Human Wrongs Watch

‘Pakistan’s government should immediately end widespread disappearances of suspected militants and activists by the military, intelligence agencies, and the paramilitary Frontier Corps in the southwestern province of Balochistan.’

Extremists would have the best chance to take possession of Pakistani nuclear weapons following the breakdown of the South Asian state’s government, the U.S. Congressional Research Service concluded in a report in July, 2011.

South Sudanese population estimated in 9 million people, is overwhelmingly young, rural, poor and uneducated; only 4% of its vast arable land is cultivated; half the population does not have access to safe drinking water, and only one person in five uses a health-care facility in their lifetime.

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to take a firm stand vis-a-vis Greece bleeding financial crisis, she was surly aware that black economy accounts as high as one-third of Greek GNP, that tax invasion amounts to 20 billion dollars a year, and that corruption is rooted everywhere, at all levels, particularly among political parties.

Europe has just confirmed what many reports have suspected for years — that EU member states are allowed (by themselves) to ship their radioactive waste -generated by its 143 nuclear reactors- to “third countries” to bury their highly dangerous material there.

The price of the U.S-led invasion and occupation of Iraq since 2003 —which is paradoxically called Operation Freedom for Iraq— is usually calculated in dollars. What about its human cost?

The following are just some facts about Iraqi youth and children according to UN reports:

In spite of U.S-led military invasion since 2001 to bring “enduring freedom” and democracy, about 50 women die in childbirth each day in Afghanistan; one in three is physically or sexually abused, and the average life expectancy of women is 44 year.

Politicians, pushed by the “ward lords”–the military, spend over 90 billion dollars a year, from taxpayer’s pockets, on nuclear weapons. This figure amounts to the UN budget for 45 years, and to 3/4 of the total annual sum spent on development aid. The U.S. alone spends over 50 billion dollars annually–enough to meet the Millennium Development Goals on poverty alleviation.

Military expenditure amounted to 1630 billion dollars in 2010, i.e, 236 dollars per person in the world. Meanwhile, UN asks for 16 dollars to save each one of the over two million children needing urgent life-saving actions if they are to survive in drought-affected countries in the Horn of Africa. Half a million could soon die or suffer long-lasting mental or physical damage.

They do not apply the Mexican joke “I kill people for money; but you, my best friend, I will kill you for nothing!”. They are the private “warriors” who always charge for their services. Powerful militaries, key government agencies, large corporations and business and even individuals are increasingly outsourcing aspects of their security to private companies,