The Great Game
--Wiki--

A term used for the strategic rivalry and conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running approximately from the Russo-Persian Treaty of 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. A second, less intensive phase followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The term "The Great Game" is usually attributed to Arthur Conolly (1807–1842), an intelligence officer of the British East India Company's Sixth Bengal Light Cavalry.[1] It was introduced into mainstream consciousness by British novelist Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim (1901).

"Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you."

-Last Sermon, Prophet Muhammad


Ethics of reciprocity = the golden rule

Uzbek rape claims prompt UN call
Rustam Qobil
2010/01/22 16:11:13 GMT
BBC Uzbek

The UN is calling for an investigation into allegations of systematic rape and torture in Uzbekistan's justice system. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, says he has seen reports of police torture and rape. He has called on the government to let him go to Uzbekistan to investigate. There have been previous reports that torture was routinely used in prisons. Uzbek officials said they are investigating one case, but have made no further comment.

Mr Nowak's comments have been backed by human rights groups in Uzbekistan. They say that torture and abuse by police and investigating authorities are tacitly encouraged by senior government officials.

No justice

Families of victims say there is a culture of impunity, where police officers allegedly rape detainees without being punished. Rayhon Soatova is in prison in Uzbekistan. Her family told the BBC that she and her two sisters were attacked by a group of drunken policemen who detained them for hooliganism last May.

They say Rayhon was gang raped by police officers while in detention. She then became pregnant and recently had a baby girl in jail. “ Rayhon described her ordeal to a police investigator. Instead of helping, he too, raped her ”

Abdusamat Brother of alleged rape victim

Her older sister was also allegedly gang raped and is still in prison. The family says the youngest sister was beaten and tortured until she fainted. She has now been released from jail, but has spent time in a mental hospital and has since been expelled from university. The women's brother, Abdusamat, says his sisters were initially reluctant to say what really happened to them. But then a few months later, "Rayhon described the ordeal to a police investigator. Instead of helping, he too, raped her," says Abdusamat.

"There is hope that we can prove Rayhon's case, because she became pregnant after the rape, but we cannot prove torture or the rape of my two other sisters," he adds.

Government reaction

In a rare move, the Uzbek authorities told the family they are investigating Rayhon's case. The family wants a DNA test to be conducted, but officials have not responded to the demand.

Vasila Inoyatova, the director of the Uzbek Human Rights Group Ezgulik, welcomed the investigation but admitted that "we don't know if anyone will be punished as a result. It has never happened in Uzbekistan before".

Ezgulik has received more than a dozen similar complaints over the past few years. Most victims decide not to go public for fear of being isolated and stigmatised in a deeply traditional society, says Ms Inoyatova.

The UN Special Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, says that impunity is another huge problem.

"As long as people know they have nothing to fear, and that is the reality in Uzbekistan so far, it is very difficult to take effective preventive measures," he explains.

He says he is happy to investigate rape allegations by asking the Uzbek government to invite him for a fact-finding mission.

"I am ready, I also communicated that to the government repeatedly, for a follow-up mission in this particular case because I receive such conflicting information."

But so far Mr Nowak has not received an invitation.

East meets West

Hellenism and the Indus

courtesy of -wiki-

Alexander in Afghanistan and India

In 326 BC Alexander the Great conquered the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent as far as the Hyphasis River, and established satrapies as well as several cities, such as Bucephala, until his troops refused to go further east. The Indian satrapies of the Punjab were left to the rule of Porus and Taxiles, who were confirmed again at the Treaty of Triparadisus in 321 BC, and remaining Greek troops in these satrapies were left under the command of general Eudemus. Sometime after 321 Eudemus toppled Taxiles, until he left India in 316 BC. Another general also ruled over the Greek colonies of the Indus: Peithon, son of Agenor, until his departure for Babylon in 316 BC.

In 305 BC, Seleucus I led an army to the Indus, where he encountered Chandragupta. The confrontation ended with a peace treaty, and "an intermarriage agreement" (Epigamia, Greek: Επιγαμια), meaning either a dynastic marriage or an agreement for intermarriage between Indians and Greeks. Accordingly, Seleucus ceded to Chandragupta his northwestern territories, possibly as far as Arachosia and received 500 war elephants (which played a key role in the victory of Seleucus at the Battle of Ipsus):

"The Indians occupy in part some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. But Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants."

—Strabo 15.2.1(9)

Alexander conquered land in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, not to mention Iran, Syria, and the Balkans coast. The Seleucids, successor kingdom of Alexanders would go on to rule the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Regions of the Indian sub continent. It would then gain Independence from the Persian influenced Seleucid and be run as the Greco-Bactria Kingdom. Finally, the Mauryan empire would invade and begin to form what we know today as modern India, pre-Islamic invasion.

"Yona" is a Pali word used in ancient India to designate Greek speakers. Its equivalent in Sanskrit, Telugu and Tamil is the word "Yavana". "Yona" and Yavana are both transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians" (Homer Iāones, older *Iāwones), who were probably the first Greeks to be known in the East. In Telugu another word "Yavanika", means drama stage, an invention brought by Hellenistic people. "Yunani", likewise, means medicine from Greeks.

Hadda is a Greco-Buddhist archaeological site located in Afghanistan.

The Irish government has said it will allow two inmates being freed from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to live in Ireland.

10:12 GMT, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 11:12 UK
bbc.co.uk

Justice Minister Dermot Ahern made the announcement on Wednesday after a meeting with US Ambassador Dan Rooney. Mr Ahern says Irish officials visited Washington and Guantanamo last week and identified two men who could be resettled in Ireland within the next two months. The men are Uzbekestanian.

It comes six months after President Barack Obama asked European countries to help find new homes for released inmates. So far, few countries have agreed to take ex-Guantanamo prisoners who say they cannot return safely to their homelands.


Persecution

Amnesty International in Ireland has been running a campaign for Uzbek national Oybek Jamoldinivich Jabbarov to be allowed to come to Ireland.

He has been cleared for release from Guantanamo, but cannot return to Uzbekistan for fear of torture and persecution. His lawyer, Michael Mone, told a US congressional committee hearing last year that Mr Jabbarov was living with his elderly mother and pregnant wife as refugees in northern Afghanistan when he was captured in 2001 and later transferred to the detention centre on Cuba. The Uzbek had not been involved in fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance and was most likely handed over for a bounty, he said.

In June, Ireland's then Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin said they had told US authorities Ireland would accept two detainees to help close the detention facility, and two Uzbek nationals had been identified by the US. The men will probably be given "leave to remain" status in Ireland. Amnesty International said that Mr Jabbarov's wife and child were in a refugee camp in Pakistan and that he would be able to apply for them to join him. US President Barak Obama has said Guantanamo Bay prison will close by 22 January 2010. It was set up in January 2002 to hold suspects deemed to be "enemy combatants".