future // Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). December 2009. P.3. http://csis.org/files/publication/091217_Kuchins_NorthernDistNet_Web.pdf

2. Joseph M. Parent, Paul K. MacDonald: The Wisdom of Retrenchment – America Must Cut Back to Move Forward // Foreign Affairs. November/December 2011.

3. Nil Nikandrov: US Drug War Against Russia Waged From the Asian Foothold, Strategic Culture Foundation, December 10, 2011.

4. Alfred W. McCoy The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. Lawrence Hill Books, Second revised edition. 2003. P. 449.

Russian Drilling Platform Sinks While Being Towed Near Sakhalin Island

In the Okhotsk Sea drilling platform sank Four people were killed

Photo: Michael Pochuev / Kommersant

Drilling platform “Kola” capsized and sank 200 miles off the coast of Sakhalin. The accident killed four, rescued 14 people. Rescue operations are continuing. The dangers of ecological catastrophe not.

“Now it is difficult to say how many will last a life-saving work. Similarly, they will go before dark, and if necessary will continue tomorrow,” – said the head of the local central board MES of Russia Teimuraz Kasaev. The fate of several dozen people remains unknown. Managed to rescue 14 people, aware of four deaths, but data on the number of people were on the platform apart. According to different information, “Kola” was from 57 to 76 people.

The rescue operation is carried out in a heavy storm. It involves naval forces: on-site works icebreaker “Magadan”, is expected to approach the ship, “SMITH, Sakhalin,” and courts “Atlas” and “Yuri Tarakurov.” Aircraft left the place of disaster due to the onset of darkness.

Platform “Kola” owned “Arcticmorneftegasrazvedka” and assigned to the port of Murmansk. The platform was built in 1985 in Finland. The total length of Setup 69.2 m, width – 80 m. Since early September, “Kola” conducted exploratory drilling on the continental shelf of western Kamchatka for “Gazflot”.Upon completion, was to go to Vietnam, stopping along the eastern coast of Sakhalin Island in the Bay Zyriansky, informs ITAR-TASS .

The distress signal was received from the platform on Sunday at 2.24 Moscow time, about 6 o’clock in the morning it sank. The main cause of the accident investigation considers towing without the stormy weather. In fact the incident a criminal case under Part 3. 263 of the Criminal Code (violation of safety rules and operation of maritime transport, resulting in the death of two or more persons). Also check the technical condition of the rig and ship captains.

Threat of environmental catastrophe in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, no, as supplies of fuel to the “Kola” were small and were in sealed containers.

Natalia Romashkova

Return to Sorman – Anatomy of a NATO war crime

Return to Sorman – Anatomy of a NATO war crime

Franklin Lamb
Sorman, Libya

Graphics, links, videos added by Alex
Al-Manar

Nato Crimes in Libya

It was a warm early Monday morning along the Libyan coast on June 20, 2011.

At approximately 0200 GMT the next day in NATO Headquarters in Brussels and 30 minutes later in its media center in Naples, staffers finished tabulating NATO’s 92nd day of aerial attacks on Libya and began to post the data on its website (www.nato.int).

 Twenty four hours earlier an Atlantic Alliance command unit, located approximately 30 miles off the Libyan coast, in a direct line with Malta, and NATO’s targeting unit had signed off on 49 bombing missions for June 20^th, the last day of spring and the last day of NATO’s original UN bombing mandate.

The authority for NATO’s bombing, which far exceeded earlier estimates ,killing or wounding of between 90,000-120,000 Libyans and foreigners, and the displacement of more than two million Libyans and foreign workers was claimed from the hastily adopted UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and UNSCR 1973. UN resolutions 1970 & 1973 gave NATO UN Chapter 7 authority to enforce a no-fly zone over Libyan airspace, initially for 90 days which ironically ended the day before its bombing at Sorman.  (read HERE)

Ablyazov – Blair: “Your name will cover lawlessness”

Author: Mukhtar Ablyazov

02/11/2011

Tony Blair’s adviser was invited not to reform, convinced politician Mukhtar Ablyazov. ”The sole purpose of Nazarbayev in this project is to use your name as a justification for the outrage which he creates in Kazakhstan”, – he writes in a letter to the British ex-prime minister.

Recalling that “through the sale of natural resources, family Nazarbayevs accumulated in offshore accounts billions of dollars,” Ablyazov emphasizes that “the only thing missing the all-powerful dictator, is internationally recognized.” As for reforms, for which Blair allegedly called in counselors, the “major reform, which is necessary for Kazakhstan’s economy, its output is out of control the president’s family and ensure equitable distribution of income among all segments of society.”

Read below the full text of the appeal.

APPEAL Mukhtar Ablyazov to Tony Blair

Tony Blair

PO Box 60 519
London W2 7JU 
51, Causton Street
London SW1P 4AT

October 28, 2011

Dear Mr Blair!

I was very saddened to learn of your decision to organize a group of advisers to the government of Kazakhstan. I am sure that, as an experienced politician, has worked with authoritarian regimes, you understand the true purpose of these “consulting” projects.

Like others, the infamous dictator, President Nazarbayev is genuinely interested only in maintaining life-long wealth and unlimited power. Through the manipulation of law, electoral fraud and murdering their political opponents, he rules the country for more than 20 years. His son, and is currently the chief contender for the successor Kulibayev directly controls over 80% of Kazakhstan’s economy.

Through the sale of natural resources, family Nazarbayevs accumulated in offshore accounts billions of dollars. The only thing missing the all-powerful dictator, is internationally recognized. Contrary to propaganda and domestic efforts employed by international PR-agency information about corruption, human rights abuses in Kazakhstan, and attacks on independent media is generally known. Despite this, Nazarbayev is a firm believer in the power of money and leaves no attempts at stolen from his own people the means to buy a place in a number of prominent world political leaders.

You should not delude the official name of a consulting project, suggesting the development of economic reforms. The main reform, which requires the Kazakh economy, it is the conclusion of the presidential family’s control and to ensure equitable distribution of income among all segments of society.

In fact, the sole purpose of Nazarbayev in this project is to use your name as a justification for the outrage which he works in Kazakhstan. To see this, you need only look at the flow of comments, which led to Kazakhstan news on your cooperation.

Such projects are wrapped with new miseries for the people of Kazakhstan, as the inevitable tightening of freedom and lawlessness. A striking example is the recent OSCE chairmanship. The country has not only failed to comply with any of the commitments made in the field of democracy, human rights and press freedom, but also imposed new restrictions. In Kazakhstan the OSCE chairmanship is widely promoted as an international recognition of the Nazarbaev regime.

The crimes of the dictator against his own people can not go unpunished, and this year we have already witnessed the requirements change. Chief among them was the long-term strike oil in western Kazakhstan, in which she was arrested union leader Natalia Sokolova and killed in cold blooda 28-year-old union representative Zhaksylyk Turebaev. Mode dropped the mask of law and unleashed violent attacks on strikers and journalists trying to report the news objectively.

In Almaty, on trumped-up charges has been closed office of an independent media company StanTV.Just this week in Aktau had several attacks. Bandits operate on one scenario: shot point blank in the head with rubber bullets and beaten with baseball bats, not sparing even the women, and the police threw up his hands helplessly! Your consulting project can add names to this sad list, as each international recognition of the regime ricochet on the citizens of Kazakhstan. I want you to remember this when working on your project.

Sooner or later the people of Kazakhstan will make their choice, and Nazarbayev with his henchmen will go in the footsteps of other dictators. History will record impartially and names of those who suffered and those who were responsible for this suffering. No persuasion not force dictators to relinquish power.Flirting with dictators in Iraq and Libya eventually cost the Western democracies in the hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of young soldiers. I hope you have learned from these events, and if you fail to persuade President Nazarbayev to a fundamental change in policy, you refuse this ugly role.

Sincerely, Mukhtar Ablyazov.

Kazakhstan hires Tony Blair as star consultant

Kazakhstan hires Blair as star consultant

by Dana Rysmukhamedova
AFP Global Edition

Kazakhstan said on Monday it has hired Britain’s ex-prime minister Tony Blair as a consultant to attract new investment to the Central Asian state, on a contract reportedly worth millions of dollars.

The hire marks a major coup for strongman President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s bid to promote Kazakhstan as an economic powerhouse despite complaints from critics that the country pays little heed to Western democratic standards.

The Daily Telegraph earlier said Blair had signed a one-year contract worth eight million pounds ($12.7 million) with the government of Nazarbayev, who has ruled Kazakhstan since even before the Soviet collapse.

The foreign ministry refused to confirm the figure but said Blair was one of several foreign officials contracted by the Kazakh state.

“A number of prominent foreign government officials responded to the invitation of the government of Kazakhstan to provide advice on economic policy, on issues of public administration and international politics,” foreign ministry spokesman Altai Abibbulayev told reporters.

“Among them are several former heads of state, including former prime minister Tony Blair,” the spokesman said.

“Getting such politicians involved is already yielding important practical results that improve the attractiveness of Kazakhstan for investors and help adopt modern law for country’s further development.”

Nazarbayev’s top advisor Yermukhamet Yertysbayev said Blair would probably deal with “the question of social-economic modernisation of Kazakhstan.”

“He has extensive ties. He himself worked on modernisation of such a well developed country as the United Kingdom,” Yertysbayev told AFP.

Since leaving office in 2007, Blair became an official special envoy in the Middle East, launched the Blair Faith Foundation, and offered consulting services to foreign governments.

Blair, 58, has been criticised over his role as envoy for the Middle East Quartet, with his detractors alleging that he has been almost invisible and in any case hugely compromised by his role in the Iraq war.

Britain and Kazakhstan enjoy strong relations, and Queen Elizabeth II’s second son Prince Andrew built sometimes controversially close ties to the Kazakh elite during his work as British trade representative.

Nazarbayev first met Blair when the leader of the vast steppe nation visited Britain in 2000. Such was the rapport between the two men that Nazarbayev was reportedly allowed to hold Blair’s baby son Leo, then aged six months.

Yertysbayev declined to be drawn on the size of the contract but confirmed the former British prime minister would not be working for free.

“The amount can be confirmed only by the man who signed the contract. I can confirm that no one consults anyone for free and a person of Blair’s level naturally works for money,” he said.

“Our president has hired consultants before. I don’t see anything sensational in this,” he added.

The Financial Times said Blair’s high-powered team advising the Kazakh government in Astana would also include his former spin doctor Alastair Campbell and former chief of staff Jonathan Powell.

Kazakhstan has been a darling of the foreign investment community, averaging almost 10 percent annual growth over the past decade, but remains an authoritarian regime with effective one-party rule and an all-powerful presidency.

It is keen to promote itself as a modern glitzy nation and forever rid its image of associations to Borat, the fictional politically incorrect Kazakh journalist whose mishaps were the subject of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s hit 2006 mockumentary about the country.

Source: AFP Global Edition

Western Oil Companies Losing-Out On Eastern Caspian Pay-Off

[The undeveloped nature of the Kazakh and Turkmen gas resources and total absence of transportation resources makes these resources much costlier to harvest.  Add to this the recent court set backs and suddenly Kazakhstan loses some of its appeal to Western oil giants.  The  Turkmen govt has decided to keep the large Western companies at bay, in order to retain greater profits from their Caspian resources.  This means that the Western vampires will have to draw-out their vital fluids from the western side of this great deposit and get what it can from Azerbaijan.  This should change the power equation and lessen the overall strategic value of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, but judging from the wave of violence visiting Kazakhstan, it has not.  The level of artificial violence there is an indicator of great importance.  Perhaps this can simply be explained by NDN connections leading there.  Turkmenistan seems to have no such indicators.  The Great Game and its boundaries are being redefined by the governments there, no matter what the West would like.  American interests can only go as far as their wallets can reach.  When the money runs out, the American foothold will fade away.]

Karachaganak deal elusive as Kazakhstan leans further toward Asia

By SRI

(bne) – As Kazakhstan’s energy policy edges closer to Beijing, eastward pipeline projects have forged ahead while Astana has been slow to resolve long-standing disputes with western oil majors.

By Clare Nuttall (business new europe)

The key question at Kazakhstan’s annual oil and gas conferences in October – Kazenergy and Kioge – concerned the Karachaganak oilfield. Agreement between the Kazakh government and the Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO) consortium is not expected before the end of this year, at the earliest. With for the second phase development of the Kashagan oilfield still undecided, operations across west Kazakhstan are stalling. Exceptions include Sino-Kazakh projects, in particular the expansion of the Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline.

Top Kazakhstani government officials have indicated that a resolution of the long-standing dispute over Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak oilfield could be reached by the end of this year. Speaking at the Kazenergy conference in Astana on October 5, the chairman of Kazakhstan’s state holding company Samruk-Kazyna, Timur Kulibayev, said the government would be willing to pay between $700m and $1.1bn for a share in Karachaganak – the most concrete figure yet disclosed.

The following day, at a press conference at the Kioge conference in Almaty, Oil and Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev was less forthcoming. Mynbayev told journalists there were not yet any specific parameters for a transaction between the government and KPO. He added that Kazakhstan did not plan to write off the consortium’s tax debts in exchange for a stake in the project. There is speculation that the consortium may give the Kazakh government a 5% stake in the project and sell an additional 5% at market value.

Getting greedy

Karachaganak is one of the world’s largest oil and gas fields, with reserves of 1.2bn tonnes of oil and condensate, and over 1.35 trillion cubic meters of gas. A 40-year production sharing agreement was signed in 1997 with BG Group, Eni, Chevron and Lukoil.

The Kazakh government first expressed an interest in taking a stake in the project in 2009. A series of disputes over taxes, export duties and environmental violations have followed. In 2009, the consortium was slapped with a $1.2bn bill for unpaid taxes, as well as hefty environmental fines.

In the early years of independence, Kazakhstan’s new government was keen to attract western oil firms, who contributed both money and technical expertise. More recently, however, the government’s ambitions to take a greater share in the largest oil and gas projects has put Astana at odds with investors.

The first inklings of trouble came with the negotiations over financing for the second phase expansion of the Tengiz oilfield. “This was resolved, but there was a lasting ill effect. It was the start of a solid shift away from the west – or at least a divergence between the strategies of western investors and the Kazakh government,” says Andrew Neff, senior energy analyst at IHS Energy.

The government then put pressure on the consortium developing the Kashagan oilfield. This resulted in state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas taking a stake in 2007. With commercial production now due to start in 2013, there are further concerns over the timing and technical viability of the second phase.

Akiakpar Matishev, executive director of the Kazakhstan Association of Oil-Gas and Energy Sector Organisations (Kazenergy), says there is now a new model for relations between Kazakhstan and foreign investors. “We are trying to lead the situation rather than being led. Kazakhstan is strengthening its presence on Caspian shelf projects in line with the national interest,” he told Kioge delegates. “We also understand that our international partners are looking for a financial payback on their investments, and we need to maintain investment attractiveness.”

Kazakh officials point out that both Kazakhstan and the global oil market have changed substantially in the last two decades, while investors argue that recent actions go against Kazakhstan’s reputation as safe and stable destination. “Recent actions undermine Kazakhstan’s long term commitments to sanctity of contracts,” said Daniel Stein, senior adviser to the special envoy for Eurasian energy at the US State Department. “We understand that sometimes governments need to make changes for economic reasons, but this should be done through good faith negotiations between the partners.”

Asia shift

At the same time, there has been a growing shift towards China in Kazakhstan’s energy policy. In the early independence years, the focus was on the west – Russia, the US and Europe. Now, not only has China made inroads into the oil and gas sector, investment from India, Japan and Korea is also growing.

“There was tangible progress with the Kazakhstan-China pipeline while relations with Russia and western investors stalled,” says Neff. He points out that western companies were debating over Karachaganak and Kashagan, China speedily built a 3,000-kilometre long pipeline across Central Asia in just two and a half years.

“In the early years, Kazakhstan performed a geo-political balancing act with the US, Russia and the EU, while Asian companies were relatively absent. Over time, there has been a shift in power towards Asia, in particular China,” Neff added. “Kazakhstan is no longer trying to balance geo-political interests, it is pursuing its own interests, which happen to align more with China’s than with Russia or the West.”

Experts: Riots in Kazakhstan triggered externally

LONDON, Dec. 17. Riots in the town Zhanaozen Mangistau region during Independence Day celebrations, instigated from the outside in order to undermine stability in the country, according to interviewed on Friday “Rosbalt” experts.

 

According to the Director of MSU IAC. Alexei Vlasov University, the conflict in Mangistau region smoldered a long time, and there were no signs of his passage to the drastic forms of protest, especially confrontation with death. ”Obviously, the situation using the power opponents who try to manipulate the mood of protest from London. On the eve of a social networking appeals appeared to disrupt the celebration of Independence Day, celebrated on December 16.” ”For these are attempts to discredit the government may have deliberately shed blood” – points to the expert.

 

This view is shared by the director of international projects of the Institute of National Strategy Yuri Solozobov. ”I think the excitement provoked by external radical opponents of President Nazarbayev, – he said. – The fact that this was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of independence of Kazakhstan, is very revealing. The purpose of this obvious provocation – if not to destabilize the situation in the country generally, the at least to question the stability of Kazakhstan. “

 

Judge recalls that on the eve of public holidays in different cities of Kazakhstan has passed a series of terrorist acts, and “they were openly ostentatious, emphasized brutal. The aim was one – to sow panic in front of Independence anniversary.” ”What happened today, also shows the reasonableness of the action. The commercials have been laid out on the network, it is seen as an organized group of young men came with already pre-configured with clubs, and begins to smash the scene to provoke the police,” – said Solozobov.

 

Director of the Institute of Regional Problems, Dmitry Zhuravlev believes that “the oil companies were Zhanaozen bargaining chip in the hands of opponents of the authorities, hiding abroad, a tool for loosening of stability.” In his opinion, the methods of thugs are typical for any elaborate provocation, oriented to the external Press support. “

 

Recall the last Friday in Zhanaozen Mangistau region during the celebrations of the Independence Day of Kazakhstan, a riot took place, during which the burned building of the city akimat (city administration), hotels, cars, looted cash machines.

 

All the experts point out that, according to available information, the police conducted themselves as well. ”I have not heard allegations that police used force and arms, were acts which are designed correctly to push the attackers,” – said Hillary.

 

“The reaction of the Interior Ministry, the Prosecutor General and other law enforcement agencies were very prompt and open to the media. It is true that law enforcement agencies of Kazakhstan have learned to react to such events,” – says Zhuravlev. ”The authorities have reacted exactly the way and should be” – sure Solozobov.

 

According to Vlasov, to localize the conflict must now be present at the scene of the country’s top leaders and security forces. ”We need to make a thorough examination and identify those responsible for the deaths of people. Then you need to resolve the protracted conflict in the Mangistau region to cut the ground from those who exploited the situation for personal political purposes. The authorities need to understand and do not hesitate to call customers, including not conceal the names of those who finance the conflict from abroad, “- said the expert.

 

According to experts, we can talk about trying to implement the scenario in Kazakhstan “color revolution” or “Arab spring”, now the organizers will try to blow up the scandal in the foreign media, but the majority of the population would not support the destructive forces.

 

“Many Western experts have openly discussed the script department oilfield in Western Kazakhstan and the establishment of a puppet government there. Another thing that really separatism in Kazakhstan. Polls show that 95% of the population supports the policy Nazarbayev to integration with Russia and Belarus. And it’s not to like certain forces who wish to obtain lucrative contracts. So they resort to such desperate methods “- sure Solozobov.

 

“By allowing itself to be used, rioters set themselves not only illegal, but, judging by the responses and comments to the news and commercials from the field, outside of society. Most of the commentators of Kazakhstan is sharply negative attitude to the actions of thugs,” – said Vlasov. ”About any sympathy for those who arranged it all, in Kazakhstan society can not speak” – agrees Zhuravlev.