Author: InDepthNews

Viewpoint by Dr. Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikan*

This is a slightly abridged version of the Mongolian Blue Banner NGO President Dr. Jargalsaikhan Enkhsaikan’s address to the Astana Conference on August 29, 2016 to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

ULAANBAATAR | ASTANA (IDN-INPS) – Abolition of nuclear weapons is an ambitious goal that reflects seven decades of peoples’ aspirations and hopes to do away with this weapon of mass destruction. The paradox of the post cold war period is that though the number of nuclear weapons has been reduced, the number of states possessing such weapons has increased.

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – At a time when United States-Russia relations continue to deteriorate, Russia has blacklisted seven U.S.-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as being “undesirable” on its territory.

This cannot be ruled as another manifestation of President Vladimir Putin’s Cold War-style paranoia as this happens in hundreds of countries around the world.

In the past year, Armenia, India, Egypt, Cambodia, Russia, China and Uganda are among the countries that enforced draconian laws to regulate NGO activities – mostly on suspicion of foreign governments interfering in their internal affairs.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The French ambassador to the U.S. from 1902 to 1924, Jean-Jules Jusserand, observed that distant powers could not easily threaten the U.S. because “On the north, she has a weak neighbour; on the south, another weak neighbour; on the east fish and on the west, fish”.

The coming of the submarine-based nuclear missile has not changed that. Apart from the fact that no enemy would dare use them for fear of retaliation, and that there is no country in the world that feels that hostile to America (accept North Korea), the fact is America is too big and too far away to be invaded and dominated. There could not be a blitzkrieg by a foreign army across the mid-west or a Vichy America.

Viewpoint by Major General Dalvir Singh*

JODHPUR, India (IDN-INPS) – Major Siddharth Chatterjee, Sena Medal (Retd), who served under my command in Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990, has recently been appointed as the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.

Major Chatterjee was a decorated and highly valued member of my team, who served with honour, distinction and epitomized the credo of the Indian Army, “service before self”.

Recently a blogger, who runs a blog out of the UN in New York, has hurled scurrilous, unfounded and mendacious accusations of human rights violations against Chatterjee. Major Chatterjee was a star member of my battalion, the 10th Para Special Forces, and at no time was my battalion or any member of my unit ever involved in any form of human rights violation.