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Angry activists decry breach of constitution
Kurdish women requires male guardian
to obtain passport in Iraq
Koral Tofiq in Sulaimaniyah
A law requiring women to have a male guardian sign their passport application angers women in Iraqi Kurdistan. A few months ago, Rezan Muhammad Ali was invited to stay with a relative who lives in England. Excited about the prospect of a trip to Europe, Ali rushed to apply for a passport so she could travel to the British embassy in Jordan to attend an interview for the entry visa required.
But at the local passport office, the 34-year-old was told that to apply for a passport, she would need a male guardian to support her application.
Ali shook her head in disbelief. "I almost cried," she said. "I'm not a child who needs to ask a guardian's permission."
Reluctantly, Ali asked her husband to sign a document vouching for her and is now waiting to receive her passport.
For years, the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan have overlooked a piece of Iraqi legislation which states a woman who applies for a passport first has to have her father, uncle or brother's written permission.
In the past, women in this part of the country simply applied and were given a passport without fuss. But the introduction of the new G edition passport in March 2007 - which is electronically read and difficult to forge - means that all passports are now issued on a special printing machine in Baghdad where the law is enforced.
Women's groups in Iraqi Kurdistan are now campaigning to abolish the legislation: they're gathering a petition and have taken their case to the government.
Moves to introduce the new passport were set in motion in January 2007, when Swedish immigration officials said that the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm had issued thousands of passports based on false information.
The Swedish government decided to disallow the use of Iraqi S edition passports, which lack up-to-date security features and are easy to forge, as the information they contain is handwritten and the holder's picture is attached with glue.
Other countries, including the US, the UK, and Jordan, followed suit and now only let Iraqis into the country if they carry a new G edition travel document that meets international anti-forgery and security standards.
The enforcement of this controversial law, which was previously ignored in Iraqi Kurdistan, is not the only problem created by the new passport system. Staff at the passport office in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah have to take applications 330 kilometres to Baghdad.
They face many risks on the perilous journey to Baghdad, where they wait until the passport is ready before bringing it back. Colonel Salih Osman, the director of Passports and Residency in Sulaimaniyah, says that each month his office sends an officer and two policemen to Baghdad to process travel documents.
"We are constantly in touch with them because both the journey to Baghdad and the situation inside the city are extremely dangerous," he said.
A further problem caused by the new system is that the Baghdad passport office - which serves the whole country - can only process 250 to 350 applications a month, said Osman.
"Priority is given to government delegations and organisations whose members go abroad," said Osman.
Many Kurds say the system is open to bribery. But with the application process taking weeks or even months to complete, it's no surprise that people are prepared to pay extra to speed it up.
"I received my passport within two weeks after I paid several hundred US dollars [in bribes]," said a young man from Sulaimaniyah.
A Kurdish worker for a local NGO, which requires him to travel abroad, said he had to pay more than US$1,000 to get a passport within a week.
These sums are apparently divided between several people, including the driver who takes the application to Baghdad and returns with a passport, and officials in the city's passport office.
But what has caused the greatest concern by far is the fact that under the new system, women now need a male guardian to vouch for them before they can apply.
Women's Kurdish groups say the law discriminates against them and is in breach of their human rights.
They point out that it goes against the Iraqi constitution which guarantees every citizen the right to travel both inside and outside the country, and also contradicts Iraqi legislation in place since 1959 which states there are no restrictions on women applying for a passport to travel.
Last month, Nazaneen Rasul, 45, wanted to apply for a visa to a European country to visit her husband's relatives, but, like Ali, she was asked to have guardian consent to approve her passport application.
"I'm a guardian to my kids and now I'm required to have guardian consent for my passport," she said, incredulously. "Why is it I cannot get a passport at this age on my own?"
Those women who don't have a guardian to sign their form are prevented from applying altogether.
Sroosht Wahbi, 36, a lawyer, had been sponsored to go on a business trip to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Wahbi, who has no father or brother and is not on speaking terms with her uncle, was unable to apply for a passport, and as a result, she missed out on the trip.
"There is no legal or social justification for this," she said.
Nasreen Muhammad, a Kurdish women's rights activist, said women's groups have taken their concerns to the Iraqi parliament, "We will never let women be degraded, and we will continue to criticise the law until it is abolished."
The groups are collecting signatures to put pressure on the ministry of interior. Roonak Faraj, head of the Women Media and Cultural Centre in Sulaimaniyah, said in the first week of their campaign they had gathered 1,000 names.
Faraj said they will take the signatures to the Kurdistan regional parliament, the interior ministry in Baghdad and the Iraqi parliament, "We want women to have a united voice on this issue."
Osman from the Sulaimaniyah passport office confirmed that the restrictive law had been in place even when they were issuing the S edition of the passports. "We were just ignoring it," he admitted.
He said they have taken the women's concerns to the ministry of interior in Baghdad, writing to them twice and requesting that they deliver a machine that prints the new passports to the Kurdish region.
Barham Salih, the Iraqi deputy prime minister, is said to be working on the issue, and the word is that a machine will be brought to the north this summer.
Until then, Salih advised, women will have to be patient.
Koral Tofiq is an IWPR reporter at Sulaimaniyah.
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Theatre groups face ULFA wrath
Nava Thakuria in Guwahati
A banned armed outfit has emerged as a moral police for the mobile theatre groups of Assam (Asom). The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has recently asked the theatre groups to keep away from copying the Bollywood films for its plays. The June 1 issue of Swadhinata (Freedom), ULFA's mouthpiece argued that the imitation (of Hindi film stories) has degraded the Assamese culture to a greater extent. The outfit, which is fighting New Delhi for a 'Swadhin Asom' (sovereign Assam) since 1979, has also threatened the owners of those commercial theatres with dire consequences if they don't stop the practice.
The mobile theatre groups are popular with the people of Assam having carved out a special niche market for themselves in popular entertainment sector in Northeast India. These groups, popularly known as Bhramyaman Theatre arrange shows throughout Assam and in the adjoining states. These groups, like those of the Yatra groups of Bengal begin their new season from June-July every year. Normally, they start showing their plays from the month August-September and conclude in March-April. Every group has its own set of artists and technicians complete with stages, tents, electronic and sound equipment, which it carries to the remotest parts of the trouble-torn region.
One can count the existence of more than 30 such mobile theatre groups in Assam, which can also boast of having glamorous artists from cinema and television working with them. Most of the popular artists from the state film industry are joining these groups for a hefty remuneration.
There are reasons for the film stars to join the mobile theatre groups. The Assamese film industry as a whole is going through a rough time and the performers who depend on the industry for their livelihood are being compelled to join the theatre groups for survival.
Meanwhile, these days, with the entry of well known cinema artists, film directors and music composers into the mobile theatre segment of the entertainment business, some groups such as Kohinoor theatre, Awahan theatre, Sankardev theatre, Hengul theatre, Nataraj theatre, Bhagyadevi theatre, Theatre Makunda, Monalisha theatre etc have now been transformed into more a glamorous form of entertainment in the region.
The trend, however, is criticised by the serious audience as well as many theatre workers in the state. They give emphasis on the original plays for the groups, and say that they have now disgraced themselves by adopting the plays from the Hindi movies. Of course, the theatre groups had set rare examples by showing a combination of professionalism, talent and artistry while preparing plays on Lady Diana, Titanic, Bin Laden, Saddam Hussain, Zuracik Park, Anaconda, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Hemlet, Kargil and even on ULFA.
Meanwhile, the threat from ULFA came as shocking news for theatre owners though they have decided to ignore it. Ratan Lahkar, owner of Kohinoor theatre argued, "We know the audience of Assam and will continue presenting plays according to their wishes. In any case, we don't need ULFA's certificate for fair plays."
But what has prompted the ULFA leaders to threaten the theatre groups was an intentional shift of public focus. The outfit, blamed for many explosions in the state during the last few weeks, are now facing severe criticism from different quarters. A public rally was organised in Guwahati last month to lodge a strong protest against the outfit.
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Baghdad: Water crisis
mounts as taps run dry
Basim al-Sharaa in Baghdad
Muhammad Sa'ad wiped the sweat off his forehead after a hot day spent filling pots and plastic containers with water in Baghdad. It took him long because there was barely a trickle from his kitchen tap. For three weeks in a row, the city has suffered severe power shortages, now up to 23 hours a day, causing a water crisis in many areas.
Sa'ad, who lives in the al-I'lam neighbourhood, blames the government for the lack of running water, saying that it hasn't done enough to deal with the problem.
Some residents draw water from their taps using electric pumps powered by private generators, an illegal practice but one used by many households. But the continuing fuel shortage means that even this option is frequently ruled out.
Without power, fuel and water, Sa'ad is afraid the swiftly approaching summer will be unbearable. "In addition to the continuous bombings and killings, the hot summer this year will complete the tragedy we live in," he said.
Already ailments such as diarrhea have started to spread in heavily populated areas, mainly in Umm al-Ma'alif south of Baghdad. People who need water purchase it from tankers that come to certain neighbourhoods - few can afford to buy bottled supplies, as the economic situation is so bad.
Baghdad seems to be caught in a vicious circle: the governorate of Baghdad needs electricity and fuel to operate water pumping stations but does not receive enough of either to keep them running. Because of the lack of power, more and more people resort to fuel-operated privately owned generators - which further increases the fuel shortage. Without electricity, people cannot operate their air conditioning and suffer even more from the heat and the lack of water.
Sabir al-Isawi, the governor of Baghdad, said the governorate is now trying to provide emergency power supplies to keep water-pumping stations operating continuously. But this is conditional on the oil ministry coming up with enough fuel. The governor said he has tried to put pressure on the oil ministry through the Council of Ministers to solve the crisis - but the ministry says a solution is not in its hand.
According to Asim Jihad, the oil ministry's official spokesperson, the ministry has not been able to provide enough fuel for Baghdad citizens and services due to security measures put in place to protect the bridges in and around Baghdad.
Tayseer al-Mashhadani, a member of the national assembly's services and works committee, confirmed that a number of bridges have been sabotaged --- some completely destroyed. The new security measures have caused long queues of fuel tankers near the bridges. They have to stop and often wait for hours to be inspected before they can cross.
Karim Hattab, another oil ministry official, said the supply problems were exacerbated when insurgents blew up the pipeline that transfers fuel to Baghdad on May 17.
"This deprived the capital of huge amounts of fuel," said Hattab. "Both ministries of defense and interior refused to provide protection for us to fix the pipe." The same pipeline had suffered a number of acts of sabotage this year.
Five engineers were killed in March while on a maintenance mission. Jihad also pointed out that the use of private generators due to the frequent power cuts has increased the demand for fuel, so much so that it has put pressure on the limited capacities of Iraq refineries. As a result of pipeline sabotage and security restrictions, Baghdad receives three quarters of the four million litres of fuel it needs every day, according to al-Hattab.
Meanwhile, Baghdadis are forced to find their own water supply. Those who can afford it try to dig wells in their backyard, an expensive operation which also seriously affects the water table. Well drilling costs between 300,000 to 500,000 Iraqi dinars (236 to 393 US dollars) --- an amount that many families cannot afford. The price rises depending on how deep they have to dig to hit water and on the soil quality.
Even if a family can afford the luxury of a private well, it's not even usable for laundry because it is mixed with sewage that has seeped into the groundwater from corroded pipes or has a very high salinity. Mustafa al-Ani, a university political sciences student from the al-Adl neighborhood, west of Baghdad, does not believe the water shortages are due to lack of power, but the consequence of an inefficient government.
Collecting water has become part of a daily routine for Baghdadi families, including al-Ani's. Each member of his family, he says, fill pots and plastic bottles on a rota system, so there's always some water to hand when the supply is cut. But even this does not provide enough for his family.
In desperation, some local residents sever the main water pipe in their neighborhood and attach an electric pump to get more water, causing disputes among families.
Al-Ani says he can only take showers every two or three days, and feels dirty and sweaty all the time.
The power cuts are so severe that they have even reached the formerly privileged Green Zone where the government and many foreign organisations are located. Tayseer al-Mashhadani, from the national assembly's services and work committee, reported that the water supply to this fortified stronghold shuts down for several hours every day.
The situation doesn't look as though it will improve anytime soon. For three days in May, power in the capital was completely off after insurgents attacked electricity pylons. Aziz Sultan, a spokesman for the electricity ministry, said 15 pylons have been sabotaged, and a number that had been previously fixed by technicians have suffered new attacks.
The water crisis has been compounded by the fact that chlorine necessary for purification is in short supply. Insurgents have recently employed chlorine bombs in residential areas and markets in al-Bayya south of Baghdad and in al-Taji north of the capital.
Dozens of people have been killed, prompting security forces to impose tight controls on chlorine factories and trucks that transport the chemical from neighbouring countries to Iraq.
Shakir Sa'ed, who imports chlorine for a number of Iraqi government departments, says his trucks are stopped at the border because guards fear they fight fall into the hands of insurgents. "We-as businessmen-don't know what to do," complained Sa'ed. "The only solution is to leave the country."
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
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Dignitaries, business leaders agree
on a road map to help Afghanistan's
private sector
Afghan government officials, private sector figures, civil society leaders and donor community representatives have agreed on a series of actions designed to create a favorable climate for Afghanistan's struggling private sector, says a press release.
In a series of discussions during a two-day meeting ending on June 6 in Kabul, dubbed the Enabling Environment Conference, numerous participants praised Afghanistan's effort in drafting business-friendly laws. But many warned that the effort to turn the country's private sector into a sustainable engine of growth and development could fail unless the laws are speedily and fairly applied. They also urged a better coordination of international development assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement adopted at the end of the conference, the participants recommended a series of measures. They include the creation and enforcement of a private sector-friendly legal climate and reduction of bureaucratic red tape.
More than 300 people attended the conference organised jointly by the office of Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, and His Highness the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and the Chairman of the Aga Khan, Development Network (AKDN) which has promoted numerous development projects throughout Afghanistan. The conference was sponsored by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme and the Asian Development Bank.
The conference's closing statement said the "pervasive and negative influence of the opium economy and weaknesses in government institutions" contributed to the hardships of people and inhibited progress toward the country's social, economic and cultural environment.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz met with the Enabling Conference's co-hosts - Afghan President Karzai and His Highness the Aga Khan to discuss some of the challenges faced by Afghanistan.
"This is the beginning but not the end," said Tom Kessinger, General Manager of the Aga Khan Foundation which is part of the AKDN.
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SC acts to curb abuse
of power in Sri Lanka
Jehan Perera in Colombo
The power of the Judiciary as the third branch of the government was demonstrated to a remarkable effect last week when the Supreme Court (SC) put a halt to the forcible eviction of Tamil people from Colombo. Until the Supreme Court gave its verdict, the eviction of 370 Tamil residents overnight from their lodges and rented accommodations seemed a foregone conclusion. The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka took a sharp turn for the worse with the police forcibly transporting the helpless Tamil people out of the city on the grounds of security reasons. Those evicted included many women and children who had been temporarily residing in Colombo contradicting government propaganda that Tamils lived harmoniously with their Sinhalese brethren in the south and, hence, there was no ethnic conflict at all.
That the eviction order was a gross violation of the human rights of citizens under the Sri Lankan constitution and in terms of international law to live or reside wherever they choose to was patently clear and was mentioned by the opposition in the debate in Parliament. But the Rajapaksa government has shown itself to be a stubborn one, unwilling to change course in the middle. This is evident in the punishing military battles that are taking place in both north and east and the government is showing no signs of being deterred despite heavy casualties being reported and the government coffers being emptied.
The most frank admission was that the evictions were wrong, but necessary in war. The argument was made that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had infiltrated the city to carry out terrorist attacks, and most of the LTTE suspects lived in the type of lodges that were raided. Therefore, temporary residents who were Tamil and could not give an adequate reason for being in Colombo needed to be sent away. But there were also other government spokespersons who claimed that the Tamil people who were seen loaded onto buses and driven out of the city were doing so voluntarily, and the government had given them the benefit of free transport. The more disingenuous of government spokespersons claimed to have no knowledge of what was happening.
The media images of helpless Tamil people being shipped out of Colombo was an outrage to moral sentiments, except perhaps to hardened government leaders and their diehard nationalist supporters. What was unconscionable was that the people selected for eviction had barely any time, often less than an hour, in which to get ready to leave in the early morning hours before the crack of dawn. Most of the police personnel who took part in the raids, and the soldiers who accompanied them, did not know enough Tamil to elicit an understandable response from the agitated people they were questioning. As a result, it is likely that the police used intuition, and their own prejudice, to judge whether people could stay on or be evicted.
New possibility
But this time there was indeed a major difference. Not only were the demonstrations bigger than usual, with even those from private sector establishments and international organisations joining in. A petition filed in the Supreme Court by one of the civil society groups, the Centre for Policy Alternatives, in the name of its director Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, was accepted by the Supreme Court. In recent years, the Supreme Court's role in protecting minority rights and human rights alike has seemed to diminish. But in a decision that gives a new lease of life to those who believe in constitutional government and the role of the judiciary in checking governmental abuse of power, the Supreme Court granted interim relief, and ordered a halt to the evictions.
There have been periods in the recent violence-ridden history of the country when the Supreme Court has given people the hope that the cause of justice would be upheld even in the face of powerful and ruthless governments. The period 1988-93 was one such. The period of terror in the bleak years of 1988-89 when the JVP launched its insurrection against the state was one in which the majority Sinhalese population lived with the same degree of uncertainty and fear that members of the Tamil minority live with today, in the context of abductions, killings and bland denials of responsibility by all concerned. But during those very dark days there was a sense amongst the people and human rights defenders alike that the Supreme Court was on their side, even if there was not much that it could do to reverse the tide of human rights abuses.
In the light of the positive direction taken by the Supreme Court in its most recent decision on the eviction of Tamils, there seems to be a new possibility for restraining the abuse of power by the government. Within hours of the Supreme Court's decision, the government announced that the evicted Tamils would be brought back from wherever they had been abandoned in the north and east. The Prime Minister went before the media and admitted that a big mistake had been made and expressed the government's regret to the Tamil people. In a parallel development President Mahinda Rajapaksa disclaimed all knowledge of the forced eviction of Tamil people from Colombo and called on the Police Chief, who appears to be made the scapegoat, to submit a report on the incident.
These unbelievable reversals on the part of high government authorities are an indication of the power of the judiciary to direct the government on a new path of justice and respect for human rights. They may also indicate a shift in the balance of political power. But keeping Colombo safe from terrorist attacks will call for more than treating the Tamil population in Colombo with justice and dignity. The government will need to adopt that same principle of putting the human rights of people first in other parts of the country as well, most notably in the north and east where major battles are being fought. Likewise, if the LTTE wishes to be treated as the representative of the Tamil people and be treated on par with the government for purposes of negotiation, it too should adopt that same principle and refrain from acts that harm the civilian population.
Civic opposition
With this level of discretion being given to individual police officers, there was a considerable degree of variability in their choice of victims, which included the old, the sick and women with young children, in addition to young men who would be the prime suspects. Although the number of people directly affected by the first wave of evictions was relatively small, the fact that it could occur at all highlighted the ominous possibility that it could be followed up with subsequent waves of evictions. The fate of an estimated 15-20,000 Tamil people who are residing in lodges in Colombo hung in the balance as an immediate consequence of the eviction order. As a result the feelings of anguish, alienation and anger within the Tamil community both in Sri Lanka and internationally reached fever pitch.
It soon appeared that the government had no clear idea as to where to send the evicted people to, except that they would be sent to the north and east. In doing so, the government was inadvertently legitimising the notion of a Tamil homeland in the north and east. Ironically, when anti-Tamil riots broke out in Colombo and other parts of the country in 1983, the government of that time too decided to send the victims to the north and east, regardless of the ties those people had with the north and east. It is doubly ironic that the Rajapaksa government, which has no ideological affinity at all with the Tamil homeland concept should have become the principal reflector of the divided nature of the polity and confirmed the belief of Tamil people that the north and east of Sri Lanka is the only place they can call their home.
The first evidence of active public opposition to the eviction of Tamil residents of Colombo came from the public demonstrations organised by small civil society groups.
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President Bush's speech seemed hollow when in US he has denied the basic human rights of an Afghan detainee languishing in the camp since 2001.
Highly flawed kangaroo court
Guantanamo Bay detainees: Trial fiasco
Barrister Harun ur Rashid
The military judges of the tribunal in separate decisions dismissed on 4th June war-crime charges against two Guantanamo detainees on the ground that the military had not followed procedures in declaring them "unlawful enemy combatants".
The Bush administration, especially Pentagon, appears to be in deep trouble, although they described the rulings as raising technical and semantic issues.
On the other hand, many lawyers stated that the rulings exposed a flaw that would affect every other potential war-crimes case before the Tribunal. The rulings also brought immediate calls, including from the Congress to re-examine the system under the military Commissions Act 2006 for trials and perhaps, to consider other changes in the legal treatment of the Guantanamo Bay detainees.
In an interview, it has been reported that Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, of Republican Party on the Judiciary Committee, said that the decision raised significant issues and could prompt Congress to re-value legal rights of detainees, including legislators' decision last year to revoke the rights of detainees to file habeas corpus suits to challenge their detentions. He reportedly stated that "There is just a sense of too many shortcuts in the whole process."
The current system of trial was approved by the Congress when the US Supreme Court last year in June struck down the administration's first plan for holding war-crimes trials through executive (President's) orders.
The military judges stated that the law authorised "unlawful enemy combatants" to be put on trial while Guantanamo Bay detainees were described as "enemy combatants". Unlawful enemy combatants are different from mere enemy combatants, because international law of war defines "unlawful combatants" as fighters who, for example, conceal their weapons and do not wear military uniforms.
The rulings came in the cases of the only Canadian detainee, Omar Khadr and a Yemeni detainee, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
It was Hamadan's case that led the US Supreme Court's decision last year. The military judge in the Hamdan's case said that the Pentagon had failed to obtain the necessary enemy combatant classification of Hamdan who is accused of being the driver for Osama Bin Laden. Hamdan's lawyer said that although his client was unlikely to obtain freedom, because of the decision, it was a victory for the rule of law.
On Omar Khadr's case, the judge said that since the detainee had not been declared as unlawful enemy combatant, the military court had no jurisdiction over the case and the proceedings could not continue.
Charges against Khadr
Khadr, who was 15, when he was captured in Afghanistan, is charged with killing an American soldier, spying, supporting terrorism and other charges.
The process of trials by military commissions has drawn world wide criticism as not being fair and just. They ignore principles of the international law of war which sanctions the violence of battle without classifying it as war crime. They deny basic human rights and fair judicial process.
Whatever the ramifications of rulings of military judges, it demonstrates that the Bush administration's five-year effort to establish a special legal system for Guantanamo Bay detainees has been halted. Many human rights activists consider these trials as Kangaroo Court trials because basic rights of a detainee are being denied in trial. The procedure is highly flawed and against a detainee.
So far only three detainees, out of 380, have been charged with war crimes under the law passed last year. The third detainee, David Hicks, an Australian, pleaded guilty this year and was sent to Australia. It is reported that charges of another 80 detainees have been complete. But the rulings will make the Pentagon sit up and look again carefully the charges before they are brought to trial.
It is reported that only a small minority of the detainees actually deserve a trial and the rest should be sent home or set free.
On 5th June, in Prague, on his way to attend the G-8 summit in Germany, President Bush defended the cause of freedom everywhere in the world and put funds for defence of detainees who are being oppressed for their activities for democracy and human rights. His speech seems to be hollow when in his own country, the President has denied the basic human rights of a detainee, captured in Afghanistan and languishing in the camp since 2001.
Critics point out that President Bush's words and policies contradict each other. While he criticizes violations of human rights, he sends massive aid to authoritarian regimes in Pakistan and Egypt, he congratulates Kazakhstan for its political "progress" and holds a state dinner for the leader of Albania.
To many people, at a time of steady deterioration in Bush administration's credibility and standing, the President's call for freedom has little meaning. Some say freedom is just another word for nothing left to say.
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Top official sentenced to death
China dead serious on food, drug safety
Antoaneta Bezlova in Beijing
China has confirmed the seriousness of recent international scares about rampant fraud and counterfeiting in its booming economy in a most dramatic way - by sentencing to death the country's former top drug regulator.
Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of the State Food and Drug Administration, was convicted of taking bribes and failing to curb a scandalous market in fake and dangerous medicines. A Beijing court awarded the death sentence recently.
The extreme punishment comes after weeks of heightened fears about the quality and safety of Chinese agricultural and pharmaceutical goods. China, which earns more than US$30 billion a year from food and drug exports to Asia, North America and Europe, has been recently bombarded with complaints from all over the globe alleging shoddy quality and dangerous substances.
Reports have described prunes tinted with chemical dyes not approved for human consumption, frozen shrimp preserved with substances like nitro furan that can cause cancer, and mushrooms sprayed with illegal pesticides.
The string of scandals over Chinese contaminated exports were triggered by disclosures that thousands of pets in the United States and Canada had died after eating pet food tainted with the chemical melamine. The substance, which is used in fertilisers, had mysteriously found its way into wheat gluten exported from China for the U.S. pet food and animal feed markets.
Close on the heels of the highly publicised contamination of pet food came reports that China has also exported counterfeit drug ingredients. At least 100 deaths in Panama have been linked to a cough medicine tainted with a poisonous industrial solvent, diethylene glycol that was traced to an unlicensed factory in eastern China.
As a response to growing alarm at home over safety standards of Chinese goods, the U.S. government has ordered the largest pet food recall in the U.S. history. It has also stopped all imports of Chinese toothpaste following reports that some products sold in the Dominican Republic and Panama contained diethylene glycol.
While international uproar over fake and substandard Chinese exports is unprecedented, domestic consumers in the country have faced endemic problems associated with food and drugs for years. Indeed many of China's food safety problems have only come to international attention because of China's increasing food exports.
Three years ago a ban on transparent "glass" noodles was issued after certain brands were found to be using a lead-based whitener. Dangerously-contaminated consignments of counterfeit milk powder, discovered on the Chinese market, were blamed for the deaths of at least 12 infants in rural China.
Last year, a posting spread by millions of Internet users mocked the daily struggle of Chinese consumers as they negotiated a minefield of hazardous foods and goods, dining on "chemically contaminated rice and pesticide-infested vegetables" and drinking beer contaminated with formaldehyde. In 2006 food poisoning claimed 196 lives, according to official figures from the ministry of health.
"We used to love buying home-made honey from the peasants in villages outside of Beijing, but now we are scared even to try it," says Feng Xiaohua, an avid mountaineer who spends her weekends in the countryside. "We are probably wrong though, because it is the corrupt officials we have to fear and not the poor peasants."
Zheng Xiaoyu is the highest-ranking official to be implicated and punished in Beijing's struggle to address public concerns over rampant culture of counterfeiting in the country's economy.
During his tenure as China's chief drug and food official from 1997 to 2006, Zheng is said to have accepted bribes in cash and gifts worth some 850,000 dollars. In exchange for these favours he had approved six types of medicines that were found to be fake. In one instance, an antibiotic, approved by Zheng's agency, killed at least 11 patients last August before it was taken off the market.
The death sentence was appropriate said the court, according to reports by the state agency Xinhua, given the "huge bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public by Zheng's dereliction of duty."
Chinese commentators have appraised the harsh sentence as a warning to all corrupt officials. "The sentence reflects the concern of top Chinese officials about issues such corruption and food safety," He Bing, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, told Xinhua.
Yet beyond the execution of a highly publicised death sentence lies the uneasy task of tackling what many experts see as an unbridled abuse of power and widespread counterfeiting.
A published survey by the quality inspection administration revealed that a third of China's 450,000 food production companies were unlicensed. An overwhelming 60 per cent of these companies did not have any quality control mechanism in place, while some 29 per cent of them had no "quality labels" on their products, the survey found.
In addition to the domestic health problems they cause, food safety lapses have now shown to present a threat to a significant Chinese source of trade revenue. It is the risk of Chinese exports being rejected in more and more markets around the world that is now forcing authorities to improve standards to which Chinese food and drugs are being produced.
Faced with an avalanche of complaints, the country's main quality control agency announced this week its first recall system of unsafe food products. The system will be put in place gradually and will focus on "potentially dangerous and unapproved food products," an official from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine was quoted as saying by the 'China Daily'.
"All domestic and foreign food producers and distributors will be obliged to follow the system," Wu Jianping, director general of the administration's food production and supervision department, was quoted as saying by the daily.
Experts argue though that it is not the lack of regulations that is to blame for the food safety accidents. What is at issue is their enforcement. After all, the country already has over 200 individual food safety laws, regulations and standards at national and regional level. None of these however, covers the entire process - from food-making to serving the food in the restaurants and retailing it in the shops.
The country is only now drafting its first national law on food safety, which has been part of legislative deliberations since 2003. But even if the National People's Congress, China's parliament, approves the law by the end of this year as planned, there remains a question about which agency would be put in charge of its implementation. Currently, a dozen or so government watchdogs are responsible for supervising the industry.
- Inter Press Services
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