Indian designs to grab Pakistani rivers
Mamoona Ali Kazmi

Conflicts over water arise form the fact that under conditions of increasing scarcity, competition levels also increase.” Anthony Turton
INDIA is constructing dams on the Rivers flowing into Pakistani territories and planning to convert Pakistan into a desert. India has recently built the Baglihar Dam on River Chenab in violation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty. It is a part of Indian conspiracy to grab Pakistan’s water resources and to turn it into a land like Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Pakistan faced reduced water inflows and a water loss of over 0.2 million cusecs in the Chenab River due to the water storage in Baglihar Dam. Pakistan’s Indus Commissioner Syed Jamaat Ali Shah said that India was filling the Baglihar Dam in clear violation of the Indus Basin Water Treaty, bringing the inflow in Chenab River down to a historic low of 20,000 cusecs. Even the Indian commissioner confessed that India did violate the Treaty by filling the Baglihar reservoir.
The dam would reduce the flow of water to Pakistan, depriving its agricultural regions of irrigation.  President Asif Ali Zardari told the Associated Press of Pakistan, “Pakistan would be paying a very high price for India’s move to block Pakistan’s water supply from the Chenab river,” adding that any violation of the Indus Water Treaty “would damage the bilateral ties the two countries had built over the years”.
India plans to build at least 12 more Baglihar-type dams on the River Chenab to manipulate the water flow. According to reports, the other pending projects may take years to complete but would ultimately prove to be fatal for Pakistan as the Indian authorities would manipulate the flow of water at will. The most recent information in this regard indicates that the new pending projects, some at advanced and some at initial stages would require water storage almost close to that of Baglihar Dam. Apart from the storage, the most important factor is how India would release Pakistan’s share if it needs water for these projects to generate power or maintain the minimum level.
The construction of the Baglihar dam has brought the water dispute back into spotlight. In fact the water problem traces back its origin to the partition of India in 1947. The unjust distribution of Punjab and Bengal gave birth to the water problem. India started its nefarious tactics to destabilize Pakistan immediately after independence and used water as a tool to pressurize Pakistan. In 1948, after obtaining control of the headwaters India halted the water flow into Pakistan, the dispute drew international attention. In 1960, after years of negotiations, the World Bank brokered the Indus Water Treaty, which regulated the use of the Indus Basin Rivers. The Treaty awarded the Eastern Rivers to India and the Western Rivers to Pakistan; however, India was allowed restricted use of the Western Rivers and was strictly forbidden to interfere in the process with the flow of their waters towards Pakistan. Thus the very construction of the Baglihar dam is a violation of the intent and objective of the Treaty.
In the mid 1990s India started violating Indus water Treaty by constructing the Baglihar dam on the Chenab River. In 2005 Pakistan had sought the World Bank’s intervention to stop construction of the Baglihar dam. Although World Bank allowed India to go ahead with the project after a few minor modifications, yet it did not permit the interruption of the agreed quota of water flow to Pakistan.
Pakistan’s dependence on the Indus River and its tributaries for irrigation and generation of electricity is an open secret. The long history of hostility between India and Pakistan compels one to think that India could use Baglihar and other such dams to cause floods in Pakistan through sudden release of dam waters or starve Pakistan by stopping agreed water.
Pakistan is planning to demand compensation for a massive loss of more than Rs.40 billion due to the water losses in the river. Pakistan also plans to approach the World Bank for arbitration if India did not address its concerns over the reduced water flow in the Chenab.
There is a big conspiracy hatched against Pakistan by several international actors, which requires that India should try its best to gulp Pakistan’s water on the one hand and on the other should create such a scenario inside the country that will make it impossible for it to build new dams to fulfill its water requirements. Chairman Sindh-Tass Water Conference Hafiz Zahoor Daher said, “On March 01, 2001, American CIA, British MI, Israel ‘Mosad’ and Indian ‘RAW’ signed a memorandum of understanding that no big dam would be allowed to be built in Pakistan and hence Pakistan would be bound to bow down before Indian supremacy”. That’s why, despite 127 meetings on violations of the Indus Water Treaty, India refuses to soften its stance on construction of dams on Pakistan’s water.
This kind of attitude from Indian side has very wide ranging and horrible implications for South Asian region. It can disrupt the ongoing peace process. Similarly, the international community as well is not behaving in a rational manner. Instead of creating a conducive atmosphere for India and Pakistan to solve their long standing disputes including water and Kashmir issue, it is unjustifiably encouraging India to build new dams on Pakistan’s water. These heinous acts not only show India’s hatred for Pakistan but also unveil double standards of major powers of the world. In view of these realities Justice (r) Dr Javed Iqbal’s prediction that future wars would be fought for the sake of water and South Asia’s atomic powers, Pakistan and India, would be forced to go to war for this purpose seems to gain credibility.

Radicals in Turkey are not Islamists but Secularists
Usama Butt

THE ongoing trial of ‘Ergenekon’, a clandestine Kemalist ultra secular radical group that has close ties with Turkey’s military and security apparatus, has been rightly noted as the ‘biggest trial of modern Turkey’. The trial of 86 people including former top military generals, a head of political party, important journalists and members of Turkish press and business giants started last week and sparked fierce clashes between ultra nationalists and Islamists. Ergenekon is alleged to be involved in political assassinations, terrorism, and collaboration with enemies of states i.e. PKK and propaganda missions in order to create an environment to overthrow the Islamist government by yet another direct or indirect military coup. Ergenekon existence is mostly noted from late 90’s but some Turkish sources maintain that the ‘Gladio’ has existed since 1960’s and has been involved in most of the military coups against elected governments, four to be precise.
Modern Turkey, where Ergenekon operated, came into being from the ruins of Ottoman Caliphate, relinquished anything that was once religious for centuries, under the banner of Kemalism. Kemal Ataturk, a unifying figure for many Turks, changed anything or every thing that related to the past of Caliphate, whom he served as a solider. The language script was changed from Arabic to Latin, call to prayer were performed in Turkish than Arabic, religious courts were closed, headscarves (Fez) were banned and people were imprisoned for wearing them, the trend that continues today in Turkish universities etc., all in the name of modern ‘secularism’. But Turkish secularism is not the secularism you will find in US or Europe i.e. instead of granting an individual religious freedom, Turkish secularism promoted absolute domination and control of religion by the state at every level.
The existence of such a group in a country that lives in the shadow of such Kemalist’s cult is not surprising, but what is surprising is the fact that the Turkish elite class of every walk of life is said to be involved in criminal and terrorist activities in the name of defending nationalism for such a long time without going un-noticed or un-punished. For Turkish radical secularists, Islamism or anything that resonate with religion is anti-constitutional, therefore anti-Turkish. But despite above noted effort to secularise Turkey, a process that took decades, Islam and Islamism was back not only in the society but to their extreme despair in the government. Although Erbakan’s government was overthrown by an indirect military coup, most probably encouraged or even initiated by Ergenekon, the Islamists were back with even bigger majority in the government few years later.
Erdogon’s AK party has not only won majority of votes but has recently struck another success by winning Presidency of Abdullah Gul as well. Despite the claims of ultra-secularists that Islamists are the radicals of Turkish society or anti-constitutional, AK party’s record has been quite the contrary - i.e., it has even worked more fiercely towards the membership of EU than its secular predecessor and has achieved better recognition if not the full membership from the Europeans. It has brought Turkey once again closer to the East as well as the West i.e., its mediation between Syria and Israel and Syria and the EU, its re-established links with Iraq and Iran and other Middle Eastern states are all but signs of its strategic success. To put it in simple words, Turkish Islamists are the real moderates and have been more successful at every level than their secular predecessors and enjoy larger mandate from the public than seculars. Therefore, the trial of Ergenekon is a response of Islamist government against ultra-secular elite who seek not only the destruction of AK party or role of religion in Turkish society but also the freedom and true democracy in Turkey. Many questions however need addressing i.e., what will the trial produce, an end of radical secularism and illegitimate organisations under the cloak of Kemalism or yet another abrupt end to elected government in Turkey? What will the future be for Turkish ambitions to EU’s membership in above both scenarios?
What Turkish experience of both moderate Islamism and hardcore secularism say to the rest of Middle Eastern region, the region that has many more comparable regimes to Turkish ultra-secular elite, although in different forms? And finally what of the Turkish Justice system? Could the same system that withheld many democratic fundamentals including headscarf ban in the universities in the name of defending ‘secularism’, produce free and fair trial and justice? Only time will give the answer to many of the above posed questions, but one thing is absolutely certain that if the criminal and terror network of Ergenekon is not stopped by the Turkish government and society in general, the outcomes will be horrendous to Turkey’s internal security, democracy, freedom of expression and regional/international standing. A Turkish columnist ‘Ekram Dumanli’ rightly notes in ‘Daily Zaman’ that ‘Whoever fails to purge its gang will be purged by that gang, whoever fails to dismantle its Gladio will be dismantled by that Gladio, whoever fails to beat its junta will be beaten by that junta. That is the rule’.—Khaleej Times

The third hurricane
Fidel Castro Ruz

 IT COULD loose strength but it is already raining in most of the country. It’s raining on farming areas absolutely drenched by the recent rainfalls. The water reservoirs filled up to almost full capacity due to hurricanes Gustav and Ike will be releasing water on cultivated fields and valleys. This already happened at the end of August and early September. This hurricane has been given the misleading name of Paloma. After countless hours of labor, many crops almost ready for harvesting as well as fuel, seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and the work of the equipment used to urgently grow food will again be lost.
In many places where the families awaited for and received materials to repair their homes, and where they excitedly applauded the workers who were re-establishing electricity so vital to many services, will again partly live through the same experience. Once again destruction will revisit highways, roads and other works in various provinces of the country. The latest report from the Meteorology Institute’s National Forecast Centre has confirmed the inexorable development of the event. Nevertheless, we should not be discouraged by adversity. Paloma is not covering such an extensive area as Gustav.
Our people should learn from every such event about the consequences of climate change and the ecologic unbalance, which are some of the many problems humanity is facing. The initial estimates of the economic damages caused by the two previous hurricanes were short of reality. The losses amounted to 8 billions instead of the 5 billions originally announced. This time there will be additional damages. The cadres who are decidedly and restlessly coming to grips with the problems shall insist on demanding from their compatriots that they respond to these adverse circumstances with hard work in both production and services.
And, if the chief of the empire and leading promoter of the genocidal blockade on our country were to offer again his pious assistance, he would again receive a dignified response: it would certainly be rejected. Our people demand that the blockade is lifted, especially now that humanity has unanimously called for it amidst a financial crisis which is pounding on every developed and developing nation on the Earth. There are still some who dream of submitting Cuba using the criminal blockade as an instrument of the U.S. foreign policy against our homeland. If that country made the same mistake again it could spend another century implementing that useless policy against Cuba; that is, if the empire could last that long.