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Photo: Navy Commander at Sampoor with US Marines. Credit: Sri Lanka Navy

Sri Lanka’s Valorous Battle Against a Separatist Insurgency

Viewpoint by Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne

The writer is former Chief of Defence Staff and Retired from the Sri Lanka Navy

COLOMBO (IDN) — The month of August 2006, fifteen years ago was a very eventful month for Sri Lanka Navy. I was the Commandant of Naval and Maritime Academy (NMA) and Flag Officer Naval Fleet (FOCNF) based in Trincomalee; both were busy appointments. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Tamil separatist group, was very active in Eastern area in 2006. They had their Grand Strategy very well laid, with plans to capture Trincomalee harbour and thereby cutting off the lifeline to North, Sea Lines of Communication (SLOC). As no land route to North, (Vanni was under LTTE Control then), Trincomalee was vital to keep our ships and craft to carry men and material to North by sea.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 September 2021

Photo: Herero prisoners of war, around 1900. CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Germany’s Forgotten Genocide in Namibia

Viewpoint by Adekeye Adebajo

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is Director of the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation in South Africa.

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) — As some world leaders gather in New York for their annual United Nations General Assembly rituals, the September 22 debate on “Reparations, Racial Justice, and Equality for People of African Descent” to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Durban Racism Conference, will be particularly significant. While at the Durban conference itself, the issue of reparations was not allowed to be debated by former Western slaver and imperial powers, this issue is now firmly on the agenda.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 17 September 2021

Photo: Masked staffers at the podium of the UN General Assembly last year. Credit: United Nations

UN Session, With Over 110 World Leaders, May be a “Super Spreader” of Covid-19, Warns US

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations, perhaps never in its 76-year history, has held a General Assembly session characterized by risks that could trigger the spread of a deadly disease in a city where Covid-19 Delta variant infections are on the rise.

In a letter to the 192 UN missions, the United States has warned it does not want the upcoming sessions, beginning September 21, where over 110 world leaders, foreign ministers and visiting delegations are expected to participate, to be a “super spreader” of Covid-19.

: Thalif Deen; UN INSIDER; 17 September 2021

Photo: A market in Igwuruta, Nigeria's Rivers State, which has started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT). CC BY-SA 4.0

A VAT War Between Nigeria's Federal Govt. and Rivers State

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — The guns of Nigeria’s three-year civil war were silenced 51 years ago, but in the battle for a truly federal state, the echoes of warfare have never been more resonant.

On August 10, Rivers State, which at an average monthly federal receipt of N12b, is the third richest by dole amongst Nigeria’s poor 36 states, started a war with the Federal Government over the collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT).

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 September 2021

UN Assembly President Abdulla Shahid Highlights Hope For Billions Around the World

UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) — The incoming President of the General Assembly says that hope is desperately needed for those billions around the world struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, devastation, and strife. In his first major interview, he told UN News that the General Assembly, as the UN’s most representative body, is ideally placed to give shape to that hope.

“The General Assembly is the only body which has the 193 countries represented and this body, when it speaks unanimously, when it decides on a matter, that is the international conscience,” Abdulla Shahid said, ahead of the 76th General Assembly session, which started on 14 September.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 16 September 2021

Photo: G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors gathered in Venice for their third official meeting under the Italian G20 Presidency on July 9-10, 2021.

The G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative Is a Fiasco

Viewpoint by William N Kring

The writer is the Assistant Director for the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. This article first appeared on EastAsiaForum on September 7, 2021.

BOSTON (IDN) — As the more lethal and contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 rips across the globe, the prospects of multilateral efforts to combat the virus, tackle the looming global debt crisis and mount a sustainable economic recovery are dim. Nowhere is the insufficiency of the multilateral response more apparent than on the issue of debt relief.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 September 2021

Photo: Asian Nobel prize winner, Muhammad Amjad Saquib, the founder of Pakistan’s biggest community development network Akhuwat. Credit: Akhuwat.

Alternative Noble Prize Recognition for Pakistan's Islamic Community Development Pioneer

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — One of the five winners of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards—known as Asia’s Nobel Prizes—is Dr Muhammad Amjad Saquib the founder of Pakistan’s biggest community development network Akhuwat that is based on Islamic principles of sharing and brotherhood.

Launched in 2001, hundreds of thousands of poor families have been supported through Akhuwat’s interest-free microfinance loans. Islamic law prohibits interest on loans, but Islamic teachings that encourage followers to set aside a portion of one’s wealth to help the needy assist to finance this model.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 September 2021

Photo: Two women are shown better farming techniques at one of a hundred gardens in Cape Town made possible through the Albalami Bezehkaya voluntary association, supported with funding from Australia. The gardens help improve food security through improving production and generating income for the farmers involved. Kate Holt/AusAID

USAID’s Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems

By Henry Prillaman

The writer is a student at the University of Virginia and an Intern at the High Atlas Foundation.

NAIROBI, Kenya (IDN) — I attended the 2021 pre-summit for the world’s premier forum for African agriculture, the Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems (AGRF). The forum consisted of many great speakers and commentators discussing different parts of African agriculture, from the fiscal and political side to the implementation and community side.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 15 September 2021

Photo: Ambassador Azeez chairing the UNCTAD Trade and Development Commission in Geneva, 12-14 November 2018. Credit: UNCTAD.

Ambassador Azeez Agrees to Support IDN as Multilateral Diplomacy Advisor

By Ramesh Jaura, DG and Editor-in-Chief

BERLIN (IDN) — The Non-profit global media agency International Press Syndicate, with IDN-InDepthNews as its flagship, is pleased to announce that beginning 1 October former Sri Lankan Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez has agreed to support us as “Multilateral Diplomacy Advisor”, with an additional honour of charge as “Editorial Coordinator” for South Asia and Middle East. Mr. Azeez left Sri Lanka’s Foreign Service on 31 August 2021.

Ambassador Azeez chaired in 2014 the Group of 77 (G-77) in Vienna in its 50th anniversary, followed by his election as the President of the General Conference of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In 2017, he contributed to the renegotiation of Sri Lanka’s access to the EU GSP + benefit after the country had lost it in 2010.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; 15 September 2021

Photo: Grand Synagogue of Edirne, Turkey. The Ottoman Empire created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. CC BY-SA 4.0

The Western Debate About Islam Is Frankly Uninformed, Sometimes Infantile

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Once again the CIA and MI6 are publishing dire warnings of the vitality of Al Qaeda. Once again the Islamic world as a whole is being tarnished by association. Are we returning, as we sadly commemorate the destruction of New York’s Twin Towers on 9/11, to what the late U.S. presidential contender John McCain said: “America needs a leadership to confront the transcendent challenge of our time: the threat of radical Islamic terrorism".