Download Fighter plane deal `shows deep US support` for Qatar

INDEX
QATAR
2, 3, 16
ARAB WORLD
INTERNATIONAL
3
4-12
ISLAM
13
COMMENT
BUSINESS
CLASSIFIED
SPORT
14, 15
1-12
9
1-8
BUSINESS | Page 1
SPORT | Page 8
International lenders
support Qatar’s banks
amid Gulf rift
Qatar’s
Barshim
soars
to win
in Oslo
DOW JONES
QE
NYMEX
21,359.90
9,257.90
44.24
+14.66
+0.07%
+67.92
+0.74%
-0.49
-1.10%
Latest Figures
pu
Emir speaks with Merkel,
Gentiloni and May
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad al-Thani yesterday held
telephone conversations with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
Italian Prime Minister Paolo and
British Prime Minister Theresa May
on the latest developments of the
Gulf crisis. Merkel, Gentiloni and
May stressed the need to solve the
crisis through dialogue in order to
preserve the stability and unity of
the Gulf Co-operation Council. The
Emir expressed his gratitude and
appreciation for the stances of the
three leaders. The Emir also offered
May condolences over a deadly fire
that engulfed a residential tower in
west London.
QATAR | Weather
Windy conditions
forecast until Tuesday
Windy conditions are expected
to prevail in the country from this
afternoon until Tuesday, the Qatar
Met department said yesterday. The
windy spell has been forecast to
begin in offshore areas today and
elsewhere tomorrow, according to
the weather report. While it is likely
to continue being misty/foggy until
the early hours today, the weather
office has issued a warning for
fresh strong northwesterly winds in
offshore areas from this afternoon.
The wind speed will range from
18-25 knots, reaching 30 knots at
night towards the north, along
with a wave height of 6-9/10ft. The
winds will intensify on Sunday and
Monday, reaching a peak of 38 knots
and resulting in blowing and rising
dust.
RAMADAN THOUGHT
And whomsoever Allah wills to
guide, He opens his breast to
Islam; and whomsoever He wills
to send astray, He makes his
breast closed and constricted,
as if he is climbing up to the sky.
Thus Allah puts the wrath on
those who believe not. (Qur’an
6:125)
Prayer times
Fajr....3.14 Zuhr....11.34 Asr....2.57
Maghrib.....6.29 Isha.....7.59
Fasting times
Iftar today ............................6.29pm
Imsak tomorrow............... 3.04am
in
QATAR | Official
d
In brief
June 16, 2017
Ramadan 21, 1438 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Fighter plane deal ‘shows
deep US support’ for Qatar
A
$12bn deal to buy US F-15
fighter jets shows Qatar has
deep-rooted support from
Washington, a Qatari official said
yesterday, adding that its rift with
some Arab states had not hurt Washington’s relationship with Doha, Reuters reported.
The signing of the deal in Washington
on Wednesday coincided with the arrival of two US Navy vessels at Qatar’s
Hamad Port to participate in a joint exercise with the Qatari Emiri Navy.
“The deal and the naval exercise are
a strong signal for Qatar and I am sure
that reassures the government in Doha
that their relationship is strong,” AFP
news agency quoted a Western diplomat in Qatar as saying.
Qatar is facing an economic and diplomatic boycott by Saudi Arabia and its
regional allies who cut ties on June 5,
accusing it of funding terrorist groups,
a charge Doha has vehemently denied.
US Defence and State Departments
have tried to remain neutral in the dispute among key allies. Qatar is home to
the headquarters for US air forces in the
Middle East.
On Wednesday US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis signed the previouslyapproved warplane deal with Minister of State for Defence Affairs HE
Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah.
Qatar’s ambassador to the US, Meshal
Hamad al-Thani, posted a picture of
the signing ceremony on Twitter.
“This is of course proof that US institutions are with us but we have
never doubted that,” the Qatari official
in Doha said. “Our militaries are like
brothers. America’s support for Qatar
is deep-rooted and not easily influenced by political changes.”
A Qatari defence ministry source
said the deal was for 36 jets. In November, under the administration of Barack
Obama, the US approved a possible sale
of up to 72 F-15QA aircraft to Qatar for
$21.1bn. Boeing, the prime contractor
on the sale, declined to comment.
A European diplomat in the Gulf
said the timing of the deal appeared
coincidental. “Presumably the US
could have delayed the deal if they
had wanted to, although I do not think
there is a great connect between sales
and foreign policy.”
The Pentagon said the jets sale would
increase security co-operation between the US and Qatar and help them
operate together. It added that Mattis
and al-Attiyah also discussed the current state of operations against IS and
the importance of de-escalating tensions in the Gulf.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated his
country’s criticism of the economic sanctions by Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Bahrain and Egypt against Qatar as
“wrong”, although he denied that Turkey was supporting one side.
Cavusoglu was speaking to journalists after holding talks in Kuwait yesterday. On Wednesday he visited Doha
for talks with HH the Emir Sheikh
Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. He is due
to fly on to Saudi Arabia today, according to AFP.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary
James Mattis has expressed optimism
about resolving the Gulf crisis.
Al Jazeera News Channel quoted
Mattis as saying that he was optimistic
about resolving the crisis and that his
country would help the Gulf countries
thereon.
O The Gulf crisis has begun to dissipate thanks to mediation efforts by
Kuwait’s emir, a prominent member
of Kuwait’s royal family said yesterday,
according to aljazeera.com.
“I am sure this storm will pass
peacefully to the benefit of the Gulf
Co-operation Council,” Sheikh Salem
al-Ali al-Sabah, who is also head of
Kuwait’s National Guard, was quoted
as saying yesterday by Kuwait’s Al-Seyassah newspaper.
“His majesty’s swift response (to the
crisis) shows the emir’s keenness to
achieve reconciliation between brothers,” he was quoted as saying.
Mediators expect proposals ‘soon’
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are expected
to relay to mediators what they want
Qatar to do in return for ending their
isolation of the country, according to a
Gulf official with direct knowledge of the
matter, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
The proposals, which may come in the
next two days, would make it easier
to end the dispute, the official said on
condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the matter. While the
two sides are far apart at the moment,
there are positive signs they are willing
to reach a conclusion and want Kuwait
to continue to mediate, the official said,
adding that Turkey was also helping.
Qatar said the absence of a clear list of
demands has complicated efforts to
resolve the crisis, which escalated this
month when Saudi Arabia, the UAE and
Bahrain severed ties and transportation
links. “A clear list of demands will be
critical toward reaching a resolution without it, it is difficult to find a starting
point,” said Allison Wood, an analyst with
Control Risks in Dubai.
Kuwait has played a role in trying to
end the conflict since it started, with the
country’s emir visiting Saudi Arabia, the
UAE and Qatar last week.
The demand for souvenirs, with images of major landmarks in Qatar, has shot up over the past few days in the country amid
a growing wave of patriotic fervour, triggered by the economic and diplomatic boycott by some Gulf Arab states. Some of the
souvenirs are seen at Safari Mall in Abu Hamour yesterday.
No impact on World Cup
preparations, says official
Q
atar yesterday said the rift with
some fellow Gulf Arab states,
which includes economic sanctions on Doha, has not affected its
preparations to host the 2022 World
Cup, and alternative sources for construction materials have been secured,
according to Reuters.
In remarks carried by the Qatar News
Agency, Ghanim al-Kuwari, executive
director at the Supreme Committee
for Delivery and Legacy (SC) said it had
completed around 45% of the work in
accordance with plans.
Soccer’s governing body FIFA said
last week it was in “regular contact”
with the authorities in Qatar, after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE, along
with Egypt, severed ties with Doha.
“I can confirm to everybody that
there is absolutely no impact on the
progress of work in the Mondial facilities and that work is proceeding normally,” said al-Kuwari.
Most of the construction materials
needed for building World Cup stadiums had been coming by land through
Saudi Arabia, a route now blocked, but
al-Kuwari said alternative suppliers
have been organised.
“We have actually organised alternative sources from other areas in order that
the work on the project is not impacted.”
He said while some goods had come
by land, most materials were coming by
sea, adding that some materials were
being locally made.
Hamad Port was bustling with activity this week, with ships bringing in
food supplies as well as building materials for construction projects, including World Cup stadiums and a Metro
line running alongside highways that
stretch out of Doha.
IOC hopes row won’t affect Gulf
sports development
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday said it hoped the
diplomatic and economic boycott of
Qatar by its neighbours would not affect sports development in the region.
Qatar is among the leading investors in world sport, preparing to host
the 2022 football World Cup and the
2019 world athletics championships
among other top events it is set to
It’s business as usual at Hamad Port ‘as the worst is over’
Q
atar’s main seaport shows all
the signs of having weathered
the storm. Workers in hard hats
monitor as giant yellow cranes lift hundreds of containers off cargo ships onto
lorries waiting ashore.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain
severed diplomatic, trade and transport
ties with Qatar more than a week ago.
The spat initially halted much traffic to
the Hamad Port and raised fears of food
and other shortages.
But after launching new direct shipping routes to cope with the crisis, port
officials say the worst is over and the
episode may even help Qatar seal new
transport deals that do not rely on Gulf
neighbours.
“It’s a blessing in disguise,” a port official told Reuters news agency as cargo was
unloaded on Wednesday. “We’re looking
at signing agreements with shipping companies that can improve direct services instead of having to come through Jebel Ali.”
A new shipping line to India has been
launched, connecting Hamad Port with
Mundra and Nhava Sheva in India. Ves-
he R
is
bl TA 978
A 1
Q since
GULF TIMES
FRIDAY Vol. XXXVIII No. 10486
sels using the new line will visit Hamad
Port every Friday.
Also, new services have been announced from Oman, which has remained neutral during the crisis.
Earlier this week, the world’s biggest
container line, Maersk of Denmark, said
it would accept new bookings for container shipments to Qatar from Oman.
Several Maersk containers could be
seen parked among rows of shipments
at Hamad Port. Operations manager
Omar El Khayat said another deal with
Maersk was being discussed.
Mediation efforts to end the crisis
have intensified, including by the US,
which hosts the largest US air base in
the Middle East. Two US Navy ships arrived at Hamad Port on Wednesday for a
joint exercise with Qatar.
Port officials said the cutting of
transport links by Saudi Arabia, the UAE
and Bahrain with Qatar continues to affect some services. Ships from China’s
Shanghai, which normally go through
Jebel Ali, have to be re-routed via Iraq,
adding seven days to a normally 20-day
Hamad Port officials say the crisis may help Qatar seal new transport deals that do
not rely on Gulf neighbours.
voyage, one official said. Not all lines
have resumed shipping services.
China’s Cosco Shipping Lines Co
Ltd, Taiwan’s Evergreen and Hong Kong
Kong’s OOCL suspended container
services to and from Qatar.
Hamad Port’s general cargo terminal can handle 1.7mn tonnes of goods
per year, according to the Ministry of
Transport and Communications.
Hamad al-Ansar of the Qatar Ports
Management Company, Mwani Qatar,
said ties with Turkey and Iran, which
have flown goods into Doha since the
boycott, might expand, with Turkish vessels already on their way. “We’ll
open a relationship with anyone who
can bring cargo.”
For now, port employees have their
work cut out. As one large ship took
back empty containers later in the day,
a second one arrived bringing livestock
from Australia.
“The first five days of the crisis there
were fewer shipments. Now it’s back
to normal. I’ve seen the schedule and it
looks packed,” said a Kenyan supervisor.
Hamad Port’s imports include large
quantities of food and building materials for construction projects, including
stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, and a
Metro line running alongside highways
that stretch out of Doha.
The boycott raised concerns that
projects could be delayed if building
material including from the Far East
and South Asia is choked. But at the
nearby Mesaieed stockyard, vast dunes
of gabbro rock, around 10mn tonnes’
worth according to officials, lay stockpiled for construction.
“It’s business as usual,” the port official said.
stage in the coming years.
“In the world of sport, we remain
politically neutral and continue our relationships with all the national Olympic committees (NOCs) in the region,”
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.
“We hope for this even more, because all of the NOCs in the region are
very active in Olympic sports in different respects and we appreciate especially how much is being contributed to
sport development in the region,” Adams told Reuters.
Teams across many sports, including top European soccer clubs such as
Bayern Munich, regularly use Qatar’s
state-of-the-art sports infrastructure
for winter training camps.
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has been an IOC member
since 2002.
“The IOC appreciates all this work
very much and hopes that this crisis
does not affect this co-operation,” Adams said. “This is a political issue in the
region. We are encouraging a dialogue
on the political level so that the problem can be solved at this level.”
May calls for steps
to ease tensions
British Prime Minister Theresa
May urged the leaders of Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar
yesterday to take steps to
reduce tensions that have led
the Arab world’s biggest powers
to cut ties with Qatar.
“The prime minister raised the
ongoing isolation of Qatar in the
Gulf region, calling on all sides
to urgently de-escalate the
situation, engage meaningfully
in dialogue, and restore Gulf Cooperation Council unity at the
earliest possible opportunity,” a
spokesperson for May said in a
statement.
May’s office said she spoke with
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad al-Thani and the kings
of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain
yesterday evening.
British Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson urged Gulf states
including Saudi Arabia to ease
their blockade of Qatar on
Monday.
2
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
QATAR
Hamad Port to
launch, add new
service lines
In brief
Qatar-Algeria ties reviewed
Emir condoles
with Queen
Elizabeth
H
amad Port will launch
and add new service
lines with Europe and
Southeast Asia in the coming
days, its director Captain Abdul
Aziz al-Yafei has said.
This comes after the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) on Wednesday announced the launch of a
new shipping line between Qatar and India. The new service
connects Hamad Port with the
Mundra and Nhava Sheva ports
in India.
In a statement, al-Yafei said
movement at the port is “running smoothly”, explaining that
the port currently operates three
main lines, according to the official Qatar News Agency (QNA).
Operations at Hamad Port
“saw a change in the destinations of shipping lines”, he said,
stressing that the port can accommodate all types of goods
and is able to cover the needs of
the State.
With its capacity, the port,
which opened in December 2015
six months ahead of schedule,
has helped reduce dependency
on transporting goods through
the land border, he noted.
Hamad Ali al-Ansari, director
of Public Relations and Communications at Qatar Ports
Management Company (Mwani
Qatar), said a direct line with
the Omani port of Salalah is expected to be inaugurated when
the first cargo ship arrives today,
with 500-600 refrigerated containers each with a capacity of
30,000kg.
The ports of Oman are strategic partners and direct shipping
services between those and Qatar’s Hamad Port will operate six
times a week, or 22-24 times a
month, he added.
In May, he said, Mwani Qatar
received some 193 ships carrying 2,326 tonnes of gabbro and
building materials, 102,800
heads of cattle and 5,700 units of
cars and equipment, along with
‘Sanctions
will serve
to bolster
unity’
Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel yesterday met HE the Minister of State for Foreign
Affairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi, currently on a visit to Algeria. They reviewed bilateral relations
and means of developing them and regional and international issues.
The India-Qatar Express Service.
Implementation of
second phase of
Hamad Port begins
The Ministry of Transport and
Communications (MoTC) has
announced the start of the implementation of the first part of
Hamad Port’s second phase. The
MoTC has said contracts worth
QR2bn have been awarded for
this part of the works, according
to QNA.
49,400 tonnes of general cargo
and 45,900 containers.
He pointed out that there
were plans to receive Turkish
ships in the Port of Ruwais as
well as a plan to increase the
number of direct lines to Hamad Port, as there are agreements with various countries
such as Russia, China and others in this area.
Hamad Port operations manager Captain Omar El Khayat
said the total capacity of the port
is about 7.6mn containers, including 2mn containers per year
in the first phase of the port’s
operations. The second phase
will be implemented on demand.
Meanwhile, the MoTC said
the new shipping line to India is
called the India Qatar Express
Service.
In a post on its website, the
ministry noted that the vessels
using the new line would reach
Hamad Port every Friday and
the first shipment would have
710 containers with the “readiness to receive larger shipments
as needed”.
Listing the highlights and
advantages of the new shipping line, the MoTC said it will
involve weekly sailing, provide
a direct express connection between Mundra, Nhava Sheva and
Doha (Hamad Port) for local cargo and handle ICD (inland container depot) cargo via Mundra
or Nhava Sheva.
The new shipping service will
also accept coastal cargo from
ports on the western and eastern coasts of India for transshipment at Mundra. Further, it
will accept transshipment cargo
from Southeast Asia and the
Fareast via Mundra, the MoTC
explains.
Further, the ministry said the
service will include two vessels
– M/V Hansa Magdeburg and
M/V Hansa Duburg.
Earlier this week, Mwani Qatar had announced the launch
of a new direct service between
Hamad Port and Sohar Port in
Oman. The service is expected to
provide a boost to food imports
into the country.
‘Over 13,000 people’ hit
by decision to sever ties
QNA
Doha
T
he National Human Rights
Committee (NHRC) of
Qatar has announced that
at least 13,314 people were directly affected by the decision
of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates and Bahrain to sever
relations with Qatar.
This came in a report released
by NHRC documenting the violations against the citizens of
the four Gulf states following
the decision by three Gulf states
(Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain) to cut ties with Qatar, impose a land blockade and close
the airspace and sea routes.
Additionally, these three
states notified their citizens that
they have to leave Qatar within
14 days, and banned Qatari citizens from entering their lands.
The violations included family separations, suspending the
right to travel, education, work,
freedom of opinion, residency
and ownership, the report published by Al Sharq Qatari daily
said yesterday.
The report adds that not only
Indian minister meets Qatar’s envoy
T
S
“Those who have tried to encircle us lost the moral high
ground on the first day [of the
sanctions] and lost the diplomatic war later,” he said, pointing
to calls by US Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson to raise the ongoing
blockade on Qatar. “Following
Tillerson’s call, they [those countries imposing the sanctions]
have tried to pull the wool over
international community’s eyes.”
He continued, “We, as Qatar, plan to raise the issue with
international institutions and
organisations; we want a stepback away from these immoral
approaches.
“Their attitude shows they
are not in favour of dialogue or
negotiation; this is apparent in
their official statements.
“They want to enforce their
directives no matter what, which
is absolutely unacceptable for
Qatar.
“Qatar is ready for sincere and
constructive dialogue. But first
they must withdraw [the sanctions] as we cannot negotiate
when a gun is being held to our
head.”
sity and school reports, work
contracts, family statements,
and other documents that are
available in the committee’s
archive.
The report says that the government of Saudi Arabia, UAE,
and Bahrain have violated in
those decisions a number of
principle international human
rights laws and rules, which are
one of the most fundamental
human rights.
For the simplicity and unanimity these rules enjoy, and
their wide application, these
rules are treated as international
norms.
These resolutions blatantly
violate a number of Articles of
the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (Most notably:
5,9,12,13,19,23, and 26) and other Articles in the International
Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (most notably Part III of Article 6, and
Articles 10 and 13) and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (Part II of
Article 2), in addition to Articles
in the: Arab Charter on Human
Rights (Articles 3,8,26,32, and
33).
Qatar takes
part in IAEA
board meeting
The International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA)’s board
of governors has started its
meetings of the summer session.
The delegation of Qatar is taking
part in the meeting as a member
of the board of governors.
Permanent Representative
of Qatar to the International
Organisations in Vienna and
its Permanent Representative
to the IAEA, HE Sheikh Ali bin
Jassim al-Thani, is leading Qatar’s
delegation at the meeting.
HE Sheikh Ali bin Jassim al-Thani
presented Qatar’s annual report
on the IAEA’s activities, praising
the agency’s role in developing
nuclear energy’s contribution
to enhance development and
manage nuclear security and
safety issues.
He called on the IAEA to adopt
an integration policy along with
other international organisations
in order to address the global
economic, social, environmental
and prosperity challenges.
Uruguay FM
meets Qatar’s
ambassador
Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Uruguay, Rodolfo Gustavo Nin
Novoa, met Qatar’s ambassador
Mohamed bin Hassan Jaber alJaber in Montevideo yesterday.
Talks dealt with bilateral relations
and means of enhancing them
and issues of common concern.
Philippines lifts deployment
ban on Qatar-bound workers
he Department of Labour and Employment
(DOLE) of the Philippine government yesterday
lifted a temporary deployment
ban – imposed on June 6 and
partially lifted a day later – on
overseas Filipino workers travelling to Qatar for work, aljazeera.com reported.
Labour secretary Silvestre
Bello III said the decision to fully
lift the moratorium was made
after consultations with the
Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA) and the endorsement of
the Philippine Overseas Labour
Office (POLO).
Bello also said the Qatari
government had guaranteed
the safety of the approximately
alem bin Mubarak al-Shafi,
Qatar’s ambassador to
Turkey, has said the antiQatar sanctions have “nothing
to do with law, religion or morality”, aljazeera.com reports.
“These sanctions will only
serve to bolster our national
unity and our commitment to
our principles,” he told Anadolu
news agency.
“Those who have tried to
encircle us lost the moral
high ground on the first
day [of the sanctions] and
lost the diplomatic war
later”
did Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain take severe steps on 5 June,
2017, that involved the shutting
down of sea, land, and air routes,
but also actions that affected the
Gulf citizens. Such actions disregarded all human rights and
humanitarian standards.
Chairman of NHRC, Dr Ali
al-Marri, said the Conflict Resolution Commission of the GCC
has to play its role in resolving
the ongoing rift, and even more
vitally when the conflict directly
affects the lives and rights of a
large number of the GCC citizens.
The NHRC team recorded
roughly 764 complaints regarding various types of violations
against citizens of the four Gulf
states between 5 June, the date
on which the blockade, ban, and
boycott started, and Monday
June 12.
The NHRC’s statistics are
based upon visits by the victims to its headquarters and
the special forms prepared by
NHRC that were filled by the
victims with detailed information, and included copies of
the victims’ I.D., while some
cases victims attached univer-
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin
Hamad al-Thani and HH the
Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin
Hamad al-Thani yesterday sent
cables of condolences to Queen
Elizabeth of the United Kingdom
and Prime Minister Theresa
May, in which they expressed
condolences on the victims of
the fire at a residential tower in
western London, wishing speedy
recovery for the injured.
240,000 Filipinos in the country.
A total of 28 new teachers
and 20 bus drivers
for PSD and 51 new
teachers for PISQ have
pending applications
with the Philippine
Overseas Employment
Administration
The decision means that the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)
can resume the processing of
new applications and issuance of overseas employment
certificates for Qatar-bound
workers, according to The
Manila Times.
Bello said labour attaché David Des Dicang requested the immediate deployment of teachers
and drivers hired by the Philippine School Doha (PSD) and
Philippine International SchoolQatar.
A total of 28 new teachers
and 20 bus drivers for PSD and
51 new teachers for PISQ have
pending applications with the
POEA.
The Philippine embassy and
POLO also recommended the
deployment of an assessment
team composed of officials from
DOLE, POEA, the Overseas
Workers Welfare Administration
and the undersecretary for migrant workers affairs of the DFA
to Qatar.
Minister of State for External Affairs of India, VK Singh, met Qatar’s ambassador to India Mohamed
bin Khater al-Khater in New Delhi yesterday. They discussed bilateral relations and ways to develop
them along with topics of common interest.
Suspension of postal services
Gulf states’ ministers meet ‘clear violation of UPU statute’
to discuss airspace logjam
Reuters
Montreal
G
ulf states transport ministers and aviation officials kicked off a meeting
yesterday at the UN
aviation agency’s headquarters in Montreal to discuss the
airspace standoff resulting from
the decision by Saudi Arabia, the
UAE and Bahrain to cut ties with
Qatar.
Any direct talks would be the
first since the diplomatic crisis
erupted last week that led to the
blockade of Qatar.
Qatar had asked the Inter-
national Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to intervene after its Gulf neighbours
closed their airspace to Qatar
flights.
The Saudi transport minister
arrived at the ICAO headquarters yesterday.
Qatar is expected to meet separately with council members
and ICAO president, according to sources familiar with the
meeting.
One of the sources said the
talks are expected to last for two
days.
Qatar has indicated that it will
ask the council to resolve the
conflict, using a dispute resolu-
tion mechanism under the Chicago Convention, which is overseen by ICAO.
The agency does not impose
binding rules, but wields clout
through safety and security
standards that are usually followed by its 191-member countries.
ICAO — a UN agency that
regulates international air travel
under the Chicago Convention
— had said it would host talks
of ministers and senior officials
from Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt to seek
a “consensus-based solution”
that addressed “current regional
concerns.”
QNA
Doha
C
hairman and Managing
Director of Qatar Postal
Service Company (QPost) Faleh Mohamed al-Naemi
has termed the suspension of
postal services with Qatar by
the United Arab Emirates, Saudi
Arabia and Bahrain as a clear
violation of the constitution and
agreements of Universal Postal
Union (UPU), which should be
respected by all member-states.
In a statement to Qatar News
Agency (QNA), al-Naemi said
that Q-Post has contacted the
Director General of UPU and
briefed him on the current situation. Q-Post has also sent a
written notice and called for ur-
gent and bold actions to enforce
the constitution and agreements
of UPU, he added.
“We look forward to working effectively with the UPU in
a manner consistent with the
spirit and systems of the UPU,”
Q-Post chairman said.
“We look forward to
working effectively with
the UPU in a manner
consistent with the spirit
and systems of the UPU”
He stressed that the suspension of these postal services with
Qatar has had a significant impact on the daily life of millions
of citizens and residents of Qatar, who have been unfairly targeted by the one-sided decision
of stopping services.
Q-Post chairman added that
the UPU conventions and regulations consider countries which
endorsed the UPU constitution
as a single postal area for the exchange of parcels among themselves under the name of the
UPU, adding that the freedom of
transit is guaranteed throughout
the territory of the union.
This term is contained in the
treaty establishing the UPU in
1874 and indicates the ideas of
unity and close co-operation
among the founders of the UPU.
Al-Naemi stressed that despite the clear violation by the
three GCC countries of the UPU
constitution and agreements,
Q-Post remains committed to
these international agreements
and stands ready to send postal
parcels to these countries.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
3
QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD
CIVIL STRIFE
DISEASE
CRACKDOWN
STEPPING BACK
REFORM
Saudi cop shot, hurt in
flashpoint Shia city
Yemen cholera toll rises as
‘humanity loses to politics’
Bahrain court jails 26 Shias
over attacks on police
UN says won’t play a part in
Iraqi Kurd referendum
Bouteflika urges spending
cuts, warns on foreign debt
A Saudi policeman has been shot and wounded
in a flashpoint Shia-dominated city, the interior
ministry said yesterday. It was the latest incident
in the Qatif area, where violence has flared over
the past month. The policeman was shot “from
an unknown source” late on Tuesday while on
duty in the Gulf coast city of Qatif, the interior
ministry said in a statement. On June 1 in Qatif
a car exploded in the street, killing the two
occupants who the ministry later identified as
wanted suspects. One of them, Fadel al-Hamada,
was sought for involvement in the killing of 10
security forces members over the past two years
in the Dammam and Qatif areas.
The death toll from a cholera outbreak is
approaching 1,000 in Yemen, a war-devastated
and impoverished country where “humanity is
losing out to politics”, a senior UN official said in
Amman yesterday. “Time is running out to save
people who are being killed or being starved
and now you have cholera as well adding to
that complication,” said Jamie McGoldrick, UN
humanitarian coordinator in Yemen. “We are
struggling because of the lack of resources.
We need some action immediately,” he said at
a press briefing in the Jordanian capital. “What
is heartbreaking in Yemen is that humanity is
losing out to the politics,” said McGoldrick.
A Bahraini court yesterday issued
sentences of up to life in prison for
26 Shias over the attempted murder of
policemen in the kingdom, a judicial
source said. Twenty of the defendants
were jailed for life while the rest were each
handed 15-year prison terms, the source
said. They were found guilty of forming a
“terrorist group” between 2011 and 2013
and attempting to kill policemen in the Shia
village of Diraz, west of Manama. Villages
of the Shia majority have been scene to
frequent protests and clashes since in March
2011.
The United Nations said yesterday it will not
have a role in the Iraqi Kurdish referendum
on independence planned to be held in
September. The United Nations Assistance
Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement
yesterday that “it has no intention to be
engaged in any way or form as concerns the
referendum, to be held on 25 September”.
Iraq’s Kurds said the referendum on
independence will go ahead despite warnings
from western powers that a vote in favour of
secession could trigger conflict with Baghdad
at a time when the war against Islamic State
militants is not yet won.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has
ordered his government to keep reducing
imports and to rationalise spending to cope with
a sharp fall in oil and gas earnings, but warned
against turning to foreign debt. Bouteflika, who
has rarely been seen in public since suffering a
stroke in 2013, appeared on state television briefly
presiding over a cabinet meeting on Wednesday
with the new government put in place last month
after legislative elections. In a statement from the
presidency, Bouteflika urged the newly appointed
government to enact budget cuts in a 2017 law
but avoid foreign loans, suggesting instead
“unconventional” internal funding.
Qatar ‘only
GCC state’
with charity
regulator
Fresh greens!
Sudan lauds
Qatar over
Darfur role
QNA
New York
QNA
Doha
T
T
he chairman of the National
Committee for Human Rights
(NHRC), Dr Ali bin Smaikh alMarri, yesterday met the Assistant
Secretary-General for Humanitarian
Partnerships with the Middle East and
Central Asia at the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Rashid Khalikov.
During the meeting, they discussed
the humanitarian and human rights
challenges resulting from the siege
imposed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and
Bahrain on the State of Qatar.
The two sides discussed the unprecedented measures taken by the isolation
cluster, classifying some of the Qatari
humanitarian organisations as terrorist organisations, on the terrorism list
issued by those States as a unilateral
coercive measure.
Al-Marri stressed that these measures are intended to obstruct the external humanitarian assistance provided
by the State of Qatar by smearing the
reputation of its charitable organisations and obstructing their work.
He added that the accusations made
by the three countries have been ignored,
because they were not issued by relevant
international institutions of the United
Nations and because of the regional and
international reputation and credibility
on both regional and international levels
as well as the operational and financial
partnerships with the United Nations
agencies and mechanisms, particularly
OCHA, Unicef and UNHCR.
The NHRC chairman noted that Qatari humanitarian organisations have
partnerships with specialised international agencies and humanitarian organisations such as the International
Red Cross and the Humanitarian Affairs
Office of the Organization of Islamic
Co-operation, as well as the strong
partnerships linking Qatari humanitarian organisations with their counterparts in the Gulf Co-operation Council.
He pointed that the State of Qatar is
the only GCC state that has established
a regulatory authority to oversee and
control the charitable and humanitarian activities.
He considered that this regulatory
authority to be a regional model in the
field of supervision and control, as
documented by international reports
issued by the UN, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US Department
of Treasury.
“Thanks to these efforts, no Qatari
humanitarian organisation has been
listed on the United Nations’ international terrorism list, and some of them
are in consultative status with the international organisation,” he said.
Al-Marri denounced the blockade
imposed by the three countries, in a
failed attempt to obstruct the Qatari
humanitarian work.
He considered the unilateral move of
classifying Qatari humanitarian organisations as “Terrorist organisations” to
be a violation of the right to development, assistance and relief as well as a
violation of the rights of vulnerable and
needy communities.
He called for a prompt action by the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
to stop those violations and unfair accusations against Qatari humanitarian
organisations.
A Palestinian boy sells vegetables in Gaza City yesterday.
Qatar sees 7% rise in
2017 tourist arrivals
QNA
Doha
T
he number of tourist arrivals
to Qatar increased by 7% from
January to May 2017 compared
to the corresponding period in 2016,
figures released by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) showed yesterday.
The largest contributors to the
growth were visiting nationals of the
Americas and Europe, whose numbers
increased by 9% and 14%, respectively.
Further data breakdown by visa type
shows an increase by 27% in leisure
visitors, demonstrating the increasingly diverse leisure options for tourists seeking family-friendly entertainment and authentic hospitality.
Qatar also witnessed a 40-% increase in stopover visitors thanks to
the introduction of a free 96-hour
transit visa, combined with the success of the +Qatar campaign, which
will continue to offer stopover passengers a free night’s stay in a 5- or
“Qatar has kept its skies and ports of
entry open, Qatar Airways continues
to fly to and from more than 130 destinations globally, and GCC currencies
are still accepted at all tourism establishments,” said al-Ibrahim.
“We will always keep our doors open
to visitors and stand ready to welcome
them wherever they are coming from.”
QTA continues to ramp up efforts in
the lead up to the Qatar Summer Festival, and is co-ordinating with private
sector partners to launch all retail,
hospitality and entertainment offers
according to plan.
Regional promotional efforts this
summer are focused on targeting visitors from Kuwait and Oman through
marketing, as well as partnerships
with on-the-ground tour operators in
those countries.
“The largest contribution to growth
in GCC visitor arrivals to Qatar during the period January-May 2017 came
from Kuwaiti nationals, whose numbers increased by 7%.
Evidently the time is ripe for us
to refocus promotional efforts elsewhere in the GCC, and we look forward to welcoming our brothers and
sisters from Kuwait and Oman in
their home away from home,” al-Ibrahim said.
Beyond the Arab World, QTA continues to intensify promotional efforts internationally through its wide
network of representative offices in
Turkey, US, Italy, Germany, UK, France
and Singapore.
“There is a huge appetite for the
kind of authentic experiences that Qatar’s tourism sector offers,” al-Ibrahim
said.
“We are especially proud of our
partners who continue to uphold Qatar’s values of hospitality, extending a
helping hand to tourists and visitors,
regardless of their origin or nationality. Qatar’s tourism industry has the
ability to maintain professionalism,
adherence to ethics, and impeccable
service during exceptional circumstances, and that will be the key to the
sector’s resilience.”
Egyptians slam
proposal to cede
islands to Riyadh
P
rominent Egyptian political parties yesterday criticised President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s plan to transfer two
Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia
and urged people to take to the
streets in protest.
Parliament voted on Wednesday to back a treaty to hand over
the two uninhabited islands of
Tiran and Sanfir and Sisi is expected to ratify the decision soon.
The Social Democratic Party,
along with several other parties and groups, called for protests today. Thousands of people
backed a Facebook page named
“Giving up land is treason,”
which urges people to protest in
Cairo’s Tahrir Square, birthplace
of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
It shows a box full of Saudi
cash, which it describes as the
title deeds for the islands.
Syrians refugees head home on foot for Eid
By Umit Bektas, Reuters
Cilvegozu, Turkey
C
National Committee for Human Rights
chairman, Dr Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri,
hosts Assistant Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Partnerships with
the Middle East and Central Asia
at the United Nations Office for the
Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Rashid Khalikov, at his office in Doha
yesterday.
4-star hotel throughout the summer.
Top nationalities attracted by stopover packages are nationals of the
United States, United Kingdom, India,
South Africa, and Pakistan.
According to Hassan al-Ibrahim, QTA
chief tourism development officer, targeting stopover passengers and the introduction of the transit visa form part
of QTA’s strategy to diversify Qatar’s
tourism offering and source markets.
“We continue to work towards
launching the next chapter of the Qatar National Tourism Sector Strategy (QNTSS) and implementing it in
pursuit of a thriving hospitality and
tourism sector,” he said. “The strategy’s main pillar is diversification: of
products, of services and of source
markets to guarantee the sustainability
of the sector and its continued growth
in spite of any changes in the world
around us.”
Despite the ongoing GCC dispute,
QTA officials expressed confidence in
the tourism sectors ability to maintain
strong performance.
he Sudanese government has praised the role
played by Qatar in achieving peace in Darfur, noting that
the Doha Agreement for peace
in Darfur came with modern
standards which provided an
international recognition of its
ability to restore security and
stability and strengthen the
comprehensive
development
renaissance in Darfur.
In a his speech before the Security Council on Wednesday,
Permanent Representative of
Sudan to the United Nations
Omer Dahab welcomed the UN’s
unprecedented
reaffirmation
that the situation in Darfur returned to normal.
He described the resolution
of the Security Council and the
United Nations to the phased
withdrawal of the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as a natural development
that came as a culmination of
Sudan’s long-standing efforts to
achieve this goal.
Sudan’s Permanent Representative to the UN thanked
Qatar for its efforts to convince
the international community
to support the peace process in
Darfur and to respond to its advantages, reiterating Khartoum’s
commitment to continue its cooperation with all partners in the
peace process.
Omer Dahab said that the report submitted by the UN Secretary-General confirmed that
UNAMID military component
would be reduced in two phases
of six months each.
arrying suitcases, shopping bags and toddlers,
thousands of refugees
yesterday walked back home into
Syria from Turkey ahead of the
Eid festival that marks the end of
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Turkey has taken in some 3mn
Syrian migrants since the start of
civil war in 2011, making it home
to the world’s largest refugee
population.
Now Ankara is giving Syrian
refugees the right to return to
Turkey within a month if they
want to go home to celebrate the
Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Some said they wanted to start
again in their homeland, and
would return within the month if
it did not work out, while others
said they wanted to return to Syria for good, citing the difficulty of
finding employment in Turkey.
“One day you can find a job,
the other day you can’t,” said
Sevsen Um Mustafa as she
walked toward the border crossing with two daughters in tow.
“Sometimes they make you
work but they don’t pay. Even if
they do, it’s not enough.”
“Even smelling the soil of
Aleppo is better than here,” said
the former Aleppo resident.
“I’d rather die there because of
war than here because of starvation.”
The majority of Syrian refugees
in Turkey live outside the government-built camps and struggle
to make ends meet as the cost of
food, rent and clothing usually
exceeds their incomes.
The government, which tightened its border security after a
2016 deal with the European Union to stem illegal migration, estimates it has spent some $25bn
on housing the refugees.
Authorities did not give any
figures on how many Syrians
have returned so far.
A Reuters witness said at least
3,000 people crossed on foot
through the dusty Cilvegozu
border crossing into Syria during
over several hours yesterday.
Ankara introduced work permits for Syrians in 2016 but
many, like 22-year-old Mohamed Ali, said opportunities are
scarce.
“Even if I worked for the whole
month, I’d have 200-300 liras
($57-$85) left over after paying the rent,” said Ali, who was
heading back to his hometown
of Afrin, in northwest Syria after
four years of working as a textile
labourer in Istanbul.
“I had no rights of leave, no insurance. I was miserable.”
The offer to return applies to
Syrian nationals with valid travel
documents who cross through
the Cilvegozu and Oncupinar
border gates, authorities said.
The Eid al-Fitr holiday is expected to begin on June 25.
Those who wish to return can
do so until July 14.
Anyone who comes back after
that will be treated as new arrival
and subject to the regular immigration process, a local official at
the Hatay governor’s office said.
Syrians carry their belongings as they walk to the Turkish
Cilvegozu border gate, located opposite of Syrian crossing
point of Bab al-Hawa in Reyhanli, in Hatay province, Turkey.
4
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
AFRICA
Lesotho PM’s wife killed
days before inauguration
AFP
Maseru
J
ust days before his inauguration, Lesotho’s incoming prime minister was left
shaken by the murder of his estranged wife in a shooting highlighting the political uncertainty
which has long gripped the
mountain kingdom.
Thomas Thabane’s 58-yearold wife Lipolelo, was shot dead
on Wednesday in Ha Masana village, 35km (22 miles) south of the
capital Maseru where she lives,
as she was driving with a friend.
Samonyane Ntsekele, the secretary general of Thabane’s All
Basotho Convention party, said
the prime minister-elect was
devastated by the shooting.
“Yes it is true that Mrs Lipolelo was shot dead last night ...
everyone is traumatised by these
developments,” he said.
Thabane, whose party won a
parliamentary election earlier
this month, is due to replace Pakalitha Mosisili, prime minister
Thabane: is to be sworn in today.
since 2015, after he had formed
a coalition with three other parties.
The gunning down of
Thabane’s wife just two days
before he is due to take office,
has created confusion in the
tiny poverty-stricken country,
completely surrounded by South
Africa.
Thabane is expected to be
sworn in today amid hopes his
new coalition government will
end the political uncertainty
that has long dogged the mountain kingdom.
His ABC party won snap elections on June 3 but failed to get
an outright majority, leading it
to negotiate joint rule with the
Alliance of Democrats (AD), Basotho National Party (BNP) and
Reformed Congress of Lesotho
(RCL).
The new alliance will replace
the government of Mosisili, a
seven-party coalition plagued
by infighting and corruption.
Mosisili’s government was
toppled in March and elections
triggered when opposition parties called a vote of no-confidence which he lost.
Thabane, 77, previously had
served as premier of the nation
of 2mn people after coming to
power in 2012 – but was forced
to flee to South Africa following
an attempted military coup in
2014.
He has pledged to bring the
country stability and address its
chronic poverty and 22.7% adult
HIV rate.
“We are fully cognisant of
our mandate to work tirelessly
for peace and stability as well as
economic recovery and prosperity,” he said.
Thabane will be sworn in at
the Setsoto stadium in the capi-
tal Maseru, marking the country’s third attempt at a coalition
government.
Both of the previous joint administrations have collapsed.
The Thabane-led alliance
won 63 of the 120 seats in parliament, while outgoing Mosisili’s Democratic Congress (DC)
scored just 30.
Stability was the dominant
theme of the election in the
kingdom known as Africa’s
Switzerland, because of its
mountainous scenery.
Political analyst Mafa Sejanamane told AFP that the main
challenge facing the new government will be to “manage the
security forces”.
“The new government also
needs to unscramble Mosisili’s government system, as it is
known that he placed a number
of allies in key positions in the
last days of his tenure,” said Sejanamane.
Thabane has vowed that his
new government will be “committed to the rule of law ... good
governance, rebuilding and
strengthening of the pillars of
democracy”.
Thabane secured victory
just four months after his return from South Africa having
claimed there was an army plot
to kill him.
He only headed back after
the removal of army chief Tlali
Kamoli who led the putsch.
Lesotho has a long history of
political instability having suffered coups in 1986 and 1991.
South Africa’s foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane
warned Lesotho this week that
Pretoria will not tolerate another
putsch.
“The coup thing is clear: we
will not allow it to happen. Not
in our backyard,” she told local
media.
South Africa led mediation efforts after Thabane’s ouster and
its Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected in Lesotho
for the inauguration ceremony.
Lesotho’s economy is totally
reliant on South Africa which it
supplies with water – one of its
major exports.
Pretoria raises black
ownership threshold
for mining companies
Reuters
Pretoria/Johannesburg
S
outh Africa has raised the
minimum threshold for
black ownership of mining companies to 30% from
26%, the government said yesterday.
Mining firms in the world’s
top platinum producer have
complained about a lack of
consultation over revisions to
an industry charter that sets
targets for black ownership and
participation in the powerful
sector.
The charter is part of a wider
empowerment drive across
Africa’s most industrialised
economy designed to rectify
the disparities of apartheid
that persist more than two
decades since the end of white
minority rule in 1994.
The Chamber of Mines,
which represents mining firms,
said it would take the government to court over the charter
because it had not been consulted sufficiently and feared
the new rules would create
regulatory uncertainty and
scare off investors.
Announcing the new rules
yesterday, Mines Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said companies
had 12 months to meet the new
30% target.
The rand fell 2% after Zwane
announced details of the revisions.
Johannesburg’s Mining Index ended the day more than
3% lower, underscoring investor concerns about the charter
and the uncertainties it raises.
“The value destruction is
hard to quantify and the uncertainty will persist. What
is certain is that South Africa
continues to be a terrible destination for mining investment
and assets in South Africa will
continue to trade at a discount,” said Ben Davis at London-based Liberum Capital.
The government has said in
the past that companies must
stick to ownership targets even
if black shareholders sell their
stakes but Zwane said it had
not yet decided whether mining firms must maintain the
threshold permanently.
The Chamber of Mines said
it would also take this issue
back to courts.
It argues that a company
should only be obliged to meet
its black ownership targets
once.
The Mining Charter was introduced in 2002 to increase
black ownership of the mining industry, which accounts
for about 7% of South Africa’s
economic output.
Black South Africans make
up 80% of the 54mn population, yet most of the economy
in terms of ownership of land
and companies remains in the
hands of whites, who account
for about 8% of the population.
Zwane told a news conference in the capital Pretoria that
he had consulted widely with
businesses.
“We will engage with business going forward in a respectable manner. We will never take them to court,” he said.
The new charter stipulates
that mining firms must pay 1%
of their annual turnover to the
Mining Transformation and
Development Agency, which
helps black communities.
Under the new rules, prospecting rights must be 50%
black owned and mining rights
should be 30% black-owned.
Mining firms are required to
procure 70% of goods and 80%
of services from black-owned
companies.
This could prove difficult for
many companies, as much of
the expensive and sophisticated equipment used on South
Africa’s increasingly mechanised mines is imported from
foreign manufacturers.
The new rules also state that
half of the members of mining company boards must be
black, and a quarter of the
overall board must be women.
Officials at the Chamber of
Mines said they hoped legal
action would force the government back to the negotiating
table.
“We will not sign this charter because it is not our charter,” Chamber of Mines chief
executive Roger Baxter told a
news conference in Johannesburg.
The chamber, which represents companies such as Anglo
American and Sibanye Gold,
did not take part in the launch
of the new charter because of
what it said was a lack of prior
consultation.
Children stand yesterday among debris of a damaged house, following heavy rains in Niamey.
Nine children die as homes collapse in Niger
AFP
Niamey
A
t least nine children have
been killed in Niger as
heavy rains over the past
few days caused the collapse of
houses in the capital Niamey,
the authorities said on Wednesday.
The children were killed as
buildings gave way in different
parts of the city, said Zourkaleini Maiga, secretary general of
the local authority.
One mother told local television how three of her four
children had been killed as they
sheltered from the downpour
by the wall of a neighbouring
house.
and four months, has only just
started.
Last month, the United Nations warned that fresh flooding
this year would affect more than
106,000 people in Niger.
Last year’s flooding claimed
the lives of 50 people and affected 145,000 people, mainly
in the desert regions of Agadez
and Tahoua.
AFP
Lagos
N
igeria’s military has
rejected a call for senior army officers to be
investigated for possible war
crimes in the fight against Boko
Haram Islamists.
Amnesty International named
six serving or retired army officers whom it said should be
probed to establish whether they
were responsible for murder,
torture and disappearances.
It alleged that more than 1,200
people had been extra-judicially
killed and thousands more arbitrarily arrested during the
bloody, eight-year conflict.
But the army’s chief of civilian-military affairs, Major General Nuhu Angbazo, told reporters in Abuja on Wednesday that
there was “no evidence” against
any of the named commanders.
Angbazo said that the findings
were contained in the report of
a board of inquiry, comprising
seven military officers and two
lawyers, which was set up to look
into the claims.
Their report has not been
published in full.
Amnesty’s allegations were
contained in a 133-page report
Stars on their Shoulders. Blood
on their Hands, published in June
2015.
Similar allegations made in
the past have typically been dismissed but President Muhammadu Buhari, who was just one
month into office at the time,
vowed to look into the claims.
Separate claims from Human
Rights Watch of extra-judicial
killings, rape and sexual coercion
at camps for those displaced by
the conflict were also dismissed
in the report.
So, too, were Amnesty claims
that Nigeria’s security forces
had killed at least 150 pro-Biafra
protesters and injured hundreds
more since August 2015 in the
southeast.
Angbazo said the board had
raised concerns about several issues relating to the Boko
Haram insurgency, including
the processing of detainees and
overcrowding at military jails.
“The current delay in the trials of Boko Haram detainees resulting in some cases in deaths
in custody is unacceptable and a
denial of the rights of fair trial,”
he added.
Lack of access to legal representation or visits from legal
practitioners was a “violation
of human rights”, he said, adding the board had recommended
improvements.
Amnesty’s Nigeria director,
Osai Ojigho, said: “We stand by
the findings of our research and
our call for an investigation that
is independent, impartial and
thorough, criteria that this panel
clearly does not meet.”
She called for a presidential
commission of inquiry into the
allegations and for the report to
be made public.
South African watchdog opens probe into Zuma allies
AFP
Johannesburg
S
outh Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog has
launched an investigation
into several allies of President
Jacob Zuma allegedly linked to
corruption at three state-owned
companies, based on a trove of
recently leaked e-mails.
South Africa’s Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane said she
would probe alleged “improper
or dishonest” acts and “unlawful
enrichment ... by certain public
officials” at rail company Prasa,
power company Eskom and the
Transnet freight logistics conglomerate.
One of the allegations involves
suspected kickbacks worth 5.3bn
rand ($411mn) on a contract to
purchase locomotives from China for Transnet, Mkhwebane said
in a statement late on Wednesday.
Brian Molefe, a close Zuma
ally and a former head of Eskom,
is among the people who will be
investigated.
Tanzania shuts down newspaper for two years over articles on mining row
Tanzanian authorities has banned a
newspaper for two years over articles it
published linking two former Tanzanian
presidents to alleged improprieties in mining
contracts signed in the 1990s and early
2000s.
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli warned
media and opposition politicians on
Wednesday not to link former leaders to
The heavy rains also devastated one of the main markets in
the city centre.
And two Niger television
channels, Tele-Sahel and TalTV, were knocked off air on
Tuesday evening after their studios were flooded, the station
chiefs said.
Niger’s rainy season, which
normally lasts between three
Nigerian
army
rejects
war
crimes
probe
allegations of impropriety in past mining
contracts.
“The government ... has suspended Mawio
newspaper from publication for a period
of 24 months effectively from today,”
government spokesman Hassan Abbasi said
in a statement.
A court had ordered Mawio to be shut down
indefinitely in January 2016 but a court
overturned that ruling in March.
Other newspapers have also published
articles citing calls from lawmakers for
Benjamin Mkapa and Jakaya Kikwete to be
stripped of their immunity to face criminal
investigation over mining contracts signed
during their respective administrations.
Neither Mpaka nor Kikwete were reachable
for comment.
Thousands of leaked e-mails
have recently emerged in the local press exposing alleged misconduct over lucrative government contracts awarded to the
Guptas, an influential Indian
business family.
A report published last year by
the state ombudsman accused
the Guptas of wielding unprecedented influence over the government, including letting them
select ministers.
It also ordered a judicial inquiry into the allegations, but
Zuma has opposed the inquiry
and launched a court challenge
against the report.
The Democratic Alliance, the
main opposition party, criticised
the probe yesterday for being
too narrow and not focusing on
Zuma.
“It appears that this investigation has been crafted as narrowly
as possible to create the veneer
of a state capture investigation,
while at the same time protecting
the real power brokers,” the party
said.
In power since 2009, Zuma
has been engulfed by graft scan-
dals and several humiliating
court rulings while grappling
with record unemployment and a
sluggish economy.
His ruling African National
Congress (ANC) party welcomed
the decision to investigate the
claims contained in the e-mails.
“We trust that the investigation will shed some much needed
light on the disturbing allegations which, if left unattended,
have the effect of undermining
the integrity and credibility of
our government and state,” the
ANC said.
At least 19 killed in Wednesday’s hotel attack in Somali capital
At least 19 people were killed when Islamist militants
launched a car bomb and gun attack on a busy hotel
and adjacent restaurant in the Somali capital, the
police said yesterday.
In a separate incident later in the day, at least two
soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb, planted
by the Islamist militant group Shebaab, struck a car
carrying government troops in Central Shabelle
outside of the capital, the military said.
In the Wednesday evening attack, a car driven by a
suicide bomber rammed into the Posh Hotel in south
Mogadishu before gunmen rushed into Pizza House,
an adjacent restaurant, and took 20 people hostage.
District police chief Abdi Bashir told Reuters that
Somali security forces took back control of the
restaurant at midnight after the gunmen had held
hostages inside for several hours.
Five of the gunmen were killed, Bashir said.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
5
AMERICAS
IMMIGRATION
ELECTIONS
RIGHTS
INSURGENCY
US, Mexico, Slim charity
to work on migration
Argentina’s Fernandez
presents new party
Politician’s ‘disappearance’
stirs Chavez’s home state
Colombia’s Farc reassures
on disarmament deadline
The United States, Mexico and three Central
American nations will this week unveil plans
to work with billionaire Carlos Slim’s charity
to tackle crime in Central America and find
new ways of slowing migration, according
to a draft document. Top US, Mexican and
Central American officials meet in Miami today
to discuss how to cut migration and improve
conditions in Guatemala, Honduras and El
Salvador, a cluster of poor, violent countries
known as the Northern Triangle that most USbound migrants set out from. The document,
seen in Mexico, contains an agenda for the twoday meeting in Miami and lists several specific
objectives it refers to as “deliverables.”
Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez
on Wednesday announced a new political party
as she eyes a bid for a Senate seat in October’s
mid-term election. Rather than affiliating for the
election with Peronism, the country’s dominant
political movement, Fernandez and allies
unveiled the Citizen’s Unity party, which aims
to fight “the reinstatement of the neo-liberal
model” under President Mauricio Macri. By
further polarizing the opposition, however, the
populist Fernandez increases the chances of
Macri’s Cambiemos coalition making a strong
showing in October’s legislative election that
would enable him to deepen his free-market
reforms.
He had just left his office by car and was passing
a nearby church when the state security vans
swooped in on Wilmer Azuaje. Put on a military
plane hours later on May 3, the 40-year-old
regional lawmaker — one of the best-known
opposition figures in the rural home state of
former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez —
has not been seen since. “He’s disappeared.
They kidnapped him. There is complete silence,”
said his mother, Carmen Cordero, who has
been travelling between Barinas state and the
capital, Caracas, to seek information on him
at the headquarters of national intelligence
service Sebin. There has been no official word
on Azuaje’s case, and requests to authorities
Colombia’s Marxist Farc rebels pledged
yesterday to honour its commitment to
completely disarm by June 20 after a UN
monitoring mission said it had received fewer
weapons than expected. “We made the political
decision, we respect the agreement and we
will apply it whatever happens,” Farc’s leader,
Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko,
told reporters in Oslo. He was speaking after a
public meeting and discussion with Colombia’s
Foreign Minister Maria Holguin. Under a historic
peace agreement signed last year with the
Colombian government to end a half-century
of war, the Farc had to surrender their weapons
before the end of May.
Kelly Garcia, wife of lawmaker Wilmer Azuaje.
for information went unanswered. Azuaje is one of
more than 3,000 activists, mainly young protesters,
rounded up since massive demonstrations began
against President Nicolas Maduro and the ruling
Socialist Party at the start of April, according to
rights groups.
Daredevil
hangs over
Niagara falls
AFP
Niagara Falls, United States
A
merican daredevil Erendira
Wallenda dangled from her
teeth from under a helicopter in a series of eye-watering
acrobatic moves over the teeming
waters of Niagara Falls on Thursday.
US media said her stunt set a
Guinness World Record for height,
breaking a record established by
her husband Nik when hanging
from his teeth 250 feet above Silver
Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.
Dressed in a black body suit, the
mother-of-three sat and dangled
from a large hoop tethered to the
bottom of the helicopter, at one
point hooking her feet over the
hoop and hanging upside down
with her arms stretched toward
the water.
Wallenda hung above the falls
for around seven or eight minutes. She did splits hanging off the
hoop backwards, before biting into
an iron jaw and briefly dangling
by her teeth about 300 feet in the
air. Wallenda comes from a family
of stunt artists and world record
chasers.
Yesterday’s stunt marked the
fifth anniversary of her husband’s
walk on a tightrope over Niagara
Falls, which straddle the border
between Canada and the United
States.
Speaking to reporters, Wallenda described the experience as
“amazing” and “beautiful”, and
said she had hung twice from her
teeth, listening to music throughout so as to block out any sound
from spectators below.
Her stunt adds to the lore and
legend of the renowned Wallenda
family, famous for astonishing
audiences around the world with
their jaw-dropping stunts executed from dizzying heights.
In June 2013, Nik Wallenda became the first man to cross the
Grand Canyon on a tightrope,
completing that record-breaking
feat in under 23 minutes.
Trapeze artist Erendira Wallenda performs as she hangs from a helicopter flying over the Niagara Falls.
Lawmaker has another
operation after shooting
Trump says obstruction
probe is a ‘witch hunt’ U
Reuters
Washington
President Trump said the opposition
has no evidence
Reuters
Washington
U
S President Donald Trump lashed
out yesterday after a report that
he was under investigation into
possible obstruction of justice, dismissing as “phony” the notion his campaign
colluded with any Russian effort to sway
the 2016 US presidential election.
“They made up a phony collusion with
the Russians story, found zero proof, so
now they go for obstruction of justice on
the phony story. Nice,” Trump wrote on
Twitter, later repeating his accusation
that the probe is a “witch hunt”.
The Washington Post, citing unidentified officials, reported on Wednesday
that special counsel Robert Mueller is
investigating the Republican president
for possible obstruction of justice.
Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey told Congress last week he believed Trump fired
him in May to undermine the agency’s
Russia investigation.
Mueller was named by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein eight days
after Comey’s dismissal to lead the Russia investigation as a special counsel, a
position created to conduct investigations when a normal Justice Department
probe would present a conflict of interest
or in other extraordinary circumstances.
A source familiar with the Mueller investigation confirmed the Post report,
saying an examination of possible obstruction of justice charges was “unavoidable” given Comey’s testimony, although the issue may not become the
main focus of the probe.
Examining such possible charges will
allow investigators to interview key administration figures including Attorney
General Jeff Sessions, Rosenstein and
possibly Trump himself, the source told
Reuters.
While he was strongly critical of some
of Comey’s testimony to a Senate panel,
the president said last week that the
former FBI chief had vindicated him
when he said that while he was at the
agency, Trump was not the subject of the
FBI’s Russia probe.
While a sitting president is unlikely to
face criminal prosecution, obstruction of
justice could form the basis for impeachment.
Any such step would face a steep hurdle as it would require approval by the US
House of Representatives, which is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans.
According to the Washington Post,
Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, Mike Rogers, the head of the
National Security Agency, and Richard
Ledgett, the former deputy director at
the NSA, agreed to be interviewed by
Mueller’s investigators as early as this
week.
It cited five people briefed on the requests by Mueller’s team who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
The emergence of the obstruction of
justice inquiry may make it harder for
Trump to have Mueller removed.
On Monday, a Trump friend said the
president was considering dismissing
Mueller though the White House later
said he had no plans to do so.
Moscow has denied US intelligence
agencies’ conclusion that it interfered in
last year’s election campaign to try to tilt
the vote in Trump’s favour.
The White House has denied any collusion, and Trump has repeatedly complained about the probe, saying Democrats cannot accept his election win.
The investigations, however, have cast
a shadow over his five-month presidency.
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir
Putin said Comey had presented no evidence to prove that Moscow meddled in
the US election, adding that Washington
had tried to influence Russian elections
“year after year”, he said.
Putin also echoed Trump’s criticism of
Comey, saying it was “very strange” for
a former FBI chief to leak details of his
conversations with the US president to
the media through a friend of his.
The obstruction of justice investigation into Trump began days after Comey
was fired on May 9, according to people
familiar with the matter, the Washington
Post said.
The administration initially gave differing reasons for his dismissal, including that he had lost the confidence of the
FBI.
Trump later contradicted his own
staff, saying on May 11 he had the Russia
issue in mind when he fired Comey.
Comey told the Senate Intelligence
Committee on June 8 he believed Trump
had directed him in February to drop an
FBI probe into former national security
adviser, Michael Flynn, that was part of
the broader Russia investigation.
Several US congressional committees
are also looking into the question of Russian election interference and possible
Trump campaign collusion.
S Representative Steve
Scalise underwent a third
operation yesterday, a day
after suffering serious wounds
when a man who had expressed
anger toward President Donald
Trump opened fire on Republican
lawmakers at a baseball practice,
a source familiar with his condition said.
Trump yesterday reiterated his
call for unity in the aftermath of
the shooting in the Washington
suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.
But Nancy Pelosi, the top
Democrat in the House of Representatives, criticised some
Republicans who have blamed
the shooting on vitriol from the
political left. Scalise, a congressman from Louisiana who is the
No 3 House Republican, suffered
injuries to internal organs, broken bones and severe bleeding
after being shot in the left hip
on a baseball field in Alexandria
where he and other lawmakers were practising for a charity
baseball game.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Scalise
was undergoing another surgical
procedure yesterday.
Vice President Mike Pence
earlier said he visited MedStar
Washington Hospital Center,
where Scalise was being treated.
Scalise, 51, and three others were
wounded when a man identified
as James Hodgkinson, 66, from
the St.
Louis suburb of Belleville, Illinois opened fire on the Republican lawmakers. The others
wounded were a police officer, a
congressional aide and a lobbyist.
Trump, who visited Scalise at
the hospital on Wednesday, said
Scalise was “in some trouble but
he’s going to be okay, we hope”.
“It’s been much more difficult
than people even thought at the
time,” Trump told reporters at
the White House on Thursday,
adding that he also had visited a
wounded Capitol Police officer at
the hospital.
The gunman, who had a history of posting angry messages
against Trump and other Republicans on social media, died after
being wounded by police.
The shooting has raised questions about lawmakers’ security.
The charity game pitting Republican lawmakers against
their Democratic colleagues was
set to proceed as scheduled at
7.05pm(2305 GMT) at Nationals
Park, home of the Washington
Nationals Major League Baseball
team, with thousands of spectators expected in the stands.
Mercedes Drive in Alabama shudders at trade talk
AFP
Tuscaloosa, United States
P
resident Donald Trump’s harsh criticism of Germany’s trade practices
is sowing concerns in rural, Republican Alabama, where Mercedes-Benz has
been an economic engine for two decades.
The big German carmaker since 1997
has manufactured cars in Tuscaloosa, a
city of 90,000 in western Alabama previously known almost exclusively for being
the home of the University of Alabama and
its celebrated sports programme.
Mercedes now builds the C-class sedan,
and its GLE and GLS classes of sport utility vehicles at the massive plant, which
is marked with the company’s trademark
three-pronged star on a road dubbed
“Mercedes Drive”.
About 7,000 people pass through the
plant each day, including 3,600 full-time
workers. Among them is David Harbin,
a veteran employee in his 50s who started at the factory in 2002 and counts on
the company for health insurance and a
$50,000 a year job in logistics.
Threats of a trade war with Germany
have been a source of worry. “I would lose
my job,” said Harbin, who has two children. “It would be hard.”
Trump, who used a Mercedes Maybach
limousine at his 2005 wedding to Melania
Trump in Palm Beach, threatened in January to levy a 35% tariff on imported Ger-
man cars that he blames for large US trade
deficit.
Those threats are a source of bafflement
and worry in Alabama, which Trump carried with 62 of the vote in the 2016 election.
“You are talking about thousands and
thousands of people who would lose their
jobs overnight without the ability to easily
transition to another field,” said Tuscaloosa Mayor Walter Maddox said. “It would
be cataclysmic.”
Prior to Mercedes opening its factory,
“almost everybody worked at the coal
mines”, said Bo Hicks, co-owner of Druid
Brewery, which counts on the plant for
business.
“Mercedes gave jobs while coal mines
continued to shut down.” The company
has a key role in the city, where a large part
of the population are evangelical Christians and which continues to feel the legacy of racism and poverty.
To woo the German luxury carmaker,
local officials rolled out the red carpet with
$253mn in subsidies, tax abatements and
job-training incentives, money that they
consider well spent.
“Mercedes is the catalyst of the state of
Alabama,” said Greg Canfield, the state’s
commerce secretary said.
And Jim Page, chief executive of the
Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama,
said, “Candidly and with all due respect
to the president, any rhetoric that undermines or insults our economic allies is
inappropriate and is not productive in any
shape form of fashion.”
There is no indication thus far that
Trump’s attacks have affected the German carmaker’s sales. Mercedes has sold
145,658 cars in the US market so far this
year.
That is down 0.9 %, but smaller than
the 2% drop in industry-wide sales. In
2016, Mercedes, manufacturing at full capacity in Tuscaloosa, produced more than
300,000 of the 380,000 cars sold in the
US market.
The plant also exports some of the SUVs
it manufactures.
“We have a fairly close balance actually between what we produce here versus
what we actually sell here so we’re not way
out of balance,” said Jason Hoff, chief executive Mercedes-Benz US International.
“We are committed to the area.”
Mercedes has promised recently to use
“Made in Alabama” parts in its cars, and,
according to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, it sourced 80% of
the parts for the Mercedes C-class cars in
2017 from the United States or Canada, up
from 55% in 2016.
The company has nearly completed a
$1.3bn expansion of the plant announced
in 2015 to build next-generation SUVs,
bringing its total investment in the state
to $5.8bn.
The Mercedes plant also credited with
putting Alabama on the map for other
manufacturers.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
6
ASIA/AUSTRALASIA
SOLITARY FARMER
A woman dries rice in Binh Da village, outside
Hanoi, Vietnam.
CONTRABAND
PROBE
SCIENCE
ACCIDENT
Rare African rhino horns
seized at Vietnam airport
Thailand arrests suspect in
Bangkok hospital attack
China launches its first
X-ray space telescope
Two Malaysian pilots die
after jet goes missing
Two Vietnamese passengers were detained by
customs officers at Ho Chi Minh City’s airport
for transporting up to 4kg of rare African white
rhino horns in their luggage. The 36-year-old
man and 32-year-old woman had arrived at Tan
Son Nhat airport from Africa via a connecting
flight in Doha on Tuesday, the customs office
said. The horns were found cut into eight small
pieces, wrapped in aluminium foil and hidden
in cosmetic boxes, a boiling kettle and biscuit
boxes, the online newspaper Dan Tri reported.
The haul was identified as African white rhino
horns, which can fetch 8bn Vietnamese dong (US
$352,000) on the black market in Vietnam.
Thai authorities have arrested a 62-year-old
man in connection with a bomb attack at
a military-owned hospital in Bangkok that
wounded 24 people last month, the defence
minister said yesterday. The May 22 attack at the
Phramongkutklao Hospital, in central Bangkok,
came on the third anniversary of the army’s
seizure of power, and the army initially blamed
the bombing on groups opposed to military
rule. Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told
reporters a male suspect was being interrogated
over the attack, but gave no indication of any
motive or affiliation. There was no claim of
responsibility for the blast at the hospital.
China successfully launched yesterday its first
X-ray space telescope to study black holes,
pulsars and gamma-ray bursts. A Long March4B rocket carried the 2.5-tonne telescope into
orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center
in northwest China’s Gobi Desert. The Hard
X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), named
Insight, will allow Chinese scientists to observe
magnetic fields and the interiors of pulsars and
better understand the evolution of black holes.
It will also help scientists search for gamma-ray
bursts corresponding to gravitational waves
and study how to pulsars can be used for
spacecraft navigation, Xinhua said.
Malaysia found two air force officers dead in
a northeastern forest yesterday after their
fighter jet went missing during a training
exercise, the chief of the country’s air
force told reporters. The task of upgrading
Malaysia’s ageing fleet of fighter jets is being
complicated by defence budget cuts, as Prime
Minister Najib Razak grapples with growing
public discontent over the rising cost of living.
French arms maker Dassault Aviation SA,
which builds the Rafale fighter jet, is seen as
a frontrunner to supply up to 18 new aircraft
to Malaysia’s air force in a deal that could be
worth more than $2bn.
Seven killed, dozens
hurt in China blast
AFP
Beijing
A
n explosion rocked a
kindergarten in eastern
China yesterday, killing
at least seven people and injuring dozens, authorities said, as
state media published images
showing bloodied and unconscious victims.
The blast occurred near the
kindergarten and victims were
taken to hospital, according to
the Fengxian county government in Jiangsu province. Images circulating online showed
that the force of the blast tore
people’s clothes off and one
woman was seen clutching her
child, who is in tears.
Xinhua news agency, citing
the emergency office of Xuzhou
city, said the explosion happened at the gate just as children were leaving the school
in the afternoon. An official at
the police station in Fengxian
county told AFP that the cause
of the blast was under investigation.
At least seven people were
killed and 66 injured, including nine seriously, according to
Xuzhou city government. Two
died at the site of the explosion
and five while being treated.
Pictures of the scene showed
more than a dozen people outside a building, many lying on
the concrete and some appearing to be unconscious, including a small child.
Another video posted by the
People’s Daily shows emergency workers arriving at the
scene with gurneys. Another
shows people lying in a hospital. Online media reports cite
a business owner near the kindergarten as saying that around
5pm he heard a “bang”, and
found that there had been an
explosion at the kindergarten
entrance only 100m away. It
is the latest tragedy to strike a
kindergarten in China in recent
weeks.
A school bus packed with
kindergarten pupils erupted in
flames inside a tunnel in eastern Shandong province on May
9, killing 11 children, a teacher
and the driver.
Officials later said the fire
was intentionally set by the
driver, who was angry at losing
overtime wages.
Images circulating online
showed that the force of the
blast tore people’s clothes
off and one woman was
seen clutching her child,
who is in tears
There have also been knife
attacks at schools in recent
years. In January a man armed
with a kitchen knife stabbed
and wounded 11 children at
a kindergarten in southern
Guangxi Zhuang autonomous
region.
In February last year, a knifewielding assailant wounded
10 children in a schoolyard in
Haikou, in the southern island
province of Hainan, before
committing suicide.
In 2014 state media reported
that a man stabbed three children and a teacher to death
and wounded several others in
a rampage at a primary school
that refused to enrol his daughter.
That followed a March 2013
incident in which a man killed
two relatives and then slashed
11 people, including six children, outside a school in China’s commercial hub Shanghai.
Aussie PM pokes fun at
Trump in leaked audio
AFP
Sydney
A
ustralia’s prime minister has taken a comical
swipe at Donald Trump,
mimicking his mannerisms and
making reference to the Russia
scandal, in comments he said
were intended as “affectionately
light-hearted”.
In a leaked audio recording
that comes just months after a
tetchy phone call between the
two leaders, Malcolm Turnbull
is heard making fun of the US
president’s idiosyncratic speaking style.
“The Donald and I, we are
winning and winning in the
polls,” Turnbull said in a closed
event for journalists in Canberra
on Wednesday.
“We are winning so much. We
are winning like we have never
won before.
“We are. We are. Not the fake
polls. Not the fake polls. They’re
the ones we are not winning in,”
he said to laughs from the audience at the Mid-Winter Ball,
where politicians and Canberra
journalists let their hair down.
“We are winning in the real
polls. You know, the online polls.
They are so easy to win.”
Typically, the event is offthe-record, meaning journalists would not report on what
was said, but a recording was
leaked to the political editor at
commercial broadcaster Channel Nine, who did not attend the
soiree and decided to report it.
In this file picture, US President Donald Trump and Australia Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull address reporters in New York.
Turnbull played down the
speech late yesterday, saying that he was the butt of the
jokes rather than Trump. “My
speech was light-hearted, affectionately light-hearted,” he
told Melbourne’s 3AW radio.
“It’s a breach of protocol, it’s a
breach of faith,” he added of the
leaked recording. “But it’s lighthearted, it’s affectionate and the
‘Semi-homeless’ in Sydney
butt of my jokes, was myself.” In
a statement cited by Channel 9,
the US Embassy in Canberra said
they saw the lighter-side of the
address. “We understand that
last night’s event is equivalent
to our own White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” it read. “We
take this with the good humour
that was intended.”
Last month, Turnbull met
S
Pedestrians walk past a man holding a sign claiming to be ‘semi-homeless’ as he begs for money in central Sydney, Australia.
Japan passes controversial anti-terror law despite protests
on citizens’ movements, not terrorism.”
Retired government worker Toshiaki Noguchi
added: “We’re turning into a society of
censorship.” US surveillance whistleblower
Edward Snowden and Joseph Cannataci, UN
special rapporteur on the right to privacy,
have both criticised the law, and polls show
the public is divided on its merits. The
bill’s passage overcame a no-confidence
motion against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s
cabinet and a censure bid aimed at Justice
Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda. Tokyo insists
the law – which calls for a prison term of up
to five years for planning serious crimes – is
a prerequisite for implementing a UN treaty
against transnational organised crime which
Japan signed in 2000. “We will uphold the
law in an appropriate and effective way to
protect people’s lives,” Abe told reporters after
sation in the leaked recording.
“It was beautiful. It was the
most beautiful putting-me-atease ever,” he said.
In another leaked clip, Turnbull poked fun at the ongoing
controversy surrounding the
Trump administration’s ties to
Russia. “I have this Russian guy.
Believe me, it is true. It is true,”
Turnbull said.
Singapore PM’s brother
fears authorities may
stop him from leaving
Reuters
Singapore
Japan passed a controversial anti-terror law
yesterday that critics warned would stomp on
privacy rights and lead to over-the-top police
surveillance. Thousands protested outside
the legislature after a full night of debate by
sleepy parliamentarians and unsuccessful
efforts by Japan’s weak opposition to block
the law’s passage. The government said
the law, which criminalises the planning of
serious offences, is necessary to prevent
terrorism ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
It doesn’t give police new powers, but critics
say the legislation could be abused to allow
wiretapping of innocent citizens and threaten
privacy and freedom of expression guarantees
in the constitution. Terrorism “won’t
disappear because of this law,” said 29-yearold demonstrator Yohei Sakano outside
parliament. “It’s mostly designed to crack down
the US president in New York
to mend fences, after the badtempered call early in Trump’s
White House tenure.
Trump reportedly exploded
and cut short the conversation
when he was told about a Barack
Obama-era deal to move refugees from Australia to America.
The Australian leader appeared
to make light of that icy conver-
the legislation passed. “Three years ahead of
the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games,
we hope to co-operate with the international
community to prevent terror,” he added. The
bill was revised several times over the years
as earlier versions met with fierce resistance
and never made it through parliament. The
latest version reduced the number of targeted
crimes to around 270 offences and narrowed
the definition of terrorist and criminal
organisations. Earlier versions encompassed
more than 600 crimes, many unrelated to
terrorism or crime syndicates. The opposition
has warned that petty crimes could fall under
the scope of the law, and mocked Japan’s
justice minister when he earlier conceded that,
hypothetically, mushroom hunting could be
targeted if the fungi were stolen to raise money
to fund terrorism.
ingapore Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong’s younger brother said yesterday
he fears the nation’s authorities may stop him from leaving
the country or take other action
against him after he made a series of accusations against Lee.
On Wednesday, Lee Hsien
Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling
declared that they had lost confidence in their older brother
and feared “the use of the organs of the state against us.”
Lee Hsien Yang also announced that he, and his wife,
Lee Suet Fern, were planning
to leave the island state “for
the foreseeable future” because
they felt threatened. They have
not disclosed the date of their
departure or the destination.
“Lots of things can happen to
me,” he told Reuters in a phone
interview yesterday. “They have
stopped people from leaving the
country. I suppose if they do,
they would have to explain at
least. I don’t think there are any
grounds to.”
The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t immediately respond
to Reuters’ requests for comment on Lee Hsien Yang’s latest
claims. The three children of Lee
Kuan Yew, who was the founding father of modern Singapore
and who ruled the country for
three decades, are feuding over
the future of the house that their
father lived in for most of his life.
The siblings have, among other
things, accused the prime minister and his wife, Ho Ching, of
harbouring political ambitions
for their son, Li Hongyi.
The prime minister on
Wednesday denied the allegations and said he was disappointed that his siblings have
chosen to publicise private family matters. Yesterday, Li denied
he wanted a political role, saying on Facebook: “For what it is
worth, I really have no interest
in politics.”
Lee Hsien Yang has made
it clear he is concerned
about his phone calls and
messages being monitored
Lee Hsien Yang has made it
clear he is concerned about his
phone calls and messages being
monitored. He tries to make it
more difficult to track his communications, using an international phone number and the
WhatsApp messaging service.
“I’ve used the term big
brother, what do you think big
brother means? Why do you
think I use WhatsApp?” he said.
WhatsApp, which is owned
by Facebook Inc, promises privacy through encrypted messaging. Lee, the former chief
executive of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, who is
currently the chairman of the
Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, said that he is still in
Singapore as he needs “time to
sort out my affairs.”
“I hope wherever I move to
might be safe. It will be safer, I
would say,” he said. The attacks
on the prime minister by his two
siblings, which initially came in
a joint news release and statement while their brother was on
holiday has led to a rare public
display of discord at the top of a
country that usually keeps such
matters firmly behind closed
doors.
Lee Hsien Yang and his wife,
Lee Suet Fern, said they feel
hugely unwelcome and closely
monitored in Singapore. “I’m
constrained about what I should
and can say. You realise of
course that they are very quick
to threaten defamation ... Many
people and many tools get used
to make people feel uncomfortable,” he told Reuters on Thursday.
He provided no specific evidence of action by the Singapore
government against him. Reuters was unable to independently verify the accusations. Lee
Wei Ling said on Wednesday if
the dispute were merely a family
affair, she would not have publicised it. Her concern was also
about the way ordinary citizens
could face an abuse of power,
she said on Facebook. Before
he died in 2015, Lee Kuan Yew
made it public that he wanted
the house, a humbly furnished
home with retro furniture near
the bustling Orchard shopping
district, demolished.
But the prime minister’s siblings claim that he and his wife,
Ho Ching, had opposed the
wish. Officials have said that
the prime minister has recused
himself from any government
decisions about the house.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
7
BRITAIN/IRELAND
Minister hints at lifting the pay cap for nurses
Guardian News and Media
London
J
eremy Hunt has hinted that
the pay cap for NHS nurses
might be lifted in recognition of their “absolutely brilliant” work, as ministers ponder
whether to relax austerity across
the public sector.
The health secretary sig-
nalled that the government
might scrap its current policy,
which is to limit nurses to 1%
salary increases every year until
2020. He intends to discuss the
situation with the Chancellor,
Philip Hammond, who is under
pressure to ease the seven-year
squeeze on public sector pay,
which nurses say has seen their
income drop by £3,000 since
2010.
“I have a great deal of sympathy for the case that nurses
amongst others have made on
the issue of pay. I think they do
an absolutely brilliant job,” Hunt
told about 1,000 senior NHS
managers at the annual conference of the NHS Confederation,
which represents hospital trusts.
Hunt praised the NHS’s
270,000 nurses for working large
amounts of unpaid overtime.
“There is an enormous amount
of goodwill, enormous amount
of time given free of charge, because people care about their
jobs and they see it not as a job,
but as a vocation,” he said.
The chancellor would decide whether or not the cap was
lifted, and “we have our budgets that we have to live within,”
Hunt stressed. But, he added: “I
have had a very constructive let-
Search for
victims
may take
months,
say police
S
Reuters
London
P
The charred remains of Grenfell Towers stands as a reminder of the tragedy that claimed 17 lives on
Wednesday.
rime Minister Theresa May
yesterday promised a public inquiry into a fire that
gutted a 24-storey apartment
block killing at least 17 people, as
the government faced questions
about how such a devastating
blaze could have occurred.
Smoke was still wafting out of
the blackened shell of the Grenfell Tower yesterday where specialist firefighters and dog search
teams faced hazardous conditions as they scoured the wreck,
with external cladding still falling from the building.
Fire engulfed the social housing block, where as many as 600
people lived in more than 120
apartments, in the early hours
of Wednesday, turning it into a
flaming torch in minutes.
“Sadly I can confirm that the
number of people that have died
is now 17,” London police commander Stuart Cundy told reporters.
Thirty-seven people remained
in hospital, with 17 of them in
critical care.
An investigation into the
cause of the blaze, the worst in
the capital in a generation, was
underway.
But the shock at its scale
turned to anger and recriminations yesterday.
Accounts of people trapped
inside as the blaze destroyed
everything around them, shouting for help, throwing children
to safety and trying to escape
through windows using makeshift ropes from bed sheets tied
together left the nation in shock.
Sinn Fein cautious
on DUP, May tie-up
Reuters
London
N
orthern Ireland’s largest
nationalist party would
oppose any deal their
main unionist rival strikes to
prop up Prime Minister Theresa
May that undermines peace in
the province but would welcome
the increased funding it may
bring.
May has been holding talks
with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), keen to get the
backing of their 10 lawmakers in
Westminster’s parliament to return to government after failing
to win a majority in last week’s
election.
The prime minister met leaders of Northern Ireland’s other
political parties yesterday, some
of whom had voiced concerns
that a tie-up could destabilise
local politics and undermine the
government’s neutrality in overseeing separate talks to form a
new power-sharing government
in Northern Ireland.
on nurses’ salaries twice in the
election campaign during live
TV appearances.
Asked by the BBC’s Andrew
Marr why some nurses used food
banks, she replied that there
were “complex reasons” why
that happened. And she told a
nurse who challenged her on the
profession’s pay in a BBC debate
that there were “hard choices” to
be made across the public sector.
“And I’m being honest with you
in terms of saying that we will
put more money into the NHS,
but there isn’t a magic money
tree that we can shake that suddenly provides for everything
that people want,” she said.
The RCN is preparing to
launch a “summer of protest
activity” across the NHS in pursuit of its desire to see the cap
scrapped.
Inquiry into
tower blaze
ordered as
toll rises to 17
Agencies
London
earching a London tower
block gutted in a huge
fire on Wednesday might
take months, a police chief said
yesterday, adding he hoped the
death toll would not rise from 17
to “triple figures”.
Commander Stuart Cundy
told reporters some victims of
the blaze which destroyed the
24-storey Grenfell Tower might
never be identified.
Police have said 17 people were
killed in the blaze and that the
death toll was likely to rise.
Whole families remain missing after the fire swept up the
local authority building, forcing
residents to flee through black
smoke down the single stairwell,
jump out of windows or even
drop their children to safety.
Fire commissioner Dany Cotton said parts of the tower were
unsafe and it would take a long
time to complete a detailed
search of every floor.
She told Sky News there were
still “unknown numbers” of people inside and it would take weeks
to fully search the building.
“Tragically now we are not
expecting to find anyone else
alive,” she said.
Questions are growing about
how the flames spread so quickly, engulfing its 120 apartments
in what fire chiefs said was an
unprecedented blaze.
David Lammy, a London MP,
joined the chorus of condemnation and said the fire amounted
to “corporate manslaughter”.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable
that people should die in this way
in Britain,” he told BBC radio.
The focus of criticism centres
on the cladding fitted to external walls on the 1970s concrete
block as part of a £8.7mn refit
completed only last year.
According to the BBC, the
cladding had a plastic core, and
was similar to that used by highrise buildings in France, the UAE
and Australia, which had also
suffered fires that spread.
ter from Janet Davies, (the) head
of the Royal College of Nursing,
since I came back into office. I
will be meeting with her and I
will make sure that our conversation is reflected back to the
chancellor before he makes that
decision.”
Hunt’s remarks come after
Theresa May was criticised for
appearing out of touch and unsympathetic when challenged
“We will oppose any deal
which undermines the Good
Friday agreement,” Sinn Fein
president, Gerry Adams, told reporters outside May’s Downing
Street residence, in reference to
the 1998 peace deal that ended
three decades of sectarian violence.
“A little side bargain to keep
Theresa May in power, a temporary little arrangement won’t
have any integrity and certainly
is not as important as the integrity and the needs of the people
who live in Ireland.”
The DUP’s main demands
centre around securing more
funding for the province, a
source close to the party said
on Saturday and Adams said he
would welcome such funds.
“We are consistently making
the case that our institutions
are under resourced, have been
undermined by austerity and
need to be properly funded. So
of course we would support any
monies going to the executive,”
Adams said.
Sinn Fein, which won seven
seats in the British parliament
last week but does not take up
its seats or vote in Westminster,
would likely reject a deal to form
a government by refusing to
work with the DUP in Northern
Ireland.
However some analysts say a
deal between May and the DUP
that hands the province additional resources but does not
damage Irish nationalist interests or undermine peace could
motivate Sinn Fein to agree to
form a new power-sharing government.
The DUP represents people in
Northern Ireland who wish the
province to remain part of the
United Kingdom, while Sinn Fein
wants Northern Ireland to be administered by the Irish Republic.
Others leaders who met May remained sceptical.
“The prime minister will have
to do a lot more to convince us
that the DUP tail isn’t wagging
the Tory dog,” Colum Eastwood,
leader of the nationalist Social
Democratic and Labour Party
(SDLP), said in a statement.
“It was so preventable, and
that’s why we’re so angry,” said
Alia al-Ghabban, a veterinary
receptionist who lives on the
estate. “We thought there were
going to be riots on Wednesday
night, and if it didn’t (happen), it
will very soon.”
Opponents of May’s government demanded to know whether more could have been done to
prevent the disaster, if building
precautions such as fire doors
had been properly implemented
and if spending cuts to local authorities had played a part.
“Right now, people want answers and it’s absolutely right and
that’s why I am today ordering a
full public inquiry into this disaster,” said May, who visited the
scene yesterday to meet members
of the emergency services.
“We need to know what happened, we need to have an explanation of this.
People deserve answers; the
inquiry will give them.”
Local residents say there had
been repeated warnings about
the safety of the building, which
recently underwent a £8.7mn
exterior refurbishment, which
included new external cladding
and windows.
The firm behind the work
said the project met all required
building regulations.
Planning documents detailing the refurbishment did not
refer to a type of fire barrier
that building safety experts said
should be used when high-rise
blocks are being re-clad, according to Reuters research. “We
have to get to the bottom of this.
The truth has got to come out,
and it will,” opposition Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn said as he
visited volunteers at the site.
London mayor Sadiq Khan
faced demands from clearly furious locals for speedy answers and
action when he toured the area.
In parliament, the government’s fire and housing ministers said other tower blocks
which were also recently refurbished would be assessed. They
also promised that those who
had lost their homes would be
rehoused in the local area.
Survivors, many of whom lost
all their belongings in the blaze,
spent the night at emergency
shelters, as charities and local
support groups were flooded
with piles of boxes full of clothes
and bedding from shocked Londoners.
Others gathered seeking news
of the missing.
Semira Mohamed, 37, a science technician who lives nearby, said she knew a family-offive who lived on the 21st floor
of the block. “I kept calling and
calling,” she said. “The phone
was ringing but they didn’t reply to us. We were from the same
community, and many in the
tower were. Maybe 70% are from
Somalia, Sudan, Morocco.”
The Syrian Solidarity Campaign said on its Facebook webpage that Mohamed al-Haj Ali,
a refugee from Syria, was one of
those who had been killed.
Queen Elizabeth said her
thoughts and prayers were with
those families who had lost loved
ones and those still critically ill
in hospital.
“It is also heartening to see the
incredible generosity of community volunteers rallying to help
those affected by this terrible
event,” the Queen said.
Brexit talks to start
on Monday: govt
AFP
London
B
Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill and Sinn Fein president, Gerry
Adams, speak to members of the media outside 10 Downing
Street in central London yesterday.
ritain and the European
Union will start Brexit
negotiations on Monday,
while Prime Minister Theresa
May nears a deal to prop up her
minority government following
her election fiasco.
Brexit talks had been expected
to begin in Brussels next week
but May’s loss of her parliamentary majority in a snap general election one week ago raised
doubts about the date.
“The first round of talks that
will see the United Kingdom
leave the European Union will
start on June 19,” the department
for exiting the European Union
ministry said yesterday.
The
announcement
was
agreed yesterday between Brexit
minister David Davis and the
European Commission’s chief
negotiator Michel Barnier.
“We are starting,” Barnier said
on Twitter.
Since the general election,
there has been growing pressure
on May to moderate the government’s approach and favour
maintaining close ties with the
European single market at the
expense of controlling immigration.
The loss of her majority meant
May has been reaching out to the
ultra-conservative Democratic
Unionist Party to prop up her
Conservative party.
The
Conservatives
have
reached a “broad agreement”
with the DUP, a source said yesterday.
The source said talks with
the small Northern Irish party
were progressing well as meetings in Downing Street with all
of the British province’s main
political leaders were taking
place.
Conservatives and the DUP
are committed to strengthening
British unity, delivering Brexit,
combating terrorism and delivering prosperity but “at the
moment there isn’t a deal,” the
source said.
The government meanwhile
said the state opening of the
parliament — when May’s government presents its legislation
programme — will take place
on June 21, two days later than
planned.
8
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
EUROPE
Court issues 23 life
prison sentences
Thousands rally
against Turkish
MP’s jail term
Reuters
Ankara
S
everal thousand people
took to the streets of Turkey’s two biggest cities
yesterday to protest against a
25-year prison sentence handed
down to an opposition lawmaker
on spying charges.
A court sentenced Enis Berberoglu, a lawmaker from the
main
opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP), on
charges of military espionage on
Wednesday.
It said he gave an opposition
newspaper a video purporting to
show Turkey’s intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria.
He is the first lawmaker from
the secular CHP to be jailed in a
government crackdown that followed last July’s failed coup.
More than 50,000 people
have been imprisoned and over
150,000 sacked or suspended
from their jobs.
Carrying banners that read
“Justice”, and waving Turkish
flags, crowds demonstrated as
CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu
started a 425km (265 mile) march
from the capital Ankara to the
Istanbul jail where Berberoglu is
being held.
Wearing a white shirt and
waving at his supporters on the
way, 68-year-old Kilicdaroglu
embarked on a journey that party
officials said could take at least
20 days.
Kilicdaroglu has slammed the
arrest as lawless and motivated
by the presidential palace, a reference to President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan.
“Our march will continue until
there is justice in this country,”
Kilicdaroglu told reporters before
setting off.
Crowds gathered at a park in
the capital to see him off and to
protest Berberoglu’s imprisonment.
“Erdogan is waving his finger
at everyone who is against him,”
said Nuran, a retired teacher who
declined to give her surname.
“The arrest was made to send a
message but we are not afraid.
We will resist until they jail every
single one of us.”
Nearby, many people held
banners, waved Turkish flags and
carried posters of Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk, the secular founder of
modern Turkey, and the CHP.
Police imposed tight security
measures at the site of the protest, setting up security barriers, sealing off nearby roads and
carrying out searches with bomb
disposal teams and dogs.
Water cannon and armoured
police vehicles waited nearby.
Eleven lawmakers from the
pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’
Democratic Party (HDP) have
been jailed over terrorism charges since last year, including the
party’s two leaders, according to
the HDP.
Berberoglu’s lawyer appealed
against the lawmaker’s detention, seeking his immediate release, but it was rejected by the
Istanbul court.
He has been accused of sup-
plying the Cumhuriyet newspaper with a video it used as the
basis of a May 2015 report that
alleged trucks owned by Turkey’s
state intelligence service were
found to contain weapons and
ammunition headed for Syria
when they were stopped and
searched in southern Turkey in
early 2014.
The government denied accusations that weapons were sent
to Syrian rebels, saying that the
trucks were carrying humanitarian aid.
Erdogan later acknowledged
the trucks belonged to the state
intelligence agency and said
they were carrying aid to ethnic
Turkmens battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic
State.
He accused Cumhuriyet’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and
Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul
of undermining Turkey’s reputation and vowed Dundar would
“pay a heavy price”.
Last year, Dundar and Gul were
sentenced to at least five years in
Demonstrators march during a protest in Ankara against
Berberoglu’s detention.
jail for revealing state secrets in a
related case.
The prosecutor is now seeking
an additional 10 years in prison
for the two over the report on the
trucks.
Dundar is being tried in absentia after leaving the country.
Gul remains in Turkey and
Female French politician attacked while campaigning
Reuters
Paris
L
eading French conservative politician Nathalie
Kosciusko-Morizet was attacked and knocked out in a Paris
market yesterday while canvassing support ahead of Sunday’s
vote, her campaign team said.
The former environment minister, at risk of losing her National Assembly seat as President
Emmanuel Macron’s party eyes a
landslide victory in parliamentary elections, will remain in
hospital overnight, the team said.
News agency AFP showed
pictures of a man throwing leaflets in the face of the politician,
widely known in France under
the acronym “NKM”, and of her
lying on the pavement.
“Nathalie is sorry not to be
able to take part in the end of the
campaign,” her team’s statement
read.
The man in his 50s called her a
“crappy bobo”, a derisive term for
an urban hipster, AFP said.
The Paris prosecutors’ office
said an investigation had been
opened into the incident, which
occurred on a Left Bank street
market.
Her centrist rival suspended
his campaign and politicians
across the left-right divide denounced the attack.
“Violence has no place in an
election campaign,” tweeted farright leader Marine Le Pen.
Campaigning closes at midnight today.
Kosciusko-Morizet, 44, was
defeated by Socialist Anne
Hidalgo in her bid to become
the first female mayor of Paris in
2014.
P
oland’s prime minister has
come under heavy fire for
appearing to defend her
right-wing government’s antimigrant policy during a memorial service at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi German
death camp.
Beata Szydlo said that “in our
troubled times, Auschwitz is a
great lesson that everything must
be done to defend the safety and
the lives of citizens” at ceremonies marking the 77th anniversary of the Nazis’ first transport
of Polish prisoners to the camp.
Her comment came one day
Szydlo: had said that ‘in our
troubled times, Auschwitz is a
great lesson that everything
must be done to defend the
safety and the lives of citizens’.
after the EU launched legal action against Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic for refusing
to take in their share of refugees
European Parliament
lifts Le Pen immunity
in defamation case
DPA
Strasbourg
T
The attacker snatches leaflets from Les Republicains (LR) party candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet just
before knocking her out during the altercation while she was campaigning in Paris.
Polish premier under fire for remarks at Auschwitz
AFP
Warsaw
free, but his case is in process.
Some 160 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according
to the journalists union, and authorities have shut down 130 media outlets since the failed coup.
The government says such
measures are necessary, given the
vast security threats it is facing.
under the bloc’s controversial
solidarity plan.
Polish government spokesman
Rafal Bochenek said on Tuesday
that the refugee relocation plan
posed a security “threat” to EU
members, echoing earlier fiery
rhetoric by Szydlo linking refugees and migrants with terror attacks in Europe.
European Council President
Donald Tusk, a former Polish
prime minister, shot back on
Twitter on Wednesday, saying
that “such words should never be
spoken at such a place by a Polish
prime minister”.
Katarzyna Lubnauer, head of
the centrist Nowoczesna (Modern) parliamentary caucus, was
more explicit, accusing Szydlo of
“exploiting the cruelty of Auschwitz to make Poles fear refugees”.
Szydlo’s comment at Auschwitz also caused a storm among
Polish Twitter users, with leading journalists and pundits questioning her motives.
Government spokesman Bochenek has accused Szydlo’s critics of taking her remark, made in
a speech honouring Auschwitz
prisoners, out of context.
“If someone wants to, they will
find bad intentions in any comment. I propose listening to the
entire speech” by the prime minister, Bochenek said on Twitter.
Poland along with Hungary
and the Czech Republic are refusing to comply with an EU
programme to relocate 160,000
migrants from frontline migrant
crisis states Italy and Greece.
The EU set up the plan in 2015
at the height of the migration
crisis, when more than 1mn refugees, many of them Syrians fleeing a bloody civil war, landed on
Europe’s shores.
Nazi Germany built the Auschwitz death camp after occupying
Poland during World War II.
The Holocaust site has become
a symbol of Nazi Germany’s genocide of 6mn European Jews, 1mn
of whom were killed at the camp
between 1940 to 1945.
More than 100,000 non-Jews
also died at the death camp, according to the museum.
An estimated 232,000 of the
victims were children.
A Turkish court handed down life
sentences to 23 people for taking
part in last July’s failed coup, in
the first putsch-linked verdicts in
Ankara.
The 23 suspects were found
guilty of “trying to overthrow
the constitutional order” and
“depriving an individual of their
liberty”, state-run Anadolu news
agency reported.
The prosecutor said putschist
soldiers forced the presidency’s
secretary general Fahri Kasirga
into an ambulance and took him
to the Akinci airbase in Ankara,
where the coup was believed to
have been organised.
Eighteen of the suspects were
sentenced to aggravated life
imprisonment, while the other
five were given life sentences,
Anadolu said.
An aggravated life term is a life
sentence but with tougher terms
of detention.
It was brought in to replace the
death penalty which Turkey
abolished in 2004 as part of its
drive to join the EU.
Two other soldiers were
acquitted in the trial.
Colonel Muhsin Kutsi Baris, a
former commander with the
presidential guard regiment,
was sentenced to 12 years in jail
for “depriving (Kasirga of his)
freedom through abduction”, the
agency added.
The ruling comes after the
main coup trial opened on May
22 of more than 220 suspects,
including over two dozen former
Turkish generals, accused of
being among the ringleaders of
the failed putsch.
Turkey blames the attempted
July 15 coup on the US-based
Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a
claim he strongly denies.
Gulen is one of the 221 suspects
named in the main case.
he European Parliament
has voted to lift the parliamentary immunity of
French far-right leader Marine
Le Pen, who is facing prosecution in a defamation case in
France.
The parliament voted by a
show of hands to lift Le Pen’s
immunity, enabling French investigating judges to summons
her and potentially detain her
for questioning.
National Front (FN) leader
Le Pen was accused by the
former mayor of Nice, prominent centre-right politician
Christian Estrosi, of defaming
him by accusing him of financing a Muslim umbrella group
and helping “Islamic fundamentalism”.
A parliament committee will
next week consider a separate
request for Le Pen’s immunity to be lifted, sent by French
judges investigating allegations that she claimed salary
repayments from the assembly for aides who were actually
working for the National Front.
During her failed run for the
French presidency earlier this
year, Le Pen twice defied summonses from judges and police
in that case.
Le Pen denied any wrongdoing and said she would answer
any summons after the elections.
She is currently running for
the French parliament in the
National Front-run northern
town of Henin-Beaumont.
Le Pen took 46% of the vote
in Sunday’s first round ballot,
putting her in a strong position
for next Sunday’s run-off vote
against Anne Roquet of President Emmanuel Macron’s La
Republique en Marche (LREM,
The Republic on the Move).
Le Pen: currently running for the French parliament in the
National Front-run northern town of Henin-Beaumont.
Two children stabbed to death by dad
Two boys, aged one and four, were stabbed to death by their father
in the eastern German state of Thuringia, police and prosecutors
said yesterday.
Another sibling – aged three – remains in critical condition.
The boys’ mother discovered the critically injured boys when she
returned from a hospital stay to her home in the town of Altenfeld.
First responders were unable to resuscitate the two listed as dead.
The 27-year-old father – also at the house at the time of the mother’s
return – was taken into custody and brought to hospital to receive
treatment for the injuries he inflicted on himself, a spokeswoman
for the prosecutor’s office in Erfurt said.
Rescue ships pick up 1,000 migrants
Humanitarian rescue ships picked up more than 1,000 migrants
from nine rubber and wooden boats off the coast of Libya
yesterday, Italy’s coastguard said.
In one incident, the Vos Hestia, operated by Save the Children,
rescued more than 100 migrants, most of them from Bangladesh,
from a rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya in international waters.
Earlier, another non-governmental group, Proactiva Open Arms,
said on Twitter that Libyan coastguard officials fired into the air as
an act of intimidation while it was rescuing 11 people from a boat.
Arrests of militants in Europe nearly double in two years
AFP
The Hague
T
he numbers arrested in
Europe on suspicion of Islamist militant activities
nearly doubled over the last two
years, Europe’s policing agency
said yesterday, with an alarming
rise among women and young
adults.
The suspects – numbering
718 – were arrested on offences
relating to Islamist terrorism last
year as opposed to 395 in 2014,
Europol said in its annual EU
Terrorism Situation and Trend
Report.
But actual attacks dropped
from 17 in 2014 to 13 last year – of
which six were linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.
The 62-page report also pointed out that women and children,
as well as young adults played an
increasingly important operational role.
“Female militants in the West
perceive fewer obstacles to playing an operative role in a terrorist
attack than men, and successful
or prevented attacks carried out
by women in Western countries
may act as an inspiration to others,” it noted.
One in four of those arrested in
Britain in 2016 were women, an
18% increase from 2015, Europol
said.
In France – the European Union country with the highest
number of arrests at 456 last year
– almost one-third of the suspects were 25 years or younger,
Europol said.
Overall there were 142 “failed,
foiled or completed terrorist attacks” including those by Islamist militants – with more than
half in Britain.
Britain was rocked by a suicide bombing at a pop concert
in Manchester on May 22 which
killed 22 people, including children.
Two weeks later, a knife and
van attack in central London left
eight dead.
Of the 142 victims of terror
attacks last year, 135 died in Islamist militant attacks, said the
report.
That reinforced the need for
closer co-operation in intelligence sharing among member
states, security officials urged.
“Terrorists do not respect
or recognise borders,” said EU
safety chief Julian King. “In our
resolve to defeat them we must
draw on a new-found determination to work together, sharing
information and expertise.”
The Europol report also noted
that not all attacks were Islam-
ist-inspired: Most of the other
attacks were carried out by “ethno-nationalist” and separatists
extremists.
For instance “dissident Republican groups in Northern Ireland were involved in 76 attacks”,
the report said, leading to a total
of 123 arrests.
British authorities in May last
year raised the threat level because of terror-related incidents
in Northern Ireland from “moderate” to “substantial”.
This “means an attack is a
strong possibility”, Europol said.
In total 1,002 arrests overall
were made in 2016 relating to
terror activities.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
9
INDIA
CLARIFICATION
DECISION
ACCIDENT
TRAGEDY
LEGAL
No Russia offer to mediate
with Pakistan: government
Petrol, diesel prices to
come down from today
Captain detained after
ship hits fishing boat
Two workers killed in
ordnance factory blast
Filmmakers move court
as films barred from fest
Russia has not made any offer to mediate between
India and Pakistan, the government said after
Islamabad “welcomed” Russian President Vladimir
Putin’s reported offer to resolve bilateral tensions.
Ministry of external affairs spokesperson, Gopal
Baglay, said: “No offer of mediation between India
and Pakistan was made by Russia to India. It is
my understanding that Russia is well aware of
India’s position to address all outstanding issues
with Pakistan bilaterally in an environment free
of terrorism and violence,” he said. The response
came after Islamabad said: “Pakistan welcomes
Russia’s attention and intention to play a role in
this long-standing issue on the UNSC agenda.”
Petrol will become cheaper by Rs1.12 per litre
while diesel price per litre will be lower by Rs1.24,
excluding state levies, from today. “The current
level of international product prices of petrol
and diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant
decrease in selling price of petrol and diesel,
the impact of which is being passed on to the
consumers with this price revision,” the Indian Oil
Corporation said. The price reduction commences
the mechanism of daily petrol and diesel prices
revision effective today. Indian Oil, Bharat
Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum will daily
revise the prices of the two main transportation
fuels in sync with global crude oil prices.
The captain and the navigator of the Panamaflagged cargo ship that hit a fishing boat off
the coast, leaving two fishermen dead and one
missing, have been taken into custody by the
Kerala Police, a top police official said yesterday.
Capt Ioannis Georgiannakis, commanding
the vessel named Amber L and second officer
Galanos Athanasios are now being questioned,
coastal police division chief Tomin J Thachenkery
said. “They were taken into custody after it was
found out through tests that the cargo ship was
the vessel that had hit the Indian fishing boat. The
vessel has also been asked to stay put here, till all
formalities are completed,” Thachenkery added.
Two workers were killed in a blast as they were
shifting some explosives at the Ordnance
Factory Dehu Road (OFDR) at Pune yesterday
morning, police said. The explosion, the cause of
which is not yet known, occurred in the defence
ministry’s ammunition factory in Khadki area
of the city at around 9.20am, said investigating
official, Dilip Salunkhe of the Khadki Police
Station. The duo suffered severe burn injuries in
the blast and succumbed immediately, he said.
In a statement, a defence spokesperson said that
military experts are conducting investigations at
the blast site in which there was no damage to
any buildings in the establishment.
Three filmmakers whose films, including on the
Rohith Vemula suicide and the JNU protests,
were denied permission to be screened at the
International Documentary Short Film Festival
(IDSFFK) have approached the Kerala High Court.
The 10th instalment of the IDSFFK that begins
today will continue till June 20. An official working
with the organising committee of the festival said
their petitions have been filed and the matter is
coming up before the court today. “Seeking legal
redress is the only way out for them as the ministry
of information and broadcasting had denied
permission and hence we can do nothing about it,”
said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
Sushma among
front-runners to
be president
IANS
New Delhi
S
enior minister M Venkaiah
Naidu yesterday spoke to
Nationalist Congress Party
(NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, and
ally Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP)
chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief
Minister N Chandrababu Naidu as
part of its exercise to evolve a consensus on presidential candidate.
Naidu’s talks with Pawar and
Naidu came a day before he and
another senior minister, Rajnath
Singh, meet Congress president
Sonia Gandhi today seeking her
party’s support even as opposition parties are said to be keen
on a contest.
Sources said Pawar told
Venkaiah Naidu that he would be
in Delhi for the next couple of days
for talks, while the TDP chief told
him that his party would stand
by the prime minister’s decision
on the issue. Venkaiah has so far
contacted leaders of the Congress,
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the
NCP, TDP, Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the
All India Congress (N Rangasami).
Singh and Naidu – who are
part of the three-member team
constituted by Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) president Amit Shah
for holding discussions with political parties on the presidential
candidate – are set to meet Gandhi at her residence today morning, sources said.
This will be followed by a
meeting with CPI-M general
secretary Sitaram Yechury later
in the day. Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley, who is also part of
the team, is away in South Korea.
He is scheduled to return on Saturday morning.
The BJP has given no indication so far as to who its candidate is, but there is speculation
around the names of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. The name of BJP veteran
Murli Manohar Joshi is also being
touted in BJP circles, as he is said
to have the backing of Rashtriya
Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS).
It remains to be seen whether
the BJP team will put forward any
name to Gandhi and other opposi-
tion leaders it would be meeting or
talking to in the coming days, or
whether the team will merely seek
the support for a BJP nominee.
Sources in the opposition parties say they are waiting for the
government side to come out
with the name of its nominee before they can finalise their strategy. Opposition leaders claim
the choice of the BJP candidate is
known “only to (Prime Minister)
Modi”, to stress the point that it
is the prime minister who is calling the shots on the issue.
They feel the government is
only engaged in an exercise of
consensus building for the sake of
formality and, in fact, might not
be keen on a consensus candidate.
They point to Naidu’s statement a couple of days ago that
the government has the mandate
and the opposition should keep
this in mind while talking about
a presidential candidate.
At the meeting of opposition
parties on Wednesday, there
were suggestions mainly from
the Left parties that they should
put up a fight by fielding a candidate, because it is an “ideological
battle” with the BJP. They feel
the BJP might be keen on having
someone with ideological moorings in the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Should there be a fight, the
Left parties are reportedly keen
on fielding Gopalkrishna Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and former governor of West
Bengal. There is also another
section in the opposition, saying
that it should be a political fight
and the nominee could be a political leader like Janata Dal-United
(JD-U) veteran Sharad Yadav.
As part of BJP’s outreach,
Shah is likely to meet Shiv Sena
chief Uddhav Thackeray in
Mumbai for seeking the party’s
support for the NDA nominee.
The Sena, which has been having
a cold war with the BJP, has not
voted with the NDA in the last
two presidential elections.
The Sena has been pitching for
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for
the top constitutional post and
has also sought to know from
the BJP why he (Bhagwat) is not
acceptable. Bhagwat on his part
has ruled himself out, saying he
is not in the race.
Unrest in Darjeeling
Police personnel are deployed after clashes erupt during an indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in Darjeeling yesterday. Hundreds of riot police
patrolled the streets after the GJM party warned of violence as they pushed for a new state named Gorkhaland in the hill region, which is now part of West Bengal.
CBI rejects delay claims
in Mallya extradition case
IANS
New Delhi
T
he Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) yesterday said it had not
delayed forwarding to British
authorities evidence for the extradition of fugitive baron Vijay
Mallya, charged with money
laundering in a Rs9bn IDBI
Bank loan default involving his
now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA).
The agency’s reaction came
in the wake of reports that there
was a delay from India in sharing Mallya’s case documents
with British authorities.
In a statement, the CBI clarified that the documents related
to extradition of Mallya, who
Fee structure for Gulf
expat students eased
By Ashraf Padanna
Thiruvananthapuram
I
ndian authorities have relaxed the fee structure for
children of Gulf expatriates
seeking admissions to NITs (National Institute of Technology)
and similar elite tech colleges.
Expatriates now need to pay
only at par with their compatriots back home, instead of the
prohibitively high fee fixed earlier, which according to many
expats was affordable only for
highly-paid Indian workers.
The national government had
earlier created a 5% supernumerary quota for Children of Indian
Workers in the Gulf (CIWG), NonResident Indians (NRIs) in other
countries and People of Indian
Origin (PIO) and international
students in 47 premier schools.
The fee structure set for the
CIWG had been on a par with the
merit seats back home, but this
year it was raised to the level of
the other two categories.
Several expatriates voiced op-
position to the decision, some
wrote letters to officials and others took to the social media with
an online petition to the federal
human resources ministry.
On March 27, Congress leader
Dr Shashi Tharoor wrote a letter
to the federal human resources
minister Prakash Javadekar citing
the disparity, following which the
minister ordered a review.
The new order issued yesterday says the annual CIWG
fees for undergraduate admission this year has been revised to
Rs125,000 payable either in Indian rupees or equivalent US dollars at the existing exchange rate.
The annual tuition fee fixed
earlier was $8,000 a year
(Rs514,600), besides a non-refundable registration fee of $300
(Rs19,297). Candidates from
CIWG countries can unlock their
applications in the NRI category
before 6pm, June 19, 2017, and
make necessary changes.
NRI applicants are requested
to log in on DASA 2017 website,
unlock the application, switch
into the respective category,
refill the academic programme
choices, upload appropriate
documents and submit the application if they desire.
The authorities have also rescheduled the timeline of DASA,
or direct admissions to students
abroad, to accommodate these
changes. Now, the first round of
seat allotment will be on June 24.
Applicants are requested to
refer to the new timeline on the
DASA 2017 website. Details for
the refund mechanism resulting
from the reduced fee structure
for CIWG will be communicated
on the DASA website after completion of the admission process.
There are 746 undergraduate
seats reserved for expat students
offering courses in engineering, planning, architecture and
management. There are a proportionate number of seats in
postgraduate courses as well.
These include Indian Institutes of Information Technology
(IIITs), Schools of Planning and
Architecture (SPAs) and the Indian Institute of Space Technology (IIST).
has been in London since March
2016, were sent to British authorities in February this year
while supporting documents
were handed over to the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS)
much before the June 13 hearing
in the case.
The CBI statement also said
the June 13 hearing was for Case
Management Review to determine further steps to be taken in
the case and to draw a timetable
for extradition proceedings and
was not a hearing for extradition.
Maintaining there was no
delay “whatsoever”, the agency
said the evidence like extradition dossier, chargesheet, nonbailable warrant, sworn affidavit of a CBI superintendent of
police, accompanied the Mallya
extradition request in February
and the additional documents
were handed over to the CPS on
May 2 and May 3.
“The additional evidence like
supplementary
chargesheet
(forwarded to a Mumbai court
on June 2) in the Rs9bn fraud
case, evidence containing falsities, misstatements and false
representations by Mallya was
forwarded through diplomatic
channels before the June 13
hearing.”
The CBI also clarified that the
British court had not criticised
India’s extradition request during the hearing.
“During the hearing on June
13, when the counsel of fugitive
Mallya sought a date in MarchApril 2018, Aaron Watkins of
the CPS opposed the same.”
“To justify a later date, the
Anger at deaths
defence counsel raised the issue
of delay, which is nothing but a
figment of his imagination. The
specialist prosecutor of the CPS
confirmed that during the proceedings on June 13, there was
no criticism of the extradition
request or of the Indian government. The senior district
judge fixed next case management hearing on July 6 when
the dates for extradition hearing
will be decided,” the CBI statement said.
It said that the request for
Mallya’s extradition was forwarded on February 9 to the
British authorities through diplomatic channels.
“The secretary of state, UK,
certified the request and sent
it to the court. The court after
satisfying itself, issued an ar-
MP gets away with
‘ruckus’ at airport
IANS
Visakhapatnam
T
A man shouts slogans during a protest in New Delhi
yesterday against the killing of six farmers during last
week’s clashes in Madhya Pradesh.
rest warrant and Mallya was
arrested in London on April 18.
Following the arrest, Mallya
appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 18 and
was granted conditional bail.”
“The same day, CPS prosecutors sought a meeting with officers of the CBI and enforcement
directorate (ED). Accordingly,
a joint CBI and ED team led by
Rakesh Asthana (additional director, CBI) visited London during May 2 and 3 and provided all
additional documents sought
and also answered queries
raised,” the statement said.
In March 2016, the ED had
registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering
Act (PMLA) against Kingfisher
Airlines in the IDBI bank loan
default case.
elugu Desam Party’s
(TDP) member of parliament, J C Diwakar
Reddy, allegedly created a
ruckus at the airport here yesterday after he was denied a
boarding pass for reporting
late for a flight to Hyderabad.
Reddy, Lok Sabha member
from Anantapur, was accused
of damaging a printer and misbehaving with IndiGo airline
staff.
The MP had reported at the
check-in counter 20 minutes
before the scheduled departure of the flight. As the airline
staff told him they cannot issue
him a boarding pass, he got angry and entered into a heated
argument with them, airport
sources said.
Closed-circuit
television
footage aired on some television channels showed the TDP
leader shouting at the airline
staff as some security personnel tried to control him.
Interestingly, the MP managed to board the flight but it
was not clear who intervened
to get him the boarding pass.
Reddy, however, is not likely
to face any action for his behaviour as IndiGo did not formally lodge a complaint with
airport authorities.
Civil Aviation Minister and
TDP leader Ashok Gajapathy
Raju, who was present at the
airport, claimed Reddy had
reached the airport on time.
“Perhaps the flight was
overbooked,” the minister
said.
Reddy is learnt to have gone
to the VIP lounge to seek the
aviation minister’s help, who
reportedly declined to interfere.
In March, Shiv Sena MP
Ravindra Gaikwad was accused of assaulting an Air India staff, following which several airlines banned him from
flying on their planes till he
apologised.
Gaikwad later submitted a
letter to the aviation minister
to express ‘regret’, after which
AI revoked the ban, followed
by the Federation of Indian
Airlines and other private airlines.
10
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
TERRORISM
WEATHER
AVIATION
POLITICS
EXPORT
Four killed in attack
on mosque in Kabul
Pakistan to have normal
monsoon rainfall in July
Russian helicopter
for Pakistani province
‘Bat’ symbol allotted to PTI
after intra-party polls
Pakistan-made rickshaws
make their way to Japan
Two gunmen and a suicide bomber killed at
least four people and wounded eight more in an
attack at a mosque in the Afghan capital of Kabul
yesterday, the Interior Ministry said. The three
suspected attackers tried to enter the Al Zahra
mosque, used by Kabul’s Shia minority, but were
blocked by police, setting off a gun battle. The
attackers then took refuge in a kitchen, where
one detonated a bomb while the other two
were killed by security forces. The attack came
as mosques around the city were crowded for
a night of religious observances as part of the
holy month of Ramadan. Islamic State militants
claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack.
Summer monsoon rainfall is expected to be
normal in the first half and below normal in
the second half of the season in Pakistan, says
the Pakistan Meteorological Department in its
forecast for the season yesterday. It says area
weighted rainfall during monsoon season (July
to September) over Pakistan is expected to fall
short of long term average. However, rainfall
will be highly variable over temporal and spatial
scale. During July, monsoon rainfall may range
in normal limits but less than normal rainfall is
likely in August and September. Less frequent
rains in southern half of the country may trigger
drought like conditions.
A Russian-made helicopter purchased by the
Baluchistan province government of Pakistan
in January will be handed over to the provincial
authorities next week. The Baluchistan
government concluded a contract with Russian
Helicopters for a Mi-171 civil helicopter. Finance
Secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani visited Moscow
last month to finalise arrangements for delivery
of the helicopter in Baluchistan. The pilot and
crew of the Mi-171 have already completed their
training in Moscow. The copter, which costs
$15.2mn, would arrive in Lahore by June 21,
and would be handed over to the Baluchistan
government later.
Declaring the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
eligible for participating in the upcoming
general elections, the Election Commission of
Pakistan (ECP) yesterday allotted it the electoral
symbol of bat. The ECP issued a notification
which declared the PTI eligible for participation
in the upcoming elections after it successfully
conducted its intra-party polls. Imran Khan
was re-elected as chairman of the party with a
resounding majority in the intra-party elections
held earlier this week. Earlier, the ECP had
deprived the PTI of its electoral symbol after it
failed to hold intra-party elections. The PTI held
intra-party elections from June 11-12.
Japan has traditionally been a major market
for car buyers, but things are looking up
for Pakistan as a local company has started
exporting its three-wheeler rickshaws to the
country. Sazgar Engineering, a manufacturer
of 4-stroke CNG auto rickshaws, has been
exporting its rickshaws to Japanese markets.
Despite a strong industrial base and a thriving
automobile industry, Japan is importing
Pakistani traditional rickshaws as the focus
of citizens shifts to cost-effective commute.
According to Sazgar Engineering Sales
Head Ismail, Pakistan’s traditional, locally
manufactured rickshaws are famous in Japan.
Sharif questioned before
anti-graft probe panel
Reuters
Islamabad
Reuters
Jalalabad
P
akistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday lashed out at
what he called the “slandering” of his family in connection with an investigation of
their wealth, and said unidentified people with agendas against him posed a danger to the country.
Sharif was speaking after being grilled by a powerful panel
investigating him and his family in an inquiry ordered by the
Supreme Court that has gripped
Pakistan and become increasingly politicised.
“What is happening here is
not about corruption allegations
against me, it is about slandering
the businesses and accounts of
my family,” a defiant Sharif, clad
in traditional shalwar kameez
tunic and trousers, said as he
read from a statement.
Sharif, 67, spent about three
hours at the offices of the Joint
Investigation Team (JIT) in the
capital, Islamabad, becoming
the first Pakistani prime minister to be questioned by an investigative agency.
“No corruption charges have
been proven against me in the
past and, inshallah (God willing), it will not be so once again,”
he said.
The Supreme Court agreed
last year to investigate the Sharif
family’s offshore wealth after the
opposition threatened protests
after the leaking of the “Panama
Papers”.
Documents leaked from the
Panama-based Mossack Fonseca
law firm appeared to show that
Sharif’s daughter and two sons
owned offshore holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and used them to buy
luxury properties in London.
The Supreme Court ruled in
April there was insufficient evidence to remove Sharif from office over corruption allegations
I
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks to media after appearing before an anti-corruption commission at the Federal Judicial Academy
in Islamabad yesterday.
levelled by the opposition, but it
ordered further investigations.
Sharif, whose father was a
prominent industrialist, has said
his family wealth was acquired
legally.
A three-time prime minister,
Sharif was ousted twice in the
1990s, including in a 1999 military coup.
He later lived in exile, mostly
in Saudi Arabia.
He swept back to power in an
election in 2013 but rumours of
tension between his government
and the powerful military, which
oversees the foreign relations
and national security, occasionally circulate.
Pakistani charged with
taking lion on car ride
AFP
Karachi
A
Pakistani man who took
his pet lioness for a ride in
the back of a pickup truck
was charged with public harassment yesterday after footage
from startled bystanders went
viral.
In the video posted on social
media, the big cat can be seen
reclining in the bed of the truck,
a paw lolling over the ledge and
seemingly unfazed by the heavy
traffic inching through a chaotic
street in the city of Karachi.
Pedestrians jostling through
the cars stumble into clawing
ranging but the lion — which is
wearing a collar and a leash held
by a man in the vehicle — just
yawns.
Police said Saqlain Javed, a local pet dealer in his thirties, was
arrested after a concerned citizen made a complaint.
IS vows to take
more territory
after capturing
Tora Bora caves
Javed, however, said he was
taking the animal to the vet and
had all the required permits and
documentation.
“We have freed the accused on
bail but registered a case of negligent conduct with an animal,”
Muqadas Haider, a senior police
officer said.
In the video a woman can be
heard asking: “Who will take
responsibility if something were
to happen?” and wondering
whether the animal is an endangered breed.
The clip has been viewed over
1mn times on Facebook, where
people criticised the owner for
cruelty and suggested he was
showing off his wealth.
Others decried the general
lawlessness that exists in the
fast-growing country of 200mn,
where despite recent economic
and security gains the rich and
powerful are able to commit
crimes with impunity.
Punjabi film actor Zahir Shah dead
Renowned Punjabi film actor Zahir Shah was declared dead after being
rushed to a hospital on Tuesday night. The 70-year-old was laid to rest
in a graveyard near Iqbal Town in Lahore. Leaving behind a legacy
of 600 films, Zahir became popular during the golden era of Punjabi
cinema. Having started his career with film-maker Altaf Hussain’s Yaari
Dosti and following it up with a string of hits, he is arguably one of the
most iconic villains of Punjabi film industry.
Sharif suggested that unidentified enemies acting behind the
scenes should be stopped from
trying to subvert the wishes of
the electorate that handed his
party victory in a 2013 general
election.
“If the factories that produce agendas and silence the
decisions of the people are not
closed, then not only the law
and constitution, but the safety
of this country will also be jeopardised,” he said.
Pakistan has been plagued by
pervasive corruption for decades, with politicians often accusing rivals of underhand dealings.
The Supreme Court has given
the panel two months to investigate the family and then deliver
its findings.
The six-man panel, made up
of members of civilian investigative agencies and military intelligence officers, are examining
three generations of Sharif family wealth.
The team has accused government departments of tampering
with old records, but Finance
Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday rejected such allegations,
adding that the team’s claims
meant the process was becoming
“suspicious”, media reported.
Sharif’s camp has sought to
remove two members of the investigation team and his ruling
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party voiced outrage over a leaked photograph
taken from security camera
footage showing Sharif’s son,
Hussain, appearing before the
panel.
Opinion polls suggest Sharif’s
party is likely to win the next
election, due next year.
A senior PML-N official told
Reuters the party was unlikely
to call an early election if Sharif
was ousted by a Supreme Court
ruling, and would select a new
prime minister to take over until
the general election.
slamic State (IS) militants,
under pressure from Afghan and US forces, have
seized a new stronghold in
Tora Bora, a mountainous
area dotted with caves along
Afghanistan’s border with
Pakistan, officials said yesterday.
The remote region in Nangarhar province was most
famously used by Al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden in
late 2001, in a bid to hold out
against the US troops and Afghan allies who toppled the
Taliban regime.
Now Afghan officials say Islamic State (IS) militants have
seized cave complexes in Tora
Bora, after days of fighting
against Taliban who had been
based there.
“Those areas around Tora
Bora were a Taliban stronghold, but now Daesh militants
captured them during fighting,” the police commander in
the area, Shah Wali, said, using an Arabic term for Islamic
State.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid acknowledged that Islamic State
forces had managed to capture several villages, but he
denied that they had seized
Tora Bora.
General John Nicholson, the
top US commander in Afghanistan, has vowed to defeat Islamic State there this year, and
in April used one of the largest conventional bombs ever
dropped in combat to target a
cave complex used by Islamic
State in the nearby district of
Achin.
“After Achin, Daesh was
looking for a second stronghold and now they have it,”
Wali said.
Abu Omar Khorasani, an Islamic State commander in Afghanistan, told Reuters that his
fighters had seized Tora Bora
and were also battling government troops, who are backed
by US ground troops and aircraft.
“We are in Tora Bora but this
is not the end,” Khorasani said.
“The plan is to take more territory from the government and
the Taliban.”
The fighting has sent hundreds of families fleeing, said
Malek Tor, a tribal elder who
put the number of Islamic
State fighters in the area in the
hundreds.
“Those areas around
Tora Bora were a Taliban
stronghold, but now
Daesh militants captured
them during fighting”
An official with the US military command in Kabul said
Islamic State forces are “on
the run” and “are attempting
to take refuge” in the Tora Bora
region.
“No matter where they
are, there is no safe haven
for them in Afghanistan,”
the official said in a statement. “We will continue
toward our goal of defeating ISIS-K in Afghanistan
this year and ending their
barbaric campaign of death,
torture and violence against
the Afghan people.”
Government forces have
launched new operations
targeting Islamic State, but
more fighters are being recruited or crossing the border
from Pakistan, said Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for
the Nangarhar governor’s office.
“You kill one Daesh fighter
and 10 more come from the
border or are recruited here,”
he said.
‘Truck art’ tradition trundles along in Pakistan
Reuters
Islamabad
T
hey pollute the roads and
chug along at a snail’s
pace, but to their Pakistani owners the rickety trucks are
moving pieces of art, commanding attention with garish portraits of flowers, Islamic art, and
snow-capped Himalayan peaks.
South Asian “truck art” has
become a global phenomenon,
inspiring gallery exhibitions
abroad and prompting stores in
posh London neighbourhoods to
sell flamboyant miniature pieces.
Yet closer to home some people sneer and refuse to call it
“art”. For the drivers, the designs
that turn decades-old vehicles
into moving murals are often
about local pride.
Picking the right colour or
animal portrait is tougher than
the countless hours spent on the
road.
Truck driver Haji Ali Bahadur, who hails from the tribal
belt bordering Afghanistan, said
green and yellow have been his
colours of choice during 40 years
behind the wheel.
“We, the drivers of Khyber,
Mohmand and other tribal regions like flowers on the edge of
the vehicles,” he said. “The people of Swat, South Waziristan
and Kashmir region like portraits
A security guard poses for a portrait in front of his favourite decorated truck at a truck stop outside Faisalabad, Pakistan, May 3, 2017.
of mountains and different wild
animals.”
Truck art has become one of
Pakistan’s best known cultural
exports and offshoot toy and
furniture industries have been
spawned closer to home.
With Pakistan’s economy
picking up speed and new roads
opening up trade routes to China, truck art may soon find new
admirers abroad.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
11
PHILIPPINES
A building burns as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi city. Right: Funeral workers lift a coffin of a civilian who was killed in a firefight between government troops and insurgents.
President Duterte takes a rest
as battle for Marawi continues
The president’s spokesman
says he is recuperating from
a punishing schedule
DPA
Manila
P
hilippine President Rodrigo Duterte has withdrawn from public duties
this week because he is tired
and needs to “rejuvenate”, his
spokesman said yesterday as
government forces battled Islamist militants in the biggest
crisis of his rule.
Duterte, 72, has not been
seen in public since Sunday and
missed a scheduled appearance
the following day at annual Independence Day celebrations
in Manila, sparking speculation
about the state of his health.
“He’s just taking some time
off to rejuvenate,” presidential
spokesman Ernesto Abella told
reporters.
Abella said there was no date
for when Duterte would resume
his official duties, although he insisted the president was healthy.
“I’m saying that there’s nothing to worry about in terms of
sickness,” he said. “The president
is well.”
Pressed by journalists to state
whether Duterte had visited a
doctor this week, Abella said:
“I’m not privy to those matters
but I’m sure he’s checked with
his own experts.”
Duterte was last seen in the
southern city of Cagayan de
Oro, visiting soldiers wounded
in nearby fighting with Islamic
State group-styled gunmen that
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte at an unspecified location.
is now on its fourth week.
Fifty-eight soldiers and police
officers have died in the clashes
in Marawi city, while at least 26
civilians have also been confirmed killed.
Duterte imposed martial law
over Marawi and the rest of the
southern region of Mindanao,
home to 20mn people, on the day
the fighting erupted to head off
what he said was an attempt by
IS to carve out its own territory
there.
Abella said Duterte was taking time off because of a punishing schedule since then,
which included regular visits
to military camps and hospi-
tals to support troops.
“It has been really brutal, so
it is important to allow him this
kind of rest,” Abella said.
Duterte had repeatedly denied
during last year’s presidential
election campaign that he suffered from cancer.
However he said last December that he used to take fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic
opioid, to ease the pain of a spinal
injury that he suffered in motorcycle accidents many year earlier.
Duterte said then his doctor
made him stop using it on learning he was “abusing the drug” by
using more than the prescribed
amount.
Duterte’s fentanyl comments
attracted controversy as he has
led a war on drugs in which thousands of addicts and users have
been killed.
Under the constitution, the
separately elected vice president shall act as president if the
incumbent dies, is permanently
disabled or removed from office.
One of Duterte’s aides later
released photos which he said
were taken on Thursday evening,
showing the president standing
up and looking healthy.
A man suspected of being an
Islamist bomber was arrested by
Philippine troops yesterday and
accused of being one of the mili-
tants that the government has
been trying to clear out of Marawi City for four weeks now.
Mohamed Noaim Maute,
known as Abu Jadid, was arrested in a rented house in the city
of Cagayan de Oro, about 60km
north of Marawi City, following
a tip from a civilian, according to
Brigadier General Gilber Gapay.
Gapay, a spokesman for the
martial law implementation in
the southern region of Mindanao, said the suspect was believed
“to be a bomb expert of the Maute Group”.
The suspect is allegedly the
youngest brother of Abdullah
and Omar Maute, who have been
leading about 150 militants holed
up in four districts of Marawi
City, 800km south of Manila,
Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said.
Government forces earlier arrested the mother and father of
seven Maute brothers who are
part of the terrorist group.
The Maute group is one of
at least two militant organisations whose members went on a
rampage in Marawi City on May
23 after government forces attempted to arrest a local leader of
the Islamic State terrorist movement. The Maute group has been
accused of previous bombing attacks, such as one in the southern
city of Davao in September that
left 14 dead.
President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the southern region of Mindanao to boost
military efforts to retake control
of Marawi City from the militants.
Nearly 300 people have been
Lorenzana, Ano ready to
defend martial law in court
By Catherine S Valente
Manila Times
D
efence
Secretary
Delfin
Lorenzana and Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) chief
General Eduardo Ano are ready to
face the Supreme Court in oral arguments on the petitions to nullify
President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao, the
military spokesman said yesterday.
Lorenzana is the administrator and
Ano the implementer of martial law
in Mindanao, which the President
declared on May 23 after hostilities
broke out between government forces and extremist gunmen in Marawi
City.
During the “Mindanao Hour”
news briefing in Malacanang, AFP
spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla Jr said the military establishment was willing to join the
oral arguments concerning Duterte’s
declaration of martial law.
“We support whatever process that
is currently ongoing and if we need to
be resource persons elsewhere, in-
cluding the supreme court, we will be
there,” Padilla told reporters.
“If [they are]requested by the supreme court, I guess the chief of staff
himself and the secretary of National
Defense will be there and talk about
whatever it is the justices want to
clarify,” he added.
During the oral arguments on
Wednesday, Chief Justice Maria
Lourdes Sereno ordered Lorenzana
and Ano to participate in the oral arguments on the petitions asking the
high court to invalidate the martial
law declaration.
Sereno issued the directive following a request by petitioner Albay Representative Edcel Lagman for Lorenzana and Ano to attend the afternoon
session of Wednesday’s hearing, after
the top magistrate enumerated the
documents that the Office of Solicitor General must submit.
Solicitor General Jose Calida, who
represents the government, initially
balked at the order, saying he did not
see the purpose of requiring Lorenzana and Ano to appear.
Calida eventually agreed to present
the officials but asked that any presen-
tations they make be in executive session, which Lagman objected to, saying
that during the closed-door briefing
on martial law given to the House, no
classified information was divulged.
The commander of the United
States Pacific Fleet affirmed the US
Navy’s strong partnership with the
Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) on Wednesday following a
four-day visit to Manila.
Admiral Scott Swift met with Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter
Cayetano, Defence Secretary Delfin
Lorenzana, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Eduardo Ano,
and the Philippine Navy flag officer
in command, Vice Admiral Ronald
Mercado.
Swift stressed the US Pacific
Fleet’s commitment to addressing
“shared regional security concerns”
including counterterrorism and piracy, while highlighting the strong
defence ties between the US and the
Philippines.
“The Philippine Navy is a valued
and enduring ally of the US Navy and
a close partner of the Pacific Fleet,”
said Swift in a statement. “I’m very
pleased to have had the opportunity
to visit with senior government and
military leaders here in Manila.
We continue to build on the strong
relationship we have and to reaffirm
our commitment to working together
to face shared challenges,” he added.
The long-standing alliance between the Philippines and the United
States has contributed to peace, stability, and prosperity in the AsiaPacific region for more than 70 years,
the US Embassy said in a statement.
The US and the Philippines inked
a Mutual Defense Treaty in 1951 and
the Visiting Forces Agreement in
1998.
Three years ago, the two countries signed the Enhanced Defence
Co-operation Agreement allowing
the rotational presence of American
troops in some military bases in the
country.
As part of the security partnership,
the United States supports the Philippines in its efforts to strengthen
national defence, and improve its
ability to respond to natural disasters, terror threats, piracy, and other
transnational crimes.
killed in the violence, including
militants, government forces and
civilians.
The hostilities have also displaced more than 220,000 people
and left Marawi City in ruins.
On the 24th day of the crisis,
an Australian journalist covering
the crisis was hurt when a suspected stray sniper bullet hit him
in his neck area.
Adam Harvey, 43, of the Australian Broadcasting Corp, was
inside the provincial capital
compound in Marawi City when
the bullet hit him. He was rushed
to hospital, but declared out of
danger.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella urged media members in Marawi City to take precaution while doing their work.
“While I understand that you
would not shirk your duty in
the pursuit of any story, bear in
mind that there’s no story more
valuable than one’s life,” he said.
“Take the necessary precautions
and stay safe while covering conflicts.”
An estimated 300 to 500 civilians are still trapped in the
conflict zone, according to the
International Committee of the
Red Cross.
“Circumstances are dire for
those who are left behind,” it noted in a bulletin. “Their lives remain in danger within the fighting zone, and it’s impossible for
humanitarian organisations to
provide them with much needed
assistance due to access and security issues.”
The Red Cross also expressed
concern about the plight of the
displaced, amid limited supply of
food and water and lack of access
to sanitation facilities.
“The rainy season has started,
and this poses increased health
risks to displaced families, especially children and elderly staying in evacuation centres,” it said.
“Protracted stay under such
circumstances makes the more
vulnerable to waterborne and
communicable diseases,” the Red
Cross added.
The Australian journalist who
was shot in the neck has written
on Twitter: “Lucky”, alongside
an image of an X-ray showing the
bullet lodged in his neck, close to
his spine.
“Thanks everyone — I’m okay.
Bullet is still in my neck, but it
missed everything important,” he
said in another Twitter post.
He was inside the provincial
capitol compound where local and foreign journalists have
congregated during the more
than three weeks of fighting, the
government’s crisis management committee spokesman, Zia
Alonto Adiong, told AFP.
Although the compound is secured by the military, it is only
about 2km from the pockets of
the city that the gunmen control.
“I want to appeal to everyone you should be very careful
because in our assessment the
vicinity of the 103rd (military
camp), the vicinity of the capitol
is within the line of sight of the
enemy,” local military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-ar
Herrera told reporters in the
compound after the shooting incident. Harvey was taken to the
nearby city of Iligan for medical
treatment, Adiong said.
CBCP backs shutdown of
extremists’ accounts
By William Depasupil
Manila Times
T
he influential Catholic Bishops’
Conference of the Philippines
(CBCP) has thrown its support
behind the move of the Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) to seek the
closure of social media accounts being
used for propaganda by the terrorists
who attacked Marawi City.
Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the CBCP Permanent Committee on Public Affaris, on
Wednesday said the closure of Facebook accounts is not a curtailment of
the freedom of expression if these violate the social media platform’s terms
and conditions. Secillano said the use
of social media in spreading propaganda about rebellion and terrorism
runs counter to the tenets of freedom
of information, because it causes more
harm than good to the people.
“Facebook has its own internal regulations. Those who subscribe to this
social networking tool should subject
themselves to these regulations. Fake
news and propaganda should not be allowed to proliferate.
Those who do it should even be
charged for perjury or inciting to re-
bellion,” Secillano said in an interview
with the Church-run Radyo Veritas.
He added: “Restriction to freedom
of expression should not even be an
issue in this regard. It’s a choice between public good vs private good.
May a government or institution allow
an individual to pose threat or harm to
the public just because he wants to do
it? No! Because that freedom is not and
cannot be absolute especially if in the
exercise of it, the public good is jeopardised.”
Earlier, San Jose Bishop Roberto
Mallari, chairman of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and
Catholic Education, expressed the
same view.
Mallari said the closure of Facebook
accounts promoting terrorism is a step
forward to peace. “Instead of promoting violence we have to promote peace,
love. Loving our fellowmen, peace for
everyone are what we should promote
instead,” Mallari added.
He also called on the youth, which
he called “digital experts”, to lead the
campaign on the proper use of social
media. The AFP has asked Facebook
to close down 63 accounts said to be
spreading propaganda and misinformation about the ongoing military offensive in Marawi City.
12
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
Dhaka seeks to bring
back Mujib killers
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
B
angladesh has engaged two law firms in the United
States and Canada for bringing back home the fugitive convicted killers of Bangladesh’s founding father
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“As part of the legal procedure to bring back home the fugitive convicted killers of Father of the Nation, the present
government initiated to confiscate non-movable properties
and freeze bank accounts of the convicted killers,” Home
Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told the parliament yesterday.
He said the government had formed a taskforce led by law,
justice and parliamentary affairs minister on March 28, 2010
for bringing back the fugitive convicted killers to execute the
verdict.
Later, the government, after assuming power in 2014, reformed the taskforce, which met several times and took various decisions including identifying the fugitive convicted
killers’ location and providing information to important airports in the world through Interpol, Khan added.
The minister informed parliament that the government
has undertaken necessary measures to bring back home the
fugitive convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.
Earlier, in 2010, Bangladesh has appointed a US based law
firm to take necessary steps for bringing fugitive killers back
home from North American countries including the US and
Canada.
The government has so far traced only two convicts — Nur
Chowdhury in Canada and Rashed Chowdhury in the USA.
The fugitive killers are now in USA, Canada, Libya and Pakistan. The foreign ministry will now do what is necessary,
as the government will bear the expenses for the law firm.
The absconding killers of Bangabandhu are Khandaker
Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, Nur Chowdhury,
Rashed Chowdhury, Abdul Mazed and Moslehuddin Khan.
A few years back the Interpol had issued warrants of arrest
for the killers, who have reportedly been changing location
to evade arrest.
The government had earlier thought both Mazed and
Moslehuddin had been hiding in India, but the Indian government could not trace them.
Bangladeshi firefighters search for bodies after a landslide in Rangamati.
Bangladesh hunts for
landslide survivors
AFP
Chittagong
E
mergency workers in Bangladesh yesterday stepped up
the search for victims of the
country’s worst ever landslides,
with mounting claims that the
disaster was made worse by unchecked development.
Rescuers found two more bodies,
including that of a woman apparently washed away, taking the death
toll from floods and landslides
across southeast Bangladesh to 154.
“We think she was washed away
by strong currents during Tuesday’s landslides,” local fire chief
Didarul Alam told AFP.
“We have stepped up our rescue work in the five worst affected
spots. But it’s a huge struggle to
dig through four feet of mud. Also
villagers were not sure where the
bodies were buried.”
Emergency workers also found
the body of a soldier missing since
Tuesday, army spokesman Rashidul Hasan told AFP.
The landslides were the deadliest in the country’s history, eclipsing the previous highest death toll
of 127 a decade ago.
Bijoy Giri Chakma, an elected
tribal leader in the hardest-hit
district of Rangamati, told AFP
the landslides were the worst he
had ever seen, and blamed unplanned construction and the
large-scale cutting of trees for the
scale of the disaster.
“Trees have been felled indiscriminately, which loosens the
soil. A lot of these hills are now
completely barren,” said Chakma.
His views chimed with those of
local rights activists.
“The disaster is man-made. But
there is a tendency to blame nature for this,” said Sheepa Hafiza,
head of the rights group Ain o Salish Kendra, at a news briefing on
Wednesday.
Authorities say hundreds of
homes were buried by mud and
rubble sent cascading down hillsides after monsoon rains dumped
343mm of water on the southeast
of the country in just 24 hours.
Disaster Management Department chief Reaz Ahmed said teams
had begun to assess the full extent
of the damage left by two days of
incessant rains in the Chittagong
hills, which cover one tenth of the
country’s landmass.
Authorities have opened 18
shelters in the worst-hit hill districts, where 4,500 people have
been evacuated.
The monsoon rains came two
weeks after Cyclone Mora smashed
into Bangladesh’s southeast, killing at least eight people and damaging tens of thousands of homes.
South Asia is frequently hit
by flooding and landslides in the
summer with the arrival of the
annual monsoon rains. More than
200 people were killed in Sri Lanka last month when the monsoon
triggered landslides and the worst
flooding the island has seen in well
over a decade.
Database of convicted criminals helps curb crime in Bangladesh
By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
T
he Jail Inmate Database, introduced by elite security outfit
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)
one and a half years ago, is playing a
significant role in reducing recurrence
of crimes by the same criminals.
“The database has been playing a vital role in controlling as
well as preventing crimes, and
most importantly decreasing the
recurrence of crimes by the same
criminals,” Rapid Action Battalion
(RAB) Director General Benazir
Ahmed told newsmen.
“It is also playing a significant
role in keeping an eye on the crim-
inals who often commits crimes
under different names,” he added.
The RAB chief said earlier it
took a long time to know about the
previous criminal record of criminals as they usually give false information to hide themselves and
the process was time consuming.
“Now, the database is helping
complete investigations into cases
within the shortest possible time,”
he added.
The database was inaugurated
on February 7 in 2016, incorporating 200 types of data of the criminals, who stayed in jail even for a
single day.
It preserved biometrics, including prints of all 10 fingers and iris
scan of the criminals.
Previous crimes records, types
of crimes, punishments, name
of criminals, their addresses and
professions have been mentioned
in the database.
Communication and Management Information System wing of
the anti-crime elite force prepared
the database with the help of the
prison authority.
Warrant issued for
militant Lanka monk
AFP
Colombo
A
Sri Lankan court yesterday issued a warrant for the
arrest of a radical Buddhist monk accused of instigating arson attacks against the island’s minority Muslim community.
Police said the warrant for the arrest of Galagodaatte
Gnanasara relates to an accusation of insulting the Qur’an
that dates back to April 2014, months before the outbreak of
deadly religious riots.
The magistrate ordered his arrest after he failed to appear
yesterday for a court hearing into the matter.
Police are also investigating more than a dozen recent
complaints of incitement against Gnanasara, who went into
hiding in May, after a series of arson attacks targeting Muslims.
Yesterday, they said they had arrested two of his associates in connection with a petrol bomb attack on a mosque
last month.
Gnanasara’s Buddhist Force or BBS is accused of instigating the hate crimes.
On Sunday, police said they had made the first arrest of a
BBS member in connection with four arson attacks in a Colombo suburb.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe vowed on Wednesday that he would not allow a repeat of 2014 anti-Muslim
riots in which four people died and hundreds of homes were
destroyed, promising tougher legislation.
With stoning and desecration of Muslim-owned places
now an almost daily occurrence, the government faces international criticism over its failure to tackle the violence
and rein in the BBS.
In a video message released Sunday, the group denied
any involvement, but accused the government of allowing
Islamic extremism to flourish in the Buddhist-majority nation.
Earlier this month, Western diplomats urged Sri Lanka
to take action to stop the renewed outbreak of religious
violence.
Chugging back to life: Kathmandu
revamps colonial-era rail link
Reuters
Janakpur, Nepal
S
hrubs spring up around
a rusted train engine in
southeast Nepal, with carriages propped up on bricks and
tall grass growing over abandoned wheels, offering mute testimony to years of neglect suffered by an abandoned railway
line.
First built as a cargo line to
carry wood from Nepal to India
in 1937, it was once the lifeblood
of the community in Janakpur,
running 29km from Jainagar in
India’s neighbouring eastern
state of Bihar.
The train service, which eventually became a cheap way for
travellers to cross the international border, closed in January
2014 for a $100mn project to
upgrade the colonial-era narrow
rail track into a broad-gauge line.
Now the only sign of life is
laughing children, who chase
each other through the disintegrating carriages, climbing on
rusting benches and tumbling
over one another.
But the closure hit Janakpur
hard, with close to 130 railway
employees losing their jobs, said
Tula Bahadur Dangi, acting general manager of Nepal Railway
Corp, who has worked for the
company for 18 years.
Travellers have been forced to
use buses instead, paying three
times the price of a train ticket
for a journey four times as long,
which is complicated further
during the monsoon rains that
make the roads muddy.
Other trades dependent on the
railway have also suffered.
“There is no business now,
compared to when there was
a train,” lamented Rajendra
Kushwaha, who ran a bookstall
at Janakpur railway station for 45
years.
The revamp of the railway,
set to be completed next March,
presents clear signs of renewal
and the improvements to come.
Construction is nearly 80%
complete, with bridges and a
total of 14 stations built along
the route, where land has been
levelled for the laying of track to
extend the line northwards a distance of 69km.
The expansion will create 350
jobs, Dangi said, complete with
plans for a museum to showcase
the old German-made abandoned carriages and engines.
The expanded route would also
make it easier for tourists to visit
the Ram Janaki temple, a Unesco
World Heritage site that devout
Hindus believe to be the birthplace of the deity Sita.
Completion can’t come quickly enough for Rafid Kabadi, who
drove trains on the old line for 25
years, the third generation of his
family in the job.
“I am sad the train stopped,
but happy the new one is coming,” he said, standing before a
rusted carriage with his grandson.
Plants grow on the abandoned train at the workshop of Nepal Railways Corporation Ltd in Janakpur.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
13
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
Indications of the Night of Al-Qadr
A
llah The Almighty Says (what
means): {The angels and the
Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every
matter. Peace it is until the emergence
of dawn.} [Qur’an 97:4-5]
It is narrated on the authority
of Zirr ibn Hubaysh that he heard
Ubayy ibn Ka‘b on being told that
‘Abdullaah ibn Mas‘ood had said,
“He who stands for (supererogatory)
prayer (every night) throughout the
year, will happen to witness the Night
of Al-Qadr”, commented, “By Allah
except for whom there is no deity, that
is in (the month of) Ramadan. (He took
an unrestricted oath) By Allah, I know
the night: it was the night on which
The Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam, ordered us to stand in
prayer, that is, the eve of the twentyseventh day, and its sign is that the
sun rises whitish on that day without
having rays.” [Muslim]
According to another narration of
this, “Its sign is that the sun rises in the
next morning white without rays, as if
it were a round tray.” [Ibn Hibbaan]
It is also narrated on the authority
of Ibn Mas‘ood that the Prophet,
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said:
“Indeed, the Night of Al-Qadr is on
the middle night of the last seven
(nights) of Ramadan. The following
morning, the sun rises pure without
rays.” Ibn Mas‘ood said, “I looked at it
and found it just the same as described
by the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam.” [Ahmad]
It is narrated on the authority of Abu
Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah,
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “The
Night of Al-Qadr is on the 27th or the
29th [of Ramadan]. On that night, the
angels on earth are more numerous
than its pebbles.” [Ahmad]
It is narrated on the authority of
‘Ubaadah ibn As-Saamit that the
Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, said: “Indeed, the sign of
the Night of Al-Qadr is that it is bright
and pure as if the moon is shining in it,
still and tranquil, neither cold nor hot.
On it, it is impossible for a star to be
shot [at a devil] until morning comes.
Its [other] sign is that in the morning
after it, the sun rises brightly and
without rays, similar to a full moon;
and it is impossible for Satan to come
out with it on that day.” [Ahmad]
It is further narrated on the
authority of Jaabir that he said: “The
Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, said: ‘I was shown (in a
vision) the night of Al-Qadr, but later
I forgot it. It is one of the last ten
nights of Ramadan. It is shining and
bright, neither hot nor cold, as if it has
a full moon revealing its stars. On it
the devil does not come out before its
dawn rises.’” [Ibn Khuzaymah and Ibn
Hibbaan]
It is narrated on the authority of Ibn
‘Abbaas that the Prophet, sallallaahu
Sheikh Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab Mosque in Doha by night.
PICTURE: Noushad Thekkayil
‘alaihi wa sallam, said, concerning
the night of Al-Qadr: “It is a shining
night, neither hot nor cold, and in the
morning next to it the sun rises red
with no rays.” [Ibn Khuzaymah]
Benefits and rulings
First: It is permissible for a religious
scholar to hide some information that
he knows if he sees that hiding it may
be beneficial, just as Ibn Mas‘ood
concealed his knowledge about the
Night of Al-Qadr lest the people
would rely on that and slacken to stand
in prayer in all the last ten nights of
Ramadan.
Second: A religious scholar
Supplication
on the Night
of Al-Qadr
In a Hadith on the authority of ‘Aa’ishah,
radhiallah ‘anha, she said: “I said, ‘O Messenger
of Allah, if I know which night is the Night
of Al-Qadr, what should I say on that night?’
He said: ‘Say: ‘Allaahumma innaka ‘afuwwun
kareemun tuhibbu al-‘afwa fa’fu ‘anni (O Allaah,
You are Ever Pardoning and Generous and You
love pardoning, so pardon me!)’’” [At-Tirmithi:
Hasan Saheeh]
In another narration, she said, “I said, ‘O
Messenger of Allah, if I witness the Night of
Al-Qadr, what should I say?’ He said: ‘Say: ‘O
Allah, You are Ever Pardoning and Generous,
and you love pardoning, so pardon me.’’” [Ibn
Maajah]
Benefits and rulings:
First: The virtue of the Night of Al-Qadr and
the keenness of ‘Aa’ishah, the Mother of the
Believers, to witness it, offer voluntary prayers
in it and supplicate to Allah in it.
Second: The keenness of the Companions to
ask about matters that benefit them.
Third: The virtue of supplication on the Night
of Al-Qadr and the fact that it is most likely to
be answered.
Fourth: A recommendation to supplicate to
Allah by the succinct words of the Prophet,
sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, and not to burden
oneself with supplications that are rhyming or
those whose meanings are not known.
Fifth: The supplication mentioned in the
Hadith is one of the most beneficial and allinclusive supplications because it combines
between the good of the worldly life and the
Hereafter. For if Allah pardons His slaves in
the worldly life, He will remove punishment
from them and bestow favour upon them.
If He pardons them in the Hereafter, He will
save them from Hell and admit them to
Paradise.
Sixth: Ascribing the attribute of love to Allah
in a way that befits His Majesty and that He
The Almighty loves forgiveness.
Seventh: The virtue of pardoning people
because Allah The Almighty loves pardoning
and those who pardon others.
Eighth: The advice of the Prophet, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam, to his Ummah (nation) and
teaching them what benefits them.
nevertheless has to tell the people what
they need to know, just as Ubayy told
the people the date and sign of the
night of Al-Qadr.
Third: It is permissible for scholars
to strive their utmost, depending on
their personal reasoning, and even
differ about determining the benefits
and evils of this. It is not forbidden so
long as it is based on sound Ijtihaad
(exertion of effort) and a sincere search
for the truth.
Fourth: The Night of Al-Qadr is one
of the last ten nights of Ramadan; most
likely an odd-number night, most
probably the 27th night, as Ubayy Ibn
Ka‘b took oath to that.
Fifth: These texts provide evidence
Seeking the Night
of Al-Qadr during
the last seven nights
I
bn ‘Umar, radhiallah ‘anhu, reported: “Some of the Companions
of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, saw the Night of
Al-Qadr (Decree) in their dreams as one of the last seven nights
of Ramadan. So, the Messenger said, ‘I see that your dreams all
agree upon it being in the last seven nights. Hence, whosoever seeks
it, let him do so in the last seven nights.’” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
In another narration, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
said: “Look for it among the last ten nights; however, if one of you
fails to or is unable to do [that much], let him not miss out on [at
least] the remaining seven nights.” [Muslim]
He, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, also instructed, “Seek the eve of
Al-Qadr in the last seven nights.”[Muslim]
Benefits and rulings [derived from these Hadiths]:
1- This Ummah (Muslim nation) is protected against falling into
error on whatever it unanimously agrees on, in terms of narrations,
opinions and visions, as the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
gave significance to the similar dreams of the Companions.
2- One should seek the Night of Al-Qadr, in which to pray and
worship Allah The Almighty, given its great merit and virtue.
Nonetheless, this is an act of Sunnah, not an obligation.
3- This Hadith proves that visions are of great importance and that
it is possible to rely on them regarding tangible matters, provided
that they do not contradict the established rules of Shari‘ah (Islamic
jurisprudence). Yet, one should not exaggerate in reliance on dreams,
by applying them [to life] inappropriately and letting it cause one to
be lazy in worship.
4- A vision may be from Allah The Almighty, the product of one’s
subconscious or from the devil. When the believers see similar
dreams about something, then there is certainly some truth to it. This
also applies to their unanimous opinions and narrations, because
the individual may lie or commit a mistake, but there can never be a
consensus among believers upon what is false.
5- This proves that the opinion of the majority should be adopted,
so long as it does not contradict an explicit religious text, Ijmaa’
(consensus) or a clear analogy.
6- The dreams of the Companions were consistent about the Night
of Al-Qadr being in the last seven nights of the month of Ramadan.
The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, also confirmed this during
that year. Hence, it is most likely to be one of those nights.
7- The Night of Al-Qadr may even be shown to some people in
their visions or [through some signs] while they are awake, such as by
seeing lights or someone telling them: “This is the eve of Al-Qadr.”
Allah The Almighty may also inspire some people to know of when
this blessed night is.
Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/
for the fact that the Night of Al-Qadr
has many signs, including:
1. Angels descend on it in great
numbers, led by Jibreel (Gabriel) to
witness the praying people in their
mosques. Indeed, they are more
numerous than pebbles. But this sign
does not appear to humans.
2. Safety and peace are widespread
on it due to the acts of worship done
by servants in obedience of Allah The
Almighty.
3. The next morning, the sun
rises whitish without rays. The reason
for that, as mentioned by religious
scholars, is that the angels (who had
descended on that night) then ascend
to the heavens with their wings or
lights screening the rays of sun due to
their immense number.
4. Among its characteristics is that
it is a pure still night, neither cold nor
hot, and this cold and heat are relative,
depending on the climate of each
country or region. The point is that it
is neither cold nor hot in relation to the
nights prior to and next to it.
5. Satan does not come out with
the sun of the following morning
because the sun always rises between
the two horns of Satan, except in the
morning next to the night of Al-Qadr.
Sixth: Most of those signs
mentioned above do not appear to
people except after the end of the night
of Al-Qadr, perchance that those who
offered acts of worship on it would
thank their Lord for helping them to
stand in prayer and worship on it, and
those who indulged on it would regret
their indulgence and be determined to
do their best to seize it in the coming
year.
Seventh: These signs are a
characteristic every Night of Qadr,
past, present and future, and not
specific only to the lifetime of the
Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam.
Eighth: A Muslim really must strive
to seize the opportunity of all the
goodness that lies in it.
Article source: http://www.
islamweb.net/emainpage/
14
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Deputy Managing Editor: K T Chacko
Production Editor: Amjad Khan
P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
[email protected]
Telephone 44350478 (news),
44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery)
Fax 44350474
GULF TIMES
Le Pen’s parliament
hopes fade amid
bickering in party
A few months ago, French National Front leader Marine Le
Pen was the hope of the European nationalist right and the
bogeyman of the European Union as she led in the polls ahead
of the country’s presidential election.
Now, days before Sunday’s second round of the
parliamentary elections, it all looks very different.
The National Front knew that the odds were against a Le
Pen presidency, but also hoped that a good performance in
the run-off vote on May 7 would pave the way for it to enter
parliament in force.
Le Pen lost to centrist Emmanuel Macron on polling day,
but hit a record for her far-right party: 10.6mn votes, or
33.9% of the total.
But things had already started to come apart four days
before the May 7 vote, when Le Pen went head to head with
Macron in a bad-tempered television debate.
Apparently badly-prepared, she had to put up with her
rival correcting her several times on points of fact, including
on the size of France’s annual contribution to the EU budget.
For many viewers, her harsh insults of Macron also left a
sour taste – even though he gave as good as he got.
Le Pen’s poor performance in the debate also dismayed
many in her party. The policy of leaving the euro single
currency is a particularly sore point – it was the National
Front’s most prominent economic pledge, but polls
repeatedly showed that it was extremely unpopular.
That has fed into the internal recriminations: the main
defender of leaving the euro, party vice-president Florian
Philippot, has come under attack.
National Front general secretary Nicolas Bay has suggested
that Philippot – a close ally of Le Pen in her efforts to
moderate the party’s image – was engaging in “blackmail” by
threatening to leave the
party if it abandoned its
stance on the currency
issue.
Le Pen herself
seemed unimpressed
by Philippot’s decision
to establish an
“association” called The
Patriots within the party
in the aftermath of the
presidential vote.
Meanwhile, one of the
party’s just two outgoing
members of parliament, Le Pen’s niece Marion Marechal-Le
Pen, announced that she would not run for re-election, citing
personal reasons.
The younger Le Pen, based in southern France, has widely
been seen as embodying a more traditional right-wing line
within the party.
She is identified with conservative Catholic values and
has promoted an opening to politicians in the mainstream
centre-right.
Marine Le Pen and Philippot, concentrating on working
class voters in the north, have pushed a more centrist
economic policy and railed against the “system” of centreright and centre-left.
The party’s internal recriminations were crowned last
Sunday with a deeply disappointing 13.2% of the vote in the
first round of the parliamentary elections.
The party is leading in only 20 seats, and pollsters doubt
that it will take more than five of them in next Sunday’s runoff votes.
It needs 15 to form an official parliamentary group.
Le Pen has sought to mobilise voters for the second round
by saying that it’s essential for democracy to have a strong
opposition.
But whatever happens on Sunday, the National Front will
have to deal with its increasingly obvious internal differences
as well as thorny policy issues such as the euro.
Climate change, food
security and adaptation
Climate change could
create a vicious cycle of
disease and hunger, WFP
warns
By Anthony Morland/IRIN
Paris
T
he humanitarian crisis
unleashed by drought in
Somalia has again highlighted
the close links between
extreme weather and food security. But
how exactly are the two connected?
And what can farmers in developing
countries do to lessen the negative
effects of climate change? This Q&A
provides an overview of the key issues,
with a focus on smallholders in Africa.
*What is food security?
The term may sound like jargon
for simply having enough to eat or
knowing where one’s next meal is
coming from, but food security is a
multifaceted concept that has evolved
significantly over time. According to
the current UN World Food Programme
definition, people are said to be food
secure when “they have availability
and adequate access at all times to
sufficient, safe, nutritious food to
maintain a healthy and active life.” In
other words, it’s not just about now,
but the foreseeable future; and it’s not
just about food, but the right kind of
food, and the ability to prepare it safely.
“Access” is a key component of this
definition: even when there is plenty
of food in markets or granaries, people
will be food insecure if they cannot
afford to buy it, or have nothing to
barter for it. Even famines sometimes
occur when food is available but not
accessible.
To help aid agencies respond
effectively to a food crisis in Somalia,
a system was established in 2004 to
precisely define and analyse local food
insecurity, using a scale consisting
of five categories: None/Minimal,
Stressed, Crisis, Emergency, and
Humanitarian Catastrophe/Famine.
The evidence-based Integrated Food
Security Phase Classification system,
run by a range of UN agencies and
NGOs, and which was thoroughly
updated in 2017, has now been adopted
in 25 countries across the world.
*How does climate change affect
food security?
One of the key effects of climate
change is that extreme weather events
such as floods, droughts, heatwaves
and rainfall variations become more
frequent and more severe. Rising sea
levels linked to climate change cause
coastal erosion and loss of arable land.
Rising temperatures encourage the
proliferation of weeds and pests and
threaten the viability of fisheries.
All this has a direct impact on
agricultural production, on which
the food security of most people
in developing nations primarily
depends. This is because agriculture
in these countries is almost entirely
rain-fed, and so when rains fail,
or fall at the wrong time, or major
storms strike, entire crops can be
ruined, key infrastructure damaged or
destroyed, and community assets lost.
Consequently, climate change is widely
seen as the greatest threat facing the
estimated 500mn smallholder farmers
around the world.
According to the WFP, “Changes
in climatic conditions have already
affected the production of some staple
crops, and future climate change
threatens to exacerbate this. Higher
temperatures will have an impact on
yields while changes in rainfall could
affect both crop quality and quantity.”
Rising grain prices and falling yields
hit the world’s poorest people hardest,
as they spend most of their income on
food. In the long term, climate change
could “create a vicious cycle of disease
and hunger”, WFP warns.
By 2050, child malnutrition is
expected to increase by 20% relative to
a world with no climate change.
Meanwhile, the world’s population
is set to reach 9bn by 2050. With
more people eating meat and dairy
products, and more farmland given
over to biofuel crops, the UN’s Food
and Agriculture Organisation believes
that (to satisfy demand in 2050) global
food production will have to increase
by 70% over 2005 levels.
*Why is agriculture in Africa
especially vulnerable?
Smallholder farmers account for
some 80% of food production in
sub-Saharan Africa. With only a
tiny proportion of farmland under
irrigation, and reliable water sources
becoming scarcer, most crops depend
on rainfall, which climate change
is making increasingly erratic and
unpredictable.
Farming in Africa is often done in
marginal areas – such as flood plains,
deserts, and hillsides – where ever more
frequent weather shocks cause severe
damage to soil and crops. While there
have always been variations in climate,
the current pace and intensity of these
changes mean that traditional methods
of adapting to changes in weather
patterns are no longer sufficient.
The millions who raise livestock
in more arid areas of Africa are
particularly vulnerable to extreme
weather, as the current drought
affecting Somalia and Kenya
demonstrates.
When shocks do occur, and crops are
ruined or livestock dies, the endemic
poverty of most rural farmers means
they have little to cushion them in
terms of savings and stockpiles.
Few African smallholders own
the land they cultivate, so they have
difficulty in obtaining credit for inputs,
such as fertilisers and pesticides,
or machinery. Many also lack the
ability to store their crops, while poor
infrastructure often limits their access
to markets. Modern yield-boosting
technologies, as well as insurance
policies, are beyond the reach of many
smallholder farmers. Even when
farmers do have extra cash, there is
little incentive to invest in the land they
farm if they lack the title deeds.
According to the fourth assessment
report of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change,
“Africa is likely to be the continent
most vulnerable to climate change.
Among the risks the continent faces
are reductions in food security and
agricultural productivity, particularly
regarding subsistence agriculture,
increased water stress and, as a result
of these and the potential for increased
exposure to disease and other health
risks, increased risks to human health.”
*What can African farmers do about
it?
Changes made to mitigate the effects
and risks of climate change, whether
at the regional, national, or very local
level, are known as “adaptation”.
Smallholder farmers facing weather
shocks and other climate-change
related events are already using a
variety of adaptation measures. These
include diversifying and rotating
the crops they grow, engaging in
non-agricultural income generating
activities, adjusting the times they sow
their lots, conserving soil and water,
building irrigation systems and flood
defences, using more inputs such as
fertilisers, sowing improved seeds,
planting trees, and integrating crops
with livestock.
Farmers need support from their
governments to make the right
adaptation choices. This support can
take the form of more reliable and
localised weather forecasts, subsidies
for inputs, well-trained extension
workers, better facilities for livestock
health, well-funded agricultural
research, and improved rural
infrastructure such as road networks.
zWhat about the money?
Although it directly affects the
livelihoods of billions of people,
agriculture has long received only a
fraction of overall climate finance.
According to a World Bank report,
agriculture, forestry and other types
of land use combined received just
$6-8bn of the $391bn spent on climate
finance globally in 2014. Mitigation
– reducing emissions and transiting
to low carbon economies – has
traditionally received three times as
much as adaptation.
But the importance of investing in
climate-resilient agriculture is gaining
recognition, notably in the Sustainable
Development Goals and in the Paris
Agreement of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), both adopted in 2015.
Most countries party to the UNFCC
have included at least some estimates
of the costs of agricultural adaption in
their individual climate change action
plans, known as Intended Nationally
Determined Contributions.
The newest and largest source of
climate finance, the $10bn Green
Climate Fund, aims to balance its
resources equally between mitigation
and adaptation. Precisely what
effect US President Donald Trump’s
withdrawal from both the Paris
Agreement and the GCF will have on
agricultural adaptation finance remains
to be seen, but experts are pessimistic.
For many
viewers, her
harsh insults of
Macron also left a
sour taste – even
though he gave as
good as he got
To Advertise
[email protected]
Display
Telephone 44466621 Fax 44418811
Classified
Telephone 44466609 Fax 44418811
Subscription
[email protected]
2017 Gulf Times. All rights reserved
Livestock raising communities are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
South Sudan’s economy crumbles
AFP
Aweil, South Sudan
“
I sell the small bottle of cooking
oil for 140 SSP. Six months
ago, it was 70. The customers
complain,” said James Deng, an
18-year-old stallholder in Aweil, South
Sudan.
In this regional market in the
country’s northwest – just as at the
main Konyokonyo market in the capital
Juba, 800km to the south, and other
towns across the country – prices of
essential items have rocketed as a direct
consequence of almost uninterrupted
civil war since December 2013.
The South Sudanese Pound (SSP)
has collapsed from 18.5 to the dollar in
December 2015 to around 140 now in
black market transactions in Juba.
Inflation has reached record levels
increasing by 730% in the 12 months
up to August 2016, according to World
Bank figures.
Adam Oumar, a shopkeeper in Aweil,
sells red onions for 500 SSP per ‘malua’,
an iron container used as a measuring
unit and containing about 4kg.
Only six months ago, it cost 70
pounds.
“It’s now very expensive and
people can’t afford it anymore, so
they take little,” he said, standing in
front of his shop, well-stocked like
those of his neighbours, but lacking
customers.
In Konyokonyo, Saturdays used to
be the busiest in the hectic market, but
in early June the dense maze of uneven
paths contained just a few customers,
shuffling between stalls dedicated
to mattresses, plastic buckets and
secondhand clothing in the section run
by Sudanese traders.
Vegetables are sold in an area
dominated by Ugandan merchants.
Kamala, a 46-year-old
schoolteacher, a basket of shopping in
her hand, had a frustrating morning.
“I came with 6,000 pounds but
just see, this basket is not filled up.”
She said she received her last wages in
January and it was getting harder and
harder to buy the basics.
Kamala should receive 2,000 pounds
a month, a salary that has not increased
for years.
In early 2016 it was worth about $65.
Now it’s worth just $15.
This is a particular problem in South
Sudan where almost everything is
imported.
“This money we are pulling out now,
it’s money we saved for the future, to
cater for issues of children, medicine or
education for children. But this money,
now we are finishing it for food,” she
said.
“The first solution to this problem is
for the conflict to stop. This will give us
opportunity to cultivate and grow our
own food,” Kamala said.
In South Sudan, 85% of the working
population is self-employed, the
overwhelming majority engaged in
small-scale farming.
But the conflict has severely
disrupted agricultural production,
triggering a major food crisis
nationwide and even famine in some
areas.
The government of President Salva
Kiir understands the sensitivity of the
matter and ordered food trucks from
neighbouring Uganda to Juba at the
beginning of May.
The influx of subsidised food was
supposed to help relieve pressure on
prices, but the effect was limited.
The conflict has also hit South
Sudan’s oil production, its only source
of foreign exchange, at the same time
as global oil prices have tumbled.
“Before the crisis of 2013 we were
producing 240,000 barrels per day. In
2014 up to the first half of 2015 we were
producing 160,000 barrels per day.
To my knowledge today we are below
130,000,” Finance Minister Stephen
Dhieu said in an interview.
He added that the government
is trying to rehabilitate some of the
oil facilities damaged by fighting
and increase production to around
160,000-180,000 barrels a day this
year.
The country is the world’s most
dependent on oil revenues, which
account for almost all of its exports and
for 60% of gross domestic product,
according to the World Bank.
Truckers, taxis and private
individuals struggle to fill their tanks,
waiting for hours in long queues
outside the few petrol stations that
have fuel.
The alternative is the black market
where, in Aweil for example, 26-yearold Sadik sells a 16 litre container of
petrol for 2,800 pounds, up from 1,700
six months ago.
Rather than a black market, this is in
fact a parallel market, operating in plain
sight, on a busy city road.
The only time Sadik has any
problems with officials, he says, is
when they come to complain that
traders are stockpiling fuel to push
prices higher still, as he too tries to earn
enough to live.
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
15
COMMENT
Child ‘marriage’ is child labour
Millions of girls are
excluded from the ILO
tallies because the men
who robbed them of
their childhoods – and
put them to work – first
married them
By Ruth Messinger and Seth Earn/
IRIN
New York
C
ountless underage girls
around the world are
being forced to work long,
punishing hours. They’re
cooking, cleaning, and caring for
young children. They’re being
denied education, access to future
employment, and agency over their
own bodies and lives. Every day,
older men are raping these children,
enslaving them, and violating their
fundamental human rights.
The plight of these girls is known.
They are trapped in illegal child
“marriages”. Yet today, they and their
work are being ignored – cast aside
by the very organisation that has the
political clout and powerful reach
required to help them.
We’re talking about the
International Labour Organisation. As
a UN agency that operates the world’s
largest global programme to end child
labour, the ILO is uniquely positioned
to attack the problem by marshalling
the resources of not just member
governments, but also the private
sector and unions.
According to the ILO’s statistics,
there are 168mn child labourers
worldwide. The number of girls and
boys engaged in child labour under
the age of 11 is fairly equal. But by
their mid-teens, about four times as
many boys as girls are trapped in child
labour.
Sounds like relatively good news for
the girls of the world, right? Wrong.
These girls haven’t escaped child
labour. They haven’t returned to
Child “marriage” is not merely a harmful tradition, it is a violation, a crime perpetrated by a man against a child.
their families and enrolled in school.
They aren’t free. They’re still captive
and they’re still working, but they’ve
become invisible – erased from the
ILO’s statistics because they’ve
become underage, illegal “wives”.
Why does the ILO leave these girls
out of its tallies, and the associated
funding, programming, and support?
“Child marriage may not be
interpreted as constituting a worst
form of child labour for girls, given
Weather report
Three-day forecast
TODAY
High: 44 C
Low : 30 C
Inshore: Hazy to misty / foggy at
places at first becomes hot daytime
with slight dust at places.
SATURDAY
High: 45 C
Low: 34 C
Sunny
SUNDAY
High: 45 C
Low: 34 C
definitional primacies,” says the ILO.
In essence, the ILO claims that the
labour performed by girls in illegal
child “marriages” does not qualify as
“work”.
“Prostitution and pornography are
considered among (the worst forms of
child labour) as there is a work-related
aspect,” the ILO says. “On the other
hand, incest and early child marriage,
although encompassing forms of
sexual exploitation, do not constitute
Live issues
Lack of
vitamin A
can be cause
of diabetes
QNA
Stockholm
Cloudy
Fishermen’s forecast
OFFSHORE DOHA
Wind: NE-NW 18-25/30 KT
Waves: 4-7/10 Feet
INSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW-NE 05-15/18 KT
Waves: 1-3/4 Feet
Around the region
Abu Dhabi
Baghdad
Dubai
Kuwait City
Manama
Muscat
Riyadh
Tehran
Weather
today
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Cloudy
Max/min
39/33
41/27
43/32
47/32
41/32
37/33
46/28
35/23
Weather
tomorrow
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Max/min
38/33
43/28
42/31
46/32
41/33
41/33
45/29
36/23
Weather
tomorrow
M Sunny
Sunny
P Cloudy
Cloudy
Sunny
P Cloudy
T Storms
T Storms
T Storms
P Cloudy
P Cloudy
S T Storms
M Sunny
P Cloudy
Max/min
30/20
27/24
36/26
22/12
38/23
14/08
29/26
31/26
29/27
28/19
32/24
33/29
28/17
33/26
Around the world
Athens
Beirut
Bangkok
Berlin
Cairo
Cape Town
Colombo
Dhaka
Hong Kong
Istanbul
Jakarta
Karachi
London
Manila
Weather
today
S Showers
Sunny
M Sunny
S Showers
Sunny
M Sunny
T Storms
T Storms
T Storms
Sunny
S T Storms
Cloudy
P Cloudy
M Sunny
Max/min
31/19
27/23
36/26
20/12
37/23
18/12
29/26
29/26
30/28
27/18
31/24
33/29
24/14
34/27
R
esearchers have found that
vitamin A may be crucial to
the insulin-secreting function
of beta cells, a discovery that
could open the door to new treatments
for diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes accounts for around
90 to 95% of all diagnosed cases, and
this arises when the beta cells of the
pancreas fail to produce enough insulin
– the hormone that regulates blood
glucose – or when the body is no longer
able to use insulin effectively.
Type 1 diabetes, which accounts for
the remaining 5% of cases, occurs when
the immune system destroys beta cells,
hampering insulin production.
In a new study, researchers from
the United Kingdom and Sweden
discovered that there are large
quantities of vitamin A receptors on the
surface of beta cells, called GPRC5C.
The researchers partially blocked
GPRC5C in these beta cells.
When sugar was applied to these
cells, the team found that their insulinsecreting ability decreased by almost
30%. The researchers believe that this
finding indicates that a lack of vitamin
A – found in liver, fish oils, and various
fruits and vegetables – may play a role
in the disease.
What is more, the team discovered
that a lack of vitamin A led to a
reduction in beta cells’ ability to stave
off inflammation, while a complete
deficiency of vitamin A caused beta
cells to die.
While these findings indicate
that vitamin A may be beneficial for
diabetes, the researchers stress that
increasing the intake of this vitamin,
particularly through supplements, may
be too risky.
They note that excess vitamin
A levels have been associated with
osteoporosis and other health
problems. However, they say that it is
unlikely that one could get too much
vitamin A from dietary sources alone.
Still, the team is now on the hunt for
small molecules or peptides that can
activate GPRC5C on the surface beta
cells, but which do not cause the side
effects associated with vitamin A.
(worst forms of child labour).”
The ILO also makes this distinction:
chores performed by a child in a
third-party household, whether
paid or unpaid, qualify as work;
household chores performed in one’s
own household do not. The agency
says illegal child “wives” are doing
household chores in their own homes.
But to treat the home of her
“spouse” as the child’s own home is
indefensible. She can’t consent to the
illegal “marriage” or the nature of
her living arrangement. Calling the
household her legal home is akin to
calling a kidnapper’s household his
victim’s valid home.
Look at other criteria the ILO uses
for child labour – as well as hazardous
work and the worst forms of child
labour – and you’ll see it matches
up with the conditions of child
“marriage”. Does the work done by
the child in the “marriage” interfere
with her schooling? Yes. Does it
unreasonably confine the child to
the premises of her employer? Yes.
Could the work result in the child’s
injury, illness, or death? Yes. Does
the work expose the child to physical,
psychological, and sexual abuse? Yes,
yes, and yes.
Yet every year, millions of girls are
excluded from the ILO tallies because
the men who robbed them of their
childhoods – and put them to work –
first married them.
These girls are used as roundthe-clock domestic servants,
habitually raped, and deprived of their
childhoods, their potential, and their
dignity. They face serious dangers,
including an increased likelihood of
contracting HIV because they don’t
have access to contraception or they
fear asking their older “husbands”
to use it. These girls face an elevated
risk of early childbirth that can lead to
death. Men are breaking the law, and
the UN is breaking its promise to fight
all forms of discrimination against
women and girls.
Child “marriage” is not merely a
harmful tradition, nor a ritual that
simply happens too early. It is not a
condition, like abject poverty. It is a
violation, a crime perpetrated by a
man against a child. It is a complete
violation of a girl’s human rights. And it
is child labour in its worst form. To turn
a blind eye is to endorse the practice.
The UN has called for ending
all forms of child labour by 2025.
But that’s not possible unless all
child labourers are counted. The
statistics matter; they indicate who
needs help and who should and will
get it. And the ILO is enormously
powerful. Bringing together member
states, trade unions, and the private
sector to work on the issue of
child “marriage” would provide an
entirely new perspective from which
to combat this scourge. So now it’s
time for the ILO to include illegal
child “wives” in its data – and to
use the agency’s considerable power
to find funding, offer support, hold
perpetrators accountable, and ensure
the labour of millions of girls is no
longer ignored.
16
Gulf Times
Friday, June 16, 2017
QATAR
New species of crab
found in Qatar waters
A
research team from the
Marine Biology Cluster at
Qatar University Environmental Science Center (QU-ESC)
has discovered a new species of
crab during an exploration trip
on the research vessel Janan. The
trip aimed to investigate marine
benthic biodiversity within the
Qatar Marine Zone.
Named “Coleusia janani”, the
new crab has never been collected or identified within Qatar’s
waters or elsewhere. The small
crab of 13.6mm inhabits a gravel/
mud substrate associated with
the oyster bed ecosystem.
It has a bright orange and grey
shell with two pairs of orange/red
outlined circles on each side of
the shell. The legs and pinchers
are white with orange bands. The
investigation is a QU-funded
project.
ESC Marine Operations and
Logistics manager Dr Ibrahim
Abdullatif al-Maslamani noted
that the new discovery will definitely lead to new research as it
highlights shortcomings in the
current taxonomic descriptive
identification keys and species
lists of the Leucosiidae family of
crabs in the Arabian Gulf.
“The discovery of Coleusia
janani within the Arabian Gulf
should trigger a revision of the
Leucosiidae family of crabs in the
region. This discovery underlines
the gap in the taxonomic descriptions of the marine benthic
environment and its associated
species within the Qatar Marine
Coleusia janani
Dr Ibrahim Abdullatif al-Maslamani
Zone. It also represents a new
species to science which is considerably exciting.”
Dr al-Maslamani reiterated
that the new discovery aligns
with QU’s commitment to study
the marine environment and Qatar’s territorial sea.
“QU has always taken the lead
in efforts to meet the requirements for marine studies with
the acquisition of the sophisticated research vessel, Janan and
other powerful survey assets like
speed boats, Remotely Operated
Vehicles, and advanced analytical facilities. Additionally, QU’s
marine science programme has
produced many graduates whose
contribution to Qatar’s marine
conservation efforts will be invaluable.”
ESC director Dr Hamad alKuwari said: “This new discovery adds value to the research
achievements of QU researchers.
We are delighted that this finding
Aspire Academy, TFQ
sign exchange agreement
has been recorded by Janan, QU’s
state-of-the-art marine research
vessel.
Field trips on the Janan to various ESC marine project sites help
our students to better understand the concepts of ocean science and biological and environmental science studies.”
Dr Hamad al-Kuwari
MIA celebrates Garangao
A
spire Academy and
Teach For Qatar (TFQ)
yesterday signed a new
two-year partnership agreement that will take effect this
summer.
TFQ will hone the skills of
young teachers in Qatar as part
of its Summer Institute and
Camp Qatar, preparing them
for a role at Aspire Academy in
the new academic year.
The agreement also facilitates the exchange of knowledge and expertise between
Aspire Academy and TFQ,
which will aid the development of sports and academic
excellence in Qatar. The signatories were Aspire Academy
director general Ivan Bravo and
TFQ CEO Nasser al-Jaber. Aspire Academy deputy director
general Ali Salem Afifa, Education and Student Affairs director Badr al-Hay, School principal Jassem al-Jaber, Corporate
Services director Ali Sultan Fakhroo, and TFQ’s Recruitment,
Selection and Matriculation
head Khalid Omar Yassin were
also present.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Bravo said the Sum-
Officials of Aspire Academy and Teach for Qatar at the agreement signing ceremony yesterday.
mer Institute and Camp Qatar
initiatives will elevate teaching expertise in Qatar, increase
teacher numbers, and engage
more people in the education
process.
Al-Jaber said the new partnership will play a vital role in
enhancing the training expe-
rience for the young teachers
enrolled in the summer programme. TFQ forms part of
the initiative led by HE Sheikha
Hind bint Hamad al-Thani that
provides niche, innovative solutions to Qatar’s education
challenges.
TFQ recruits the country’s
young leaders to take part in a
rigorous teacher-training programme and two-year teaching
placement in one of the country’s schools. TFQ is the 32nd
member of the Teach for All
Network, recognised as one of
the world’s 100 strongest NGOs
in 2013 by the Global Journal.
Dozens of children and families visited the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) last week to celebrate
Garangao, a traditional children’s event celebrated after the breaking of the fast on the 14th
night of Ramadan. MIA hosted an evening of fun activities, including storytelling and traditional
gift giving for children. The museum is offering a variety of experiences and activities in
celebration of the holy month, including talks and lectures, Ramadan lantern-making, weaving
rugs out of paper and the MIA bazaar.
Mah Jong charity auction proceeds to help initiative for orphans
A
n estimated QR138,725
was raised at a charity auction held recently,
with the organisers saying the
final amount will be confirmed
soon as the bidders have up to
seven days to proceed with the
payment.
On the occasion of Ramadan
and under the patronage of
Sheikh Dr Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali al-Thani, premium
French furniture design brand
Roche Bobois held the “Qatari
Art Meets the Mah Jong” charity auction in collaboration with
AlBahie Auction House to raise
funds for Rofaqa, a Qatar Charity initiative that provides an
integrated care programme for
orphaned children around the
world.
Twelve Qatar-based artists
“freely and totally re-imagined”
one of the most iconic pieces
of the French house — the Mah
Jong sofa, according to a press
statement. The 12 pieces of art
went under the hammer on the
evening of June 7. The artists are
Ahmed al-Bahrani, Ahmed alMusaifri, Amal al-Aathem, Hasa
Kala, Ismail Azzam, Mohamed
Abouelnaga, Monera al-Meer,
Nadia al-Meer, Nour Abuissa,
Sabah Arbilli, Salman al-Malik
and Yousef Ahmed. A press preview and private viewing was
held on May 31 at AlBahie Auction House.
Qatar-based artists “freely
and totally re-imagined”
one of the most iconic
pieces of the French house
— the Mah Jong sofa
An exhibition of the artworks
was open to the public from June
1 until June 6.
“Following the success of similar events in Mexico, the US, the
UK, Spain, Brussels, Kazakhstan
and more recently Hong Kong
and Beirut, Qatar has now put
its own spin on the project,” the
statement noted.
All funds raised will be used
to support the Rofaqa initiative, which aims to develop an
advanced integrated care programme for orphans around the
world, including social, educational, health and psychological care of orphans worldwide.
Nicolas Roche, creative director
of Roche Bobois, said: “It’s been
fascinating to see the variety of
approaches and ideas to come
from such a talented group of
artists.”
Rami El Natsha, deputy MD
of Tivoli Group of Companies, business partner of Roche
Bobois in Qatar, added: “We’re
delighted to be supporting Rofaqa, a Qatar Charity initiative
that provides care to orphans
worldwide.”
Ashraf Abu Issa, chairman &
CEO of Abu Issa Holding and
co-founder of AlBahie Auction
House, noted: “AlBahie Auction
House is pleased to host Roche
Bobois and Qatar Charity for this
unique collaboration of Qatari
artists and majlis-style sofas.”
Abdulsalam Abu Issa, Nabil Abu Issa, Rami El Natsha, Ashraf Abu Issa and Mohamed Abu Issa.