Black Widows! Where to Does Belong the the Killing Instinct? Is India so Away from MOSCOW?

'Moscow bombers could be linked to Af-Pak terror network'

Troubled Glaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 463

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com

Green Hunt: Forces employ Naxal tactics, win over locals - India ...

12 Mar 2010 ... Operation Green Hunt, launched with bullets in Jharkhand and a healing touch in Bengal, ... The Times of India Indiatimes Web (by Google) ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Green-Hunt.../5674034.cms - Cached

'Operation Green Hunt' invention of media, claims Chidamabaram ...

6 Nov 2009 ... After heavily publicizing the govt's intention to launch an attack on the Maoists in Chhattisgarh, the Union home minister took a U-turn on ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com › India - Cached

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India's Naxalite Rage » Blog Archive » Operation Green Hunt

31 Oct 2009 ... Operation Green Hunt | India's Naxalite Rage 31 Oct 2009 … Indian government paramilitary officers are gearing up for a major operation to ...
naxaliterage.com/?p=336 - Cached

Just Published: Operation Green Hunt — India's War on the People ...

13 Mar 2010 ... Just Published: Operation Green Hunt — India's War on the People. Posted by Mike E on March 13, 2010. A collection of essays from Democracy ...
kasamaproject.org/.../just-published-operation-green-hunt-indias-war-on-the-people/ - Cached

Centre launches Operation Green Hunt: Rediff.com India News

4 Dec 2009 ... India [ Images ] has launched a major offensive codenamed 'Operation Green Hunt' against Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh on Thursday. ...
news.rediff.com/.../govt-launches-anti-naxal-operation-green-hunt.htm - Cached

Operation Green Hunt launched against Maoists- Hindustan Times

India has launched a major offensive codenamed ''Operation Green Hunt'' against Maoist rebels in Bastar on Thursday. The assault "Green Hunt" was launched ...
www.hindustantimes.com/Operation-Green-Hunt.../H1-Article1-482847.aspx - Cached

Operation Green Hunt: its stated and unstated targets at Sanhati

Every conscious citizen is aware that the proposed operation Green Hunt, ostensibly to ... operation while stated to be against the Communist Party of India ...
sanhati.com/articles/2199/ - Cached

Weapons of Mass Desperation - Tehelka - India's Independent Weekly ...

Operation Green Hunt, the offensive against Naxals, might blow up in our faces. ... is a common affliction in the neglected heartland of central India. ...
www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename...asp - Cached - Similar

Blogs from the India Today Group

The routines and quirks that make India an incredible nation and an imperfect democracy ... Mumbai - Killing You Softly · Why Operation Green Hunt will fail ...
blogs.intoday.in/index.php?blogs=2 - Cached

Operation Green Hunt still on; 50 Naxals killed

13 Mar 2010 ... A fierce gun battle is still going on between security forces and naxals in Dantewada in Chhatisgarh. It is being reported as the biggest ...
www.ndtv.com/news/india/operation_green_hunt_still_on.php - Cached - Similar

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India Talkies

Indian government continues its offensive against Maoist insurgents
‎
World Socialist Web Site - Arun Kumar - Palash Roy - 3 hours ago

While the Indian government's offer of "talks" to the Maoists was a propaganda ploy to rally public support for Operation Green Hunt, India's rulers are ...

Video: Police recover landmine planted by Maoists in WB
Asian News International (ANI)
Communists protest against Centre's anti-Maoist operation in Kolkata‎ - Oneindia
India: Maoists threat to Orissa CM Patnaik‎ - Asian Tribune
all 83 news articles »

Left parties failed to protect tribals, say intellectuals
‎
Sify - 3 days ago

Kamal Mitra Chenoy said the Maoists are resisting operation Green Hunt and are ... rise and advised them to concentrate more on the struggle in rural India. ...

Oneindia

Security beefed up for Orissa CM Patnaik after e-mail threat
‎
Oneindia - 16 hours ago

The e-mail warned Patnaik to stop the anti-Maoist 'Operation Green Hunt' and not ... They have spread into rural pockets in 20 of India's 28 states and the ...
Maoists threaten to blow up Orissa CM house‎ - Daily Times
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Indian Express

On Maoism and Operation Green Hunt: Call a spade a spade
‎
Livemint (blog) - Shantanu Bhattacharji - 6 days ago

Operation Green Hunt will result in more bloody battles. ... about Given the shortage of food and the poverty that prevails especially in rural India, ...

Video: Maoist shutdown strategy:Coordinated attacks on trains
Asian News International (ANI)
Man, machine unite to save derailed Rajdhani‎ - Calcutta Telegraph
India: Maoists kill security personnel, derail train‎ - Asian Tribune
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Kishanji threatens counter-attack
‎
Times of India - 18 Mar 2010

KOLKATA: Facing the heat of Operation Green Hunt along the Bengal-Jharkhand border and interior parts of Jharkhand, Maoist politburo member Kishanji on ...

Video: Second phase of anti-Maoist operation to begin in Jharkhand
Asian News International (ANI)
Forces plan precision strikes on Maoists in West Bengal, Jharkhand ...‎ - Daily News & Analysis
Second phase of joint anti-Maoist operation to begin in Jharkhand‎ - Oneindia
Central Chronicle - MyNews.in
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Anti Naxal operations in West Bengal
‎
Oneindia - 2 days ago

... operation 'Green Hunt' by the state and central forces in West Bengal. ... said Communist Party of India (Marxist-Lenin) General Secretary Santosh Rana. ...

Left parties to move cut motion on Finance Bill
‎
Sify - 22 hours ago

Questioning the effectiveness of the Operation Green Hunt in combating the ... Operation Green Hunt alone cannot solve the Maoist problem as it is not just ...

Oneindia

Kabir Suman texts his resignation to Mamata
‎
Oneindia - 1 hour ago

"I am resigning my AITMC (All India Trinamool Congress) membership and Lok Sabha ... over the Operation Green Hunt launched against the Maoists by the Center.

Maoist sympathisers up in arms against 'Operation Green Hunt' in ...
‎
Sify - 18 Mar 2010

Maoist sympathisers in Jaharkhand's Latehar district have launched a protest against Operation Green Hunt, an operation launched by the Central Government ...

BBC News

India rebel offensive intensifies
‎
BBC News - Subir Bhaumik - 10 Mar 2010

A major security offensive - Operation Green Hunt - to flush out the rebels is ... The rebels have a presence in about a third of India's 600-odd districts. ...

Video: Maoists burn down tractor, machinery in Jharkhand
Asian News International (ANI)
Maoist Hunt Begins In Eastern States‎ - india-server.com
India's anti-Maoists drive going nowhere‎ - Business Times (subscription)
Hindustan Times - Sify
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Maoists training cadres in Guerrilla warfare in Chhattisgarh!

Narayanpura (Chhattisgarh), March 3 (ANI): Maoists are training their cadres in the usage of modern arms and ammunitions in the thick forest area of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur District.

The huge forest areas of Bastar in Chhattisgarh state makes them favourable for the insurgent group to train their cadres.

They are also given on-the-job training through real attacks on security forces, planting of explosives, blowing up of government buildings and infrastructure. Guerrilla warfare tactics are also taught.

The trainees also include a large number of women.

The Maoist's military wing in the state regularly conducts rigorous physical and arms training for its cadres.

"The training of guerilla warriors, their warfare and fighting skills is very extensive and strong. The police forces can't fight against them because they are in hiding," said Sujeet Kumar, an expert on the Naxalite Movement.

"In guerilla warfare worldwide, the enemy attacks and runs away and that is what they are doing even here. In Bastar, there is jungle all around the narrow stretch of roads. So, it is easy for Maoists to attack and escape. The police forces don't even come to know," he added.

Maoists recruit children aged between six and 12 into their children's association, called Bal Sangams, where they are trained in Maoist ideology, used as informers and taught to fight with non-lethal weapons.

Kumar further said that the number of women Maoists is increasing by the day. They not only support their cause but are trained enough to carry out attacks and operations single-handedly.

"Women commanders are not just supporters but leaders. As far as their training is concerned, the women Maoists, who are capable of leading the operation, are appointed in the Bal Sangam. Students aged 6-12 are trained in the Bal Sangams," Kumar said.

"After the girls attain the age of 20, they are equipped and trained enough to carry out the operations and lead from the front. These women are tried and tested several time over before andling the responsibility. The number of women Maoists is increasing day by day and I believe that in another 4-5 years their count will reach fifty percent," he added. (ANI)

Woman Maoists more ferocious than males

Sonali Das, TNN, Feb 17, 2010, 08.38pm IST

RANCHI: If Jagari Baskey is Bengal's dreaded woman Maoist leader, who conducted the Silda operation in that state, several major Naxalite operations in neighbouring Jharkhand have been led and conducted by women. "The women Maoists are known to be more ferocious than their male counterparts and have better leadership qualities," said a Naxalite observer here.

There are more than a dozen women Maoist leaders and several cadres lodged in various jails across the state, major ones among them being Sheela Di, who had led several operations in the state. Sheela Di is the wife of Kishan Da, a CPI(Maoist) central committee member. Being the wife of a top-notch leader, she was considered a member of the think-tank of the outfit, police said. Sheela Di is now lodged in Chaibasa jail.

According to the CPI(Maoist) themselves, at least 40% of its cadres are women. Police sources pointed out that like the male cadres, the women cadres also operate in the East Singbhum areas bordering West Bengal namely Patamda and Bundu, Tamar in Ranchi district. They also operate in the Parasnath area of Giridih, and Bokaro. In the Kundan Pahan group operating in Bundu, Tamar female leader Sushila Ji is also said to be very active.

Police say it is not necessary that the women lead these operations but are necessarily included in such raids so that the groups are not easily identified. "Woman leaders and cadres mix more easily with a crowd, which is an advantage for the Maoists," said a source.

Significantly, some woman leaders/cadres have joined the outfit to avenge the death of their kin in encounters. Malti, according to police records, had joined the outfit after she was betrayed by her paramour and then by her husband.

Women Maoists move from village to village to drive the Maoist ideology home in the minds of women, urging them to join the outfit and even use force at times. Although a number of them are from neighbouring West Bengal, these women are not in jeans or skirts and they speak the local language, thus moulding themselves with the village culture.

2001: At least 15 policemen were killed when a police picket in Topchanchi was attacked and arms looted by Maoists. The operation, according to police records, was led by a woman Maoist.

2001: Malti, another Naxalite, was arrested for the murder of Lohardaga superintendent of police, Ajay Kumar Singh.

2002: The Chandrapura Government Railway Police near Bokaro was plundered and arms looted. This operation, too, was led by Nirmala Chatterjee, a leader of the Maoist Communist Centre and widow of Sagar Chatterjee, who was shot by police in Bihar's Aurangabad district in 1992.

2004: JMM MP Sunil Mahto was killed by Maoists and the operation was headed by a woman commander, Kunti Devi alias Dula Di, who is now in jail.

2005: Homeguard headquarters in Giridih was attacked by Maoists in which several homeguards were killed and the armoury was looted. Again, this operation was led by women.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Woman-Maoists-more-ferocious-than-males/articleshow/5584823.cms

Arindam Mukherjee

The Sikh Genocide 1984 - Families revisited after 25 years

8 of 20 images

DSC_6453.JPG

Atma Singh, 41 is one of the lucky Sikh men then in his teenage could escape death. 200 Sikh families from Mongal Puri fought against the mob that attacked them on 1st November 1984. He said that if they did not fight together then he would have also been killed like others. Tilak Vihar in New Delhi is called the widow colony. Widows and children of Sikh who were killed in 1984 Sikh Genocide live here. 4000 Sikhs were killed in 72 hours alone in Delhi but no body till date got punished for such a human crime. Illiteracy, Drug addiction, child labour and immense poverty characterize the area. 25 years ago all the male family members above the age of 15 were killed and burnt living their uneducated widows and children to suffer even after 25 years. The present generation is jobless, alcoholic and lost their directions in life. November 2009. New Delhi, India, Arindam Mukherjee
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Sikh Genocide 1984

Compiled by Charnjit Singh Bal from various sources.

This week, light a candle in your window. And whisper a silent prayer in memory of more than 4,000 Sikh men, women and children slaughtered by Congress hoodlums 20 years ago. In Delhi alone, 2,733 Sikhs were burned alive, butchered or beaten to death.

Women were raped while their terrified families pleaded for mercy, little or none of which was shown by the Congress flag-bearers. In one of the numerous such incidents, a woman was gang-raped in front of her 17-year-old son; before leaving, the marauders torched the boy.

For three days and nights the killing and pillaging continued without the police, the civil administration and the Union government, which was then in direct charge of Delhi, lifting a finger in admonishment. The Congress was in power, and senior Congress leaders, perhaps for the first time in their political careers, led from the front while the prime minister, his home minister, indeed the entire council of ministers, twiddled their thumbs.

Even as stray dogs gorged on rotting human entrails, gutters were clogged with charred corpses and wailing women, clutching children too frightened to cry, fled baying mobs armed with iron rods, staves and gallons of kerosene, All India Radio and Doordarshan kept on broadcasting blood-curdling slogans of 'Khoon ka badla khoon se lenge' (We shall avenge blood with blood) raised by Congress party workers grieving over their dear departed leader, India Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi, having ensconced himself as prime minister, later sought to justify the terror unleashed by his party. Addressing a rally at Delhi's Boat Club to celebrate his mother's birth anniversary, he thundered: 'When a big tree falls, the earth will shake.' And shake it did!

In mid-morning on October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh guards posted at her home. The assassins, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, later said they had killed the prime minister to avenge the Indian Army's assault on the Golden Temple -- Operation Bluestar -- at her explicit instruction on June 5 that year. Beant Singh was killed by the Indo Tibetan Border Police soon after Indira Gandhi's assassination. Satwant Singh and an alleged accomplice, Kehar Singh, against whom there was thin evidence, were executed for the crime.

Indira Gandhi's death was officially confirmed by All India Radio and Doordarshan at 6 pm, after due diligence had been exercised to ensure Rajiv Gandhi's succession. By then, stray incidents of violence against Sikhs, including the stoning of President Zail Singh's car, had started trickling in at various police stations.

That night, the Congress party machinery went into a rumour-mongering overdrive: in colony after colony (Delhi, the seat of India's colonial rulers, is a sprawling conglomerate of 'colonies,' some up-market, most little more than shanty towns), rumours spread like wildfire, describing in graphic details how 'Sikhs were distributing sweets to celebrate Indira Gandhi's assassination,' how 'gurdwaras had been lit up as if it were Diwali,' and, how 'Sikh terrorists had infiltrated the city.'

By the morning of November 1, hordes of men, shouting Congress slogans, had started running riot in south, east and west Delhi. They were armed with iron rods and carried old tyres and jerry cans filled with kerosene and petrol. Owners of gas stations and kerosene stores, beneficiaries of Congress largesse, provided petrol and kerosene free of cost. Some of the men went around on scooters and motorcycles, marking Sikh houses and business establishments with chalk for easy identification. They had been provided with electoral rolls by their political masters to make the task easier.

By late afternoon that day, hundreds of taxis, trucks and shops owned by Sikhs had been set ablaze. By early evening, the killing, loot and rape began in right earnest. The worst butchery took place in Block 32 of Trilokpuri, a resettlement colony in east Delhi. Scores of families were killed over November 1 and 2: most of them were dispatched by putting burning tyres around theirs necks.

The pogrom continued with the active abetment of the police. On November 1, some residents of Lajpat Nagar took out a peace march to thwart the violence. The police stopped the march because the participants did not have 'official permission.' In many places, police asked Sikhs to hand over their kirpans, took them away forcibly if the Sikhs refused, before the marauders descended upon them.

To prevent Sikhs from taking refuge in gurdwaras, most of Delhi's 450 gurdwaras were sacked in the early hours of the violence. The expedient means of setting houses ablaze was used to get at Sikh families who had taken refuge on the roofs of their homes. Entire families were roasted alive.

A sort-of curfew was imposed in south and central Delhi at 4 pm on November 1. But no action was taken in east and west Delhi and the outlying area of Palam where the massacre of Sikhs was being carried out with macabre ferocity and astounding impunity. Curfew was imposed in east and west Delhi at 6 pm, ensuring that the killers had an extra four hours.

P V Narasimha Rao, who was the home minister and responsible for maintaining law and order in Delhi during those dark days, was fully aware of what was happening. But he chose not to deploy the army in time which could have prevented the pogrom. In his affidavit submitted to the G T Nanavati Commission, inquiring into the pogrom, Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, much decorated hero of the 1971 war, has said, 'The home minister was grossly negligent in his approach, which clearly reflected his connivance with perpetrators of the heinous crimes being committed against the Sikhs.'

The army was alerted at 2.30 pm on November 1; when the General Officer Commanding went to meet the lieutenant governor for orders, he was kept waiting for an hour. The first deployment of army jawans took place around 6 pm on November 1 in south and central Delhi, which were comparatively unaffected, but in the absence of navigators which should have been provided by the police and the civil authorities, the jawans found themselves lost in unfamiliar roads and avenues. The army was deployed in east and west Delhi in the afternoon of November 2. But, here, too, jawans were at a loss because there were no navigators to show them the way through Byzantine lanes.

In any event, there was little the army could have done: magistrates were 'not available' to give permission to the jawans to fire on the mobs. This mandatory requirement was kept pending till Indira Gandhi's funeral was over. By then, 1,026 Sikhs had been killed in east Delhi, the majority of the dead were residents of Block 32 in Trilokpuri.

The slaughter was not limited to Delhi. Sikhs were killed in Gurgaon, Kanpur, Bokaro, Indore and many other towns and cities across India. In a replay of the blood-letting in Delhi, 26 Sikh jawans and officers of the Indian Army were pulled out of trains and killed. There has been no effort to compute the death toll in these places, but the most conservative estimates have placed it at 2,000.

After quenching their thirst for blood, the brave leaders of the Congress and their foot soldiers retreated to savour their deeds of revenge. The flames died, the smoke from smouldering shops and homes lifted and the winter air blew away the stench of death. Rajiv Gandhi's government, in a casual aside, issued an official statement placing the death toll at 425.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was then president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had instructed party leaders in Delhi to organise relief camps and provide succour to the survivors of the pogrom. Madan Lal Khurana and Vijay Kumar Malhotra had braved the marauders to move from colony to colony, giving whatever help they could. Vajpayee contested the official death toll and asked his colleagues to collate figures. Their total added up to 2,800. 'The BJP is an anti-national party,' responded the Congress.

There were demands for a judicial inquiry to fix responsibility and add up the casualties. Rajiv Gandhi stonewalled these demands. Human rights organisations petitioned the courts. Rajiv Gandhi's government declared that courts were not empowered to order inquiries.

Meanwhile, Rajiv Gandhi dissolved the Lok Sabha and went for an early general election. The Congress launched a vitriolic hate campaign through advertisements and posters ('Can you trust a Sikh taxi driver?'). In Rajiv Gandhi's constituency, Congress party workers raised a rather telling slogan against his opponent and sister-in-law, Maneka Gandhi: 'Beti hai Sardar ki, qaum hai gaddar ki' (She is the daughter of a Sikh, a community of traitors).

Rajiv Gandhi rode the crest of a gigantic 'sympathy wave.' The Congress won 401 seats in the Lok Sabha. The BJP was reduced to two seats, punished for sympathising with the Sikhs.

By 1985, Punjab was fast slipping into a bottomless spiral of secessionist violence and Rajiv Gandhi was desperate to show a breakthrough. He mollycoddled Akali leader Sant Harchand Singh Longowal into agreeing to sign a peace accord with him. Sant Longowal listed a set of pre-conditions; one of them was the setting up of a judicial inquiry into the anti-Sikh pogrom. Political expediency made Rajiv Gandhi concede this and other demands (it is another matter that the accord foundered and Sant Longowal was assassinated by terrorists).

Thus was born the Ranganath Mishra Commission that shall remain known forever for white-washing official complicity and political patronage without which the slaughter of Sikhs would not have been possible. Submissions and affidavits were surreptitiously passed on to those accused of leading the mobs to facilitate their defense. Some of these documents were later recovered from the house of Sajjan Kumar, one of the Congress leaders who had been accused by victims in their signed affidavits. Gag orders were issued, preventing the press from reporting in-camera proceedings of the Commission.

For full six months, Rajiv Gandhi refused to make public the Ranganath Mishra Commission's report. When it was tabled in Parliament, the report was found to be an amazing travesty of the truth, an exercise that was dedicated to drawing a bizarre distinction between Congress party workers and the Congress party -- the former were guilty, but not the latter; no responsibility was fixed nor were the guilty named.

Subsequently, three other committees were set up: the Jain-Banerji Committee to find out why cases were not registered by the police and, if registered, why was it not done properly; the Kapoor-Mittal Committee to look into the role of the police; and, the Ahuja Committee to compute the number of deaths. The findings of the first two committees are gathering dust in some corner of South Block.

The key finding of the Ahuja Committee is of relevance -- a total of 2,733 Sikhs were killed in Delhi. There is no record of an apology being offered by either Rajiv Gandhi or his government for placing the death toll at 425, leave alone for their description of the BJP as 'anti-national' because it had placed the figure at 2,800.

In these 20 years, nine commissions and committees have been set up to look into different aspects of the anti-Sikh pogrom. Much bluster has been heard about bringing the guilty to book. What we have seen is inertia, political intervention and tardy prosecution. Overwhelming evidence against Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and H K L Bhagat has been set aside by skulduggery and gerrymandering.

Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-three men, women and children killed in Delhi, another 2,000 killed in other towns and cities, scores of women raped, property worth crores of rupees looted or sacked. Families devastated forever, survivors scarred for the rest of their lives.

After 20 years, all that we have to show as justice being done is the conviction of six men, who did not have the requisite financial or political clout to manipulate their way to freedom and are serving sentence for 'murder.'

Sajjan Kumar is back in business as a Congress member of the Lok Sabha; Jagdish Tytler is minister for NRI affairs in the UPA government.

Sheela Barske

Fifteen years old. Round chubby face. Aching black eyes. She stumbled out of the first rescue bus. Torment she had endured for 36 hours surged out when she saw us. ''Meri izzat loot li (they raped me),'' she cried out. She pulled away the loose, crumpled kurta from her shoulders to reveal a gash from her left collar bone to right breast, covered with dried blood, ''Dekho, dekho, unhone kya kiya mere saath (see, see what they did to me)."

In barrack rooms, a team of interns arranged first-aid medicines, gauzes, on the dirty floor. It was noon. November 2, 1984. Two days after Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Thirty-six hours after more than 300 Sikhs in that basti had been lynched, burnt and flung down from upper floors in the presence of their families, pushing back the women and children who rushed to embrace the targeted men, Delhi police had found one bus to bring out the terrorized survivors from their looted homes with just their clothes on, to the police grounds.

A 12-year-old boy sat alone apart from his kin, on a large stone, brooding, head held firm on a straight spine. The knot of his kesh had been lopped off but the remaining hair, glued spiny stiff and erect in a bunch, proclaimed his continuing identity. ''He has not spoken a word since he saw his father and uncle being burnt to death and flung down from first floor,'' a relative informs.

A desultory conversation begins. A middle-aged sardarni, still dreaming of the gory killing of her husband, softly asks, ''Is it possible to rescue my brother-in-law? He is all burnt but there is still some breath in him. He is sitting in a chair for the last 40 hours.'' The woman withdraws into herself.

I ask for a guide to locate the house. A polio-affected youth moves closer. ''I will. The police left behind my wife. Her thigh and shoulder were scorched as she threw herself on my eldest brother when they set him on fire live. She is mute and young, childlike really...''

An athletic sardar, kesh cut, clean-shaven, accompanies me. Few hours ago, like many Sikhs in that colony, he had paid several hundred rupees to a barber to raze an integral part of his being. Since October 31, 'kesh' marked not a glorious inheritance but a victim to be torched alive.

With the doctor's team and first-aid, we enter the colony and pause by a wounded elderly man lying on a cot. He would need an ambulance. We do not have one. ''Now you come,'' screams a woman. ''After bodies have been thrown in the nullahs.'' A Sikh grabs my arm, ''Curfew laga dijiye." Our guide sprints into a lane. Mounds of junk placed across the road every few yards, the lynchers' barricades to prevent victims escaping in their taxis. The young doctors trail. The guide breaks into a run and leaps over front steps of a house. ''Anyone there?'' I call out a few times, then step in.

The house had been looted clean, no furniture, no utensils, no clothes. ''There is no one inside, I checked thoroughly,'' he says. Depressed, we stand still in the stark living room. A mob of 200 men and women has arched around the house while we are inside. They watch us silently. ''What have you done with him?'' I yell. ''Didn't burning him satisfy you? His bhabhi told me that Dilbara Singh is sitting in a chair. Where have you hidden him?''

''Oh Dilbara Singh!'' a man steps up saucily. ''Come here. This pile of ashes, that's him. His wife broke up the chair and gave him a live funeral, with flowers and everything.'' he grins wickedly.

The chowk is now blocked by a mob of 150. The news of a rescue team has traveled. I notice brass knuckles on a fist and cycle chain in a hand and discover that our guide is missing. ''Where is the man who came with us?,'' I yell.''He was with us 2 minutes ago. What have you done with him?''

An armed sub-inspector comes running. ''He is safe. He was recognised. He ran for his life. He asked me to inform you.'' The officer was the sole policeman on duty for 48 hours.

The sun begins to set. Someone hails us. An elderly thick-set sardar in a wheelchair pushed by two youngsters. ''Take me out please,'' the sardar pleads. We walk away but a few steps later, I abruptly halt. The disabled Sikh is not safe, he's in danger. We turn and stride to the disabled man. ''Come,'' we say. But the three young men have their hands firm on his wheelchair. ''We'll take him. We are with Nandita Haksar.'' I believe them only after sighting Nandita 300 meters away.

That evening I hitch a ride in a press car. ''Fifty-nine Hindus killed, some pulled in gurdwaras.'' they tell me. ''But we are not printing that.''

Police Commissioner Tandon refuses to see the press. PRO Panwar sniggers, ''Hundreds killed in one basti? How is it possible to burn people alive? We have not received any complaints.''

Reporters decide to gatecrash Tandon's office. ''Please order shoot at sight." He steps back into the unlit shield of his chamber. His subordinates and guards block the door.

Next day, I visit the morgue. A corpse wrapped in a bloodstained brilliant white sheet is laid outside the walled compound, in front of the gate. Not a soul around. I ask a policeman if I can pay for a few decent funerals.

In the compound, to my left, is an open shed with hundreds of bloated corpses stacked 6-7 deep like logs. In front of me, scores of rotting bodies heaped in a truck. Nearby a dump of swollen, decaying remains of men. Disconnected tufts of hair strewn around. The policeman returns, asks me to come over. I take a few steps over the bunches of kesh littering the compound and blown around my feet. Outside, I stand for a while with an anonymous, unaccompanied body.

But the scars run deep and sharp in the minds of Sikhs like Avtar Singh Bedi who had lived there in 1984 and still remember the brutalities.

Recalling Oct 31, 1984, Bedi, 45, who has shifted to Tilak Vihar, said: "The news of Indira Gandhi's assassination shocked me. Equally shocking was the way people looked at me and my brother when we were returning to our homes."

Suddenly, out of the blue, a terrible fury broke out all over Delhi - for the first time after the 1947 partition of the sub-continent. And Trilokpuri bore the brunt of it.

After his house and his shop dealing in electrical appliances were looted and set afire, Bedi and his family fled to a smaller dwelling in west Delhi. Tension flickered across Bedi's wrinkled face as he recalled images of unruly mobs pouncing on him and his teenaged brother, who was a mechanic at a roadside scooter garage.

"I escaped but the mob killed my brother and ransacked all the houses at Block 30 in Trilokpuri," Bedi said. Trilokpuri turned into a killing field. The police refused to intervene. Bedi ran with his elderly and ailing mother. "A cousin who was visiting us also ran with us," Bedi said.

"Gurdip Kaur, a 45 year old woman from Block 32, Trilokpuri, told a typical story. Her husband and three sons were brutally murdered in front of her. Her husband used to run a small shop in the locality. Her eldest son, Bhajan Singh, worked at the railway station; the second, in a radio repair shop; and the third as a scooter driver.

She says, 'On the morning of 1 November, when Indira Mata's body was brought to Teen Murti, everyone was watching television. Since 8.00 am, they were showing homage being paid to her dead body.At about noon, my children said, "Mother, please make some food.We are hungry." I had not cooked that day, and I said, "Son, everyone is mourning. She was our mother too. She helped us to settle here. So I don't feel like lighting the fire today."

'Soon after this, the attack started. Three of the men ran out, and were set on fire. My youngest son stayed in the house with me. He shaved off his beard and cut his hair. But they came into the house. Those young boys, 14 and 16 years old, began to drag my son out even though he was hiding behind me.

'They tore my clothes and stripped me naked in front of my son. My son cried, "Elder brothers, don't do this. She is your mother just as she is my mother." But they raped me right there, in front of my son, in my own house. They were young boys, maybe eight of them. When one of them raped me, I said, "My child, never mind. Do what you like. But remember, I have given birth to children. This child came into the world by this same path."

'After they had taken my honour, they left. I took my son out with me, and made him sit among the women, but they came and dragged him away. They took him to the street corner, hit him with lathis, sprinkled kerosene over him, and burnt him alive.

'I tried to save him but they struck me with knives and broke my arm. At that time, I was completely naked. If I had even one piece of clothing on my body, I would have gone and thrown myself over my son and tried to save him. I would have done anything to save at least one young man of my family. Not one of the four is left."(When a Tree Shook Delhi, page 70)

The anti-Sikh violence erupted on the evening of Oct 31 in south Delhi, close to the hospital where Indira Gandhi was declared dead, and quickly spread to almost every part of Delhi.

With the authorities looking the other way, mobs took charge of the streets, burning and looking Sikh shops and homes and mercilessly killing men, women and even children. Many women were raped.

Memories of the murderous frenzy are still fresh in the minds of Sikhs - as well as others who saw the violence from close quarters. Many non-Sikhs came to the rescue of the besieged community.

Even 20 years later, hundreds of displaced families are fighting legal battles and running from pillar to post to avail themselves of rehabilitation facilities promised by successive governments.

Another riot victim Balvinder Singh, who too lived in Trilokpuri, said: "I lost my father and mother in the violence. It is painful that the perpetrators of the violence are still roaming free."

Some of those - mainly Congress politicians - who perpetrated the atrocities remain entrenched in the party. A few went into oblivion. Sikh militants killed a handful of others.

For the victims, the riots have left a scar that has not healed. But most Sikhs say they harbour no grudges against any community.

G.S. Arora, a former professor with the Pusa Institute of Technology, said: "I have no ill-will against anyone. Some of the people who masterminded the violence were part of the government.

"But they must certainly be booked under the law. Unfortunately this has not happened."

Over the years, Sikhs who lost their near and dear ones have learnt to live with the trauma - but with a feeling of being betrayed by the judicial system. Commissions set up by the government to probe the violence have not been of much help.

Summarizing what the community thought of 1984, Sikh preacher Ranbir Singh Lubhwana, now in his late 40s, noted that the rioters had razed his gurdwara in Trilokpuri.

"But we have rebuilt it. Things are normal and there is no malice for anyone among the Sikhs. Even Hindus come and pray here."

TAVLEEN SINGH tavleensingh@expressindia.com

Posted online: Sunday, October 31, 2004 at 0000 hours IST

It's hard to write an article that appears on October 31 without remembering that it was on this day, twenty years ago, that Indira Gandhi was shot dead in her garden by two Sikh policemen. With the return of the Gandhis to the political limelight there will be many this year who will remember Mrs Gandhi, many who will pay fulsome tributes, many who will glorify her reign. How many will remember the pogroms that followed? Almost nobody is my guess even if we now have a Sikh Prime Minister and an uncompromisingly secular government. Not even the Communists with their daily petulance over perceived communalism will dare remind the government they control that justice still has not been done. It's the one event that even the most ardent secularists choose to forget which is for me a constant puzzle.

In the many years I have spent reporting wars, riots, caste killings and other violent events on our sub-continent, I can remember nothing that matches the horror of those first three days after Mrs Gandhi was killed. For those of you who were not there or may have forgotten, let me help you remember. Within minutes of Mrs Gandhi being shot, my news editor rang me and asked me to rush to the hospital where she had been taken. By the time I got there they had already closed the gates of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and although there was no official announcement of her death till late that afternoon we found out within the first hour. Despite All India Radio pretending all day that she was still alive news of her death spread through the city quickly but on the first day there were no killings. There was tension, an ominous, heavy tension but nobody, and especially not ordinary Sikhs, had any idea of what was going to happen. The most that was expected were a few stray incidents of violence.

I worked at the time for a British newspaper and they wanted me to go to Amritsar the next day to gauge the mood there. By the time I returned on the afternoon of November 1, I could see the fires from the airport.

There was chaos at the airport because there were no taxis since most Delhi taxi-drivers were Sikhs and the mobs had started burning them alive. When I finally managed to get a ride with a Tamil gentleman, our taxi was surrounded on the way to the city by a mob with petrol soaked rags in their hands. ''Any Sikhs in the car,'' they grinned as the Tamil gentleman looked nervously at me. By that night armies of killers roamed the streets of Delhi looking for Sikhs to kill and Sikh properties to burn. For the next two days, the mobs were allowed to murder, loot and burn while the government sat back and watched. By the time the Army was ordered out, the streets of Delhi were littered with bodies and the burned out remains of trucks and taxis with the charred, corpses of their drivers at the wheel. Nobody bothered to pick up the dead because there was no room left in the morgues and one of the images that continues to haunt me is of a dog eating a human arm in a Delhi street.

More than 3000 Sikhs were killed in two days in the city and then in a couple of hours it was brought to a sudden halt. All it took to stop the carnage and the savagery were a handful of soldiers in the streets with orders to shoot at sight. The mobs melted away as they would have done on day one if the government had wanted them to.

Anybody who believes that what happened in Narendra Modi's Gujarat was the worst communal violence since Partition does not remember what happened in Delhi in the first week of November 1984. It was our first State-sponsored pogrom and if we do not acknowledge this then we must recognize that attempts to bring justice to the victims of Gujarat is mere tokenism.

It is wonderful that the wheels of justice, that Modi and his murderous thugs tried to stall, are moving again. May every murderer, rapist and thug be brought to justice so that we never have another Gujarat. But when will those responsible for what happened to the Sikhs in 1984 be punished for what they did? I ask the question rhetorically because I know the answer is never, but justice of some kind must be done if we are serious about ensuring that no government in future ever gets away with pogroms against its own citizens.

Of course swift and severe justice is the best way to ensure this but swift justice is not possible from a justice system that will take 350 years to clear its backlog of cases. Besides, Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers are unlikely to be tried like ordinary criminals so the way forward, in my view, is for our shiny, new, ''secular'' government to set up something similar to South Africa's Truth Commission. Let men like P V Narasimha Rao (Home Minister in 1984) and Narendra Modi and all the officials and policemen who failed to do their duties come before the Commission and answer for their failures. Let those who saw their husbands, brothers and sons burned alive come forward and publicly identify those who led the mobs.

Let the new ''secular'' government put its secularism where its mouth is and convert the toothless Minorities Commission into a powerful Truth Commission. It is the least we can do for the thousands of innocents who died because two Sikh policemen assassinated Mrs. Gandhi.

A day after former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh security guards 20 years ago, crowds of mobs barged into Sikh women's homes, dragged their husbands, sons by their hair, set fire to them and then bludgeoned them to death.

"My husband, my son was snatched from my lap and was killed. I had six brothers, they were all killed their sons-in-law were killed. My sons-in-law were killed too. At least 18-19 people of my family were killed. My entire family was killed. I single handedly brought up these small kids," screamed Jassi Bai, a grey-haired woman on crutches who lost her entire family in the riots.

As India marks the 20th anniversary of Gandhi's death on Sunday, about 800 Sikh women widowed in an orgy of anti-Sikh violence after the assassination, are still seething in anger.

Living in tenements in a corner of Delhi often called "Widows' Colony", all the women tell horrific stories of bloodthirsty mobs "necklacing" their family with burning tyres, setting their turbans on fire or beating them with iron rods.

"It's understandable and all right if you punish the guilty, irrespective of whether he is a Sikh, Hindu, or Muslim. If he has committed the crime, then by all means punish him, kill him. But what did all the Sikhs do? My only plea is give us justice, we want justice," said Ravel Kaur, as she sobbed, sitting next to a photograph of her slain husband in her ramshackle glass shop in New Delhi.

With their beards and distinctive turbans -- their religion prohibits men from cutting their hair -- Sikh men are easy to spot in India and all over the world.

The government says about 2,733 people died in the wave of killings aimed at the Sikh community after Gandhi was shot dead by two Sikh bodyguards seeking revenge for her decision to send the army to flush out Sikh separatists from the Golden temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.

But activists say about 4,000 people were killed in the riots, said to be the worst religious violence since the bloody partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947.

Two decades and many investigations and commissions later, T.K.S. Tulsi, a lawyer fighting for the riot victims, says only 10 people have been convicted for murder while 500 people have been acquitted and half the cases have been closed by police.

"As it is, under our system, to be able to nail a person who is wealthy or influential is almost impossible. But when both combine, when they are wealthy as well as influential, it is virtually a breakdown of the system. So therefore, we have had virtually no convictions, there have only been a few convictions and victims have got tired. But it is not as if they have got defeated, the victims are still angry and this anger will persist and this will perhaps persist for many generations," Tulsi said.

Living virtually as refugees in their own country, the Sikh widows -- part of a community of about 19 million people -- say all they have received in all these years is a 300,000 rupees compensation and dank quarters in the "Widows' Colony".

Although two decades have passed, their wounds are still festering because of a host of social problems: their children have grown up with a burning sense of revenge which has driven many into a life of crime and drugs.

Most of the women said they had lost all hopes of ever getting justice after the return to power of the Congress party, who the Sikhs say sparked the brutal riots of 1984. Congress denied the accusation.

Jagdish Tytler, one of the Congress leaders, who has been given a clean chit by the Delhi High court in the riots case, said the anger against him was misdirected.

"Nothing, its all nonsense. I am one person who is not ever involved, directly or indirectly and the High Court has given this notice. And the High Court has given its findings, the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation, - federal investigating agency) has given its finding. I am the only person with no FIR (First Information Report), with not even a complaint against him. It is all a political stunt."

Few are hopeful even though the country has its first Sikh prime minister, Manmohan Singh. (ANI)

India refuses to learn lessons from its history of communal riots. The sins of 1984 revisited Gujarat in 2002 and are likely to surface again, says Josy Joseph.

THE police looked the other way as politicians led marauding mobs into the city. You could be talking of Delhi of 1984, or Ahmedabad of 2002.

For its very long history, India has an extremely short memory. Uncomfortable events from the past are tucked away into obscure corners. Especially those that involve violent-bursts of passions stoked by religion, caste, politics or plain hatred.

May be it is the greed to move forward to the future that prevents backward looks. But the forward march is more often than not interrupted by another round of bloody sacrifice of innocence. And yet again the nation fails to offer succor to its victims, deliver justice punish the guilty.

Assurance of immunity to the criminal is almost ingrained in the society. Witnesses to bloody pogroms in India grow up without any guilt. Each mob violence is forgotten in the next one.

In just three days, over 4,000 Sikhs were killed in the wake of the assassination of Indira Gandhi, India's most controversial, powerful and longest-serving prime minister. The poorest neighborhoods in Delhi saw the worst riots.

It was an organized massacre of the minority community by politicians and their supporters. Rioters had a free run as the Delhi Police looked away. They ruled the streets as an overwhelmed civil society figured ways out.

Within days of the riots, the usual Indian response was triggered: Commissions and committees, assurances and some stupid political statements, charges and counter charges, and denials by the very leaders who incited the mob to violence.

Hundreds of FIRs were registered by the police. Hundreds more were refused, because the victims wanted to name Congress leaders like Sajjan Kumar, HKL Bhagat and Jagdish Tytler.

Investigations into hundreds of murders were closed by police, they didn't even make it to courts. Hundreds of murders are yet to be even registered by police.

In 20 years, nine commissions and committees have inquired into the riots. The first one headed by Justice Ranganath Mishra, who went on to become India's chief justice and later the National Human Rights Commission chief. But the commission was a sham. Statements submitted by widows and victims were made available to the accused like Sajjan Kumar, whose supporters were allowed to file their responses months after the deadline. Years later, the CBI found these statements in Sajjan Kumar's house.

The latest commission, one led by Justice GT Nanavati, is still to complete its inquiry. The government last week gave yet another extension to him.

By 1990, six years after riots, just one killer had been convicted. Three special courts set up in 1990 were almost shams. One court acquitted over 100 accused within weeks. The exception was the court chaired by judges like SN Dhingra.

Widows and survivors walked the Kafkaesque corridors of Delhi courts for years in search of justice. They were threatened, some gave in. A handful of the Sikh leaders were accused of taking money from the accused.

Through the travails of these victims, Delhi progressed. Apartment complexes, BPO boom and malls - it has been an unprecedented two decades for Delhi as right wing ideology burst into the scene. Hopes of the BJP-led government delivering justice were misplaced.

The past two decades has been an unending trauma for the riot victims eeking out a living in the shanties and crumbling colonies, earmarked for them. For the orphans of 1984, the lost childhood has been replaced by a miserable youth.

In a city that is a comfortable home to political refugees from over 40 countries, the victims of 1984 are forgotten and hidden - like sins.

Delhi has been the graveyard of many an empire: Be it the Slave Dynasty, Lodhis, Mughals or the British. But can modern Delhi overcome its history? Will India survive the curse of history? For a country that refuses to learn from history how bright could the future be?

The answers to these questions lie buried in the lessons of the past. In search of a solution to the endless cycle of violence, Timesofindia.com captures various aspects of the 1984 riots, its victims and responses, hoping that the leaders, authorities, ordinary men and women realize that no cause is worth a life

source: India refuses to learn lessons from its history of communal riots. The sins of 1984 revisited Gujarat in 2002 and are likely to surface again, says Josy Joseph.

THE police looked the other way as politicians led marauding mobs into the city. You could be talking of Delhi of 1984, or Ahmedabad of 2002.

Assurance of immunity to the criminal is almost ingrained in the society. Witnesses to bloody pogroms in India grow up without any guilt. Each mob violence is forgotten in the next one.

Welcoming the extension of the tenure of Nanavati Commission of Inquiry, on the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and other parts of the country, Amnesty International urges the Indian authorities to ensure that the perpetrators of the violence carried out against the Sikh community, in 1984, be brought to justice.

The United Progressive Alliance in its Common Minimum Programme stated that improving the justice sector and addressing the issues of communal violence was one of its goals. Amnesty International believes that ending impunity for past abuses is critical to achieving these objectives.

Amnesty International calls on the Indian authorities to end impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations carried out in Punjab state between the mid 1980's and 1990's, including the 1984 riots in Delhi. During this period a range of human rights violations were perpetrated but few people have been brought to justice.

"Until justice is delivered to victims and their families the wounds left by this period remain open," said Amnesty International.

Only a small minority of the police officers responsible for a range of human rights violations, including torture, deaths in custody, extra-judicial killings and 'disappearances', were brought to justice in the Punjab state. There have been a small number of prosecutions but in many cases impunity has prevailed.

In 1996, the Supreme Court ordered the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to examine the findings of the Central Bureau of Investigations that 2,097 people had been illegally cremated by police officials in Amritsar district between 1984 and 1994. In March 2004, through public notices in newspapers the NHRC encouraged the families of the victims to file their claims before the Commission.

Background Information

The decade of violent political opposition in Punjab -- which lasted from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s -- started when a movement within the Sikh community in Punjab turned to violence to achieve an independent state for the Sikhs in the early 1980s.

To deal with the violence in the state, Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, authorized an army assault on the Golden Temple, the centre of the Sikh religion, in June 1984. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the leader of Akali Dal, the largest Sikh political party demanding official recognition of the Sikh faith and greater political autonomy, together with many of his supporters, were killed in an assault on the Golden Temple, known as Operation Blue Star.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated on 31 October 1984 in retaliation. Her assassination was followed by a period of violence known as the anti-Sikh riots.

>From the early 1980s, armed opposition groups targeted and killed police officers, elected representatives and civil servants. The security forces resorted to unlawful and indiscriminate arrests, torture and extra-judicial executions. Thousands of civilians were the victims of abuses committed by both sides.

Armed opposition ended in Punjab just over a decade ago, resulting in a marked decrease of human rights violations in the state. However, thousands of families are still waiting to see justice or know the fate of their relatives who "disappeared" that period.

In its 2003 report, India: Break the cycle of impunity and torture in Punjab, Amnesty International linked the continuation of serious human rights violations in the Punjab to the culture of impunity developed during the period of militancy and reinforced by subsequent inaction. The organization found that regular incidents of torture and custodial violence in the Punjab occur even today.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

India: Prosecute Killers of Sikhs

End Two Decades of Impunity

On the twentieth anniversary of the mass killings of Sikhs, the new Congress-led government should launch fresh investigations into and make a public commitment to prosecute the planners and implementers of the violence, Human Rights Watch said today.

In 1984, in retaliation for the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, angry mobs, some allegedly organized by members of the Congress party, attacked and killed thousands of Sikhs. From November 1 to November 4, gangs attacked the symbols and structures of the Sikh faith, the properties of Sikhs, and killed whole families by burning them alive. The residences and properties of Sikhs were identified through government-issued voter lists.

Victim groups, lawyers and activists have long alleged state complicity in the violence. For three days the police failed to act, as gangs carrying weapons and kerosene roamed the streets, exhorting non-Sikhs to kill Sikhs and loot and burn their properties.

"Seven government-appointed commissions have investigated these attacks," said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "But the commissions were all either whitewashes or they were met with official stonewalling and obstruction."

The report of the latest commission, the Nanavati Commission, was due November 1, but has been delayed for another two months.

"The time for commissions that do not lead to prosecutions is over," said Adams. "After two decades, the prosecutors and police should act. There is more than enough evidence to do so now."

Human Rights Watch called for an end to political protection for organizers of the violence. Some of those allegedly involved in the pogrom currently occupy posts in the government or are members of parliament. Both the judiciary and administrative inquiry commissions have failed to hold these perpetrators accountable.

"For two decades high-ranking members of the Congress party have enjoyed political impunity for this violence," said Adams. "The fact that many of the alleged planners of the violence were and are members of the Congress party should not be a barrier to justice for the victims."

Human Rights Watch commended ENSAAF (www.ensaaf.org), an organization dedicated to fighting impunity in India, for its 150-page report, Twenty Years of Impunity, analyzing the patterns of the pogroms and the attitudes and practices of impunity revealed by previously unpublished government documents and other materials.

"With many connected to the violence now enjoying prominent positions in public life, the ENSAAF report makes it clear that India continues to ignore this dark chapter of its modern history at its own risk," said Adams. "Only a conscious exercise of political will on the part of the new government of Prime Minister Singh can bring about justice for the Sikhs."

http://www.sikhsundesh.net/genocide.htm

Shahidka

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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008)

Shahidka (Russian: шахидка — feminine gender derivation from shahid), sometimes called "Black Widow", is a term for Islamist Chechen female suicide bombers, who made themselves known at the Moscow theater hostage crisis of October 2002. The commander Shamil Basayev had referred to the shahidkas as a part of subunit of his suicide bombers called the "Gardens of the Righteous" (Riyad-us Saliheen).

The term of "Black Widows" probably originates from the fact that many of these women are widows of men killed by the Russian forces in Chechnya (the toxic connotation of black widow spider is intended). In 2003, the Russian journalist Yulia Yuzik coined the phrase "Brides of Allah" (Невесты Аллаха) when she described the process by which Chechen women were recruited by Basayev and his associates; the phrase was also used again after the Beslan attack, as the title of an installment of the Russian NTV programme Top Secret (Совершенно секретно).

[hide]

[edit] Background

The ranks of the Shahidkas are filled mainly with 15-19 year old women. According to journalist Julia Jusik many of the women have been sold by their parents to be used as shahidkas, others have been kidnapped or tricked. Another group come from wahhabist families and are pressured to become shahidkas by their family. Only one out of ten act out of conviction or want revenge or want to die^{[dubious – discuss]}. Many have been prepared to the suicide by way of narcotics and rapes (making them ineligible for marriage). Several have been pregnant at the time. Mainly they are given no training at all in preparation for the suicides as no weapon skill is needed to strap on the explosives. Many don't even blow themselves up, but are blown up by remote control.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[edit] Notable examples

Khava Barayeva is renowned as the first known 'Black Widow' after blowing herself up at a Russian Army base in Chechnya in June 2000.

Medna Bayrokova, a resident of Grozny says she remembers the day a middle aged woman came to her front door asking to speak to her 26-year old daughter. Medna Bayrokova let the woman in. Her daughter, Zareta Bayrokova then spent an hour in her bedroom with the woman, before leaving the house, ostensibly to walk the woman to the bus stop. One hour later her mother was visited by several men in camouflage uniforms who said that they had taken her daughter away as she had agreed to marry one of their members.^{[citation needed]} Less than a month later Medna and her husband saw their daughter again, on the TV news during the Moscow Theater Siege. Zareta's unmistakable dark eyes were visible above the Niqab worn by one of the female terrorists. Her hands were clasped firmly below a belt of explosives.

In May 2003, Shakhida Baimuratova, a Black Widow suicide bomber killed 14 people and wounded 150 in an assassination attempt on the Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov at a crowded festival in Ilashkan-Yurt. A second woman bomber was also present but her explosives failed to detonate.

On June 5 2003 a woman wearing a white coat and an explosive belt threw herself under a bus carrying members of the Russian military. 17 soldiers were killed in the blast and 15 were severely injured.

On July 6 2003, two suicide bombers killed 16 people at a rock concert at Tushino Airfield in Moscow. The two women had been acting suspiciously at the entrance to the festival and then tried to enter, but had been denied entry by the security guards. One of the women detonated her bomb immediately, the other one ten minutes later as evacuees were filing past. Police found a third bomb that was defused without causing harm.

In December 2003, a male and female suicide bomber killed 46 people and injured 100 others by detonating explosives on a packed commuter train, which had just left Yessentuki in Southern Russia. The woman is believed to have carried explosives in a bag, whereas the man had grenades strapped to his leg.

On 9 December 2003 a bomb exploded outside the "National" hotel in Moscow just a few hundred metres from the Moscow Kremlin. It is thought that the target was the State Duma building and that the bomb had detonated prematurely. Six people died and 13 were injured in the blast. The suicide bomber was later identified as Khadishat Mangeriyeva.

On February 6 2004, Georgi Trofimov, a Russian bomb disposal officer, was killed as he tried to defuse a device at a Moscow cafe. A woman in her 20s had tried to enter the cafe but was prevented from doing so by security staff. The woman started shouting at the security officers and screamed 'I'm gonna blow this place up'. The security staff grabbed the woman and took her bag from her, before covering it with Flak jackets and calling the police. Efforts to defuse the bomb remotely failed, and a bomb disposal officer was sent to defuse the bomb, which detonated as he approached it. The failed bomber, ethnic Ingush Zarema Muzhakoyeva, was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment for terrorism in April 2004.^[4] In 2005, she participated in the trial of the Beslan hostage crisis terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulayev as a witness for the prosecution, but she withdrew all her statements about Kulayev that she made in pre-trial depositions and said she didn't know he was a militant.^[5]

Two Russian passenger aircraft disasters in 2004 are believed to have been the work of the Black Widows. The smaller of the planes, a TU-134 which crashed near Tula had been carrying a Chechen woman called Amnat Nagayeva who had bought her ticket just an hour before the flight took off. The larger plane exploded near the city of Rostov killing 46 people. Among the wreckage, investigators found traces of Hexogen, a powerful explosive. Another Chechen woman, Satsita Djerbikhanova was also a last-minute passenger on this flight.

On September 1 2004, two Chechen women, Roza Nagayeva and Mairam Taburova, were involved in the attack on a Russian, North-Ossetian school (the Beslan school hostage crisis). The attack which killed 334 civilians, including 186 children, was masterminded by Shamil Basayev. According to some reports the Chechen women complained bitterly when they found out the target were children, whereafter they were blown up by remote.

[edit] Notes

^ Julia Jusik: The brides Allahs. Suicide assassin inside from Chechnya
^ (German) Sie explodierten per Fernzündung^{[dead link]}
^ "Allahs sorte enker" (in Norwegian). Kulturmeglerne. 2005-03-29. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. http://web.archive.org/web/20071009210826/http://www.kulturmeglerne.no/kulturmeglerne/views/3955.
^ Sokovnin, Aleksey (April 9, 2004). "Now we all are going to be blown up" (in Russian). Kommersant. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?docsid=465081. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
^ Farniev, Zaur (December 23, 2005). "Zarema, whom should we kill now?" (in Russian). Kommersant. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?docsid=638055. Retrieved 2009-04-12.

[edit] References

Yuzik, Yulia, "Невесты Аллаха. Лица и судьбы всех женщин-шахидок, взорвавшихся в России" 2003, Ультра Культура, ISBN 5-98042-034-7
Zur Hochzeit mit Allah (excerpt, German translation)

[edit] External links

Groskop, Viv (2004-09-05). "The women with death at their fingertips - martyrs or victims?". The Scotsman. http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1189&id=1046022004. Retrieved 2009-04-12.
F. Shamileva (2004-03-29). "Women's question". The Chechen Times №31. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927194928/http://www.chechentimes.org/en/chechentimes/?id=15195.
Lagunina, Irina (2006-10-27). "Nord-Ost Anniversary Recalls Ascent Of Female Suicide Bomber". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/10/acdd90e6-ac42-43ea-8a51-0bafc6a215fb.html. Retrieved 2009-04-12.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahidka"

Blood revenge drives Black Widows

- JOSEF STALIN'S PRESTIGE PROJECT

Josef Stalin

Moscow's Metro system was one of the greatest prestige projects of Josef Stalin. Many of the stations in the city centre are built in palatial style, with marble-clad walls, frescoes, mosaics, chandeliers and statues, many lauding the 1917 Bolshevik revolution

In August 2009, Moscow unveiled a refurbished Metro station decorated with an inscription heaping praise on Stalin, sparking outrage from Opposition and human rights groups

The chandeliered, mosaic-covered vestibule in central Moscow's Kurskaya station bears a line from an old version of the Soviet national anthem: "Stalin brought us up to be loyal to the nation, inspired us to labour and great deeds"

The Mayakovskaya station was used as an air raid shelter during World War II

The Moscow Metro has 298.8km of route length, 12 lines and 180 stations; on a normal weekday it carries over 7 million passengers. Calcutta Metro is 23km long

The first known attack inside the Metro came during the time of Leonid Brezhnev, when a bomb planted in a carriage in January 1977 by Armenian separatists killed seven people and injured another 37

Construction of the Moscow Metro began in the 1930s. The first line opened in May 1935 between Sokolniki and Park Kultury with a branch to Smolenskaya which reached Kievskaya in April 1937

Construction continued throughout the 1930s and throughout World War II. As Moscow was besieged in late 1941, the Metro stations were used as air raid shelters

Nikita Khrushchev

The council of ministers moved its offices to the platforms of Mayakovskaya station, where Stalin made several public speeches

The stations on the Arbatsky (or Arbat) line, constructed during the Cold War, were planned as shelters in the event of a nuclear war with the US

During the late 1950s, the architectural extravagance of new metro stations was significantly reduced, under the orders of Nikita Khrushchev. He championed a more simple or standard layout, which quickly became known as Sorokonozhka or Centipede because of the columns aligned in rows down either side of the platform

A bracket at the Byelorusskaya metro station in Moscow

In the mid-1970s, architectural extravagance was restored, and original designs once again became popular. Construction of new stations continues to this day

The marble used in the Moscow Metro was brought from all over the former Soviet Union

Black marble from the Urals, Armenia and Georgia decorates the walls of the Byelorusskaya, Ploshchad Revolutsii, Elektrozavodskaya and Aeroport stations. Deep-red marble from Georgia adorns the Krasnye Vorota Metro station

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100330/jsp/foreign/story_12280310.jsp

'Moscow bombers could be linked to Af-Pak terror network'!

Enlarge Photo Congress party Chief Sonia Gandhi talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi May...

Sonia Gandhi will chair the National Advisory Council (NAC) in a move that will strengthen the ruling party's pro-poor programmes in time for crucial state elections.

Gandhi's appointment to the NAC could signal a renewed push for spending on the poor, such as guaranteeing cheap food grains for families and a rural job scheme that already costs 1 percent of GDP.

The NAC, which comprises academics and activists, was formed in 2004 and steered through programmes such as the rural jobs scheme, credited for helping return the party to power in 2009.

The government coalition is under fire over issues such as high food, taxes and fuel prices and a resurgent opposition has stalled two important parliamentary bills.

The Congress' core voters are predominantly rural and poor, and such legislation will help boost its credentials ahead of elections in larger states such as West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

The chair of the NAC holds the rank of a cabinet minister, allowing Gandhi to call for and work with government officials and documents

At least 41 people were killed in two explosions that hit the Moscow metro during rush hour Monday, according to Russian news agencies.

The first hit the Lubyanka Metro Station in central Moscow about 7:56am local time (3:56am GMT), Russian news agency ITAR-TASS reported. Twenty-six were killed and 15 people were injured.

Sky News reported that a second explosion hit the Park Kultury station, three stations away on the same line, about 30 minutes later. AFP reported at least 15 people were killed.

RIA Novosti reported that a security source told the agency the Lubyanka station was hit by a bomb.

The Moscow Metro, which spans almost the entire Russian capital, is the world's second most heavily used metro system after Tokyo's twin subway.

The Lubyanka Station is on the Sokolnicheskaya Line of the Moscow Metro, located under Lubyanka Square.

The square houses the former headquarters of the KGB and the Lubyanka prison. It now houses the Border Guard Service of Russia, which is the nation's federal security service which succeeded the KGB.

It is located a third of a mile from the Kremlin.

Spokeswoman for the Russian emergencies ministry Irina Andrianova told ITAR-TASS 15 people were killed in the train at Lubyanka and 11 on the platform.

Sky News reported the explosion struck the second car of the train.

The Russian capital over the last decade has been hit by a string of deadly explosions claimed by militants from its turbulent southern region of Chechnya but this has become less frequent in the last years.

Obama calls Medvedev to condemn Moscow blasts!

Sania Mirza engaged to Shoaib Malik, claims TV channel!

Plotters of the twin suicide blast at Moscow subway stations that killed 38 people could have links with the terror network based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, Russia said Tuesday.

The deadly blasts in the subway could have been organised with support from abroad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

'I do not rule this out, nothing can be ruled out here,' he said.

The minister said that Moscow 'is well informed about the so-called no-man's land on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan,' where 'the terrorist underground has entrenched itself'.

'We know that many terrorist attacks - not only in Afghanistan, but in other countries too - are plotted in that area... Sometimes, the trail leads to the Caucasus,' he said and urged the global community to coordinate efforts in the fight against international terrorism and its financial sponsors.

Two female suicide bombers attacked the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations of the Sokolnicheskaya subway line during the morning rush hour Monday. The first blast occurred at 8:00 a.m. (0930 IST) and the second about 40 minutes later. At least 38 people were killed and more than 70 injured.

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is engaged to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik and they might tie the knot next month, claimed a television channel here. Geo television reported today that the two sporting superstars have got engaged and their marriage would take place in April, but there was no confirmation from either of the families.

The report came as a surprise in India and repeated phone calls to Sania's father Imran for a confirmation went unanswered. An e-mail query on the development also didn't get any response.

Incidentally, Shoaib was earlier accused of marrying another Hyderabad girl, Ayesha Siddiqui, in 2002 over phone even though the cricketer said he was merely engaged to her.

Ayesha's father had also threatened to sue Malik for jilting the girl and not giving her divorce.

According to the channel, Shoaib's mother met Sania's parents in India and accepted her as future daughter-in-law.

The 'Walima' or reception is expected to be held in Lahore on April 16 or 17, according to the channel, which quoted sources as saying that Sania and Shoaib fell in love some six-and-half months ago and it could be the reason for the breaking up of Sania's engagement with childhood friend Sohrab Mirza.

"I desire to get married soon. You will soon get some good news but it depends on my family. I fully expect to get married this year," Shoaib had said in a recent interaction with the media here.

Asked if it would be an arranged marriage, he said, "No can say what will happen, but it will take place with the concurrence of my family."

Enlarge Photo A fire-fighter and Interior Ministry officers work near the entrance of the Lubyanka metro station...

Two female suicide bombers killed at least 37 people on packed Moscow metro trains on Monday and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that "terrorists will be destroyed".

Witnesses described morning rush-hour panic at two central Moscow stations, with commuters falling over each other in dense smoke and dust as they tried to escape the worst attack on the Russian capital in six years. Sixty-five others were injured.

Black Widows rip Moscow Metro

MEGAN K. STACK

An injured woman outside Moscow's Park Kultury Metro station, one of the blast sites (AFP)

Moscow, March 29: Two female suicide bombers known as "Black Widows" blew themselves up on packed subway cars in Moscow's city centre this morning, killing at least 37 people and raising the grim spectre of violence creeping back into the symbolic and bureaucratic heart of Russia.

The first attack came just before 8am, when a woman set off a suicide bomb just as the doors of the subway carriage slammed shut at Lubyanka station, located near the headquarters of the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.

Officials said they suspected that the attack there was intended as a message to the security services, which have helped lead the crackdown on Islamic extremism in Chechnya and other parts of the Caucasus region in southern Russia.

Less than an hour later, the second explosion came. This time the bomber struck at Park Kultury, another iconic station alongside Gorky Park, where Russian children flock for roller-coasters, sprawling gardens and ice-skating.

The explosions blasted through the underground at rush hour just as the city's commuters jammed the Metro system on their way to work and school. It was the first such attack in the capital in six years.

Investigators were hunting for two women who were captured on surveillance cameras accompanying the two bombers to the doors of the Metro stations.

"The terrorist acts were carried out by two female terrorist bombers," said Moscow's mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov. "They happened at a time when there would be the maximum number of victims."

Traffic snarls brought much of the city to a crawl as underground trains were rerouted and frazzled commuters packed themselves into gypsy cabs. Sirens screamed through the streets, and helicopters hovered overhead. Worried family members overloaded some of the city's mobile networks searching for loved ones.

Soon, the political ramifications began to unfurl. "Obviously, we have not done enough," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told an emergency meeting. "We must consider this problem on a national scale, rather than focus on particular means of transportation or particular cities."

The explosions come just a few days after the 10th anniversary of Vladimir V. Putin's election to the presidency. Now serving as Prime Minister after being forced from the Kremlin by term limits, Putin is still widely seen as Russia's top leader.

Putin's time in power has been marked by struggle with Islamists in the Caucasus. After two recent Chechen wars, the installation of proxy leadership and heavy-handed efforts to squash violence, bloody unrest continues to roil the southern edge of Russia — and raise questions about the government's ability to stabilise the country.

The militants receive moral and perhaps financial support from al Qaida. Dozens of contributors to three websites affiliated with al Qaida wrote comments in praise of today's attacks.

Officials speculated that the blasts could be revenge after the reported killing this month of Sayed Buryatsky, an Islamist ideologue who was touted as a leader of the anti-government insurgency.

New York's transit system beefed up security as a precaution following the Moscow bombings.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

TN Govt rejects Nalini's plea for premature release

Ending months of uncertainty over the State Government's stand about the possible premature release of Rajiv Gandhi assassination convict Nalini Sriharan, the Government informed the Madras High Court on Monday that the Prison Advisory Board constituted to decide on the request has rejected her plea, a decision which the State accepted.

There were serious speculations about the nature of the report prepared by the advisory board with many claiming that it was positive for Nalini, who appealed that she be set free after over 19 years of continuous imprisonment since her arrest in early 90s.

However, clearing the air today, State Advocate General PS Raman informed the court that the board has rejected her plea on eight counts and that the Government has decided to accept the report. A Government Order has been issued in this regard, the AG said.

The contents of the report, the reasons cited for rejecting the plea, or the GO has not yet been made public.

The present case that is being heard by a division bench comprising justices Elipe Dharma Rao and KK Sasidharan deals with a petition filed by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy challenging Nalini's right to plead for remission, arguing that she has already received one when the death sentence initially awarded was reduced to life in prison.

Express news service

Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said the bombs were filled with bolts and iron rods. He linked the attacks to the North Caucasus, where Moscow faces a growing threat from Islamist insurgents who have threatened to hit Russian cities and economic targets.

Officials said the death toll could rise, with about 30 people badly injured.

"A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed," Putin said, before breaking off a visit to Siberia to handle the aftermath of the attack.

"I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed," Putin told emergency officials.

Putin cemented his power in 1999 by launching an ultimately successful war to overthrow a separatist government lodged in the Chechen capital Grozny. Russian leaders fear the loss of this region endangering energy transit routes could destabilise other areas in a vast country with a large Muslim minority.

The first blast tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8 a.m. as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.

About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second or third carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people, an emergencies ministry spokeswoman said by telephone.

"It was very scary. I saw a dead body," said Valentin Popov, a 19-year-old student travelling on a train to the Park Kultury station, told Reuters. "Everyone was screaming. There was a stampede at the doors. I saw one woman holding a child and pleading with people to let her through, but it was impossible."

Reuters photographers saw body bags being brought out of both stations.

The Kremlin had declared victory in its battle with Chechen separatists who fought two wars with Moscow; but violence has intensified in the neighbouring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia, where Islamist militancy overlaps with clan rivalries and criminal rings amid deep poverty.

The chief of the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, told President Dmitry Medvedev: "Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found...and according to initial data, these persons are linked to the North Caucasus."

Eye witnesses spoke of panic after the blasts, which ripped through stations just a few kilometres from the Kremlin.

"I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body," an unidentified man who was on a train at Park Kultury told RIA news agency.

THREATS TO RUSSIAN CITIES

The Russian rouble fell sharply on the bombings, but later regained ground, with traders arguing the actions were unlikely to undermine the basic stability of the currency.

The rouble-denominated Micex exchange was up 1.1 percent. "The Russian stock market is more than stable, the rouble is stable," said Anatoly Darakov, a trader at Citi. It's not the first blast in Moscow."

Surveillance camera footage posted on the Internet showed several motionless bodies lying on the floor or slumped against the wall in Lubyanka station lobby and emergency workers crouched over victims, trying to treat them.

"I was moving up on the escalator when I heard a loud bang, a blast. A door near the passage way arched, was ripped out and a cloud of dust came down on the escalator," a man named Alexei told the state-run Rossiya 24 news television channel.

Jonathan Eyal, of London's Royal United Services Institute, saw a personal challenge to Putin, who remains the chief power in the land.

"This is a direct affront to Vladimir Putin, whose entire rise to power was built on his pledge to crush the enemies of Russia...It's an affront to his muscular image."

The current death toll makes it the worst attack on Moscow since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 100 on a metro train.

Chechen separatists were blamed for that attack. Rebel leader Doku Umarov, who is fighting for an Islamic emirate embracing the whole region, vowed last month to take the war to Russian cities.

"Blood will no longer be limited to our (Caucasus) cities and towns. The war is coming to their cities," the Chechen rebel leader said in an interview on the unofficial Islamist website www.kavkazcenter.com.

The Chechen rebellion began in the 1990s as a largely ethnic nationalist movement, fired by a sense of injustice over the 1940s transportation of Chechens to Central Asia, with enormous loss of life, by dictator Josef Stalin. Largely since the second war, Russian officials say, Islamic militants from outside Russia have joined the campaign, lending it a new intensity.

Analysts said the involvement of women recalled the phenomenon of the "Black Widows" in Chechnya, women who had lost brothers or husbands to Russian forces in the Chechen conflict.

Obama calls Medvedev to condemn Moscow blasts!

US President Barack Obama telephoned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday to offer condolences following the suicide attacks on Moscow's metro system that left at least 38 people dead. Obama pledged US cooperation in assisting the Russian government track down those responsible for the attacks and bring them to justice, the White House said. Authorities believe two female suicide bombers carried out separate morning attacks on the metro system in what was the worst terrorist attack on the Russian capital in six years. Obama had earlier issued a statement condemning the attacks and expressed solidarity with the Russian people. "The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life, and we condemn these outrageous acts," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

Meanwhile, US authorities were stepping up security in the subway stations in Washington and New York. Metro authorities in Washington announced there would be security sweeps throughout the day.

Porn star mistress to be lurking in the 'Woods' during Augusta Masters

While Tiger Woods makes his return to golf on April 8, porn star Joslyn James, who is allegedly one of the his numerous mistresses, will be shaking her booty at a strip club in the vicinity.

The hottie is reportedly set to perform at Pink Pony strip club in Atlanta, just two hours before Woods hits the Augusta course.

"She was invited out to Atlanta to make an appearance at Pink Pony," the New York Daily News quoted James' manager, Gina Rodriguez, as telling the sportsBYbrooks web site earlier.

James has starred in adult films such as 'Big Breasted Nurses' and 'My First Sex Teacher #12.'

Meanwhile, Woods wife Elin has decided to skip his comeback tournament, following the exposure of his multiple affairs last year. (ANI)

Asian economy looking up, but hint of menace lingers

ue, Mar 30 08:09 AM

Enlarge Photo People work on the assembly line of an automaker in Chakan, near Mumbai, March 13,... Slideshow: World in pics: March 29

When the head of the Asian Development Bank says his better-off members should become aid donors, not recipients, it's a good indication that the region's rise is not just a flash in the pan.

Asia's banks were scarcely touched by the global credit crunch and its economies are now recovering briskly. The ADB is poised to upgrade its growth forecasts next month.

The 9.5 percent expansion in global trade volumes that the World Trade Organisation is projecting in 2010 after the deepest contraction since World War Two will be led by China and India.

Fitch and Standard and Poor's have both upgraded Indonesia's credit rating this year, while the latter has changed its outlook on India to stable from negative.

So the time is ripe, ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda argues, for Asia to play a bigger global role in everything from shaping financial supervision to managing international financial institutions and digging into its pocket to help those worse off.

"Particularly for low-income countries, concessionary sources are absolutely necessary. The global donor community must be expanded. That means more and more Asian countries contributing, donating, to development assistance," he said in an interview.

If this were a movie, with everything going swimmingly, the star at this point would be struck down by a life-threatening illness or a menacing stranger would move into the neighbourhood.

So what could go wrong for Asia?

JUST DO IT

An economic double-dip in the West is an obvious short-term risk. So is an implosion in China, now the biggest trading partner for many Asian countries.

Perhaps the biggest risk, though, is that governments fail to make hay while the sun shines.

In a recent study for Nomura, consultant John Llewellyn judges that Asia's medium-term prospects are bright if -- and it's a big if -- policymakers grasp the nettle of reform.

"Good policies do not guarantee good economic performance, but bad policies almost always result in poor economic performance," Llewellyn, a former senior official with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, writes.

Asia, he says, has considerable supply-side scope to keep expanding output at a fast rate: domestic savings are high; urbanisation rates are still low; education and skills levels are low but rising; and there is a lot of potential for catch-up in Asia's inefficient service sector.

On the demand side, bigger economies like China, India and Indonesia must turn to domestic sources of growth, Llewellyn argues.

To that end, it is imperative for Asia to strengthen its social safety net to reduce precautionary savings and thus spur consumption. Developing the banking system so people can borrow to finance major purchases such as homes and cars will become urgent.

"Realising this brisk growth of aggregate demand, in a sustainable manner, is perhaps the greatest economic policy challenge facing the Asian economies in the decade ahead," Llewellyn writes.

An early indicator of Asia's appetite for reform will come on Tuesday, when Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is due to unveil a new economic model aimed at boosting growth.

TRADE AND PRODUCTIVITY

One area where economists would like to see further progress across Asia is in dismantling trade barriers.

Malaysia, for instance, levies import tariffs of 30 percent or more on iron and steel, some construction materials and -- along with Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia -- cars.

Still, Edward Teather, an economist with UBS in Singapore, said it was remarkable how successful the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been in implementing free trade agreements in recent years.

The latest one, with China, formally came into effect on Jan. 1, although mutual tariff cuts have been taking place since 2005.

"Moreover, ongoing negotiations and agreements to further reduce tariffs mean liberalisation momentum remains intact within ASEAN," Teather wrote in a report last month.

"All this is important. Increased trade improves income growth both directly and indirectly through improvement in productivity via competition and the distribution of knowledge and technology," he said.

A separate UBS report also gives Asia generally high marks for productivity.

Besides the capacity to innovate and harness technology, UBS finds productivity growth tends to go hand in hand with strong national balance sheets -- a country's current account balance, its public sector balance and its level of private credit.

These factors determine whether consumers, firms and investors have the means and inclination to fund innovation-related investment.

As rich nations entered the 2008 crisis with the most severe economic imbalances in 50 years, while developing economies had never been under less strain, the latter should outperform the former by a wide margin in the period ahead, according to UBS economist Andrew Cates.

And Asia will be to the fore.

"Economies with recent records of low balance sheet stress and a high technology achievement include China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines together with Brazil. These economies offer the greatest potential to achieve productivity-enhanced growth in coming years," Cates writes.

So will the movie of the Asian economy have a happy ending after all?

Perhaps, but a familiar menace still lurks: the menace of misaligned exchange rates, which is hampering economic rebalancing and, in the worst case, could touch off a trade war between the United States and China.

Llewellyn, reviewing the challenges he sketched out for Nomura, concludes: "Before substantial progress can be made with the majority of these various policies, however -- both on the demand side and on the structural side -- Asia's policymakers will have to deal with the exchange rate issue, which has been overshadowing policy discussion for many years."

(Editing by Mathew Veedon)

Alan Wheatley, China Economics Editor

Business Today

Are you being appraised right?

Tue, Mar 30 12:20 PM

Bala S, Senior VP for Global Re-engineering at Genpact, the business process outsourcing (BPO) major, would be piqued each time he was asked to appraise his team. The US-based Bala would turn into a procrastinator and make a lot of noise about how the appraisal system was distracting him from his primary work.

His annoyance would intensify when he actually got down to working on appraisals both as a boss and as an appraisee. Reason? Bala would lose direction while going through the online system. For a team that worked on multiple projects, performance evaluation was supposed to be done on fixed goals.

"It was a system that worked in a straight, silo-based line. We work as global cross-functional teams that drive projects. I wanted flexibility in the system to be able to give project-based feedback," he says. Besides, since Genpact teams worked on client sites, Bala also wanted an open-architecture, speedy, multilanguage system that could be accessed from anywhere.

Such feedback prompted Genpact to overhaul the appraisal system for its 37,000 employees. Starting this year, it has put in place a new system of appraisal in 30 languages that has Bala raving. It's praise this time. While Genpact overhauled its system, a score of organisations continue to have archaic appraisals.

Employees across sectors complain that often the shape, size, form and character of appraisals are complicated, hazy and obscure. "I have been asked to selfappraise myself on factors like delegation when I had no team to lead," says an employee in a consultancy, not wishing to be named.

It's hardly surprising then that the appraisal system, instead of addressing management of performance in the organisation, ends up being a system for determining end-of- the-year rating of employees for the purpose of distributing increments and bonuses.

For its part, Genpact has managed to change its system dramatically. "Earlier, we used to talk of general, universal competencies; now it's about specific competencies of teams and individuals," says Piyush Mehta, Global Head (HR), Genpact. Beyond the online module, Genpact continues the earlier system of an annual discussion between appraisee and his supervisor and then another discussion along with the supervisor's boss.

It's at the level of functional head or supervisor feedback that employees and companies face a bigger challenge. "At all times, an honest, transparent discussion is important. The supervisor needs to make sure that feedback is given continuously, but not everybody does a terrific job of it," Mehta admits.

HR experts point to a big flaw of appraisalsâ€"lack of preparedness on the part of appraiser. "It's not a comforting thought to know that your boss may be clueless on how to appraise you. Worse, his evaluation may be subjective and biased," says Dhruv Prakash, MD (India), Leadership and Talent Consulting (LTC), Korn/Ferry International.

Little surprise then when PepsiCo India decided to go in for a humongous overhaul of its entire approach to appraisals three years ago, it started by conducting workshops for its managers and teaching them how to write appraisals and give feedback. "To strengthen the process, we conduct confidential surveys through the year that feed into and validate some of the feedback that we have in the appraisals," says Pavan Bhatia, VP (HR), PepsiCo India.

At these workshops, managers are explained what the various parameters stand for. Often, the quality of managers varies and the appraisals done by them have to be calibrated to rule out either personal bias towards a style of operation or the quality of manager. For instance, a manager at centre A could be more exacting in his appraisal than his counterpart in centre B. Or, a manager in a certain place could be simply better than his counterpart in another centre, say, in a non-metro.

"Hence, we conduct a calibration workshop where we reach a consensus on how the scores are to be understood to rule out such differences," says Bhatia. This system has now been adopted by PepsiCo businesses across 200 countries.

Auto major Maruti Suzuki India, too, has rolled out a new online performance appraisal system this year after testing it for three years. While the system retains the standard midyear review followed by the final review, the company has introduced multiple check points to appraise its non-blue-collar workforce instead of one or two persons deciding the fate of an employee.

The objective of the new system at Maruti is to make the appraisal process scientific and transparent. "It's process-driven and not judgement-driven. In an individual's case, it can become one-dimensional and biased, leading to discontentment," says S.Y. Siddiqui, Managing Executive Officer for Administration (HR, Finance & IT), Maruti Suzuki India.

After deciding on the KRAs or key result areas in April, the company puts in place a mid-term feedback processâ€"from department head to employee and from employee to department head. "It's an important way of letting the employee know where he stands and what he can do to better his performance." By all accounts, such feedback comes in handy in handling expectations after the appraisals. "The idea is not to surprise the employee at the end of his appraisal," he says.

Korn/Ferry's Prakash, however, has a bone to pick with the idea that one or two appraisals in a year is enough. "There is no way that such infrequent discussionsâ€"especially when held at a time when reward distribution is the overriding concernâ€" can result in raising levels of performance," he says.

He advocates a more frequent interaction between a boss and his team member on setting goals, reviewing progress or outcomes. "If you can have business meetings and reviews on a monthly basis, why can't these also give indications and feedback on performance?" he asks.

This will ensure a seamless communication, lessen the possibility of friction and also ensure that an individual knows how his work is linked with the business growth. A case in point is multi-business manufacturing entity SRF's employee evaluation christened "Development Dialogue".

At the beginning of the financial year, projects are planned at the business leadership level based on business requirements for the year for all its five businesses. Then these projects are broken into activities for teams and subsequently, activities for individuals. The online process ensures that an individual can clearly see at all times how his activity impacts the business and vice versa.

Moreover, the key areas assigned to an employee are in play all through the year. At the time of appraisal, all that an appraiser needs to do is give evidence for his observations and ratings. Says Suresh Tripathi, SRF's President for HR: "Communication helps. The year-long process of feedback takes care of anxieties and gives a fair sense of communication."

What if an employee gets a bad review? While organisations like Genpact are still open to a re-review, most organisations cannot address this issue post-facto. Even when organisations justify an appraisal, the employee will continue to be dissatisfied. The feeling can be assuaged, but not fully eliminated.

The way out for both organisations and individuals is to be proactive and not reactive and it's one of the biggest challenges for the organisations. "We would like to improve our system of feedback. The natural tendency is to avoid negative feedback," says Tripathi.

If your appraisal has given you a nasty surprise, all you can do is agree to disagree. But, for the next time around, irrespective of whether or not a rigorous performance appraisal system is in place, you must compulsorily check with your boss on your performance frequently. You will be helping your boss arrive at an informed decision on you.

- Additional reporting by Shamni Pande

Saumya Bhattacharya

ANALYSIS - Banks' mortgage cuts walk consumer tightrope

Tue, Mar 30 12:08 PM

Enlarge Photo An employee of a money changer counts U.S. dollar notes from a customer in exchange...

Bank of America Corp has agreed to forgive some bad mortgage loans and the U.S. government is pushing other lenders to follow suit, but on a scale too small to make much of a dent in the nation's huge pile of bad debt.

Banks want the public relations gains associated with being kind to borrowers, but the losses that would result from wider loan writedowns and loan forgiveness would be devastating to most lenders.

"Banks are going to be very careful in how they roll this out," said Matt Burnell, a bank stock analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC.

Right now, lenders are focusing on lowering principal payments for the borrowers in the biggest trouble -- those facing ballooning monthly payments as their mortgages reset, who have very little equity in their home, and whose home values have fallen well below the value of the loans.

These borrowers are among the most likely to walk away unless they get some sort of relief. But these borrowers are relatively few in number. Bank of America estimates it will reduce principal on about 45,000 loans.

That's a small number compared with the roughly 12 million U.S. mortgages that are underwater and may enter foreclosure in the next several years, according to estimates by Amherst Securities Group LP in a March 26 research note.

The overall mortgages that may face foreclosure represent about a fifth of home borrowers, Amherst said.

"It's just too narrowly constrained to make a big impact," said Dan Immergluck, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who specializes in housing finance. "I don't want to be too pessimistic, but this is only going to affect a small set of folks."

Lenders have until now mostly modified mortgages through steps like lowering monthly payments and tacking on more principal to the loan. Those kinds of modifications can help banks avoid some painful losses, analysts said.

Lenders modified about 594,095 mortgages in fourth quarter. Most of those modifications were alterations to borrowers' monthly payments.

The entire U.S. mortgage market encompasses $10.8 trillion in debt outstanding, according to a Federal Reserve flow of funds report for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Bank of America announced a plan to cut principal on problem mortgages last week, and the Obama administration announced a $14 billion initiative to help other banks take similar steps.

But these programs are tiny compared to the broader mortgage market, because lenders fear if too many loan values are cut, every borrower could demand a break, analysts said.

"This is still rankling some people who are saying 'Why does Joe Blow down the street get help with his principal and I don't?'" said Wells Fargo's Burnell.

Bank of America has already seen complaints about its program, according to published reports.

Bank analyst Thomas Brown posted an open letter from an unnamed Bank of America customer to Chief Executive Brian Moynihan on the Web site bankstocks.com.

The letter states the customer will no longer do business with the bank, calling principal forgiveness a "despicable solution" that rewards irresponsible financial behavior.

LAST RESORT

In the most extreme cases, principal reduction may be the cheapest alternative for the bank, preventing a costly foreclosure.

Wells Fargo & Co, another major U.S. home lender, has only allowed principal reductions in its so-called "Pick A Payment" mortgage portfolio, acquired as part of the 2008 Wachovia Corp buyout.

"We believe we have to judiciously use principal forgiveness to be fair to all American homeowners," said Teri Schrettenbrunner, spokeswoman for Wells Fargo & Co.

The San Francisco-based bank modified 52,600 Pick A Payment loans, with principal reductions totaling $2.6 billion.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, another U.S. home loan giant and rival for Wells Fargo and Bank of America, has sought to reduce monthly payments for customers -- the typical mortgage modification route in the wake of the housing crisis -- rather than cut principal.

A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment.

But no other banks have announced a mortgage principal reduction program in the wake of Bank of America's Wednesday statement.

Under Bank of America's program, the average principal reduction is projected to be $60,000 to $65,000.

If all 45,000 eligible customers take part in the program, mortgage principal would be reduced by $3 billion.

"Anything you can do to slow down the glut of houses in foreclosure is a good thing," said Jefferson Harralson, a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst. "It does make sense to make some unusual concessions."

(Additional reporting by Elinor Comlay in New York; Editing by Gary Hill)

(For more business news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)

Joe Rauch

Australia says Rio trials opaque; business seeks answer

Tue, Mar 30 11:55 AM

Enlarge Photo A receptionist checks an express mail at the Rio Tinto Limited Beijing Representative Office in...

Australia said on Tuesday China's verdicts against four Rio Tinto executives left serious questions about the country's legal system as business pressed Beijing for clarity.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, keen to draw a line under the squabble with its top export partner, said disagreement over a part of the trial related to theft of commercial secrets in closed court would not hit the booming resource trade.

"In holding part of the trial in secret, China, I believe has missed an opportunity to demonstrate to the world at large transparency that would be consistent with its emerging global role," Rudd told reporters in Melbourne.

A Shanghai court convicted four employees of Rio Tinto of taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets, including Australian citizen Stern Hu, handing sentences on Monday ranging between 7 and 14 years in prison.

Rio immediately sacked the four, who had pleaded guilty to accusations of bribery, but contested separate charges heard in closed court of stealing commercial secrets.

The case initially strained ties between Australia and China, but Rudd said the relationship was strong enough to withstand pressures. "We've had disagreements with our friends in Beijing before. I'm sure we'll have disagreements again."

China is Australia's biggest export market with two-way trade worth $53 billion in 2008. Major exports to China include iron ore, wool, copper ore and manganese. Resource-hungry Chinese firms have been behind several tie-ups with Australia firms.

In January, Australia approved China's biggest-listed gold miner Zijin Mining Group's $498 million bid for Australia's Indophil Resources NL.

But several Chinese bids for Australian firms have failed, most notably a $19.5 billion investment by metals firm Chinalco in Rio that fell apart when Rio sought an alternative rights issue and joint venture with fellow mining giant BHP.

BUSINESS SEEKS TALKS

The influential Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which covers 85 percent of the country's mining and energy companies, said it was seeking urgent talks with Chinese authorities to get clarity in the wake of the Rio trials.

"These broader issues are important to the Australia-China economic relationship, and the necessary confidence Australian business executives require when doing business abroad," said Nathan Backhouse, manager of trade and international affairs.

Chamber members include Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals, Newcrest Mining and Woodside Petroleum, who helped reshape the trade relationship with China.

Australian firms with large China operations, including BHP Billiton have been anxious to distance themselves as far as possible from Rio's troubles.

Rio Tinto said it would fire the four convicted employees to quarantine itself from what it called "deplorable behaviour" in a case that dates back to the middle of last year.

"We understand how deeply distressing these events are for the families of those convicted and we are sympathetic. However, we have had no choice but to terminate the employment of those convicted and associated support for the families," a Rio Tinto spokesperson said.

Australia's Assistant Treasurer Nick Sherry said he believed Rio was a good corporate citizen and told CNBC the case raised no "broader issues" for the miner.

But the Greens party, which wields swing votes in the upper house of parliament, sought an investigation into the firm by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, similar to one already launched by Britain's corporate watchdog.

An ASIC spokesman said the regulator was "following developments to see if anything was of interest", but said no investigation had yet been launched.

In Hong Kong, the Beijing-controlled Wen Wei Po newspaper said the verdicts were a "landmark" and China's handling of the case showed a Beijing "already melded into the world", understanding how to defend its national interests.

(Additional reporting by Victoria Thieberger and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE, Chris Buckley in BEIJING; Editing by Ed Davies and Sanjeev Miglani)

(For more business news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)

Rob Taylor

Nanosatellite set to rid space of dangerous junk

London, March 30 (IANS) A tiny three-kg satellite or 'nanosatellite' will rid the space of dangerous clouds of junk hurtling around in the earth's lower orbit.

More than 5,500 tonnes of junk is believed to be cluttering space around the planet as a result of 50 years of abandoned spacecraft.

The junk opens the possibility of collision with any manned or unmanned spacecraft, the destruction of hugely expensive technology and the potential threat of large debris plummeting back to Earth.

The build-up of debris -- expected to grow at a rate of five percent each year -- is also believed to obstruct satellite TV and other communications signals.

University of Surrey (U-S) scientists, working on the project funded by the European space company Astrium, have devised the 'nanosatellite' fitted with a 'solar sail'.

'CubeSail' is a device that can be fitted to satellites or launch vehicle upper stages that are sent into orbit and can be deployed to successfully de-orbit equipment that has reached the end of its mission.

A five by five metre deployable sail is being developed to fit in a 10 by 10 by 30 cm, three kg, nanosatellite and would be used in a demo mission to be launched in late 2011, showcasing passive means of deorbiting for future satellites.

Vaios Lappas, senior lecturer in Space Vehicle Control at the U-S Space Centre (U-SSC), who led the research said in a U-SSC release: 'CubeSail is a novel, low cost space mission that will demonstrate for the first time space debris/satellite de-orbiting using an ultra light five by five (metre) sail stowed and supported on a three kg nanosatellite.'

CubeSail is due for launch on new satellites next year, and is expected to be available for shifting existing debris from 2013.

Indo Asian News Service

Cisco to deploy next-generation network at NSE

Bangalore, March 29 (IANS) Networking equipment major Cisco Monday said it had won a major contract to deploy next-generation network at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), but did not specify the value of the deal.

'The network comprise routing, switching, security and core technologies to help ensure high network availability, boost network security and expand the exchangeâ€™s reach across the country,' Cisco India vice-president Anil Bhasin said in a statement here.

As an exclusive networking technology provider to the countryâ€™s largest stock exchange, Cisco will install a three-tier network architecture with routers, switches, firewall and intrusion prevention system modules.

'The system is designed to provide enhanced security, intelligent load balancing for business continuity, better collaboration and integration across 3,000 NSE member locations,' Bhasin noted.

NSE chief technology officer Ravi Apte said: 'Our decision to shift to Ciscoâ€™s intelligent network platform was driven by the need for a secure, resilient and collaborative network infrastructure'.

Indo Asian News Service

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Commodities pull Asian stock markets higher

Tue, Mar 30 11:53 AM

Enlarge Photo An investor gestures in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage...

Asian stock markets rose on Tuesday as the weak U.S. dollar spurred overnight gains in commodities, boosting commodity-linked stocks in the region.

European stock markets were expected to open slightly firmer on Asian and U.S. gains, with energy shares supported by rising oil prices.

Crude oil futures held above $82 a barrel on Tuesday after reaching the highest level in almost two weeks the previous day on optimism about the global economic recovery and ahead of key U.S. inventory data.

Markets were also underpinned by news that U.S. consumer spending rose for a fifth straight month in February, implying that its consumption may be strong enough to keep its recovery going.

Japan's Nikkei average climbed to an 18-month high, and looked set to extend gains in the new business year and quarter starting this week despite worries that it was overbought.

The euro was trading more or less flat against the dollar at $1.3483 after rebounding from a 10-month low below $1.33 last week, mainly on short covering ahead of the quarter's end.

The euro was also supported by Greece's successful sale of 5 billions euros ($6.7 billion) of bonds, the first test of investor appetite since European powers last week agreed to a financial safety net for Athens as its battles a debt crisis.

The dollar was also weaker against commodity currencies like the Australian and New Zealand dollars, with the dollar index against major currencies slipping 0.16 percent.

Analysts, however, said the dollar's weakness was likely to be short-lived.

"The key this year is that fiscal stimuluses have to be cut back," said Kevin Scully, executive director at NRA Capital in Singapore. "They have to fund this somehow, they have to raise rates. So the dollar will strengthen, the euro will flatten out."

The euro's strength took three-month copper on the London Metals Exchange to its highest level overnight since August 2008. Prices retreated slightly in Asian trade, but underlying strength was seen likely to stay on improving demand.

Led by resources-linked shares, the benchmark Nikkei closed up 1 percent at 11,097 points, its highest since October 2008.

"The next quarter is likely to see the Nikkei boxed into a 10,000-11,500 range," said Yutaka Miura, chief technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.

"It's risen quite a lot recently on hopes for global economic recovery and good Japanese results, but if these don't live up to expectations there could be some short-term profit-taking."

With one trading day left in March, the Nikkei has gained about 5 percent for the quarter as investors were drawn to its relatively inexpensive valuations, bringing its gains for the financial year ending on Wednesday to more than 36 percent.

Across Asia, the materials sub-sector of the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was up over 1.2 percent, compared to a 0.57 percent rise in the overall index.

BHP Billiton and Vale, the No. 3 and No. 1 iron ore producers in the world respectively, persuaded steel mills to buy iron ore based on a quarterly pricing system as of April 1, signalling the near-demise of annual fixed-price contracts that have cost miners billions of dollars.

The news augurs well for mining stocks, including World No. 2 producer Rio Tinto, which has also said it hopes to replace annual prices with shorter ones this year.

Analysts were also excited by reports that major Japanese and South Korean steel mills had agreed to a price increase of 90 percent for iron ore this year, which pushed the Aussie dollar up almost a cent, its biggest one-day rally in six months.

The Aussie was also well-supported by growing talk of another central bank interest rate hike next week as higher prices of exports like iron ore promise a big boost to the economy.

Market performance in Asia in the first quarter has been mixed, with the Asia ex-Japan stock rally largely stalling after surging 68 percent in 2009, held back by worries that the global economic recovery and a rebound in corporate profits may sputter.

The MSCI Asia ex-Japan equities index has gained a scant 2 percent so far this year, prompting investors to shift into regional bonds, especially high-yield and riskier credits.

The benchmark JPMorgan EMBI+ credit index for Asia rose 2.8 percent in the first quarter, but far larger gains have been seen in some Southeast Asian sovereign debt, which have also benefited from appreciating local currencies.

The JPMorgan GBI-EM broad index on Indonesia is up 11 percent so far this year in dollar terms, according to Thomson Reuters data.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

(For more business news on Reuters Money visit http://www.reutersmoney.in)

Raju Gopalakrishnan

Hijacked Indian vessels traced in Seychelles

One out of the total eight boats that were kidnapped by Somali pirates was on Tuesday reportedly traced near the Seychelles port after the Kenyan Navy established communication with the crew.

There are reports that the authorities are giving indications that the other vessels have also been spotted in Seychelles.

Somali pirates had kidnapped the sailors along with 120 other Indians when they were sailing from Somalia to Dubai.

The sailors, who belong to Gujarat's Saurashtra and Kutch regions had anchored last in the rebel territory of Kismayo in Somalia where they loaded cargo into their boats. But soon after, they were taken as hostages.

The pirates have, however, till now not demanded any ransom.

There are reports that on account of the current hijacking, patrolling has been intensified following naval deployment in the Gulf of Aden and Seychelles.

Somali pirates had earlier also targeted many Indian ships and taken crew as hostages.

Armed pirates had on December 23, 2009 attacked the Indian ship M T Agrasen, just 300 nautical miles off the coast of Maharashtra. The forty-one crew were, however, able to thwart the siege.

A similar incident took place on December 15 last year, when the pirates seized the Indian vessel Laxmi Sagar off the Somalian coast and kept ten members hostage. (ANI)

UK's anti-terrorism policy backfiring - lawmakers

Britain's policy of trying to stop the radicalisation of mainly young Muslims, a central plank of its counter-terrorism strategy, is alienating those it is supposed to be winning over, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

"Prevent", which aims to cut support for violent extremism and discourage people from becoming terrorists, was backfiring as many Muslims felt it was being used to spy on them, parliament's Communities and Local Government Committee said.

"The misuse of terms such as 'intelligence gathering' amongst Prevent partners has clearly discredited the programme and fed distrust," said Phyllis Starkey, the committee's chairman.

Prevent is one of the four main strands of Britain's policy, along with Pursue, Protect and Prepare, set up to deal with the threat from al Qaeda and its related groups.

Brought in two years after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Prevent became particularly significant after the London suicide bombings in July 2005 carried out by four British Islamists.

It seeks to use police, local government, teachers and youth workers to help communities counter the message of al Qaeda.

But community workers told Reuters this month that the policy had tainted positive projects and it was instead creating unease among many of Britain's 1.8 million Muslims.

The National Association of Muslim Police even said it had stigmatised Muslims and worsened relations.

In its report, the Communities Committee called for a new approach, saying it was wrong that a department working for community cohesion should be part of a counter-terrorism agenda.

It said there should be an independent investigation into accusations by witnesses giving evidence to the committee who said the strategy was being used by police and spies for intelligence gathering.

The committee accused ministers of trying to "engineer a 'moderate' form of Islam, promoting and funding only those groups which conform to this model".

"In our view, a persistent pre-occupation with the theological basis of radicalisation is misplaced because the evidence suggests that foreign policy, deprivation and alienation are also important factors," Starkey said.

The government said it was disappointed the report had not taken into account changes made to Prevent in the last year to address criticisms.

"All Prevent activities are designed to support all communities, and particularly Muslim communities in resisting those who target their young people," a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said.

"There has been no substantiated evidence that Prevent programmes are keeping Muslim communities under surveillance."

Michael Holden

US happy with nuke reprocessing deal

The Obama Administration says it is happy and satisfied that India and the US were able to clinch the nuclear fuel reprocessing agreement reflecting their deeper relationship and helping the civil nuclear deal move forward.

"I think it's a reflection of the deepening of our relationship. We think that the 123 Agreement is in the interest of both the United States, India, and has broader impact as well," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P J Crowley told reporters when asked to comment on the bilateral reprocessing pact announced yesterday.

The pact is another step towards full implementation of the landmark Indo-US civil nuclear deal and two more steps remain.

The advance consent agreement is only the third of its kind ever undertaken by the US, which has such pacts with the European Consortium EUROATOM and Japan. It grants India advance consent to reprocess spent fuel of US origin and fuel burnt in American reactors.

As the two teams overcame several hurdles in their effort to complete the negotiations in time, Crowley termed it as "brilliant diplomacy" and said the State Department is satisfied that the agreement is moving forward.

Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher pointed to the significant and prized relationship between the two countries.

"We're very happy to see that this agreement is moving forward, and the reprocessing agreement is one piece of a very large 123 Agreement, and we're happy to see that it's moved forward," Tauscher said.

The State Department also released the text of the arrangements and procedures agreed between India and the US.

"It was an agreement that required some follow-up, some detail. Obviously, we had to advise our Congress about it. Likewise, the Indian Government worked through the issues. So I think anytime that you not only reach an agreement but then can see it begin to be enacted, that develops trust and confidence on both sides. I think this reflects a much broader, deeper, and expanded relationship between our two countries," Crowley told reporters in response to a question.

Starting July last year, a high-level team from both countries held several round of talks on this crucial aspect of the Indo-US 123 Agreement, which gives New Delhi prior consent to reprocess.

The negotiations, held between a team of India's Department of Atomic Energy officials led by its director, strategic planning group, RB Grover and Richard Stratford, the non-proliferation and disarmament expert in US State Department, were aimed at finalising this pact.

Terming it as a "truly great news," President of the US India Business Council, Ron Somers, said the agreement distinguished India as a true partner in high technology cooperation for the long future.

The US had previously granted similar rights only to the European consortium EURATOM and Japan.

Agencies

Obama for early entry into force of CTBT

US President Barack Obama is for the ratification and early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty though the administration has no specific timeline for it, a top US official has said.

"The (US) President supports the ratification and early entry into force of the CTBT. We have no specific timeline for consideration by the Senate," Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Ellen Tauscher, said.

She said the administration was doing the necessary analysis to determine how to best move the treaty forward.

The CTBT, which bans all nuclear explosions, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1996 but it has not yet entered into force. The US has signed the CTBT, but not ratified it.

"With respect to the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, we urge the Conference on Disarmament to take up negotiations of the FMCT. We know that an agreement will not be reached to either quickly, but we do believe that we must make progress to ban the production of additional material for use in nuclear weapons," Tauscher told reporters at a news briefing held at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The Obama Administration is taking concrete steps because it realises there is no greater threat to the American people than the threat and the spread of nuclear weapons, she said.

Ahead in the month of April, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will sign the new START treaty for reducing nuclear stockpile by 30 per cent, and the President will host the Nuclear Security Summit on April 12th and 13th and expects to release the Nuclear Posture Review in that same timeframe.

The month of May would see the Nuclear Non-proliferation Review Conference beginning in New York at the UN.

"The treaty does nothing to constrain missile defences either. As I said at the White House on Friday, this treaty is about offensive strategic weapons," she said.

The treaty, she said, also shows that the US and Russia can work together on many issues of mutual interest, including top priorities like nuclear security and non-proliferation.

"The real issue at hand is that the treaty increases transparency and predictability. The lack of both is too costly and too risky for both sides," she added.

She said the new START treaty demonstrates that the US and Russia are abiding by the rules of the NPT and are doing their to revitalise the Non-proliferation Treaty.

She said the two countries share a number of common threats that may need cooperation, including proliferation of short and medium-range missiles which has increased dramatically over the last four or five years.

"The more we make NPT the cornerstone of non-proliferation strategy of the world, the more it calls out people like North Korea and Iran, and the more we can bring people together in a kind of big tent environment to agree on the NPT principles."

Agencies

Can't ignore China, warns MoD report

India is boosting its force structure and ramping up infrastructure along its borders to counter China's growing force projection capability, said a defence ministry report. The report, released on Monday, said that rapid infrastructure development in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Xinjiang province had "considerably upgraded China's military force projection capability and strategic operational flexibility".

While India-China relations were on the upswing last year, the report said, New Delhi "remained conscious and alert about the implications of China's military modernisation". "Necessary steps have been initiated for the upgradation of our infrastructure and force structuring.

along the northern borders," it mentioned. The report slammed Pakistan for the continuing infiltration from across the Line of Control and existence of terror infrastructure on its soil.

According to the report, this demonstrated Pakistan's "continuing ambivalence" in taking action against terrorist outfits targeting India. Urging Pakistan to dismantle terror infrastructure, the report said New Delhi had exercised exemplary restraint in the face of gravest provocation.

It also flagged concerns over the worsening internal security scenario in Pakistan. On India's internal security challenges, it said focus had shifted from the proxy war in Jammu & Kashmir to the Left-wing extremism and insurgency in the Northeast.

It said all parameters of the proxy war in Kashmir were at an all-time low and the current situation indicated a shift towards normalcy.

HT Correspondent

Nitish justifies setting up AMU branch in Kishanganj

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar justified the government's decision to set up a branch of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) at Kishanganj district in the state in the wake of opposition by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and students organisation Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

'There should not be any opposition to set up a branch of AMU at Kishanganj. The government is committed to improve the education level. It has nothing to do with any community,' Nitish Kumar told mediapersons here Tuesday.

A day after ABVP activists clashed with the police in Patna during their protest against the setting up of the branch, the chief minister sent a strong message by saying that opening of the AMU branch will benefit all people, cutting across caste and community lines.

'We were committed to set up a branch of AMU in Kishanganj. The state government had already provided land for it,' he said.

Bihar BJP leaders, including most legislators and MPs, were not happy with the ministers in Nitish Kumar government for not opposing the decision to set up the institute.

BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay in New Delhi Monday questioned the need for opening a branch of Aligarh Muslim University in Kishanganj. He asked the reason behind opening a branch of AMU in a Muslim-dominated area.

Muslims make up 66.7 percent of the voters in Kishanganj constituency, about 400 km from Patna.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, Janata Dal-United forced the BJP to leave its claim on the seat and contested the polls. Congress's Ishrarul Haque won the seat but the BJP is not ready to leave Kishanganj that gave its party a Muslim face -- Shahnawaz Hussain, former central minister and now MP from Bhagalpur.

--Indo-Asian News service

22 suspected Al Qaeda militants arrested in Turkey

Twenty-two suspected Al Qaeda militants including the outfit's head in Turkey, Serdar Elbasa alias Abu Zer, have been arrested in police raids in three provinces in the country.

The operation carried out by police in Aksaray, Ankara and Manisa provinces, led to the finding of documents belonging to the terrorist group and a few arms and ammunition, a media report said Monday.

The suspected head of Al Qaeda in Gaziantep province bordering Syria and a militant trained in Afghanistan were among those arrested.

Anti-terror police earlier this year arrested 140 Al Qaeda suspects in raids across Turkey.

Canada to unveil proposals to reform refugee system

Canada will unveil long awaited proposals to reform its refugee system this week that fast track genuine cases and weed out bogus cases from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other countries.

Under the proposed legislation, Canada would resettle as many as 14,500 refugees selected by the United Nations annually, 2,500 more than it does currently and provide more funding to help them integrate into society and find jobs, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said on Monday.

Around five hundred refugees would be sponsored by the government, while the remaining 2,000 would be sponsored by Canadians and permanent residents as part of the private sponsorship refugees program.

Under the new legislation, refugee claimants would be sorted into two groups - those from democratic countries deemed safe, and those from more dangerous spots.

The first group would be fast-tracked, but would still have access to a full hearing. Bureaucrats, rather than political appointees, would handle the initial decisions.

The bill would set up a new, more robust appeal system, allowing those who are turned down to introduce new evidence before they are ejected from Canada.

"Millions of people have fled violence and persecution to seek refuge outside their home countries and we would like to do more to provide them with protection in Canada," Kenney said, adding the government plans to introduce balanced reforms to provide protection to more people.

According to a government release, the government also wants to increase funding for the resettlement assistance program (RAP) to 54 million dollars annually from 45 million dollars in order to ensure newly arrived refugees are receiving "the support they need to begin their new lives in Canada."

The RAP provides a monthly income to newly arrived refugees for food and shelter for up to one year with a possible extension for two years for refugees with special needs, or until the refugee is self-sufficient, whichever is shorter.

The package is expected to speed the initial handling of refugee applications by using trained federal civil servants to do the initial assessment, as opposed to the current system where applications are heard by a one-man refugee board.

It would be part of a new system to fast-track applications from a list of so-called "safe" countries where human and democratic rights are deemed to be honoured.

Officials said that the new system would still provide asylum from such "safe" countries to citizens who can demonstrate they were persecuted.

The government has taken into account that women, gays and lesbians and other minorities could face persecution even in democracies, they said.

An estimated 10.5 million UN-designated refugees live in refugee camps and urban slums in the world today.

Countries with refugee resettlement programs, including Canada, resettle about 100,000 refugees from abroad each year.

In 2008, Canada was second to the United States among all industrialised countries for providing protection to refugees from abroad and at home.

Agencies

Monday, March 29, 2010

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Deadlock over Indo-Pak water issue continues

The deadlock between India and Pakistan over the sharing of Indus river waters continues, as no breakthrough was made during the meeting of Indus Water commissioners from both countries.

Talking to reporters after a day long meeting in Lahore, Pakistan's Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah said the visiting Indian delegation was told about Islamabad's concerns over new dams being built by New Delhi on rivers.

Shah said his Indian counterparts assured that New Delhi would try to address these reservations.

"Continuous dialogues will help solve the water issues with India," he said, adding that according to the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, India must inform Islamabad at least six months before finalising the construction of any dam project.

Pakistan had raised objections to India's Chutak and Nimoo Bazgo water projects, saying the projects are affecting water flow in the River Indus.

However, Aranga Nathan, the Indian Indus Water Commissioner, countered Pakistan's claims saying Islamabad was given 'advance information' regarding the construction of the Nimoo Bazgo Dam.

Nathan said India will respond to all queries raised by Pakistan, as it wants to resolve the long pending river water sharing issue quickly.

"We don't believe in such moves and will try to remove all reservations of the Pakistani Government. I am sure about the success of dialogue and my team is ready to respond all queries raised by the Pakistani Water Commission to reach a consensus," Nathan said.

Pakistan has repeatedly blamed India for its unsporting attitude on the water dispute.

Pakistan has opposed the construction of the Kishanganga hydropower project on the Ganga River in Kashmir, which it calls the Neelum. Pakistan has said the diversion of waters of the Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and it will face a 27 per cent water deficit, when the project is completed.

The reduced water flow in the Neelum would not yield the required results of the proposed 1.6 billion dollars Neelum-Jehlum hydropower project that has been designed to generate 969 MW of electricity.

Islamabad has said that India has almost completed a 22-kilometre long tunnel to divert the Kishanganga waters to the Wullar Lake in Jammu and Kashmir. (ANI)

India Today

The Las Vegas of Cricketainment

Nothing, perhaps, gives the man who dreamt up the IPL way back in 1994 a greater high than proving his sceptics wrong. "I simply love scepticism as it drives me to work harder to prove such people wrong," confesses quick-fire cricket's undisputed czar, IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.

Modi's dream took on a life of its own in 2008, within record time of a brainstorming session with Andrew Wildblood of the International Management Group in June 2007. Now, less than three years later, Modi's superquick-gestated baby is on its way to becoming the biggest entertainment grosser in India, set to earn $1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) this year, and valued at $4.13 billion (Rs 19,000 crore). Compare this with the Rs 4,500 crore Bollywood earns in revenues in a year, and you know Modi's brand of 'cricketainment' is poised to become the greatest spectacle the country has seen on the sports arena.

At 46, Modi is the great gambler who, like an veteran schmoozer at a Las Vegas casino, doesn't get a deal wrong. "I am a firm believer in the adage that everyone and everything needs to change with the times. Especially given the short attention spans in today's day and age of 'instant everything'," Modi said in an interview with MAIL TODAY. He came up with a game that sold - and fast - in the age when SMSes have replaced intimate conversations. The staggering bids for the Pune and Kochi franchises, which added up to Rs 3,235 crore, demonstrated the Modi Midas touch.

The US magazine FastCompany couldn't have described the Modi effect better when it ranked the IPL 22nd on its 2010 list of the world's 50 most innovative companies. "IPL has transformed cricket, establishing a new model that shows how a nearly 500-year-old game can be revamped, restructured, and tailored to today's short attention spans and entertainment infrastructure - and succeed wildly," the magazine said. With a slew of new deals, the former executive director of Godfrey Phillips has "virtually doubled the central revenue pool." That makes it a cool Rs 130 crore extra for each team. Not to be ignored are Modi's contributions to the rumour mills that generate fodder for Page 3 hacks and prop up careers of wannabe arm candies.

By selling after-match party rights to title sponsor Karbonn Mobile and Kingfisher, Modi has ensured a continuous supply of salacious details of party boy Yuvi's exploits, and those of Bhajji and his girl. The gentleman's game has never been so entertaining.

Thanks to strategic tie-ups, Modi will claim eyeballs around the world. His deal with YouTube has resulted in over 21 million channel views across the globe - barring America, where the IPL is yet to make an impact. He has forayed into Britain with the conglomerate of independent television channels, ITV - and beaten the TRPs of Sky Sports and the rugby league. Back home, Modi has gone beyond the official TV partner Max by entering into an agreement with Colors to enhance the IPL's entertainment quotient. Even his cinema theatre tie-up with UFO Moviez, which hasn't worked as well as expected, has made the IPL richer by an estimated Rs 300 crore. Says Kunal Das Gupta, former CEO of Max (in the days when it used to be known as SET Max), who now consults with Modi on broadcasting matters, "Every possible screen has been exploited - TV, the mobile phone, cinema and YouTube." Das Gupta, in fact, predicts that with different revenue streams coming into their own, TV broadcast rights may just contribute 30 per cent of the IPL's revenues in the foreseeable future.

But for now, it's TV that's grabbing more eyeballs than ever before. Max notched up 108 million viewers by the end of 14 days, compared with 77 million in the first season. "The overall time spent on watching TV has gone up by 10 per cent," says L. V. Krishnan, CEO of TV ratings agency, TAM India. "We're also seeing more women watching cricket now." Adds Anil Wanvari, founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of IndianTelevision.com: "The IPL has become like a cult that has a mass and not a niche following. Cricket is a religion in India and the IPL has become a vehicle for the religion to gain new converts."

IPL is also attracting brands that have nothing to do with cricket.Says Sneha Rajani, the business head of Max, "Many brands now advertising with us are those which were not normally associated with cricket." The channel is selling ads at a staggering Rs 5 lakh per ten seconds - yet, 90 products of 60 brands are on its IPL brandwagon. Doesn't that amount to brand clutter? The advertisers don't seem to care. The logic is simple: It pays to be seen consistently over 45 days. Consumer durables major LG India, for one, is reaping the dividends of spending hard. It claims to have sold over 80,000 television sets in February-March this year, as against 41,267 in the corresponding period last year. "The game has managed to create a brand value for itself and it justifies the rates that are being commanded today," explains Arvind Sharma, chairman, Leo Burnett (South Asia).

Sponsors, too, are laughing all the way to the bank. Explaining the business rationale of DLF, which forks out Rs 40 crore each year, Rajeev Talwar, DLF Group executive director, says, "We wanted an all-India footprint, and the IPL offered a platform as large as possible. After season one itself, we got queries all the way from England about what we are building." Teams are attracting sponsorships from brands that never looked at cricket as a marketing tool. "Companies like Nivea, Tiger Balm and Peter England have got into cricket with us," says Rajesh Singh, who heads marketing for the Chennai Super Kings. "You just can't reach your target segment over the next two months if you are not associated with the IPL," he adds.

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya has gone two steps further. Apart from owning the Royal Challengers Bangalore, his brands are linked with five other teams. You can see his brands emblazoned on perimeter boards, giant screens, LED displays, umpire jerseys, third umpire referrals, and the leading arm of players of the sponsored teams. "The IPL is our single biggest promotion of the year. Many people have come to believe that we own the IPL," exults Samar S. Shekhawat, senior VP, marketing, United Breweries (UB). It doesn't hurt that UB's beer sales have gone up by 10-15 per cent in the cities where Mallya is sponsoring teams.

Modi is now looking at making the IPL the world's greatest sports property. "The South Africa experience highlighted its potential on a global scale," points out Indranil Das Blah, VP, KWAN Entertainment & Marketing Solutions. Plans are afoot in the IPL camp to extend to the Chinese and US markets.

But critics are worried that Modi may not be able to sustain this rate of growth. "The ad revenue will naturally get split by 60:40 between the World Cup and IPL next year and for new entrants who have made astronomical bids this is not good news," says Mihir Jhaveri, an analyst with Religare Capital Markets. Blah has a few words of advice: "IPL could pick up some marketing tips from the Super Bowl and NBA. And the BCCI needs to have a longterm plan in place and not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs." The indefatigable goose, meanwhile, is probably gearing up to do what he likes doing the most: brushing off scepticism from those who doubt he will conquer the world.

Neha Tara Mehta and Ranjana Kaushal

Shibu Soren looking for safer options to become legislator

Ranchi, March 30 (IANS) Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren, who has three months left to get himself elected to the state assembly, is trying to explore a safer seat this time around as he failed to retain the post in his last term when he lost the Tamar assembly bypoll.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief, who became chief minister for the third time Dec 30 last year, has to become member of the state assembly - as constitutionally required - within six months of the formation of the government.

According to sources, Soren is playing his cards cautiously and is expected to choose between JMM strongholds Dumka and Jama seats, represented by his son Hemant and daughter-in-law Sita, respectively.

The chief minister Sunday created a flutter when he said he could fight from Dumka seat, represented by Hemant, who is being projected as his successor. After the death of his eldest son Durga last year, Soren had in a rally in February this year indicated that Hemant would succeed him.

However, Hemant was prompt to announce Monday that he would vacate the seat if his father decided to contest from there.

On Tuesday, Sita, wife of Durga Soren, said that she would vacate the Jama assembly seat for her father-in-law.

There are reports that Hemant might have made a public announcement but he is unwilling to vacate the seat and Sita is being pressurised by the family to do so. Sita has, however, denied the reports.

Another legislator, Vishnu Bhaiya has announced he would vacate Jamtara assembly seat for Soren.

Soren had to quit as chief minister in January last year after he lost the Tamar assembly bypoll.

Indo Asian News Service

Let it flow free

India, March 28 -- It is no longer clean, to be clean. A new study by the US Environment Protection Agency suggests that waste from showers and baths that include gels, shampoos and other skin products seem to find their way into water supplies, even into drinking water.

Apparently, even birth control pills and traces of anti-depressants end up in drinking water. Now we who live in the sultry climes of India are not likely to take too kindly to having to restrict our bathing activities.

Many of us are serial bathers, barring a few who may have seen the horror of Psycho and are chary of stepping into the shower too often. Cleanliness, we were told as children, is only next to Godliness, but clearly the green fundamentalists will have none of that.

We are now told that active pharmaceutical ingredients may have a longer lasting impact on the environment than bodily secretions. So, we guess, that we have no other option but to restrict our bathing activities to the bare minimum.

Now this may go down well in our metros given that we hardly have power, which means no water, for the greater part of the day. However, this could mean a quantum jump in our use of chemical products like deodorants.

Hindustan Times

India Today

India Inc.'s tryst with Twitter

The Twitter bug has now bitten India Inc. A study by Iffort (a web strategy and digital marketing company) of 66 brands from nine different industry verticals reveals that there are several companies which are using Twitter for brandbuilding and marketing.

Says Aditya Swamy, Senior VP, Sales and Marketing, MTV India (which was the most followed brand on Twitter, according to the study): "In eight to 10 months of joining Twitter, over 60,000 followers have been helping MTV gauge the pulse of its audiences." And the road ahead?

According to the Iffort study: "More companies will start using Twitter for conducting market research, listening to users and keeping track of the competition."

Twitter Facts

Most active account: MSN India

Most conversational brand: ICICI Bank

Most Re-Tweeted brand: Tata Docomo

Oldest brand: Bookmyshow.com

Top inactive brand: Acer India & Apollo Hospitals

Anamika Butalia

Dialling the correct code

India, March 28 -- Sunil Bharti Mittal's acquisition of the Africa operations of Zain Telecom for $10.7 billion is the latest episode in the great Indian takeover. Coming as it does when international capital markets have not yet fully recovered from the worst crash in living memory, Mr Mittal's ability to raise $8.5 billion for the acquisition is testimony to India's rising export of frugal engineering.

Zain loses money in Africa despite its customers running up telephone bills twice as large as Airtel users. Mittal's game-changing outsourcing skills - Bharti Airtel has hived off most of its core telephony operations, making it one of the least expensive telecom service providers in the world - could help turn Zain around.

Particularly for a company that has 42 million customers in the continent against the 33 million Airtel added in India last year in an intensely competitive market. Mr Mittal has led the surge in telecommunications investment in India that ought to top $80 billion in the five years to 2012.

Indian mobile telecom companies have, in the process, signed up 545 million customers of which Airtel has 125 million, but the easy money is behind them. Every new subscriber brings $4.9 of business a month to Bharti Airtel and this number is falling precipitously as India's telecom network spreads from its cities to its villages amidst a bruising price war.

Africa, where one in three persons has a cellphone but runs up a monthly bill of $8, thus offers Mr Mittal a chance to dip into a revenue pool that he is accustomed to converting into profit. This explains Mr Mittal's continuing obsession with the African market, where he was prepared to pay 40 per cent more for each MTN customer before talks with the South African telecom company broke down last year over ownership issues.

Big B caught in Congress-Modi war of words

New Delhi, March 30 -- The Congress on Monday upped its ante against Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, asking him to clear his stand on the 2002 riots in Gujarat and also explain if he "endorses or condemns" chief minister Narendra Modi's role in the "pogrom". "Let me ask Amitabh Bachchan a direct question," said Congress spokesman Manish Tewari.

"Does he, as a brand ambassador of Gujarat, endorse or condemn the mass murder of 2002 and the fake encounters that took place after Modi took over? Also, does he condemn or endorse Modi's role in the riots?" The statement came after Modi blogged in support of Bachchan, criticising those opposing his presence at the inauguration of a carriageway of the Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai last Wednesday. "These Talibans of untouchability have lost all their sensibilities in their pursuit of anti-Gujarat attitudes.

Friends, my heart is still unwilling to believe that these Talibans are unaware of the damage they are causing to this nation and to our society," Modi wrote.

Modi was "frustrated" after being questioned by a Special Investigating Team for about 10 hours, responded I&B Minister Ambika Soni. It all began with Bachchan sharing the dais with Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan.

Many in the Congress took potshots at Chavan for doing so. To avoid being seen with Bachchan again, Chavan attended the Pune literary meet on Saturday, a day before he was scheduled to be there.

Hindustan Times

Stephen Court, a part of our cultural heritage

Anjan Dutt (left) shoots Chalo Let's Go... at Flurys. A Telegraph picture

Anjan Dutt on his Park Street

My association with Stephen Court is primarily through Flurys and Peter Cat. I didn't know much about the world on the upper floors though I have had friends who used to live there.

I have been inside the building and I remember doing theatre with my friends there. I have shot from the roof of Stephen Court for my film Bada Din… you get a great view of Park Street from the roof. And there's a lovely staircase inside.

But this old house, which was partly gutted on Tuesday in a blaze killing so many people, is important to me because it's a part of my cultural heritage. Stephen Court and Queens Mansion remind me of Paris where you have grand houses with people living on the upper floors and restaurants downstairs.

You know a city by its architecture and buildings like Stephen Court define the character of Calcutta. Buildings like Jorasanko Thakurbari, Mullickbari, the Coffee House, Metro cinema, Writers' Buildings, the GPO and Queens Mansion hold the character of Calcutta.

This is a city where you can take a tram ride and pass by a church or a mosque and wind around old colonial houses. This city is a little laid-back and it thrives on the finer things of life, like art and music. Calcutta can never be business-like like some other metros. It can never be a city of great shopping malls.

It's rather sad that no one cares for the city's old buildings. So many old buildings have been gutted over the years like the Firpo's market and still there's no effort to save them. I live in an old house (near Ripon Street) and I know what kind of a meter box you have in an old house and I take care of it.

The authorities are doing precious little about the old houses. No one came forward to negotiate with Mantosh to stop Lighthouse cinema from becoming a cheap garment store and I cried the night it was shut down.

The government has replaced the statues of Lord Curzon and others from the Maidan, which were priceless pieces of art, from a terribly lopsided sense of patriotism. We don't need to destroy our colonial heritage to show our patriotism just because the British had ruled and oppressed us.

Calcutta's colonial heritage is a part of its spirit and the entire Dalhousie square is a priceless part of my city. I don't know if the CMC respects its colonial past or not, but it would make a big difference to me if the Corporation's red building is not there anymore tomorrow.

My grandfather used to take me to Flurys when I was just six or seven for chicken sandwiches. I grew up with Flurys. But there was so much more to Park Street than just music and food. There was stand-up comedy, magic, drag shows and even strip dance! No other city in my country had such a fantastic tradition. The sad thing is that there is no record of it.

The Anglo-Indians, Armenians and Jews were the main force behind this Park Street culture. They loved good food and good music, and they owned most of the hotels and restaurants on Park Street. This group of Anglo-Indians, Armenians and Jews were moneyed and they loved Calcutta. But the moneyed class that has taken over these buildings do not seem to have that love for Calcutta.

It's one of the reasons why I have cut down on my trips to Someplace Else. It's a new breed of people who come there to just guzzle alcohol, yap loudly and have no interest in the music that's being played. They have no breeding as to what a night club is all about. This is not the Calcutta I grew up in.

I have always loved to sit at Flurys with a cup of tea where I know no one will drive me out, then drop by Oxford Bookstore to browse and maybe buy a book. I would then walk down to New Market, shop for grocery and go further down to Free School Street where I would chat up some foreign tourists… and then come back to Park Street and have a beer at Olympia.

I have done this because I loved going around these beautiful houses. I love my city because I can live with history all the time.

Is Park Street really the city's favourite street? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100330/jsp/frontpage/story_12274468.jsp

In fire-hit city, ministry will not burn cash

- Squad cries for boots, funds lie unused ANINDYA SENGUPTA AND ZEESHAN JAWED

Calcutta, March 29: Fire-resistant jackets, oxygen masks, extra helmets, new gum boots…

Just a few of the life and limb-saving equipment the city's firefighters are denied because fire minister Pratim Chatterjee's department will not unzip its purse of Rs 30 crore.

Allocated Rs 62 crore in the past two years' budgets, the department has spent only half the amount.

All this while, its officials have been clamouring for "basic tools to combat big fires", such as fireproof jackets, masks with oxygen cylinders, breaking gear, portable pumps, ceiling hooks and jumping cushions.

"The officials have been urging Chatterjee to acquire these equipment but without success," a fire department source said.

He said that while a skylift can help firemen reach the top floor or the terrace and rescue trapped people, fireproof jackets or "proximity suits" and masks with oxygen cylinders allow them to enter spots where a fire is raging.

"About Rs 30 crore remains unspent," a senior fire official said. "This could easily have been spent on these basic equipment had the minister worked out his priorities right."

Since 2008, the government has bought a 70-metre skylift for Rs 7 crore, a 54-metre skylift for Rs 5 crore, and 87 fire tenders for around Rs 20 lakh each — the total bill coming to about Rs 30 crore.

Although the unspent Rs 30 crore can carry over to the next fiscal, it can lead to budget cuts for the fire department in the current financial year.

Fire services secretary P.S. Kathiresan failed to explain clearly why money had been left unspent when his officials were demanding basic equipment.

"It is a question of priority and not of funds availability," he conceded. "We thought that the skylifts were a priority. However, we will definitely buy more firefighting equipment like jackets, jumping cushions and personal protection devices."

He didn't have an answer why the skylifts and the basic equipment could not be bought together. "We have the money to buy these items,'' he conceded. "This year (2009-10), our budget was Rs 33 crore, which is Rs 4 crore more than the 2008-09 budget."

The fire minister refused to be drawn. "I won't utter a word on this," Chatterjee said. "A lot of politics is going on to malign me. All I can say is that the necessary purchases will be made at the earliest.''

An official explained that the top officer at the fire headquarters, the director-general, who is an IPS officer, has very little power.

"He cannot sanction more than a few thousand rupees for a particular expense. If the expense is higher, he has to send the file to Writers' for approval from the secretary and the minister. The expense is rarely sanctioned because Writers' has hardly any idea about firefighters' needs," a senior fire official said.

He cited the example of eight snag-ridden bowsers (a kind of fire tender) that are standing idle at the fire headquarters in Free School Street.

Each bowser will cost over Rs 1.5 lakh to repair but the director-general cannot sanction more than Rs 10,000. The file requesting sanction for the expense has been lying at Writers' for over a year.

"Similarly, the snagged skylift at the headquarters will never get repaired because the money won't be sanctioned," the official said.

The firemen have not even received gum boots for the past two years. "Five hundred fire operators (the foot soldiers who actually douse the fires) were recruited in 2008. They are yet to receive their gum boots, a key part of their uniform. When fire operators enter a blaze site, they have to cross spots that are smouldering. The gum boots protect them," a senior fire official said.

A pair of gum boots costs Rs 350.

None of Calcutta's fire stations has a single extra helmet for the firefighters. "A helmet is provided to us at the time of joining. If it gets damaged, we have to apply for a new one, which takes at least two weeks to arrive," a fire operator said at the headquarters.

An official said the money at the department's disposal was being spent mindlessly without prioritising its needs.

"In July 2009, Rs 1.27 crore was sanctioned for a full-fledged wireless system for the department. A sum of Rs 67 lakh has already been paid to Webel (the Bengal government's nodal agency to promote the IT and electronics industries in the state) but we are yet to see any results. We still depend on our cellphones to communicate with the control room," the official said.

A CPM leader admitted that the fire department appeared "low on the government's priorities" given that Chatterjee continued to be fire minister despite his poor record.

Leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee said: "Calcutta has been growing at a brisk pace and the fire department has assumed a lot of importance, but it continues to be neglected by the government with a minister at the helm who is more interested in drama and film stars than in doing his own job."

A Forward Bloc leader said Chatterjee was getting away with "lapses'' because of the "quota system" in the government, which had earned him a minister's berth despite his party, the Marxist Forward Bloc, having only two MLAs.

"This is one of the compulsions of coalition politics," a CPM state secretariat member said. "There are complaints about him not doing anything even for the benefit of his own firemen."

The firemen have long been complaining of poor pay and demanding a risk allowance. Secretary Kathiresan said he was trying to figure out if an insurance scheme could be worked out for the firemen.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100330/jsp/frontpage/story_12280447.jsp

In Moscow, cry for Great Wall of China

ELLEN BARRY

Moscow, March 29: Investigators were still marching in and out of the Lubyanka subway station this morning, but Nina Ivanovna, a 57-year-old pensioner, was not waiting around to hear what they were going to say.

She stared coldly at the staircase where wounded and weeping passengers had streamed away from the chaos of a suicide bombing, and said, with a curl of her lip, who she thought was behind it.

"It's the Chechens," she said. "They will never let us live in peace. Solzhenitsyn correctly said that we should build a Great Wall of China to keep them away from us. They should be locked away. They hate us, and they will always hate us."

During the six years since the last suicide bomb attack on the Moscow metro, Muscovites came to think of themselves as comfortably insulated from the guerrilla war going on in the Caucasus. They lost the jittery reflexes of a decade when Russians refused to board airplanes beside a veiled woman, or waited for the last train car because they assumed suicide bombers would get on at the front.

That fear reshaped the Russian state at the beginning of this decade. Vladimir V. Putin, then President, used the terrorist threat to justify a sweeping consolidation of power and was credited with bringing the years of violence to an end.

But old anxiety rushed back to the surface today, when commuters handed over wads of cash to taxis rather than descend into the subway.

Many were asking the same question: Is it starting again?

"You know, I don't think it ever actually stopped," said Aleksandr Zharkov, 22, a graduate student in mathematics, standing near one of the bombing sites. He said he had sought out information on the Internet about fighting in the Caucasus, and been surprised by how much was still going on.

"As long as it's still going on there," he said, "it can happen anywhere."

Some onlookers today said it was clear what was needed — a crackdown. Tamerlan Khaloyev, 69, a retired teacher who is from the Caucasian region of North Ossetia himself, stood in the teeming square and mourned the iron order of the Soviet Union.

"In the Soviet time there were no suicide bombers," he said. "Stalin took care of all them. They did as he said."

Then he turned regretfully to the hump of land in the middle of the square, which for decades housed a towering statue of Feliks E. Dzerzhinksy, the founder of the Bolshevik secret police.

In 1991 a cheering anti-Communist crowd pulled down the monument. If it was still standing, Khaloyev said, "none of this would be going on".

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Gods of bad things

Godmen are mostly not good men, Sonia Sarkar discovers

Revered swamis generally know how to handle crowds. But when Shiv Murti Dwivedi aka Sant Swami Bhimanand got mobbed, he sought police help. His co-inmates in Delhi's Tihar jail didn't want to touch his feet — they wanted to break his limbs instead. The threat to his life prompted the authorities to put him and his accomplice in a separate cell earlier this week.

Dwivedi, 39, was arrested two weeks ago with his assistant and six women, including two airhostesses, for allegedly running a prostitution ring from his ashram in the Khanpur area of south Delhi.

Devotees used to throng a Sai Baba temple in Badarpur where Dwivedi was based for a sight of the man they thought was holy. Few knew that he was the kingpin of a thriving sex racket that he had been running for 10 years. He used to get in touch with young women, lure them into prostitution, and then connect them with men who wanted sex workers. Primary investigations reveal that his clients included high-profile policemen, politicians and bureaucrats.

The disciples may still be reeling under the shock, but not many people are surprised about Dwivedi's double life. Godmen in India have often been accused of indulging in criminal activities under the saffron robe that ushers in followers, fame and funds. Dwivedi is just one among many who have taken the masses for a ride.

Most godmen, writer-columnist Khushwant Singh stresses, are charlatans. But devotees maintain that their gurus — often seen and treated as gods by them — don't just have miraculous powers, but work for the good of humanity.

Former Chief Justice of India P.N. Bhagwati never visits temples. He doesn't meditate or pray before an idol. The only god he believes in is Krishna and he has chosen an indirect path to reach him. It is through godman Sathya Sai Baba that he finds Krishna, he says. "For me, Sai Baba is an embodiment of Krishna. He is divinity personified."

For many of his devotees, Swami Nithyananda was another word for god too. But earlier this month, when a video showing him in a sexual act with a Tamil actress was aired by television channels, his image got considerably dented. The recording has become a hit on video-sharing sites such as YouTube.

"The cases registered against Nithyananda include those relating to cheating, rape, unnatural sex and outraging religious sentiments under various sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure," says S.B. Bisanahalli, district superintendent of police, Ramanagram district, Bangalore. The case has now been transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department.

The number of godmen who have been exposed for wrong doing is legion. Sociologist Dipankar Gupta says that he is not surprised to know about the plethora of illegal activities run by godmen. "All godmen are frauds. They are nothing but charlatans," he says.

Yet people continue to repose their faith in men and women who perform miracles. Justice Bhagwati first met Sai Baba in Ahmedabad 40 years ago when he was in the Gujarat High Court. Since then, he has been an ardent devotee of his, along with presidents, judges, ministers and scientists. Though Sai Baba has also been dragged into controversies —in 1993, four armed devotees were killed in his apartment by his security men and in 2005 a German devotee alleged she had been raped in his ashram — his followers believe that their spiritual guru has been needlessly drawn into cases that don't involve him. "These are all false allegations. I know him very well, I have seen him very closely," says Justice Bhagwati.

But Sathya Sai Baba — though the most powerful of them all — is only one among the thousands of self-styled Hindu ascetics in India. Many of the gurus in this land of saints and sages have amassed great wealth and property. Quite a few perform miracles, which Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association (IRA), describes as the outcome of a sleight of hand.

Retired top judge Bhagwati always carries his guru's blessings with him — a Rolex watch and a gold ring embedded with an emerald, both of which the Baba had plucked out of the air for him.

Critics such as Khushwant Singh, who wrote a book called Gods and Godmen of India in 2003, believe that most gurus are conmen. "A man who aspires to acquire material gains without putting in any hard work dons the saffron attire. And if he has the power of speech, then he is a big hit," says Singh. "These godmen have no profound knowledge of Hinduism and they have very little to do with learning."

But devotees will have none of that. "What Sai Baba does can be done only out of a divine power," says Justice Bhagwati.

Sociologist Gupta says one of the reasons Hindus keep reposing their trust in godmen is the fact that unlike other religions, they don't have an organised congregation centre. "Since Hindus don't have any congregations unlike Christians who have a local priest or Muslims who have the imams, they turn to these godmen for solace. Secondly, in India, undeserving people often get rewarded. So they fall at the feet of these gurus to retain the material gains forever. This category includes even politicians," says Gupta.

Social and economic divides are another reason godmen continue to draw flocks of people. "Often, people fall prey to these frauds owing to the growing social inequity," says Edamaruku. People who are deprived of the basic amenities of life often go to godmen, seeking solace, he points out.

Godmen also thrive because of the nexus that they often have with politicians. Since the Seventies, the role of godmen in politics has been visible, ever since Dhirendra Brahmachari, who was a yoga expert, became more and more prominent as a member of Indira Gandhi's charmed circle. In the Nineties, it was the turn of Chandraswami, who was seen as an immensely powerful godman with high-level political links.

Neither was taintless. Brahmachari ran several ashrams across the country, and the police recovered weapons from his Jammu centre. He was also accused of illegally importing gun parts from Spain for his factory, which had a licence to make guns only with local material.

Chandraswami, it was alleged, had built an empire thanks to his proximity to then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. He was later accused of swindling US$100,000 from an Indian businessman living in the United Kingdom, Lakhubai Patak. He was also an accused in the St Kitts forgery case that involved a sum of more than US$ 21 million. Though he was acquitted in it later, he is still facing nine Foreign Exchange Regulation Act violation charges.

But this has not dissuaded his devotees from visiting him. When this correspondent tried to get in touch with Chandraswami, she was told that he was on a maun vrat — a pledge of silence — for Navratra, a nine-day Hindu holy period. A visit to his ashram in Delhi's Qutab Institutional area proved futile. The swami was not meeting anybody. The guards whispered that Bollywood actor and Kings Punjab XI owner Preity Zinta had come to visit him. His earlier followers included the Sultan of Brunei and Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Edamaruku believes that spiritual gurus' links with political bigwigs grew after Nehru's regime. "Nehru was a rationalist and never went to any spiritual guru for solace. But Indira Gandhi believed in godmen and they started making a fortune out of this," he says.

Ashok Arora, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, who once donned the holy robes and is now a motivational speaker, believes that the godman-politician nexus benefits both. "Politicians donate huge sum of money to godmen. And these godmen garner vote banks for politicians in return," says Arora.

Devotees, however, point out that many godmen — and women — plough money back into society. The Sathya Sai Baba Trust, for instance, runs two super-speciality hospitals — one at Whitefield in Bangalore and the other in Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh, besides schools and colleges for the poor. Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as the "hugging saint" of Kerala, because she often greets her followers by hugging them, has a huge charitable set-up with educational institutes.

The critics, of course, seek to stress that the charitable work is just a front. "Only a minuscule percentage of the money that they loot from devotees is used for this. The rest goes into their personal bank accounts," Edamaruku says. Singh adds that the charitable work is to assuage their own guilt feelings. "By doing this (setting up schools and hospitals), they clear their conscience and try to portray themselves as the real spiritual gurus."

The debate is an endless one. But devotees have just one question. How does one know a real spiritual guru from a fake godman? "A real spiritual person will have nothing to do with politics or power or money," says Edamaruku. "The common man should understand this well."

But are the devotees listening?

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Attacks bear hallmarks of Chechen 'Black Widows'

By Thair Shaikh, CNN

March 29, 2010 10:36 a.m. EDT

A Russian emergency worker carries a stretcher to the Park Kulturi metro station in Moscow Monday after a suicide attack.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Chechens, the majority of whom are Muslims, regard the state as their homeland
Female suicide bombers are the widows of Chechen fighters
Their message is "We can still strike you in your capital," Bob Ayers, security analyst
The abuse of human rights has continued in Chechyna, say human rights organizations

London, England (CNN) -- Monday's bomb attacks on the Moscow subway bear the hallmarks of an operation carried out by female Chechen suicide bombers called "Black Widows," according to security analysts.

At least 38 people were killed by twin explosions at the height of the rush hour in what appears to be Chechen separatists' latest salvo in their long-running battle for independence in Russia's northern Caucasus. Russian officials said the blasts were a "terrorist act carried out by female suicide bombers."

Chechens, the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims, regard the region as their ancient homeland, while Moscow fears the creation of an independent Muslim-majority state in its midst and has refused to grant any real autonomy.

The struggle can be traced back to the Stalin era when hundreds of thousands of Chechens were forcibly displaced to Siberia, according to Bob Ayers, a retired international security analyst.

Video: Why Moscow? Why now?

Video: Moscow metro explosions

"When they returned they wanted to reestablish their presence in Chechnya and they saw it as their homeland," said Ayers.

The use of women as suicide bombers or "Black Widows," is one way in which the struggle in Chechnya is different from al Qaeda and more analogous to the military campaign waged by the IRA in Northern Ireland, says Ayers.

"This war is politically motivated, it is not about a religious ideology as in the case of al Qaeda, so everyone participates and it is ultimately irrelevant if you are a man or a woman," said Ayers.

"They are not like al Qaeda who might say women should be hidden away and have no role in attacks."

The "Black Widows" are believed to be made up of women whose husbands, brothers, fathers or other relatives have been killed in the conflict. The women are often dressed head-to-toe in black and wear the so-called "martyr's belt" filled with explosives.

They have beem involved in a number of attacks in Russia and first came to prominence in 2002 when they were part of a group of separatists who threatened to blow up a Moscow theater seized in the middle of a musical.

In the rescue attempt by Russian special forces, 115 hostages and 50 Chechen separatists were killed.

In 2003 two Black Widows were responsible for blasts at a rock concert that killed 14 in Moscow.

Black Widows were also members of the 32-strong group of heavily-armed Chechen rebels who took 1,200 people as hostages in Beslan in 2004. In the ensuing gun battles between the rebels and Russian forces, 334 hostages were killed, many school children. Only one militant survived.

Female suicide bombers are a signature of Chechen militants
--Will Geddes, CEO of International Corporate Protection

RELATED TOPICS

Will Geddes, CEO of International Corporate Protection, said: "Female suicide bombers are a signature of Chechen militants. These are the widows of Chechen fighters who have dedicated themselves to the cause."

Watch Will Geddes interview

The attacks in Moscow are designed to gain maximum publicity said Ayers, who added that the militants were trying to send a message to the Russian government that "we can still strike you in your capital."

Ayers said it would be difficult to find anyone in Chechnya who did not want autonomy and that the Moscow-installed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is deeply unpopular.

"He has been installed as an extension of Moscow, an imposed leader, he is not an elected representative," said Ayers.

Violence and the abuse of human rights has continued in Chechyna, according to a number of human rights organizations. A number of aid workers and human rights activists have been abducted and murdered.

According to Amnesty International, "The authorities in Chechnya have continued to intimidate and persecute human rights defenders and those who seek justice for abuses. Several have been forced to leave the country due to threats to their lives."

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Mao Zedong

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"Mao" redirects here. For other uses, see Mao (disambiguation).

"毛" redirects here. "毛" is also the Chinese character meaning Fur.This is a Chinese name; the family name is Mao.

1st Chairman of the Communist Party of China
Mao Zedong 毛泽东

In office 1943–1976
Deputy	Liu Shaoqi Lin Biao Zhou Enlai Hua Guofeng
Preceded by	Zhang Wentian (As General Secretary)
Succeeded by	Hua Guofeng
1st Chairman of the People's Republic of China
In office 27 September 1954 – April 1959
Premier	Zhou Enlai
Deputy	Zhu De
Preceded by	Position Created
Succeeded by	Liu Shaoqi
1st Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission
In office 1954–1976
Preceded by	Position Created
Succeeded by	Hua Guofeng
1st Chairman of the CPPCC
In office 1 October 1949 – 25 December 1954
Preceded by	Position Created
Succeeded by	Zhou Enlai
In office 25 December 1954 – 9 September 1976 (honorary)

Born	26 December 1893(1893-12-26) Shaoshan, Xiangtan, Hunan, Qing Dynasty
Died	9 September 1976 (aged 82) Beijing, People's Republic of China
Nationality	Chinese
Political party	Communist Party of China
Spouse(s)	Luo Yixiu (1907–1910) Yang Kaihui (1920–1930) He Zizhen (1930–1937) Jiang Qing (1939–1976)
Religion	Atheist
Signature

Mao Zedong (simplified Chinese: 毛泽东; traditional Chinese: 毛澤東; pinyin: Máo Zédōng; Wade-Giles: Mao Tse-tung) pronunciation (help·info) (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism-Leninism, military strategies, and his brand of Communist policies are now collectively known as Maoism.

Mao remains a controversial figure to this day, with a contentious and ever-evolving legacy. He is officially held in high regard in China as a great revolutionary, political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Many Chinese^[quantify] also believe that through his policies, he laid the economic, technological and cultural foundations of modern China, transforming the country from an agrarian society into a major world power. Additionally, Mao is viewed by many^[who?] as a poet, philosopher, and visionary, owing the latter primarily to the cult of personality fostered during his time in power.^[1] As a consequence,^{[clarification needed]} his portrait continues to be featured prominently on Tiananmen and on all Renminbi bills.

Conversely, Mao's social-political programs, such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, are blamed for costing millions of lives, causing severe famine and damage to the culture, society and economy of China. This is generally accepted in China as well as by the Chinese Communist Party^{[citation needed]}. Mao's policies and political purges from 1949 to 1975 are widely believed to have caused the deaths of between 50 to 70 million people.^[2]^[3]^[4] Since Deng Xiaoping assumed power in 1978, many Maoist policies have been abandoned in favour of economic reforms.

Mao is regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern world history,^[5] and named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.^[6]

Early life

Mao was born on December 26, 1893, in Shaoshan, Hunan province China. His father was a poor peasant who had become a wealthy farmer and grain dealer. At age 8 he began studying at the village primary school, but left school at 13 to work on the family farm. He later left the farm to continue his studies at a secondary school in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. When the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing Dynasty broke out in 1911 he joined the Revolutionary Army in Hunan. In the spring of 1912 the war ended, the Republic of China was founded and Mao left the army. He eventually returned to school,^[7] and in 1918 graduated from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan.

Following his graduation, it is believed that Mao traveled with Professor Yang Changji, his college teacher and future father-in-law, to Beijing in 1919. Professor Yang died in 1920 but prior to his death had held a faculty position at Peking University, and at his recommendation, Mao worked as an assistant librarian at the University Library under the curatorship of Li Dazhao, who would come to greatly influence Mao's future thought. Mao registered as a part-time student at Beijing University and attended a few lectures and seminars by intellectuals, such as Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Qian Xuantong. During his stay in Shanghai, he engaged himself as much as possible in reading which introduced him to Communist theories.

He married Yang Kaihui, Professor Yang's daughter and a fellow student, despite an existing marriage with Luo Yixiu arranged by his father at home, which Mao never acknowledged. In October 1930, the Kuomintang (KMT) captured Yang Kaihui as well as her son, Anying^{[citation needed]}. The KMT imprisoned them both, and Anying was later sent to his relatives after the KMT killed his mother^{[citation needed]}. At this time, Mao was living with He Zizhen, a co-worker and 17 year old girl from Yongxing, Jiangxi.^[8] Likely due to poor language skills (Mao never learned to speak Mandarin), he turned down an opportunity to study in France.^[9]

On 23 July 1921, Mao, age 27, attended the first session of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai. Two years later, he was elected as one of the five commissars of the Central Committee of the Party during the third Congress session. Later that year, Mao returned to Hunan at the instruction of the CPC Central Committee and the Kuomintang Central Committee to organize the Hunan branch of the Kuomintang.^[10] In 1924, he was a delegate to the first National Conference of the Kuomintang, where he was elected an Alternate Executive of the Central Committee. In 1924, he became an Executive of the Shanghai branch of the Kuomintang and Secretary of the Organization Department.

For a while, Mao remained in Shanghai, an important city that the CPC emphasized for the Revolution. However, the Party encountered major difficulties organizing labor union movements and building a relationship with its nationalist ally, the Kuomintang (KMT). The Party had become poor, and Mao became disillusioned with the revolution and moved back to Shaoshan. During his stay at home, Mao's interest in the revolution was rekindled after hearing of the 1925 uprisings in Shanghai and Guangzhou. His political ambitions returned, and he then went to Guangdong, the base of the Kuomintang, to take part in the preparations for the second session of the National Congress of Kuomintang. In October 1925, Mao became acting Propaganda Director of the Kuomintang.

In early 1927, Mao returned to Hunan where, in an urgent meeting held by the Communist Party, he made a report based on his investigations of the peasant uprisings in the wake of the Northern Expedition. This is considered the initial and decisive step towards the successful application of Mao's revolutionary theories.^[11]

Political ideas

Main article: Maoism

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Mao had a strong interest in the political system, encouraged by his father. His two most famous essays, both from 1937, 'On Contradiction' and 'On Practice', are concerned with the practical strategies of a revolutionary movement and stress the importance of practical, grassroots knowledge, obtained through experience.

Both essays reflect the guerrilla roots of Maoism in the need to build up support in the countryside against a Japanese occupying force and emphasise the need to win over 'hearts and minds' through 'education'. The essays, reproduced later as part of the 'Red Book', warn against the behaviour of the blindfolded man trying to catch sparrows, and the 'Imperial envoy' descending from his carriage to 'spout opinions' .

After graduating from Hunan Normal School, the highest level of schooling available in his province, Mao spent six months studying independently. Mao was first introduced to communism while working at Peking University, and in 1921 he attended the organizational meeting of the Communist Party of China (or CPC). He first encountered Marxism while he worked as a library assistant at Peking University.

Other important influences on Mao were the Russian revolution and, according to some scholars, the Chinese literary works: Outlaws of the Marsh and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Mao sought to subvert the alliance of imperialism and feudalism in China. He thought the Nationalists to be both economically and politically vulnerable and thus that the revolution could not be steered by Nationalists.

Throughout the 1920s, Mao led several labour struggles based upon his studies of the propagation and organization of the contemporary labour movements.^[12] However, these struggles were successfully subdued by the government, and Mao fled from Changsha after he was labeled a radical activist. He pondered these failures and finally realized that industrial workers were unable to lead the revolution because they made up only a small portion of China's population, and unarmed labour struggles could not resolve the problems of imperial and feudal suppression.

Mao began to depend on Chinese peasants who later became staunch supporters of his theory of violent revolution. This dependence on the rural rather than the urban proletariat to instigate violent revolution distinguished Mao from his predecessors and contemporaries. Mao himself was from a peasant family, and thus he cultivated his reputation among the farmers and peasants and introduced them to Marxism.^[11]^[13]

War

Mao in 1927

Mao in 1931

In 1927, Mao conducted the famous Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha, Hunan, as commander-in-chief. Mao led an army, called the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants", which was defeated and scattered after fierce battles. Afterwards, the exhausted troops were forced to leave Hunan for Sanwan, Jiangxi, where Mao re-organized the scattered soldiers, rearranging the military division into smaller regiments.

Mao also ordered that each company must have a party branch office with a commissar as its leader who would give political instructions based upon superior mandates. This military rearrangement in Sanwan, Jiangxi initiated the CPC's absolute control over its military force and has been considered to have the most fundamental and profound impact upon the Chinese revolution. Later, they moved to the Jinggang Mountains, Jiangxi.

In the Jinggang Mountains, Mao persuaded two local insurgent leaders to pledge their allegiance to him. There, Mao joined his army with that of Zhu De, creating the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China, Red Army in short. Mao's tactics were strongly based on that of the Spanish Guerillas during the Napoleonic Wars.

From 1931 to 1934, Mao helped establish the Soviet Republic of China and was elected Chairman of this small republic in the mountainous areas in Jiangxi. Here, Mao was married to He Zizhen. His previous wife, Yang Kaihui, had been arrested and executed in 1930, just three years after their departure.

It was alleged^{[citation needed]} that Mao orchestrated the Anti-Bolshevik League incident and the Futian incident.

In Jiangxi, Mao's authoritative domination, especially that of the military force, was challenged by the Jiangxi branch of the CPC and military officers. Mao's opponents, among whom the most prominent was Li Wenlin, the founder of the CPC's branch and Red Army in Jiangxi, were against Mao's land policies and proposals to reform the local party branch and army leadership. Mao reacted first by accusing the opponents of opportunism and kulakism and then set off a series of systematic suppressions of them.^[14]

Under the direction of Mao, it is reported that horrible methods of torture took place^[15] and given names such as sitting in a sedan chair, airplane ride, toad-drinking water, and monkey pulling reins."^[15] The wives of several suspects had their breasts cut open and their genitals burned.^[15] It has been estimated that 'tens of thousands' of suspected enemies,^[16] perhaps as many as 186,000,^[17] were killed during this purge. Critics accuse Mao's authority in Jiangxi of being secured and reassured through the revolutionary terrorism, or red terrorism.^[18]

Mao, with the help of Zhu De, built a modest but effective army, undertook experiments in rural reform and government, and provided refuge for Communists fleeing the rightist purges in the cities. Mao's methods are normally referred to as Guerrilla warfare; but he himself made a distinction between guerrilla warfare (youji zhan) and Mobile Warfare (yundong zhan).

Mao's Guerrilla Warfare and Mobile Warfare was based upon the fact of the poor armament and military training of the Red Army which consisted mainly of impoverished peasants, who, however, were all encouraged by revolutionary passions and aspiring after a communist utopia.

Around 1930, there had been more than ten regions, usually entitled "soviet areas", under control of the CPC.^[19] The relative prosperity of "soviet areas" startled and worried Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the Kuomintang government, who waged five waves of besieging campaigns against the "central soviet area." More than one million Kuomintang soldiers were involved in these five campaigns, four of which were defeated by the Red Army led by Mao. By June 1932 (the height of its power), the Red Army had no less than 45,000 soldiers, with a further 200,000 local militia acting as a subsidiary force.^[20]

Under increasing pressure from the KMT encirclement campaigns, there was a struggle for power within the Communist leadership. Mao was removed from his important positions and replaced by individuals (including Zhou Enlai) who appeared loyal to the orthodox line advocated by Moscow and represented within the CPC by a group known as the 28 Bolsheviks.

Mao in 1935

Chiang Kai-shek, who had earlier assumed nominal control of China due in part to the Northern Expedition, was determined to eliminate the Communists. By October 1934, he had them surrounded, prompting them to engage in the "Long March," a retreat from Jiangxi in the southeast to Shaanxi in the northwest of China. It was during this 9,600 kilometer (5,965 mile), year-long journey that Mao emerged as the top Communist leader, aided by the Zunyi Conference and the defection of Zhou Enlai to Mao's side. At this Conference, Mao entered the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China.

According to the standard Chinese Communist Party line, from his base in Yan'an, Mao led the Communist resistance against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).^{[citation needed]} However, Mao further consolidated power over the Communist Party in 1942 by launching the Shu Fan movement, or "Rectification" campaign against rival CPC members such as Wang Ming, Wang Shiwei, and Ding Ling. Also while in Yan'an, Mao divorced He Zizhen and married the actress Lan Ping, who would become known as Jiang Qing.

Mao in 1938, writing On Protracted War ^[21]

During the Sino-Japanese War, Mao Zedong's military strategies, laid out in On Guerrilla Warfare were opposed by both Chiang Kai-shek and the United States. The US regarded Chiang as an important ally, able to help shorten the war by engaging the Japanese occupiers in China. Chiang, in contrast, sought to build the ROC army for the certain conflict with Mao's communist forces after the end of World War II. This fact was not understood well in the US, and precious lend-lease armaments continued to be allocated to the Kuomintang.

In turn, Mao spent part of the war (as to whether it was most or only a little is disputed) fighting the Kuomintang for control of certain parts of China. Both the Communists and Nationalists have been criticised for fighting amongst themselves rather than allying against the Japanese Imperial Army. Some argue, however, that the Nationalists were better equipped and fought more against Japan.^[22]

In 1944, the Americans sent a special diplomatic envoy, called the Dixie Mission, to the Communist Party of China. According to Edwin Moise, in Modern China: A History 2nd Edition:

Most of the Americans were favorably impressed. The CPC seemed less corrupt, more unified, and more vigorous in its resistance to Japan than the Kuomintang. United States fliers shot down over North China...confirmed to their superiors that the CPC was both strong and popular over a broad area. In the end, the contacts with the USA developed with the CPC led to very little.

After the end of World War II, the U.S. continued to support Chiang Kai-shek, now openly against the Communist's People's Liberation Army led by Mao Zedong in the civil war for control of China. The U.S. support was part of its view to contain and defeat world communism. Likewise, the Soviet Union gave quasi-covert support to Mao (acting as a concerned neighbor more than a military ally, to avoid open conflict with the U.S.) and gave large supplies of arms to the Communist Party of China, although newer Chinese records indicate the Soviet "supplies" were not as large as previously believed, and consistently fell short of the promised amount of aid.^{[citation needed]}

In 1948, the People's Liberation Army starved out the Kuomintang forces occupying the city of Changchun. At least 160,000 civilians are believed to have perished during the siege, which lasted from June until October. PLA lieutenant colonel Zhang Zhenglu, who documented the siege in his book White Snow, Red Blood, compared it to Hiroshima: "The casualties were about the same. Hiroshima took nine seconds; Changchun took five months."^[23]

On 21 January 1949, Kuomintang forces suffered massive losses against Mao's forces. In the early morning of 10 December 1949, PLA troops laid siege to Chengdu, the last KMT-occupied city in mainland China, and Chiang Kai-shek evacuated from the mainland to Taiwan (Formosa) that same day.

Leadership of China

Joseph Stalin and Mao depicted on a Chinese postage stamp

The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. It was the culmination of over two decades of civil and international war. From 1954 to 1959, Mao was the Chairman of the PRC. During this period, Mao was called Chairman Mao (毛主席) or the Great Leader Chairman Mao (伟大领袖毛主席).

The Communist Party assumed control of all media in the country and used it to promote the image of Mao and the Party. The Nationalists under General Chiang Kai-Shek were vilified as were countries such as the United States of America and Japan. The Chinese people were exhorted to devote themselves to build and strengthen their country through Communist ideology. In his speech declaring the foundation of the PRC, Mao is famously said to have announced: "The Chinese people have stood up" (though whether he actually said it is disputed^[24]).

Mao took up residence in Zhongnanhai, a compound next to the Forbidden City in Beijing, and there he ordered the construction of an indoor swimming pool and other buildings. Mao often did his work either in bed or by the side of the pool, preferring not to wear formal clothes unless absolutely necessary, according to Dr. Li Zhisui, his personal physician. (Li's book, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, is regarded as controversial, especially by those sympathetic to Mao.)

In October 1950, Mao made the decision to send the People's Volunteer Army into Korea and fought against the United Nations forces led by the U.S. Historical records showed that Mao directed the PVA campaigns in the Korean War to the minute details.^[25]

Along with Land reform, during which significant numbers of landlords were beaten to death at mass meetings organized by the CPC as land was taken from them and given to poorer peasants,^[26] there was also the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries,^[27] which involved public executions targeting mainly former Kuomintang officials, businessmen accused of "disturbing" the market, former employees of Western companies and intellectuals whose loyalty was suspect.^[28] The U.S. State department in 1976 estimated that there may have been a million killed in the land reform, 800,000 killed in the counterrevolutionary campaign.^[29]

Mao himself claimed that a total of 700,000 people were executed during the years 1949–53.^[30] However, because there was a policy to select "at least one landlord, and usually several, in virtually every village for public execution",^[31] the number of deaths range between 2 million^[31]^[32] and 5 million.^[33]^[34] In addition, at least 1.5 million people,^[35] perhaps as many as 4 to 6 million,^[36] were sent to "reform through labour" camps where many perished.^[36] Mao played a personal role in organizing the mass repressions and established a system of execution quotas,^[37] which were often exceeded.^[27] Nevertheless he defended these killings as necessary for the securing of power.^[38]

Starting in 1951, Mao initiated two successive movements in an effort to rid urban areas of corruption by targeting wealthy capitalists and political opponents, known as the three-anti/five-anti campaigns. A climate of raw terror developed as workers denounced their bosses, wives turned on their husbands, and children informed on their parents; the victims often being humiliated at struggle sessions, a method designed to intimidate and terrify people to the maximum. Mao insisted that minor offenders be criticized and reformed or sent to labor camps, "while the worst among them should be shot." These campaigns took several hundred thousand additional lives, the vast majority via suicide.^[39]

In Shanghai, people jumping to their deaths became so commonplace that residents avoided walking on the pavement near skyscrapers for fear that suicides might land on them.^[40] Some biographers have pointed out that driving those perceived as enemies to suicide was a common tactic during the Mao-era. For example, in his biography of Mao, Philip Short notes that in the Yan'an Rectification Movement, Mao gave explicit instructions that "no cadre is to be killed," but in practice allowed security chief Kang Sheng to drive opponents to suicide and that "this pattern was repeated throughout his leadership of the People's Republic."^[41]

Following the consolidation of power, Mao launched the First Five-Year Plan (1953–8). The plan aimed to end Chinese dependence upon agriculture in order to become a world power. With the Soviet Union's assistance, new industrial plants were built and agricultural production eventually fell to a point where industry was beginning to produce enough capital that China no longer needed the USSR's support. The success of the First Five Year Plan was to encourage Mao to instigate the Second Five Year Plan, the Great Leap Forward, in 1958. Mao also launched a phase of rapid collectivization. The CPC introduced price controls as well as a Chinese character simplification aimed at increasing literacy. Large scale industrialization projects were also undertaken.

Programs pursued during this time include the Hundred Flowers Campaign, in which Mao indicated his supposed willingness to consider different opinions about how China should be governed. Given the freedom to express themselves, liberal and intellectual Chinese began opposing the Communist Party and questioning its leadership. This was initially tolerated and encouraged. After a few months, Mao's government reversed its policy and persecuted those, totalling perhaps 500,000, who criticized, as well as those who were merely alleged to have criticized, the Party in what is called the Anti-Rightist Movement. Authors such as Jung Chang have alleged that the Hundred Flowers Campaign was merely a ruse to root out "dangerous" thinking.^[42]

Others such as Dr Li Zhisui have suggested that Mao had initially seen the policy as a way of weakening those within his party who opposed him, but was surprised by the extent of criticism and the fact that it began to be directed at his own leadership.^{[citation needed]} It was only then that he used it as a method of identifying and subsequently persecuting those critical of his government. The Hundred Flowers movement led to the condemnation, silencing, and death of many citizens, also linked to Mao's Anti-Rightist Movement, with death tolls possibly in the millions.

Great Leap Forward

Main article: Great Leap Forward

In January 1958, Mao Zedong launched the second Five-Year Plan known as the Great Leap Forward, a plan intended as an alternative model for economic growth to the Soviet model focusing on heavy industry that was advocated by others in the party. Under this economic program, the relatively small agricultural collectives which had been formed to date were rapidly merged into far larger people's communes, and many of the peasants ordered to work on massive infrastructure projects and the small-scale production of iron and steel. Some private food production was banned; livestock and farm implements were brought under collective ownership.

Under the Great Leap Forward, Mao and other party leaders ordered the implementation of a variety of unproven and unscientific new agricultural techniques by the new communes. Combined with the diversion of labor to steel production and infrastructure projects and the reduced personal incentives under a commune system this led to an approximately 15% drop in grain production in 1959 followed by further 10% reduction in 1960 and no recovery in 1961 (Spence, 553).

In an effort to win favor with their superiors and avoid being purged, each layer in the party hierarchy exaggerated the amount of grain produced under them and based on the fabricated success, party cadres were ordered to requisition a disproportionately high amount of the true harvest for state use primarily in the cities and urban areas but also for export. The net result, which was compounded in some areas by drought and in others by floods, was that the rural peasants were not left enough to eat and many millions starved to death in the largest famine in human history. This famine was a direct cause of the death of tens of millions of Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962. Further, many children who became emaciated and malnourished during years of hardship and struggle for survival, died shortly after the Great Leap Forward came to an end in 1962 (Spence, 553).

The extent of Mao's knowledge as to the severity of the situation has been disputed. According to some, most notably Dr. Li Zhisui, Mao was not aware of anything more than a mild food and general supply shortage until late 1959.

"But I do not think that when he spoke on 2 July 1959, he knew how bad the disaster had become, and he believed the party was doing everything it could to manage the situation"

Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, in Mao: the Unknown Story, alleged that Mao knew of the vast suffering and that he was dismissive of it, blaming bad weather or other officials for the famine.

"Although slaughter was not his purpose with the Leap, he was more than ready for myriad deaths to result, and hinted to his top echelon that they should not be too shocked if they happened (438–439)."

In Hungry Ghosts, Jasper Becker notes that Mao was dismissive of reports he received of food shortages in the countryside and refused to change course, believing that peasants were lying and that rightists and kulaks were hoarding grain. He refused to open state granaries,^[43] and instead launched a series of "anti-grain concealment" drives that resulted in numerous purges and suicides.^[44] Other violent campaigns followed in which party leaders went from village to village in search of hidden food reserves, and not only grain, as Mao issued quotas for pigs, chickens, ducks and eggs. Many peasants accused of hiding food were tortured and beaten to death.^[45]

Whatever the case, the Great Leap Forward led to millions of deaths in China. Mao lost esteem among many of the top party cadres and was eventually forced to abandon the policy in 1962, also losing some political power to moderate leaders, notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. However, Mao and national propaganda claimed that he was only partly to blame. As a result, he was able to remain Chairman of the Communist Party, with the Presidency transferred to Liu Shaoqi.

The Great Leap Forward was a disaster for China. Although the steel quotas were officially reached, almost all of it made in the countryside was useless lumps of iron, as it had been made from assorted scrap metal in home made furnaces with no reliable source of fuel such as coal. According to Zhang Rongmei, a geometry teacher in rural Shanghai during the Great Leap Forward:

"We took all the furniture, pots, and pans we had in our house, and all our neighbors did likewise. We put all everything in a big fire and melted down all the metal."

Moreover, most of the dams, canals and other infrastructure projects, which millions of peasants and prisoners had been forced to toil on and in many cases die for, proved useless as they had been built without the input of trained engineers, whom Mao had rejected on ideological grounds.

The worst of the famine was steered towards enemies of the state, much like during the 1932–33 famine in the USSR.^[46] As Jasper Becker explains:

"The most vulnerable section of China's population, around five per cent, were those whom Mao called 'enemies of the people'. Anyone who had in previous campaigns of repression been labeled a 'black element' was given the lowest priority in the allocation of food. Landlords, rich peasants, former members of the nationalist regime, religious leaders, rightists, counter-revolutionaries and the families of such individuals died in the greatest numbers."^[47]

Mao, shown here with Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai; Beijing, 1972.

In the Party Congress at Lushan in July/August 1959, several leaders expressed concern that the Great Leap Forward was not as successful as planned. The most direct of these was Minister of Defence and Korean War General Peng Dehuai. Mao, fearing loss of his position, orchestrated a purge of Peng and his supporters, stifling criticism of the Great Leap policies. Senior officials who reported the truth of the famine to Mao were branded as "right opportunists."^[48] A campaign against right opportunism was launched and resulted in party members and ordinary peasants being sent to camps where many would subsequently die in the famine. Years later the CPC would conclude that 6 million people were wrongly punished in the campaign.^[49]

There is a great deal of controversy over the number of deaths by starvation during the Great Leap Forward. Until the mid 1980s, when official census figures were finally published by the Chinese Government, little was known about the scale of the disaster in the Chinese countryside, as the handful of Western observers allowed access during this time had been restricted to model villages where they were deceived into believing that Great Leap Forward had been a great success. There was also an assumption that the flow of individual reports of starvation that had been reaching the West, primarily through Hong Kong and Taiwan, must be localized or exaggerated as China was continuing to claim record harvests and was a net exporter of grain through the period. Because Mao wanted to pay back early to the Soviets debts totaling 1.973 billion yuan from 1960 to 1962,^[50] exports increased by 50%, and fellow Communist regimes in North Korea, North Vietnam and Albania were provided grain free of charge.^[43]

Censuses were carried out in China in 1953, 1964 and 1982. The first attempt to analyse this data in order to estimate the number of famine deaths was carried out by American demographer Dr Judith Banister and published in 1984. Given the lengthy gaps between the censuses and doubts over the reliability of the data, an accurate figure is difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, Banister concluded that the official data implied that around 15 million excess deaths incurred in China during 1958–61 and that based on her modelling of Chinese demographics during the period and taking account of assumed underreporting during the famine years, the figure was around 30 million. The official statistic is 20 million deaths, as given by Hu Yaobang.^[51] Yang Jisheng, a former Xinhua News Agency reporter who had privileged access and connections available to no other scholars, estimates a death toll of 36 million.^[50] Various other sources have put the figure between 20 and 46 million.^[52]

On the international front, the period was dominated by the further isolation of China, due to start of the Sino-Soviet split which resulted in Khrushchev withdrawing all Soviet technical experts and aid from the country. The split was triggered by border disputes, and arguments over the control and direction of world communism, and other disputes pertaining to foreign policy. Most of the problems regarding communist unity resulted from the death of Stalin and his replacement by Khrushchev.

Stalin had established himself as the successor of "correct" Marxist thought well before Mao controlled the Communist Party of China, and therefore Mao never challenged the suitability of any Stalinist doctrine (at least while Stalin was alive). Upon the death of Stalin, Mao believed (perhaps because of seniority) that the leadership of the "correct" Marxist doctrine would fall to him. The resulting tension between Khrushchev (at the head of a politically/militarily superior government), and Mao (believing he had a superior understanding of Marxist ideology) eroded the previous patron-client relationship between the CPSU and CPC. In China, the formerly favourable Soviets were now denounced as "revisionists" and listed alongside "American imperialism" as movements to oppose.

Mao greeting Che Guevara in China at an official ceremony in the Government palace, November 1960

Partly-surrounded by hostile American military bases (reaching from South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan), China was now confronted with a new Soviet threat from the north and west. Both the internal crisis and the external threat called for extraordinary statesmanship from Mao, but as China entered the new decade the statesmen of the People's Republic were in hostile confrontation with each other.

At a large Communist Party conference in Beijing in January 1962, called the "Conference of the Seven Thousand," State President Liu Shaoqi denounced the Great Leap Forward as responsible for widespread famine.^[53] The overwhelming majority of delegates expressed agreement, but Defense Minister Lin Biao staunchly defended Mao.^[53] A brief period of liberalization followed while Mao and Lin plotted a comeback.^[53] Liu and Deng Xiaoping rescued the economy by disbanding the people's communes, introducing elements of private control of peasant smallholdings and importing grain from Canada and Australia to mitigate the worst effects of famine.

Cultural Revolution

Main article: Cultural Revolution

A Cultural Revolution Poster promoting relations between Enver Hoxha and Chairman Mao. The Caption at the bottom reads, "Long Live the great Union between the Parties of Albania and China!" A meeting between the two leaders, however, never really occurred

Mao was concerned with the nature of post 1949 China. He saw that the revolution had replaced an old elite, with a new one. He was concerned that those in power were becoming estranged from the people they were supposed to serve. Corruption was also a concern. Mao thought that a greater threat to China was not from forces outside of the Communist Party, but from people from within who would subvert it and create a new elite who would control the masses of the population, and not serve them (capitalism from within). He thought that a renewal was required, a revolution of culture that would unseat and unsettle the "ruling class" and keep China in a state of 'perpetual revolution' that served the interests of the majority, not a tiny elite.^[54]

There are political aspects to this period as well. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping's prominence gradually became more powerful. Liu and Deng, then the State President and General Secretary, respectively, had favored the idea that Mao should be removed from actual power but maintain his ceremonial and symbolic role, with the party upholding all of his positive contributions to the revolution. They attempted to marginalize Mao by taking control of economic policy and asserting themselves politically as well. Many claim that Mao responded to Liu and Deng's movements by launching the Cultural Revolution in 1966, although the case for this is perhaps overstated.^[55]

Believing that certain liberal bourgeois elements of society continued to threaten the socialist framework, groups of young people known as the Red Guards struggled against authorities at all levels of society and even set up their own tribunals. Chaos reigned in many parts of the country, and millions were persecuted, including a famous philosopher, Chen Yuen. Mao is said to have ordered that no physical harm come to anyone, but that was not always the case. During the Cultural Revolution, the schools in China were closed and the young intellectuals living in cities were ordered to the countryside to be "re-educated" by the peasants, where they performed hard manual labor and other work.

The Revolution led to the destruction of much of China's traditional cultural heritage and the imprisonment of a huge number of Chinese citizens, as well as creating general economic and social chaos in the country. Millions of lives were ruined during this period, as the Cultural Revolution pierced into every part of Chinese life, depicted by such Chinese films as To Live, The Blue Kite and Farewell My Concubine. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the Cultural Revolution.^[52]

When Mao was informed of such losses, particularly that people had been driven to suicide, he is alleged to have commented: "People who try to commit suicide — don't attempt to save them! . . . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people."^[56] The authorities allowed the Red Guards to abuse and kill opponents of the regime. Said Xie Fuzhi, national police chief: "Don't say it is wrong of them to beat up bad persons: if in anger they beat someone to death, then so be it."^[57] As a result, in August and September 1966, there were 1,772 people murdered in Beijing alone.^[58]

Mao greets United States President Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1972

It was during this period that Mao chose Lin Biao, who seemed to echo all of Mao's ideas, to become his successor. Lin was later officially named as Mao's successor. By 1971, however, a divide between the two men became apparent. Official history in China states that Lin was planning a military coup or an assassination attempt on Mao. Lin Biao died in a plane crash over the air space of Mongolia, presumably in his way to flee China, probably anticipating his arrest. The CPC declared that Lin was planning to depose Mao, and posthumously expelled Lin from the party. At this time, Mao lost trust in many of the top CPC figures. The highest-ranking Soviet Bloc intelligence defector, Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa described his conversation with Nicolae Ceauşescu who told him about a plot to kill Mao Zedong with the help of Lin Biao organized by KGB.^[59]

In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over, although the official history of the People's Republic of China marks the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 with Mao's death. In the last years of his life, Mao was faced with declining health due to either Parkinson's disease or, according to Li Zhisui, motor neurone disease, as well as lung ailments due to smoking and heart trouble. Some also attributed Mao's decline in health to the betrayal of Lin Biao. Mao remained passive as various factions within the Communist Party mobilized for the power struggle anticipated after his death.

This period is often looked at in official circles in China and in the west as a great stagnation or even of reversal for China. While many — an estimated 100 million — did suffer,^[60] some scholars, such as Lee Feigon and Mobo Gao, claim there were many great advances, and in some sectors the Chinese economy continued to outperform the west.^[61] They actually go so far as to conclude that the Cultural Revolution period actually laid the foundation for the spectacular growth that continues in China. During the Cultural Revolution, China exploded its first H-Bomb (1967), launched the Dong Fang Hong satellite (January 30, 1970), commissioned its first nuclear submarines and made various advances in science and technology. Health care was free, and living standards in the country side continued to improve.^[61]

Death: Mao's final week & days

At five o'clock in the afternoon of September 2, 1976, Mao suffered a heart attack, far more severe than his previous two and affecting a much larger area of his heart. X rays indicated that his lung infection had worsened, and his urine output dropped to less than 300 cc a day. Mao was awake and alert throughout the crisis and asked several times whether he was in danger. His condition continued to fluctuate and his life hung in the balance.

Three days later, on September 5, Mao's condition was still critical, and Hua Guofeng called Jiang Qing back from her trip. She spent only a few moments in Building 202 (where Mao was staying) before returning to her own residence in the Spring Lotus Chamber.

On the afternoon of September 7, Mao took a turn for the worse. Jiang Qing went to Building 202 where she learned the news. Mao had just fallen asleep and needed the rest, but she insisted on rubbing his back and moving his limbs, and she sprinkled powder on his body. The medical team protested that the dust from the powder was not good for his lungs, but she instructed the nurses on duty to follow her example later. The next morning, September 8, she went again. She demanded the medical staff to change Mao's sleeping position, claiming that he had been lying too long on his left side. The doctor on duty objected, knowing that he could breathe only on his left side, but she had him moved nonetheless.

Mao's breathing stopped and his face turned blue. Jiang Qing left the room while the medical staff put him on a respirator and performed emergency cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Mao barely revived and Hua Guofeng urged Jiang Qing not to interfere further with the doctors' work, as her actions were detrimental to Mao's health and helped cause his death faster. Mao's organs were failing and he was taken off the life support a few minutes after midnight. September 9 was chosen because it was an easy day to remember. Mao had been in poor health for several years and had declined visibly for at least 6 months prior to his death.

His body lay in state at the Great Hall of the People. A memorial service was held in Tiananmen Square on 18 September 1976. There was a three minute silence observed during this service. His body was later placed into the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, even though he had wished to be cremated and had been one of the first high-ranking officials to sign the "Proposal that all Central Leaders be Cremated after Death" in November 1956.^[62]

Cult of Mao

Mao's figure is largely symbolic both in China and in the global communist movement as a whole. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's already glorified image manifested into a personality cult that influenced every aspect of Chinese life. Mao was regarded as the undisputed leader of China's working class in their 100-year struggle against imperialism, feudalism and capitalism, which were the three-evils in pre-1949 China since the Opium War. Even today, many Chinese people regard Mao as a God-like figure, who led the ailing China onto the path of an independent and powerful nation, whose pictures can expel the evil spirit and bad luck.

At the 1958 Party congress in Chengdu, Mao expressed support for the idea of personality cults if they venerated figures who were genuinely worthy of adulation:

There are two kinds of personality cults. One is a healthy personality cult, that is, to worship men like Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin. Because they hold the truth in their hands. The other is a false personality cult, i.e. not analyzed and blind worship.^[63]

In 1962, Mao proposed the Socialist Education Movement (SEM) in an attempt to educate the peasants to resist the temptations of feudalism and the sprouts of capitalism that he saw re-emerging in the countryside from Liu's economic reforms. Large quantities of politicized art were produced and circulated — with Mao at the center. Numerous posters, badges and musical compositions referenced Mao in the phrase "Chairman Mao is the red sun in our hearts" (毛主席是我们心中的红太阳)^[64] and a "Savior of the people" (人民的大救星)^[64]^[65].

The Cult of Mao proved vital in starting the Cultural Revolution. China's youth had generally been raised during the Communist era, which had taught them to idolize Mao. The youth also did not remember the immense starvation and suffering caused by Mao's Great Leap Forward, and their thoughts of Mao were generally positive. Thus, they were his greatest supporters. Their feelings for him were of such strength that many followed his urge to challenge all established authority.

In October 1966, Mao's Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, which was known as the Little Red Book was published. Party members were encouraged to carry a copy with them and possession was almost mandatory as a criterion for membership. Over the years, Mao's image became displayed almost everywhere, present in homes, offices and shops. His quotations were typographically emphasized by putting them in boldface or red type in even the most obscure writings. Music from the period emphasized Mao's stature, as did children's rhymes. The phrase Long Live Chairman Mao for ten thousand years was commonly heard during the era, which was traditionally a phrase reserved for the reigning Emperor.

Today, Mao is still regarded by some as the "never setting Red Sun". He has been compared to the Sage Kings of the classical China^[66]. Since 1950, over 40 million people have visited Mao's birthplace in Shaoshan. Hunan^[66]

Popular culture

A 1950 Chinese propaganda poster showing a happy family of five enjoying life under the image of Mao Zedong. The caption above the picture says "Chairman Mao gives us happy lives".

Mao also has a presence in China and around the world in popular culture, where his face adorns everything from t-shirts to coffee cups. Mao's granddaughter Kong Dongmei, defended the phenomenon, stating that "it shows his influence, that he exists in people's consciousness and has influenced several generations of Chinese people's way of life. Just like Che Guevara's image, his has become a symbol of revolutionary culture."^[67] He has also been immortalized in the song "Revolution" sung by The Beatles with the lyric, "And if you go carryin' pictures of chairman Mao/you ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow."

Legacy

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2010)

"Mao was an accomplished poet, writer and historian, a profound thinker, and a superb military strategist. He crushed the US-backed Nationalist's 4.3-million strong armies in a series of titanic battles, forcing his rival, Chiang Kai-shek, to flee to Taiwan [...] The Great Helmsman united fractured, war-torn China, restoring its pride and self-confidence after two centuries of humiliation. Mao thwarted both Soviet and U.S. efforts to turn China into a client state, and built up China's military power [...] But Mao's crackpot economic notions, notably the infamous 1958 Great Leap Forward, created famines that killed 20–36 million Chinese peasants. Mao's aides dared not tell him millions were starving. Red Emperor Mao was prodigal with his people's lives, and, according to aides who were close to him, was shockingly indifferent to their suffering. Mao horrified even brutal Soviet leaders by saying he was prepared to lose half his people to emerge victorious from a nuclear war [...] Like Stalin – once called "half man, half beast" – Mao appealed as much as he repelled. Most Chinese now regard Mao as their nation's beloved, respected father — but one who went dangerously senile before his death in 1976."

– Eric Margolis ^[68]

As anticipated after Mao's death, there was a power struggle for control of China. On one side was the left wing led by the Gang of Four, who wanted to continue the policy of revolutionary mass mobilization. On the other side was the right wing opposing these policies. Among the latter group, the restorationists, led by Chairman Hua Guofeng, advocated a return to central planning along the Soviet model, whereas the reformers, led by Deng Xiaoping, wanted to overhaul the Chinese economy based on market-oriented policies and to de-emphasize the role of Maoist ideology in determining economic and political policy. Eventually, the reformers won control of the government. Deng Xiaoping, with clear seniority over Hua Guofeng, defeated Hua in a bloodless power struggle a few years later.

Mao is regarded as a national hero of China. In 2008, China opened the Mao Zedong Square to visitors in his hometown of central Hunan Province to mark the 115th anniversary of his birth.^[69]^[70]

Mao's official portrait at the Tiananmen gate.

Supporters of Mao credit him^{[citation needed]} with advancing the social and economic development of Chinese society. They point out that before 1949, for instance, the illiteracy rate in Mainland China was 80%, and life expectancy was a meager 35 years. At his death, illiteracy had declined to less than seven percent, and average life expectancy had increased to more than 70 years (alternative statistics also quote improvements, though not nearly as dramatic). In addition to these increases, the total population of China increased 57% to 700 million, from the constant 400 million mark during the span between the Opium War and the Chinese Civil War.

Supporters also state that, under Mao's government, China ended its "Century of Humiliation" from Western and Japanese imperialism and regained its status as a major world power. They also state their belief that Mao also industrialized China to a considerable extent and ensured China's sovereignty during his rule. Many, including some of Mao's supporters, view the Kuomintang, which Mao drove off the mainland, as having been corrupt.

They also argue^{[citation needed]} that the Maoist era improved women's rights by abolishing prostitution and foot binding. The latter prohibition however made little sense since foot-binding was no longer practised by the 1920s, and, as early as 1906, a Qing decree was encouraging a ban on the practice. At about the same time, groups in China's provinces were militating for the condition of women, half a century before Mao.^[71]^[72] Prostitution returned after Deng Xiaoping and post-Maoist CPC leaders increased liberalization of the economy. Mao also created reforms that allowed women to initiate divorce and inherit property. Indeed, Mao once famously remarked that "Women hold up half the heavens". A popular slogan during the Cultural Revolution was, "Break the chains, unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!"

Skeptics observe^{[citation needed]} that similar gains in literacy and life expectancy occurred after 1949 on the small neighboring island of Taiwan, which was ruled by Mao's opponents, namely Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang, even though they themselves perpetrated substantial violent repression in their own right. The government that continued to rule Taiwan was composed of the same people ruling the Mainland for over 20 years when life expectancy was so low, yet life expectancy there also increased.

A counterpoint, however, is that the United States helped Taiwan with aid, along with Japan and other countries, until the early 1960s when Taiwan asked that the aid cease. The mainland was under economic sanctions from the same countries for many years. The mainland also broke with the USSR after disputes, which had been aiding it. In addition, there is considerable difference in magnitude between increasing the literacy and lifespan of a nation of less than 20 million people (Taiwan) and a nation of nearly a billion people.

Another comparison has been between India and China. Noam Chomsky commented on a study by the Indian economist Amartya Sen.

He observes that India and China had "similarities that were quite striking" when development planning began 50 years ago, including death rates. "But there is little doubt that as far as morbidity, mortality and longevity are concerned, China has a large and decisive lead over India" (in education and other social indicators as well). In both cases, the outcomes have to do with the "ideological predispositions" of the political systems: for China, relatively equitable distribution of medical resources, including rural health services and public distribution of food, all lacking in India.^[73]

There continue to be disagreements on Mao's legacy. Some historians claim that Mao Zedong was a dictator comparable to Hitler and Stalin,^[74]^[75] with a death toll surpassing both.^[3]^[4] Mao was also frequently compared to China's First Emperor Qin Shi Huang, notorious for burying alive hundreds of scholars, and liked the comparison.^[76] During a speech to party cadre in 1958, Mao said he had far outdone Qin Shi Huang in his policy against intellectuals: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold."^[77]

Mao's English interpreter Sidney Rittenberg, who remains the only American ever to be admitted into the Chinese Communist Party, was himself imprisoned in solitary confinement for a total of 16 years during the power struggles of Mao's rule. However, in his memoir The Man Who Stayed Behind, Rittenberg states that he believes Mao never intended to cause the deaths and suffering endured by people under his chairmanship. In his remarks on the matter Rittenberg has declared that Mao "was a great leader in history, and also a great criminal because, not that he wanted to, not that he intended to, but in fact, his wild fantasies led to the deaths of tens of millions of people."^[67] Li Rui, Mao's personal secretary, goes further and claims he was dismissive of the suffering and death caused by his policies: "Mao's way of thinking and governing was terrifying. He put no value on human life. The deaths of others meant nothing to him."^[78]

The United States placed a trade embargo on China as a result of its involvement in the Korean War, lasting until Richard Nixon decided that developing relations with China would be useful in also dealing with the Soviet Union.

Mao's military writings continue to have a large amount of influence both among those who seek to create an insurgency and those who seek to crush one, especially in manners of guerrilla warfare, at which Mao is popularly regarded as a genius. As an example, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) followed Mao's examples of guerrilla warfare to considerable political and military success even in the 21st century.

However, Mao's major contribution to the military science is his theory of People's War, with not only Guerrilla warfare but more importantly, Mobile Warfare methodologies. Mao had successfully applied Mobile Warfare in the Korean War, and was able to encircle, push back and then halt the UN forces in Korea, despite the overwhelming strength of UN firepower.

Mao's poems and writings are frequently cited by both Chinese and non-Chinese. The official Chinese translation of President Barack Obama's inauguration speech used a famous line from one of Mao's poems.^[79] John McCain misattributed a campaign quote to Mao several times during his 2008 presidential election bid, saying "Remember the words of Chairman Mao: 'It's always darkest before it's totally black.'"

The ideology of Maoism has influenced many communists around the world, including Third World revolutionary movements such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge,^[80] Peru's Shining Path, and the revolutionary movement in Nepal. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA also claims Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as its ideology, as do other Communist Parties around the world which are part of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. China itself has moved sharply away from Maoism since Mao's death, and most people outside of China who describe themselves as Maoist regard the Deng Xiaoping reforms to be a betrayal of Maoism, in line with Mao's view of "Capitalist roaders" within the Communist Party.

As the Chinese government instituted free market economic reforms starting in the late 1970s and as later Chinese leaders took power, less recognition was given to the status of Mao. This accompanied a decline in state recognition of Mao in later years in contrast to previous years when the state organized numerous events and seminars commemorating Mao's 100th birthday. Nevertheless, the Chinese government has never officially repudiated the tactics of Mao.

In the mid-1990s, Mao Zedong's picture began to appear on all new renminbi currency from the People's Republic of China. This was officially instituted as an anti-counterfeiting measure as Mao's face is widely recognized in contrast to the generic figures that appear in older currency. On 13 March 2006, a story in the People's Daily reported that a proposal had been made to print the portraits of Sun Yat-sen and Deng Xiaoping.^[81]

In 2006, the government in Shanghai issued a new set of high school history textbooks which omit Mao, with the exception of a single mention in a section on etiquette. Students in Shanghai now only learn about Mao in junior high school.^[82]

Genealogy

Mao Zedong had several wives who contributed to a large family. These were:

Luo Yixiu (罗一秀, 1889–1910) of Shaoshan: married 1907 to 1910
Yang Kaihui (杨开慧, 1901–1930) of Changsha: married 1921 to 1927, executed by the KMT in 1930
He Zizhen (贺子珍, 1910–1984) of Jiangxi: married May 1928 to 1939
Jiang Qing: (江青, 1914–1991), married 1939 to Mao's death

His ancestors were:

Wen Qimei (文七妹, 1867–1919), mother. She was illiterate and a devout Buddhist. She was a descendant of Wen Tianxiang.
Mao Yichang (毛贻昌, 1870–1920), father, courtesy name Mao Shunsheng (毛顺生) or also known as Mao Jen-sheng
Mao Enpu (毛恩普), paternal grandfather
Mao Zuren (毛祖人), paternal great-grandfather

He had several siblings:

Mao Zemin (毛泽民, 1895–1943), younger brother, executed by a warlord
Mao Zetan (毛泽覃, 1905–1935), younger brother, executed by the KMT
Mao Zejian (毛泽建, 1905–1929), adopted sister, executed by the KMT

Mao Zedong's parents altogether had six sons and two daughters. Two of the sons and both daughters died young, leaving the three brothers Mao Zedong, Mao Zemin, and Mao Zetan. Like all three of Mao Zedong's wives, Mao Zemin and Mao Zetan were communists. Like Yang Kaihui, both Zemin and Zetan were killed in warfare during Mao Zedong's lifetime.

Note that the character ze (泽) appears in all of the siblings' given names. This is a common Chinese naming convention.

From the next generation, Zemin's son, Mao Yuanxin, was raised by Mao Zedong's family. He became Mao Zedong's liaison with the Politburo in 1975. Sources like Li Zhisui (The Private Life of Chairman Mao) say that he played a role in the final power-struggles.^[83]

Mao Zedong had several children:

Mao Anying (毛岸英): son to Yang, married to Liu Siqi (刘思齐), who was born Liu Songlin (刘松林), killed in action during the Korean War
Mao Anqing (1923–2007): son to Yang, married to Shao Hua (邵华), son Mao Xinyu (毛新宇), grandson Mao Dongdong.
Li Min (李敏): daughter to He, married to Kong Linghua (孔令华), son Kong Ji'ning (孔继宁), daughter Kong Dongmei (孔冬梅)
Li Na (Chinese:李讷; Pinyin: Lĭ Nà): daughter to Jiang (whose birth given name was Li, a name also used by Mao while evading the KMT), married to Wang Jingqing (王景清), son Wang Xiaozhi (王效芝)

Sources suggest that Mao did have other children during his revolutionary days; some died, but in most of these cases the children were left with peasant families because it was difficult to take care of the children while focusing on revolution. Two English researchers who retraced the entire Long March route in 2002–2003^[84] located a woman whom they believe might well be a missing child abandoned by Mao to peasants in 1935. Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen hope a member of the Mao family will respond to requests for a DNA test.^[85] It has been confirmed that Yang Kaihui had given birth to three children while with Mao and He Zizhen had six, most probably all Mao's.

Personal life

There are few academic sources discussing Mao's private life, which was very secretive at the time of his rule. However, and particularly after Mao's death, there has been an influx of publications on his personal life, as an example The Private Life of Chairman Mao by his physician Li Zhisui. The Private Life of Chairman Mao claims he had chain smoked cigarettes, had poor dental hygiene, causing his teeth to be colored green (it was also claimed that he rubbed Green Tea on his teeth instead of more commonly used dental hygiene methods, giving his teeth a distinctly green color) and generally lived a life of deviancy and excess.

Writings and calligraphy

Mao's calligraphy: The People's Republic of China: all nationalities unite. Mao Zedong. (Chinese: 中华人民共和国各民族团结起来毛泽东 Zhōnghuárénmíngònghéguó gè mínzú tuánjié qǐ lái – Máo Zédōng)

Mao was a prolific writer of political and philosophical literature.^[86] Mao is the attributed author of Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, known in the West as the "Little Red Book" and in Cultural-revolution China as the "Red Treasure Book" (红宝书): this is a collection of short extracts from his speeches and articles, edited by Lin Biao and ordered topically. Mao wrote several other philosophical treatises, both before and after he assumed power. These include:

On Guerrilla Warfare; 1937
On Practice (《实践论》); 1937
On Contradiction (《矛盾论》); 1937
On Protracted War (《论持久战》); 1938
In Memory of Norman Bethune (《纪念白求恩》); 1939
On New Democracy (《新民主主义论》); 1940
Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art (《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》); 1942
Serve the People (《为人民服务》); 1944
The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains (《愚公移山》); 1945
On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People (《正确处理人民内部矛盾问题》); 1957

Mao was also a skilled calligrapher with a highly personal style. In China, Mao was considered a master calligrapher during his lifetime.^[87] His calligraphy can be seen today throughout mainland China.^[88] His work gave rise to a new form of Chinese calligraphy called "Mao-style" or Maoti, which has gained increasing popularity since his death. There currently exist various competitions specializing in Mao-style calligraphy.^[89]

Literary figure

Politics aside, Mao is considered one of modern China's most influential literary figures, and was an avid poet, mainly in the classical ci and shi forms. His poems are all in the traditional Chinese verse style.

As did most Chinese intellectuals of his generation, Mao received rigorous education in Chinese classical literature. His style was deeply influenced by the great Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai and Li He. He is considered to be a romantic poet, in contrast to the realist poets represented by Du Fu.

Many of Mao's poems are still popular in China and a few are taught as a mandatory part of the elementary school curriculum. Some of his most well-known poems are: Changsha (1925), The Double Ninth (1929.10), Loushan Pass (1935), The Long March (1935), Snow (1936.02), The PLA Captures Nanjing (1949.04), Reply to Li Shuyi (1957.05.11), and Ode to the Plum Blossom (1961.12).

References

^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. p. 630. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0805066381. "Mao had an extraordinary mix of talents: he was visionary, statesman, political and military strategist of cunning intellect, a philosopher and poet."
^ Death Toll Median Average Estimates of 14 Sources = 45.75 – 52.5 million people Which include the books: Le Livre Noir du Communism by Stephane Courtois, Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine by Jasper Becker, China's Changing Population by Judith Banister, Contemporary Chinese Population by Wang Weizhi, Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang, Victims of Politics by Kurt Glaser, How to Prevent Genocide by John Heidenrich, Mao's China and After by Maurice Meisner, The Human Cost of Communism in China by Robert L. Walker. Along with reports by Agence France Press (1999), Dictionary of 20 Century World History, Guinness Book of World Records, Washington Post (1994), and the Weekly Standard (1997)
^ ^a ^b Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. p. 631. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA631&dq=mao+a+life+all+the+dead+of+the+second+world+war&ei=V8N5SaWvCIuYMrK0-KwL. ; Chang, Jung and Halliday, Jon. Mao: The Unknown Story. Jonathan Cape, London, 2005. ISBN 0-224-07126-2 p. 3; Rummel, R. J. China's Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 Transaction Publishers, 1991. ISBN 0-88738-417-X p. 205: In light of recent evidence, Rummel has increased Mao's democide toll to 77 million; Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. Worse Than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity. PublicAffairs, 2009. ISBN 1586487698 p. 53: "...the Chinese communists' murdering of a mind-boggling number of people, perhaps between 50 million and 70 million Chinese, and an additional 1.2 million Tibetans."
^ ^a ^b Fenby, Jonathan. Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present. Ecco, 2008. ISBN 0-06-166116-3 p. 351"Mao's responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70 million lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin, his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking."
^ "Mao Zedong". The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World. http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/samplep02. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Time 100: Mao Zedong By Jonathan D. Spence, 13 April 1998.
^ Feigon, Lee (2002). Mao: A Reinterpretation. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. p. 17. ISBN 1566635225.
^ Hollingworth, Clare, Mao and the men against him (Jonathan Cape, London: 1985), p. 45.
^ Chang, Jung; Jon, Halliday (2006). Mao: The Unknown Story. Magazine Publishing (Hong Kong). ISBN 9627934194.
^ "毛泽东生平大事(1893–1976)". http://news.163.com/05/0908/11/1T4IGSAR00011246_2.html. (Major event chronology of Mao Zedong (1893–1976), People's Daily
^ ^a ^b "'Report on an investigation of the peasant movement in Hunan' Mao Zedong 1927". http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/classics/mao/sw1/mswv1_2.html.
^ Chunhou, Zhang. C. Mao Zedong As Poet and Revolutionary Leader: Social and Historical Perspectives. ISBN 0739104063. http://books.google.com/books?id=EWtBMQgUGmEC.
^ "'Analysis of the classes in Chinese society' Mao Zedong 1927.". http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/classics/mao/sw1/mswv1_1.html.
^ Lynch, Michael J (2004). Mao. ISBN 0415215773. http://books.google.com/books?id=fzVSkyaBIGEC&.
^ ^a ^b ^c Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. pp. 272–274. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA272&dq=mao+a+life+ab-tuan+torture&ei=YNtASrm-KKP2yATf2ehD.
^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. p. 279. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA279&dq=mao+a+life+%27tens+of+thousands%27+died&ei=atxASrCwG5HIyASswqVE.
^ Jean-Luc Domenach. Chine: L'archipel oublie. (China: The Forgotten Archipelago.) Fayard, 1992. ISBN 2-213-02581-9 pg 47
^ ao Zedong, communismonline.com
^ Fairbank, John K; Albert Feuerwerker. The Cambridge History of China (vol. 13, pt. 2). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521243386. http://books.google.com/books?id=Fxs3ROaIhPMC.
^ Ying-kwong Wou, Odoric (1994). Mobilizing the Masses: Building Revolution in Henan. Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804721424. http://books.google.com/books?id=1BN9dAqprX8C&.
^ On Protracted War
^ "Willy Lam: China's Own Historical Revisionism", History News Network, 11 August 2005. Retrieved 15 May 2006.
^ "China Is Wordless on Traumas of Communists' Rise". New York Times. 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02anniversary.html. Retrieved 2009-10-02.
^ The famous Mao slogan, that he never even used, SCMP, Sep 25, 2009
^ Burkitt, Laurie; Scobell, Andrew; Wortzel, Larry M. (July 2003), The lessons of history: The Chinese people's Liberation Army at 75, Strategic Studies Institute, pp. 340–341, ISBN 1-58487-126-1, http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB52.pdf
^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. pp. 436–437. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=HQwoTtJ43_AC&pg=PA436&dq=Mao+landlords+and+members+of+their+families+killed&ei=qHULSafGIJLsMvT9yKQE.
^ ^a ^b Yang Kuisong. Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries The China Quarterly, 193, March 2008, pp.102–121. PDF file.
^ Steven W. Mosher. China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality. Basic Books, 1992. ISBN 0-465-09813-4 pp 72, 73
^ Stephen Rosskamm Shalom. Deaths in China Due to Communism. Center for Asian Studies Arizona State University, 1984. ISBN 0-939252-11-2 pg 24
^ Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. Mao: The Unknown Story. pg 337: "Mao claimed that the total number executed was 700,000 but this did not include those beaten or tortured to death in the post-1949 land reform, which would at the very least be as many again. Then there were suicides, which, based on several local inquiries, were very probably about equal to the number of those killed." Also cited in Mao Zedong, by Jonathan Spence, as cited [1]. Mao got this number from a report submitted by Xu Zirong, Deputy Public Security Minister, which stated 712,000 counterrevolutionaries were executed, 1,290,000 were imprisoned, and another 1,200,000 were "subjected to control.": Yang Kuisong. Reconsidering the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries The China Quarterly, 193, March 2008, pp.102–121. PDF file.
^ ^a ^b Twitchett, Denis; John K. Fairbank, Roderick MacFarquhar. The Cambridge history of China. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052124336X. http://books.google.com/books?id=ioppEjkCkeEC&pg=PA87&dq=at+least+one+landlord,+and+usually+several,+in+virtually+every+village+for+public+execution&ei=wP14R6muKIi0iQHR4ezAAQ&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=9REVjFOEIx_4TIMFixd7fhgC9FY. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Maurice Meisner. Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic, Third Edition. Free,Press, 1999. ISBN 0684856352 p. 72: "...the estimate of many relatively impartial observers that there were 2,000,000 people executed during the first three years of the People's Republic is probably as accurate a guess as one can make on the basis of scanty information."
^ Steven W. Mosher. China Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality. Basic Books, 1992. ISBN 0465098134 pg 74: "...a figure that Fairbank has cited as the upper range of "sober" estimates."
^ Lee Feigon. Mao: A Reinterpretation. Ivan R. Dee, 2002. ISBN 1566635225 p. 96: "By 1952 they had extended land reform throughout the countryside, but in the process somewhere between two and five million landlords had been killed."
^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. pp. 436. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=HQwoTtJ43_AC&pg=PA436&dq=%27%27At+least+a+million-and-a-half+more+disappeared+into+the+newly+established+%27reform+through+labour%27+camps,+purpose-built+to+accommodate+them&ei=L_54R6eOFYq-igG72-2XCA&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=lJa-WxMPEygPOSBdsIoT13cmSHY.
^ ^a ^b Benjamin A. Valentino. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century Cornell University Press, 2004. pp. 121–122. ISBN 0801439655
^ Changyu, Li. "Mao's "Killing Quotas." Human Rights in China (HRIC). 26 September 2005, at Shandong University" (PDF). http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.4.2005/CRF-2005-4_Quota.pdf. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
^ Brown, Jeremy. "Terrible Honeymoon: Struggling with the Problem of Terror in Early 1950s China.". http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/chinesehistory/pgp/jeremy50sessay.htm.
^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. p. 437. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA437&dq=mao+while+the+worst+among+them+should+be+shot&ei=ipaVSYquJpLmyQTiieWsDw.
^ "High Tide of Terror". Time Magazine. 5 March 1956. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808241-5,00.html. Retrieved 2009-05-11.
^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. p. 631. ISBN 0805066381. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA631&dq=no+cadre+is+to+be+killed+kang+sheng&ei=2HIRSqnVGZmYyATIo_iNCw#PPA632,M1.
^ Chang, Jung; Halliday, Jon. 2005. Mao: The Unknown Story. New York: Knopf. 410.
^ ^a ^b Jasper Becker. Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks, 1998. ISBN 0805056688 p. 81
^ Jasper Becker. Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks, 1998. ISBN 0805056688 p. 86
^ Jasper Becker. Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks, 1998. ISBN 0805056688 p. 93
^ Benjamin A. Valentino. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century Cornell University Press, 2004. p. 128. ISBN 0801439655
^ Jasper Becker. Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks, 1998. ISBN 0805056688 p. 103
^ Jasper Becker. Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. Holt Paperbacks, 1998. ISBN 0805056688 pp. 92–93
^ Benjamin A. Valentino. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century Cornell University Press, 2004. p. 127. ISBN 0801439655
^ ^a ^b Mark O'Neill. A hunger for the truth: A new book, banned on the mainland, is becoming the definitive account of the Great Famine. South China Morning Post, 2008-7-6.
^ Short, Philip (2001). Mao: A Life. Owl Books. p. 761. http://books.google.com/books?id=4y6mACbLWGsC&pg=PA631&dq=mao+a+life+all+the+dead+of+the+second+world+war&ei=V8N5SaWvCIuYMrK0-KwL.
^ ^a ^b "Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Twentieth Century Hemoclysm". Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Mao. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ ^a ^b ^c Chang, Jung and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (2006), pp. 568, 579.
^ Mao a Reinterpretation by Lee Feigon, page 140
^ For a full treatment of this idea see- Mobo Gao, "The Battle for China's Past", Pluto Press, London, 2008
^ MacFarquhar, Roderick; Schoenhals, Michael (2006). Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press. pp. 110. ISBN 0674023323.
^ MacFarquhar, Roderick and Schoenhals, Michael. Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2006. p. 125
^ MacFarquhar, Roderick and Schoenhals, Michael. Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2006. p. 124
^ Ion Mihai Pacepa (28 November 2006). "The Kremlin's Killing Ways". National Review Online. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzY4NWU2ZjY3YWYxMDllNWQ5MjQ3ZGJmMzg3MmQyNjQ=. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Daniel Chirot. Modern tyrants: the power and prevalence of evil in our age. Princeton University Press, 1996. ISBN 0691027773 p. 198
^ ^a ^b For a lengthy discussion on this topic see Mobo Gao, "The Battle for China's Past", Pluto Press, London, 2008; and Lee Feigon "Mao a Reinterpretation" 2002
^ "China After Mao's Death: Nation of Rumor and Uncertainty". New York Times. 6 October 1976. "Hong Kong, 5 October 1976. With no word on the fate of the body of Mao Zedong, almost a month after his death, rumors are beginning to percolate in China, much as they did following the death of Prime Minister Chou En-lai..."
^ "Cult of Mao". library.thinkquest.org. http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/cultural-revolution/cult.html. Retrieved 2008-08-23. "This remark of Mao seems to have elements of truth but it is false. He confuses the worship of truth with a personality cult, despite there being an essential difference between them. But this remark played a role in helping to promote the personality cult that gradually arose in the CCP."
^ ^a ^b Chapter 5: "Mao Badges – Visual Imagery and Inscriptions" in: Helen Wang: Chairman Mao badges: symbols and Slogans of the Cultural Revolution (British Museum Research Publication 169). The Trustees of the British Museum, 2008. ISBN 978 086159 169 5.
^ In "The East is Red" (东方红), an anthem that wasq popular during the Cultural Revolution. See lyrics and English translation at ChinaPoet.net or Sogou.net. Accessed 2009-08-24.
^ ^a ^b 韶山升起永远不落的红太阳
^ ^a ^b Granddaughter Keeps Mao's Memory Alive in Bookshop by Maxim Duncan, Reuters, September 28, 2009
^ Remembering China's Great Helmsman by Eric Margolis, The Huffington Post, September 29, 2009
^ Chairman Mao square opened on his 115th birth anniversary
^ Mao Zedong still draws crowds on 113th birth anniversary http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200612/27/eng20061227_336033.html
^ Mitter, Rana (2009). Modern China. Oxford University Press. p. 78.
^ Fenby, Jonathan (2009). The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850–2009. Penguin Books. pp. 96–97.
^ "Counting the Bodies — Noam Chomsky". Spectrezine (Spectre Magazine online). http://www.spectrezine.org/global/chomsky.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Michael Lynch. Mao (Routledge Historical Biographies). Routledge, 2004. p. 230: "The People's Republic of China under Mao exhibited the oppressive tendencies that were discernible in all the major absolutist regimes of the twentieth century. There are obvious parallels between Mao's China, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Each of these regimes witnessed deliberately ordered mass 'cleansing' and extermination."
^ MacFarquhar, Roderick and Schoenhals, Michael. Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-674-02332-3 p. 471: "Together with Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, Mao appears destined to go down in history as one of the great tyrants of the twentieth century."
^ MacFarquhar, Roderick and Schoenhals, Michael. Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-674-02332-3 p. 428
^ Mao Zedong sixiang wan sui! (1969), p. 195. Referenced in Governing China: From Revolution to Reform (Second Edition) by Kenneth Lieberthal. W.W. Norton & Co., 2003. ISBN 0393924920 p. 71
^ Jonathan Watts. China must confront dark past, says Mao confidant The Guardian, 2 June 2005
^ "奥巴马就职演说引毛泽东诗词". People's Daily Online. 2009-01-22. http://chinapressusa.com/newscenter/2009-01/22/content_186098.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
^ Jackson, Karl D. Cambodia, 1975–1978: Rendezvous with Death. Princeton University Press. p. 219. ISBN 069102541X. http://books.google.com/books?id=h27D3EYGwzgC&pg=PA219&dq=Radical+Left-wing+Chinese+Communist+Underpinnings+of+Cambodian+Communism&ei=vwF5R6HIHYjOiQHFu7DJDQ&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=bexUOMGrciQwVW3S4kHk5X3eXqc.
^ "Portraits of Sun Yat-sen, Deng Xiaoping proposed adding to RMB notes". People's Daily Online. 2006-03-13. http://english.people.com.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250192.html. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Kahn, Joseph (2006-09-02). "Where's Mao? Chinese Revise History Books". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/asia/01china.html?ex=1314763200&en=abf86c087b22be74&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss. Retrieved 2007-02-28.
^ Biographical Sketches in The Private Life of Chairman Mao
^ "Stepping into history". China Daily. 2003-11-23. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/23/content_283948.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ The Long March, by Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen. Constable 2006
^ "Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages-Mao Zedong Thought<!- Bot generated title ->". http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger/mzdt.html. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ "100 years<!- Bot generated title ->". http://www.asiawind.com/art/callig/modern.htm#Contemporary%20Chinese%20Calligraphy. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ Yen, Yuehping (2005). Calligraphy and Power in Contemporary Chinese Society. Routledge. p. 2. http://books.google.com/books?visbn=0415317533.
^ "首届毛体书法邀请赛精品纷呈" (in Chinese). People.com. 2006-09-11. http://art.people.com.cn/GB/41132/41137/4802132.html.

Annotated writings

Serve the People, mouseover annotated version of Mao's 1944 speech
Remembering Norman Bethune mouseover annotated version of Mao's 1935 eulogy for the famous Canadian doctor

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Political offices
Preceded by None	Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic 1931 – 1934	Succeeded by None
Preceded by None	Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Chinese Soviet Republic 1931 – 1934	Succeeded by Zhang Wentian
Preceded by None	Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference 1949 – 1954	Succeeded by Zhou Enlai
Preceded by None	Chairman of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China 1949 – 1954	Succeeded by Himself (as Chairman of the People's Republic of China)
Preceded by None	Chairman of the People's Revolutionary Military Council of the Central People's Government 1949 – 1954	Succeeded by Himself (Chair of National Defense Council as President of PRC)
Preceded by Himself (as Chairman of the Central People's Government)	President of the People's Republic of China 1954 – 1959	Succeeded by Liu Shaoqi
Party political offices
Preceded by None	Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission 1935 – 1976	Succeeded by Hua Guofeng
Preceded by Deng Fa	President of the CPC Central Party School 1942 – 1947	Succeeded by Liu Shaoqi
Preceded by Zhang Wentian (as General Secretary)	Chairman of the Communist Party of China 1943 – 1976	Succeeded by Hua Guofeng

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[show] v • d • e Leaders of the People's Republic of China

Mao Zedong · Hua Guofeng · Deng Xiaoping · Jiang Zemin · Hu Jintao

[show] v • d • e President of the People's Republic of China

Common Program (1949-1954)	Mao Zedong

1954 Constitution (1954-1975)	Liu Shaoqi · Soong Ching-ling and Dong Biwu · Dong Biwu

1975 Constitution (1975-1978)	Zhu De

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General Secretaries	Chen Duxiu · vacant (1922-25) · Chen Duxiu · Xiang Zhongfa · Li Lisan · Xiang Zhongfa · Wang Ming · Qin Bangxian · Zhang Wentian · vacant (1943-82) · Hu Yaobang · Zhao Ziyang · Jiang Zemin · Hu Jintao

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Italics indicates acting officeholder

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[show] v • d • e The Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976)

Major events	Socialist Education Movement · Lushan Conference · Down to the Countryside Movement · Wuhan Incident · Project 571 Outline · Criticize Lin, Criticize Confucius · Tiananmen Incident

Key figures	Mao Zedong · Liu Shaoqi · Zhou Enlai · Lin Biao · Deng Xiaoping · Gang of Four (Jiang Qing · Zhang Chunqiao · Yao Wenyuan · Wang Hongwen) · Peng Dehuai · Wu Han · Peng Zhen · Chen Boda · Wang Dongxing · Xie Fuzhi · Kang Sheng · Mao Yuanxin

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1970s	Détente · Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty · Black September in Jordan · Cambodian Civil War · Realpolitik · Ping Pong Diplomacy · Four Power Agreement on Berlin · 1972 Nixon visit to China · 1973 Chilean coup d'état · Yom Kippur War · Strategic Arms Limitation Talks · Angolan Civil War · Mozambican Civil War · Ogaden War · Cambodian–Vietnamese War · Sino-Vietnamese War · Iranian Revolution · Operation Condor · Bangladesh Liberation War · Korean Air Lines Flight 902

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1990s	Breakup of Yugoslavia · Dissolution of the USSR · Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

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Organizations	ASEAN · CIA · Comecon · EEC · KGB · MI6 · Stasi

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[show] v • d • e Notable figures of the Cold War

United States	Harry S. Truman · George Marshall (Secretary of State) · Joseph McCarthy (Republican Senator) · Dwight D. Eisenhower · John F. Kennedy · Robert F. Kennedy · Lyndon B. Johnson · Richard Nixon · Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State) · Gerald Ford · Jimmy Carter · Ronald Reagan · George H. W. Bush

Soviet Union	Joseph Stalin · Nikita Khrushchev · Leonid Brezhnev · Yuri Andropov · Konstantin Chernenko · Mikhail Gorbachev · Boris Yeltsin · Andrei Gromyko (foreign minister) · Anatoly Dobrynin (ambassador to the U.S.)

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West Germany	Konrad Adenauer · Walter Hallstein · Willy Brandt · Helmut Schmidt · Helmut Kohl

People's Republic of China	Mao Zedong · Zhou Enlai (Premier) · Hua Guofeng · Deng Xiaoping · Zhao Ziyang (General Secretary)

France	Charles de Gaulle · Alain Poher · Georges Pompidou · Valéry Giscard d'Estaing · François Mitterrand

Italy	Alcide De Gasperi · Palmiro Togliatti · Giulio Andreotti · Aldo Moro · Enrico Berlinguer · Francesco Cossiga · Bettino Craxi

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Eastern Europe	Enver Hoxha (Albania) · Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia) · Imre Nagy (Hungary) · Nicolae Ceauşescu (Romania) · Alexander Dubček (Czechoslovakia) · Walter Ulbricht · Erich Honecker (East Germany)

Far East	Chiang Kai-shek · Chiang Ching-kuo (Republic of China/Taiwan) · Syngman Rhee · Park Chung-hee (South Korea) · Kim Il-sung (North Korea) · Ho Chi Minh (North Vietnam) · Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnam) · Pol Pot (Cambodia) · U Nu · Ne Win (Burma) · Indira Gandhi · Jawaharlal Nehru (India) · Sukarno · Suharto · Mohammad Hatta · Adam Malik (Indonesia) · Corazon Aquino · Nur Misuari · Jose Maria Sison · Ferdinand Marcos · Imelda Marcos (Philippines)

Canada	William Lyon Mackenzie King · Louis St. Laurent · John Diefenbaker · Lester Pearson · Pierre Trudeau · Joe Clark · John Turner · Brian Mulroney · Kim Campbell

Latin America	Fidel Castro (Cuba) · Che Guevara (Argentina/Cuba) · Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) · Salvador Allende · Augusto Pinochet (Chile) · João Goulart · Castelo Branco (Brazil)

Middle East	Mohammad Reza Pahlavi · Ayatollah Khomeini (Iran) · Saddam Hussein (Iraq) · Gamal Abdel Nasser · Anwar El Sadat (Egypt) · Muammar al-Gaddafi (Libya) · Menachem Begin (Israel) · Ahmad Shah Massoud (Afghanistan)

Africa	Patrice Lumumba · Mobutu Sese Seko (Congo/Zaire) · Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) · Idi Amin (Uganda) · Agostinho Neto · José Eduardo dos Santos · Jonas Savimbi (Angola) · Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia)

Timeline of events · Portal · Category

Persondata
NAME	Zedong, Mao
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	毛泽东; 毛澤東; Máo Zédōng; Mao Tse-tung
DATE OF BIRTH	26 December 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hunan, China
DATE OF DEATH	9 September 1976
PLACE OF DEATH	Beijing, China

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong"

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Moscow mourns victims of Metro twin suicide bombings

A woman lays flowers inside the Lubyanka Metro station, 29 March

Flowers were laid at the two stations bombed on Tuesday

Moscow is holding an official day of mourning after 39 people were killed and more than 70 injured in Monday's twin suicide bombings on its Metro.

As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to "destroy" the perpetrators, security was stepped up amid fears of fresh attacks.

No group said it had carried out the bombings but officials blamed Muslim militants from the North Caucasus.

Police are said to be seeking three people sighted along with the bombers.

The United States vowed to help bring to justice the perpetrators.

Two suspected female suicide bombers detonated bombs packed with pieces of metal at two separate stations on the same line during rush hour on Monday morning.

But the line on the Metro, one of the traffic-clogged Russian capital's most vital commuter assets, had resumed traffic by early evening on Monday.

"It's really terrifying," Vasily Vlastinin, 16, told the Associated Press news agency.

"It's become dangerous to ride the Metro but I'll keep taking the Metro. You have to get to school, to college, to work somehow."

Remembrance

The Moscow city government declared Tuesday would be a day of mourning. The first funerals are also expected soon.

ANALYSIS

Richard Galpin outside a Moscow Metro station, 30 March

Richard Galpin, BBC News, Moscow

Millions of commuters are running the gauntlet on board the Moscow Metro fully aware of what happened 24 hours ago. They are doing so on what is an official day of mourning in memory of those killed and injured on Monday.

The main television channels have changed their schedules dropping advertising and entertainment programmes. Although security has now been stepped up on the Metro and, for example, at airports, the big concern is that what happened on Monday was just the start of a new wave of attacks by rebels from the North Caucasus region.

The self-proclaimed leader of the militants has pledged to bring the war to mainland Russia. The question is whether the security forces can now gather sufficient intelligence to prevent any further attacks.

Russians have been lighting candles and laying flowers in memory of the victims of the blast inside the Lubyanka metro station, where at least 23 people died, and the Park Kultury station, where the second explosion killed at least 12 people.

Another four people died in hospital, and officials have warned that the death toll could rise.

The main television channels have changed their schedules, dropping advertising and entertainment programmes.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, visiting the injured at a hospital in Moscow, said law enforcement agencies would "do everything to find and punish the criminals".

President Dmitry Medvedev laid a wreath at the scene of one of the attacks. He called the plotters "beasts", adding: "We will find and destroy them all."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Interfax news agency that militants operating on the Afghan-Pakistan border may have helped organise the Moscow attacks.

"We all know very well that clandestine terrorists are very active on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he was quoted as saying.

"We know that several attacks have been prepared there, to be carried out not only in Afghanistan, but also in other countries. Sometimes, these journeys go as far as the (Russian) Caucasus."

Russian analyst Dimitri Babich discusses the timing of the attack

US President Barack Obama pledged that Washington would "help bring to justice those who undertook this attack" while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called terrorism a "common enemy".

"Whether you are in a Moscow subway or a London subway or a train in Madrid or an office building in New York, we face the same enemy," Mrs Clinton said in an interview with the Canadian network CTV.

Other foreign ministers from the G8 group of leading industrial nations also condemned the attacks at the start of talks on global security in Ottawa, Canada.

Finger of blame

Police are looking for two women who accompanied the bombers as well as a possible male accomplice, after identifying them and the bombers through surveillance footage, security sources were quoted as saying by Russian media.

MOSCOW METRO ATTACKS

Police stand near a map of the Moscow Metro, 29 March

March 2010: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up at Lubyanka station and Park Kultury station, killing 38 people

August 2004: Suicide bomber blows herself up outside Rizhskaya station, killing 10

February 2004: Suicide bombing on Zamoskvoretskaya line, linking main airports, kills 40

August 2000: Bomb in pedestrian tunnel leading to Tverskaya station kills 13

February 2000: Blast injures 20 inside Belorusskaya station

January 1998: Three injured by blast at Tretyakovskaya station

June 1996: Bomb on the Serpukhovskaya line kills four

Russia unprepared for carnage

In pictures: Aftermath of attacks

Profile: Moscow Metro

A Chechen link to bombs?

The head of Russia's intelligence service, the Federal Security Service (FSB), said investigators believed the attacks had been carried out by "terrorist groups related to the North Caucasus".

"Fragments of the bodies of two female suicide bombers were found earlier at the scene of the incident and examinations show that these individuals came from the North Caucasus region," Alexander Bortnikov said.

The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest in Moscow since February 2004, when 40 people were killed by a bomb on a packed metro train as it approached the Paveletskaya station.

Six months later, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside another station, killing 10 people. Both attacks were blamed on rebels from Chechnya.

Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for that attack and vowed last month to take the war to Russian cities.

Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov condemned the attacks in Moscow, saying he would assist the Kremlin in hunting down the culprits.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in 15 years of conflict in Chechnya, and low-level insurgencies continue there and in the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said militants on the Afghan-Pakistan border may have helped organise the attacks.

The city's Metro is one of the busiest underground railways in the world, carrying about 5.5 million passengers a day.