[sunnykerr]

I've posted a lot of stories about what seems to me an epidemic of rapes in India over the last several months, so it only seemed fair that I share this story, which has been making the news here in Canada:

Paris police boss wants officers accused of Toronto woman's alleged rape off the force PARIS -- The director of the Paris police service says he wants the officers implicated in the alleged rape of a Canadian woman out of his department. Bernard Petit made the remarks to French radio station Europe1 as authorities investigate two officers accused of raping the Canadian tourist at the city's police headquarters. Both officers from the elite police unit, as well as a third who's considered a witness, have been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation that could take weeks or even months to complete. French media have reported a 34-year-old Toronto woman met the off-duty officers in a bar last week and later went with them to their workplace. As she left the station, she reportedly told another police officer she'd been raped, but a lawyer for one of the suspects told The Canadian Press the sex was consensual. The radio station says the police director refused to discuss the criminal allegations, but is reporting he said it's clear there's no longer a place for any of the officers on his force. Petit also says they should have never have let someone from the outside into the headquarters. The police station, on an island in the Seine River, is home to the noted anti-gang SWAT team and is often referred to in France simply by its address: 36 Quai des Orfevres. Sebastien Schapira, a lawyer for one of the officers, has denied his client did anything wrong. Schapira told The Canadian Press the officer had "consensual" sexual relations with the woman. He said the Canadian woman has since returned home, but he believes she should be in France while the investigation is carried out. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced over the weekend the officers had been removed from their posts during the investigation. He also said a disciplinary inquiry within the force is already underway.

It just goes to show that there are violent creeps all over the world, and not just in areas where such crimes seem more prevalent.

I'm not entirely sure what the relevance may be to the alleged rapist's belonging to an elite anti-crime unit, except perhaps to underscore how you will find people willing to bend the law to their own means in every area of life.

[sunnykerr]

Nigeria girls' abduction: Protest march in Abuja Hundreds of mainly women protesters have marched through the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to press for the release of 230 schoolgirls abducted by militants two weeks ago. The government should, if necessary, negotiate with their captors to secure their release, a protester said. The Islamist group Boko Haram has been blamed for abducting the girls from their school in Chibok, Borno state. Boko Haram has not yet made any response to the accusation. The group, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, has staged a wave of attacks in northern Nigeria in recent years, with an estimated 1,500 killed in the violence and subsequent security crackdown this year alone. 'No body bags' Organisers said about 500 people, most of them women dressed in red, braved heavy rain to march to the National Assembly to hand over a letter to complain that the government was not doing enough to secure the release of the girls. The protest, labelled the "million-woman march", had been called by the Women for Peace and Justice organisation. March organiser Mercy Abang told the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme that the government should do whatever is necessary, even if it meant holding negotiations with the abductors, to make sure the girls returned home "alive - not in body bags". Anger has mounted in recent days over the abductions. Parents have criticised the government's search and rescue efforts and the number of missing girls has been disputed. Nigeria's Interior Minister Abba Moro told BBC Focus on Africa that he understood the "outpouring of emotions", but the government could not divulge details of what it was doing to secure the release of the girls. It had to act in a "discreet" way because the militants had threatened to kill the girls if "certain steps" were taken, he said. He accused opposition parties of politicising the crisis and said they should work with the government rather than criticise it. Another march organiser, Hadiza Bala Usman, told the BBC the women wanted to know why soldiers seemed so ill-equipped to find the girls. She warned that the abductions would discourage parents from sending their daughters to school in an area where few girls are given an education. Saruta, a woman from Chibok, told the BBC's Newsday that the community was desperate for help. "For how long are we going to wait for the government to help us? We can't bear it anymore. We can't," she said, breaking down in tears. On Tuesday, a local official said some of the girls may have been taken to neighbouring states and forced to marry the militants. Swathes of north-eastern Nigeria are, in effect, off limits to the military, allowing the militants to move the girls towards, or perhaps even across, the country's borders with impunity, says the BBC's Will Ross in Abuja. The students were about to sit their final year exam and so are mostly aged between 16 and 18. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau first threatened to treat captured women and girls as slaves in a video released in May 2013. It fuelled concern at the time that the group was adhering to the ancient Islamic belief that women captured during war are slaves with whom their "masters" can have sex, correspondents say.

I am heartened to hear that the women are mobilizing and completely chilled by the notion that some of these girls may have been sold into marriage to religious extremists.

Where does the government get off saying anyone is politicizing what's happened here?

It's been two weeks.

[sunnykerr]

Apparently, the Nigerian government is casting doubts on the veracity of the abduction of these girls.

And what do I know?

But I'd be curious to know what they have to say about this:

Boko Haram 'to sell' Nigeria girls abducted from Chibok Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram has threatened to "sell" the hundreds of schoolgirls it abducted three weeks ago. Militant leader Abubakar Shekau sent a video obtained by the AFP news agency, in which he said for the first time that his group had taken the girls. About 230 girls are still believed to be missing, prompting widespread criticism of the Nigerian government. The Boko Haram insurgency has left thousands dead since 2009. The girls were taken from their boarding school in Chibok, in the northern state of Borno, on the night of 14 April. Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden", has attacked numerous educational institutions in northern Nigeria. 'God instructed me' In the video, Abubakar Shekau said the girls should not have been in school in the first place, but rather should get married. "God instructed me to sell them, they are his properties and I will carry out his instructions," he said. However, BBC Hausa Service editor Mansur Liman points out that the Boko Haram leader did not state the number of girls abducted, nor where they were taken or are now. Assurances from President Goodluck Jonathan have done little to convince Nigerians of the government's commitment to freeing the girls, says our correspondent. The Associated Press news agency says it is unclear whether the video was made before or after reports last week that some of the girls had been forced to marry their abductors, who paid a nominal bride price of $12 (£7). Others are reported to have been taken across borders into Cameroon and Chad. The girls were in their final year of school, most of them aged 16 to 18. The BBC Hausa Service has received reports of a gun battle on the Nigeria-Cameroon border, and houses being burnt down by individuals suspected to be members of Boko Haram. No further details are available. Protest organiser detained Meanwhile, a woman who helped organise protests over the abduction was detained and later released. Naomi Mutah was taken to a police station after a meeting called by First Lady Patience Jonathan. Mrs Jonathan reportedly felt slighted that the girls' mothers had sent Ms Mutah to the meeting instead of going themselves. Mrs Jonathan is seen as a politically powerful figure in Nigeria but has no constitutional power to order arrests. Ms Mutah, a representative of the Chibok community, organised a protest last week outside parliament in Abuja. Pogo Bitrus, another Chibok leader, described Ms Mutah's detention as "insensitive", telling the BBC he hoped Mrs Jonathan would soon "realise her mistake". The AP news agency quotes another community leader, Saratu Angus Ndirpaya, as saying that Mrs Jonathan accused the activists of fabricating the abductions and supporting Boko Haram. In a TV broadcast on Sunday, his first comment on the abductions, President Jonathan said he did not know where the girls were but everything was being done to find them.

[Ann357]

^I'm glad to see this terrible story is finally getting more coverage (at least in America).

I read that more girls have been taken.

Latest update: Nigeria's government defends its actions as more girls are abducted - CNN.com

[sunnykerr]

This is gonna sound truly appalling, but at least the latest kidnappings were much fewer in numbers than the 300 of two weeks ago.

I don't really know how the U.S. media is covering the story.

My online news sources tend to be either British or Canadian, and it's been in the news there.

Both the original incident, the ensuing protests and, most appalling of all, the government's claim that this is just some ploy by the opposition to rouse emotions.

I mean, that's seriously what they're going to go for?

[sunnykerr]

Not to divert attention from the case of the kidnapped Nigerian girls, but there's another situation brewing in Indonesia that I find supremely unacceptable:

Gang-rape victim faces public caning in Indonesia BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- An Indonesian woman who was gang-raped by men accusing her of having extramarital sex may be caned publicly for violating Islamic law, an official said Wednesday. The 25-year-old widow said she was raped by eight men who allegedly found her with a married man in her house. The men reportedly beat the man, doused the two with sewage, and then turned them over to Islamic police in conservative Aceh province. The alleged attack occurred early Thursday in Lhokbani, a village in East Aceh district. The head of Islamic Shariah law in the district, Ibrahim Latief, said his office has recommended the widow and the married man be caned nine times for violating religious law, pending an investigation. Its preliminary finding was that the two were about to have sex at that time, but Latief contended they violated Shariah law by being in the same room together. He said they also admitted they had sex earlier. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation of 240 million people, has a policy of secularism but allows Aceh, a predominantly Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra, to implement a version of Sharia Islamic law. Police have arrested three of the eight men and are hunting for the others. East Aceh police chief Lt. Col. Hariadi said those arrested are being questioned on charges of rape. One of the accused is a 13-year-old boy, who would be charged as an adult but prosecuted in a closed-door trial. Latief said the eight could be caned for raping the woman, but "it will be too lenient if they just received the same punishment of nine strokes." The criminal charge of rape carries a maximum penalty of 15 years.

She was gang-raped as "punishment" for being accused of having extra-marital sex.

Because she's a widow, so obviously any sex she has would be extra-marital.

And having a married man in her presence naturally means they're having sex.

And then she's to be caned because, having been gang-raped, well she's definitely had extra-marital sex now.

As if that wasn't appalling enough on its own (and it really, really, really is), one of the accused rapists is a 13-year-old, which means some grown-up dragged a boy into gang-raping a defenceless woman.

Can't imagine how that kid's going to turn out, can I?

Seriously, this is just wrong, wrong, wrong, from one end to the other.

[Barstool Prophet]

This is the kind of thing that makes me realize how little ground women's rights have made in third world countries.

[sunnykerr]

Certainly.

I do think first-world countries also have issues. Like female soldiers being allowed at the front, and thus getting the same access to promotions and such, and wage equality.

But there is a marked difference.

[Barstool Prophet]

Women aren't allowed on the front lines?

[sunnykerr]

Maybe "front lines" is misleading. I meant to say that very few countries allow women to fill active combat roles, which is the sort of position that greatly helps women having access to promotions in the military.

Heck, for all I know, playing an active combat role is a requirement for promotion sometimes.

As of this point in time, and according to Wikipedia, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Germany, Norway, Israel, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United States have women in some combat roles. That looks impressive, until you realize the limitations put on that position.

For instance, the U.S. has just announced in the past week that the first three women will be "allowed" to join submarine units.

Another Wikipedia page, tells us a bit more about the by-country breakdown. Canada, for instance, has had women in combat roles for a couple decades, on paper, but aboard submarines for a little over ten years.

New Zeland allows women in defensive combat roles, but none has ever been part of their Special Air Services.

And so on and so forth.

This doesn't take into account the massive issues of sexual harassment and rape in armed forces, which have been significantly detrimental to women's ability to pursue careers in the armed forces.

[sunnykerr]

Nigeria scorns Boko Haram's captive girls swap offer [i]Nigeria has insisted it will not agree to a request to free imprisoned Islamic militants in return for the release of dozens of kidnapped schoolgirls.[/i\ Interior Minister Abba Moro said Boko Haram, the group holding the girls, was in no moral position to make the offer. However, the information ministry had earlier said all options were on the table, after the group released a video of the girls and suggested a swap. Boko Haram snatched more than 200 girls from a school on 14 April. About 50 children escaped, and it is not known how many are still being held. The video released on Monday showed 136 girls, and was interspersed with militants explaining that they had "converted" to Islam. Three of the girls - wearing full-length cloaks - are shown speaking. Two say they were Christian and have converted, while the other says she is Muslim. The US state department said intelligence experts were closely examining the footage for clues to the girls' whereabouts. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said on the video: "For those who have not accepted Islam, I swear to Allah we will never release them until after you release our brethren in your prison." A man who is related to three of the girls said the video at first gave him hope, but then made him anxious and tearful. "Maybe they are converted into another religion by force, so it truly is a kind of terrifying situation," said the man, who did not want to be named. Earlier reports said some of the girls had been married off to their captors, and Abubakar Shekau had also threatened to sell some of them. After the video was released, an information ministry statement said the government would "continue to explore all options for the release and safe return of our girls". However, Mr Moro later told the BBC that the government would not agree to any kind of exchange. "As far as this government is concerned, the option of [the] swap of innocent citizens with people who have taken arms against the country... is not on the table," he said. Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden", had previously said the girls should not have been at school and should get married instead. The militants have been engaged in a violent campaign against the Nigerian government since 2009. The government has faced heavy criticism of its response to the mass abduction. President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that assistance from abroad had made him optimistic of finding the girls. The UK and US already have teams helping on the ground in Nigeria and an Israeli counter-terrorism team is also on its way to the country.

Look, something has to be done, obviously.

And the Nigerian government's response, up until now, has been completely ludicrously inadequate.

But they couldn't possibly seriously accept such a deal.

What's to stop Boko Haram from kidnapping more girls whenever they want to hold the state hostage?

No, something has to be done, but it can't be this.

[sunnykerr]

In case anyone wondered:

Why Nigeria has not defeated Boko Haram Exactly a year after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a "state of emergency" in north-eastern Nigeria, it seems to have had little effect in curbing the Islamist insurgency. Attacks by the Boko Haram group that provoked the move included an assault on a military barracks, detonating a bomb at a bus station in the northern city of Kano and the kidnap of a French family, including four children, which grabbed the world's attention. The declaration would bring "extraordinary measures" to bear against the insurgents in order to "restore normalcy" to the region, the president said. "The troops have orders to carry out all necessary actions within the ambit of their rules of engagement to put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists," President Jonathan said. Now, after 12 months of state of emergency powers being in force, in the past few weeks Boko Haram has attacked several military bases, bombed a busy bus terminal in the capital, Abuja - twice - and launched an audacious kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok which has set the world on edge. "When they declared it I thought it had to be tried," says Habeeb Pindiga, editor of Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper, "but honestly it has not succeeded." In the year leading up to the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe state, there were 741 civilian death reported, according to data collected by the University of Sussex in the UK. In the 12 months since the figure of civilian causalities has more than tripled to 2,265. Catch-22 Mr Pindiga says the military has not dealt with big problems it faces. Because of the military's human rights record people do not trust them, plus they lack modern equipment, training and motivation. A UK military officer who has worked closely with the Nigerians says they are stuck in a Catch-22 situation. "The trouble with the Nigerian government is that they want a big red button, which you can press and it will fix everything," says James Hall, a retired colonel and former UK military attache to Nigeria. "I was asked by a senior commander if we could sell them the machine that can tell if a car driving down the road contains a terrorist," he added. "I tried to tell them that such a machine doesn't exist, but then they just thought we were hiding it from them." The UK is very wary in giving training assistance, and sales of better equipment are also problematic, he says. "We have reduced dramatically the types of training and equipment we're willing to provide." Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both criticised the Nigerian military for their tactics. Amnesty reported that some 600 people were killed by the military after an attack on Maiduguri's Giwa barracks in March. The sale of lethal weapons to Nigeria is prohibited by UK law because of such concerns. "Without the training, they won't be able to get the equipment, and we aren't giving them the training either," Mr Hall said. Although Nigeria's military has enjoyed a good reputation internationally because of its involvement in several peacekeeping missions in Africa, it has not quite escaped the legacy of its past. "What they say about former military regimes is true," Mr Hall said. "They cripple their militaries so that there can't be further coups." The Nigerian military rejects such criticism. Speaking to the press on 7 May in Abuja, Brigadier-General Olajide Laleye told journalists that the military were doing what they could to stop the insurgency. "Prosecuting large-scale counter-insurgency operations as well as numerous other operations in aid of civil authority in virtually every state of the federation has put pressure on the personnel and resources of the army," he said. In a bid to improve morale, he was announcing soldiers' salaries would be paid to their families after their death for longer than currently allowed. Payments usually stop a regulation three months after a soldier is killed, it was reported. But observers say that there are other factors at work beyond just military capacity. "There's a lack of trust all across the board, politically," says Ledum Mitee, a former activist from the oil-rich southern Niger Delta. 'Playing politics' He has followed closely the career of President Jonathan, who is also from the Niger Delta. At the moment, the political leadership of the three states in the north-east are aligned with the opposition All Progressive's Congress ( APC). "People around the president, his closest allies, all tell him this Boko Haram is manufactured by the northerners to play politics," Mr Mitee says. "This leads him to distance himself from the whole affair." Military commanders on the ground also have to play politics, he said. "If they give the impression it is a very bad situation, they risk being branded incompetent, so they give a less bad picture to their bosses." Then when crisis erupts no-one is able to deal with it effectively because it is so confused, Mr Mitee said. It is international pressure over the girls from Chibok that has forced the government to change. It has allowed advisers from China, France, Israel the UK and the US to help its forces. But their presence is likely to be limited to assisting the search for the kidnapped girls, and will not include a general role in improving the Nigerian military's capacity. Even if they could, the job would be too big, Mr Hall thinks. "It would take years of total engagement, training group after group to have any effect," he says. "And no-one is really prepared to commit to that."

[sunnykerr]

Africa leaders declare 'war' on Nigeria Boko Haram African leaders meeting in Paris have agreed to wage "war" on Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic militants. President Hollande of France, who hosted the summit, said regional powers had pledged to share intelligence and co-ordinate action against the group. Last month it abducted 223 schoolgirls in north-eastern Nigeria, where it is based. Fresh attacks were reported in Nigeria and Cameroon overnight. Thousands of people have been killed by Boko Haram in recent years. The Paris summit brought together President Francois Hollande, Nigeria's Goodluck Jonathan, and their counterparts from Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. Afterwards, Mr Hollande said participants had agreed on a "global and regional action plan". He said this involved co-ordinating intelligence and border surveillance, sharing information, as well as a capacity for joint action in case of danger. Cameroon's President Paul Biya said: "We are here to declare war on Boko Haram". Idriss Deby of Chad said it would be "total war". Earlier, Mr Hollande called Boko Haram a "major threat to West and Central Africa", and said it had links with al-Qaeda's North-African arm and "other terrorist organisations". BBC's International Development Correspondent Mark Doyle says the group is an international threat, drawing fighters from not just Nigeria but also from neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad. Chinese workers targeted Representatives from the UK, US and EU also took part in the Paris meeting. Before it began, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said regional powers needed to co-operate better when it came to cross-border intelligence. The schoolgirls, who include Christians and Muslims, were seized on 14 April in the north-east Nigerian town of Chibok in Borno state. Mr Jonathan was due on Friday to visit the town but the trip was cancelled for security reasons. Boko Haram released a video earlier this week showing more than 100 of the girls and offering an exchange for prisoners. President Jonathan has ruled out negotiations over their possible release, officials say. In the latest violence, suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a camp run by a Chinese engineering company in the far north of Cameroon, near the Nigerian border. Ten Chinese workers are missing and one person was injured. There are reports that one person was killed. In Nigeria itself, 11 people were reported killed in a separate attack in village a few hours' drive from the Cameroonian border. A relative of one of the victims said a woman and a child were among the dead.

The very notion that there seems to be a political will to organize a campaign against Boko Haram is promising.

But we've seen before how those efforts can flag quite quickly.

So it's hard to muster too much enthusiasm.

Over the short, I suppose we can afford to hope they manage to free at least some of those girls.

I'm just not sure this is going to last.

[begin again]

Originally Posted by Comfortably Numb (View Post) Women aren't allowed on the front lines?

Nope, sadly.

[sunnykerr]

Puts the epidemic of sexual harassment and sexual crimes in our armed forces (both the U.S. and Canada) into quite the perspective, doesn't it?

Makes you wonder if women wouldn't face such treatment if they were given access to the same roles and responsibilities.