An eventful week

We have just witnessed an eventful week in which far-reaching extraordinary events took place in many different corners of the world, many unrelated to each other yet head-spinning in their import.

On December 13, the Judiciary Committee of US House of Representatives approved two counts of impeachment against US President Trump and sent it to the full House for a vote. This is only the fourth time in history of the US that a president has been recommended for impeachment and removal from office for having committed “high crimes and misdemeanours”.

While the House is likely to vote for impeachment, it is unlikely Trump will be removed from office since his Republican Party enjoys a majority in the Senate. President Trump himself is already playing down the significance of the actions taken by the House, labeling it a “witch hunt”.

Unrelated to all this, the Washington Post published several documents from the past many years showing how successive US governments have systematically and repeatedly lied to the American public about progress they were making in Afghanistan. While it was clear there were no meaningful gains, three presidents in turn kept stating how good things were turning out. No wonder US is eagerly looking for a way out of this quagmire.

While the US was mired in all this, the UK held a critical election, won with a large majority by the Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson. This result finally brings the argument about Brexit to a conclusion of sorts. The UK will leave the European Union. What comes next remains to be seen.

Mr Johnson had led the fight to leave the EU, including untruthful assertions about the positive impact of the divorce. Now he has to deliver on the promises. At the same time Scotland, which never wanted to leave the EU, has started to talk about a new independence referendum. So, we may actually be seeing the beginning of the break-up of the UK. Time will tell.

Last week, the Indian parliament passed an amendment to the Citizenship Act giving path to Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The act specifies Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians as eligible. This action puts one more dent in the secular nature of the Indian constitution, by ruling Hindu nationalist BJP.

Prior to this, Indian government had already moved to strip residency rights from millions of Muslims in Assam, and the Indian Supreme Court has authorized construction of a Hindu temple on the grounds of the 16th century Babri Masjid that was destroyed by a Hindu mob in 1992. Sadly, the persecution of the almost 200 million strong Muslim community in India continues unabated.

During the same week an important hearing was taking place at The Hague at the International Criminal Court. Gambia, a small Muslim majority nation in Africa has petitioned the court to take notice of the genocide committed by Myanmar military against the Rohingyas. Two years ago, more than 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, deeply traumatized and with nothing more than the clothes on their back. They are now housed in squalid refugee camps. Their presence and their predicament have been well documented by the UN.

At the hearings in The Hague, Myanmar leader Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in person to defend her military and flatly denied all charges of genocide. It was a sad moment to see the supposed icon of peace and democracy deny what the whole world can see.

She even refused to use the word Rohingya, as if these people don’t even exist, proving herself to be not only heartless but also shameless.

The writer is a freelance contributor based in Washington DC.

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