Could Somali famine deal a fatal blow to al-Shabab?

Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab is in crisis, as it battles to cope with the famine that is far worse in areas under its control than other parts of the country, leading to reports of splits in the leadership of the al-Qaeda-linked group.

   The famine has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee the Lower Shabelle and Bakool regions in search of food.
Many are escaping to the capital, Mogadishu, where over the weekend the group made what it called a tactical withdrawal of its forces from the northern suburbs that were under its control.
Others are walking for days to reach camps in neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia, arch-foes of al-Shabab.
"It is not a good picture for al-Shabab," says US-based Somali journalist Abdirahman Aynte, who is writing a book on the movement.
"Nearly 500,000 people have left. Al-Shabab cannot do anything about it. They have become bystanders."

Fatuma Noor Somali journalist

He says al-Shabab - formed as the youth wing of the now-defunct Union of Islamic Courts in 2006 - had genuine support when it took power in most of south and central Somalia, as people longed for an end to the lawlessness that has gripped the country since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991.

"Even though al-Shabab had draconian laws, they were somewhat popular because of the stability they provided," says Mr Aynte.
"Government areas were not safe - even soldiers were involved in robbing and looting. In al-Shabab areas, you will have your hands amputated if you steal. It was a deterrent. "
Kenya-based Somali journalist Fatuma Noor, who travelled through al-Shabab territory last year, says the famine has damaged the group's credibility.
"Al-Shabab are losing support. People are saying that the drought in the region was caused by a lack of rains, but the famine was man-made. They are asking - why has it been only in al-Shabab's areas?" Ms Noor says.
Taxing charities She says many Somalis are blaming al-Shabab for the severity of the crisis because of the ban it imposed on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and some other Western agencies in 2009.
"There have been warnings of a famine since last year, but there was no proper planning to prevent it," says Ms Noor.
But a London-based al-Shabab observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, argues that the UN blundered by declaring a famine.
He points out that al-Shabab lifted the ban on charities last month; only to reimpose it after the UN's declaration.

 

Nearly all al-Shabab areas are expected to be hit by famine

"Al-Shabab felt the UN was undermining it; that it wanted to move in and take over. The UN should have concentrated on building trust with al-Shabab and getting aid in to save lives. It didn't matter whether you called it a drought or a famine," he says.
But Mr Aynte accuses al-Shabab of refusing to take responsibility for the crisis.
"It says there is a drought, caused by Allah and people should pray for rain."
He says it is difficult for charities to work with al-Shabab because it demands money from them.
"Al-Shabab are suspicious of aid agencies but 10%-15% of their revenue comes from them.
"Al-Shabab has a humanitarian co-ordination office, which charges a registration fee of $4,000 to $10,000 (£2,400 to £6,000). They also charge a project fee - 20% of the overall cost of digging a borehole or setting up a feeding centre," Mr Aynte says.

The al-Shabab observer who preferred anonymity says the group's leadership is heavily divided over the food crisis - something the UN could have exploited to gain access to starving people.

Al-Shabab's southern leaders - especially Muktar Ali Robow, who comes from famine-hit Lower Shabelle, and Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is seen as the elder statesman of Somali Islamists - favour accepting Western aid.
However, they were overruled by the overall leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, who has led al-Shabab into forging close ties with al-Qaeda.
"Robow's people are directly affected by this famine. So he wants aid agencies to come in. But Godane is suspicious of the UN and doesn't want them in Somalia. So he blocked it," the observer says.
"Robow is now accusing Godane [who hails from the breakaway region of Somaliland] of letting people starve."
Wracked by rivalry The Somali observer says the famine has worsened divisions between Mr Godane and his rivals.
In June, a top Godane ally, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who was al-Qaeda's military operations chief in East Africa, was killed at a government roadblock in Mogadishu.

Matt Bryden UN investigator

"Fazul was from Comoros and did not know Mogadishu well. Godane is suspicious that his enemies in al-Shabab duped him into going to the checkpoint. At first, government forces did not even know it was Fazul - until they did DNA tests with American help," the observer says.

"It was a big blow to Godane and he became more paranoid. He feels he needs to keep tight control - not open up Somalia to the West."
The crisis over the famine comes at a time when al-Shabab - which has between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters - has lost Mogadishu following an offensive by government forces, who are backed by about 9,000 African Union troops.
"Al-Shabab is under pressure. Its moral police [who do not usually fight] are now also on the front line," Mr Aynte says.
The al-Shabab observer said the group announced its retreat from Mogadishu after launching an attack on seven fronts.
"It was a show of unity and force to counter reports that they are weak and divided," the observer says.
He says al-Shabab was unlikely to withdraw completely from Mogadishu. Instead, it would switch to the guerrilla tactics it employed against Ethiopian forces when they invaded the country in 2006 in a failed attempt to defeat the group.
"Al-Shabab never controlled territory at the time. They waged guerrilla war and drove the Ethiopians out."
But the loss of Mogadishu will be a huge financial blow to al-Shabab, as it can no longer extort money out of the businesses in the main Bakara market - the city's commercial hub.

 

The AU has 9,000 troops in Mogadishu - not enough to patrol the whole city

"Al-Shabab was collecting taxes from about 4,000 shops - from $50 a month from the small trader to thousands of dollars from telecoms companies," Mr Aynte says.
He argues that the famine - along with the military setbacks and financial losses - means that al-Shabab is at its weakest since its formation.
"But it is too early to write it off. Organisationally, it is still intact," Mr Aynte says.
However, UN al-Shabab investigator Matt Bryden believes the group is still financially strong.
"Al-Shabab has evolved from a small, clandestine network into an authority that generates tens of millions of dollars a year," he says.
He also argues that deforestation in al-Shabab-held areas has probably contributed to the famine, as some environmental experts say that cutting down trees can reduce rainfall.
The trees are used to make charcoal, which is exported to Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Mr Bryden says.
He points out that al-Shabab controls several port cities - including Kismayo, Somalia's second city.
"Charcoal through Kismayo alone is estimated to be worth $15m a year in direct revenue for al-Shabab," Mr Bryden says.
"I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that the scale at which it is taking place is almost industrial."
Mr Bryden says al-Shabab is no longer dependent on foreign funding and has enough money to finance its war chest.
But for many observers the key question is: Will al-Shabab rally to the aid of starving Somalis - or will they continue to flee Islamist areas in search of food?
"I do not think al-Shabab really cares about the famine," says Mr Aynte. "It is more interested in fighting the government and the AU force."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Somalia drought: Tragic history repeats itself

I'm here on the edge of the harsh Ogaden desert, in the north-eastern corner of Kenya, to tell the story of a humanitarian crisis.

    The Somalis who make the perilous journey here - mainly women and children - are in dire need. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, will die no matter what the aid agencies do - it is already that bad.
The stick-thin babies - we have all seen the images. The mothers who have arrived here with fewer children than when they set off from their homes - we can only imagine their desperation.
But that is only part of the story. It is the one that is getting most attention but it is the one that is least likely to lead to a lasting solution to what is happening in Somalia.
One stark fact shouts louder than all the others we have been bombarded with since famine was declared in Somalia.
The vast majority of people in this massive camp of 440,000 people (roughly the population of the UK city of Leeds) are not here because of this year's drought. That's right - three out of four people receiving food aid are not starving.

Most of them have been here for more than a decade and a substantial number have been here for two.

They are victims, but they live in this tented encampment in a God-forsaken corner of Africa not because they are hungry, but because the country they once called home is dysfunctional.
In fact, it is a country in name only. It is the failed state of diplomatic nightmares.
Man-made It all started some 20 years ago when I first criss-crossed Somalia as a relatively new foreign correspondent for the BBC.

 We saw similar images of suffering from Somalia in 1992

The fall of a dictator had been followed by internecine conflict as competing warlords defended their territories with a ruthlessness that gave new meaning to scorched-earth warfare.
Then, too, there was a drought, but the famine that ensued was as much man-made as induced by climate.
That is when the first desperate Somalis fled across the border to Dadaab, where I am now, watching a new tragedy unfold.
In the intervening years the violence of the warlords has been replaced by a new civil war between a Western-backed government that is staggeringly inept and a collection of Islamist militias ranging from pragmatic to extremist.
It is the reason why the 300,000 Somalis who were already here have not gone back and why a hugely expensive aid operation is being mounted here in Kenya rather than inside Somalia where it would be much more efficient and effective.
Conflict, not drought, is the reason so many Somalis are dying needlessly.
Conflict has turned hunger into famine and disaster into tragedy. I know it, the aid workers know it and so, too, do the refugees.
As Rukiya Ahmed Gele, a refugee since 1992, told me outside a UN food distribution centre: "Maybe if they stopped feeding us here we would have to go back and sort out our problems."
Hers is a drastic solution. What is clear that charity alone is not enough to solve Somalia's problems.
If these problems are not tackled there is every chance that another reporter will be back in another 20 years wondering how it is possible that vulnerable children are still being cursed with hunger and a horribly early death.

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Profile: Libyan rebel commander Abdel Hakim Belhaj

Abdel Hakim Belhaj is a rising star in Tripoli's rebel leadership, but his past ties to jihadi groups have sparked controversy - along with his claims of being tortured at the behest of US and British intelligence agencies under the programme known as rendition.

    As leader of the newly-formed Tripoli Military Council, Abdel Hakim Belhaj is arguably the most powerful military man in Tripoli.
He stood victorious inside Col Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound last month, after fighters from his Tripoli Brigade broke through the defences of the ousted leader's fortress in the heart of the Libyan capital.
"The tyrant has fled and we will be after him," said Mr Belhaj, 45.
Islamist days The defeat was a long-time coming for the staunch anti-Gaddafi opposition fighter, who was involved with an Islamist group's attempt to overthrow the Libyan leader in the late 1990s.

Mr Belhaj - known in the jihadi world as Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq - commanded the now defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).

The group was formed in 1990 by Mr Belhaj and other Islamist Libyans who had fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s. It went public in 1995, with the stated aim of overthrowing Col Gaddafi.
The LIFG waged a three-year low-level insurgency mainly based in eastern Libya, and staged three attempts to assassinate Col Gaddafi in 1995 and 1996, according to Middle East analyst Omar Ashour of Exeter University.
The group has historical links to al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Egypt's Islamic Jihad organisation, says Prof Ashour.
By 1998, the group was crushed. Most of its leaders fled to Afghanistan and joined forces with the Taliban.
After the 11 September attacks and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, he and most of the LIFG leaders fled that country as well, only for Mr Belhaj to be arrested in 2004 in Thailand by the CIA and then handed over to Col Gaddafi's regime.
Mr Belhaj spent time in Tripoli's notorious Abu Selim Prison, before being freed in 2010 under a "de-radicalisation" drive championed by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader.
CIA rendition His latest incarnation as the top Libyan rebel commander, widely credited with chasing the Gaddafi family out of Tripoli, has propelled him to international attention - along with his extraordinary account of being tortured under the controversial CIA interrogation programme known as rendition.
Files unearthed from Col Gaddafi's intelligence archives and seen by the BBC document Mr Belhaj's capture by the CIA in Bangkok in 2004, and his forcible repatriation to Libya.

Abdulhakim Belhaj told the BBC what happened to him was illegal and he wants an apology

Peter Bouckaert, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch - which originally obtained the documents - explained the circumstances of Mr Belhaj's transfer.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj

"He was rendered by the CIA, he was captured, abducted together with his pregnant wife and flown on the so-called black flight to Tripoli for his interrogation," he said.

Mr Bouckaert said Mr Belhaj was one of about eight or nine suspects who was abducted and handed over to the Libyan intelligence service.
"From the files it's very clear [CIA agents] were present in some of the interrogations themselves."
Mr Belhaj was held in Tripoli's notorious Abu Selim prison for seven years, where he says he was "regularly tortured".
"I was injected with something, hung from a wall by my arms and legs and put in a container surrounded by ice," he told the Guardian newspaper. "They did not let me sleep and there was noise all the time."
Mr Belhaj told the BBC that after the CIA and MI6 got him to Tripoli in March 2004, they did not witness his torture, but interrogated him afterwards.
"What happened to me was illegal and deserves an apology," he told the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Tripoli.
The CIA says it should come as no surprise that the US works with foreign governments to help protect America from terrorists.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the accusations related to the previous government, and that Britain was now focused on the future of Libya.
Moderate tone For his part, Mr Belhaj has said that the revelations would not stop Libya's new rebel leadership - the National Transitional Council - from having "orderly relations" with the US and Britain.
The NTC has dismissed any suggestions that Abdel Hakim Belhaj is a former al-Qaeda sympathiser, following reports in the international media as well as statements attributed to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi himself.
"NTC members have stated time and again that the revolution has no links to al-Qaeda," said NTC spokesman Al-Amin Belhaj told al-Jazeera Television.
"Everyone knows who Abdel Hakim Belhaj is. He is a Libyan rebel and a moderate person who commands wide respect. Unfortunately, some circles in the West repeat these claims," he added.
Asked about his Islamist links, Mr Belhaj told the BBC that he was always an anti-Gaddafi fighter, but insisted that he was never an al-Qaeda member.
According to Arabic press reports, Mr Belhaj was born in 1966 and holds a civil engineering degree. He is reported to have two wives, one Moroccan and one Sudanese.

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Q&A: UK torture inquiry

Prime Minister David Cameron has said a "judge-led" inquiry will look at claims that UK security services were complicit in the torture of terror suspects.

What will this inquiry set out to do?
Prime Minister David Cameron says the inquiry will be headed by Sir Peter Gibson, a former Court of Appeal judge and the watchdog charged with overseeing how MI5 bugs suspects.
In his letter to Sir Peter, the prime minister said: "The purpose of this inquiry is to examine whether, and if so to what extent, the UK government and its intelligence agencies were involved in improper treatment of detainees held by other countries in counter-terrorism operations overseas, or were aware of improper treatment of detainees in operations in which the UK was involved."
What will it examine? Mr Cameron has asked the inquiry to have a "particular focus" on the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and cases involving the detention of UK nationals and residents in Guantanamo Bay. But the inquiry will be free to pursue wider angles because some of the most serious claims of alleged complicity relate to incidents in Pakistan.
So what are the key cases?
There are approximately a dozen cases that we know of. The story of Binyam Mohamed is the most well-known.

He was held in Pakistan in 2002 before US agencies moved him to Morocco, where he was severely tortured. He ended up in Guantanamo Bay and was returned to the UK in early 2009.

It then emerged that a British intelligence officer visited him in detention in Pakistan and that the CIA later told London what mistreatment the suspect had suffered.
So how will the inquiry work?
The prime minister says he hopes the inquiry can start before the end of the year and take no longer than 12 months - but it cannot start until criminal investigations reach a conclusion.

Detectives are looking at the actions of one MI5 officer who was linked to Binyam Mohamed's case. MI6 chiefs separately referred one of their officers to the police in relation to a different case. Neither of these investigations has been completed.

Secondly, a string of former Guantanamo detainees are trying to sue the government over complicity in their detention.
The government now wants to mediate with these men and possibly offer them compensation.
If and when that mediation makes progress, the inquiry is likely to begin its work.
Will the inquiry be in public?
No prime minister would ever launch an inquiry that would expose how the intelligence and security services work because it would risk damaging their capability to deal with future threats. So don't expect that any intelligence assessments will be made public.
But the inquiry will be able to hear in public from those who are making the allegations against the security services.
There will be a report - but what is made public will be a decision for the prime minister.
In essence, this means that nothing will be published that he believes would compromise the secret methods of MI5 and MI6.
This could mean that only some of its findings will be made public if the prime minister concludes that publishing all of them would be damaging to national security.
Will officers face prosecution if they admit to complicity?
Attorney General Dominic Grieve has agreed that nobody can have their evidence used against them in a prosecution unless they are specifically accused of giving false evidence, be it in public or secret sessions.
This arrangement is similar to the undertaking that was given to the soldiers who were called to give evidence to the Bloody Sunday Inquiry.
Will the inquiry look at wider allegations of complicity?
Mr Cameron told MPs that the inquiry would be free to look at allegations that agencies were complicit in CIA operations to secretly fly mistreated suspects from country to country, a practice known as "extraordinary rendition".
This could include examining how and why some detainees were moved through or held at Diego Garcia, the British Indian Ocean Territory that hosts a US air base.
What's been the reaction?
Gareth Peirce is a solicitor who represents eight former Guantanamo Bay detainees and she said that the public interest lay in openness.
"A true picture of the involvement of the state as a whole, at every level, is of far greater potential importance than the culpability of any individual employee of the state," said Ms Peirce.
"What is to come depends entirely upon the extent of openness, honesty and completeness that follows. Without that, any process, whatever its intention, must be doomed."
Legal charity Reprieve, which fought the court battle to reveal what London knew about Binyam Mohamed's treatment, said that the government must publish old rules on torture and interrogations overseas.
Clare Algar, director of the charity, said: "It is essential that this inquiry look at the official policy and rules under which British agents were operating.
"A new version of the rules has [now] been published, but the fact that the government refuses to publish the old rules suggests that they were embarrassing if not illegal. The inquiry must address this, in public, if we are to learn from our mistakes."

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House of Commons

Prime Minister David Cameron is updating MPs on the situation in Libya in a statement to the House of Commons.


MPs are likely to raise questions on reports that US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts during the so-called War on Terror.
Papers discovered at the office of Col Gaddafi's former spy chief suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli, and that the UK's MI6 allegedly gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.
The documents, found by Human Rights Watch workers, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified.

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Libya rendition claims: David Cameron calls for inquiry

Allegations that MI6 was involved in the rendition of Libyan terror suspects should be examined by an independent inquiry, David Cameron has said.

   It comes after papers suggesting close ties between MI6, the CIA and the Gaddafi regime were found in Tripoli.
An anti-Gaddafi military leader says he wants the UK and US to apologise for organising his 2004 transfer to Libya.
An existing inquiry into allegations of UK security agencies' involvement in torture has said it will investigate.
'Deserves apology' Abdel Hakim Belhaj says he was taken to Libya in a CIA and MI6 operation, after being arrested in Bangkok, and tortured and imprisoned.
He was then a terror suspect but is now in charge of the Libyan capital's military forces.
This appears to be confirmed by documents discovered in an abandoned office building in Tripoli by staff from Human Rights Watch.
The papers relating to Mr Belhaj have been seen by the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen.
The Foreign Office said the government had a "long-standing policy" not to comment on intelligence matters.
Mr Belhaj told the BBC: "What happened to me and my family is illegal. It deserves an apology. And for what happened to me when I was captured and tortured.
"For all these illegal things, starting with the information given to Libyan security, the interrogation in Bangkok."
Mr Belhaj said that MI6 and the CIA did not witness his torture at the hands of the former Libyan regime, but did interview him afterwards.
A spokesman for the prime minister said that the existing Detainee Inquiry into rendition was "well placed" to investigate the allegations reported in recent days.
"It's not clear precisely what the allegations amount to," the spokesman added. "We don't have a clear picture from these documents, which is precisely why an inquiry like the [Detainee] inquiry might be well placed to consider the issue."
A statement from the Detainee Inquiry, to be chaired by Sir Peter Gibson, said that as part of its role of examining the extent of the government's involvement in, or awareness of, improper treatment of detainees, it would "therefore, of course, be considering these allegations of UK involvement in rendition to Libya as part of our work."
Source of concern Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition, said: "These further allegations must be fully investigated by the Gibson inquiry. David Cameron was right to set this up. The inquiry itself must demonstrate that it is up to the job.
"Unfortunately, Sir Peter Gibson's early decisions - not to appoint an investigator, not to look at detainee transfer in theatre, not to sufficiently engage with the victims - do not inspire public confidence."
Sir Mark Allen, formerly MI6's director of counter-terrorism, has been reported to be the author of a letter to Moussa Koussa, thanking him for a "delicious" gift of dates and oranges, which was found among the recovered documents.
Mr Koussa served for years as Col Gaddafi's spy chief before becoming foreign minister. He defected in the early part of the rebellion, flying to the UK and then on to Qatar.
Kim Howells, a former Foreign Office minister who became chairman of the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, said his committee found no evidence of rendition by the UK.
But, he added, following the September 11 attacks, British intelligence would have been working closely with their Libyan counterparts.
"There were huge fears that Islamists - and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group was an Islamist organisation - were going to try and do the same thing in London or Glasgow or Cardiff or whatever," he said.
"And I think there was an attempt by the security services and intelligence services to try and get hold of any information that might give a clue as to whether there were bombers at large."
Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary between 2001 and 2006, told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that he did not know whether allegations UK security services were involved in the rendition of Libyan terror suspects were "credible".
But Mr Straw said the claims were a source of concern and "must be examined in very great detail" by the Gibson inquiry.
He said the last time the the Joint Intelligence Committee examined the issue it decided the UK had not been involved "but no foreign secretary can know the details of what all the intelligence agencies are doing at any one time".
Philippe Sands, a professor of international law, said he would not be surprised to find out that British security services and politicians had been co-operating with Libyan officials in the fight against terrorism, but also said some questions needed to be asked.
"This letter [referring to Abdul Hakim Belhaj] appears to be inconsistent with assurances given by most senior folk at MI5 and MI6 about who knew what when," he said.
The CIA would not comment on the specifics of the allegations.
Other documents found by Human Rights Watch workers are reported to suggest that MI6 gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.
These documents, which allegedly reveal details about the UK's relationship with the Gaddafi regime, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified.
Meanwhile, China's government has admitted that Chinese arms manufacturers held talks as recently as July with representatives of Colonel Gaddafi's government who were seeking arms and ammunition as his forces battled rebels.
The meetings happened in China while a UN ban on such sales was in place. But China's Foreign Ministry has insisted that no actual weapons were supplied to Libya.
Other documents allegedly showing the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli were among thousands of pieces of correspondence from US and UK officials uncovered by reporters and activists in an office apparently used by Moussa Koussa.

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Looking back with the 1968 rebels

              Paris 1968: Future historians will be able to listen to first-hand accounts

The wave of political protests of 1968, that ran through European cities from Paris to London to Prague, and swept across campuses in the US, remains the most memorable example of student radicalism.

Four decades later, students taking part in the tuition fee demonstrations in London were still invoking the "spirit of 1968".
But this generation, who were synonymous with '60s counter-culturalism, are now in their 60s and beyond.
And an international research project, headed by Prof Robert Gildea from Oxford University's history faculty, has been building a digital archive of first-hand accounts from the demonstrators.
The project - Around 1968: Activists, Networks and Trajectories - has recorded the spoken testimonies of more than 500 protesters from all over Europe.
The database of these recordings is not open to the public. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust, it's intended as an academic resource, allowing future historians to listen to the voices of mid-20th Century radicals.
Going underground But listening into this collection of stories is like exploring a lost world. Gauloises-voiced pensioners talk about their time as teenage revolutionaries.
There are protest singers, such as Dominique Grange, now aged 71, who joined a Maoist group in 1968 and sang in occupied factories and took radical films around villages in south-eastern France. She was imprisoned and spent time "underground".
She talks of meetings with farmers where she sang revolutionary numbers such as Down With The Police State.
In the accounts of these French radicals there are endless ideological divisions and sub-divisions of radical groups, sit-ins and occupations, attempts to link students with striking workers, disputes about crossing the line into political violence.
It's easy to parody the earnestness of all this radicalism.
But what's revealing about this archive is how the personal stories underpin the politics.
Andre Senik, one of the radicals in the Paris protests in May 1968, was the child of Polish Jewish immigrants, who had spent his early years under Nazi occupation.
"Being revolutionary for Jews was a paradoxical and rather aggressive way of becoming part of society instead of having to hide," he said.
"It was a way of settling our accounts with parents who told us not to raise our voices, not to say that we were Jewish, to take care that people didn't think ill of us because we were Jewish."
Now aged 73, his later politics are described as "very anti-communist" and somewhere closer to the neo-conservatives.
Generation gaps These family backgrounds also show how these French 1960s iconoclasts had been shaped by the disruption of wartime. There were absent fathers in prisoner of war camps, refugee camps and displaced families. The spectre of occupation and who had and who hadn't resisted the Nazis lingered in the background.

 

 

Romance on the barricades: Students near the Gare de Lyon in Paris, May 1968

A radical whose parents had been born in Germany talked of the "abscess" of the Nazi era that remained between post-war children and their parents.
Many of these youngsters had grown up in religious, conservative families, some were privately educated, before being drawn into a period of intense radicalisation. They had stepped from comfortable bourgeois homes into a maelstrom of occupations, strikes and confrontations.
This database also includes accounts of radicals from eastern Europe. In Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, East Germany and the Soviet Union there was opposition to Communist regimes.
In Czechoslovakia this was cultural as well as political, with underground groups such as the Plastic People of the Universe.
Later years There are also entertaining recollections of how the deep roots of class politics in Britain managed to re-emerge in the guise of left-wing splits.

 

 

Sit-ins in London: Students occupied the Hornsey College of Art in May 1968

A contributor describes a political split at a meeting in London about Vietnam - in which one group tried to drown out the other by singing the Internationale.
"What I saw then was a group of public school boys singing the school hymn and a bunch of disaffected grammar school boys basically giving them the V-sign."
But why have the 1968 radicals been influential for so long?
Prof Gildea says they had "wide horizons", sowing the seeds for many campaigning movements that developed in the following decades.
The radicalised youngsters of the 1960s became the environmentalists, feminists, anti-racists and advocates for gay rights of the 1970s and 1980s. It was also a cultural revolution, with the politics interwoven with music, art and writing.
Winners and losers It was also played out on an international stage before a television audience. The database contains the testimonies of activists from 14 different European countries.
There were also winners and losers among the former radicals. For some it was a case of swapping the barricades for a successful career in the media or campaigning. One of the French activists received an Oscar nomination for a film about 1968.

Robert Gildea University of Oxford

Meanwhile Prof Gildea says there were others whose lives never recovered from the disruption and who got left behind in dead-end jobs.

There were also others who ended up on the violent fringes, caught up in a cycle of confrontation with the authorities, and who seemed to spend years in and out of prison.
But why should students of the 21st Century still want to draw on the images of the 1960s?
Aaron Porter, who led the National Union of Students through the wave of tuition fee protests, said: "The spirit of 1968 has real resonance with the protests we saw at the end of 2010."
Like their 1968 predecessors, he says students felt they were leading the way for wider opposition groups. And he suggests a shared sense of moral outrage, with students enraged by a more cynical older political generation.
"Students tend to retain a more idealised and optimistic vision of what society can be like. When that vision is brought crashing down it's as though you have been betrayed."
These recordings gathered by Oxford University are going to give future historians a remarkable insight into a tumultuous moment in post-war Europe. It would be like being able to listen to witnesses of the French Revolution.
But what it can't say is whether they were right or wrong.
"As historians, we are here to try to make sense of the routes people went down, not to judge their actions," says Prof Gildea.

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Stepping Hill saline deaths: Nurse Rebecca Leighton charges dropped

Charges have been dropped against a nurse accused of contaminating saline at Stockport's Stepping Hill Hospital.

     Rebecca Leighton, 27, of Heaviley, was arrested by police investigating the deaths of several patients in July.
Greater Manchester Police have revealed they are investigating 40 cases of contamination including seven deaths.
Prosecutors said there had not been "sufficient evidence" for whether the case could go ahead. Miss Leighton said she had been "living in hell".
'Living nightmare' Officers said Miss Leighton was released from prison on Friday afternoon after she was told by the governor at HMP Styal in Cheshire that the charges against her were being dropped.
They said police were in contact with her to guarantee her safety and "to try and help her back into the community".
The Crown Prosecution Service said it was "no longer appropriate" to continue the case against Ms Leighton.

Rebecca Leighton

Solicitor Carl Richmond read a statement on behalf of Ms Leighton in which she thanked her family, friends and members of the public who "never doubted my innocence during this living nightmare".

It read: "I've been in a living hell and was locked up in prison for something I had not done.
"It was so frustrating for me knowing that the person who actually carried out these terrible acts is still out there.
"My life has been turned upside-down. All I ever wanted to do was to pursue a profession in nursing and care for my patients."
Nazir Afzal, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the North West, said Miss Leighton had been charged on the basis there was "reasonable suspicion she had committed the offences and there were reasonable grounds for believing the continuing investigation would provide further evidence within a reasonable amount of time".
He added: "When we make a decision on this basis, it would be wrong of us to keep a suspect in custody indefinitely without keeping a very close eye on what evidence is emerging and whether objections to bail can be justified.
"The inquiries, which are still ongoing, have not so far provided us with a stronger case which would meet the test that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction. This is the test all cases must meet for a prosecution to go ahead."
Lawyers representing Ms Leighton said on Friday the case against her was "weak" at a bail application made on her behalf in August.
They said Mr Justice Henriques had told the court the evidence against Ms Leighton amounted to her fingerprints being on a saline bag, which had been damaged by a needle.
Although the plea for her to be given bail was rejected at that hearing, her lawyers said the judge accepted "many people" had access to the saline bags and the fluid and that Miss Leighton had every reason to be touching the items in her role as sister.
'No stone unturned' Assistant Chief Constable Terry Sweeney defended the decision to charge Rebecca Leighton, saying it was "the correct one at the time based on the information and evidence available then".
He confirmed that officers had interviewed 200 out of 700 people who could have had access to the area concerned, including potential victims as well as hospital staff, patients and visitors.
Mr Sweeney said thousands of items were subject to examination and officers would "leave no stone unturned".
He added: "We are clear that there was contamination in a number of saline products," he said.

"It will take a number of weeks to complete the investigative process, the forensic process and most importantly the medical analysis which needs to take place."
He added that there had been no further incidents of contamination since 16 July.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has said that an interim order suspending Ms Leighton from the its register would remain in place.
Greater Manchester Police were initially looking into the deaths of five patients at the hospital, although two were later dropped from the investigation.
Police are continuing to probe the suspicious deaths of Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Derek Weaver, 83.
Four more suspected victims have yet to be named but their families are aware that the cases have been referred to police by the coroner.
Of the seven deaths, the force said there were two confirmed cases where there is a "high probability" that the deaths were caused by contaminated products.
The alarm was raised when a higher than normal number of patients were reported to have "unexplained" low blood sugar levels.
Several charges were made against Ms Leighton in July relating to the alleged tampering of saline ampoules, saline bags and medical products.
These - along with one charge of theft of medication from the hospital - have now been dropped.

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Libya conflict: UK forces should be proud, says Cameron

David Cameron has said UK forces should be "very proud" of what they achieved in Libya and said the US saw Britain as its "strongest and most staunch ally".

     The prime minister said there were a lot of armchair critics, but Americans were "very impressed" by what UK and European forces had achieved.
But Michael Clarke, at the Royal United Services Institute, said the military had been forced to "improvise".
The Royal Navy and RAF continued their Nato operations in Libya on Thursday.
Maj Gen Nick Pope, spokesman for the Chief of the Defence Staff, said British planes destroyed a number of military targets and HMS Liverpool shelled positions at the city of Sirte overnight.
Speaking after co-hosting a summit on Libya with France's Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Cameron said the UK had played a significant military role in the Nato-led operation to protect Libyan civilians from Col Gaddafi's forces.
He said: "A lot of armchair generals who said you couldn't do it without an aircraft carrier, they were wrong.
"A lot of people who said Tripoli is completely different to Benghazi, the two don't get on, they were wrong. People who said this is all going to be an enormous swamp of Islamists and extremists, they were wrong. People who said we were going to run out of munitions, they were wrong.
"We should be proud of what our forces did."
'Right decision' Speaking on the BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cameron insisted the UK had been "punching at our weight or even above our weight" in the conflict with the RAF carrying out around a fifth of all strike sorties against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
He added: "I really want to challenge this idea that somehow the Americans see us a weak ally, they don't - they see us as their strongest and most staunch ally."
The PM also defended decisions made in the defence review, and said that the UK "did not suffer" from not having an aircraft carrier during the military operation in Libya.

"We took the decision to keep the Tornado because it is such a capable aircraft, proved once again in Libya, and to go ahead with building the aircraft carrier but to accept that there was going to be a gap between now and then.

"I believe it's the right decision, and there was a lot of military evidence to say that was the right decision," he said.
He went on to say that in future the UK would have "one of the most capable aircraft carriers anywhere in the world".
But Michael Clarke, director of the defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said that in Libya, the stock of Brimstone missiles, which were "extremely useful", was down to single figures.
"We were using systems that are due to be retired like Sentinel [surveillance aircraft] looking out for radar in the intelligence role. We even had Sea King helicopters on surveillance duties, a lot of equipment that might not be there in the latter part of this decade was being used and the military, I think, will want to think about that," he said.
"If it had gone on for too long I think it would have been much more seriously embarrassing. As it happens, it worked out well," he added.
Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said that defence cuts meant it was highly unlikely similar operations would be able to go ahead in the next few years.
He told the BBC's World at One programme: "It is going to be that much more difficult and improbable that this kind of operation could be mounted if, as is the case at the moment in Afghanistan, we are in some other part of the world as well."
'Tougher approach' Mr Cameron also told the BBC there were "many similarities" between Libya and Syria.
He said: "Like Libya you have got a dictator who is doing dreadful things to his people."
But he acknowledged there were "problems" in securing United Nations backing for adopting tougher sanctions against the Syrian state.
"The problem is there isn't the same backing in the Arab League, there isn't the same backing internationally.
"In fact we are having problems at the United Nations even getting a strong resolution that says tougher sanctions and travel bans and asset freezes, all the things that we in Europe are putting in place," he said.
Mr Cameron said the UK had been in the "vanguard of arguing for a tougher approach" and had called on President Bashar al-Assad to stand down.
He went on to say he had had "good conversations" with some members of the Arab League, and some were toughening their stance "because they realise that what he is doing is appalling".
"They realise that he had his chance to demonstrate he was in favour of reform and he has completely failed to do that," he said.
Thursday's 60-nation conference in Paris considered what assistance the international community could provide to the country after months of fighting and the overthrow of Col Gaddafi.
Those present included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well as senior figures from Libya's interim political authority, the National Transitional Council.
Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said it was a "positive step" that the international community had been able to come together to support the new Libya in Paris.
"The next step for the new Libyan authority is about providing their people with security and the basics of life such as water, food, medicines and electricity," he said.

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The self-storage craze

People are leaving their possessions in self-storage warehouses for longer than ever. But why are people paying to store stuff they rarely use?

      It's a monument to our acquisitive society - the brightly lit shed on the edge of town offering "storage solutions".
Society has always had its hoarders. But in the 21st Century people are farming out their junk to the growing number of self-storage facilities.
It begins as a temporary solution. You load up the car with the retired pushchair, an African sculpture you never found room for, old letters, bin bags full of clothes, Betamax tapes and your cherished back issues of National Geographic.
Shortly afterwards you're at one or other of the huge hangars offering space for your beloved objects.
With summer the busiest time of year to move, many will have recently contemplated a similar scenario.

Sarah Beeny Property show presenter

The mania for storage centres began in the US in the 1960s and the country now has over 50,000 such facilities. They arrived in London in the 1990s but didn't take off across the UK until 2000. Britain has 800 major self-storage units, the same as the rest of Europe put together.

It's the ideal stopgap while you get organised and there are knockdown three-month offers to entice you.
But out of sight is out of mind. Recent statistics show that people are leaving their junk in storage units for longer and longer.
Data from the UK Self Storage Association suggests that the average length of stay has risen from 22 weeks in 2007 to 38 weeks in 2010.
And newspapers have found horror stories where people have forked out thousands of pounds to keep their possessions in storage for years on end, despite never visiting the warehouse to take them out.
The consumer society means many people are gradually running out of space, says Cory Cooke, a professional organiser based in London.
"More and more stuff comes in and it's not going out. I want to say it's a throwout society, but it's not the case because people are keeping their things around."
The increasing proportion of business users during the recession is one reason average storage time has increased, says Rodney Walker, chief executive of the SSA. Business users stay for 56 weeks and private individuals stay for 27 weeks on average.
But even before the recession, private users were staying longer, mainly because of cramped modern housing. "More people are living alone in smaller homes without garages or attics," he says.

And then there's the vogue for minimalisation. With clean lines and empty interiors the order of the day, all this "junk" has to be put out of sight, even at a cost.

TV property presenter Sarah Beeny is not a fan. People often sign up believing it's just a short-term fix, she says. "The problem is that on a weekly basis it doesn't seem like much money. But you end up staying longer - out of sight, out of mind."
It's a worry for society. People are using valuable land in prime areas of overcrowded cities like New York and London to build these warehouses, spending money on renting the units and in the process accumulating more and more stuff.
Often people are just looking for a good home for something, she says. "I had 20 plastic chairs for children's picnics. I felt like I couldn't throw them away so have had them sitting around. Finally somewhere wants them and I'm delighted they're going to a good home."
Such a mentality explains the success of the website Freecycle, a community of users who give away the objects they no longer need to other people who do need them.
In a survey of UK households by Access Self Storage, 90% of respondents reported an inability to part with treasured possessions. It may be the accumulated memories that schoolbooks, birthday cards, photographs, old books or clothes hold for us.
But this is only part of the story, says Brian Knutson, an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University. The "endowment effect" is just as important.
This is the economic theory in which - by the mere fact of owning something we endow a possession with more value than its market price.

It might explain why people spend a huge sum putting an old sofa in storage for a year rather than using that money to buy a new one.

"Almost everyone wants more for something once they own it, than they will pay to get it," says Knutson.
Oliver James, psychologist and author of Affluenza, says that the self-storage phenomenon can be explained by consumerism's effect on how we view ourselves.
Our identity has increasingly become associated with products, he argues, and not just the mortgage and the car, but smaller items. "We've confused who we are with what we have," he says.
It explains why we're so reluctant to throw things away. "We feel it might come in handy one day. It feels like it's a little part of yourself even though it's just tat. You wouldn't want to throw yourself away would you?"
Or perhaps it's not that complex. When it comes to a closet full of clutter, "people don't want to make the decisions," so put it off for another day, says Cooke.
"It's taxing, and a lot of people find it easier to box it up and deal with it later."

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Why state surveys asked about bras and haddock

From bra ownership to television interference, the government has wanted to know some strange stuff about people in the UK. Now a history of social surveys reveals why.

     In 1941, Britain's fight with Nazi Germany lay in the balance. But no effort was spared to improve the war effort. In November of that year, researchers from the Board of Trade interviewed 5,000 women about their lingerie collections.
The survey was well intentioned - to work out the amount of steel that was being diverted from the war effort to prop up women's corsets and other garments. But it led to unintended humour and, for a modern readership, some surprising answers.
It showed that on average women in 1941 owned 1.2 such items of underwear each. There were some strange variations, with housewives owning 0.8 brassieres but agricultural workers 1.9.
The report explained its purpose with a lofty air: "Only with this information can the greatest efficiency in planning be secured. It was therefore felt that detailed information should be secured on a subject which is of interest to most women - foundation garments."
The underwear survey is just one of a number of studies being highlighted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to mark the 70th anniversary of its social surveys. Others are shocking rather than amusing, such as the 1951 survey looking at "public attitudes towards coloured people".
Another brings up period detail. In a 1961 survey on attitudes to aircraft noise, 78% of people complained that planes at Heathrow made their television flicker.
In 1981, alarm over the amount women were drinking caused a survey to be undertaken by ONS. Yet the investigation found more than 70% of women drank less than five units a week. These days the average figure is eight units a week, with a unit equalling a small glass of wine.
In the 1990s the ONS looked at smoking in secondary schools and in 2001 turned its attention to sex and contraception - not an area where a 1950s government statistician would have ventured.
Bananas diverted Pollster Peter Kellner's mother worked as a social survey fieldworker for the state during World War II. Her inquiries addressed life on the home front and occasionally yielded strange results.

Dr John Walton

"In Middlesbrough she came across a child who needed bananas in her diet to survive," he recalls. "In those days bananas were almost impossible to get. But as a result of her discovery, the tiny supply Britain had was diverted to Middlesbrough to keep the girl alive."

Kellner, president of YouGov, is not surprised that 1941 researchers were interested in the availability of women's underwear. "At a time of war it was incredibly important to know what the population was up to and how rationing was affecting them."
The survey is a rich source for future generations, says social historian Juliet Gardiner. "The questions are interesting because they reflect the preoccupations of the society. These worries can be quite hard for the historian to uncover."
There have always been attempts by rulers to measure social change, from the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror to the census, which began in Britain in 1801. But in recent years, the boundaries have been pushed by independent organisations rather than government.
And such surveys can sometimes outrage the authorities, says Andrew Phelps, who managed the National Centre for Social Research's latest sex survey. The first of these sex surveys in 1990 had to find new backers after the Thatcher government pulled the plug.
"It almost got handbagged by Maggie. It was seen as too intrusive - they said people wouldn't tell the truth. And they were perhaps worried that it would show the British in too subversive a light."
The survey, now in its third decade, is today supported by research foundations and provides information on sexual behaviour that informs government policy.
It asks interviewees about the number of recent sexual partners, erectile dysfunction and sexuality. And at the end the respondent is asked to provide a urine sample to measure sexually transmitted diseases.
"Believe it or not about two-thirds of people are fine with that," Phelps says.
Alfresco sex Dr John Walton, author of Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, says Britain has a long tradition of asking the population apparently absurd questions.
In the 1930s civil servants from the fisheries ministry toured the country asking people about fish and chip consumption. As well as the ubiquitous cod and haddock, they found Geordies ate coalfish, while Londoners opted for hake.

Then there was Mass Observation, an ambitious project launched in the 1930s by the polymath Tom Harrisson. The aim was to record the way ordinary Britons lived, using diaries, questionnaires and by following people around and noting down their habits.
 Areas of interest ranged from whether moustaches made men more attractive, the speed with which people could drink a half-pint, and how much alfresco sex was taking place in Blackpool during August.
"Blackpool had a reputation for bonking on the beach," says Walton.
"So Mass Observation decided to visit and test the legend out. They went out at night and fell over couples on the beach and noted down how many were having sexual intercourse."
They recorded four such cases, only to have the study reliability jeopardised when it emerged that one of the participants was a Mass Observation researcher.
"I like Mass Observation because a lot of their questions are asked with blue skies curiosity," he says, whereas many social surveys today are policy-driven by government and so can fall prey to a particular agenda or ideological fashion.
A lot has changed since the ONS began its social surveys. Today the organisation can call upon an army of 1,000 interviewers, far more than the number doing the job in 1941.
And now the social survey is heading into new, and some might argue unmeasurable, territory - personal well-being.
"Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?" and "Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?" are two questions that may surprise ONS statisticians from earlier eras.
So will future generations be poring over the answers in a similar way to our fascination with the 20th Century social surveys? Undoubtedly, says Gardiner.
"The well-being survey will be hugely interesting to future historians. They'll be fascinated by the idea that you can quantify happiness and be intrigued by what indices you use to do that."

 

 

 

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Bloody cattle raids set challenge for South Sudan

The charred remains of huts and hundreds of freshly dug graves along a trail of destruction in Jonglei state indicate the extended site of the latest deadly cattle raid in South Sudan.

   
South Sudan's new government has urged action, and the army is sending reinforcements into the area, as are the UN peacekeepers.
Cattle raiding is not new in this part of the world. In many South Sudanese communities the cow is incredibly important.
It is a source of personal wealth, and young men cannot get married without paying a dowry of cows.
So, in what are very poor communities, cattle raiding has become a way of life for some.
To make matters worse, automatic weapons are everywhere, following decades of civil war.
In the past, cattle raids caused relatively few casualties. Now the guns boom, and scores or even hundreds die in a day - creating a commensurate desire for revenge.
So what can be done to stop the bloodshed?
So far the security forces have shown little ability to keep the peace.
"It will be good when the government provides security in the area, but for now I don't know what they are doing. There is no protection," says Gatluak Kony, a Lou Nuer chief, who narrowly escaped being killed in Pieri.

There are more armed civilians than police or soldiers in Jonglei, even with the latest reinforcements.

The lack of good roads means it is very difficult to speed the security forces to hotspots.
Not everybody trusts the army either.
Government 'negligent' It would certainly be denied by the South Sudanese army, but some outside observers believe it does not see much benefit in intervening in a messy inter-ethnic conflict between civilians.
The risk, the argument goes, is this could fracture the army along ethnic lines.
The leader of the opposition in parliament, Onyoti Adigo, told the BBC the military should send reinforcements from ethnic groups not present in Jonglei.
The state authorities say more than 600 people from the Lou Nuer community were killed, 200 children abducted, and as many as 25,000 cows were stolen.
The attackers - from the Murle ethnic group - were responding to a June assault by Lou Nuer fighters in which an estimated 400 Murle were killed.
This cycle of revenge attacks stretches back decades, and now represents one of the greatest challenges to stability in newly independent South Sudan - and one the fledgling state so far seems unable to deal with.
"They came from over there," Kuol Bol explains, pointing to the lush green countryside on the edge of the small town of Pieri.
"They attacked when we were sleeping, but I was able to run away. A lot of people were killed, and they took many children.
"Two of my nephews were killed during that attack by the Murle. What I know is that I want to take revenge for that attack. I will do what I will do."
You could have almost the same conversation with Murle survivors of Lou Nuer attacks, or with the Jikany Nuer or Dinka who have also been involved in clashes in Jonglei state in recent times.
Way of the gun The pattern of inter-ethnic fighting fuelled by cattle raids can be found elsewhere in South Sudan too, though the situation is particularly bad in Jonglei.
"The problem of Jonglei is not new," he says. "The whole thing is negligence from the government, because the work of the government is to ensure the safety of its citizens and their properties."

Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin represents the area which recently came under attack and accepts progress needs to be made on several fronts.
"It is not just in Jonglei state, we have seen it in Unity state, we have seen it in Warrup, we have seen it in Lakes.
"So to us as a government, we are really serious that this should come to an end."
The government's plan involves the comprehensive disarmament of civilians, reconciliation using traditional and religious leaders, and developing infrastructures including building "security roads" and providing better services.
But all that takes time, and is easier said than done.
Destitute For the moment, an estimated 25,000 Lou Nuer have fled the fighting.
Some of them are gathered in the small town of Mutot.
Stripped of their cows and with their homes destroyed, they are now dependent on handouts and local kindness.
"The conditions are not good and my people are not comfortable," local chief Michael Bang complains.
"We have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat."
It is little surprise that in these conditions of hardship and loss, there are already rumours that the next revenge attack is being prepared.
South Sudan has been independent for less than two months, and the joy of that moment is still fresh.
But in Jonglei state and all over the country people will have to be disarmed, and the security forces professionalised, if this deadly cycle of revenge attacks is to be broken.

"The problem of Jonglei is not new," he says. "The whole thing is negligence from the government, because the work of the government is to ensure the safety of its citizens and their properties."
Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin represents the area which recently came under attack and accepts progress needs to be made on several fronts.
"It is not just in Jonglei state, we have seen it in Unity state, we have seen it in Warrup, we have seen it in Lakes.
"So to us as a government, we are really serious that this should come to an end."
The government's plan involves the comprehensive disarmament of civilians, reconciliation using traditional and religious leaders, and developing infrastructures including building "security roads" and providing better services.
But all that takes time, and is easier said than done.
Destitute For the moment, an estimated 25,000 Lou Nuer have fled the fighting.
Some of them are gathered in the small town of Mutot.
Stripped of their cows and with their homes destroyed, they are now dependent on handouts and local kindness.
"The conditions are not good and my people are not comfortable," local chief Michael Bang complains.
"We have nowhere to sleep and nothing to eat."
It is little surprise that in these conditions of hardship and loss, there are already rumours that the next revenge attack is being prepared.
South Sudan has been independent for less than two months, and the joy of that moment is still fresh.
But in Jonglei state and all over the country people will have to be disarmed, and the security forces professionalised, if this deadly cycle of revenge attacks is to be broken.

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Ramadan road trip: 30 mosques, 30 US states, 30 days

               Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq pray and break the Ramadan fast in Little Rock

At the beginning of August, two young men embarked on an American road trip with a difference.

It was the first day of Ramadan, the month when Muslims across the world fast during the hours of daylight.
Writer Aman Ali and film-maker Bassam Tariq set out to mark their month of fasting with a tour of 30 mosques, a different one each day.
Travelling across the breadth of the United States they reported every step of their journey that reveals just how diverse America's Muslim population is. Here are five examples.

Ta'Leef Collective, California
"There really were people from all walks of life," he says.
One of the issues facing Islam in America is the divide that sometimes emerges between Muslims who immigrate to America and communities and individuals who have embraced Islam as converts, Ali says.
"If a non-Muslim embraces Islam and he's told by an immigrant Muslim, 'You've got to grow a beard, you've got to change your name,' that can lead to tension," he says.
"What's cool about the Ta'Leef Collective is they say come as you are to Islam as it is. It doesn't matter where you come from. As long as you believe in the fundamentals of Islam, you're Muslim."
There he found Muslims in full South Asian dress, beards or headscarves praying and breaking fast beside those with tattoos, piercings or a baseball cap.
"For me as a traveller it was finally a place that has got it, understands it. This is the principle of Islam."

Nor and David, South Dakota

For both road trippers the purpose of this year's journey was to define Islam by the people who believe in it, rejecting all preconceptions.
Bassam Tariq was fascinated by the story of Nor and David, a Muslim couple living in South Dakota.
David was a biker, an Islamic convert, who was sent to jail for three years in the late 1990s. While there, he found Nor, a Malaysian, through an advert in a matrimonial directory, the Islamic Pink Pages.
They began to correspond, and after a year David asked her to marry him. She accepted and flew to America. They met for the first time and married while he was still in jail - and 11 years later they are still happily married.
"She left her entire family, her entire life in Singapore to move in with him," says Tariq.
"It shows how much love can really change things and - if you take these leaps of faith - what changes can come in peoples lives."

Basheer Butcher, the Native American Muslim

Formerly known as Louis Butcher Jr, Basheer lost both his parents to alcoholism and embraced Islam when he was 31

A Native American Muslim convert by the name of Basheer Butcher struggled with alcoholism as a young man, but overcame his addiction after embracing Islam in 2001.
Mr Butcher is a member of the Sioux tribe, who grew up on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.
He found in the religion echoes of his Native American upbringing, especially on the subject of man's spiritual relationship with his environment as well as with God.
"He felt at one with his identity," says Ali. "A lot of people when they embrace Islam think, 'I have to throw away my culture, throw away my beliefs and my way of life.' But Bashir believes that he is more Native American now that he is Muslim."

Daiyee Abdullah, the gay imam, Washington DC

 

"With Islam it's different. In sujood [prostration], I felt like I could release all my anxieties to Allah."

In Washington DC, Tariq and Ali met Daiyee Abdullah, an openly gay Muslim who offers support to other gay Muslims from his informal mosque - a city library where they meet for Friday prayers.
It is a story that Tariq found especially compelling. "Homosexuality is forbidden in the mainstream Muslim faith and for someone to say, 'Actually no it's fine - I'm a gay imam and this is the space that I've created,' is really interesting."
Growing up in a Southern Baptist family, Imam Abdullah came out as gay at 15 years old. He was introduced to Islam some years later, while studying in China. There he came into contact with a group of Uighur Muslims and read the Koran in Chinese. The Uighur Muslims accepted Imam Abdullah's homosexuality and he himself never saw his sexual orientation as an obstacle to his faith.
Imam Abdullah's story proved to be one of the most controversial they recorded on their trip, sparking a heated debate.
"I'm just interested in his personal story," Tariq says. "How he's grown and how he's come to that journey for himself."

The Sisters Area, Arkansas

 

The majority of the female congregation at the mosque in Little Rock are of Pakistani and Indian origin

However much the pair tried to focus their mission on individual stories, themes that affect the Muslim community as a whole constantly emerged. A visit to Little Rock, Arkansas, raised questions about the segregation of women in the mosque - another controversial issue for Muslim Americans.
Tariq and Ali had been criticised by friends and readers for failing to tell stories from a woman's perspective and decided it was time to enter the women's area - despite opposition from some of those inside.
The debate that ensued when they reported the episode in their blog touched on everything from a man's right to enter the women's area, to the purpose of the hijab, and the question of who should look after children in the mosque.

 

 

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Row between Wikileaks and Guardian over security breach

A row has broken out between Wikileaks and one of the newspapers it collaborated with to leak US diplomatic cables.

    The whistle-blowing group said unredacted versions of the 251,000 diplomatic cables had been leaked on the internet.
Wikileaks blamed the disclosure on the Guardian newspaper and said it had started legal action against the paper.

In  Wikileaks said: "A Guardian journalist has, in a previously undetected act of gross negligence or malice, and in violation of a signed security agreement with the Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger, disclosed top secret decryption passwords to the entire, unredacted, Wikileaks Cablegate archive.
"We have already spoken to the State Department and commenced pre-litigation action."
Stories based on classified US diplomatic cables - allegedly leaked by US soldier Bradley Manning - have featured in the mainstream media since December 2010 after Wikileaks partnered with the papers including The Guardian and New York Times to release the information.
An unredacted version of the cables is reported to be circulating on the internet and Wikileaks says that a book, published by two Guardian journalists in February, reveals the password to open the file.
Password 'temporary' The Guardian admits the book contains a password, but says it does not reveal the location of the file and that it was previously told by the Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange, that the password was temporary and "would expire and be deleted in a matter of hours".

The Guardian

The paper said it "utterly rejects" the suggestion it was to blame for the unredacted version appearing and that it had gone to great lengths to ensure "potentially vulnerable sources" were protected.

The Guardian added: "No concerns were expressed when the book was published and if anyone at WikiLeaks had thought this compromised security they have had seven months to remove the files.
"That they didn't do so clearly shows the problem was not caused by the Guardian's book."
Wikileaks claims the disclosure could have serious consequences and that "revolutions and reforms are in danger of being lost".
"Every day that the corrupt leadership of a country or organisation knows of a pending WikiLeaks disclosure is a day spent planning how to crush revolution and reform," said a statement from the whistle-blowing site.
American officials said on Wednesday that the disclosures could also have serious consequences for informants, human rights activists and others quoted in the cables.
"What we have said all along about the danger of these types of things is reinforced by the fact that there are now documents out there in unredacted form containing the names of individuals whose lives are at risk because they are named," said US Defense Department press director Col David Lapan.
"Once WikiLeaks has these documents in its possession, it loses control and information gets out whether they intend [it] to or not."
The files were originally sent to the Guardian in July 2010 via a secure server which was then wiped, but it says that - unknown to anyone at the paper - the files later ended up on the BitTorrent filesharing site.
It has long been known that WikiLeaks lost control of the cables even before they were published.
One copy of the secret documents was leaked to the New York Times in autumn 2010 and other media organisations have since received copies independently of Wikileaks.
The organisation was also criticised this week for not redacting names as it released another 133,000 US State Department cables.
Australia's Attorney General, Robert McClelland, said the publication of one such cable, naming Australian terror suspects and marked "secret", was "incredibly irresponsible".
Wikileaks denied that any "informants" had been identified in the newly-released files and said the material was "unclassified and previously released by mainstream media".
However, other sources claim the release does contain some classified files where names have not been withheld.

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Wikileaks' Julian Assange handed 'resounding defeat'.

Today's judgement is a resounding defeat for Julian Assange.

Senior District Judge Howard Riddle found against him on each of the principal arguments against his extradition.
   One of those was that the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued against Mr Assange had been issued for the purpose of questioning and not prosecution.
Central to that was the evidence of Mr Assange's Swedish lawyer Bjorn Hurtig.
Judge Riddle found Mr Hurtig to be an "unreliable" witness as to the efforts he made to contact his client between 21, 22 September and 29 September.
He found "attempts were made by the prosecuting authorities to arrange interrogation in the period 21-30 September, but those attempts failed".
Accordingly he found "as a matter of fact, and looking at all the circumstances in the round, this person (Mr Assange) passes the threshold of being an accused person and is wanted for prosecution".
Another question raised by Mr Assange was whether the offences specified in the warrant were extraditable offences.
Key to this argument was the issue of consent, or the lack of it, in the allegations made against Mr Assange by the two women in Sweden.
Judge Riddle said: "I am satisfied that the specified offences are extradition offences."
'Adverse publicity'

Clive Coleman

Much was made of the fact that rape trials in Sweden are customarily held in private. It was argued this was against the principle of open justice and would mean Mr Assange would not receive a fair trial.

The judge noted the decision as to whether the evidence at any trial would be taken in public or private would be taken by the Swedish court.
He did find however there had been "considerable adverse publicity in Sweden for Mr Assange, in the popular press, the television and in parliament".
Mr Assange's legal team has indicated this issue would be central to their appeal against the decision.
On a more technical point, Judge Riddle also found the Swedish Prosecutor Marianne Ny was a "judicial authority with the function of issuing arrest warrants". Her status as an authorised prosecutor had been questioned.
The judge also said extradition was "compatible" with Mr Assange's human rights.
'Limited grounds' Before the extradition hearing it had been strongly suggested Mr Assange would argue the arrest warrant against him was politically motivated.

Michael Caplan QC Specialist extradition lawyer

Judge Riddle said: "This has been hinted at, but no evidence has been provided, and the bar is neither argued nor found."

Mr Assange's appeal will be heard by the Administrative Court. He has seven days to lodge a notice of appeal and the hearing should take place within a period of 40 days after that. In practice however that can stretch to three to four months.
A further appeal lies to the Supreme Court, but only if the Administrative Court certifies that the appeal involves a point of law of general public importance, or the Supreme Court grants leave to appeal.
Any appeal will be challenging for Mr Assange.
Specialist extradition lawyer Michael Caplan QC said: "Resisting EAW requests are exceedingly difficult.
"The process assumes that a person will get an equally fair trial in any of the member states, so there are very limited grounds for opposing extradition."

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