World View: Nigeria Backs Out of Deal to Recover Boko Haram's Abducted Schoolgirls

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Nigeria backs out of deal to recover Boko Haram’s abducted schoolgirls
• Attacks on schoolgirls spread to Balochistan in southwest Pakistan
• Jordan bluntly expels Syria’s ambassador

Nigeria backs out of deal to recover Boko Haram’s abducted schoolgirls

Nigerian government officials are saying that they know the locationof the 200+ schoolgirls that were abducted by Boko Haram last month,but they will not be recovered by force because any gunfire would putthe girls’ lives in danger.

The BBC is reporting that the Nigerian government had made a deal withBoko Haram to exchange 50 of the girls for 100 Boko Haram militantswho have been captured and put in jail. However, the governmentbacked out of the deal during a summit meeting earlier this month withNigerian, African, and Western leaders at which they agreed to wagedeal was canceled, but it’s surmised that negotiating with terrorists andagreeing to the exchange would encourage a lot more abductions ofother schoolgirls. Channels TV (Nigeria)

Attacks on schoolgirls spread to Balochistan in southwest Pakistan

The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban – TTP) have mostly focusedtheir terrorist attacks on northwest Pakistan, but now a new splinter group, Tanzeem-ul-Islami-ul-Furqan (TIF -Organization of the creation of Islam) is spreading terror attacksdeep into the southwest province of Balochistan and is particularlytargeting schools with girls enrolled. A letter sent to23 English Language Learning Centers warned that teachingin English is forbidden and added:

Private schools should completely stop girls’education, both co-education and separate education. We urge allvan and taxi drivers to refrain from taking girls toschools. Otherwise, they will also be targeted… Any institutionor persons defying the warning will be deemed as an enemy of Islamand therefore punished.

The group has been killing school teachers and burning down schools and has threatened “the worst consequences as prescribed in theQuran” if girls’ education is not completely shut down. 

All this is happening in the context of separatist activist by aBaloch nationalist group called the Baloch Student Organization(BSO-Azad). Pakistan’s government has reacted to this separatistactivism by relocating thousands of ethnic Punjabis to Balochistan forlarge development project. This has led to violence by Balochisagainst Punjabis with the result that over 19,000 Balochi civilians have “disappeared” from abductions by Pakistan’sintelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with more than2,000 of them having been “killed and dumped.” South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP – India) and Al-Jazeera

Jordan bluntly expels Syria’s ambassador

A furious Jordanian foreign ministry declared Syria’s ambassadorBahjat Suleiman, a former general and intelligence chief,as persona non grata, and ordered him to leave thecountry within 24 hours. According to the state-run newsagency:

The government took the decision after the envoycontinued his insults and un-friendly statements against Jordan,Jordanian political figures, national institutions and citizens,despite repeated warnings by the government not to indulge in anddesist from making such provocative statements, the envoy said. 

“Mr. Suleiman used Jordan as a platform to cast doubt on Jordan’sstances and directed baseless accusations on more than oneoccasion and through such statements,” the spokesperson said,noting that he used Jordanian territories to direct insultsagainst Arab and neighboring countries and their leadership, withwhom Jordan has strong ties. 

These insults, which targeted Jordan and Arab countries, were aflagrant violation of all diplomatic norms and charters, she said,stressing that Jordan totally rejects such acts. The envoy had notobserved the simplest diplomatic norms in a country that ishosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

Jordan is harboring over a million refugees from Syria as a result ofthe genocidal war and crimes against humanity by Syria’s presidentBashar al-Assad. Apparently some of the insults that Jordan wascomplaining about was that Suleiman accused Jordan of harboringterrorists by giving refuge to refugees. This guy really has balls. 

The expulsion comes just a few days before the planned June 3 Syrianpresidential election, which many people consider to be a farce.Suleiman had announced that Syrian citizens living in Jordan would beable to come to the Syrian embassy in Amman and vote there. Jordan’sforeign minister had warned that this could bring security problems toAmman. 

In a tit-for-tat retaliation, Syria expelled Jordan’schargé-d’affaires from Damascus. Jordanian officials said the chargéd’affaires was not currently in Syria. Petra (Jordan) and Reuters

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