Liberty Reserve games

Earn Over 000 Doing Online Networked Marketing

HOW TO CONVERT TO 000 IN 30 DAYS, AS EASY AS POSSIBLE.

TURN INTO ,000 IN ONLY 30 DAYS…HERE IS HOW! This is a Money Scheme and Not, I repeat… This is Not a Scam!!!

This program has been proven by the Oprah show … make easy money using Liberty Reserve. Spend to make thousands – proven by Oprah & 20/20

This program is by no means new. It has been in existence in many forms for at least a decade. But in the early days, it required a lot more time and effort, as well as an investment of a few hundred dollars. However thanks to Liberty Reserve and the Internet, the investment is now virtually ZERO! And what’s more, the entire process is FASTER, EASIER, and MORE LUCRATIVE than it has EVER been! Below is how the business works.

How to Turn into ,000 in 30 Days with Liberty Reserve, I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I SAW HOW MUCH MONEY CAME FLOODING INTO MY Liberty Reserve ACCOUNT.  I turned into ,706 within the first 30 days of operating the business plan that I am about to reveal to you. If you decide to take action on the following instructions, I will GUARANTEE that you will enjoy a similar return! STILL NEED PROOF? Here are just 3 testimonials from the countless individuals who decided to invest nothing more than and half an hour of their time to participate in this program:

“What an amazing plan! I followed your instructions just 3 weeks ago, and although I haven’t made ,000 yet, I’m already up to ,135. I’m absolutely gob smacked.” -Pam Whittemoore, Ohio

“Well, what can I say?… THANK YOU SO MUCH! I sent 400 e-mail’s out like you said and then I just forgot about the whole thing. To be honest, I didn’t really think anything would come of it. But when I checked my Liberty Reserve account a week later, there was over ,000 in After 30 days I now have over ,000 to spend! I can’t thank you enough!”-Juan Tovar, Brooklyn, NY

“I was shocked when I saw how much money came flooding into my Liberty Reserve account. Within 3 weeks my account balance has ballooned to ,449. At first I thought there had been some sort of error with my account!” -Richard Barrie. Boulder, CO. Manhattan

The only things you will need are: An internet connection,  a Liberty Reserve account with at least deposited in it and just 15 to 30 minutes of your time. This program takes just half an hour to set up. After that, there is absolutely no work whatsoever to do on your part. You have absolutely NOTHING to lose, and there is NO LIMIT to the amount of income you can generate from this one single business program.

Let’s get started, just follow the instructions exactly as set out below and then prepare yourself for a HUGE influx of cash over the next 30 days! Here’s what you need to do. . .

REQUIREMENTS

[THESE INSTRUCTIONS MUST BE FOLLOWED VERBATIM FOR THIS TO WORK]

#1 A fast internet connection

#2 A Liberty Reserve account

Now follow the steps: 1-4

STEP #1 – Ok, if you’re not already a Liberty Reserve user, the very first thing you

need to do is go on this website http://www.LibertyReserve.com and SIGN UP. It takes

just 2 minutes!

Liberty Reserve is the second online money transfer website that I am reviewing, Liberty Reserve is the most secure e payment means, and Liberty Reserve is already making headway into the European market.

Here are their features

Sign Up: Free

Send Fee:  Free but if you want to make a private payment  which is optional.(.75)

Receive money: FREE OF CHARGE.

Upload money: Many verified liberty reserve exchangers for every country.

Liberty Reserve to me is the best online payment processing service.  They have all the features that I needed plus it is scam free and that is because of the wonderful verification process they have for their accounts. STEP #2 – Sending Liberty Reserve money “It is an undeniable law of the universe that we must first give in order to receive.”

Now all you have to do is send .00 by way of Liberty Reserve to each of the five Liberty Reserve accounts once you must have funded your account with only (service charge 1%), then send to each of the accounts on the List then move the top one and place yours in the #5 spot on the list of accounts #1-#5. Remember your name becomes #5.

#1    U0691586    —    Remove this account number.

#2    U5507819    —    This one should go to the top position.

#3    U0933184 

#4    U3655725

#5     U6598715   —     Here is where your account number comes in.

Note – Once you have made your payments to all the account numbers above, send a mail to payj48@gmail.com with your Liberty Reserve account number on #5 as you take out #1 and the other account numbers move a step upwards; so that your account would be added to the liberty reserve database of steady participants for this list (registration otherwise your account won’t be registered and no money for you), this is what makes this business real and there is no room for cheat.

 The reason why your account should be at the 5th position is that your account continues get paid to for a long time till it comes to the first position and payments would stop. By then your account must have been up to ,000. You may start posting again.

Remember, all of this is ABSOLUTELY LEGAL! You are creating a service! A Business.

If you have any doubts, please refer to Title 18 Sec. 1302 & 1241 of the United States Postal laws.

STEP #3 – Adding Your Liberty reserve account number. After you send your five .00 payments, it’s your turn to add your liberty reserve account number to the list! And send a mail as ordered above for instant registration for the success of the business on your side.

Once you have paid to all the accounts given, take the #1 account off the list that you see above, move the other addresses up one change the numbers (5 becomes 4&4 becomes 3, etc) then put YOUR account number (your Liberty Reserve account number) as #5 on the list.

 **MAKE SURE THE ACCOUNT NUMBER  YOU SUPPLY IS EXACTLY YOUR LIBERTY RESERVE ACCOUNT.**

STEP #4 – Copy the whole of this letter (after you must have paid .00 to all the numbers above, your account registered and you have edited the letter with your acc. Number at position 5) to 200 new groups, message boards, forums  etc…… The Pure Joy of Receiving Liberty Reserve Money! 

New groups, message boards, forums are places where people meet on the internet to discuss related topics. These are websites where you can place adverts, discuss different topics, or talk on your areas of difficulty (to seek help, answers) There are more than 400,000 such websites on the internet where you may create an account and start posting your information (this letter after you have added your acc. Number as directed after your payments).

You are now ready to post your copy of this message, to at least 50-200 newsgroups, message boards, etc. (I think there are close to 400,000 groups because I posted to 60)

All you need is 40, but remember, the more you post, the more money you make – as well as everyone else on the list! In this situation your job is to let as many people see this letter as possible. So they will make you rich!!!! You can even start posting the moment you have paid into the accounts above and your account gets verified. Payments will still appear in your Liberty Reserve account after the 30 days period because as people get this message they send you money and they post, you are still at number 5 and the money still comes in until the list is saturated to a stage that your account comes to the 1st position and gets replaced.

Or you can send this letter to all your contacts and friends or out a minimum of 400 copies of the email – but only to people you know, or to people who respond to these offers, or to people who’ve sent YOU offers. By sending this letter via email, the response time is EXTREMELY fast………. ELECTRONIC TRANSFER ON THE INTERNET IS FAST!!!

 HOW TO POST TO NEWSGROUPS & MESSAGE BOARDS

 Step #1) You do not need to re-type this entire letter to do your own posting. Simply put your CURSOR at the beginning of this letter and drag your CURSOR to the bottom of this document, and select ‘copy’ from the edit menu or CTRL+A which means select  all and then CTRL+C which means copy all. This will copy the entire letter into your computer’s temporary memory.

 Step #2) Open a blank ‘Notepad’ file and place your cursor at the top of the blank page. From the ‘Edit’ menu select ‘Paste’ or just CTRL+V. This will paste a copy of the letter into notepad so that you can edit this article (adding your account number to the list) as required. Or copy to a Word Document. and Place in your account number upon completion.

 Step #3) Save your new Notepad file as a .txt file. If you want to do your postings in different sites, you’ll always have this file to go back to.

 Step #4) Use Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple safari, Google chrome and Internet Explorer browsers (any one of your choice) etc and try searching for various newsgroups, on-line forums, message boards, bulletin boards, chat sites, discussions, discussion groups, online communities, etc. EXAMPLE: go to any search engine then search with subjects like  millionaire message board or money making message board or opportunity message board  or money making discussions  or business bulletin board  or money making forum etc. You will find thousands & thousands of message boards. Click them one by one then you will find the option to post a new message.

 Step #5) Visit these message boards and post this article as a new message by highlighting the text of this letter and selecting ‘Paste’ from the ‘Edit’ menu. Fill in the Subject, this will be the header that everyone sees as they scroll thru the list of postings in a particular group, click the post message button. You’re done with your first one!

 Congratulations! THAT’S IT!! All you have to do is jump to different newsgroups and post away. After you get the hang of it, it will take about 30 seconds for each newsgroup! ha ha, when this is done, your next job is to just go to sleep for 5 days (??ha ha!??), come back and see how over flooded your account gets at that short period. You

 REMEMBER, THE MORE NEWSGROUPS AND/OR MESSAGE BOARDS YOU POST IN, THE MORE MONEY YOU WILL MAKE!! BUT YOU HAVE TO POST A MINIMUM OF 50**

 That’s it! You will begin receiving money within days!

 **JUST MAKE SURE THE ACCOUNT NUMBERS YOU SUPPLY ARE EXACTLY AS IT APPEARS ON LIBERTY RESERVE.**

 Explanation of why it works so well:

 $ $ $ $ $ NOW THE WHY PART: Out of 50 postings, say I receive only 10 replies (a very low example). So then I Made .00 with my account number at #5 on the letter. Now, each of the 10 persons who just sent me .00 make the MINIMUM 50 postings, each with my account at #4 and only 10 persons respond to each of the original 4, that is another 0.00 for me, now those 100 each make 50 MINIMUM posts with my account at #3 and only 10 replies each, I will bring in an additional 00.00! Now, those 1000 persons turn around and post the MINIMUM 50 with my account at #2 and only receive 5 replies each, I will make an additional ,000.00! OK, now here is the fun part, each of those 10,000 persons post a MINIMUM 50 letters with my account at #1 and hey!!, this is a huge amount of cash we are talking about within a short period of time, this is real cash over flow. This is a crazy cash income business that people don’t know too well about and it is time to make a real means out of it.

The thing to remember is, thousands of people all over the world are joining the internet and reading these articles every day, JUST LIKE YOU are now!!

So can you afford .00?? And see if it really works?? I think so? People have said, what if the plan is played out and no one sends you the money? So what are the chances of that happening when there are tons of new honest users and new honest people who are joining the internet and newsgroups everyday and are willing to give it a try? Estimates are at 20,000 to 50,000 new users everyday, with thousands of those joining the actual Internet.

 Remember, play FAIRLY and HONESTLY and this will work. This really isn’t another one of those crazy scams! As long as people FOLLOW THROUGH with sending out .00, it works!

With warm wishes, bless you and your loved ones,

 $ $ $ $ $ REMEMBER, IT IS 100% LEGAL! DON’T AND NEVER MISS OUT.

P.S. – to find more about funding your liberty reserve account download this free pdf document on liberty reserve at

http://uploading.com/files/3m5ea44m/how+to+use+liberty+reserve,+real+copy.pdf/   copy and paste this link to your browser to download a free copy of this document.

 

Ronky B. Winston,

You?re in Bad Hands With Nanny State

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his autobiography that, “Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.” And boy was he ever right on that. Because since the time he wrote those words we have seen what happens when governments dictate to the people how to “sow” and when to “reap”. What’s that? You want a list? Ok, how about any number of the currently floundering European style socialist states, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and the former Soviet Union for starters.

But despite all these examples, today talk of expanding government here in American into realms reserved by the people as their own to control dominates society. Whether it is whispers of socialized healthcare where citizens will be required to regiment their doctors visits based on what a lonely bureaucrat in Washington decides or questions about what the government will do to bail out people with poor credit, shoddy finances and living beyond their means after they take out loans they could not afford to pay back, there is a continuing push to expand the umbrella of the Nanny State over each and everyone of us. Yes, that push is to encompass even those of us that are able to function in a civilized society and interact with other people independent of this control. Because without us in that latter category being onboard, those that would benefit from such policies would not be able to have them.

We’re the producers. We’re the ones from which the money to fund such failed ideas flows. We are the new slave class.

Shocked that I would say that? Don’t be. A slave is defined as “a person held in servitude as the chattel of another” (source: Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary). In other words, a slave is someone who is bound to, and has the fruits of their labor, taken by another for their own betterment. And through the years since the founding of this country, I dare say that we have come full circle on the issue of slavery.

In the early days, plantation owners imported slaves from Africa and other places around the globe to work for them. Justifications for this were of course given. They ranged from the theory of the inferiority of particular races to appeals that because they were housed, fed, clothed and protected they were not really “slaves” at all but instead were being properly compensated for their work despite being held against their will. All were bogus and asinine. And all were concocted by men to serve their own interests.

Today we have new justifications for the enslavement of productive citizens which range from claims that the poor and downtrodden cannot better themselves without help (assuming they are ignoramuses) to the rich stole the money they have earned anyway on the backs of others which they have cheated. Regardless, all are still bogus and asinine.

Allowing one to reap the benefits of another’s work is an abomination no matter the scale of other atrocities that come with such acts. You may obtain what others have through the grace of charity or the free exchange of goods and services but you cannot demand anything from others at the point of a gun. Those that are productive should never be enslaved to those that discover a way to exploit that productivity be they the rich or the poor.

One need only look at the federal budget to see this new form of slavery in effect with the amount of money that is spent on programs such as Welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Social Security and on and on. All take wealth and income from those that are producing and give it to someone that either is not producing any wealth or income at all or not producing it at a rate they or a bureaucrat believes that they should be.

Each of these programs, and so many more, are funded by productive Americans under penalty of punishment should they not acquiesce. Try telling the government that you are going to refuse to allow your money to go for the enrichment of others and see what happens. The government does have the power to do nasty things to you and deprive you of your own liberty should you refuse them.

Color me a little confused because I was under the impression that after the 13th Amendment was ratified, slavery and involuntary servitude were outlawed in the United States except as a punishment for a crime. So what crime have I and millions of other Americans committed? Simply the crime of being productive and working harder than others?

How absolutely Stalin-esque. Heaven forbid that both myself and my wife work, that I hold down a second job running my own business and that such a work ethic should be seen as so unsavory as to merit the punishment of having my work, my wages and my productivity confiscated by government force to serve others.

Health insurance is not a right. If you get sick and require treatment but have no insurance and cannot find someone willing to treat you for free through charity you have to do what the rest of us do. You have to work hard to pay off that debt. Some of us pay it off in advance by purchasing insurance while others do not and chose to pay after the fact. If you are part of the later group, you should not receive any sort of special treatment under the laws of this nation and be able to coerce others to pay your way.

Being able to retire when you hit 65 years of age is not a right. If you are 70 years old and have not a penny to your name and have to work until you are 80 you are no different than those of us that get up every day and put on clothes and head off to work except perhaps that you may have lived longer. The fact that you have not put aside enough or been able produce enough wealth in your life to retire is not someone else’s problem.

If you borrow more money than you are able to manage and payback who are you to demand that others compensate and forgive you for your bad choices and bail you out? You may ask. But you may not demand.

If you rebuild or buy a home in a flood plain or that is 12 feet below sea level after it has already been flooded once, twice or even three times please explain to me why your failure to understand the laws of nature is anyone else’s problem but yours? It is not your right to demand the taxpayers buy you out or cover your cost to rebuild.

I know, it’s cruel to say such things right? That’s an easy canard to avoid the issue however.

When I lived in Philadelphia I did not buy a house that I could not afford. I lived in an apartment which also was not cheap. I did not purchase a car that I could not make payments on. My wife and I drove used cars that were from the previous decade. I did not go and get a big screen television in lieu of a hearty meal and I certainly did not demand that others pay for my health insurance because I believed it was too much for me to pay my for my own despite the huge chunk that it was taking from my paycheck.

Demanding the Nanny State provide us with insurances and the often touted “safety net” for every aspect of our lives only makes those that pay for it subservient to the whims of unkind masters in Washington telling us when to “reap” and “sow”. We’ve seen how well the government spends money to know that such is probably not a good task to demand of them.

In Britain they are talking about denying health services under their socialized system to stem costs. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina we see the waste and corruption of portions of New Orleans which are still wrecks; a monument to the Great Society. We’ve seen the massive pork barrel spending of millions on bridges to nowhere.

How much more of money do we really want the government to spend? Of course if you are on the receiving end of that money you probably are shouting “MORE! MORE!” without a care for where it comes from or the burden it places upon others.

I personally would rather live my own life thank you. Perhaps you enjoy others dictating to you how to live. I do not. So is there a form I can sign to opt out of the Nanny State? Or are you going to hold a gun to my head and force me to join because you know without me and millions of others like me you won’t have your precious benefits?

Can you at least send me a thank you card after you take hold of my productivity? How about flowers? Anything to show your appreciation would do. But most favorable of all would be to leave me out of your grand plans.

Travel Advice – Airport Codes

It’s nice to see things well organized and tracked. Ever wonder what those 3 character codes you see at the airport monitor screen, e-ticket information, airline or travel agency website? Here’s a travel tip.

That 3 character code is called the IATA – Location identifier or airport code. These codes are the best identifiers to help you determine where the airport you’ll be leaving is located. This comes handy if there is more than 1 airport in your area. If you just go by the name of the city airport there might be a tendency you’ll get lost or confused with one or the other. It’s best to tell a travel agent what airport code you’ll be leaving from, it saves half the time when booking/exchanging a flight.

A classic scenario would be when a customer checks the itinerary confirmation and leaves for the airport following the area name like Washington DC as printed in the itinerary yet not knowing he went to Washington Reagan (DCA) instead of Washington Dulles (IAD).

To avoid situations like these, my all time travel tip would be to call the airline and confirm the reservation at least 24 hours prior to travel date. All travel itineraries has the airport code printed.

Here’s a list of the major airport codes in the US:

Atlanta (ATL) – Hartsfield International Airport

Boston (BOS) – Boston Logan International Airport

Chicago (ORD) – O’Hare International Airport

Chicago (MDW) – Midway

Dallas (DFW) – Dallas Fort Worth International Airport

Dallas (DAL) – Dallas Love Field

Detroit (DTW) – Detroit Metro Airport

Houston (IAH) – George Bush Intercontinental Airport

Houston (HOU) – Houston Hobby

Los Angeles (LAX) – Los Angeles International Airport

New York (JFK) – John F. Kennedy International Airport

New York (LGA) – La Guardia Airport

New York (EWR) – Newark Liberty Airport

San Francisco (SFO) – San Francisco International Airport

Washington DC (DCA) – Ronald Reagan Airport

Washington DC (IAD) – Dulles International Airport

Here?S The Fastest Way To Outdo Your Competition

Want to know the best way to get an edge on your competition? 

By making your customers happy.

Think about it.  How do you beat your competitors?  By being more successful.  And how are you more successful?  By making more profits.

And to make more profits, you need happy, satisfied customers.

This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many small businesses forget one of the first rules of business:  A happy customer is a repeat customer.  Not only that, a happy customer will tell create additional customers through referral.

1.  Treat your customers with respect.

I’m constantly amazed at how rudely many businesses treat their customers. Granted, this occurs more often in big, faceless corporations than in small businesses, but it happens.  Customers are kept waiting, given the runaround, or are spoken to with disrespect.  It happens all the time.

But hopefully it doesn’t happen in your company. 

Treat your customers in a friendly, helpful manner and they will keep coming back…and tell their friends.

2.  Tell the truth.

When you were a kid, did you ever watch old westerns?  Remember the old snake oil salesmen who peddled products with names like Dr. Hoover’s Miracle Elixir? For some reason, whenever I think of dishonest business dealings, I always think of that example.  Of course, those old charlatans didn’t have to worry about things like customer service, or truth in advertising, because come sundown, they’d be off to the next town and a fresh group of suckers.

Today’s customers are a lot savvier, thanks to consumer advocacy groups, the media, and the Internet. No one likes to be fooled – even a little bit.  If customers find out they have been, they will not only take their business elsewhere, they will do their best to spread the word.

On the other hand, if you have a reputation for honesty, your client base will grow through word-of-mouth referrals.

Regardless how tempting it is to pad the truth or take a few liberties, honesty is  always the best policy. 

3.  Overdeliver.

Think about one of your best business experiences.  What made it better than the others? 

For me, it’s my car dealership.  No, seriously.  First of all, I bought a really good car…that helps.  And when I have to take it in for regular oil changes, my salesman meets me at the door with a “Good morning, Mrs. Williams!  We have your loaner car all ready for you!”  I exchange keys with him and off I go.  When I come back a few hours later, my car is not only ready, but has been cleaned and vacuumed!  The next day, I receive a thank-you note in the mail along with a customer satisfaction survey.  How could I NOT know they value my business! And guess where I’ll go when it’s time to buy another car?

When you go the extra mile to show your client they’re more than a sale, you build customer loyalty that results in repeat business.

Here are few things you might consider:

•  Send birthday cards and thank you letters.
•  Establish a “Frequent Buyer” club that gives rewards or discounts to loyal customers.
•  Encourage customers to tell others about you by creating a referral program
•  Communicate consistently with your customers through things newsletters, postcards, sales flyers, etc. 
•  Guarantee your work or product.
•  Send out periodic customer satisfaction surveys.

4.  Always give quality.

Regardless how great your customer service is, if you want repeat business and customer referrals, you need to give consistently high quality. 

First of all, do your homework.  Find out what is considered best-in-class in your industry, and then deliberately set out to meet and exceed it.

Second, decide what “quality” means to you and your company, based on best-in-class, and your own value system.  Write down your quality statements.

Next, make sure everyone from the receptionist to the salespeople to management know what your quality statements are.  Post them prominently, and make sure everyone understands them.  Consider having a company meeting to “kick them off.”

Lastly, put a quality management program into place so you can monitor the quality of product and service to ensure consistent adherence. 

5.  Only make promises you intend to keep.

Nothing ruins a relationship (business and personal) quicker than not keeping promises.  If you’re not reliable, or don’t deliver what you say you’ll deliver when you say you’ll deliver it, your customers won’t remain your customers for very long.

I have a friend who means well, but can never seem to hit a deadline.  She over promises and underestimates how long something is going to take her.  Now, she does good work and I would have liked to have sent business her way, but I sent it to other people I knew would keep their promises. 

A promise made needs to be a promise kept.

Don’t tell a customer or potential customer what they want to hear just because they want to hear it.  Be realistic. Better to lose the business than to lose your reputation.  Because once a reputation is lost, it’s hard to get it back.

6.  Make it easy for your customers to contact you.

You know what I hate?  Automated answering systems.  I realize they’re necessary in many instances, but to have to punch five or six buttons in order to get parceled into the right category, only to hang up with my question or problem unsatisfied is more than frustrating to me.  I would rather have toothpicks shoved up my fingernails.  Okay, maybe not…but you get the point.

Consider having a customer service number staffed by a real person to handle customer complaints and problems.  Make sure this person is empowered to take care whatever problem the customer might have. 

Also try to be accessible to your customers.  Being able to talk to the person in charge means a lot to most customers.

One last thought:  It costs a lot more to acquire a new client than it does to keep the ones you have happy.  Chances are you’re on the right track already.

(c) Copyright 2009, BusinessBurrito.com.  All rights reserved.

Johannesburg attractions

Johannesburg Attractions

Johannesburg is an African city of note. Johannesburg is characterised by contradiction and an apparent seamless combination of irreconcilable differences. The largest city in South Africa, Johannesburg is also the wealthiest and, without doubt, the economic powerhouse of Africa.

It’s a booming, happening city and the emphasis is on making money – whether in business or on the streets – and has been since its beginnings when the world’s richest gold fields were discovered in Johannesburg during the 1880s. To the first-time visitor Johannesburg, or Jozi as it’s more commonly known, can be a little daunting, more so because of the misrepresentation by the media of Johannesburg as something of a war zone. There is crime; you do need to keep your wits about you, but once bitten by the vibe of Jozi, you’re going to want to come back again.

The area close to City Hall and Newtown Cultural Precinct, which has completely transformed the Market Theatre and surrounds, now forms the heart of urban revival, and the Johannesburg inner city remains the largest employment centre in South Africa.

But it’s the sprawl of the leafy northern suburbs – there are over six million trees in Johannesburg – that draws the visitor: buzzing, trendy suburbs like Parktown and Norwood, with their restaurant-lined avenues that cater for the dining and décor set; the high street of Greenside that so easily dons the mantle of hip chic; fashionable Melville (forget venturing a little further to Yeoville – Jozi’s Greenwich Village), and the sprawling malls of Sandton, which most are within a walking distance from Johannesburg Hotels- especially from the Don Suite Hotels, all combine to make the city a great place to be.

Though not touted as an outdoor city, there are, nevertheless, a number of parks and nature reserves, like Emmarentia Dam and the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden, that are worth a visit. The Magaliesberg is just on your doorstep, and you’re extremely well placed for adventures a little further afield, like the Kruger National Park and the game parks of the Lowveld.

Bruma

Bruma is situated in east of Johannesburg, and it is just 18 kilometres from Sandton city and 15 minutes drive from OR Tambo Airport, is also close to the major arterial routes of the R24, N12 and N3 Eastern bypass. Closer to Bruma, you have Edenvale area and the garden suburb of Bedfordview is one of the closest suburbs of Johannesburg to the OR Tambo Airport, so for business people dipping into the city only briefly, Bedfordview, which is only 15 minutes from the Johannesburg vibrant CBC, is an ideal location.
Aside from that, this part of Johannesburg, east of the city centre is a quiet and leafy place to stay for anyone, the upmarket neighbourhood almost park-like due to the tree-lined streets and lush gardens with prolific bird life. The leafy suburb of Bedfordview is close to a number of shopping malls, including the epic Eastgate with its myriad shops, entertainment venues and excellent restaurants; and Bruma Lake flea market. Bedfordview also has its own shopping centers in the village and several major businesses have established their headquarters in Bedfordview’s corporate business parks. The village is home to several sports clubs and a popular gymnasium and the St Benedict’s College, a private high school. Bedfordview is well placed for Johannesburg International Airport and adjacent to all major highway links.

Bruma Lake Flea Market, very close to Don Eastgate, is one of the biggest flea markets in South Africa, and you’ll find almost anything you can think of here. It is also close to the Eastgate shopping mall in the southern suburbs. Eastgate Shopping Mall has its many top boutiques, restaurants, cinemas and well-known department stores. The shopping mall has a large covered parking area and offers free parking. Bruma Lake Flea Market has an array of West African wood crafts, designer clothing, wire art, homemade toys, plastic gadgets, arts and crafts, curios, funky second-hand clothing, one-off fashions, furniture, textiles, and antiques from over 630 traders. The Bruma flea market is a great place to browse for bargains.

Bruma Lake mall is a string of restaurants and shops around a body of water, resembling a waterside village and the Don Eastgate is part of the string that is overlooking the Bruma Lake. Apart from the flea market, some of the attractions around Don Eastgate are the Gillooly’s farm, set in the heart of Bedfordview. It’s virtually a farm in the middle of the city and the tranquil atmosphere is very popular amongst locals for picnics along the lake under the trees. There is also a driving range at Gillooly’s Farm. There are some wonderful views over the Kensington valley and the northern suburbs from here.

Isando

Kempton Park is a large town situated on the East Rand in Gauteng, South Africa. Kempton Park was established in 1903 when Karl Wolff sub-divided a portion of his Zuurfontein farm into residential stands and named the new village Kempten after the Bavarian town of his birth. Soon after, the name was anglicized into Kempton Park. In 1952 the Jan Smuts Airport was built on the land next to the town. The airport’s name was changed to Johannesburg International Airport in the late 1990s and to OR Tambo International Airport in 2006.

Kempton Park boasts over 5 Major High-schools, numerous entertainment and sporting facilities and is just minutes away from large shopping malls as well as many other amenities. Accommodation facilities here are superb and ideally situated as it is very close to the international airport. Kempton Park includes within its boundaries the industrial suburbs of Isando and Spartan, making it one of the largest industrial centers in Africa.

Kempton Park is next to one of the largest townships in South Africa known as Tembisa. It also boasts a large industrial zone known as Spartan which holds many chemical manufacturing and other industrial sites. The town of Kempton Park owes its growth and development to its proximity to the Johannesburg International Airport. The Airport is South Africa’s main point of entry, and from it extends a network of highways that link to all the major cities of the country.

Close to the airport is situated the World Trade Centre, famous as the venue for the negotiations that led to South Africa’s new Constitution. Tourists can choose from a large selection of restaurants in the area and there is plenty of hotel accommodation at and near to the Airport. The Don International Airport is about 2km from the ORTIA.

Just outside Kempton Park is the Swartspruit Recreational Area, where there is a beautiful dam with picnic and braai facilities. The area is a must for birdwatchers with its prolific bird life. Bird lovers can also visit the nearby Terenure Bird Farm.

Rosebank

Situated in Johannesburg, South Africa, Rosebank is a vibrant multi-cultural district, business node and tourist attraction. Rosebank is one of a kind in that it has effectively combined a successful commercial node within a pleasant working, shopping and entertainment environment. Due to its compact size, visitors, residents and workers are able to walk the area, enjoying the outdoors atmosphere, en route to their destination. Rosebank is conveniently situated just 35 minutes from OR Tambo Airport, and is close to all the major centres of Johannesburg.

Although Rosebank is home to many head offices, the district also provides an abundance of entertainment to its residents and visitors at a variety of superb shopping malls, pavement cafes, world class restaurants, markets, luxurious hotels, cinemas, art galleries as well as night clubs. The Zone@Rosebank, which is about 0.2km from Don Rosebank, has become one of the more prestigious shopping areas of the city. It is a rather large shopping mall and one of the most exclusive shopping centres in the city. It boasts many high-end stores and a large movie theatre. Whether it’s enjoying a cup of coffee under an acacia tree, a visit to one of the country’s finest art galleries, watching an art house movie, shopping at top designer boutiques or taking a leisurely stroll around the neighbourhood, Rosebank has something to offer everyone. It is always alive with entertainment and fun.

Rosebank boasts spectacular art deco architecture with beautifully designed facades and buildings. Why not take a tour exploring this exquisite architecture? About 3.5 kilometres from Don Rosebank you will find the Johannesburg Zoo. In the same vicinity is the Zoo Lake, which is popular for picnics.

Sandton

Despite Johannesburg’s city centre doing its utmost to change perceptions about its capacity to function as the heart of the city, Sandton continues to reign as the most important financial and business district in South Africa, and arguably sub-Saharan Africa. Sandton is the home to the top investment banks, financial consultants, the Johannesburg stock exchange, and one of the biggest convention centres on the continent, it is known as one of the most opulent areas in Johannesburg.

Known as ‘Africa’s richest square mile’, Sandton has headed upward with a barrage of Manhattan-style skyscrapers that function as landmarks throughout Johannesburg, particularly Sandton City’s pyramid-style rooftop. Visit Nelson Mandela Square, various art galleries, or go on a personal walking tour that takes in 29 Sandton landmarks and stops off at various restaurants. Don Sandton III & Don Sandton IV are situated in approximately 5 km from the square.

•Illovo

Illovo is a prestigious suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg, South Africa. It borders Hyde Park, Sandhurst and Craighall Park.

Illovo is home to the famous Wanderers Stadium, which is home to the Highveld Strikers, (Johannesburg’s cricket team) as well as The Wanderers Golf Course. The Test, One Day and First class cricket matches are all played at The Wanderers Stadium. This beautiful stadium has a seating capacity of over 34 000, and was built in 1956 to replace the Old Wanderers Stadium. It was completely overhauled following South Africa’s readmission to international cricket in 1991. It is nicknamed ‘The Bullring’ due to its design and intimidating atmosphere. Don Sandton I is situated in a walking distance from the Wanderers Stadium.

Lying alongside the famous Wanderers Cricket Stadium, is the scenic Wanderers Golf Course. This spectacular 18 hole course is centrally located and plays 6 274m long, with a par of 72. These undulating grounds has hosted many top events thereby providing ample proof of its outstanding condition. The beautiful scenery and lush foliage is what makes this exquisite golf course one of the best in the country!

Illovo is also home to some of the finest and beautifully designed restaurants. It is a rather upmarket area where residents enjoy trendy malls, entertainment facilities as well as restaurants. Illovo is home to a large amount of sporting enthusiasts. When visiting Illovo you will find yourself being torn between watching Ernie Els burn up the golf course and walking across to the cricket stadium to see the cricketers in full cry.

The residential areas and accommodation here is superb all situated in spectacular surroundings. After a days sporting adventure, one can dine in any one of their superb restaurants offering world class meals and enjoy a restful sleep at Don Sandton I.

• Sandown/ Sandton Central

One of a number of suburbs in the northern reaches of Johannesburg with ‘san’ prefixed to its name as an indication of its association with Sandton, Sandown lies virtually between Morningside and the Sandton CBD, a prime position in Johannesburg.

The neighbourhood of Sandown is dominated by business that has spread from the inner reaches of Sandton to claim former residences, large sprawling properties and a number of cluster developments, although these mainly hug the eastern reaches of the suburb.

Sandown is really only a stone’s throw away from Sandton Square, and Sandton City, the dominating malls of Sandton, and the Sandton Convention Centre. Hard to believe that this part of Johannesburg was a wide expanse of highveld just over 20 years ago, Sandton’s obvious sophistication, expensive shops and world-class hotels and restaurants make Sandown a sought-after address and an ideal location when in the city, particularly if business is high on your agenda.

In the heart of Sandton’s business district, is a hub identified as the vibrant, high energy cluster of global trade and thought. This hub, known as the Sandton Central Management District, is this commercial centre of South Africa and is home to three improvement districts, namely the Sandton City and Convention Centre Improvement District (SCMD), the Sandton Business Improvement District (SBID), and the Wierda Valley Management District.

The Sandton Central Management District operates within the boundaries of Sandton Drive, Katherine Street into Wierda Road East and West, up West Street, along Rivoinia Road and including the Grayston Drive boundary. Don Sandton III and Don Sandton IV are both situated on Pretoria Avenue, which is a road linking both Katherine Street and Rivonia Road.

ATTRACTIONS:

There is a number of attractions in Sandton. Some of those include art galleries, Sandton’s Art Galleries exhibit traditional South African Art as well as international art work.
The Liberty Life Theatre on the Square is a 200-seater theatre that produces and shows an array of outstanding productions that cover a huge spectrum of genre. In this last eight years, it has put on well over 100 productions – all with resounding success.

Situated outside the Village Walk Shopping Centre on Maude Street, is the Village Walk African Culture Market, this African culture market brings authentic African goods to locals and visitors of Sandton. Take a five minute walk from the Village Walk Shopping Centre and you will be arriving at Don Sandton III.

Sandton Central has 20 movie houses in two cinema complexes. Nu-Metro and Nedbank Cinema Prive are located at Upper level Village Walk Shopping Centre and you will find Ster-Kinekor on the Lower level at Sandton City. Sandton Central offers an impressive assortment of 90+ restaurants, bars and cafés. From formal indoor dining and cocktails to fast food snacks and sidewalk coffee shops and sandwiches, you will be spoilt for choice.

Golfers are spoilt for choice with a range of excellent golf courses located in surrounding areas including The Bryanston Country Club Golf Course, The Country Club Johannesburg, Riverclub Golf Course and Houghton Golf Club.

SHOPPING:

Shopping is key in Sandton and the reason many visit Sandton. With four world-class shopping centres offering over 450 shops, there is no shortage of place to take in hours of retail therapy. Shop till you drop at the ultra modern Michelangelo Towers Mall, Sandton City Shopping Centre which has over 290 shops and includes the Food Court, Banking Mall with bureau de change facilities, Medical Mews and multiple cinemas.

You also have the Village Walk which is stepped and angled like an old European city, but offering all the modern conveniences, Village Walk has over 70 retail, leisure and entertainment venues.
Nelson Mandela Square offers 85 boutiques, shops and salons, offering the sophistication of designer labels, curios and culture, art, African couture, jewellery and books.

Shopping in Colombo ? a veritable bonanza!

Sri Lanka is an island offering a host of activities for the discerning travellers. Known for its competitive prices from accommodation, dining and shopping, this island nation is a haven for those in search of just about anything. From the sunny coastal belts to the cool climes of the hill capitals, Sri Lanka is known to offer a great diversity in the different experiences you can expect to indulge in. Colombo is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka, and a great place to kick start your holiday. Culturally diverse and a virtual melting pot waiting to be sampled, Colombo offers a host of things to do. Find colonial buildings standing side by side with the glitz and glam of the modern day constructs when you traverse the city. A rich array of culinary experiences await the tourist in Colombo, whilst the term ‘shop till you drop’ is verifiable!

Shopping in Colombo is a delightful experience, as just about anything the heart desires can be found here, from the everyday wear items to the rare and exotic items. Some of the most popular items to buy in Colombo are; clothes, antiques, handicrafts, jewellery, books, dvds, handloom products, spices and tea. To list a few of the famous shopping arcades that can be found around Colombo – Odel, Crescat Boulevard, Majestic City and Liberty Plaza. Whilst popular clothing stores in Colombo include – Odel, House of Fashion, Mondys, Cotton Collection and Dillys. For those shoppers who love nothing better than going antique and local handicraft shopping will find Gandhara, Paradise Road, Art of Living, Hermitage, Treasure House and Villa Saffron to be ideal.

Gem and Jewellery stores are a dime a dozen in Colombo. Sri Lanka is famous for sapphires, red rubies, cat’s eye, zircons, tourmalines, garnets, topaz and amethysts gems, whilst the designs you will find will vary from traditional to modern. Popular jewellery stores in Colombo include; Alankara, Bullion Exchange, Careems, Colombo Jewellery Stores, Ridhi Design Studios and Sifani.

Make a reservation in a Colombo hotel that suits your style and needs, whilst offering you convenient access to key shopping destinations around the city. John Keells Hotels Group offers a great selection of accommodation options in and around Colombo, whilst coupling it with excellent dining and recreational facilities. Find great Sri Lanka hotels packages from John Keells Hotels Group and be rest assured of a memorable stay, no matter which part of the country you choose to stay in.

Collection Agency Harassment – Neutralizing The Threat!

The job of collecting delinquent debt is too frequently delineated by profit and performance driven individuals, who lack the basic expertise or determination that’s indispensable to effectively convey their occupation within the industry’s requisite legal guidelines. Notwithstanding, it is precisely that deficiency of decent preparation, along with an overall ignorance of the consumer protection standards and principles that unbolt the doorway to ill-conceived incentives and flagrant criminal behavior. What’s even more disappointing is the fact that there are indeed a significant portion of the workforce who are exceedingly qualified, yet they prefer to employ their misdirected skills in ways that take advantage of both the debtor and the system, while speculating on the low probability of judicial intervention.

Simply registering a protest is no insurance that any enforceable measures will be obtained in your quest for justice. To complicate matters, there’s always a quantity of collection agency operators who might attempt to pressure the debtor into surrendering to demanding terms by way of intimidation, apprehension or confused disarray. It’s a predictable outcome that’s carefully calculated by the harassing debt collector, as anxiety and doubt make the victimized consumer easy prey. This always seems to be suggestive of the tenuous relationship, linking collector to victim. In the most likely of abuses, the bill collector will unsettle and discombobulate the off guard debtor while procuring corroborative particulars and demands that can negate most opportunities for the consumer who tries to fight back from any legal stand point. Downheartedly, the majority of the targeted consumers are inattentive and unaware of their protection, under current law, and virtually all of them will lack the money to continue with any promising judicial process.

Lawful loopholes likewise, make it problematic to sue perpetrators in a variety of situations. In a context that can only be depicted as a joke, the local authorities will close down the dishonest collection agency, only to find that they just haul their paraphernalia to another city and delightfully begin over, as if no wrongdoing ever occurred. They’re really no different than the funfair and carnival proprietors, of years long since past, which would victimize the local residents, fold up their tents in the dark of nighttime and steer off to some other city to restate their scurrilous stunts on a different group of quite naive and unsuspecting local patsies.

Ahead of anything else, you need to prove the encroachment of your legal rights by the debt collecting agency or assignee. An explanation of local state edicts and advice on getting on with official action can be acquired by visiting your state’s office of the Attorney General. A swift way for those with internet links is to go to www.naag.org and click your home state’s box on the United States of America illustration. Selecting the pop up box will advance you to the Attorney General’s online site where you can check out the choices for help or FAQ for solutions to your most natural questions. Another essential choice is to visit www.ftc.gov for a broad outline of the federal government’s regulations referring to collection agency harassment, as well as guidelines for victims of likely contraventions. Most visitors will discover the data to be quite helpful.

Assuming you’re clear as to whether or not the bill collector has violated your civil liberties, the process of enforceable repudiation needs to start off with any of the following suggestions:

Mail a certified letter to the confronting collection agency or debt collector. This will let them know that you, as a consumer, recognize your entitlements and have basis to believe that they have defied the laws of the state and/or federal government.

Assuming the exploitation occurs on the telephone, either at your home or at your workplace, advise the disgusting collector that you do not want to experience any other phone communication concerning this incident.

Initiate an investigation by filing a protest at the administrative center or online address of your state’s Attorney General.

Activate a charge for the review of a potential federal crime at the FTC’s Internet url. Conceding that your action is one of a significant enough accumulation registered against this particular collection agency or operative, the FTC might indeed enforce an official ban on any further business operations.

Preserve any conclusive proof referring to the time and date of the crooked doings and whenever feasible, try and acquire voice copies of exchanges betwixt yourself and the harassing debt collector. Should you aim to sue the collection agency or its staffers for damages, submitting confirmatory proof of the unlawful behavior will, with all respect to consumer protection rule, be crucial to your triumphant prosecution.

To learn even more about ways to fight back against debt collector threats and intimidation, please visit Collection Agency Harassment

Copyright 2010 Rick Balderson. All rights reserved. Please feel free to share the entire contents of this article with your friends or post it on your site as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged, including this notice.

A Report Card On This Generation’s American Politicians

As the first decade of this century comes to a close, I thought it would be a good idea to look back over the past twenty years to see how this generation’s politicians have managed the affairs of the Federal government and the country. Twenty years is a good measure since it a reasonable amount of time (not too short to see emerging trends, not too long to be irrelevant), it covers a time period when the Democrats and Republicans each controlled the White House for ten years, it covers a time frame when both parties either controlled parts of Congress or had split control, and the actions taken by these politicians will impact the nation for years to come.

Given this back drop, how did our so-called leaders perform relative to the vital issues facing the country? Unfortunately, the final report card is not pretty:

- Social Security is hurtling towards insolvency with no rational plan in the works to fix it.

- Medicare is hurtling towards insolvency with no rational plan in the works to fix it.

- Our public education system fails to adequately education vast numbers of our children while consuming more and more resources.

- We still have no rational national energy plan, which has caused us to become more and more dependent on the whims and energy pricing of foreign countries.

- We have not figured out how to manage the issue of drug addiction that has led to the evolution of a violent narco state just south of our border and left many our citizens that want to kick their drug habit untreated

- Our borders are still not secure, resulting in over 10 million illegal aliens in the country with a high probability that some of the 10 million are bent on terrorism aims.

- We are fighting two wars that have drained our Treasury, resulting in over 34,000 Americans being killed or wounded, but has not destroyed the terrorism threat that it set out to do.

- We continue to deny basic rights to the American gay and lesbian community, whether it is the right to marry or the right and privilege to serve in our armed forces.

- While the political class has passed a massive health care reform law, this law is likely to fail while substantially adding to the national deficit.

- Speaking of national deficit, we now have an outrageous national debt of over TRILLION, burdening every American household with over 0,000 worth of government debt.

- Government reaction to national disasters such as 9-11, Hurricane Katrina, the BP oil spill, etc., while heroic at the individual level, have been inefficient, ineffective, and expensive at the government bureaucracy level.

- Government entities responsible for the banking and housing industries (e.g. Treasury Department, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, FDIC, Federal Reserve Board, Senate and House of Representatives committees, etc.) failed miserably in foreseeing and managing the economic disaster of the past few years, with confirmed reports that some SEC employees, at all levels of management, spent most of their working days surfing the Internet for downloadable pornography.

- Not to be outdone by the SEC employees, Gulf of Mexico Interior Department employees have also been found to be spending much of their working time surfing for Internet pornography while ignoring safety issues that eventually caused the BP oil spill disaster.

- Through the gerrymandering of Congressional districts, the expansion of earmark volumes, manipulating the primary election system, and the passing ineffective campaign reform financing laws that allow big corporate, union, and PAC contributors to drown out the voices of ordinary Americans, this political class has rigged our voting processes to ensure that the incumbents are always re-elected despite their in office performance.

- Despite massive bureaucracies concerned about consumer safety, failed government processes to foresee the Toyota safety problems and the failed over sight of stopping the import of lead and cadmium laced toy products, probably resulted in American fatalities.

- Moral and ethical behavior have not been a strong point of this generation’s political class, whether it was outright/convicted corruption (Traficant, Cunningham, Ryan, Rostenkowski), alleged corruption (Rangel, Walters, and possibly a dozen others), or alleged immoral corruption (Spitzer, MacGreevey, Edwards, Clinton, Foley, Ryan, Sanford, Ensign).

- Intelligent political dissent has degenerated into name calling with those opposed to the invasion of Iraq as unpatriotic, those opposed to Obama Care being likened to racists of the civil rights era or being called un-American, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, or terrorists.

- Never has the country been so divided with politicians using the differences in cultural, racial, sexual, religious, or geographic orientations to “energize their base” while belittling other Americans that may have legitimate, differing views.

Unfortunately, given the above report card, I think we would all have to give the political class a failing grade for their performance over the past twenty years (despite the fact that they reward themselves with automatic pay raises every year). Wherever you land on the above issues, it is pretty obvious that no real progress and, in many cases, no real effort, has been made in successfully resolving these issues.

The focus of our politicians has been very simple: to get elected and stay elected, using whatever financial and government resources (e.g. earmarks) they can get their political hands on or demonizing one group of Americans (gay vs. straight, pro life vs. pro choice, red state vs. blue state, one race vs. another race, poor vs. rich) in order to get the support of another group. Nowhere in this list of political priorities do you see the solving of issues or the uniting of the country as important to the American political class.

And this is not only the Democrats’ fault and it is not only the Republicans’ fault. It is the fault of all politicians and the American voters who allow both parties to separate and divide us against ourselves while they continue their failing performance relative to the problems facing the nation today.

The time has come to move beyond this petty and ineffective leadership we have endured for the past twenty years. We need to enact some very specific and urgent steps and intiatives as soon as possible. These steps include downsizing government functions to be smaller in number, smaller in size, and more effective in serving. These steps include campaign finance reform to take the overpowering allure and temptation of money out of the election process. These steps include political accountability (including term limits) so that politicians actually behave ethically and morally, and become focused on problem solving and not solely their re-election. These steps include national, independent efforts to fix our schools, our drug problem, our energy problem, and our health care problem, independent in the sense that politicians and lobbyists are excluding from the problem solving process.

Otherwise, twenty years from now, our kids will still be undereducated, our national debt will be insurmountable, government functions will be more dysfunctional, politicians will be more entrenched, more corrupt, and less likely than even now to solve important issues, and the freedoms and liberties we should be enjoying, as guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be just distant memories.

A recent article in Newsweek magazine rated the top countries in the world in which to live. Twenty years ago, the United States would have been the hands down winner. Our economy was strong, the communist threat was ending, we were probably the freest nation in the world. We were the economic, cultural, military, moral, and athletic powerhouse of the world. Today, according to the Newsweek article, we rank 11th out of the best places to live in the world. While other nations’ actions have probably accounted for a lot of their improvement on this list, we should still hold our political class accountable for not improving our country and our lives as quickly as the rest of the world. From first to 11th in twenty years. Imagine where we will rank in another twenty years if we allow this generation of politicians to propagate further.

KASHMIR DISPUTE A CONSPIRACY

KASHMIR DISPUTE A CONSPIRACY

BY GHULAM MOYUDDIN WANI

4.Bismillah colony,bagat.ig road,po santnagar,190005,SRINAGAR,Kashmir,India or POST BOX 461,GPO,SRINAGAR,KASHMIR 190001.

 Introduction.

The sale of kashmir to a dogra raja by British was the first conspiracy executed by British,who were losing a war in Euope This deal was so shameless that people.land and innoscent peasants and animals were sold for a petty sum of 40 lac rupees collected by the dogra soldier by looting Lahore and nearby constituences . The maharaja used to offer annual omens’ to the British throne in cash and kind which included cashmere goats and shawls too. Many jewels and treasures of Kashmir were looted by the British soldiers and rulers. They ruled the country through proxy, employing agents of terror and continued in the reign of raja too, in a more ferocious manner. It is said a peasant was so oppressed that all his harvest was forcibly taken by these of numberdars,jagirdars,halkadars and checkdars.Most of them were minority hindus,kashmiri pundits and cruel pathans.The oppressed were the majority community of Muslims who laboured had to starve as at harvest all their produce was taken by the above named agents of Government. This repressive rule was refuted by the masses in the shape of QUITE KASHMIR. The movement was stared and nursed by the masses who were killed massacred and subjugated to all kinds of cruelity.Most of the leaders like Mulvi Abas and others were annulled through conspiracy and Muslim conferenece of kashmir converted into national conference .This was another conspiracy to subjugate kashmir through lust and greed. This time the real leaders were replaced by a self proclaimed leader named Abdullah sheik a converted Hindu, who was a postgraduate teacher from weaver’s family. His marriage to a guar grill of Tangmarg whose mother has accommodated with an English hotelier Nedeows.This English legacy still continues and haunts the freedom of Kashmir like an evil ghost. Genesis of 1947 On 15th August 1947, two independent countries ‘India and Pakistan’ were born in the subcontinent on the basis of ‘Two Nation Theory’. The State of Kashmir on the date was an independent state .It was inhabited by an absolute majority of the Muslims. The Hindu ruler Maharaja Harri Singh whose fore fathers have purchased the land and people of Kashmir for a sum of 40 lace rupees. This money was needed by British for their internal security in the Europe against their wars with Germans. Thus first sin against the Muslim nation of kashmir was born much earlier than the fateful day of 15th August 1947. Last British Governor General Lord Mountbatten having personality cult with the founder of Pakistan and under the influence of Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru is stated to have acceded the State to India on the 26th October 1947.Many stories are aghast on this unholy conspiracy, The friendships of Nehru and lady Mountbatten,Sheik Abdullah and Mrs Gandhi ,and even Mutilal Nehru and Shiek family These relationships and egos resulted in the division of India as well as Kashmir. The British conspiracy in developing a political liberality between Hindu Nehru and Muslim Jonah came handy to this bifurcation. I call it a freedom at midnight was in fact a conspiracy to keep the divided subcontinent under British empire through proxy The division still pays them dividends. They have not returned Kohinoor but David Cameron made a trillion dollar weapon business with India by giving a press conference soothing to Indian mind and irritating to Pakistanis. The toy emperor of Pakistan rushed to London in spite of the humiliation and divesting floods at home. It is surprising that the only potent son of sheik of kashmir is wedded to Moley nurse of London and his grandson to a raw handler’s relative. The marriage of Indras son to an airhostess hat speaks a lot of conspiracy hatched. Kashmir is a boon for the lust and luxury of these people. Kashmir accession It is proved beyond any shadow of doubt that these rulers did not at all acceded the State to India, nor they could do so The Hindu Maharaja has fled kashmir under quite kashmir movement and was on his way from Srinagar to Jammu and he reached his destination much later. Thus the accession is wholly based on fraud, forgery and misrepresentation. This phenomenon of accession could not be better explained than by an English renowned author Alastair Lamb .He describes it in his book entitled Incomplete Partition as Incomplete Partition: The Genesis of the Kashmir Dispute (1947-1948) at page 178. At the same page of his book Alastair Lamb has also quoted and relied upon another. American author Stanley Wolpert from his book Nehru: a Tryst with Destiny. Both the quotations are as follows. ‘Whatever the difference of opinion between Nehru and Patel might have been, they did not surface to any significant degree at the morning meeting of the Defence Committee on 26 October. Here it was agreed that it would be best if the Maharaja of Kashmir’s signature to an Instrument of Accession be obtained before the Indian troops went in to Srinagar airfield. As such a signature had not been obtained, and was unlikely to be obtained, on 26 October; it would be expedient to create a set of circumstances, which made it look as if it had been obtained, a kind of document laundering…. Both the white paper and V. P. Menon’s narrative have served to back up this ruse’. Stanley Wolpert’s tale. In Nehru: a Tryst with Destiny, on pages 416 and 417 Wolpert relates the story of the signing of the Instrument of Accession. The Instrument of Accession, according to Wolpert, was only signed by Maharaja Sir Harri Singh after the Indian troops had assumed control of the Jammu and Kashmir State’s summer capital, Srinagar. On the basis of the above references it can safely be held that there has been no instrument of accession ever executed by the ruler of the State in favour of India. The document, on the face of it, is based on forgery and fraud. In other words, they said document does not exist in the eyes of International law. Also, the Security Council after thoroughly hearing India and Pakistan ruled unequivocally, on 13th August, 1948, that people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir were the true Sovereign and in that they had the inherent right to decide about the future of their State in a just and fair Plebiscite to be held under the supervision of UNO. India, despite its total failure before the world forum continued to strengthen its position on ground by holding bad elections in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. To stem the tide, Pakistan approached the world body with a compliant. The Security Council in a resolution held that the elections being held by India in Kashmir could not be a substitute to Plebiscite to be held by UNO. In this way, the result of the said elections was wholly nullified by the UNO. With this short back ground, now I proceed to give the following various options for a just solutions of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute: 1. The people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in a fair and just plebiscite under the supervision of UNO shall decide either to accede to India or Pakistan. Explanation: the Plebiscite shall be completed phase wise, of course, with the free consent and will of the people. I. In the first stage, people of Azad Kashmir, (ii) Gilgit and Baltistan (Northern Areas) shall participate in the referendum. iii. In the second stage, Plebiscite shall be arranged in Kashmir valley, Kargil, Poonch, Riasi, Rajori, Nowshera namely up to the areas of River Chenab. iv. In the last and the third phase, the plebiscite shall take place in Jammu, Kathua, Ladakh and other areas. In this way the Plebiscite. Shall be held in a peaceful atmosphere without any disturbance whatsoever. (Note: More than two million displaced persons from Jammu, Poonch, Riasi, Rajori and Nowshera shall have the right to poll their votes in the said Plebiscite.) 2. In case India decides not to take part in the Plebiscite, Pakistan shall be at liberty to conduct the referendum ex parte and, in that event, more than two million displaced persons from occupied part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, people of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan will poll their votes to show whether they are ready to join India or Pakistan. If the opinion of the people is in favour of Pakistan then the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir shall automatically become a part of Pakistan. 3. The People of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir should make tremendous economic, democratic and constitutional progress so as to give positive incentives to the people of Occupied Kashmir to step up and enhance their efforts to liberate themselves from Indian yoke of enslavement for joining Pakistan. The state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be partitioned on the basis of Two Nation Theory as has already been done in case of Punjab, Bengal and Assam. Both India amid Pakistan shall withdraw their armed forces from the State of Jammu and Kashmir. In this way, the people in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity shall themselves be responsible to find out a solution, which should be acceptable to all of them. 6. The State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be entrusted to UNO for 10 to 15 years, which shall run its affairs. After the expiry of the period, the opinion of the people shall be ascertained through fair and free elections. 7. Some people do hold a firm view that an equitable solution to the dispute lies only in declaring the State of Jammu and Kashmir as an Independent State. 8. There is yet another lobby that holds the opinion that there should be a confederation amongst India, Pakistan and free Jammu and Kashmir State. 9. Indian armed forces should be withdrawn from cities-towns-villages as another confidence building measure. 10. Local elections shall be held under the joint control of Muzaffarabad and Srinagar administration. In the result, a common government may be formed with a view to finding a just and sustainable solution to the dispute. 11. A joint reference may be sent to the joint sitting of Supreme Court of Pakistan and Supreme Court of India with a request to give their opinion or to find out a solution acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. 12. Big powers of the world should be requested jointly to act as facilitators between India and Pakistan for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute. 13. The position, which existed in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on 15-08-1947, shall be restored and the result shall be that India and Pakistan both shall automatically step into the shoes of the British rulers. From this position, India and Pakistan shall proceed afresh to find out a just and fair solution to the lingering dispute of Jammu and Kashmir State. 14. India and Pakistan shall file a reference in the International Court of Justice for giving its opinion for the just and sustainable solution to the Kashmir dispute. 15. In any case Pakistan must institute a complaint against India in the International Court of Justice for erecting an iron fence in Occupied Kashmir. Reliance in this behalf may be placed on the recent ruling of the court having been given by it against similarly raised iron fence in Occupied Palestine. A unanimous resolution dated 24th January 1957 adopted by UNO may also be usefully relied upon. The writer is a former Judge, Supreme Court of Pakistan. T Its surely is in vogue to talk or write about Indo-Pak peace process. A new twist or the latest insight to this process was brought forth by a newspaper report which stated that President Musharraf‘s four point formulae had its genesis from Galtung’s prescribed solution to the five decade old Kashmir problem. Johan Galtung, a pioneer of peace and conflict resolution studies, who currently heads the Sweden based transnational foundation for peace and research, envisaged a five point solution to the Kashmir conflict on the following ways: 1. Self-determination Principle: This means freedom of the people of the region to determine their own political status; independence. By this mechanism, Jammu and Ladakh will remain part of the Indian union, Azad Kashmir will remain part of Pakistan and the problem that will remain is of the Kashmir valley. 2. Condominium: means a joint management or as Musharraf puts it joint man ship, this would give both India and Pakistan a chance for creative co-management of the Kashmir valley. This would also mean that the valley would remain undivided. Civil society cooperation takes place across the border; meetings of families on either side of LOC, local economic cooperation, cultural cooperation, softening the Azad Kashmir border. 3. Confederation: A confederation is an association of sovereign states or communities usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution. They are established for dealing with critical issues such as defence, foreign affairs, common currency, and foreign trade. Here in the final supremacy resides with the state governments than the central government. This type of arrangement if followed between the four parts i.e. Ladakh, Jammu, Kashmir valley, Azad Kashmir, then the borders would be porous with free flow of persons and goods, residence and investments. 4. Dual Citizenship: Residents in all four parts of the region can have passports with dual identity if the citizen so wants. For example mention can be made of both republic of India and Pakistan. Both the Indian and the Pakistani government would need a constitutional reform to accommodate states within their unions with double identities of Delhi and Islamabad. Joint Projects like joint water management or exchange of scholars and students will also improve relations. 5. International Security Force: For security aspect an international force sanctioned both by the UN Security Council and organisation of Islamic conference (OIC) might be considered, since there must be Muslim participation in the security forces. Though these suggestions have caught the attention of the international community since the late 90′s, their workability aspect remained questionable? Some reservations highlighted by me are as follows: 1. First and foremost the question of self determination of the various regions is not feasible; it is simple said than done. The social and political realities are infinitely complicated. Some regions like Kargil, Rajouri and Poonch, Kishtwar, Bhaderwah all constitute a mix of Hindus, Muslims, Kashmiris, Rajputs, Gujjars, Bakerwals and Pathans, so self determination on the basis of identity or caste is not feasible self-determination would mean giving Ladakh to Ladhaki’s Jammu to Hindus and Kashmiri pundits, Kashmir valley to Muslims, Azad Kashmir to Pakistan. This would lead into a secessionist spree, fragmentation of the country and hence is not a feasible solution. Moreover there is no provision kept for self determination in the constitution of India and India has already exercised the right of self determination through a constituent assembly of elected representatives in which people of Jammu and Kashmir also participated. 2. Confederation type of arrangements has worked successfully only in European region. The Indian subcontinent is not yet comfortable to such an innovation. 3. Condominium or joint governmental control means control by two or more powers over a dispute territory on order to prevent a colonial rivalry. Such kind of control was exercised by Great Britain and Egypt over Nile waters in Sudan, by France and England over New Hebrides. This form of jurisdiction satisfies neither the foreign powers nor the native people over whom the control is exercised. International control of this type is almost always unsatisfactory and is usually unsuccessful in the long run. It means divided responsibility. That’s the reason it will not be successful in Kashmir context too. 4. Dual citizenship is a very theoretical solution. The practicalities of this are enormous. First of all it will be the citizen’s choice to choose his/her countries identity, secondly, if the dual citizenship is there problem of apprehending criminals will be there. 5. Another foreign player added to the region the UN and OIS, as the international force always gives the impression to the people that there’s a brewing conflict, since a monitoring agency is always required, so where is the normalcy situation? What have we achieved in resolution of conflict? Hence Galtung’s five point formulae is not the panacea of the Kashmir conflict nor is it acceptable, however his theoretical constructs on structural and cultural violence if addressed properly in the region, then perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel can be seen. His primary theoretical contributions to the field of Conflict resolution remains his concept of structural and cultural violence, which means that conflict and violence are created by the social structures or institutions of a society not by traditional weapons. The genesis of this is the systematic discrimination against a particular ethnic or racial group. The Kashmir conflict is linked to a wider world conflict. This is a conflict between the west vs. Islam and India is in squeeze. This conflict dates back to the crusades, wherein the Pan Islamic dimension of Islam was related to the deep mistrust in the West and western ideology and the Islamic nations wanted to liberate this region and always supported the Muslims in Kashmir. India is the only place in the orient which subscribes to the western concepts like liberalism, democracy, enlightenment etc. This causes a rift between the two civilizations giving room for adherence to Huntington’s thesis – the clash of civilization. Since the Kashmir problem is not that of direct violence but of structural and cultural violence, the way to handle it is not through negative peace which is .characterised by the absence of violence but by positive peace which means overcoming of structural and cultural violence. This is imperative for a holistic resolution of the Kashmir dispute. Furthermore, the gap between the democratic aspirations and a repressive reality remains wide in Kashmir. And until this gap is minimized no solution to this conflict is possible be it Musharraf’s four point formulae or Galtung’s five point formulae. The conflict in Kashmir seems to be unending and the way it is being handled by Indian armed forces, especially the CRPF, is further aggravating it. Unfortunately, it is still being addressed primarily as a law and order problem and the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and their problems hardly matter. Our armed forces go on violating human rights and they know only how to kill. This way instead of solving the problem, we will reduce Kashmir to a vast cemetery. More and more young protestors are dying and death hardly deters these young protestors from demonstrating. It is not that people of Kashmir are really anti-India and want to opt for Pakistan. A recent UK think tank survey concluded that not more than 4 per cent Kashmiris want to align with Pakistan. They have their own aspirations and problems which must be addressed but they are not being addressed and, to the contrary, bullets are fired at them. Now at the all-party meeting it was decided that lethal weapons will not be used and instead pepper gun will be used which does not kill but produces psychological impact similar to real bullets. Should it have taken so much time to take this decision after killing 15 young people resulting in angry protests? Even CRPF has suffered great casualties, more than 273 Jawans have been injured in last one month and 1980 over one year. This decision could have been taken earlier and young lives would have been saved and CRPF Jawans from injuries? Or was this technology of pepper gun invented only before the all-party meeting. Do we have to kill so many innocent civilians before using appropriate technology? Had this decision been taken in time it would have saved several lives and would not have pushed the valley on brink of such a serious crisis. I was in Kashmir in June for a workshop on peace and conflict resolution and talked to several people there as to what they thought could be the solution. I talked to a cross section of people, including intelligentsia, activists and even common people in the bazaar. One thing which emerges is that Omar Abdullah has failed to deliver on every front and sentiments are overwhelmingly in favour of Mufti Saeed. Mufti is considered more mature and capable of talking frankly with the Centre and could handle Kashmir problem more satisfactorily. Omar Abdullah has lost grip over the situation and, besides, lacks courage to talk boldly with the Centre. This is what I can conclude from my conversations with local residents. Also, the separatist sentiments are not as strong as it is thought to be from outside. They are very angry at the mess in which Kashmir finds itself today. The youth is interested in employment and an improvement in economic situation. Most of the young people I met bitterly complained about lack of economic opportunities in the valley. Even highly qualified persons do not find satisfactory jobs. They are either unemployed or underemployed. The separatists exploit this anger and frustration. However, neither the state government nor the centre is serious about it and keep on condemning separatists for creating this situation. Also, in case of Kashmir there is a serious political dimension that is of our constitutional commitment to ensure autonomy and Nehru-Abdullah pact of 1953 had further reinforced it but under political pressure from rightwing elements this promise of full autonomy to Kashmir was never fulfilled. Again after the militant movement in Kashmir during late eighties and nineties the then Prime Minister Mr Narsimha Rao promised Farooq Abdullah, whom I had met during my visit to valley in late nineties, that he would grant autonomy to Kashmir and when Abdullah asked him how much, he told him ‘sky is the limit’. These words ring in my ears even today. However, nothing happened and then the BJP led Government came to power whose agenda was to remove Article 370 from the constitution itself instead of giving even a small element of autonomy to the people of Kashmir. Also, the way the Centre had been conducting elections in Kashmir since independence never inspired confidence among the people. In fact the militancy in Kashmir began after 1988 elections were rigged and Salahuddein, a school teacher and now head of Hizbul Mujadidin, was declared defeated though, most of the Kashmiris think, he had won. It was only in 2004 that for the first time fair elections were held and when I visited the valley I found new confidence among a section of Kashmiri people and some of them told me that if fair elections were held in future too, things could qualitatively change in Kashmir and people there will align with India. The elections in 2009 too were more or less fair but unfortunately Omar Abdullah does not seem to be in control. After long years of militancy and violence people of Kashmir have realised one thing, and I am saying this after interacting with a large number of people in the valley that violence does not pay and that peaceful solution is the only way out. But they want peaceful solution with honour and dignity and one which addresses a host of their problems including Kashmiriyat, their regional autonomy and pride in their culture and institutions. We, in India, do have a problem with Pakistan; we do not want to internationalise the Kashmir problem and that we do not want to go for plebiscite. All this is fine but what is coming in the way of our winning the hearts and minds of Kashmiri people? The way our forces indulge in fake encounters and seriously violate human rights is not the way to win their hearts and minds. With such actions we are greatly alienating ourselves from them. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the valley in August 2006 for a roundtable conference with Kashmiri leaders he had asserted that there will be zero tolerance for violations of human rights. But then there were again fake encounters in the valley. Immediately thereafter I conducted a peace workshop and some participant’s taunted saying, is this zero intolerance to violations of human rights? Unfortunately, the situation is worsening in the valley rather than showing any signs of improvement. Day by day human rights violations are increasing. Few months ago two young women were raped but till today no suspect has been arrested. Even CBI did not hold proper inquiry, it is alleged and it is suspected that military and police officials are involved. Again, my interaction with people in the valley showed that except a small section of Kashmiris, as also referred to in the survey by the UK think tank, no one is for joining Pakistan. All they want is peace and honourable existence. The government of India and the state government have to do everything possible to ensure this. People feel that Mufti had succeeded in seeking some concessions from the Centre which Omar Abdullah is unable to do either because of his inexperience or lack of courage. Whatever the reason, opinion is swinging in favour of Mufti. Even Ghulam Nabi Azad is considered a better chief minister. The government of India, in order to stop bloodshed, will have to show political courage and determination to take bold steps and strictly discipline the army and not tolerate their violations on the pretext that any action could ‘demoralise’ them. Such an approach will play only in the hands of the terrorists and keep on aggravating the situation. Fake encounters have absolutely no place in democracy and it is nothing but serious failure of governance if innocent citizens are killed by the police or army. Such unscrupulous officers must be rigorously punished. Such killings can lead to serious trouble even when there is no separatist or terrorist movement, much less in sensitive areas like Kashmir where issues of regional culture and identity are politically extra-sensitive. Regional autonomy in many countries is a serious problem whether other countries are involved in it or not. For example, the question of Basque nationality in Spain is a serious question and only the other day the Basque nationalists organised a demonstration with 2.5 million people to press their demand. Basque nationalists also resorted to violence for long and exploded bombs. However, they too realised that violence will not enable them to achieve their goal. We have to sort out Kashmir problem on two fronts, our own internal front and Pakistan front. Here I do not want to comment as far as Pakistan front is concerned. Here my main concern is our own internal front and ensuring peace in the valley and people of Kashmir, in my opinion, are ready for non-violent and honourable peace. Firstly, development will play a very important role. The youth must be won over through ensuring employment. Faisal Shah’s case is an important example. All Kashmiris felt proud that one of their own has been selected and stood first in IAS examination. Indian Muslims too felt very proud and organised a series of receptions for him throughout India. Thus to solve Kashmir problem internally what is needed is a measure of negotiated autonomy, economic development, greater recruitment of Kashmiri youth in and outside Kashmir in the government sector which will give them greater sense of belonging to India, expeditious development of Railway network and ensuring non-violation of human rights and minimising presence of armed forces except in border areas can lead to internal peace.

NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS REGIMES: HOW VOLUNTARY IS THE ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL (INFCIRC/540

NUCLEAR SAFEGUARDS REGIMES: HOW VOLUNTARY IS THE ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL (INFCIRC/540

Energy security is the bedrock of every successful nation; the securer the energy, the more successful a nation could be. Today, with the ongoing unfavorable-worldwide-campaign against fossil fuel-energy and the growing awareness and concerns about climate change, it has become imperative on every forward thinking nation to shift its large dependency on the fossil-fuel-energy to other alternative sources of energy. This situation and drive have drawn unprecedented interest and attention to nuclear energy as a major and competitive alternative to crude-energy. Many have even argued that nuclear energy renaissance is imminent.

However, nuclear energy just like other sources of energy is not devoid of any blemish or concerns. Amongst others, one of the major concerns about nuclear energy is the diversion of nuclear materials and activities into military/weaponization program, thus, creating nuclear weapons or nuclear explosives. This concern led to the establishment of the safeguards regimes. The IAEA safeguard agreements have been one of the major effective international mechanisms that have contributed immensely to the success of non-proliferation regime for over 40 years.

Historically, the idea of nuclear safeguard was introduced as an international measure to verify that states comply with their obligations under the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) though the introduction of IAEA safeguards system goes back to 1961. Generally speaking, states have right to engage on unrestricted legitimate nuclear programs and have unhindered access to nuclear knowledge and uses of nuclear energy for economic and developmental purposes but subject to international monitor (safeguard system) and cooperation to ensure that no fissionable material is diverted to military uses or for making nuclear explosives. In essence, nuclear safeguard was created to enhance and build trust and openness amongst states and also allow states to run their independent nuclear programs.

Under the NPT, all non-nuclear-weapon-states members (NNWS) are mandated to enter into safeguard agreement with the IAEA. The IAEA safeguard system extends to NWS and non-NPT states on the basis of bilateral agreements, but this article will largely focus only on NNWS under the NPT.

 

Originally, implementation of IAEA nuclear safeguard was based on states’ nuclear materials accountancy measures and reports and later included declared information on designs and nuclear facilities. This was the order of the day until the Gulf War of 1990s when the loopholes and weaknesses in the then existing comprehensive safeguard agreements (CSA) was internationally exposed. Iraq which at the time had existing comprehensive safeguard agreement with the IAEA was found to be pursuing clandestine nuclear weapon program. This revelation became a catalyst and prompted immediate need for strengthened safeguard system. This led to the creation of Additional Protocol to the existing safeguard agreements. States with existing comprehensive safeguards agreements were/are highly encouraged to bring the Additional Protocol into force in their various jurisdictions. Some states have ratified the Additional Protocol, but unfortunately, not all parties, particularly NNWS, to old safeguard agreements have brought the AP into force in their various states. Some NNWS have signed the AP and ratified it, some others have signed it but yet to ratify it, some others have even voluntarily chosen to apply it provisionally while some others have neither signed nor ratified it.

 

There is no much disputing debate on the voluntarily nature of the AP when it comes to initial application of AP in the territory of NNWS under the NPT. The initial application of AP is neither obligatory nor a direct mandatory requirement under the NPT for NNWS, though it’s a supplementary instrument to the CSA which itself is a mandatory instrument for NNWS under the NPT. So, all NNWS are at liberty to bring AP into force in their territory as a mark of building trust and confidence and to show its commitment to non-proliferation. Therefore, bringing AP into force is more of a moral than a legal obligation. However, the question that eludes most people’s mind almost all the time is “when and at what time does the voluntariness-nature of the AP cease?” I have been to many forums where I heard representatives of some states argued that AP is a voluntary instrument and that a state can withdraw from it anytime and would still not be bound by it. Their argument is that NPT mandates them to enter into the CSA and not the AP. Going by their argumentative submission, it implies that AP is voluntary in perpetuity, thus allowing states to hire and fire it at will, thereby undermining or defeating the purpose the AP was brought to achieve. This is a contentious issue that I will prefer to address later in this article.

 

NPT

In 1961, the UNGA resolution calls for Non-Proliferation treaty.  Thereafter, negotiations and drafting of NPT was done by a designated committee. In 1968, NPT draft was opened for signature. With an unprecedented speed of response by states to any international treaty; two years later, the NPT came into force. The treaty aims to prevent spread of nuclear weapons, nuclear explosive devices and nuclear war. There are many elements under the NPT, but for the purposes of this work, only safeguard is the focus.

 

Under the treaty, NWS undertake not to transfer to any recipient any nuclear weapon or other nuclear explosive device, and also not to assist, induce or encourage any non nuclear states to manufacture or acquire nuclear weapon or nuclear explosive device. On the other hand, NNWS undertake not to receive from any transferor any nuclear weapon or nuclear explosive device, and not to seek or manufacture, or acquire any nuclear weapon or nuclear explosive device. Furthermore, Article III (1) of the NPT mandates each NNWS to accept IAEA safeguard in accordance with the Statute of the IAEA and the IAEA’s safeguard system for the purposes of verification of its obligations under the NPT toward prevention of diversion of peaceful nuclear uses to military uses.  But interestingly though unfortunate, the last sentence on Article III (1) NPT forecloses or focuses only on safeguard on all source and special fissionable materials which the present author see as self-stabbing or that the drafters of NPT were not visionary enough, because, by narrowing safeguard to only source and special fissionable materials it opened the whole idea of safeguard to systematic legitimate abuses. With the provisions of NPT as it is, it means that nuclear facility without any source or special fissionable materials in it or nuclear facility under construction need not be under any international safeguard. This absence of legal requirement of safeguard on certain nuclear activities has been exploited by Iraq, Iran and DPRK.

NUCLEAR SAFEGUARD

As already mentioned above, the concept of nuclear safeguard was introduced for verification purposes.  Generally speaking, it could be argued that this concept clashes with the concept of states sovereignty under the International Law, because it does require states to partially subject their independent activities to international scrutiny and monitor. However, this argument, though sustainable to an extent, cannot be held in isolation without due regard and consideration of the historical evolution of nuclear energy and the associated risks and concerns. Hence, the necessity of a watchdog was almost generally perceived albeit reservations which later led to creation of IAEA nuclear safeguards system to balance the concerns and consequences with the benefits and trust.

Nuclear safeguard is an international initiative designed to limit proliferation of nuclear weapons. Its effectiveness-tool depends largely on the intensity and vibrancy of the associated international pressures and mix and balance between diplomatic and economic measures. It is one of the major elements of NPT regime and is backed up by threat of collective international sanctions against a defaulting state.

The initial IAEA safeguards focused on accounts and control of nuclear materials, although several amendments and improvements were made over the years. But the most important point is that at the early stage states were trusted to account and declare their transacted nuclear materials, facilities connected with nuclear materials under safeguard and operating records of principal nuclear facilities. As at that time, it was the job of IAEA to verify that those declared materials are in continuing use for peaceful nuclear programs which could be done through inspections (sampling and analysis of nuclear materials), containment seals, commercial satellite photos and surveillance cameras. In essence, the aim and focus of the initial safeguard was on early detection of diversion of nuclear materials. More particularly, under the NPT regime, all NNWS are expected to accept full-scope safeguards (comprehensive safeguard agreement), while NWS under the NPT and non-NPT states are expected to enter into facility specific safeguard agreement with the IAEA.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the IAEA safeguards system have been largely successful in curbing the spread of nuclear weapons technology around the world for over 40 years. Today, apart from the 5 NWS recognized under NPT, India, Pakistan and Israel are non- NPT nuclear weapon states.  DPRK (North Korea) though was a party to NPT later withdrew and has finally claimed to have nuclear weapons capacity.

However, the weaknesses of the international safeguards, particularly INFCIRC/153, came to full-light with the revelations of undeclared nuclear activities in Iraq, Iran and North Korea, though no diversion took place. Majority of the revealed undeclared activities were largely indigenously sourced, thus, no legal obligation to account or declare such materials, activities and facilities. This situation, as already mentioned above, led to the creation and approval of Additional Protocol by the IAEA Board of Governors in 1997.

TREATY

Before I move on to address the additional protocol question, I would like the reader to understand what a treaty is. According to online Oxford Dictionaries, Treaty is ‘a formally concluded and ratified agreement between states’.  But, according to Article 2 (1) of the VCLT, treaty is defined as:

 

“an international agreement concluded between states in written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation”

 

The above definitions represent the position of the customary international law.  But in the context of this work, treaty would be given its broad and modern meaning under the international law as envisaged under Article 3 of the VCLT.  This view is shared by renowned international law scholars like Vierdag, McNair, Seidl-Hohenveldern, and particularly by Aust when he said, VCLT is ‘extremely flexible and can accommodate departures from normal practice’. A treaty under the modern International law is an agreement with inherent obligations entered into by actors in the international law. The actors are states, regional bodies and international orgainsations (IAEA in particular). Treaty could be bilateral or multilateral. A ‘party’ is a state (though combined interpretation of provisions of Article 3 and 81 of VCLT envisages non-state parties) which has consented to be bound by a treaty and for which the treaty is in force. Two distinct steps are necessary to be party to a treaty – consent to be bound by the treaty and the treaty coming into force.  Article 11 of the VCLT enumerates methods of consent to be bound by a treaty. They are:

Signature
Exchange of instruments constituting a treaty
Ratification
Acceptance
Approval or Accession
By any other means if so agreed.

From the foregoing authorities it is unequivocally correct to conclude that both NPT and Safeguards Agreements are deemed as valid treaties binding on the contracting parties.

ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL

Additional Protocol (IAEA INFCIRC/540) is a model safeguard document designed by IAEA for states having existing safeguard agreements with the IAEA in order to strengthen effectiveness and improve the efficiency of the safeguards system for global non-proliferation goal. According to the Foreword to Model Protocol Additional to the Agreements between states and the IAEA for the Application of Safeguard, AP is

 

“a legal document granting the IAEA complementary inspection authority to that provided in underlying safeguards agreements. A principal aim is to enable the IAEA inspectorate to provide assurance about both declared and possible undeclared activities. Under the Protocol, the IAEA is granted expanded rights of access to information and sites.”

 

Additional Protocol brings all nuclear materials, activities and facilities in the territory or under the control of a contracting state under the IAEA safeguard. It ensures and enhances completeness and its provisions override the provisions of the preceding safeguards agreements. But however, AP only becomes binding on a state upon express intention to be bound by it and it enters into force on the date the IAEA receives written notification that state’s statutory/constitutional requirements for entry into force has been met or by signature by representatives of a contracting state if the state’s internal law recognizes such requirement or if the state declare to apply AP provisionally. Mere signature alone without internal law requirement do not place any legal obligation on the state under the AP or under any international law, though it could be argued that it does create moral obligation on the state to not act in any way against the spirit of the AP and does speed up its internal law requirements to bring the AP into force. However, it has been argued in some quarters that each NNWS under the NPT is under obligation to sign and ratify AP, but legally speaking, I can’t see any legal provision under the NPT or any international law which suggest so.

 

However, where a state has voluntarily brought the AP into force using either of the two options provided for under Article 17 of the Model Protocol Additional to the Agreements between states and the IAEA for the Application of Safeguard bringing AP into force, can such state for some reasons later turn back and withdraw the application of AP without first withdrawing from the NPT and CSA?  A perfect example in this scenario is Iran’s withdrawal from application of AP after voluntarily applying it provisionally pending ratification.

IRAN AS A CASE STUDY

Iran nuclear program was established during the Shah regime with the assistance of US. Iran signed the NPT in 1968 and ratified it in 1970, subjecting itself to IAEA safeguards regime as a NNWS. Iran safeguards agreement under the NPT (INFCIRC/214) with the IAEA came into force in 1974. But the 1979 Revolution and the consequent change of regime in Iran affected adversely the nuclear program as many western countries and other foreign countries withdrew their assistance and cooperation or were reluctant to assist the new regime in Iran in its nuclear program. The consequent cancellation of contracts, accusations and counter-accusations of non-performance and refusal to return investments worsened and deteriorated relations and germinated suspicion and lack of trust between Iran and the western countries.

In 2003, undeclared nuclear fuel cycle activities (enrichment facilities and heavy water facility) were officially discovered in Iran which Iran says began in 1985. This failure of early declaration on the part of Iran amounts to non-compliance with its obligations under Article 8, 42 to 48 of the INFCIRC/214. Iran also failed to declare receipt of natural uranium in 1991. However, provision of Article 42 do not define what is early enough though the IAEA Board of Directors (BOD) later decided and requested in 1992 that facilities should be declared at planning stage.  Notwithstanding the BOD 1992 request, the existing subsidiary arrangements in force in Iran from 1976 to 16 February, 2003 included early reporting of design information at least 180 days before introduction of nuclear material into the facility.

Consequently, to address the concerns raised by this discovery and to promote confidence, the E3/EU and Iran entered into agreement (Tehran Declaration) In October 21, 2003, where Iran promised to sign AP, commence ratification procedures and voluntarily (not legally binding) suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities. Iran signed AP in December 2003. Subsequently, a second agreement was reached in Paris on 15th of November, 2004 (deposited with the IAEA – INFCIRC/637), where Iran also voluntarily agreed to implement AP pending ratification. Shortly thereafter there were accusations of delay and breach of Paris Agreement between Iran and the E3/EU, and resultantly, on February 4, 2006, the IAEA BOD decided to report Iran to UNSC for non-compliance with its safeguards agreement (INFCIRC/214-CSA) based on facts reported in 2003. On February 27, 2006, Iran withdrew its voluntary implementation of AP. The UNSC Resolution 1696 of July 31, 2006, amongst other things, called upon Iran to act in accordance with the provisions of AP, while UNSC Resolution 1737 of December 27, 2006 called upon Iran to promptly ratify AP. In response, Iran has argued, amongst other things, that voluntary implementation of AP is a confidence building measure, thus, not binding. Also, Iran argued that based on provisions of International Law on Treaties and AP, Iran is not bound by AP until its ratification and that the IAEA DG report of Feb. 28, 2008 stated that the additional information provided by Iran is similar to the information provided under the AP. The differing opinions on whether Iran is legally bound to implement AP might linger on for sometime and may not have immediate solution.

However, the present author have took out time to closely and critically look at the provision of Article 17 (b) of Model AP which provides that AP will enter into force on the date a state declares it will apply Additional Protocol Provisionally. Iran met this requirement on November 26, 2004 when it voluntarily implemented AP. Surprisingly; there is no provision for withdrawal under the Model AP which Iran voluntarily adopted. There is no doubt that AP is not an independent instrument rather it is a complementary/supplementary document to the CSA. This by virtue of the provision of Article 1 of the Model AP takes the whole arguments to the provisions of INFCIRC/214 which Iran ratified and Article 1 of the VCLT. Based on the authorities of Article 1 of the VCLT and the provision of Article 26 of INFCIRC/214, the safeguard agreement (including complementary/related agreement) will remain in force as long as Iran remains a party to NPT. Therefore, the present writer believes that Iran is not just a mere signatory to the AP, Iran went further to bring AP into force by voluntary implementation thereby fulfilling the provision and spirit of Article 17 (b) of Model AP, thus binding. Iran cannot later validly withdraw from AP without first withdrawing from NPT.

CONCLUSION

From the foregoing facts, analysis and positions, it has been legally demonstrated, using the authorities of the VCLT, NPT, CSA and AP, that once AP has entered into force it cannot be withdrawn in an isolation. This means that the voluntary-nature of the AP ceases at the point of entering into force. Therefore, for a valid withdrawal to exist the withdrawing state has to first withdraw from the mother instruments (NPT and CSA) because AP is not an independent or stand-alone instrument, rather, it is a supplementary instrument to the CSA. And its (AP) provisions override the provisions of the CSA to the extent of its conflict with the CSA, but however, in the absence of any provision under the AP on any particular issue in contention, then the provision of the CSA will apply.