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Kirkuk lawmaker wary of city's status
Published: May 13, 2008 at 6:46 PM
BAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- A Kurdish lawmaker Tuesday said Baghdad is so divided over a constitutional provision concerning the legal status of Kirkuk that it won't address the issue. -
Iraqi NGO calls for international funds
Published: May 13, 2008 at 6:44 PM
BAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- The head of a consortium of Iraqi aid groups appealed to international donors to help displaced Iraqis and called on Baghdad to do better in helping its own. -
Iraqi girls' school gets upgrade
Published: May 13, 2008 at 6:36 PM
BAGHDAD, May 13 (UPI) -- Iraqi citizens, local leaders and a representative from the Ministry of Education attended a ceremony marking the completion of a girls' school in Mahmudiyah.
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Outside View: Open letter to candidates
Published: May 13, 2008 at 5:58 PM
By NEIL WOLLMAN and ABIGAIL FULLER
UPI Outside View Commentators
Thus far, your debate on the war in Iraq -- like the public and media debate -- has focused mainly on the questions of progress in security and political reconciliation, with some limited discussion on the war's effects on the U.S. economy and on our military preparedness elsewhere. -
Iraq Press Roundup
Published: May 13, 2008 at 12:29 PM
By HIBA DAWOOD
UPI Correspondent
The daily Al Sabah newspaper said in its editorial Tuesday that Hezbollah's taking over part of Beirut reminds us of similarities with the situation in Iraq. -
Feature: Notes on Iraq
Published: May 13, 2008 at 12:14 PM
By RICHARD TOMKINS
FOB NORMANDY, Iraq, May 13 (UPI) -- FOBs and COPs may sound like a new board game or Xbox distraction, but they're acronyms that actually define the lives of U.S. troops here. -
Analysis: Cybercrooks get credit card data
Published: May 13, 2008 at 12:00 PM
By SHAUN WATERMAN
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Three men who hacked into the Dave and Busters restaurant chain and stole its customers' credit card data face federal fraud and conspiracy charges. -
Feature: Divisions, al-Qaida leave legacy
Published: May 13, 2008 at 10:01 AM
By RICHARD TOMKINS
MUQDADIYA, Iraq, May 12 (UPI) -- Hassan Abbas Mahmoud is an optimist, a desperate man or both. -
Atlantic Eye: Of kings and kingmakers
Published: May 12, 2008 at 3:05 PM
By MARC S. ELLENBOGEN
UPI International Columnist
BLOIS, France, May 12 (UPI) -- Lord Holme of Cheltenham was the former chairman of the British Liberal Party -- a classic European free-market oriented, centrist party. He was chair of the English College Foundation in Prague, where we became friends. To his enemies, he spent 30 years as the phantom behind the scenes, the kingmaker. A member of Global Panel America's Advisory Board, he lost his fight to brain cancer last week.
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Analysis: Border force seeks recognition
Published: May 9, 2008 at 11:21 AM
By KUSHAL JEENA
UPI Correspondent
NEW DELHI, May 9 (UPI) -- An Indian police force that guards the Indo-Tibetan border wants the federal Interior Ministry to give it the same status as other paramilitary security forces.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police said it should be given the same recognition and status that other paramilitary forces that protect India's internal security receive. It said the force would be pushed into expansion mode immediately once it is given the status of paramilitary force.
"As a first step, the ITBP is concentrating on the creation of an additional 20 battalions within the force. This will take up the total strength of the force to 57,715 personnel. The force is open to the idea of deployment in Naxal-affected districts in the country," said Vikram Srivastava, the force's newly appointed director general, referring to the violent Maoist groups that have spread into many rural areas of India.
"If the government tells us that they require us for such deployment in Naxal-affected regions, we are ready," Srivastava said, pointing out that the training acquired by each paramilitary force is according to the responsibility entrusted to each force. The new ITBP chief was skeptical about an increase in Chinese violations of the Indo-China border where the majority of the force is deployed.
Srivastava took charge of the force from outgoing Director General V.K. Joshi on Wednesday. Joshi held the post of ITBP chief even after he had been appointed director general of the Central Reserve Police Force, an elite paramilitary force that has been deployed in anti-insurgency operations in the northeastern states.
Besides guarding the border, the ITBP is also used by the Interior Ministry during elections. "I see no harm in such duties, since they are only for a brief period. The training time that is lost can be made up in such a case," Srivastava said.
India has also deployed 400 ITBP personnel in Afghanistan to support local security forces. Out of these, 258 personnel are engaged in general security duties, while the rest provide security to the Indian Embassy and consulates in Afghanistan. The ITBP has been stressing the need for enhancing the training infrastructure of the force as well as its weaponry, communication and transport systems.
The ITBP has also requested a satellite facility to check the movements of Chinese forces. The demand is still pending with the interior minister. With three training institutes, the force has sought permission and funds to set up two more.
The ITBP is lagging behind Chinese forces in terms of weaponry and technology. The issue of equipping the border police with state-of-the-art weaponry was also discussed by the parliamentary standing committee of the Interior Ministry recently, whereas the government has made no specific commitment to expand and upgrade the force. The members at the committee chastised the Interior Ministry for continuously ignoring the growing demands of the force.
The ITBP was founded on Oct. 21, 1962, after the Sino-Indian War as an integrated intelligence/signal/pioneer/engineering/medical and guerrilla unit and was initially placed under the Intelligence Bureau for operational control. In 1975 the force's primary task was to check illegal immigration and trans-border crimes. It has the responsibility of providing security, communication and medical assistance to the pilgrims visiting the Hindu holy sites Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar located in Tibet, besides being the Nodal Agency for Disaster Management in the Central and Western Himalayan region. The ITBP has 29 battalions, including four specialist battalions.
ITBP personnel stopped a march that Tibetan exiles had planned, starting at their government in exile at Dharamsala and ending at the Indo-Chinese border, which was meant to confront Chinese soldiers as a protest over China's decades-long rule over Tibet. The Tibetan refugees also organized a series of protests in India recently when the Olympic torch arrived in the country. The security and police personnel foiled their attempts to disrupt the relay of the torch by cutting short the torch's route.
After the Sino-Indian War of 1962 India found a hole in the security of its northern border. The situation at the border was so bad that all the tribal population living along the border remained cut off from the rest of the country for years.
Currently, ITBP is deployed in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, covering the 1,315-mile Indo-Tibet border from Karakoram Pass to Lipulekh Pass at altitudes ranging from 9,000 feet to 18,000 feet. Of late, young Indians have been reluctant to join ITBP as recruitment in this police force meant poor pay and hard working conditions, because even after 46 years of existence the ITBP is not recognized as a paramilitary force.
A.B. Mahapatra, director of the Center for Asian Strategic Studies, a non-governmental think tank that deals with issues relating to conflict management, has said: "With the Chinese incursion in bordering Arunachal Pradesh and its move to construct a road passing through Karakoram ranges to Pakistan, India urgently needs to focus on its border police ITBP and provide them with modern weaponry and other ultra-modern gadgets that help keep a continuous and strict vigil at the borders."
UPI Correspondent
NEW DELHI, May 9 (UPI) -- An Indian police force that guards the Indo-Tibetan border wants the federal Interior Ministry to give it the same status as other paramilitary security forces.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police said it should be given the same recognition and status that other paramilitary forces that protect India's internal security receive. It said the force would be pushed into expansion mode immediately once it is given the status of paramilitary force.
"As a first step, the ITBP is concentrating on the creation of an additional 20 battalions within the force. This will take up the total strength of the force to 57,715 personnel. The force is open to the idea of deployment in Naxal-affected districts in the country," said Vikram Srivastava, the force's newly appointed director general, referring to the violent Maoist groups that have spread into many rural areas of India.
"If the government tells us that they require us for such deployment in Naxal-affected regions, we are ready," Srivastava said, pointing out that the training acquired by each paramilitary force is according to the responsibility entrusted to each force. The new ITBP chief was skeptical about an increase in Chinese violations of the Indo-China border where the majority of the force is deployed.
Srivastava took charge of the force from outgoing Director General V.K. Joshi on Wednesday. Joshi held the post of ITBP chief even after he had been appointed director general of the Central Reserve Police Force, an elite paramilitary force that has been deployed in anti-insurgency operations in the northeastern states.
Besides guarding the border, the ITBP is also used by the Interior Ministry during elections. "I see no harm in such duties, since they are only for a brief period. The training time that is lost can be made up in such a case," Srivastava said.
India has also deployed 400 ITBP personnel in Afghanistan to support local security forces. Out of these, 258 personnel are engaged in general security duties, while the rest provide security to the Indian Embassy and consulates in Afghanistan. The ITBP has been stressing the need for enhancing the training infrastructure of the force as well as its weaponry, communication and transport systems.
The ITBP has also requested a satellite facility to check the movements of Chinese forces. The demand is still pending with the interior minister. With three training institutes, the force has sought permission and funds to set up two more.
The ITBP is lagging behind Chinese forces in terms of weaponry and technology. The issue of equipping the border police with state-of-the-art weaponry was also discussed by the parliamentary standing committee of the Interior Ministry recently, whereas the government has made no specific commitment to expand and upgrade the force. The members at the committee chastised the Interior Ministry for continuously ignoring the growing demands of the force.
The ITBP was founded on Oct. 21, 1962, after the Sino-Indian War as an integrated intelligence/signal/pioneer/engineering/medical and guerrilla unit and was initially placed under the Intelligence Bureau for operational control. In 1975 the force's primary task was to check illegal immigration and trans-border crimes. It has the responsibility of providing security, communication and medical assistance to the pilgrims visiting the Hindu holy sites Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar located in Tibet, besides being the Nodal Agency for Disaster Management in the Central and Western Himalayan region. The ITBP has 29 battalions, including four specialist battalions.
ITBP personnel stopped a march that Tibetan exiles had planned, starting at their government in exile at Dharamsala and ending at the Indo-Chinese border, which was meant to confront Chinese soldiers as a protest over China's decades-long rule over Tibet. The Tibetan refugees also organized a series of protests in India recently when the Olympic torch arrived in the country. The security and police personnel foiled their attempts to disrupt the relay of the torch by cutting short the torch's route.
After the Sino-Indian War of 1962 India found a hole in the security of its northern border. The situation at the border was so bad that all the tribal population living along the border remained cut off from the rest of the country for years.
Currently, ITBP is deployed in the states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, covering the 1,315-mile Indo-Tibet border from Karakoram Pass to Lipulekh Pass at altitudes ranging from 9,000 feet to 18,000 feet. Of late, young Indians have been reluctant to join ITBP as recruitment in this police force meant poor pay and hard working conditions, because even after 46 years of existence the ITBP is not recognized as a paramilitary force.
A.B. Mahapatra, director of the Center for Asian Strategic Studies, a non-governmental think tank that deals with issues relating to conflict management, has said: "With the Chinese incursion in bordering Arunachal Pradesh and its move to construct a road passing through Karakoram ranges to Pakistan, India urgently needs to focus on its border police ITBP and provide them with modern weaponry and other ultra-modern gadgets that help keep a continuous and strict vigil at the borders."
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This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
