Imran Khan — once cricketer, now prime minister, unbudgeable rape apologist?

The premier clarified his opinions on rape and temptation and it confirmed what everyone already knew — he's a rape apologist.


IMAGES EDITORIAL
UPDATED 21 JUN, 2021

Well Captain, you've done it again. Despite your ministers, avid supporters and other party members scrambling to defend you the last time you were a rape apologist, you've proven that you do indeed blame women for rape.

You didn't let anyone change your mind — not public outcry, not international horror, not even your supporters twisting your words to mask your meaning. And this time, you spoke in English, leaving no room for ambiguity.

We would commend you for staying true to yourself if only the words you uttered weren't so problematic.

Women across Pakistan can rest assured that if someone rapes them, our prime minister will say it was the fault of "temptation", not the rapist. Would the same apply to children?

In an interview to Jonathan Swan for Axios, the premier was asked about his earlier comments about temptation, women's dressing and men's "willpower” — and how he was accused of rape victim blaming.

Imran, brushing it off as nonsense, said the concept of purdah is to avoid temptation in society. But then he went on to explain how Pakistan's society works and this where he lost the plot.

"We don’t have discos here, we don’t have nightclubs, so it is a completely different society, way of life here, so if you raise temptation in society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society."



The interviewer point-blank asked him if what women wear has any effect. This is where our premier really went off track.

"If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact, it will have an impact on the men, unless they’re robots. I mean it’s common sense."

Is it common sense, PM Imran? Do you think men are so weak and out of control that the slightest show of skin will send them into a violent sexual fit?

When questioned if women's clothes would really provoke acts of sexual violence, the premier instead of saying "No, rape is not provoked", he said: "It depends on which society you live in. If in a society where people haven’t seen that sort of thing, it will have an impact on them."

There you have it folks, our prime minister in all his glory.

If you still have doubts about whether the premier is a rape apologist, let us disabuse you of that notion.

A rape apologist is someone who excuses, condones or justifies rape. When PM Imran says women wearing "very few clothes" will have an impact on men, he's saying men will rape you if you don't wear the clothes they want you to. To our Oxford- educated prime minister, clothes "provoke" rape. What then were the children and animals who were raped in Pakistan wearing, we ask.

Clearly, he must have an answer for that.

Men are not robots, he said, as if any sane man would attack a woman based on her clothes. If you weren't insulted before, you should be now. Imran Khan seems to have little respect for rape victims and it seems he doesn't think much of men either. He believes that men can't help it: they'll see a woman in "very few clothes" and attack. That he sees Pakistani men as little more than animals with no impulse control speaks volumes.

And for the people who say, oh but he's talking about "very few clothes", let us ask you this: what constitutes "very few clothes"? Is it a bikini? Or jeans and a T-shirt? Or shalwar kameez without a dupatta? Or a hijab without an abaya? Or an abaya without a face covering?

We'll say it again and again and again: There is no justification for rape — not the victim's clothes, shoes, hair, style of walking, manner of talking or anything else.

He also needs to keep in mind that by pushing this problematic narrative of "young men" not having outlets for their sexual urges, he is giving rapists and harassers an excuse on a silver platter. And they are not all "young men"! As was recently proven by the Mufti Azizur Rehman sexual abuse case, rape is a crime perpetuated by anyone in a position of power.

If nothing else, the premier could have kept this harrowing case in his mind while answering questions about rape and temptation and reminded himself that though there is never a time to be a rape apologist, this is an even worse time than usual. The trauma of rape is immense and it resurges every time a rape apologist provides what in their mind constitutes as a reason for this violence.

To our prime minister we have a few heartfelt requests: 1) Think, really think, about the impact your words have on survivors of sexual assault and their families. You have reduced their pain to something as vague as temptation and don't seem to have any concrete answers as to how you plan to tackle this issue or give them justice 2) Talk to women, and really listen. Women are groped in societies which have "discos and nightclubs" and women who wear an abaya and a hijab and a veil have been subjected to sexual violence as well. Stop putting all the burden of sexual violence on women and how they dress.

If you don't know what the women of this society go through regardless of what they wear, and are going to group all men into the category of "unable to control their sexual urges", then you, Imran Khan, are not fit to represent this society that you speak of.

Where are they?

Zubeida Mustafa

Published March 11, 2022

MARCH 8 was International Women’s Day and as is now customary the event allows social activists and feminists to focus on ‘gender equality’, the theme for this year. Given the candour of the youth, the discourse now allows for a true debate, which is the essence of democracy and crucial to the empowerment of women.

There is however a section of the female population of Pakistan whose cause has gone unnoticed by default. They are the trafficked ones. The media and human rights bodies have not fully addressed their suffering and the violation of their fundamental right to freedom. In that respect, I feel proud that my newspaper (Dawn) is the first one to have commented editorially on this issue twice within a week.

The trafficking of women for trading in prostitution is a crime against humanity which no country with a public conscience can choose to ignore. Only recently, it came to light that the Punjab police had disclosed that 40,585 women have been abducted in the period 2017-22 from Punjab. Although the police claim that they have recovered or traced 37,140 of them, one cannot really vouchsafe for the accuracy of this claim. About 53,400 suspects are said to have been arrested though it is not known what happened next. Were they investigated, prosecuted and convicted?

The figures were described as “staggering”. One of the judges on the Supreme Court bench hearing the case of one of the abducted girls termed it a failure of the police.

The case of trafficked girls and women goes unnoticed.

The fact of the matter is that this is not the full story. The figures quoted are only for Punjab. The other provinces have also contributed their share in making Pakistan a haven for traffickers and hell for abducted women. How can any leader of this country — civil, religious or military— hold up his head before the global community of nations and claim that he is a defender of women’s rights?

For nearly two decades, the US State Department has been issuing an annual report on the Trafficking of Persons (TIP) giving details of this criminal activity worldwide. Pakistan’s record is horrendous in terms of the massiveness of the number of victims and the paucity of corrective and preventive measures taken.

The figures reported in the TIP report annually increased over the years from over 12,000 to around 32,000 (2017 to 2021). The total includes boys and men picked up for bonded labour. The country is a leading member of the club patronising modern-day slavery.

One may well ask why. The main reason is the very factor why International Women’s Day is observed: the low status of women. In our patriarchal society it is easy and quite credible in the popular mind to hold women responsible for all sex crimes. According to the popular view, a woman is the source of such evils as she entices the man and so she deserves her fate. Small wonder no concerted efforts are made to eliminate these crimes or create awareness and sensitivity about sexuality issues. It is so easy for the police to dismiss a case of abduction as one of elopement.

Read: Where are Punjab’s missing daughters?

The trafficking of women for sex trading is probably the biggest financial factor in Pakistan’s black economy. It has international links and transactions of multimillion rupees are conducted daily. The icing on the cake is that there is official complicity at all levels after the crime is committed. The funds generated are shared by a wide range of parties to provide protection to all involved.

I don’t have any documentary evidence but have my experience to relate when I was running from pillar to post in a futile attempt to rescue two minor girls allegedly abducted by their stepbrother. Unofficially, I recei­ved a lot of information in the process on what happens behind the scenes in such cases.

For instance, one of the investigating officers informed me that the accused was receiving Rs120,000 every month which in the IO’s words was like “Dubai for a poor man in Karachi”. Connecting the dots, I could understand the tardiness of the judicial process that was deliberately created by corrupt lawyers and officials. Our system needs the grease of ‘heavy tipping’ to work and in trafficking cases money is there in abundance. Unfortunately, many among lower court magistrates are allegedly not averse to such manipulations.

In the case I was privy to even a judge of the higher judiciary was unable to ensure the presence of the victims’ mother at the bail hearing of the accused. He won his freedom on bail. Out of jail he continued his machinations in the lower judiciary. The case did not even reach the sessions court where it was expected to go having been directed to the judiciary by the Anti-Violent Crime Cell that deals with serious crimes.

Where do we go now? The trafficked girls’ poverty and their underprivileged class denied them justice.

www.zubeidamustafa.com

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2022

Scourge of trafficking

EditorialPublished March 12, 2022 - 

A RECENTLY published HRCP report has shed light on the alarming practice of human trafficking in the country. The report titled Modern slavery: Trafficking in Women and Girls in Pakistan describes Pakistan as a “source, transit and destination country for trafficking”. However, the real issue, according to the findings, pertains to internal trafficking “especially forced or bonded labour”. Although human trafficking gangs have existed in the country for decades, running forced begging rings, providing adults and children as fodder for bonded labour, and forcing women and girls into prostitution, there is little reliable data about this disturbing trend. Because of this, the report says, it is difficult to assess the true magnitude of trafficking. Considering that 151 girls have been recovered from Sargodha only since Jan 5 this year by the Punjab police, and 3,571 girls and women remain missing across the province, as reported by this paper last month, one can make an intelligent guess at the extent of this menace.

What is also unfortunate is the apathy of the law enforcers. Most cases of missing women and girls are registered as abductions or kidnappings or simply categorised as ‘elopement’ by police officials. As we have noted in this space before, in many cases the police do not even register a complaint when women and girls from poor families go missing. This indifference stems in large part from what the report describes as the lack of “capacity and understanding of human trafficking” in police ranks. Meanwhile, the challenges of intra-agency communication involving the provincial and federal law-enforcement agencies remain a big hurdle, with the institutional confusion showing up in the non-implementation of the recommendations of a national action plan to curb trafficking. This grim picture is not likely to improve unless the authorities develop the capabilities of the police and provide them with the needed resources, as well as devise a detailed policy on identifying and reporting cases of human trafficking. Additionally, the rehabilitation of victimised women and girls must be given due attention.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022

The ‘age of adaptation’

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh

Published March 12, 2022

The writer is an expert on climate change and development.


THE Working Group II of the Inter-government Panel on Climate Change has just released its report on climate Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability. This 3,675-page report, drawing from 34,000 scientific st­­udies and prepared by 270 authors from 67 countries, provides Pakistan an opportunity to think dee­ply about its national development agenda. This IPCC report shows that climate impacts are globally hitt­i­­n­­­­g much faster than projected by earlier reports. They now outpace adaptation efforts, making vulne­rability a permanent feature of many communities and regions. It has revealed that unless immediate ac­­­tions are taken, the ‘age of adaptation’ will reach its limits — it is already facing ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ boundaries, according to the report, requiring long-term adaptation actions.

Despite a series of adaption-like actions since 2012 when the national climate change policy was first developed, Pakistan has not really prioritised the de­­velopment of long-term adaptation policies or plans for national, provincial and district-level actions. No budgetary provisions or policy provisions exist for adaptation in public sector-supported development plans. The PC-1 template has essentially remained un­­changed since Dr Mahbub ul Haq first introduced it in the 1960s. Building codes and standards for emi­s­­­­sions and effluents have not changed for decades. All this increases the risk of becoming more vulnerable.

Read: A few ways to combat climate change in Pakistan

A wide range of development projects undertaken under national and provincial agriculture, water, en­­e­rgy, health, urban planning and disaster-risk reduction policies have not followed any coordinated app­r­oach or uniform national definition for adaptation. IPCC has warned against such practices as many co­­untries have continued with ‘business-as-usual’ (BAU) approaches packaged as ‘adaptation’. IPCC considers this as maladaptation and has dedicated a full section to highlighting how this adds to vulnerability. The report underlines how maladaptive respo­nses to climate change create ‘lock-ins’ of vulnerability, exposure and risks. These lock-ins are expensive and costly to change. Instead of reducing risks for the poor, they exacerbate existing inequalities.

Political parties are silent on climate-adaptation policies.

Worsening trends in global warming have brought BAU practices under scrutiny everywhere, but not as much in Pakistan where most initiatives have remained politically motivated, and policy planning has been both top-down and sectorally siloed. The economic cost of climate change has been ignored as the authorities pursue aspired growth rates and competitiveness. We pretend that we can continue with BAU and manage an economic turnaround without implementing serious adaptation measures. The direct and indirect cost of maladaptive actions are high and they have become part of the cost of doing business — a disincentive for FDI.

Pakistan is littered with maladaptation practices. Some examples would suffice: Instead of investing in an inclusive public transportation system, individual fossil fuel-based vehicles are encouraged. This has deeply scarred the urban landscape and livability that is marred with signal-free corridors, high emissions and congestion. From the Lai Expressway in Rawalpindi to the Malir Expressway in Karachi, the road infrastructure has often entailed destruction of urban waterbodies. Many, if not most overhead brid­ges, underpasses, bypasses and link roads cause ur­­ban flooding, displacement and exclusion. The new infrastructure, instead of adding to the strength of climate adaptation, has become a tool for land grabbers and speculators. Instead of envisioning a just transition, informal settlements are undone if they come in the way, or regularised without any provision for environmental and municipal services. This makes the urban poor more vulnerable. Adaptation and climate-resilient infrastructure can still support inclusion and propel economic growth and well-being.

Likewise, the rapid bus transport corridors in Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Multan and other cities have locked our future with fossil fuels for decades to come as have coal-fired energy generation plants that we started commissioning when the world had begun to decarbonise. Hydropower was recently declared as a policy centrepiece when surface water flows have become uncertain while solar and wind energy prices have clearly emerged as least-cost options. The prime minister’s housing scheme has not adopted climate-resilient building codes or energy-efficiency standards. In other words, the policy community needs to have a fresh look at the development paradigm and the institutions designing, developing and delivering them. The political parties’ otherwise lively discourse is silent on climate-adaptation policies and resilience strategies.

The IPCC report has recommended climate-resilient development that countries like Pakistan can follow to push the boundaries of soft and hard barriers towards adaptation. The report has highlighted the necessity of urgent climate action in order for countries to develop adaptation policies and to better manage transitions in climate systems. These transitions will witness mitigation benefits (reduction of climate emissions) at varying levels — economic, technological, institutional, social, environmental and geophysical.

The following four-system transitions can help Pakistan define its adaptation agenda for the decade ahead:

i) Land and ocean ecosystems: The country needs an integrated coastal zone management system for its coastal socio-ecological systems. Water security in the country will hinge on water-use efficiency and water-resource management, and food security will depend on improved cropland management and efficient livestock systems.

ii) Urban and infrastructure systems: Critical infrastructure network and services are desperately needed for green infrastructure and ecosystem services, sustainable land-use and urban planning, including urban water planning for the rapidly growing urban population.

iii) Energy systems: Critical infrastructure networks and services will hinge on resilient power systems and energy reliability, a coded message for leapfrogging on renewable sources of energy.

iv) Cross-sectoral interventions: This would mean reconfiguring health and health systems, livelihood diversification, disaster management, climate services and risk transfer or social protection programmes to include adaptation in order to lower urban and rural communities’ vulnerability to a broad range of unfolding climate risks.

This is an ambitious and complex agenda but if adaptation is integrated with development planning and the Sustainable Development Goals, it will reduce lock-ins and create opportunities for economic development and social benefits. Adaptation investments will have a compound effect and begin to generate multiple additional benefits such as improving agricultural productivity, innovation, health and well-being, food security, livelihood, and biodiversity, even while it witnesses a reduction in risks and damage.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022

Ukraine says mosque sheltering 80 civilians shelled by Russia in port city Mariupol

AFP | Reuters
Published March 12, 2022 -

A top view of the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. — Reuters/File

A mosque in the southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where 80 civilians were taking shelter, has been shelled by Russian forces, Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Saturday.


“The mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders. More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey,” the ministry wrote on its Twitter account.

It did not specify when the shelling took place.


However, Ismail Hacioglu, president of the Suleiman Mosque Association in Mariupol, who was contacted by Turkish TV channel HaberTurk early on Saturday afternoon, said the area was under fire but the mosque itself had not been hit.

“The Russians are bombing the area ... which is two kilometres from the mosque, and a bomb fell at a distance of 700 metres from the mosque,” he said earlier on Instagram.

Contacted by AFP, the Turkish foreign ministry in Istanbul said it had “no information”.

However, the Ukrainian embassy in Ankara told AFP it had alerted Turkey's foreign ministry to the attack, without specifying when or whether it had received any response.



On Monday, the Turkish consulate in the southern port of Odessa had issued a tweet urging Turkish citizens to take shelter in the mosque “with a view to be being evacuated” to Turkey.

The consulate could not be reached by AFP on Saturday.

On Friday, the Ukrainian embassy in Turkey had forwarded to journalists a Facebook post by Mariupol's deputy mayor, Petro Andryushchenko, who said: “Right now, 86 Turkish citizens are being covered in the mosque territory. Thirty-four of them are kids.”

Friends and relatives of Turks living in Mariupol said they were anxious.


“My brother, Sahin Beytemur, has been living in Mariupol for eight years ... We haven't heard from him since last Saturday,” the 38-year-old shopkeeper's sister told AFP.

Others took to social media to try to locate the whereabouts of their loved ones.

“We have not heard from my aunt and cousin who have been living there for 11 days. We have no idea whether they are alive or not. Communication is completely lost we don't know what to do,” wrote one Twitter user, @brsyrdm11.

Turkey is a close ally of Ukraine but has refused to cut ties with Moscow and even tried to mediate between the two sides, hosting a first meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers on Thursday in Antalya.
'Humanitarian catastrophe'

Mariupol has been under siege and bombardment for more than a week and is encircled by Russian troops.

The situation in the strategic port city was “desperate”, where civilians have been desperately trying to flee, but were without water or heating, and running out of food, a top Doctors Without Borders executive said on Friday.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Friday: “Besieged Mariupol is now the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet. 1,582 dead civilians in 12 days.”





Three people, including a child, were killed when a children's hospital in the city was attacked on Wednesday, sparking international outrage.

Against this backdrop, a new attempt is being made to open up a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to evacuate the city towards Zaporizhzhia, around 200 kilometres to the north east, said Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

For days, Ukrainians have claimed that the Russian military has been pounding the evacuation route, preventing people from leaving.

As on previous days, humanitarian corridors were also to be opened again around Kyiv.

“I very much hope that the day will go well, that the planned routes will be open and that Russia will meet its obligations regarding the observance of the ceasefire,” Vereshchuk said in a video uploaded to the website of the Ukrainian presidency.

As the Russian army continues to advance and besiege Kyiv, strikes hit the town of Vasylkiv on Saturday morning, about 40 kilometres south of the capital.

Eight Russian rockets hit the local airport around 7:00 am local time, which was “completely destroyed”, said the mayor Natalia Balassinovitch, on her Facebook account.

An oil depot was also hit and caught fire, she said.
Ukrainian president says Russia sending new troops after heavy losses

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was sending new forces to Ukraine after suffering what he said were its biggest losses in decades.

Zelensky also said he had spoken to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron about pressuring Russia to release the mayor of the city of Melitopol, who Ukraine says was kidnapped on Friday by Russian forces.

In a televised address, Zelensky urged Russia to uphold an agreed ceasefire to allow evacuations to proceed from the besieged port city of Mariupol, after blaming Moscow for the failure of previous attempts.

US lawmakers seek sanctions against Pakistan
Anwar Iqbal

DAWN.COM

Published March 11, 2022 - Up

Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania Scott Perry who has called for the designation of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism. — AP/File

WASHINGTON: A US lawmaker has called for the designation of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism while two others sought a probe into Ambassador Masood Khan’s alleged links with Kashmiri and Pakistani groups.

The initiator of the move is Scott Perry, a Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania.

The bill moved by him seeks to “provide for the designation of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for other purposes”. The bill has now been referred to the US House committee on foreign affairs.

The proposed sanctions include restrictions on foreign assistance; a ban on defence exports and sales; certain controls over export of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.

Others call for penalising persons and countries engaging in trade with a state declared a sponsor of terrorism.

Only four countries have been designated sponsors of terrorism so far: Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

On March 9, three lawmakers — Scott Perry, Gregory Steube and Mary E. Miller — sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland, claiming that Ambassador Masood Khan’s close relationship “with domestic actors linked with the Pakistani regime remains a critical concern”.

Masood Khan, Pakistan’s new ambassador to the US, is a senior diplomat who once served in New York as Islamabad’s permanent representative to the United Nations. He was also Azad Kashmir’s president till August last year.

The three US lawmakers have called for an investigation into allegations that Mr Khan, who has already been confirmed as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, has links with Muslim groups and organisations in the United States.

Last month, another US lawmaker tried to block Mr. Khan’s posting, but the Biden administration rejected his protest and confirmed the appointment.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2022

'I stand with Russia' — Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla hails Putin amid Ukraine

 invasion

Kyle Zeeman
Digital Editor
25 February 2022 -

Former president Jacob Zuma's daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambundla got tongues wagging with her comments on Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Image: Thapelo Morebudi/Sunday Times

Former president Jacob Zuma's daughter Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla has made her allegiance clear in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, praising Russian president Vladimir Putin and calling him “president of the world”.

Ukraine said more than 100 Ukranian military and civilians were killed and there were more than 800 Russian casualties on the first day of an invasion of that country on Thursday.

Tensions that have been brewing for years boiled over this week when Putin formally recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and ordered a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Putin claimed the move was to “protect” the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and said there was a need to “demilitarise” the country. Ukraine said it was an “act of war”.

Attacks from Russia on several Ukranian cities by air, land and sea followed as the West scrambled to impose harsher sanctions on Putin and his country.

As South Africans flooded social media to debate our country's potential involvement in the conflict, Zuma-Sambudla shared images of Putin.

“We see you and we salute you leadership. Amandla,” she captioned one picture, while calling Putin “president of the world” in another.

She took shots at President Cyril Ramaphosa and the SA National Defence Force, saying they should leave the conflict alone or risk being embarrassed.

She was slammed by many on social media who called her an “attention seeker” and told her to “put down the wine and go to sleep”.

Others claimed she was looking to invite Putin to a "Nkandla tea party".

SOUTH AFRICA

‘You want to put us in a problem. Leave Putin alone’ — SA weighs in on Ramaphosa’s call with Russian president

Kyle Zeeman

Digital Editor
11 March 2022 - 

President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Image: GCIS

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s phone call discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin has sparked fierce debate, with many questioning the call for SA to mediate in the conflict between that country and Ukraine.

Ramaphosa confirmed on Thursday evening that he had spoken to Putin to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and said he had pushed for “mediation”.

“Thanking His Excellency President Vladimir Putin for taking my call today so I could gain an understanding of the situation unfolding between Russia and Ukraine.

“I outlined our position on the conflict as well as our belief that the conflict should be resolved through mediation and negotiation between the parties and — if need be — with the help of agencies that can help bring a solution to the conflict.”

The president said Putin “appreciated our balanced approach” and, with SA part of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA), said the country had been asked to mediate in the crisis.

“We believe this position enables both parties to subject the conflict to mediation and negotiation. Based on our relations with the Russian Federation and as a member of Brics, SA has been approached to play a mediation role,” he said.

The Russian government said the call came at the request of Ramaphosa and included a conversation about the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and SA and expanding trade.

“The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further develop the bilateral strategic partnership, noting, in particular, their readiness to expand trade, economic and humanitarian co-operation, and joint Covid-19 response efforts,” it said.

Several countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, severely restricting world trade with that country over its conflict with Ukraine.

“At the request of President Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of Russia spoke about the reasons for and goals of the special military operation to protect Donbass.

“He also informed the SA leader about the situation regarding talks with representatives of the Ukrainian authorities. The president of SA supported the ongoing political and diplomatic efforts.

“Vladimir Putin and Cyril Ramaphosa agreed to continue their contacts,” the Kremlin said.

The call drew strong reactions, with some accusing Ramaphosa of being “pro-Russia” and asked if he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the mediation efforts.

Others welcomed the call and said SA should play its part in helping bring peace to the area.

Many called for Ramaphosa not to get involved in the conflict.

Shipping companies ask crew to abandon ships stuck in Ukraine

11 March 2022 - BY ANN KOH

Ukraine’s ports closed on February 24, when Russian troops began their incursion.
Image: Bloomberg

Some shipowners have begun to ask crew to abandon their ships stuck off the coast of Ukraine, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbour reached the end of its second week.

M.T. Maritime has evacuated 22 Filipino seafarers from its oil-products tanker MTM Rio Grande, leaving the vessel unmanned and moored at Nika-Tera port in Ukraine, the company said in an emailed reply to queries. The crew are currently in Romania waiting for a flight back to the Philippines, it said.

Ukraine’s ports closed on February 24, when Russian troops began their incursion. At least five out of 140 ships stuck in the country’s waters have been hit by explosions, killing a Bangladeshi seafarer.

As intense fighting and shelling continues across cities in Ukraine — a key grains exporter — ship owners are grappling with dwindling food supplies and the possibility of a protracted war, according to people with knowledge of ships in the area. That’s forcing some owners to ask their crew to abandon vessels, they said.

More than 1,000 seafarers are estimated to be on-board ships stranded in Ukraine, some with cargo still on-board. The vessels — which include tankers, bulkers, cargo ships and a container vessel — aren’t able to leave because there aren’t harbour pilots to guide them out amid danger from missiles and underwater mines.

“We understand some ships may have been laid up,” said a spokespersons for the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations, without providing further details.

China: US Should Fully Apply New Forced Labor Law

Supply Chain Transparency, Meaningful Penalties Crucial

Click to expand Image

Planting of a cotton field in China’s Xinjiang region, during a government-organized trip for foreign journalists, near Urumqi, April 21, 2021. 

 © 2021 AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

(Washington, DC) – The new US forced labor law should heighten scrutiny of company supply chains that are linked to forced labor in China, Human Rights Watch said today in a submission to the federal Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF). The law should also result in increased civil and criminal penalties for companies that import products linked to forced labor.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2021, creates a presumption that goods made in whole or in part in China’s northwest Xinjiang region, or produced by entities in China linked to forced labor, cannot be imported into the United States. Since 2017, China has detained as many as one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang and subjected them to various abuses that amount to crimes against humanity, including subjecting detainees and other Turkic Muslims to forced labor inside and outside Xinjiang.

“The US government has a powerful new tool to ensure that companies are not complicit in forced labor, but enforcement is everything,” said Jim Wormington, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government should require importers to disclose their supply chains to identify links to Xinjiang or other forced labor sites, and should hold companies accountable where they or their suppliers continue to exploit forced labor.”

The multiagency taskforce chaired by the Department of Homeland Security on January 24, 2022, requested input into the strategy the US government should use to enforce the new forced labor law. The law builds on existing US legislation, the 1930 Tariff Act, which banned the import of “all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part” by forced labor. Since 2019, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a dozen orders requiring the seizure of certain categories of products from Xinjiang, including a January 2021 order covering all cotton and tomato products produced in whole or in part from Xinjiang.

The new law goes further by requiring customs officers to apply a requirement, scheduled to go into effect on June 21, that presumes that any goods “mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part” in Xinjiang are produced with forced labor and so prohibited from entry to the US. The presumption also applies to goods produced by entities – whether in Xinjiang or elsewhere in China – that the US government lists as linked to forced labor.

The new law states that companies can rebut the presumption against imports by providing “clear and convincing evidence” that goods are not linked to forced labor. However, the extent of Chinese government surveillance and threats to workers and auditors in Xinjiang currently make it impossible for companies to provide credible evidence that they or their suppliers in the region are free of forced labor. Even elsewhere in China, the arrests of labor activists, a prohibition on independent trade unions, government surveillance, and the Chinese government’s anti-sanctions laws pose serious obstacles to identifying and remediating the risk of forced labor and other human rights abuses.

In its submission to the task force, Human Rights Watch underscored that the most effective way to identify Xinjiang-linked goods would be to require all brands and retailers importing into the US to map their global supply chains, from raw materials to manufacturers, and disclose them in a time-bound manner. The task force should consider whether imposing this requirement is possible using existing executive powers and, if not, should recommend new legislation requiring mandatory supply chain mapping and disclosure and comprehensive human rights due diligence.

Customs and Border Protection’s own efforts to identify products from Xinjiang or from entities linked to forced labor should focus on high-risk sectors, including the priority sectors (cotton, tomatoes, and polysilicon) identified in the new law itself. Customs officers should identify which importers in high-priority sectors are at highest risk of forced labor links and should request information from those companies on their supply chains and their efforts to identify and address forced labor. If targeted importers fail to respond to questions, or provide inadequate information, Customs and Border Protection should view this as evidence that the products include material from Xinjiang or from entities linked to forced labor and are barred from import under the new law.

To demonstrate that it is effectively enforcing forced labor import bans, Customs and Border Protection should be transparent about its enforcement actions. It should disclose when it holds, re-exports, excludes, or seizes goods, including information on the company importing the banned goods; the nature of the goods; their approximate value; and the reason for the enforcement action. The US government should also impose financial penalties on companies for importing or attempting to import goods linked to forced labor and utilize laws such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act to criminally prosecute individuals and corporations for their roles in imports linked for forced labor.

“US importers should no longer be able to plead ignorance over their links to forced labor in China and the Xinjiang region specifically,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “Companies with operations, suppliers, or sub-suppliers in Xinjiang should quickly exit the region or risk seeing their goods seized at the US border and their businesses subject to civil and criminal penalties.”

The NATO campaign against Russia will drive escalating class struggle across the world

Tom Hall
WSWS.ORG

The reckless escalation of economic, political and military pressure by the United States and NATO against Russia is rapidly leading to a major global economic crisis with serious repercussions for the international working class.

At least 2,000 striking Minneapolis teachers, support staff and their supporters rallied outside the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)

The campaign against Russia, which includes a crippling sanctions regime aimed at starving out the Russian people which has all but cut off Russia from the world economy, is aimed at the conversion of that country into a colony of western imperialism and the plundering of its natural resources. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, while it is reactionary and must be opposed, is the product of a years-long campaign of escalating provocations by NATO against Russia, using Ukraine as bait.

Millions around the world look at the unfolding events in eastern Europe with anxiety and fear that they could rapidly escalate into a nuclear war. But the crisis is also triggering immense economic dislocation that is driving towards a massive explosion of class conflict. The orientation of those who seek to oppose the drive to a third World War must be, as Leon Trotsky observed in 1934, not to the war map, but to the map of the class struggle.

In a statement last week on the economic impact of the war and western sanctions against Russia, the International Monetary Fund predicted, “Price shocks will have an impact worldwide, especially on poor households for whom food and fuel are a higher proportion of expenses. Should the conflict escalate, the economic damage would be all the more devastating. The sanctions on Russia will also have a substantial impact on the global economy and financial markets, with significant spillovers to other countries.”

This is already beginning to take place. Oil prices have reached $130 per barrel, and in the United States, gasoline prices at the pumps have surged past $4 a gallon to their highest levels ever. In France, the price of gas has gone from €1.65 per liter at the end of last year to €2.20 per liter, or $9.16 per gallon. Wheat futures have already risen by 70 percent this year–Russia and Ukraine together account for one-quarter of all grain exports. In Europe, industrial production is beginning to shut down due to soaring energy prices.

In the month of February, US inflation reached 7.9 percent, and in the Eurozone it reached 5.8 percent, the highest level on record since the creation of the single currency in 1997. Inflation is expected to rise sharply in March as the consequences of sanctions reverberate throughout the world economy.

But among the worst hit will be developing countries in Africa and the Middle East. Starvation and famine in this region of the world is a real possibility. Eighty percent of grain in Egypt is purchased from Russia. Other major importers of Russian grain include Turkey, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Yemen.

The impact on the working class will be enormous. It is already reeling from more than two years of the pandemic, in which millions have died and living standards have been eroded to the breaking point by inflation caused by pandemic-induced chaos in global supply chains. This social trauma is the product of deliberate rejection of necessary public health measures by the world’s governments, above all the United States, in the name of “herd immunity,” or the sacrificing of life to profit.

Governments are using Ukraine to deflect attention from the war which should be waged against the pandemic, which is not over and is already beginning to surge again. They are also using it to recast inflation, which was already at its highest level in decades before, as a “Putin price hike” entirely the fault of Russia, in an attempt to deflect economic anxiety towards hatred of a foreign enemy. But while the wealthiest layers of society, including the most privileged layers of the middle class, have been gripped with war hysteria, there are no signs that this campaign is having any significant effect within the working class.

In a speech last week announcing a ban on Russian oil imports to the United States, President Biden presented the economic impact of these measures in the United States as a necessary sacrifice in the name of “defending freedom.” But neither Biden nor anyone else ever bothered to ask workers in the United States, much less workers in Africa and the developing world, whether they wanted to make such sacrifices for a reckless campaign which raises the danger of World War III.

No such sacrifices are being demanded of the corporate oligarchy, who will make money hand over fist from the war just as they have during the pandemic. Indeed, the stock prices of major US defense contractors such as Northrup Grumman and Raytheon have risen sharply in recent weeks. Western oil companies and agribusiness are also licking their chops at the prospects of superprofits from worldwide shortages derived from the removal of their Russian rivals.

The war in Ukraine is being used as cover to redirect billions in resources away from social programs benefiting the working class towards war. The latest spending bill making its way through Congress includes nearly $800 billion for the military, including $15 billion in spending for Ukraine, while omitting $15 billion in pandemic-related funding. The corporate media in Britain is calling for the gutting of the postwar welfare state for the sake of increasing military spending. Most ominously, Germany has rammed through a tripling of the military budget for this year, the largest increase since Adolf Hitler.

The attitude of the ruling class was summed up most crudely and bluntly by a Wall Street Journal editorial, whose headline declared, “NATO Needs More Guns and Less Butter.” The phrase recalls the infamous statement by Hermann Goering that “iron has always made an empire strong, at most butter and lard have made the people fat.”

The social consequences of this reckless campaign are preparations for a showdown between the working class and the capitalist class in each country, in which mass anger will intersect with the growing radicalization which is already underway as a consequence of the pandemic. The past two years have seen major strikes by industrial workers in the United States, the growth of wildcat strikes throughout Turkey, the defiance of anti-strike injunctions by healthcare workers in Sri Lanka and Australia, and other significant expressions of social opposition.

The ruling class itself is deeply concerned about this possibility, and nervous comments in the press have appeared comparing the current situation to the oil shocks of the 1970s, which drove a major strike wave in industrialized countries, as well as the Arab Spring of 2011, in which mass anger over the cost of living fueled revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

The response of capitalist governments claiming to be “defending freedom” in Ukraine will inevitably involve the greater use of state repression, including injunctions, anti-strike legislation, executive orders and other measures to suppress working class opposition at home. Already, an anti-strike injunction has been issued against 17,000 BNSF railroad workers in the United States, justified on the basis of protecting national supply chains. Many more such measures can be expected.

This campaign of repression also directly involves the cooperation of the pro-corporate unions. The United Steelworkers is openly boasting of its sellout “non-inflationary” contract limiting wage increases for 30,000 US oil refinery workers to 3 percent, an agreement which was worked out in direct behind-the-scenes personal discussions between USW head Tom Conway and Biden. At the same time, the corporate press will be counted on to brand any resistance from workers as the result of Russian sabotage, with workers acting as “Putin’s patsies,” as the British press recently branded striking London underground workers.

The social basis for the fight against war is the international working class. In contrast to the capitalist ruling class and the most privileged layers of the middle class, the social interests of the working class are irreconcilably opposed to war. Workers have nothing to gain from war, but as always will be made to foot the bill.

While Biden and other heads of state preach “national unity” in the name of fighting Russia, the consequences of the drive to war and the divergent responses of different layers in society will more and more openly reveal that the real dividing line in world society is not between NATO and Russia, but between the working class and the capitalist class in all countries.

Above all, the squandering of social resources for war raises the basic conflict between the capitalist system, which is based on the private accumulation of profit and national rivalries leading inevitably to war, with the maintenance and growth of a modern industrial society. The fight against war, therefore, must be rooted in a socialist movement in the working class to bring an end to the capitalist system.