New Zealand First demonises Muslim immigrants

Jeremy Lin & Tom Peters

Winston Peters, leader of the right-wing populist New Zealand First Party, seized on the massacre in a gay night club in Orlando, Florida, to launch a vile attack on immigrants and refugees.

The shooter Omar Mateen was born in the US and appears to have been largely driven by a combination of psychological problems, hatred of homosexuals and backward, racist views. Whatever role Islamic terrorism played in influencing Mateen, there is no evidence that his attack was directed by ISIS or any similar group.

This did not prevent Peters from echoing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton by branding the shooting an act of “Islamic extremism by a terrorist whose family had sought shelter in the United States.” Arguing for an even harsher immigration regime in parliament on June 14, Peters provocatively declared that “loose border controls” were “inviting that problem in our country.”

Peters’ tirade was only the latest attempt by NZ First to whip up anti-Muslim chauvinism. On June 5, he told TVNZ’s “Q&A” program that immigrants should be interviewed at the border and made to “salute our flag, respect our laws, honour our institutions.” In a slander against hundreds of millions of people, he demanded that immigrants from Muslim countries be screened for “anti-woman attitudes.” Peters called for New Zealand’s overall intake of immigrants to be slashed from last year’s figure of 124,000 to as little as 7,000 per year.

The far-right ACT Party, a coalition partner in the National Party government, sought to outflank NZ First by demanding that refugees be made to sign a “statement of commitment to New Zealand values,” including freedom of speech and respect for women and different sexualities. Peters hit back, saying this measure should be applied to all immigrants, not just refugees.

New Zealand’s political establishment is demonising foreigners in order to deflect blame for the escalating social crisis, including homelessness and unemployment, from the capitalist system which is its source. The attempt to divide the working class along national, religious and ethnic lines is also intended to justify NZ’s involvement in the war in Iraq and preparations for future wars.

NZ First and ACT’s outbursts followed the government’s announcement on June 13 of a tiny increase in the country’s refugee intake, from 750 to 1,000 people per year. New Zealand is ranked 90th in the world for its intake of refugees on a per capita basis.

The tiny increase, the first in three decades, will do nothing whatsoever to address the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 60 million people have fled their homes, primarily because of US-led wars, backed by successive New Zealand governments, which have devastated Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Peters’ attack on Muslims in parliament was denounced by Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway as “shameful” and by Green Party co-leader James Shaw as “disgraceful.”

Such statements are profoundly hypocritical. Labour and the Greens courted NZ First as a potential coalition partner in the 2014 election, and have offered to form a political alliance with the party to remove the National Party government in next year’s election. Shaw told “Q&A,” “I feel very comfortable with the idea that we may end up working with NZ First.”

Since 2012 Labour, the Greens and the Maori nationalist Mana Party have all joined NZ First in whipping up anti-Chinese xenophobia. They have scapegoated foreigners, particularly Chinese people, for sky-rocketing house prices and rents, and called for a ban on house sales to non-residents, who make up only around 3 percent of buyers.

In 2015 all the opposition parties enthusiastically supported Winston Peters’ campaign in a by-election in the seat of Northland, presenting him as a “lesser evil” to National.

Speaking to Radio NZ, Green immigration spokeswoman Denise Roche described NZ First’s proposed immigration cut as “harsh,” but also called for a “decrease” in immigrant numbers.

Labour party leader Andrew Little told “Q&A” that migrants were placing “pressure on the road network, schools, hospitals and everything else.” He has previously singled out Chinese and Indian migrants for taking too many jobs. FIRST Union leader Robert Reid, a panellist on the show, likewise blamed immigration for leading to “fewer opportunities for local people.”

The opposition parties’ criticism of the small increase to the refugee intake is equally hypocritical. Little said the increase showed “an absolute failure of moral leadership.” Labour, however, has called for the quota to be raised to just 1,500. Last year the Greens submitted proposed legislation to parliament for an increase of 250.

The promotion of nationalism and xenophobia by every party dovetails with New Zealand’s integration into the US drive towards war against China. To strengthen military interoperability with the US and Australia, the New Zealand government has announced a $20 billion spending program for new frigates, air force planes and intelligence personnel.

Notwithstanding their professed concern for refugees, homeless people, and the 300,000 children living in poverty, Labour and the Greens support the huge military spending increase, which will be funded at the expense of essential social programs. They also support the National government’s increase in the Goods and Services Tax and its corporate tax cuts, which have transferred massive amounts of wealth to the richest social layers.

Foreign-born workers, who make up a quarter of New Zealand’s population, are not responsible for the social crisis, which is the outcome of austerity policies backed by the entire political establishment. There is more than enough money and resources to provide for the basic needs of the population, including refugees and immigrants. But this wealth is monopolised by the top 10 percent of society, which profits by driving up house prices and rents, shutting down factories, and engaging in other speculative and parasitic activities.

The working class must oppose the attacks on Muslims and immigrants, on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program. Workers of every country must have the unconditional right to live and work wherever they choose, with full legal, democratic and citizenship rights. Capitalism, with its artificial and outmoded nation-state system, must be abolished and replaced with a rationally planned, global socialist economy, based on meeting human needs, not accumulating profits for a tiny elite.

Thousands of Australian households cut off electricity

Mary Beadnell

Based on figures from just one major energy supply company, almost 200,000 households in eastern and southern Australia were threatened with having their power disconnected between 2012 and 2015, and about half were cut off.

In a recently released report, Households in the Dark, St Vincent de Paul Society researchers found that extreme financial distress was the basic reason, not just the high cost of electricity. The study provides a glimpse into the severe hardships and mounting difficulties that working class households are facing.

St Vincent de Paul, a Catholic charity, undertook the research using data provided by AGL, a big electricity and gas retailer, on electricity disconnections in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales (NSW) and parts of southeast Queensland.

In total, AGL requested that its bulk electricity suppliers carry out 199,704 disconnections over the three-year period. The supply companies completed 50 percent of these service orders, while 45 percent were not completed and 5 percent were partly completed.

AGL’s cut-offs, which showed a slight decrease in disconnections requested from 78,156 in 2012–13 to 63,644 in 2014–15, are only part of the picture. Overall national figures are not readily available, but other statistics point to a rise in cut-offs. Data from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) covering just NSW, the most populous state, indicates that disconnections doubled per year from 15,835 in 2009–10 to 31,978 in 2014–15.

Thousands of people are being cut off despite reassurances by governments and regulators that strict provisions exist, requiring utility companies to disconnect as a last resort, and to provide payment plans for people facing hardship.

During 2014–15 another 77,838 households in NSW were on payment plans, due to difficulties meeting their electricity bills. Despite regulations barring households from being cut-off if they require electricity for life support or have payment plans, the AER web site indicates that such disconnections are still taking place.

Households in the Dark identifies the 50 postcode areas in each state where the largest number of disconnections occurred during the three years from 2012 to 2015. Towns in rural and regional New South Wales, and some working class suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane had the greatest numbers of cut-offs.

Analysis found that in the worst-affected postcodes, some 53 percent of households were experiencing housing stress and 63 percent were on low incomes of less than $600 per week. Over 60 percent were headed by sole parents, more than 60 percent rented their homes, 58 percent were younger age householders and of the two-parent households 49 percent were “both not working.”

St Vincent de Paul Society spokesman Gavin Dufty said the results showed the cost of housing, food and transport were making it difficult for people to pay their bills.

Cut-offs entrenched hardship and poverty, St Vincent de Paul CEO John Falzon said; “Being disconnected can have profound impacts for households already struggling with everyday living costs, leading to adverse health and wellbeing effects, including an inability to cook, store food, heat or cool rooms, or stay in touch with the wider world.”

Previous studies found aged pensioners refraining from using heaters, taking fewer showers and minimising television and light use for fear of being cut off. Disconnected households use candles for light and outdoor barbecues for heat, risking fires. Food is damaged without refrigeration in summer. People are forced to eat take away meals and to bathe in cold water, often suffering physical and mental ill health, depression and anxiety. Children and the elderly are most vulnerable.

The latest study found a number of postcodes in rural and regional areas as well as working class suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne where 200 customers or more had been disconnected at least twice.

Generally, there was a delay in carrying out disconnections, due to distance and the requirement for a serviceperson to visit the premises. However, in Victoria, the state with the largest number of actual disconnections, they could be carried out remotely, due to the introduction of “smart meter” technology.

Working-class and poor families face a choice every week, of whether to pay utilities, rent or mortgage payments, health care costs, including the purchase of medicines, educational expenses for their children, or just to put food on the table. In particular, the cost of housing has increased astronomically, above all in Sydney and Melbourne.

The correlation between multiple disconnections, job losses and general poverty levels could be seen in areas like the northern suburbs of Adelaide, where larger numbers of multiple utility disconnections have been recorded with the shutting down of the car industry.

Utility costs have soared since 2008. From 2007–08 to 2010–11, average household electricity costs rose nearly 80 percent in NSW, over 60 percent in Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania, 57 percent in Western Australia, 37.5 percent in the Northern Territory and 44.9 percent in the Australian Capital Territory. Victorian electricity prices rose by 39.3 percent.

Successive state governments, Liberal-National and Labor alike, have privatised all or most of the electricity generation, supply and retail networks. The last federal Labor government urged states to accelerate this “free market” reform.

This process has allowed corporate giants like AGL to profit directly at the expense of working class households. Despite being hit by falling natural gas prices, AGL’s underlying profit of $375 million for the second half of 2015 was up 24.2 percent on the previous corresponding period.

In the campaign for the July 2 federal election, all the major establishment parties are insisting that “we must live within our means,” that is accept the austerity dictates of the financial elite. Constantly being threatened with being cut off essential services, like electricity, is not “living.”

Despite the impact these disconnections are having on the lives of working class and poor families, the mass media all but ignored the Households in the Dark report. This indifference and cover-up serves a political purpose. To report the social reality would further fuel the widespread opposition to the welfare and other budget cuts that governments have sought to impose.

The report’s authors make various proposals which, even if implemented, would have only a marginal impact. These include “energy efficiency programs” to encourage frugality by low-income households, greater energy concessions, increased welfare payments and education programs about “how to navigate the energy retail market, by shopping around for the best deal.”

In reality, the research shows the need to totally reorganise economic life along socialist lines to meet human need, not corporate profit requirements.

Nicaragua’s President Ortega to run unopposed for third term

Andrea Lobo

Less than five months before Nicaragua’s November 6 general election, the country’s Supreme Court has settled a four-year-old legal dispute within the right-wing opposition Independent Liberal Party (PLI), removing its current leader, Eduardo Montealegre, and installing the party’s former vice president Pedro Reyes.

The action not only led to a split within the National Coalition for Democracy, composed of eight parties and organizations led by the PLI, but also invalidates the party’s nominations for the presidency, made just days prior to the court ruling.

As a result, incumbent president Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), who was already leading the polls, will likely run for a third term virtually unopposed. The action by the judiciary has led to expressions of concern within ruling circles about potential effects of the elections being perceived as illegitimate.

Mario Amador, vice president of the Chamber of Industries (Cadin), viewed the decision as unnecessary and harmful to the ruling party since it “leaves the FSLN without any opposition, and it closes all escape valves that the population has.” The president of the Union of Agricultural Producers (Upanic), Michael Healy, stated that the court’s ruling “doesn’t nurture an environment for investors to come to Nicaragua.”

These reactions by leading members of the bourgeoisie are not intended to express opposition to the current regime; many of them have made their fortunes through association and deals with the FSLN. The business elite is primarily expressing concern about the cracks in the Sandinista formula for power, which can be summed up as subordinating the working class through its unions to the government, while allowing supposedly legitimate expressions of “democracy” in the eyes of foreign investors.

Montealegre himself, in spite of criticizing the court’s decision, recognized that the marriage between the Sandinistas and the private sector is “in the freezer,” and that “some businesspeople will get worried, but they are not going to say anything since they know who they are confronting.”

On June 4, after being unanimously chosen by the FSLN’s Sixth National Congress to run for a third term, Ortega announced that international observers will not be invited to oversee the elections. In his speech, he expressed fears regarding the recent right-wing changes in government elsewhere in Latin America, particularly the US-backed military coup against former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in 2009, the impeachment of Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo in 2012 and Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment procedure in Brazil this year.

He then complained about international observers impelling him to recognize fraudulent results in the 1996 general election, which declared right-wing candidate Arnoldo Alemán as president. “The observers should instead go and put their own countries in order,” Ortega declared.

José Adán Aguerri, the president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (COSEP), who has worked closely with the FSLN government in advancing its economic policies, stated that, “independent electoral observation gives certainty to the process and legitimates it.” Aguerri then added, “such invitation should be extended to others such as the Carter Center, the European Union, and the Organization of American States.”

One of the resolutions passed by the FSLN Congress encouraged Ortega to “continue the policy of alliances that has guaranteed reconciliation, unity, wellbeing, and prosperity in Nicaragua.” The FSLN’s history shows that these alliances have invariably been with foreign imperialist organizations and right-wing representatives of the local bourgeoisie.

This class orientation is not merely a product of the more recent right-wing trajectory of the FSLN, but was present from the its assumption of power following the toppling of the US-backed dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in July 1979.

The first actions the FSLN took when it came into power in 1979 was to suppress organizations that had in mind a more radical transformation of the country’s economy. They broke strikes and, when a Maoist group affiliated with the FSLN tried to occupy land and factories owned by Nicaragua’s wealthiest capitalists, the group’s leaders became the new regime’s first political prisoners.

The cutoff of economic aid from the Soviet Stalinist bureaucracy at the end of the 1980s led to a deepening of the country’s decade-long economic crisis, which kept 75 percent of the population living in poverty. Inflation reached 38,000 percent in 1988, and the economy shrank significantly, leading the FSLN to a rapprochement with the US and its loss of the 1990 general election.

As social protests erupted against the government’s corruption and inefficiency in relation to reconstruction projects after Hurricane Mitch affected over 2 million people in Nicaragua, Ortega signed a pact in 1999 with then right-wing president Arnoldo Alemán, a former official in the Somoza dictatorship.

“El Pacto,” as the agreement is known, gave both of Ortega and Alemán automatic seats in parliament and consequently lifetime immunity from prosecution on corruption charges. It likewise allowed for a continuation of the flow of foreign aid along with the privatization of state assets and the associated corruption.

In 2007, Ortega and the Sandinistas returned to power with Jaime Morales Carazo, the former chief public spokesman of the CIA-backed contras, as their vice president. Only two days after being elected, Ortega met with former US President Jimmy Carter, assuring him that the Sandinista government would respect the privatizations and free-market reforms made since 1990, including foreign investment and banking laws and the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA-DR).

Since its foundation in 1961, the FSLN has blended Marxist rhetoric with Catholic “liberation theology.” It joined the Church and the nationalist business sector, as part of the Broad Opposition Front (FAO), to overthrow Somoza in 1979. Since 2006, Ortega has imposed Church dogma in the form of one of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the world. The FSLN used the slogan, “Christian, socialist, and solidarity” for Ortega’s campaign posters in 2006 and 2011.

He has also accepted the frequent presence of the US military on Nicaraguan soil, under the pretexts of humanitarian aid and the “war on drugs.” Last month, Ortega hosted US Southern Command deputy commander Gen. Joseph DiSalvo and commented: “Now, we are interested in continuing the relations that have been developing with the United States in different fields, particularly in the military field.”

Ortega and a clique of politicians and businesspeople linked to the FSLN have enriched themselves mostly using capital from the state-owned but privately-managed oil company, Petronic, to buy filling stations, a fleet of trucks, television and radio stations, cattle ranches and to invest in tourism, electricity generation, banking, and pharmaceutical and food production.

The FSLN-dominated National Assembly scrapped the constitution in 2014 to allow Ortega to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms. The subsequent silence and even support by the business elite and foreign investors demonstrated the success of the FSLN in becoming a bastion of imperialist reaction in Central America.

Foreign Policy has celebrated Ortega’s evolution since 2007, writing that his policies “suggest he is politically authoritarian, economically pro-business, socially populist—and, above all else, pragmatic.”

By far, the most dangerous alliance against workers has been the tripartite pact between business, the state, and the FSLN-controlled unions—the National Workers Front (FNT) and the Sandinista Workers Central (CST)—which have backed Ortega’s candidacy and hailed him as “our guide, who sees beyond!”

By utilizing the union movement to suppress workers’ struggles, the FSLN has been able to attract increasing foreign direct investment and create a growing low-wage manufacturing sector, but most importantly, it has blocked the working class from organizing independently to defend its own interests.

Imperialist agencies have shown how pleased they are with the current government. In February 2015, the inter-governmental Financial Action Task force (FATF) decided to drop Nicaragua from its non-compliance list. World Bank Vice President, Jorge Familiar, recently catalogued Nicaragua as the “best among countries in the multilateral bank’s portfolio in Latin America.”

The International Monetary Fund closed its office in Nicaragua on March 30, boasting that it had accomplished its mission of helping the country reach “macroeconomic stability and growth.”

National economic growth of 4.9 percent in 2015 is well beyond Latin America’s average. The poverty rate has fallen from 42.5 percent in 2009 to 30 percent, and consumption has increased 33 percent. However, all of these economic advances have been due not to improvements in productivity and public institutions, but to unstable external factors.

The crisis in Venezuela, Nicaragua’s second trading partner after the US and the main source of “out-of-budget” economic aid, will greatly affect growth and reduce the FSLN government’s capacity to continue anti-poverty programs. “The aid will get suspended insofar as the economic and social situation in Venezuela nears chaos and a social explosion,” said Horacio Medina, the former president of Petroleum of Venezuela, S.A.

The FSLN government has increased the country’s dependence upon the volatile commodity markets and the permanence of extremely low wages to attract investment. The IMF expects a continuation in public debt increases due to weakened export performance, in turn related to the fall of commodity prices.

The official average salary in the formal sector is $302 per month, but the monthly cost of basic living expenses is $432, a gap that will continue to grow given the automatic yearly 5 percent currency devaluation against the dollar and an expected rise in inflation to 6 percent. Moreover, the government’s regressive value-added tax takes away a very significant share of the income from the poorest Nicaraguans.

On the other hand, according to a 2015 Oxfam report, Nicaragua’s 245 multi-millionaires, who have at least $30 million in assets, collectively own 76 times the country’s public education expenditure and have an average annual income over 12,000 times that of someone in the poorest quintile.

The FSLN’s extraordinary measures to manipulate the electoral process and the concerns expressed by the business sector together expose fears within the local bourgeoisie. The concern is that the country’s economic “success” is coming to a halt and that the widening contradiction between the enormous fortunes made by the bourgeoisie and the deteriorating conditions of masses of workers and peasants will lead to an eruption of class struggle.

UN Security Council agrees to military intervention off Libyan coast

Marianne Arens

Last week, the UN Security Council in New York adopted unanimously a resolution which empowered European member states to search all ships off the Libyan coast for weapons and munitions. With the passage of this resolution, a new war in Libya draws ever closer.

The UN declared its aim was to impose an arms embargo on terrorist groups like Islamic State and Al-Qaida in Libya. Russia and China assented to the resolution.

This enables the European naval mission in the Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR MED), initiated by a decision of an EU emergency summit in April 2015, to enter its third stage. During the first two stages, the mission aimed to monitor and combat people smugglers on the high seas. Now, it has the task of using force to block shipments of weapons and munitions to and from Libya.

The mission, named Operation Sophia, is to reassert an old embargo enforced on the Gaddafi regime in 2011. This embargo served at the time as the prelude to NATO’s war in Libya. Today, the resolution also lays the basis for a military intervention by the western powers.

Operation Sophia consists of a large number of warships, submarines, surveillance aircraft, drones, and 1,300 soldiers from 24 NATO states, including Germany, Italy, Britain, Spain, France, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden. The German navy is involved with 950 soldiers and a rotation of warships, while Italy, the former colonial power in Libya, officially leads the mission.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced the initiation of stage three at a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting on May 19 in Brussels. As he declared, the European armed forces would not only enforce the arms embargo, but also establish a Libyan coastguard. This had already been approved by EU foreign ministers on May 23, 2015, when they extended the mission by a year. The so-called “robust” mandate still required the approval of the UN Security Council, which has now been given.

The German government is fully behind, and is participating in the war plans. Foreign minister Steinmeier declared about the latest UN Security Council decision that he very much welcomed the council “proving its ability to act,” and added, “Firmly combatting the threat posed by ISIS in Iraq, Syria and also in Libya is in all of our interests.”

In 2011 Germany remained on the sidelines during the NATO war in Libya, but now the German government is leading the war policy. In addition to the operations in Libya, the German government is engaged in a military build-up against Russia, deploying tanks in Eastern Europe. In Syria, German aircraft are providing the NATO intervention with surveillance information.

The Libyan operation is a component of more comprehensive military activities planned for the North African country. The imperialist powers have been preparing for months to march into Libya and establish military bases. Their goal is to secure direct control over the country’s large oil and gas reserves and ease their access to Africa.

Three weeks ago, US Chief of Staff General Joseph Dunford, the head of the Pentagon, stated that a new military mission potentially with thousands of US soldiers could begin at “any time.” Heavy equipment for the intervention in Libya is sitting ready at airbases in Sicily, Cyprus and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Greece, Italy and Malta have already closed their airspace to aircraft from the Libyan air force.

American Special Forces are already openly active on the streets of Misrata, where they are coordinating the battle against Islamic State forces in the neighbouring city of Sirte.

Unofficially, US, British and Italian Special Forces and intelligence operatives have been active in Libya for months. The German government now intends to train Libyan security forces in neighbouring Tunisia, although this deployment could also occur in Libya itself.

To give the military operation a fig leaf of legality, the UN has recognised the puppet regime of Fayez Sarraj “as the sole legitimate government in Libya.” This “government of national unity” can now send an official request for assistance to the western powers and in this way legitimise the invasion. The “government” is exempt from the arms embargo.

In reality, Sarraj has no base of support in Libya. Two months after his arrival in Tripoli, the “Prime Minister,” has hardly set foot on Libyan territory outside his provisional headquarters at Abu Sita, Tripoli’s port. But he has visited Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The country he allegedly governs is dominated by competing militias and groups involved in fierce fighting over territory and control of the country’s oilfields.

In the war-ravaged country there are now two competing central banks and two money systems, since the rival government in the eastern Libyan city of Tubruk printed its own banknotes in Russia and brought them into circulation on 1 June.

Since May, there have been power cuts lasting days in the capital, Tripoli. They are linked to strikes by electricity employees, who have not been paid wages for weeks.

Officially, the UN stated that it backs the Sarraj government because it is leading the fight against Islamist terrorism. But this is contradicted by the fact that Sarraj relies on Islamist forces, forming a “presidential guard” made up of elements from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which is close to al-Qaida.

Accepting this arrangement, the German daily Die Welt stated, “The participation of the Muslim Brotherhood is the price which the international community–above all the EU–is paying for the stabilisation of Libya.”

Last week, the bodies of 32 brutally murdered prisoners, former soldiers in Gaddafi’s military, were discovered. Libyan newspapers are accusing Sarraj’s new presidential guard of carrying out the murders.

The soldiers had been detained in al-Hadba prison for the last five years. According to a court ruling they were to have been released at the beginning of June, but were instead found executed with a shot to the head.

This episode demonstrates that the regime receiving the UN’s stamp of approval is virtually indistinguishable from the terrorist groups it claims to be combatting in alliance with NATO and the EU. Media reports in fact indicate that sections of the Islamist militias in Sarraj’s presidential guard retain ties to ISIS in Sirte.

Belgian authorities mount large-scale anti-terror raid

Kumaran Ira

Belgian authorities charged three suspects allegedly close to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) with preparing a terror attack after a massive police raid on Friday night and early Saturday across Belgium. They were allegedly preparing to attack fans gathering to watch live broadcasts of the Belgian team playing Ireland at the Euro Football championship on Saturday.

Wiretaps of phone conversations discussing imminent attacks in Brussels—of football fans, malls, or train stations—reportedly triggered the raids, judicial sources reported. A federal prosecutor suggested that the state had evidence suggesting that it had to launch the operation instantly to avoid an attack: “Evidence was gathered [and] as part of the investigation, [we] needed to intervene immediately.”

Masked, heavily-armed police special forces carried out massive raids on well over 100 flats, homes and garages. The anti-terror raid was carried out in 16 areas, including Molenbeek-St-Jean, Schaerbeek and Liège. Oddly, according to the Federal prosecutor’s office, there were no major incidents during the raids, and no arms or explosives were found.

After the raid, 40 people were taken for questioning and 12 were arrested. On Saturday, three Belgian citizens, identified as Samir C, 27; Mustafa B, 40; and Jawad B, 29, were charged “as perpetrators or co-perpetrators, for having attempted to commit a terrorist murder and for participation in the activities of a terrorist group.” Nine others were released. All three men had links with the El Bakraoui brothers and Najim Laachraoui, who carried out the March 22 attack in Brussels that killed 32 people.

The arrest of three suspects came after another suspect identified as Youssef E.A, 29, who reportedly worked at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport, was arrested on Friday evening in connection with the March 22 attack. He was allegedly a childhood friend of Khalid El Bakraoui, one of the March 22 suicide bombers. He was charged on Friday with “participation in a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator or accomplice.”

According to local media, the man had access to flight information, and police reportedly found messages on his computer sent to El Bakraoui stating that planes from America, Russia and Israel take off every Tuesday from Zaventem.

Before the police raid, the Belgian Coordinating Body for Threat Analysis, which evaluates intelligence and other terrorism-related information, sent a warning to the police across Belgium and France that Islamist fighters in Syria were headed for Europe via Turkey and Greece.

The arrests come only three months after the Brussels attack, after which the entire Brussels area was put on lockdown and subjected to massive police raids. This raises questions how they escaped police raids at the time, and how many ISIS suspects are still active in Belgium and other European countries. It underscores further the complicity of European intelligence with ISIS elements in advancing the EU reactionary foreign policy in the Middle East.

After placing the country on the highest terror alert since the March 22 attack, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel’s government announced that the terror level across the country would remain at the second-highest level. After a meeting of the country’s security council, Michel said, “It will be the case in the coming hours that we will take additional and adapted measures.”

“We want to continue living normally… The situation is under control, we are extremely vigilant, we are monitoring the situation hour-by-hour and we will continue with determination the fight against extremism, radicalization and terrorism,” he said. If there was an imminent terror plot being prepared after the March 22 attack, responsibility again lies primarily with the reactionary policies of the NATO powers, who have promoted Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militias in a war for regime change in the Middle East.

Michel’s claims that Brussels is fighting terrorism reek of hypocrisy. Recent terror attacks on European soil, including the attacks on November 13 in Paris and March 22 in Brussels are the product of this NATO foreign policy.

Many of the Belgian and French nationals who carried out the attacks on Paris and Brussels were part of networks that worked to funnel Islamist recruits to Syria to fight against the Assad government. These networks were tolerated by police and security officials in the NATO countries, which saw them as an important policy tool.

While the Michel government continues to terrorize the population with warnings of terror attacks and sweeping police raids, it also faces a mounting scandal over revelations of official foreknowledge of the March 22 Brussels bombings. The government failed to take any preemptive measures to prevent the attack, even after the identity of the attackers and their targets were provided by Israeli, Turkish and Russian intelligence officials.

Despite the advanced warning, Belgian security forces and their NATO allies failed to stop the attacks. Nonetheless, seizing on the terror attacks, the governments of French President François Hollande and Belgian Prime Minister Charles announced vast police state measures. After the November 13 attack, France was placed under state of emergency.

As social opposition mounts against the ruling elite across Europe, the recent terror plot will be used as a further pretext to escalate police state measures and suppress opposition by the working class.

The police raid comes amid rising opposition from workers and youth to draconian austerity measures imposed in both France and Belgium by the ruling elite. France has seen rising mass protests against the El Khomri labour law, whereas workers in Belgium recently protested attacks on labor conditions and austerity policies. In both countries, protesting workers were subject to bloody police repression, while the Hollande government is preparing to use the state of emergency to ban protests.

Reports of sectarian massacres as Fallujah falls to Iraqi government

James Cogan

The US-backed prime minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, went on state television Friday to boast that government troops had recaptured the Anbar Province city of Fallujah from Islamic State (ISIS) fighters. After weeks of constant air strikes and artillery bombardments, Special Forces units pushed far enough into the city to raise the Iraqi flag over the former government building.

In 2004, the American military reduced Fallujah to rubble as part of its ruthless drive to crush popular resistance to the US occupation of the country. Now, what was rebuilt is being reduced to rubble again. Video and photography from the city show scenes of devastated streets.

Freelance journalist Florian Neuhof wrote on Sunday: “Most buildings bear the scars of battle. Houses are pockmarked with bullet holes, sometimes walls have been knocked down by heavy ordinance. On the city’s outskirts, coalition air strikes have collapsed roofs and turned buildings into mangled shapes of concrete and iron bars.”

Murderous combat is still taking place. Most reports indicate that the surviving several hundred ISIS militants, surrounded and expecting no mercy, particularly from the Shiite militias that make up a large proportion of the government forces, are fighting to the death. The Islamist extremists, who took control of the city in early 2014, have constructed a network of tunnels under the city from which they are launching suicide bombings and other attacks.

Over the weekend, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which has a team outside Fallujah, reported that 4,000 civilians were able to pass through government lines and reach relief camps. NRC spokesperson Karl Scheembri told journalists: “We’re extremely concerned that the most vulnerable—pregnant women, the elderly, sick persons and people with disabilities—have been unable to come out and they are the ones who need aid most after months under siege with no food, no water and no medical aid.”

There are no reliable reports as to the number of civilians who have been killed or wounded. The estimate of how many people were trapped inside the city by the government siege ranged from 50,000 to 90,000.

To provide a justification in advance for casualties among the predominantly Sunni Muslim population of Fallujah, the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government had declared that people were being used by ISIS as “human shields.” Now that some people have been able to flee, government forces are declaring that the city is “deserted” in order to justify indiscriminate attacks. Florian Neuhof wrote: “Unconstrained by fears of civilian casualties, the army is now bombarding Fallujah relentlessly. From beyond the ruined outskirts of the battered city, batteries of 155mm howitzers and Katyusha rocket launchers pour fire into the centre….”

The Iraqi forces are being accompanied by US, British and Australian military “advisors,” whose main role is to call in and target air strikes against alleged ISIS positions. A despicable editorial in the June 20 edition of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Australian boasted of the prominent role that Australian Air Force FA-18 fighter bombers have played in the destruction of Fallujah, declaring that Australian units “deserve the gratitude of the nation and the free world.”

On June 18, the governor of Anbar Province, Suhaib al-Rawi, issued an impassioned condemnation of the wholesale killing and torture that is being inflicted by Shiite militias, known as the “Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF). He told the Rudaw news agency: “Iraqi troops continue their advance into Fallujah, but with it, images of inhumane acts and abuse have come out, perpetrated by some armed groups that are sectarian in every sense.” A spokesperson for one of the Sunni tribes in Fallujah told Rudaw that at least 650 people are missing, feared murdered by the militias.

Suhaib al-Rawi told Al Jazeera last week that he believed “more than 49 civilians have lost their lives under torture.”

Al Jazeera correspondents interviewed three men in a camp outside the city who claimed they had been subjected to brutal treatment by Shiite militias and had witnessed a number of executions.

Mahmoud al-Naji al-Shoukor reported that the men in his group fleeing Fallujah had been separated from their women and children and taken to a makeshift detention centre. “They put some of us in a line on our knees, with our eyes blindfolded,” he said. “They started taking us one by one. They killed several men before it was my turn. I could hear the men scream and beg the militia to spare their lives—they were swearing that they never fought, and that they never joined ISIS—but that did not stop the militia from killing them.”

Mahmoud claimed he survived only because someone arrived who demanded that the killings stop, on the orders of the head Shiite cleric in Iraq, Ali al-Sistani. The other two men testified they had been beaten with pipes and tortured in other ways for six days before being rescued by government-aligned Sunni fighters.

Human Rights Watch released a report last week stating that it had received “credible allegations of summary executions, beatings of unarmed men, enforced disappearances, and mutilation of corpses by government forces over the two weeks of fighting.” It cited one case in which 17 males, including a 17-year-old teenager, were lined up and shot by Iraqi police and members of the PMF.

The atrocities against civilians are being carried out under the eyes of US and allied military forces. The Obama administration, the Cameron government in Britain and the Turnbull government in Australia share full responsibility for every war crime that is committed.

Further atrocities are now being prepared. Having destroyed the Anbar Province city of Ramadi and nearly recaptured Fallujah, the US-directed military campaign to shore up Washington’s puppet state in Baghdad is shifting its focus to the northern city of Mosul, which was taken by ISIS in June of 2014. Tens of thousands of troops and PMF militias will be sent to join the disparate government army units, US Marines, Kurdish forces and Christian and Yazidi militias that are already fighting ISIS in the north.

Reports over the weekend indicate that government forces advanced toward Qayara, a town 60 kilometres from Mosul that has a military airfield. This would be used as one of the staging bases for an offensive against the city. An estimated 1.5 million people are believed to be living in Mosul and the surrounding towns and villages.

A measure of the human catastrophe that has been inflicted on Iraq just during the last two years of fighting—on top of the carnage inflicted during the US occupation—was provided a United Nations report released last month. It said that more than 3.4 million people had been “internally displaced,” 2.6 million had fled the country altogether, and a further two million were expected to be turned into refugees by the offensives on Fallujah and Mosul.

The Re-cleansing of Nallamala

Bibhu Prasad Routray


In the latest of the state's march against the left-wing extremists, the Andhra Pradesh police in June 2016 declared the Nallamala forests 'extremist free'. In a media statement, the state police claimed to have been able to deal with the problem “with an iron hand” and has ensured the non-occurrence of “a single extremism related incident” in the area in the past decade. The history of counter-Maoist operations in Nallamala, however, makes this claim a bit of an exaggeration, and points at a decade long contestation by the police and the extremists to dominate the area.

Nallamala has a long history of Naxal activity. Spread across 4500 square kilometres, the dense forests are spread across five districts — Kurnool, Prakasam, Mahabubnagar, Guntur and Nalgonda. It remained one of the impregnable fortresses of the People's War Group (PWG) before the outfit's peace talks with the Andhra Pradesh government and the eventual formation of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist). After the peace talks failed, the police was able to mount one of the most successful operations recorded so far in India against the outfit. The CPI-Maoist retreated, but has since made several attempts to regain its foothold in the area.

The last major killing carried out by the CPI-Maoist in Nallamala was the killing of ten village elders in Nippula Vaagu in 2005. The outfit justified the killings as a revenge against the massacre of 12 Dalits by the village leaders more than 10 years ago. Despite its flight from Andhra Pradesh, the outfit managed to hold a week-long plenum in Nallamala in September 2015, which was attended by state secretary Akkiraju Haragopal alias Ramakrishna, other state leaders Shakamuri Appa Rao and Sudhakar. A 1000 member security force contingent which scanned the area after being tipped off could only recover copies of Telugu newspapers and biscuit packets from the venue.

However, the tide turned in 2006, the year in which the outfit's state secretary Madhav and seven other cadres were killed. Madhav had succeeded Ramakrishna who had partaken in the peace talks with the state government and was sent to the comparatively secure Andhra-Odisha border (AOB) area by the outfit. The outfit lost a number of senior level leaders in Nallamala including Appa Rao, Central Committee Member Matta Ravi Kumar, Prakasam District Committee Secretary Naveen alias Satyam in subsequent encounters. And yet, the Maoists managed to retain a skeletal presence in Nallamala. In July 2008, the outfit's cadres attacked a doctor and killed one his relatives in Mahbubnagar district. Few days earlier, on 29 June, 38 Greyhounds personnel had been killed in Balimela reservoir in Odisha after a Maoist attack leading the police to alert all the police stations in the Nallamala region and ask political leaders to curtail their movements.

By 2009, the outfit had almost been wiped out of Nallamala, a development that probably contributed to the Congress party's victory in the region in the parliamentary elections. The party rarely won elections in the Nallamala belt when the Maoists were active. In 2011, the Andhra Pradesh police claimed Nallamala to be extremist-free for the first time.

The 2014 bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh effectively split the Nallamala region among two states – Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Kurnool, Prakasam and Guntur districts went to Andhra Pradesh, whereas Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda districts became part of Telangana. The police capacities of erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh split too, especially the highly decorated counter-Maoist Greyhounds commando force, raising fears of a revival of the Maoist movement. War of words between the erstwhile colleagues and a sense of victimhood owing to a perceived unjust bifurcation of resources appeared to pervade both the state police establishments. The Andhra Pradesh police accused their Telangana counterparts of not parting with the list of informers and intelligence sources. On the other hand, the Telangana police somewhat drearily announced that they will manage with “whatever resources came to them (sic).” Nallamala's strategic location along the inter-state borders created a somewhat favourable condition for the CPI-Maoist to exploit absence of inter-state coordination.

In May 2013, security forces began combing operations in the Guntur and Prakasam districts along with the neighbouring forested regions of Warangal and Khammam. In the wake of a spate of extremist attacks in Chhattisgarh, special forces who were confined mostly to the police stations for the past two years were engaged in specialised operations. The lack of violent incidents had pushed the police into a complacent state.

By late 2014, Maoists had returned to Nallamala. Extortion activities and a lone incident of exchange of gunfire were reported from Belum caves area. In early 2015, tribals living in Nallamala reported not only increased movement of the Maoists but incidents of cadres taking shelter in the remote villages. However, the surge was claimed to have been controlled after the police arrested 10 suspected cadres in May 2015. In spite of the allotment of an additional Border Security Force (BSF) battalion to Andhra Pradesh, the director general of the Central Reserve Police Force in February 2016 predicted a return of Maoist extremism to both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The recent claim of the re-cleansing of Nallamala would at best be a temporary setback for the CPI-Maoist attempting to regain a hold on an area that once served as its prime operational ground. The history of past decade showcases the ability of the extremists to revive, taking advantage of the lull in security force operations that invariably follows intermittent area clearing operations; and also to exploit the prevailing ‘objective conditions’ that allowed the movement to take root in the first place.

Bangladesh War Crime Executions: Reconciliation or Revenge?

Summaiya Khan

The recent death sentences awarded to Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, the top leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, have triggered mixed reactions within the country and the international community. The convicts have been awarded death sentences by the war crimes tribunal of Bangladesh on grounds of orchestrating mass killings, committing rape, genocide and other such war crimes that violate international human rights norms. The international community, which includes international human rights organisations, the UN, international lawyers and countries like Pakistan and the US have said that these executions are politically driven.

Bangladesh War Crime Tribunal

The Bangladesh liberation war fought in 1971 that claimed about three million lives necessitated the constitution of a tribunal in order to try the war criminals. Consequently, a tribunal was constituted in 1973, as per the International Crimes Tribunals Act (ICTA), 1973. The tribunal is empowered to try the people irrespective of their nationality if they committed any crime on the territory of Bangladesh. In 2012, another tribunal was setup under the act - the International Crimes Tribunal-2 - under which Bangladesh is currently carrying out a slew of executions of war criminals. Though these executions seem legitimate, doubts about its fairness have been expressed.

Bones of Contention

The prime reason attributed to the uproar about the execution is the nature of war crime trials undertaken by Bangladesh, as these trials do not adhere to international standards. The BNP has rebuked these trials for its arbitrary nature, calling the executions politically motivated with an aim to eliminate political rivalry. Looking at the trial trends, of the total eighteen who been convicted, four members with affiliations to the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami including Nizami have been sent to the gallows. These convicts are those who opposed the Bangladesh War of Independence. Though there is a need to punish the perpetrators, the expediency shown by the ruling party in undertaking these executions is disproportionate to the international standards of trials. Several opposition leaders in Bangladesh and human rights activists view the trials as having serious flaws. For instance, it is alleged by a Jamaat leader based abroad that Jamaat leaders inside Bangladesh were not giving interviews because their phones were tapped and their families were harassed if they spoke to media. 

 

International human rights organisations that include Amnesty International, the Human Rights Watch and the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have voiced their concerns against the trials. The international human rights and humanitarian law community have claimed that the rules lacked adequate protection for the defendants and witnesses, and the trials were politically motivated. 

 

Capital punishment involves adopting the most stringent safeguards, and guilt must be established beyond reasonable doubt. In the case of Bangladesh, it has projected unusual expediency in the matter. The witnesses, on vague grounds, were not allowed to testify evidence that could have exculpated the defendants. In addition to this, the rights of the accused have also been infringed upon. The accused have been arbitrarily detained without formal charges levelled and are allowed to challenge the detention. As the tribunal does not have an appellate chamber, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has final say in the matter.

 

There are also instances of informal interrogation in the absence of the counsel, and the accused are also not allowed to have a conversation with them in private. There is no bail granted to the accused. It is important to note that release is a right and not privilege. The accused must be informed of his charges and trials must be conducted publically - Bangladesh has flouted these trial procedures. Further, there has been no investigation into claims of torture and abuse of individuals in detention.  There are also instances where the right to defence is denied: Salahuddin Qauder Chowdhury was allowed only 4 witnesses in his defence while the prosecution was allowed 41 witnesses. Additionally the tribunal does not provide for the protection for witnesses whose testimony could be of use to the accused. Any trial adhering to international standards is required to presume the accused to be innocent until proven guilty. However, in these cases, the burden of proof is shifted onto the accused.

Bangladesh’s Position 

Bangladesh has denied the allegations by the UN and other human rights organisations. It stated that the trials were in no means partisan and were of no political affiliation. It further asserts the right to frame its own law in the matter as the subject falls under domestic jurisdiction. The Bangladeshi population is equally divided on the issue. A section of the population who support the cause of Bangladesh and the Awami League view that justice has been delivered with the convicts being executed. On the contrary, the other section which supports the BNP and was opposed to the liberation war hail these convicts as martyrs. What is worrisome is that the means to address these issues are inadequate. The arbitrary executions in the garb of justice tarnish the very fabric of democracy in Bangladesh and create a milieu of insecurity. 

 

The international organisations that have expressed their reservations about these trials have not been able to do anything substantial. The UN has so far only admonished Bangladesh and asked it to refrain from awarding such arbitrary sentences. The UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association, and the International Center for Transitional Justice have all separately submitted, to the Bangladeshi government, letters of concern and recommendations regarding the trials. These state that the trials were unfair and ask Bangladesh to impose an immediate moratorium on the death penalty. While the government has not rejected such recommendations outright, it has not publicly responded to them either.

 

To sum up, in a convoluted scenario of this kind, it becomes difficult to arrive at a conclusion whether Sheikh Hasina's government is making an attempt towards reconciliation or is aiming towards revenge. It is important that all trials be carefully examined. As doubts regarding the competence of the tribunal persist, it could be plausible that the trials be conducted on an international level. For instance, the trials could be monitored by the UN with neutral staff and judges on the lines of the Residual Special Court of Sierra Leone set up by the UN in order to avoid political partiality. However, it is unlikely that Bangladesh would accede to such proceedings as it hinders its domestic jurisdiction. 

TWAS-CIIT Fellowship Programme for Scholars from Developing Countries 2016

Application Deadline: 31st August, 2016

Offered annually? No

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Pakistan

Brief description: Applications are on for TWAS-CIIT fellowship programme open to young scientists from developing countries (other than Pakistan).

Eligible Field of Study: An eligible candidate must hold an MSc degree in a field of natural sciences(Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology, Biological Systems and Organisms, Chemical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Mathematical Sciences and Physics). If applying in a field of eligible social sciences, hold an MSc degree in a field of social sciences.

About the Award: The TWAS-CIIT Fellowship Programme for Postgraduate Research offers fellowships to young scientists from developing countries (other than Pakistan) who wish to obtain all or part (sandwich or full-time) of their PhD in natural or social sciences. Duration: minimum of six months to a maximum of 3 years (up to 18 months for a sandwich programme).

Type: PhD Fellowship

Eligibility: Candidates for this fellowship must meet the following criteria:

• Be nationals of a developing country (other than Pakistan);
• Must not be on site in Pakistan;
• Must not hold any visa for temporary or permanent residency in Pakistan or any developed country;
• Be a maximum age of 35 years by 31 December in the year of application;
• For SANDWICH Fellowships: be registered Ph.D. students in a developing country and provide the “Registration and No Objection Certificate” from the HOME university (see sample in guidelines);
• For Full-time Fellowships: be willing to register at a university in Pakistan;
• Provide a certificate of good health from a qualified medical doctor;
• Provide an official Acceptance Letter from CIIT. Requests for acceptance must be sent to Dr. Tariq-Ur-Rahman (by e-mail: tariqurrahman-at-comsats.edu.pk) who will facilitate assignment of a host supervisor. In contacting Dr. Tariq-Ur-Rahman, candidates must accompany their request for an Acceptance Letter with copy of their CV and a research proposal outline; Provide evidence of proficiency in English, if medium of education was not English;
• Provide evidence that s/he will return to her/his home country on completion of the fellowship;
• Not take up other assignments during the period of her/his fellowship;
• Be financially responsible for any accompanying family members.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Fellowship: CIIT will provide a monthly stipend which should be used to cover living costs such as food, accommodation and health insurance. The monthly stipend will not be convertible into foreign currency.

Duration of Fellowship: Minimum of six months to a maximum of 3 years (up to 18 months for a sandwich programme)

How to Apply: 

• Applicants must submit an Acceptance Letter from CIIT when applying, or by the deadline at the latest.
• Without preliminary acceptance, the application will not be considered for selection.
• Reference letters must be on letter-headed paper, SIGNED and sent as attachments via e-mail to TWAS and CIIT. The subject line must contain CIIT/PG and the candidate’s surname. N.B. Only signed reference letters can be accepted.
• The letters can be submitted either by the referee or by the applicant directly.
• Applicants to the TWAS-CIIT Postgraduate Fellowship Programme should send a copy of their application (by email) to both TWAS and to CIIT.

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: TWAS-COMSATS Institute of Information Technology(CIIT)

ISS Scholarships at University of Oslo, Norway for Bachelors & Masters 2017

Application Deadline: February 1 2017 | 

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Africa, Asia, Oceania, Central America and South America

To be taken at (country): University of Oslo, Norway

Brief description: University of Oslo, Norway is offering the International Summer School – ISS Scholarships for Bachelors and Masters Degrees

Eligible Field of Study: Bachelors and Masters Courses at the University

About Scholarship:  The International Summer School – ISS offers scholarships to applicants from certain countries. Competition for these scholarships is high and funds are limited, so the majority of scholarships awarded are partial scholarships.

Scholarship Offered Since: not specified

Scholarship Type: Bachelors and Masters degrees

Eligibility

Full and partial scholarships are available ONLY for applicants who are enrolled at one of UiO’spartner institutions in Central America and South America

• Citizens from countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Central America or South America may apply for full or partial scholarships for Master’s courses.
• Applicants must demonstrate that their academic and professional background are the same as the course they are applying for. For example, a person with an engineeringdegree will not be considered for a course in human rights or peace studies.
• Applicants who are enrolled at one of UiO’s partner institutions in Central America and South America may also apply for both full and partial scholarships for Master’s courses.

Selection Criteria

To be a successful ISS scholarship recipient, you must demonstrate:

• that your academic background is relevant to the course you apply for
• that your professional background is relevant to the course you apply for
• your financial need

Number of Scholarships: Only approximately 50 full scholarships are granted.

Value of Scholarship: Full and partial scholarships

Duration of Scholarship: not specified

Deadline: February 1 2017

How to Apply

Apply online as a scholarship applicant, and remember to complete and upload the scholarship form with your application. In the scholarship form, you will be asked to specify the amount of money needed to participate.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Scholarship Provider: University of Oslo, Norway