(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/bin-laden-us-reopens-afghan-pakistan-strategy-213936290.html;_ylt=AuqCKIwuHlrjZaMdTDGGKs3.Vsd_;_ylu=X3oDMTM5Yzg1Yzc5BHBrZwMyYjcxNTk2OC1mOTQ1LTM0MjQtOTRiZi0yNjJmYjA4OGE0ODkEcG9zAzUEc2VjA01lZGlhVG9wU3RvcnkEdmVyAzlhM2E1YzMwLTg1ODctMTFlMC1iYmRmLWU3OTJlZTlhMDhkMQ–;_ylg=X3oDMTFjaTBvcG51BGludGwDc2cEbGFuZwNlbi1zZwRwc3RhaWQDBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3
After bin Laden, US reopens Afghan, Pakistan strategy
(Reuters) – Osama bin Laden’s death has reopened a high-stakes debate in Washington over the U.S. role in South Asia, where 100,000 troops are fighting a costly war in Afghanistan next door to a fragile, nuclear-armed and suspicious Pakistan.
President Barack Obama’s aides are divided between a “hug them” or “hit them” approach to dealing with Pakistan, where anger at the May 2 raid that killed bin Laden on Pakistani soil is matched in Washington by angry new questions about Islamabad’s ties to militants.
In Afghanistan, just weeks before an initial U.S. troop withdrawal is scheduled to begin, violence has hit its highest level since the war began a decade ago. Support is growing for the less troop-heavy approach advocated by Vice President Joe Biden during Obama’s first regional strategy review in 2009.
“We are at a significant inflection point regarding our future strategy,” said retired Lieutenant General David Barno, who was a senior commander in Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005 and is now a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank seen as close to the Obama administration.
The commando raid that killed bin Laden epitomized the kind of small, targeted strikes on militants which some officials support for Afghanistan. It has emboldened those U.S. officials who argued against the Pentagon’s broader, costlier counter-insurgency strategy that prevailed in 2009 and produced Obama’s surge of 30,000 troops.
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(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-visas-americans-create-rifts-pakistan-222412282.html;_ylt=AitnxHNj.zHG3EBHffCKnDP.Vsd_;_ylu=X3oDMTM5a25waTAxBHBrZwMyNjcyNDY3Mi04MzExLTM3M2QtOWViNS1iNjI0Y2E2ZGU2MGIEcG9zAzMEc2VjA01lZGlhVG9wU3RvcnkEdmVyA2NiYmQ2OWMwLTdjZTgtMTFlMC1iZWNmLWRlOTFkMzA5OWEzMQ–;_ylg=X3oDMTFjaTBvcG51BGludGwDc2cEbGFuZwNlbi1zZwRwc3RhaWQDBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25zBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3
EXCLUSIVE - Visas for Americans create rifts in Pakistan
(Reuters) – Pakistan’s civilian government issued visas to more than 400 Americans without army security clearances starting in early 2010, possibly enabling the CIA to boost its presence, in a move that angered the country’s powerful military.
Details of the visa decision emerged after U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in his compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2, straining already uneasy ties between strategic allies Islamabad and Washington.
The granting of the visas has also fueled tension between the military and the unstable nuclear-armed country’s civilian leaders, whose relations are uneasy at the best of times.
Pakistani cooperation is crucial for U.S. efforts to combat Islamist militants and bring stability to Afghanistan.
But the United States has had doubts about Islamabad’s commitment and, given the contacts that Pakistan’s spy agency has had with Islamist militants in the past, almost certainly uses its own operatives to collect intelligence in the country.
Pakistani diplomatic missions in Washington, the United Arab Emirates and London issued the visas after the government came under intense U.S. pressure, officials said.
“At the end of 2009, a special presidential order was issued to give 7,000 visas and the same order was passed through the prime minister’s office to Mr. Haqqani,” a senior Pakistani security official told Reuters, referring to Pakistan’s ambassador in the United States, Husain Haqqani.
“On the basis of these orders, the visas which were valid for three to six months were issued without the scrutiny or routine security clearance of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).”
The ISI is the military’s main spy agency.
About 450 of those visas were issued to the CIA, the security official said.
A senior official at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington said the embassy had received no complaint from any branch of the Pakistani government regarding the government’s official visa policy.
A spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari declined to comment on details of the visa decision, saying only that security clearance was not always needed from the army.
The army did not respond to a request for information on the visas, but a senior security official said, “We lost control of CIA operatives in Pakistan.”
Army generals, who have ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, largely direct security and foreign policy even when civilian administrations are in power, as is the case now, and they do not like to be challenged on those agendas.
MILITARY ‘HOPPING MAD’
Ties between the United States and Pakistan reached a low point this year after Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor and former U.S. special forces member, shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore in January.
Davis, who said he acted in self-defense, was freed in March after “blood money” — compensation to the families of those killed — was paid.
Ayesha Siddiqa, author of “Military Inc,” a book on the military’s economic might, said it was clear why army chief Ashfaq Kayani and the head of the ISI were “hopping mad” over the Davis case.
“Because somebody in the Pakistani political government had allowed X number of CIA operatives to come into Pakistan and set up parallel operations to sneak into what was going on,” she told Reuters.
A second security official said the military was angered by the move and as a result the number of Americans in the country who had received the visas had been reduced by 50 percent. But those who remained were cause for concern.
“This will affect the already tense relations between the two countries. This indicates the lack of trust and mutual understanding, which will ultimately benefit the militants and extremist elements inside Pakistan,” he said.
“They (the security establishment) lost track of most of the people who came in. Their missions were not clearly stated.”
A former Interior Ministry official said it had been bypassed as well when the visas were issued. Haqqani said the issue had been blown out of proportion.
“Also, the 7000 figure is incorrect & official records prove hype on subject is totally fabricated. All procedures followed,” he said on his Twitter page on May 8.
The U.S. Embassy declined comment on suggestions the visas may have enabled the CIA to expand its presence in Pakistan, which receives billions of dollars in U.S. military aid.
“We submit full and complete visa applications to the government of Pakistan. We comply in providing the information requested,” said an embassy spokeswoman.
U.S. officials have complained in the past about hundreds of Pakistani visa delays, saying this could hamper aid intended to stabilize the Islamabad government and help Pakistanis.
Islamabad has cut by more than half a visa backlog affecting U.S. officials and contractors needed to run American aid programs aimed at combating extremism there, a State Department official said in March of last year.
Former Finance Ministry adviser Sakib Sherani said U.S. officials made visa requests for people needed to audit requests made under a Coalition Support Fund that was established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States to reimburse Pakistan for help in fighting militancy.
That account was confirmed by the second senior security official.
“We resisted and said, ‘You don’t need 450 (to audit the fund requests).’ Then they said they needed other technical people,” said Sherani, who said he took part in some of the discussions.
An intelligence official in Lahore said Pakistani authorities began to get suspicious after they noticed a large number of people who appeared to be Americans driving bullet-proof sport utility vehicles.
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/05/09/eveningnews/main20061253.shtml
CBS News confirms Pakistan has informed the United States that the ISI will allow access to Osama bin Laden’s three widows who were left behind in the raid that killed the terrorist near Islamabad. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports it will be “direct access,” meaning U.S. government agents will be able to interview them, and not just submit questions.
The relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. has seen ups and downs since the CIA-coordinated raid that killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad.
Despite the back-and-forth relationship in the wake of the bin Laden raid, in his interview with “60 Minutes”, President Barack Obama said: “We’ve been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than just about any place else. We could not have done that without Pakistani cooperation.”
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports that Pakistan’s prime minister said recently that, in the future, any unauthorized raids within Pakistan will be met with “full force.” He, of course, didn’t find out about the raid that killed bin Laden until it was over, and the American commandos were safely out of the country.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani faced parliament to explain how Pakistan could have missed both bin Laden and the U.S. raid that killed him. Gilani said his government was proud of the armed forces, and that there was an intelligence failure, but no collusion with al Qaeda. He called allegations of complicity or incompetence “absurd. ”
Simple denial isn’t enough though. Pakistan’s political opposition wants to see a thorough investigation of the whole fiasco.
“The most serious fallout, apart from feeling the worst humiliation ever, is of credibility. No one will trust what Pakistan says anymore,” said Imran Khan, a Pakistani opposition politician.
The U.S. didn’t trust Pakistan last Monday when SEALs raided bin Laden’s hideout without telling the ISI intelligence service.
Additionally, a report in the Pakistani media outed a senior CIA operative last Friday, apparently in an attempt to blow his cover.
So far there’s been no comment from the American embassy, and it’s far from clear who leaked the information. However, it’s widely seen as a humiliated and angry ISI taking revenge on the CIA.
Pakistan was a prickly partner for the U.S. in fighting terrorism, last Monday’s raid torpedoed that good will, putting the whole partnership in jeopardy.
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s national security adviser demanded Sunday that Pakistan let American investigators interview Osama bin Laden’s three widows, adding new pressure in a relationship now fraught over how Bin Laden could have been hiding near Islamabad for years before he was killed by commandos last week.
Both the adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and Mr. Obama, in separate taped interviews, were careful not to accuse the top leadership of Pakistan of knowledge of Bin Laden’s whereabouts in Abbottabad, a military town 35 miles from the country’s capital. They argued that the United States still regards Pakistan, a fragile nuclear-weapons state, as an essential partner in the American-led war on Islamic terrorism.
But in repeatedly describing the trove of data that a Navy Seal team seized after killing Bin Laden as large enough to fill a small college library, Mr. Donilon seemed to be warning the Pakistanis that the United States might soon have documentary evidence that could illuminate who, inside or outside their government, might have helped harbor Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, who had been the world’s most wanted terrorist.
The United States government is demanding to know whether, and to what extent, Pakistani government, intelligence or military officials were complicit in hiding Bin Laden. His widows could be critical to that line of inquiry because they might have information about the comings and goings of people who were aiding him.
“We have asked for access,” Mr. Donilon said on the CNN program “State of the Union,” “including three wives who they now have in custody from the compound, as well as additional materials that they took from the compound.”
The request had echoes of previous struggles with Islamabad, starting with the days right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, the United States insisted that Pakistan clearly choose sides and join the United States in fighting Al Qaeda, and Pakistan formally broke ties with the Taliban government, which was still in power in Afghanistan. But ever since, Washington has frequently lost out in its efforts to seek information about the loyalties and actions of top Pakistani officials.
Eight years ago, for example, the Bush administration demanded interviews with Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief of Pakistan’s main nuclear weapons laboratory, as the United States sought to understand who in the Pakistani military or intelligence apparatus had helped sell nuclear weapons technology and designs to Libya, North Korea and Iran. Pakistan has refused, perhaps because Mr. Khan, while seeking freedom from house arrest, briefly threatened to tell all.
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/world/asia/09donilon.html?_r=1&hp
Activists of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan staged a protest in Islamabad on Sunday against the killing of Osama bin Laden. Getty Image
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s national security adviser demanded Sunday that Pakistan let American investigators interview Osama bin Laden’s three widows, adding new pressure in a relationship now fraught over how Bin Laden could have been hiding near Islamabad for years before he was killed by commandos last week.
Both the adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and Mr. Obama, in separate taped interviews, were careful not to accuse the top leadership of Pakistan of knowledge of Bin Laden’s whereabouts in Abbottabad, a military town 35 miles from the country’s capital. They argued that the United States still regards Pakistan, a fragile nuclear-weapons state, as an essential partner in the American-led war on Islamic terrorism.
But in repeatedly describing the trove of data that a Navy Seal team seized after killing Bin Laden as large enough to fill a small college library, Mr. Donilon seemed to be warning the Pakistanis that the United States might soon have documentary evidence that could illuminate who, inside or outside their government, might have helped harbor Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, who had been the world’s most wanted terrorist.
The United States government is demanding to know whether, and to what extent, Pakistani government, intelligence or military officials were complicit in hiding Bin Laden. His widows could be critical to that line of inquiry because they might have information about the comings and goings of people who were aiding him.
“We have asked for access,” Mr. Donilon said on the CNN program “State of the Union,” “including three wives who they now have in custody from the compound, as well as additional materials that they took from the compound.”
The request had echoes of previous struggles with Islamabad, starting with the days right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Then, the United States insisted that Pakistan clearly choose sides and join the United States in fighting Al Qaeda, and Pakistan formally broke ties with the Taliban government, which was still in power in Afghanistan. But ever since, Washington has frequently lost out in its efforts to seek information about the loyalties and actions of top Pakistani officials.
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who do not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/pakistan-slams-us-for-unilateral-action-warns-india-too-103614
The tension between America and Pakistan peaked a little more today, with the Pakistani government taking on America for not consulting it ahead of the military operation that led to Osama bin Laden’s death on Monday. The terrorist was shot in his house in Abbottabad near Islamabad. America has said it did not let Pakistan know about its plans because of fear of leaks.
“As far as Pakistan is concerned…there should be no mistake…that the people, leadership and parliament of Pakistan hold their dignity and honour dear…we are determined to uphold our sovereignty,” said Salman Bashir, the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan. Mr Bashir also stressed a point that Pakistan has made repeatedly in the last few days. “This action was a covert action. Pakistan was not consulted.”
America responded by stating that it would not apologize for how the operation was conducted. And yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney warned, “The US will again carry out special operations in Pakistan like the one that killed Osama to target high profile terrorists, if Pakistan does not act against terror suspects holed up in that country.”
Earlier this week, the Pakistani government criticized the US mission that killed Osama as “a unilateral action.” Today, Mr Bashir said “this raises legal issues that falls in the domain of the UN, the international community.”
Mr Bashir also took on India for recent remarks by the Army and Air Force Chiefs that if needed, they would be able to deliver an operation similar to the one that killed Osama to nab those wanted for 26/11. “Any other country that would ever act on assumption that it has the right to unilateralism of any sort will find as far as Pak is concerned that it has made a basic mistake,” he warned. “We see a lot of bravado in our own region,” he said, adding “there are statements that have come across…from the military…the air force… that states that this can be repeated. We feel that sort of misadventure would result in a terrible catastrophe.”
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100086202/did-dead-courier-betray-osama-bin-laden-the-white-house-story-doesnt-add-up/
Even the White House spokesman is confused
There’s a lot about the White House’s account that doesn’t quite add up. I’m not just talking about the changing story that led spokesman Jay Carney to admit: “Even I’m getting confused”. The erroneous details that Osama bin Laden was armed (he wasn’t), that his wife was used as a human shield (she wasn’t), that his wife was killed (she wasn’t) can be put down to over-egging the pudding or, if you’re feeling generous, the fog of war.
What I’m talking about is the bigger picture of how bin Laden was discovered and who was killed in that compound. Don’t worry, I’m not a “Deather”. It seems incontrovertible that bin Laden is indeed sleeping with the fishes. But what about the others - the Sheikh Abu Ahmed, also known as Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti – his brother, bin Laden’s son Hamza and bin Laden’s wife?
This is just a hunch but it seems to me that a plausible conclusion to be drawn from the confusing and opaque mass of detail is that Abu Ahmed, his brother or bin Laden’s own son betrayed him and is currently being given a new identity as he prepares to collect the $27 million reward for the al-Qaeda leader’s scalp.
None of this takes away from the fact that it was a significant blow to al-Qaeda and a major achievement by the Obama administration, the Navy SEALs, the CIA and everyone else involved to take out bin Laden.
Here are some points that could support what I’ll call the “compound informant” theory:
1. Why has the Obama administration released so much information about how bin Laden’s hideout was located? We’ve been told the information came from detainees, that a number plate was spotted in Peshawar and that a telephone call was intercepted. If true, these are nuggets of intelligence information that could be very useful to al-Qaeda. So maybe they’re a smokescreen and maybe that smokescreen is being created to protect an informant.
2. Why did the US Navy SEALs not take the bodies of the other dead (Abu Ahmed, his brother, one of their wives, Hamza bin Laden and bin Laden’s wife) with bin Laden’s corpse? In the case of the couriers, items on their bodies could have yielded important intelligence information. Perhaps it’s because one or more of them weren’t dead.
Read more
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/02/osama-bin-laden-pakistan-awkward-questions
A protest in Quetta after the killing of Osama Bin Laden Photograph: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images
(Guardian)-The Obama administration is demanding an explanation from Pakistan on how Osama bin Laden was able to hide in the country for so long before he was killed by US special forces.
Bin Laden was staying in a prominent million-dollar, high-security residence in an area full of soldiers and close to the country’s premier military academy.
John Brennan, a counter-terrorism adviser to Barack Obama, told journalists at the White House: “People have been referring to this as hiding in plain sight. We are looking at how he was able to hide out there for so long.”
He added it was “inconceivable” that Bin Laden did not enjoy a “support system” in Pakistan.
The al-Qaida leader was killed by US special forces who attacked the compound in Abbottabad, about 30 miles from Islamabad, on Sunday, according to US officials. His body was taken by helicopter to a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Gulf and buried at sea.
One of his adult sons was also killed, as was a woman, who the White House claimed had been used by Bin Laden as a shield in the attack.
Obama said: “The world is safer. It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden.”
Although Obama, Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, and Brennan expressed the importance of Pakistan in helping to fight al-Qaida, the presence of Bin Laden so close to the capital and just streets away from the principal training ground for the country’s officer corps threatened to create a fresh rift in US-Pakistan relations.
Read more
April 22, 2011 Filed under News
By He Jianwei
Three months ago, Zhang Dingyu, an anesthesiologist at Wuhuan Fourth Hospital, left to work as a volunteer at Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) mission in Pakistan.
The experience was a humbling reminder of the state of the medicine industry in China, Zhang said, recalling how the international teams followed all the “seemingly unimportant details” of surgery that his colleagues routinely ignore.
“Except during chest surgery, we seldom provide patients with a warm glucose drip. Although the operating rooms in Pakistan tend to be shabbier than our own, they found ways to keep the glucose drip warm by using a box with a light bulb,” Zhang said on April 9 at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.
MSF requires that during surgery, doctors must keep a patient hooked up to two intravenous drips – one for the transfusion and the second a backup lifeline – should the need arise to battle massive hemorrhage.
“When I asked my colleagues to follow these instructions, they told me that patients here wouldn’t be willing to have two needles,” he said. “If that’s the case, I don’t think they clearly explained just why that second needle is so important.”
He also learned the government has no national standards to regulate the size of intravenous needles and those used in anesthesia. “I sat down and read all the regulations that are written by and used by nursing specialists, but nothing says what size needles we should be using for adults or children,” he said.
As the vice president of his hospital, Zhang passed new house rules that require patients be given warm glucose drips and a second intravenous drip after his return.
“I’m lucky to be in a position to make such profound changes in my own hospital,” he said.
As the first anesthesiologist from the mainland to join the international medical humanitarian aid organization, Zhang was sent to Timergara, Pakistan’s Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa Province, last December to work on the project for three months.
In 2009, the area was under Taliban control. The Pakistan government fought hard to recapture the territory and to establish a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). But life in the camp was difficult, and its residents had limited access to medical care.
Zhang first heard of MSF when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. That year was also when he completed a two-year mission to Algeria arranged by the Chinese government.
“Unlike the MSF’s mission, doctors in the government’s mission enjoy a considerable allowance,” he said. “I admired the doctors in MSF for doing so much good with so little.”
His first surgery was on a pregnant woman who went into puerperal convulsions on December 16. “It’s rare to see this in a Chinese hospital. We had to have all the nurses and doctors work together to hold her down while we performed the operation. She was too large of a woman and couldn’t stop twitching,” he said. “After delivering the child, she still weighed about 100 kilograms.”
Due to a lack of prenatal care, women in the camp rarely receive checkups before birth. About 390 children are born each day, and 50 to 60 require a Caesarean section. “That may not seem like many, but the result is that every woman who ends up in the hospital is already in an emergency situation,” he said.
Zhang said the doctors’ work in MSF is very orderly, because the organization has very clear instructions for all procedures.
When the United Nations World Food Program distributed food to a town 60 kilometers from MSF’s medical center, a suicide attack killed 30 people and injured another 60.
When the MSF medical center heard the news, they divided their hospital into three areas: black, red and green zones. The dead were placed in the black zone, the red zone was for emergency patients and the green zone was for minor injuries.
“It is an efficient and effective way to deal with a sudden flood of patients. Although they didn’t send the injured to our hospital, we were already prepared,” Zhang said. A few days later, they received four patients who were injured in another minor attack.
Zhang previously worked on part of the medical rescue team formed after the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. In hindsight, he said that he and the rest of them were too inexperienced to be effective after the disaster.
“Although my MSF experience lasted only three months, it is something I will treasure throughout my future medical work,” he said.
Zhang Dingyu is the first anesthesiologist from the Chinese mainland to join the Medecins Sans Frontieres. Photos provided by MSF
By He Jianwei
Three months ago, Zhang Dingyu, an anesthesiologist at Wuhuan Fourth Hospital, left to work as a volunteer at Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) mission in Pakistan.
The experience was a humbling reminder of the state of the medicine industry in China, Zhang said, recalling how the international teams followed all the “seemingly unimportant details” of surgery that his colleagues routinely ignore.
“Except during chest surgery, we seldom provide patients with a warm glucose drip. Although the operating rooms in Pakistan tend to be shabbier than our own, they found ways to keep the glucose drip warm by using a box with a light bulb,” Zhang said on April 9 at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.
MSF requires that during surgery, doctors must keep a patient hooked up to two intravenous drips – one for the transfusion and the second a backup lifeline – should the need arise to battle massive hemorrhage.
“When I asked my colleagues to follow these instructions, they told me that patients here wouldn’t be willing to have two needles,” he said. “If that’s the case, I don’t think they clearly explained just why that second needle is so important.”
He also learned the government has no national standards to regulate the size of intravenous needles and those used in anesthesia. “I sat down and read all the regulations that are written by and used by nursing specialists, but nothing says what size needles we should be using for adults or children,” he said.
As the vice president of his hospital, Zhang passed new house rules that require patients be given warm glucose drips and a second intravenous drip after his return.
“I’m lucky to be in a position to make such profound changes in my own hospital,” he said.
As the first anesthesiologist from the mainland to join the international medical humanitarian aid organization, Zhang was sent to Timergara, Pakistan’s Kyhber Pakhtunkhwa Province, last December to work on the project for three months.
In 2009, the area was under Taliban control. The Pakistan government fought hard to recapture the territory and to establish a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). But life in the camp was difficult, and its residents had limited access to medical care.
(Beijing Today website’s blog section does not represent any view of Beijing Today or its reporter. Anyone interested about the story can find the original text from the link above the article. The Blogger column aims to introducing foreign media’s interesting stories and expat blogs in China to more Chinese readers, as 50 percent of Beijing Today readership remain young Chinese who have experience of living abroad, white colors or school students. Authors who does not want his or her story linked at Beijing Today’s website, please email to info@beijingtoday.com.cn to take down the stories.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/21/pakistan-gang-rape-mukhtaran-mai
Gang rape victim Mukhtaran Mai fears the men freed by Pakistan's supreme court will come to her village and harm her and her family. Photograph: Faisal Mahmood/Reuters
(Guardian)-Human rights groups have expressed outrage after most of those accused of the gang rape of Mukhtaran Mai, who was assaulted on the orders of a village council, were freed by Pakistan’s supreme court.
Nine years after the gang rape, Mai’s struggle for justice ended with the court ordering five of the six accused to be freed. A distraught Mai, who has won international acclaim for her bravery in a deeply chauvinistic society, said that the release of the men had put her life in danger.
Originally 14 had been accused of taking part in the rape, which was ordered in 2002 by village elders sitting as a traditional tribal court after Mai’s brother was accused of having illicit relations with a woman from a rival clan.
The court judgment acknowledged that Mai had been raped, by upholding the sentence against one of the accused, Abdul Khaliq, but the outcome means that just one of the 14 men she believes were involved has been found guilty. Khaliq’s original death sentence had already been commuted to life in prison by a lower court.
“I am scared these 13 people will come back to my village and harm me and my family,” Mai said, in her remote home in the south of Punjab province. “I have lost faith in the courts and now I am leaving my case to the court of God. I am sure God will punish those who molested me.”
Mai has started a school for girls and a non-governmental organisation that promotes women’s education. She vowed that she would not flee her village, and would continue with her work.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/16/cia-spy-murder-pakistan-blood
Jamaat-e-Islami party supporters hold a protest against the release of Raymond Davis, in Karachi. Photograph: Fareed Khan/AP
(Guardian)-Raymond Davis, the CIA spy charged with murder in Pakistan, has flown out of the country after the relatives of two men he killed dropped charges in exchange for “blood money” of at least $1.4m (£874,000) and help in resettling abroad.
Davis slipped out of Lahore on a special flight from the old city airport after being released from the sprawling jail where he had been held for almost 10 weeks amid a diplomatic storm that rocked relations between the two allies and sucked in President Barack Obama.
A Pakistani official said the 36-year-old US spy was bound for an airbase in Afghanistan, then on to the US.
Davis was freed under Islamic laws that allow a murderer to walk free on payment of compensation to the family of his victims. The acquittal took place during a closed hearing at Kot Lakhpat jail where no reporters were present.
“The court first indicted him, but the families later told the court that they have accepted the blood money and they have pardoned him,” said Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab law minister.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, thanked the families for pardoning Davis and allowing the American to go. Speaking from Cairo, Clinton said the US had not paid to win Davis’s release.
The dramatic case has become an obsession in Pakistan since Davis, a bulky former special forces soldier, opened fire on two men at traffic lights on 27 January. Davis claimed he acted in self-defence against robbers, but prosecutors said he shot one in the back as he ran away. Several officials said the men he killed were linked to Pakistani intelligence.
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