Defence`s Feeds

This year, there were a lot of foreign defense ministers participating in the Moscow Conference on International Security. In fact, there were so many that the organizers had to take an unscheduled break as the conference running well over time, with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu notably absent after the panel resumed. In this post, I will summarize the most interesting of the presentations. Videos of all the plenary speeches are available on the Russian Defense Ministry website.

Not surprisingly, the first slot in this lineup was given to Chang Wanquan, the Minister of Defense of the People’s Republic of China. Minister Chang focused on the development of a multipolar world as the center of gravity in international affairs has moved in recent years. He noted that some countries (not mentioning the U.S. by name) have been trying to obtain absolute security, which has complicated the international situation. China has been promoting a comprehensive vision of global security, focused on the need for a fair international order, the idea that common development enables security, and the primacy of dialog and cooperation over threats and the use of force. He noted that the PLA has been focused on safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as crises on China’s periphery have been causing insecurity for the country. He also mentioned the role of the PLA Navy in conducting evacuations from Yemen and Libya and conducting other humanitarian missions such as disaster assistance and providing medical help for the Ebola crisis in West Africa. He highlighted the need to commemorate the victory over Nazism in World War II and the steps that China has been taking to promote development through the AIIB Bank and various Silk Road initiatives. Minister Chang concluded with a discussion of new efforts to conduct military dialog and increase military cooperation between China and the United States as part of efforts to counter terrorist threats and violent extremism. The overall perception from the speech was of China performing a careful balancing act between supporting Russia as the conference host while telegraphing that it was not interested in getting involved in any kind of confrontation with the United States.

Panos Kammenos, the Greek Defense Minister, was the only senior military official from a NATO country to make a presentation. He began with a statement highlighting the strong ties between Greece and Russia based on spiritual and historical connections, as well as on the two countries’ joint fight against fascism. He mentioned the dangers posed by terrorism and by new asymmetrical and hybrid security threats. The financial crisis that has affected the European Union has led to an increase in instability. Traditional security problems have been joined by new threats, such as ethnic and religious conflict, mass migration, and the dissemination of arms to non-state actors. He argued that the greatest security threat is posed by terrorism and religious conflict in the Middle East and the role of Greece as the bastion of Europe in this area. In this context, he mentioned the significance of Greece’s Hellenic initiative to protect Christians in the Middle East. He concluded by noting that security cannot be divided into internal and external areas. The same terrorist groups are attacking both the U.S. and Russia, so there is no choice but to have both countries working together to resolve this crisis.

The Pakistani Defense Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, highlighted the emergence of new security threats in the last years. He noted that the radicals of the Islamic State have created a transregional crisis that has heightened the danger of the fragmentation of the modern state order. Conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen can all be viewed as outcomes of failed regime change, the Arab spring and regional conflict. The old order in the Middle East is dying, while external powers are the only force preventing the emergence of a new order based on religious radicalism. Local extremists in Southeast Asia and Africa are losing foot soldiers to transnational groups such as the Islamic State and Daesh. The region needs a comprehensive social, economic, and political reform package that must be combined with ongoing military actions. 200 thousand Pakistani soldiers are currently fighting terrorists in northwest Pakistan. We need to compromise on principles to ensure that the conflict ends (referring to Charlie Hebdo and Muhammad cartoons).

The Iranian Defense Minister, Hossein Dehghan, started by describing ISIS as a global cancer that has support from foreign states. He blamed the United States and Israel for using these groups to change the strategic balance in the region. He made a very strong statement against Saudi aggression in Yemen, arguing that as a result in the future Saudi Arabia will face the same situation as Saddam Hussein did. He argued that Saudi Arabia has killed many civilians through its aerial bombing campaign and needs to stop supporting terrorism in the Middle East. The international community needs to stop foreign interference in Yemen. Iran, by contrast, is a factor for stability in the region. He then turned to U.S. cyber attacks on Iran and the role of the U.S. as a threat to international security. He proposed a multilateral cooperation initiative between Iran, Russia, China, and India against U.S. missile defense and other international threats. He highlighted that Iran is focused on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The North Korean Defense Minister, Hyon Yong Chol, did not pull any punches in his speech. He started by arguing that the U.S. is the greatest threat to world peace and has caused an increase in the risk of war on the Korean peninsula by its actions. He called the U.S. and South Korea a cancer, because they want to overthrow the DPRK and dominate northeast Asia in order to put added pressure on Russia and China. He called the 1953 armistice worthless and argued that North Korea has been threatened by a U.S. nuclear attack. Efforts to have dialog with the U.S. did not achieve any results as it became clear that the U.S. just wanted to eliminate North Korean nuclear weapons without creating a peace deal. “If we had peace, we would not need nuclear weapons.” If the U.S. were to suspend joint exercises with South Korea, North Korea would stop its nuclear program. Instead, the U.S. is trying to create an Asian NATO.

The Indian Defense Minister, Rao Inderjit Singh, highlighted that most nations have now given up some of their sovereignty to various transnational bodies, as the have recognized that traditional state instruments are not adequate to respond to modern threats. Non-state actors are becoming orchestrators of conflict. States can’t reign them in or are even tacitly encouraging them in some cases. Responses need to combine hard and soft power. Conventional wars have declined in recent years, as have civil wars. Now, multi-polarity is allowing old rivalries to reemerge.  In addition, there are new forms of threat from resource scarcity and climate change. Armed forces have to be prepared to fight both high end threats and irregular warfare. Space, cyberspace, and even underground warfare are now part of the war environment and have to be taken into account. Rapid technological innovation will help wealthy states and local entrepreneurs of violence, while potentially hurting the middle powers.

Events this year have reinforced the dynamic of operational demands that Colombian Armed Forces are currently facing. In January, it was announced that 32 8x8 wheeled combat vehicles would be purchased in order to enhance security measures along the Venezuelan border. Defense Mini

Events this year have reinforced the dynamic of operational demands that Colombian Armed Forces are currently facing. In January, it was announced that 32 8x8 wheeled combat vehicles would be purchased in order to enhance security measures along the Venezuelan border. Defense Mini

There’s buzz around Boeing’s Super Hornet sale to Kuwait Kuwait is drawing near to buying up to 40 F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet stri

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One of the new A400M military transport aircraft crashed Saturday, May 9 near Seville in southern Spain. It was a test flight, conducted systematically before a new airplane is delivered to the customer. This usually occurs with a reduced crew. This is the first accident of this type of device since its commissioning. The aircraft informed the control tower to report a problem, before rushing toward the ground. The crew was Spanish and the accident has cost four lives.
The manufacturer Airbus Defence and Space, a subsidiary of European aerospace group (former EADS, up to 2013), which assembles the A400M at its factory in Seville, Andalusia, said in a statement that the plane was destined for Turkey. Airbus was not able to provide details of the accident, but has formed a crisis unit.

The first copy of the new European aircraft was delivered to France in 2013. Since then, Turkey and Germany have also taken delivery. Equipped with four turboprop engines, the A400M can carry up to 37 tons on 3300 km, land on unprepared terrain like sand, with a cargo of tanks or helicopters. The device has experienced many delays in its production and in its deliveries and accumulated an overbudget of 6.2 billion euros (around 30%).
Airbus has high hopes for this device that hits the market when its US competitors are at an end, including the C-130 developed there over 50 years. A total of 174 copies have been ordered to date, including 50 from France, 53 from Germany, 27 from Spain and 22 from the UK.

Following the crash of the Saturday A400M, Germany, the UK and Turkey have decided to stop their planes. If other countries are waiting for the identification of disaster`s causes, France has meanwhile decided to keep its six A400M in service but only "for priority flights," said the Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

In March 2015, the Royal Air Force has received its second A400M transport aircraft "Atlas". And one of the six aircraft delivered to the Air Force will going to fly, this March 6, around the world, in 15 days, 11 stops and 3 days, 2 hours and 20 minutes of cumulative flight (Transall C-160 would require three times as long). And that in order to ensure the commercial promotion of the device in Australia, check the availability of land and Faa'a Tontouta in New Caledonia and measure crew`s fatigue and alertness during the long trips.

These appearances are deceiving. After being rescued in 2010 while additional costs and delays mounted, the A400M program traverses a zone of turbulence again, which led to the replacement of Airbus military aviation branch`s director, Domingo Ureña-Raso by Fernando Alonso. The first A400M delivered in December to the German army, would have been found some "875 shortcomings" ... Hence the severe criticism of the manufacturer by Berlin, which also wants to replace as soon as its C-160 Transall suffering a serious problem of availability. "There is more at stake than the single image of an industrial company, it is question of the reliability of Germany in its alliances' military even said Ursula von der Leyen, the German Minister of Defense. And estimate that Airbus "seemed to have a problem with understanding the quality of a product". French Air Force was to receive 4 planes in 2015, it will have to settle for just 2. And Again, if all goes well as the delivery of the second aircraft is expected to occur at the end of the year.

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L`une des nouveaux avions de transport militaire A400M s'est écrasé samedi, le 9 mai près de Séville, dans le sud de l'Espagne. Il s'agissait d'un vol d'essai, réalisé systématiquement avant qu'un nouvel appareil soit livré au client. Il s'effectue généralement avec un équipage réduit. C'est le premier accident de ce type d'appareil depuis sa mise en service. L'avion a informé la tour de contrôle pour lui signaler un problème, avant de foncer vers le sol. L'équipage était espagnol et l`accident a coûté la vie à quatre personnes.

Le constructeur Airbus Defence and Space, filiale du groupe aéronautique européen (EADS jusqu`à 2013) qui assemble l'A400M dans son usine de Séville, en Andalousie, a indiqué dans un communiqué que cet avion était destiné à la Turquie. Airbus n'a pas été en mesure de donner des détails sur l'accident, mais a constitué une cellule de crise.

Le premier exemplaire de ce nouvel avion européen a été livré à la France en 2013. Depuis, la Turquie et l'Allemagne en ont également pris livraison. Équipé de quatre turbopropulseurs, l'A400M peut transporter jusqu'à 37 tonnes sur 3.300 kilomètres, se poser sur des terrains non préparés comme le sable, avec à son bord des blindés ou des hélicoptères. L'appareil a connu de nombreux retards dans sa fabrication puis dans ses livraisons et a accumulé un dépassement de budget de 6,2 milliards d'euros (environ 30%).
Airbus a de grands espoirs pour cet appareil qui arrive sur le marché quand ses concurrents américains sont en bout de course, notamment le C-130 conçu il y a plus de 50 ans. Au total, 174 exemplaires ont été commandés à ce jour, dont 50 par la France, 53 par l'Allemagne, 27 par l'Espagne et 22 par le Royaume-Uni.

Suite au crash de l'A400M de samedi, l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni et la Turquie ont décidé d'immobiliser leurs avions. Si les autres pays attendent que soient identifiées les causes de la catastrophe, la France a quant à elle décidé de garder ses six A400M en service mais seulement "pour les vols prioritaires", a précisé le ministre de la Défense Jean-Yves Le Drian.

En mars 2015 le Royal Air Force vient de recevoir son deuxième avion de transport A400M « Atlas ». Et un des six exemplaires livrés à l’armée de l’Air va boucler, ce 6 mars, un tour du monde accompli en 15 jours, 11 escales et 3 jours, 2 heures et 20 minutes de vol cumulé (un Transall C-160 aurait besoin de trois fois plus de temps). Et cela afin d’assurer la promotion commerciale de l’appareil en Australie, de vérifier l’accessibilité des terrains de Faa’a et Tontouta en Nouvelle-Calédonie et de mesurer la fatigue et le niveau de vigilance des équipages sur de longs trajets.

Ces apparences sont trompeuses. Après avoir été sauvé en 2010 alors que les surcoûts et les retards s’accumulaient, le programme A400M traverse à nouveau une zone de turbulences, ce qui a conduit au remplacement du directeur de la branche aviation militaire chez Airbus, Domingo Ureña-Raso par Fernando Alonso. Sur le premier A400M livré en décembre à l’armée allemande, il aurait été constaté quelques « 875 manquements »… D’où les sévères critiques adressées au constructeur par Berlin, qui veut par ailleurs remplacer au plus vite ses Transall C-160 qui souffrent d’un sérieux problème de disponibilité. « Il y a plus en jeu que la seule image d’une entreprise industrielle, il est question de la fiabilité de l’Allemagne dans ses alliances » militaires, a même déclaré Mme Ursula von der Leyen, le ministre allemand de la Défense. Et d’estimer qu’Airbus « semblait avoir un problème avec sa compréhension de la qualité d’un produit ».L`armée de l’Air française devait recevoir 4 avions en 2015, elle devra s’en contenter de seulement 2. Et encore, si tout va bien étant donné que la livraison du second avion devrait avoir lieu à la fin de l’année.

Source : Sudouest.fr et Zone militaire

Language English Tag: A400M

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker called again for the bloc to build an army, saying a flock of hens posed more of a threat than its current military capabilities. "A bunch of chickens looks like a combat formation compared to the foreign and security policy of the European Union," Juncker told a Brussels forum in typically lively language.
"I always call for a European army as a long-term project. It is not something you can build from scratch tomorrow morning," he said. Juncker has consistently backed the idea that the EU's 28 member nations — all no strangers to a bloody, war-torn past — should accept a military arm, a need highlighted by the Ukraine crisis. "A common army among the Europeans would convey to Russia that we are serious about defending the values of the European Union," he told Germany's Welt am Sonntag in March.

A joint EU force would also rationalize defense spending and drive further EU integration. For many European Union states, however, defense is a no-go area, with Britain especially hostile to sacrificing what it sees as a core sovereign prerogative to Brussels.Britain also insists that NATO, the US-led military alliance set up to hold the Cold War line against the Soviet Union, should remain the focus of European defense efforts. Juncker told the forum that considering the current fragmented state of EU military readiness, it was perfectly "right that central and eastern European countries put their trust primarily in NATO." "The 28 armies are just not up to it," he added.

EU leaders are due to review the bloc's security policy at a June summit to take on board the threat posed by a more assertive Russia and turmoil across North Africa and the Middle East. Analysts say it is unlikely to lead to radical changes in the current very limited joint military operations undertaken by the EU, such as the Atalanta anti-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa.

Source

Tag: JunckerCFSPCSDP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Jorge Domecq, EDA’s Chief Executive, was invited to speak at the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security on Defence on 6 May. In the session on European defence capabilities, Mr Domecq explained his view on the Agency’s role in the future, the preparation of the June European Council and an update on EDA’s capability programmes.

Mr. Domecq explained that he saw EDA’s development along three main strands: as an enabler for Member States’ level of ambition in cooperatively developing capabilities; to support the European defence industry notably through stimulating R&T; and to act as an interface of military views in wider EU policies.

On the preparation of the June European Council on defence, the Chief Executive emphasised the need of the meeting to be more than a stockpiling exercise and the need to maintain sustained top-down impetus from the highest political level. 

He concluded his presentation with an update on the EDA’s key capability programmes on air-to-air refuelling, cyber defence, governmental satellite communications and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems. 

Members of Parliament showed support for the work of the Agency and called upon Heads of State and Government to fully use the June European Council in order to achieve maximum results. 

 

More information:

• Jorge Domecq’s speech is available for download here.
• The audiovisual recording of the SEDE meeting is available here. 

On top of a hill in Kabul’s southeast is a unique community. It is locally known as Zanabad (“Women’s Town”) and has survived all turmoil of the last decades. A group of widows started building homes there for themselves as far back as the 1990s. Initially, the people of the neighbouring communities looked down on the women, who broke taboos by living alone and building their own village, but they have come to respect them. The story of Zanabad is a story about the challenges that Afghan widows face, but more so it is a story about women’s ability to overcome these challenges. In a country where women are usually reported on as victims, AAN’s Naheed Esar – who used to worked in Zanabad as a research assistant focusing on the ethnography of everyday lives of widows and who has visited again this year – wanted to share a different story.

When I visited the widows on the hill for the first time back in 2007, one of them welcomed me to her house. 12 women were seated on her mud floor, learning how to read and write. They were using a well-illustrated grade one textbook. My host, Bibikoh, had organised the literacy course herself. She also had found the teacher, Zarghuna, who additionally taught them basic health care, based on a book called Where There Is No Doctor. The book, provided by an NGO, Care International, was in English, but Zarghuna used the pictures and translated the text for  her students.

The house was on the top of a stony and rather steep hill in Kart-e Naw, a large settlement in Kabul’s southeast. Kart-e Naw means “new quarter,” because it was built by Afghans displaced during the 1980s wars who were looking for a new place to settle. When it rained, the steep roads became very slippery, and as the area then still lacked water and electricity, the widows had to carry buckets or pots of water from the formal settlements below, at the foot of the hill. Bibikoh’s house was small, with two rooms only – one for living and one for guests, with no separate kitchen – and the toilet was still under construction. The women sat in the guest room and talked about their weekly classes and how they were building their houses, in fact their community, with their own hands. The community became known as Zanabad – “Women’s Town” or also “Built by Women.”

None of the widows or any the authorities in the area recall when exactly Zanabad came into being or the women who established it. It seems to have happened during the political chaos in the early 1990s, after the fall of President Najibullah’s government in 1992. The war of the 1980s and the following wars produced an enormous number of widows. According to Beyond 9/11, a US-based non-profit group that provides direct financial support to Afghan widows and their children, Afghanistan had around 1.5 million widows in 2008, of which 50,000 to 70,000 live in the capital, Kabul. Official data on the current number of widows in the country does not exist, but both Care (in a phone conversation with AAN) and the UN estimate that today there are more than two million. (1) This amounts to one of the highest numbers of widows (proportionate to the total population) in the world.

The average age of Afghan widows is just 35 years, says Beyond 9/11. About 94 per cent cannot read and write. About 90 per cent have children, four on average. Widowed women are also at greater risk of developing “emotional problems and impaired psychosocial functioning than either married women or men, typically because of social exclusion, forced marriages, gender-based violence and lack of economic and educational opportunities,” says the organisation. Officials of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) add that shelter, food, earning a living and social protection are among the most pressing issues for widows. To survive, many Afghan widows weave carpets, do tailoring, beg or even engage in prostitution. But nevertheless they still lack strong governmental and community support.

However, the collapse of the Najibullah regime also created opportunities. People were able to take over government land. (2) The hill, on which Zanabad would emerge, was one such piece.

Bibikoh’s story: From ‘head eater’ to community mobiliser

Many widows still remember vividly how hard it was to build their houses with their own hands. One of them, Humaira, a young, shy widow in her late 30s, recalls this time as dawa-ye talkh, bitter medicine. The construction work was often “beyond her physical ability” and caused her “physical trouble” – but she also said that building her own house in this community had “cured” her in the long run as it gave her life-long shelter.

Bibikoh adds that, at times, they had to fight to defend their houses. She recalls how she protected another widow by throwing a stone at a policeman who was trying to beat her. The police would regularly come and try to knock down the widows’ illegal houses. She also recalls how at first other families living nearby, those with men, would not mingle with them, as these determined, independent and house-building women broke taboos. These neighbours looked down on them, even calling them prostitutes. But meanwhile they have come to respect the widows because they all – neighbours and widows alike – are socio-economically in somewhat the same position.

Bibikoh – her actual name is Bibi ul-Zuqia – is in her mid-60s and the engine of the Zanabad community. She came here in the early 2000s, after she was widowed for the second time. Against a payment – actually a bribe – of 5,000 Afghanis (about 100 dollars) to police officers who guarded a military arsenal on the hill, she was allowed to take a plot of land where she started building. Today, she claims, her house is worth 500,000 Afghanis – 10,000 dollars. Because of the arsenal, police patroled regularly on that hill. Humaira told AAN that if it hadn’t been for these night patrols, she would not have felt safe moving here with her five children and without an adult man in the house. The safety of the area was a main point of attraction for several widows AAN talked to.

Bibikoh’s first husband died when a rocket hit their house, in her province of origin, Parwan, north of Kabul. Her second husband, who had been her brother in-law and a mujahedin fighter, died on the battlefield in Parwan. However, after becoming a widow for the second time, Bibikoh’s status in the community changed dramatically. All of a sudden, she was seen as a bad omen and, despite her six children, lost the respect and support she had among the in-laws. She was called kala-khor, head eater. The abuse reached its peak when she was thrown out of the neighbourhood altogether.

The fall from grace that Bibikoh experienced has to do with the ‘traditional’ socio-economic status of women in Afghan society. Before marriage, a woman is identified as the daughter of her father, after marriage as the wife of her husband. She always belongs to the male head of the family, as a kind of commodity, and also embodying the ‘honour’ of the family. Widowed women, however, in the eyes of society and their families, become “women without identity and protection”; deg-e be-sarposh – a pot without a lid – is the derogatory term. In most cases, they are either returned to their father’s home or married to a brother-in-law – as happened to Bibikoh after her first husband’s death. But either way, they are often seen as a burden, an additional economic liability. This is even stronger in wartime when many families come under additional economic strain.

Bibikoh, though, neither went back to her father nor did she marry any relative of her husband. She chose another way. A widowed friend who already was a resident told her about Zanabad and encouraged her to join. In her new community, she organised weekly gatherings for the widows. The women continued to gather weekly over the four years I was working there, to study but also to discuss daily events. They also looked outside of their group and started spreading knowledge in the wider community. Some of the 12 I met on this first day in Zanabad would hold gatherings with other widows and enthusiastically share what they had learned.

Bibikoh also conducted surveys in her area to help NGOs such as Care to provide monthly rations to needy widows, consisting of a seven-ser (49 kilogram) bag of flour, oil and beans. The widows claim that if it weren’t for Bibikoh’s work, such NGOs would never have found the truly needy ones. (Among the widows were some women who pretended to be widows in order to benefit from the NGO rations.) According to Bibikoh, over the past 11 years, about 400 widows of the area benefited from the rations. Because of her work to educate and teach them how to be financially independent, she is now widely known as a community mobiliser. She regained the respect she had lost before, and also earned her respectful nickname: Bibikoh – the “grandmother from the mountain.”

Security and sisterhood

Zarghuna, the woman who taught the widows how to read and write, noticed that beyond the educational aspect and the discussions, the gatherings of the women also became a place to share painful stories and, by telling them, to overcome the pain. With support from the International Centre for Transitional Justice, the women also used participatory theatre –where the performers interact with the audience – for this purpose. (Interestingly, this method was also used by civil society actors after the recent Kabul lynching of Farkhunda.)

The safe environment of Zanabad, Humaira said, created a sense of sisterhood among the members of the community. She gave the example of two young women, a widow and a divorcee, who came from other parts of Kabul to live on the hill. The other widows consistently accompanied the two women in their daily activities; sometimes they even spent the nights with them to make them feel safe.

Some widows in the community described their shared pain as the main cause for the sisterhood felt in the community, but the shared work and assistance to each other also contributed. In this community, said Anisa, one of the widows who had built two houses in the area, the widows have become each other’s sar-posh, each other’s cover.

Getting legal

When our research project ended in 2011, most of these 500 widows of Zanabad had finished building their houses. Some had become literate and, as a result, were able to find jobs. Some work at other people’s houses, while others have started small businesses, mainly cooking and selling Afghan food – namely bulani, mantu, ashak and shor nakhod – in the markets. Some widows teach in a girls’ school in Zanabad. Some, including Bibikoh and Anisa, now even work as government employees at the local police station. Few of them have continued working in their old occupation, which is begging in the streets.

Improvements continued. Today, the community looks more colourful, as many of the building are now painted. In Bibikoh’s house, the floors are now covered with red Afghan rugs. But the windows are still covered with plastic sheets, ‘poor people’ style. Outside, most of the junk from the wars – wrecked tanks, artillery pieces and rocket launchers – have been cleared away. Remaining land has been occupied by newcomers, both widows and families. Humaira is hoping to buy her neighbour’s land and build a new house, where she could bring her parents. Anisa has finished painting her second house and is now renting it out for 3,000 Afghanis (60 dollars).

The road up the hill is still slippery. But since early 2014, the government has been providing electricity and water, thereby acknowledging the widows’ right to live in Zanabad. The government also has taken over the girls’ school. The widows still do not possess legal documents for the land they live on, though, and Zanabad is not yet part of Kabul’s official city map. Bibikoh said they are in the process of convincing the government to give them land certificates. Once their status is fully legalised, the success of Zanabad might even become a model to other homeless widows.

Bibikoh and the other widows of Zanabad have challenged, with their unusual decision to take matters into their own hands, the pervasive idea that widows have no independent identity, cannot survive without protection and cannot be economically productive. They have not only re-gained their social status, but they gave the community they live in a very special, feminine identity.

(Editing by Thomas Ruttig)

 

(1) UN Women (formerly UNIFEM) even speaks of two million war widows. Deutsche Welle, in a 2013 article, apparently citing an Afghan women’s organisation, put the figure of widows at 2.5 million – which then would be almost 12 per cent of the entire Afghan population. This article is also interesting because it describes how women in Jalalabad and a rural area of Wardak province live.

With the on-going conflict and casualty rates continuing to rise in the Afghan security forces and the civilian population, the number of widows continues to increase.

(2) An unwritten law says that, if you can build the four walls of your house 1.5 meters high over one night on a ‘free’ piece of land, even the government cannot evict you if the land does not belong to you. This is, apparently, how strongmen have grabbed a lot of government land.

 

Our author told the story to a Washington Post journalist who wrote about Zanabad in 2011. You can read his story here.

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Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Conflict and poverty have a circular relation: violence negatively affects development and vice versa – poverty is often one of the root causes of conflict. The EU has long recognised the need for conflict prevention, resolution and peace building, as well as for addressing the root causes of conflict, which include poverty, weak governance and human rights abuses. The EU increasingly works to better harmonise its security and development objectives, as well as to coordinate its external policy tools in a 'comprehensive approach'. The European Parliament (EP) has welcomed this coordination, while also asking that anti-poverty objectives not be marginalised, and that humanitarian aid not serve political ends. The EU has dedicated financial instruments for promoting peace; they include the African Peace Facility and the Instrument contributing to Security and Peace. The EP has also underscored the need for a long-term engagement with fragile states and for ensuring that women participate in resolving conflicts and building democracy.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On 9 May the European Defence Agency (EDA) will celebrate Europe Day. That day, the EU institutions open their doors to the public. Pass by and meet the EDA staff at an information stand in the building of the European External Action Service in Brussels.

Every 9 May, the European Union celebrates peace and unity on 'Europe Day'. The event marks the anniversary of the day in 1950 when Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the EU, made his 'Schuman Declaration', outlining a vision to unite separate European states into a single community.

For more information on Europe Day and the celebrations in Brussels, click here.   

EU Open Doors at the European External Action Service

Time: 10.00 - 18.00 hrs
Address: EEAS Building, 9A Rond Point Schuman, 1000 Brussels

 

More information is available here. 

Photo: General Dynamics European Land Systems Denmark’s long-running sea

Latin American countries are continuing armed forces modernisation efforts, either through new funding efforts or through external aid, as issues related to the illicit drug trade, militant terrorism and economic and social inequality fuel persistent violence. While not reaching the he

Northrop Grumman’s multi function active sensor (MFAS), which is one of the first active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars with 360° coverage, has begun flight testing by the U.S. Navy. The first test flight aboard MQ-4C Triton was completed on 18

Photo: General Dynamics European Land Systems Denmark’s long-running sea

Latin American countries are continuing armed forces modernisation efforts, either through new funding efforts or through external aid, as issues related to the illicit drug trade, militant terrorism and economic and social inequality fuel persistent violence. While not reaching the he