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Leading News
Erosion devours houses, lands in
northern districts
Heavy rains, onrush of waters cause further rise in
the major rivers
BSS, Rangpur
Heavy rains and continuous onrush of hilly waters caused
further rises in the major rivers on the Brahmaputra basin
with sporadic incidents of erosions during the past 24
hours till this morning, official and local sources said.
All the major rivers and their tributaries are still
flowing well below their respective danger marks (DM) at
all points in the country's northern region with no signs
of further deterioration of the situation in the coming
days.
With the continuous rises in the water levels in recent
days, stronger currents caused sporadic erosion devouring
55 riverside houses and lands at various places in
Kurigram, Gaibandha and Sirajganj districts, the local
sources said.
The Water Development Board (WDB) recorded 184mm rainfalls
at Dalia in Nilphamari, 142mm at Panchagarh, 68mm at
Kurigram, 23mm rainfall at Kawnia, 23.7mm at Chilmari and
42.5mm at Rangpur during the past 24 hours till 6 this
morning.
Though some riverside lands with unstable and sandy soil-
texture have been devoured in recent weeks at some places
and the erosion situation is still under control
everywhere in the Brahmaputra basin, officials of the WDB
said.
"Along with the local administrations, we are closely
monitoring the river and erosion situations and taking
necessary measures throughout the courses of the Teesta,
Brahmaputra, Jamuna and Dharla," the WDB officials said.
The Teesta marked a rise by 10cm during the past 24 hours
and it was flowing only 50cm below its danger mark (DM) at
Dalia point in Dimla upazila of Nilphamari district.
The Brahmaputra marked another sharp rise by 18cm during
the past 24 hours and was flowing at 23.18m, which was
82cm below its danger mark (DM) at Chilmari point in
Kurigram at 6 am today.
The Dharla marked rise by 19cm during the period and was
flowing at 25.12m, which was still 157cm below its DM at
Kurigram point this morning.
The Ghaghot marked sharp rise by 30cm and was flowing at
20.70 cm, which was 100 cm below its DM at Gaibandha and
the Kartoa rose by 33cm and was flowing at 68.20m, which
was 255cm below its DM at Panchagarh point at 6 this
morning.
The Jamuna marked sharp rises by 45cm, 35cm and 37cm at
Bahadurabad, Sirajganj and Aricha points during the period
and was flowing 58cm, 89cm and 193cm below its respective
DMs at these points this morning.
Chevron
to pay compensation for houses damaged in 3D survey
UNB, Dhaka
The compensation issue has come to a resolution regarding
Chevron's three-dimensional (3D) seismic survey in
Moulvibazar district where some local villagers' houses
were allegedly damaged by the survey.
Chevron Bangladesh Blocks Thirteen and Fourteen Ltd, a
sister concern of the US-based international oil company
Chevron, conducted the seismic survey in the Moulvibazar
area in 2008 in order to delineate the hydrocarbon reserve
position in the gas field there.
During the survey, the company had carried out small scale
drillings and blasted explosives in the underground.
After the works, some villagers alleged that their houses
were damaged because of the explosions.
The issue had remained unresolved for a long time. But, in
a multiparty meeting last week, attended by the officials
of the district administration, Energy Ministry and
Petrobangla, owners of damaged houses and the Chevron
officials, it was decided that Chevron would pay
compensation for the houses within 100 meters from
charging points.
Deputy Commissioner of Moulvibazar district Md Mustafizur
Rahman presided over the meeting.
As per the decision, 730 mud-wall houses will be paid Tk
1200 (US$ 18) each, 84 brick-wall houses will get Tk 3000
(US$ 44) each and 7 shallow tube wells to be
re-established at actual cost (claimed to be damaged
during the survey).
The total amount comes to around US$ 19,000. The DC office
will shortly circulate the minutes of the meeting with
detailed information.
When contacted, Deputy Commissioner of Moulvibazar
confirmed the decision over the payment by Chevron. "The
decision was made on the basis of consensus and all
parties accepted it with satisfaction," he told UNB over
telephone.
Chevron said the survey was essentially critical to ensure
future need of energy in Bangladesh. The post seismic
environmental and wildlife survey by IUCN confirmed no
visible footprint or damage in the forest.
Steve Wilson, President of Chevron Bangladesh, said that
Chevron had been working with Petrobangla and the Deputy
Commissioner of Moulvibazar to resolve the "mud house
crack issue" for the last two years since completing the
survey, and are pleased that successful closure has
finally been reached.
He thanked the local community and the district
administration for all their help and support in this
regard.
Beijing
wants to contribute to deep sea port project: Envoy
Chinese Vice President due tomorrow
BSS, Dhaka
Bilateral trade and connectivity would dominate the
bilateral talks during the visit of Chinese Vice President
Xi Jinping who arrives here on Monday on a two-day
official visit to Bangladesh.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang at a press
conference in Beijing on Tuesday announced that Xi Jinping
will pay official visits to the four countries-Bangladesh,
Laos, New Zealand and Australia-from June 14 to 24.
Chinese ambassador in Dhaka Zhang Xianyi on Thursday said
his country awaited Bangladesh proposal for Beijing's
assistance for the planned deep seaport in the Bay of
Bengal as Jinping is set to arrive on Monday.
"It's a big project in which China wants to contribute,"
the envoy told a press briefing at the embassy convened to
outline the first ever visit to Bangladesh by a Chinese
vice president coinciding with the 35th anniversary of
Dhaka-Beijing ties two months after Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina's maiden China tour.
Zhang Xianyi said Bangladesh could not exploit the
business potentials of its crucial geographic location for
want of a "bigger port" while "if you have a bigger port,
the cost of operations will also be reduced".
Beijing earlier expressed its keen interest to support
construction of the proposed deep seaport in Bangladesh
which is to be used by the East as well as the South Asian
neighbours.
The ambassador, however, said the talks were also expected
to follow up the agreements and proposals reached or
surfaced during Sheikh Hasina's visit particularly
focusing on project- based issues including the Shahjalal
Fertilizer Factory in Sylhet for which Beijing already
promised 1.6 billion Chinese Yuan and now planned to
provide more assistance.
Another such major project was the crucial expansion of
Bangladesh's telecom sector with Chinese assistance to
reach the goal of digital Bangladesh envisaged by the
current government, he said.
Zhan said the road and railway connectivity was another
crucial area of bilateral interests also involving common
neighbour Myanmar and added that "my impression is all the
three players are positive . . . but the project (road and
railway link) may take some time".
"It's not all the countries with which China builds such
partnership" as it intended to do with Bangladesh, the
Chinese envoy said.
Foreign ministry sources said the visit by Xi Jinping is
apparently the return visit against Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to China in March this
year.
This is the first visit by a Chinese state leader since
the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government took office
in January last year. The Chinese vice president will lead
a 35- member high-profile delegation.
DSE hails budget as
capital market friendly
Budget not big compared to population: Samannay
BSS, Dhaka
President of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) Shakil Rizvi
has welcomed the budget as market friendly saying it would
contribute to bringing expansion and dynamism to the
bourse.
At a post-budget press conference in a city hotel today,
Rizvi said the budget has put in place many steps to
encourage the market. For example, he said, the exemption
to tax identification number (TIN) for a BO account opener
in the bourse will play a positive role in market
expansion.
Moreover, keeping the profit from trading of shares of
individuals out of tax net is a welcome step, he said.
Former president of DSE and incumbent director Raquibur
Rahman, vice president M. Nasiruddin Chowdhury, and
directors Masudul Haque and Nailun Nahar Akram, among
others, were present.
The DSE president also hailed the finance minister's
proposal to reform two laws relating to banks and
financial institutions, in addition to restructuring the
law and rules of business relating to securities and
exchange commission.
These steps would help achieve the desired growth in the
country's capital market, Rizvi said. He also welcomed the
proposal to set up a Capital Market Institute and the
allocation of Taka 10 crore to that end.
Meanwhile, Unnayan Samunnay, a research organization,
highlighted the evaluation of the budget on Saturday. It
said the size of the proposed budget is not a big one
compared to the population and need of the country's
economy.
But the success of the budget will depend on the ability
of implementing it and for this what is needed is
enhancing implementation skill and ensuring accountability
in all concerned fields including public administration.
Unnayan Samunnay, a research organization, highlighted the
evaluation on Saturday at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel after
reviewing the proposed budget.
Terming allocation of Taka 6,111 crore for power and
energy sector as a courageous step, Khandaker Ibrahim
Khalid of Unnayan Samunnay in a written statement said the
government has to take effective steps right now for
implementing the projects.
Study Team Leader of the organization Dr Enamul Haque and
research Director Dr Taibur Rahman were also present.
Vested
properties to be handed over this year: Land Minister
BSS, Gopalganj
Land Minister Rezaul Karim Hira on Saturday said the
vested properties would be handed over to their original
owners within this year after bringing necessary
amendments to the existing law.
"Be they Muslim or Hindu, the originally affected persons
will get back their properties," he said while exchanging
views with journalists at the Mausoleum complex of Father
of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at
Tungipara here.
After assuming the state power in 1996, the minister said
the then Awami League government formulated the exiting
act related to handing over the vested properties but the
BNP-Jamaat alliance brought changes in some clauses of the
act as part of their conspiracy.
"Some amendments should be brought to the act so that the
really affected people would be benefited," he said.
Later, the Minister distributed crests, certificates and
Taka 1000 each to the 18 GPA-5 scorers of the SSC
examination at Tungipara Auditorium here.
The function was presided over by former president of Red
Crescent Society Lion Sheikh Kabir Hossain.
Earlier, the minister placed wreaths at the mazar of
Father of the Nation and offered fateha and munajat there
seeking eternal peace of departed souls of Bangabandhu and
his family members were brutally killed on August 15,
1975.
Back Page
Shipbuilding industry can be
leading foreign exchange earning sector: Barua
UNB, Dhaka
Industries Minister Dilip Barua on Saturday said
shipbuilding industry, a new horizon of country's
industrial development, can be a leading foreign exchange
earning sector in future.
"The government is giving special importance to the
shipbuilding industry considering its potential in the
country's economy. I hope, the shipbuilding industry, a
fast-growing industry of the country, will be established
as a leading foreign exchange earning sector,"
Minister Barua said.
He made the remarks while addressing as chief guest at a
seminar titled "Global Economy in the Post-recession
Period: Prospects of Shipbuilding Industries of
Bangladesh" held at the LGED auditorium on Saturday.
Seba Bangladesh Foundation, a social organization hosted
the seminar where former BUET Prof Dr Abdur Rahim
presented keynote paper.
Chairman of Dhaka University International Business
Department Prof Khondkar Fazlul Haque presided over the
seminar while Denmark ambassador in Dhaka Einar H Jensen
spoke as special guest.
Minister Barua said a new horizon for the development of
shipbuilding industry has been created for Bangladesh in
the period of post-recession global economy.
"Availability of both skilled and unskilled workforce,
government's policy support and presence of stronger
private sector put Bangladesh in sound position compared
to other shipbuilding nations in the globe," he said.
The Industries Minister pledged that the government would
provide all necessary support to the shipbuilding industry
considering it as labor-intensive and export-oriented
industry.
Chairman of Ananda Shipyard and Slipways Limited Dr
Abdullahel Bari, Director General of Shipping Directorate
captain AKM Shafiq Ullah, Engineer Ashraf Ali and Engineer
Hafiz Rashid, among others, spoke at the seminar.
Hatirjheel project to
be completed by December next year
BSS, Dhaka
To protect the capital city from floods and storm waters,
development work is going on in full swing for the
integrated development of the Hatirjheel area which
includes the Begunbari canal.
Sources said that the project is expected to be completed
by December, 2011.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (RAJUK), the regulatory body
in charge of the capital's development, has taken up the
work for overall development in and around the area,
considering its strategic importance in waste water
management of the city-a long-standing problem of the
metropolis.
"On completion of the project, it will be opened up to
traffic through its 9.8 kilometer road, which will have a
width of 78 feet and connect the city's Rampura area with
the Tongi Diversion Road, both in the west and east side
of the project that includes one expressway, a serviceable
road and a walkway", Project Director Engineer Raihanul
Ferdous told BSS.
The main objective of the project is to develop the low-
lying areas located between Hatirjheel and Bagunbari canal
through re-excavation of the only canal that has managed
to survive, while many other canals have already
disappeared.
The project covers 300 acres of low-lying land, in and
around the Airport Road, near Sonargaon Hotel to Rampura
Bridge, and is being developed at a cost of Taka 1,480
crores, jointly by RAJUK, Dhaka Water and Sewerage
Authority (WASA) and the Local Government Engi-neering
Department (LGED), while the Special Works' Organization (SWO)
of the Bangladesh Army is carrying out the construction
work.
As compensation for land acquisition in the project site,
RAJUK has already paid Taka 488 crores to the private land
owners for 132 acres of land and another Taka 262 crores
has been deposited to the government's exchequer for 81
acres that belong to the Court of Wards or are Khas
(government-owned) land.
However, the total value of the government land, there, is
344 crores and the balance will be paid after RAJUK gets
the fourth installment of its allocated money from the
Annual Development Programme (ADP) in the current budget.
Earlier, RAJUK had paid Taka 32 crores to the private land
owners for acquisition of 80 acres of land in the project
area.
NGO leaders for
effective use of Climate Fund
BSS, Dhaka
Leaders of several civil society bodies hailed the budget
for making the highest allocations to education and
chalking out a long term plan to mitigate the country's
power shortage.
Equity and Justice Working Group, (Equitybd) an umbrella
organizations of about a dozen NGOs has however sounded
critical to poor allocation to Climate Fund in the budget.
The NGO leaders hoped the government would increase
subsidy to farmers instead of reducing it this year from
the level of last year. It has important bering on
attaining foor security, they said. They also sounded
highly critical about the way the budget is prepared and
approved without much bothering to realities in different
regions.
They emphasized the need for more involvement of MPs in
budget making to reflect the expectations of their
electorate instead of putting blind support behind the
government budget document.
They said the allocation remained unchanged this year at
Taka 700 crore belying expectations that more allocation
to this fund would bring recognition to growing risks that
the country is facing from climate change challenges.
They laid emphasis on quick enhancing the utilization
capacity of the climate fund saying from last year's
allocation the government had used only Taka 235 crore
through official channels keeping NGOs out from using this
fund at a time when cyclone Aila and Sidr affected people
are still on waiting for rehabilitation.
Allocation is not enough, access to it by NGOs is also
important to bring its benefits to the people.
They said the budget should have separate budget
allocations for coastal zones similar to district based
budget system that the government is thinking to introduce
starting from next year.
The budget lacked clear directions, they said about how to
establish linkages between development planning by
different ministries and their agencies with climate
change issues and adaptation methods.
20 injured in a clash
during road and river route blockade programme in
Rangamati
UNB, Rangamati
At least 20 people, including journalists, were injured in
a clash between the activists of Hill Women Federation and
Samo Adhikar Andolon at Manikchari in the town during the
road and river route blockade programme on Saturday.
Police said activists of two organizations suddenly locked
into a clash, leaving them injured at about 11am.
Three journalists who went to take snap of the clash came
under attack by the feuding groups.
The injured newsmen are Milton Bahadur, local
correspondent of daily Giri Darpan, Mohammad Solaiman,
district correspondent of daily Amar Desh and Nandan
Devnath, district correspondent of Bangla Vision.
All the injured were admitted to General Hospital where
the condition of journalists Solaiman and Nandan were
stated to be critical.
In another incident, a chase and counter-chase between
local people and activists of United People's Democratic
Front (UPDF) ensued as local residents went to restrain
UPDF activists from vandalism on Rangamati-Chitta-gong
road in the town during the blockade. Police later rushed
in and brought the situation under control.
However, none was injured in the clash.
Hill Women Federation, a front organization of UPDF, an
anti-CHT Peace Treaty organization, enforced the half-day
blockade across the district demanding rescue of their
leader Kalpana Chakma and publication of an investigation
report on her abduction.
Mobile Court
fines 7 CCC councilor candidates
BSS, Chittagong
Mobile Court, monitoring electioneering of the Chittagong
City Corporation (CCC), on Saturday fined seven councilor
candidates for violating election code of conduct.
Election Commission (EC) office sources said the court
realized Taka 15000 from five councilor candidates and
warned two others.
The sources also said 41 executive magistrates were
conducting mobile courts in 41 wards of CCC and those who
violated the election code of conduct were presented
before the court.
EC office declined to publish the names of the candidates
fined but it said that seven councilor candidates from
ward number 9, 14,17,28, 29 and 39 were fined for
violating election code of conduct.
Deputy Election Commi-ssioner Ezharul Huq told BSS that
they also fined six councilor candidates on Friday for the
same reason.
Fix child age
at 18: Seminar
BSS, Dhaka
Child rights campaigners and donors' representatives today
urged the government to fix a single child age at 18,
removing confusions over the definition of children,
juveniles and adolescents aged between 14 and 19 years in
official documents.
"The age of children should be harmonized and fixed at 18
years," Kabir Ahmed Chowdhury, joint director of Labour
Directorate, told a seminar in the city, organized to mark
the World Day Against Child Labour.
Kabir Ahmed said different documents have defined the age
of children in various ways-ranging from 14 to 18
years-but the country now needs a harmonized age of
children to take steps towards elimination of child labour.
Labour and Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf
Hossain attending the function as the chief guest said an
estimated 3.2 million children of poor background got
engaged in 400 types of jobs in the country. He said at
least 1.3 million of the children were involved in the 43
to 67 worst forms of child labour.
He, however, said the government has taken some pragmatic
steps to reduce the number of child labourers from both
formal and nor-formal sectors. The worst forms of child
labour, he said, are likely to be eliminated by the year
2016.
Engineer Mosharraf said the National Child Labour
Elimination Policy had been adopted in March this year and
more policy interventions are in the pipeline to free the
country from child labourers. He said the child labour not
only hinders the future of children but also deprives the
country of skilled and educated workforce.
Railway earns
Tk 393.1047 cr in 10 months
BSS, Dhaka
Bangladesh Railway (BR) earned Taka 393.1047 crore in the
first 10 months of the current fiscal, which is Taka 3.935
crore up from the earnings in the corresponding period
last year.
The earnings in first 10 months of 2009-10 were Taka
389.1742 crore.
BR sources said the earnings from carrying passengers in
first 10 months of the current fiscal were Taka 241.555
crore, from goods transportation Taka 97.894 crore, from
parcel transportation sector Taka 11.226 crore, from
traffic sector Taka 7.379 crore, from land property Taka
13.7336 crore, from sales of scrapes Taka 11.9341 crore,
from power generation Taka 10.2056 crore and from other
sectors Taka 35.8733 crore.
The railway carried 5.4720 crore passengers, 20.74 lakh
tonnes of goods and 24.34 lakh quintal parcels.
BR Joint Managing Director Mohammad Shajahan told BSS that
the railway is failing to earn the expected amount of
revenue in absence of necessary locomotives, drivers,
station masters and other manpower.
He said the railway needs 100 more oil-carrying wagons, 65
container-carrying wagons and 150 passenger carriages.
Referring to the lack of engine drivers, guards and
station masters, he said the running of trains is being
hampered for manpower crisis.
Editorial
National Budget 2010-11
Minister
for Finance Abul Mal Abdul Muith placed the Tk. 1,32,170 crore
national budget for Fiscal 2010-11 in parliament on Thursday
with special emphasis on energy, power, agriculture and
education with a view to implementing the ruling grand
alliance's election pledge .Of the total outlay of the budget,
the second of this government and the 39th since independence,
Tk. 93,670 crore has been earmarked for revenue expenditure
and Taka 38,500 crore for the Annual Development Programme
(ADP) while the GDP growth target has been fixed at 6.7 per
cent. The budget proposes revenue earnings of Tk 92,647 crore
leaving a record deficit of Tk. 39,323 crore which will be met
with foreign assistance of Tk 15643 crore and domestic
resources of Tk. 23,680 crore. The budget deficit is estimated
at 5 per cent of the GDP.
The new budget gives special attention to some key issues such
as mobilising internal and external resources, promoting
agriculture, infrastructure development , education and IT,
generating employment, checking inflation, tackling power and
energy crisis and alleviating poverty. The Finance Minister
assured that loadshedding will go within two years. The budget
for the next fiscal allocates Taka 2000 crore as stimulus. It
has proposed increase in CNG price and automobile import
price. Taka 17,959 crore, the highest amount has been given to
education sector. The new budget proposes expansion of the tax
net to mobilize domestic resources.The budget seeks to
mobilize additional revenues through various fiscal measures
and restructuring the existing tax net.
The national budget for fiscal 2010-11 is the largest ever,
highly ambitious and equally deficit. It has created mixed
reaction among different sections of people as it strive to
remove the woes of the affluent as well as the poor, but fails
to provide any solace for the suffering middle class and cool
down the heat of the skyrocketing prices of essentials. The
budget has put forward a number of welcome proposals for
promoting agriculture, reduce inflation, alleviate poverty
ease power and energy crises and continue social safety net,
but it falls drastically short of the expectation as it fails
to propose any direct measure to bring down the prices of
essential items and also of specific steps to protect the
middleclass from further economic debacle.
The budget for the next fiscal was formulated against the
backdrop of the aftermath of a worldwide economic recession
which is also hit Bangladesh seriously by reducing foreign aid
flow, decreasing export earnings and shrinking manpower export
markets. These factors specially resource constraints
influenced the preparation of the budget. The budget has
provided for an amount of Taka 2000 crore as stimulus package
this year also to help face the recession challenge. In fact,
the drop in foreign aid flow and export earnings as well as
extra spending for the implementation of stimulus package will
mean need of additional funds for development and other
expenses. And this will in turn enhance the urgency of
mobilising more domestic resources.
Where this additional domestic resource will come from? The
sources are more tax, VAT and duty to be realised directly or
indirectly from the people who are already overtaxed. And how
can be the budget pro-people if it imposes new taxes in any
form on the people? People wanted from the Finance Minister
such a budget which is not only pro-people, but also pro-poor.
But unfortunately that expectation has largely been shattered
by the new budget proposals.
In his budget speech the Finance Minister said the government
was striving relentlessly with sincerity and dedication to
implement the vision of taking Bangladesh to the height of
prosperity by 2021. But he said the government is quite aware
that the road to 'Vision 2021' is not strewn with roses.
"Thousands of obstacles are persistently impeding our journey
towards reaching that aspired vision", he added. However, in
the post-budget press briefing on Friday Muhith said
confidently that growth target for the next financial year
would not be very difficult to achieve.
Meanwhile, Awami League has obviously hailed the budget as
pro-people while BNP has criticised it as anti-people. But
generally the budget has been described as very big, highly
ambitious and difficult to be implemented. Some economists
said that the proposed large-sized budget for the next fiscal,
with 20 percent growth in the overall outlay and 35 percent in
development spending, immediately raises a question mark
regarding the government's implementation capability. Terming
6.7 per cent GDP growth target as ambitious, Center for Policy
Dialogue (CPD), a civil society think-tank, thinks that
implementation of the proposed budget for the fiscal 2010-2011
will be the key challenge for the government. The CPD is right
in its observation that success of the implementation of the
budgetary proposals and targets will hinge on the
effectiveness of delivery, efficiency, transparency of
development administration and good governance.
In their budget reactions, the business leaders termed the
budget proposal as positive gestures towards achieving higher
economic growth than ever. They welcomed the increased
allocation in power and energy sectors. They also said the
business community was happy that the power and energy sector
allocations were increased by 80 percent this year compared to
previous year. Country's eminent economists and investors
described the proposed budget as favorable for capital
markets. The proposed budget will encourage the individual
investors to invest more in the capital market, they said The
country's top business leaders hailed the proposed national
budget for 2010-11 fiscal and called for taking necessary
steps for speedy implementation of the budget that eyes 6.7
percent GDP growth.
In short the general reaction to the new national budget is
mixed as it possesses both good side and bad side. It is
expected now that the budget will be implemented with care and
special attention to protect the interest of the poor and
middle class people.
Analysis
Afghan loya jirga and peace prospects
About 1,600 delegates, including 300 women,
tribal elders, religious leaders and members of parliament
from all over the country attended the loya jirga held from
June 2-4 in Kabul. The three-day assembly represented the
first major public debate in Afghanistan on how to end the
war.
Asad Munir
Article 110,
Chapter Six, of Afghanistan's constitution recognises the loya
jirga as "the highest manifestation of the will of the people
of Afghanistan". The constitution also lays down the
composition of jirga. A majority of members are required to
adopt the decision of the loya jirga, except in situations
explicitly stated in the constitution. The Afghans proudly
trace the history of loya jirga to time immemorial, while
historically the term loya jirga has never been used before
the second decade of 20th century. These jirgas have only been
useful when convened by well-established rulers and have
failed to produce any results during the time of crisis. Loya
jirgas held during the Soviet occupation, Najibullah regime
and by Karzai in the past have hardly achieved the objectives
for which such assemblies were convened.
President Karzai announced the holding of a loya jirga in his
inauguration speech in November 2009, after winning elections
for a second term, to end the ongoing insurgency. Karzai
wanted to offer the Taliban incentives to lay down their arms,
and to hold conditional talks with the top Taliban leaders.
The US administration was more interested in reintegration of
Taliban's foot soldiers into society, and wanted negotiations
with the Taliban leadership, once militant forces were
weakened on the battlefield. Taliban leaders and other
insurgent groups were, therefore, not invited to the jirga.
The Afghan opposition parties boycotted the meeting saying it
did not represent the full spectrum of Afghan politics.
Despite this, about 1,600 delegates, including 300 women,
tribal elders, religious leaders and members of parliament
from all over the country attended the loya jirga held in
Kabul from June 2-4. The three-day assembly represented the
first major public debate in Afghanistan on how to end the
war. Some 12,000 security personnel were on guard against
attack from the Taliban. The Taliban rejected the loya jirga,
terming it a phony reconciliation process aimed at securing
the interests of foreign powers. They reiterated their stance
of not holding peace talks until foreign troops left
Afghanistan. NATO has 130,000 troops in the country, likely to
rise to 150,000 by August.
Mr Karzai's proposals included granting amnesty and
reintegration incentives to low-level Taliban who accept the
constitution. He also offered to give certain leaders asylum
in other Islamic countries for holding peace talks. In the
gathering, all the delegates debated these proposals. While
the jirga concluded with an endorsement of Mr Karzai's
proposals, there was disagreement over the details of what the
militants should be offered. Some of the members wanted the
government to remove the names of Taliban leaders from a UN
blacklist. More than 130 Taliban and their associates are on
the list. Some participants called on the authorities and the
international forces to guarantee the safety of former Taliban
members, and release those being held in American and Afghan
prisons. Some sub-groups proposed amendment in the
constitution to bring it in line with some of Taliban's
reasonable demands. Former Afghan president, Burhanuddin
Rabbani, the jirga chairperson, suggested that the government
set up a women-only commission to talk peace with the wives,
mothers and sisters of Taliban fighters.
The jirga was a consultative forum, aimed at building national
consensus, on a peace plan, likely to be presented in July to
the Kabul Conference, a gathering of mostly Western foreign
ministers. The first proposal of the peace process is to
reintegrate and demobilise armed fighters including low rank
Taliban, by offering them amnesty, jobs and other incentives.
A commission for this purpose has been constituted. However,
this scheme may not motivate significant numbers of foot
soldiers to defect Taliban. Especially once they know that
negotiations with their leadership are on cards. They would
like to be rewarded by their leadership, which, in their
perception, may be more attractive than what is being offered
by the Karzai regime. Surrendering, after fighting for eight
years, may also not be a preferred option for traditional
Pashtuns. The response of low ranking Taliban would also
depend on the nature of incentives and the guarantees offered
to them about their security once they surrender. The US
administration would be more interested in this proposal, as
even its partial success would weaken the insurgents.
The most important outcome of the jirga is the offer of asylum
to Taliban leaders. Once they get asylum in any country,
holding of negotiations would be open, transparent and
overseen by international observers. The blame game would also
come to an end. However, this is not likely to happen in the
near future. The US would support such talks only once Taliban
are weakened on the battlefield; coalition forces secure more
Taliban-dominated areas, including Kandahar; and the
insurgents are conditioned to dilute there bargaining power
during negotiations. The US will never compromise on women's
rights and support the delegates, who argued that women would
have much to lose in a settlement that gives the insurgents a
prominent political role in the Afghan society.
The removal of the Taliban from the UN list, which bars travel
and freezes overseas assets, may not be possible at this
stage. It may happen once the Taliban are taken on board and
ground work is completed for holding of peace dialogue. Though
the UN has supported the loya jirga and proposals for peace
talks, the US consent as the main stakeholder would be
required for making such a major decision.
The jirga is the first step towards a long process of
reconciliation and reintegration. The main gainer has been
Karzai, who got a mandate for his peace efforts and his
government months after his victory in a controversial
election. The Taliban and other insurgent groups are the main
players in the whole peace process. They may be of the opinion
that since they are winning the war, therefore they may not
gain much through negotiations. They were not part of this
jirga; therefore the prospects of peace may not be very
bright, unless some of them are onboard through back door
channels. Pakistan is likely to play a very significant role
in the peace process. It should, because a peaceful and stable
Afghanistan would minimise the terrorist activities in
Pakistan.
Indo-Pak
press code
Any prominent editor on either side can take the lead;
form a small team within his country and invite leading
media personalities from the other country to embark on a
joint exercise.
A.G. Noorani
The
Mumbai blasts in November 2008 were bound to affect
relations between India and Pakistan. But it was the media
on both sides, print and electronic, which made a bad
situation worse; barring, of course, some notable
exceptions.
What Kissinger wrote of the American media is true of
South Asia's media, no less. "Ubiquitous and clamorous
media are transforming foreign policy into a subdivision
of public entertainment. The intense competition for
ratings produces an obsession with the crisis of the
moment, generally presented as a morality play between
good and evil having a specific outcome and rarely in
terms of the long-range challenge of history."
They prefer, instead, to set the agenda for today for the
government to follow. Even in the early years of
independence leaders of both countries were concerned at
the destructive role of some sections of the press though
it was not as powerful as it is today. However, when the
state begins to meddle with the press, the result will be
a total mess. There existed then an Indo-Pakistan
Consultative Committee on Information.
It was set up by an agreement signed on Dec 14, 1948 which
recognised "that the wholehearted cooperation of the press
is essential for creating a better atmosphere" between the
two countries. Its remit covered books as well as film.
But it is hard to believe that hardheaded ministers could
endorse something as vaporous as these clauses.
The press must not "indulge in propaganda against the
other dominion, publish exaggerated versions of news of a
character likely to inflame … publish material likely to
be construed as advocating a declaration of war … or
suggesting the inevitability of war between the two
dominions. …[T]heir respective organisations handling
publicity, including publicity through the radio and the
film, (should) refrain from and control propaganda against
the other dominion, and publication of exaggerated
versions of news of a character likely to inflame, or
cause fear or alarm".
The publicity organs of both governments have been the
worst offenders. The often feed and instigate the media,
build up public opinion and plead inability to compromise.
In the Nehru-Liaquat agreement of April 6, 1950 the two
sides solemnly pledged themselves to "take prompt and
effective steps to prevent the dissemination of news and
mischievous opinion calculated to rouse communal passion …
The guilty of such activity shall be rigorously dealt
with; nor permit propaganda in either country directed
against the territorial integrity of the other or
purporting to incite war between them and shall take
prompt and effective action against any individual or
organisation guilty of such propaganda".
The committee met in New Delhi on April 27-28, 1960.
Pakistan's delegation was led by the Minister for National
Reconstruction and Information, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The
Indian delegation was led by the Minister for Information
and Broadcasting B.V. Keskar whose only claim to a place
in history is his bar on the playing of the harmonium on
All India Radio.
The committee, which also comprised representatives of the
press in both countries, "examined in detail the joint
press code which was adopted by the All India Newspaper
Editors' Conference and the Pakistan Newspaper Editors'
Conference" on April 28, 1950 and adopted 12 guidelines to
supplement the code.
Their exhortation to virtue verged on the fatuous. The
editors were asked to "observe voluntary restraint". How?
Sample these: "by avoiding dissemination of news
calculated to undermine relations between the majority and
minority communities in the two countries; by refusing to
give currency to mischievous opinion of individuals … by
excluding rigorously from the press of each country
opinion directed against the territorial sovereignty of
the other … by avoiding alarming headlines for reports of
communal incidents … by examining objectively outstanding
problems between the two countries … confining comment to
the merits of the problem" and not making such problem
"the basis of a general attack on the two governments";
eschewing personal, "contumacious or scurrilous attacks on
the respected leaders of either country or the religion,
culture and faithful of the people of both countries; and
by avoiding historical controversies which may create or
revive bitterness between the two countries."
Would that cover a debate on the partition or on Kashmir?
The second meeting of this body on Nov 26, 1960 made two
specific suggestions which are relevant still. One was to
increase the facilities given to journalists of each
other's country. It found "the present procedure to be
unduly restrictive".
The committee "favoured the exchange of visits by
personnel of the two broadcasting organisations and
wherever possible the joint production of programmes".
The committee vanished into thin air taking its guidelines
and the code with it. We face an altogether new situation
today. The media will not allow itself to be lectured to
or regulated by the state. But it can and should bestir
itself to improve matters. The Press Council of India set
up by law is an irrelevance because leading media figures
are not represented on it. In contrast, the British Press
Complaints Commission was set up by leading members of the
media to oversee and enforce a code of practice "framed by
the newspaper and periodical industry" itself, nearly two
decades ago.
This is an example worthy of emulation; not only
domestically but also at the Pakistan-India level. Any
prominent editor on either side can take the lead; form a
small team within his country and invite leading media
personalities from the other country to embark on a joint
exercise.
It should begin with modest steps: review recent
developments in the media; set afoot studies on a
Pakistan-India press code; and set up a joint committee
which would meet periodically in each other's country to
pronounce on major breaches of the code and review the
state of press freedom on each side. The media will be
striking a powerful blow for sanity in the relations
between India and Pakistan.
The writer is an author and a lawyer.
Viewpoints
Military victory, political loss
In attacking
the Mavi Marmara in the Freedom flotilla, Israel committed a
condemnable act of illegal brigandage and suffered a loss of
global legitimacy.
Praful Bidwai
There
is a stunning precedent to Israel's attack on the Freedom
Flotilla which carried humanitarian aid for Gaza, which is
under a three year-long blockade.
In 1947, the ship Exodus 1947, carrying 4,500 Holocaust
survivors, left France for Palestine, then under Britain's
"mandate" and also under a blockade. Britain stormed the ship
on the high seas, killing three persons and injured scores.
The passengers were removed, humiliated and deported to
Germany.
International outrage over the incident forced Britain to give
up its "mandate". The incident also spurred the creation of
Israel. The Exodus was called "The Ship That Launched a
Nation".
In attacking the Mavi Marmara in the Freedom flotilla, Israel
committed a condemnable act of illegal brigandage and suffered
a loss of global legitimacy. The incident, in which nine
people were killed, could prove a tipping point in Israel's
occupation of Palestine -- if international opinion is
powerfully mobilised.
The Israeli military wove a web of lies about the flotilla,
alleging the presence of Al Qaeda in the ship. These stories
didn't sell. But Israel continues to assert that it exercised
the "right of self-defence". There can be no such right for
heavily armed commandos attacking unarmed civilians in
international waters.
The episode highlights the Israeli government's criminal
character and turns the limelight on the blockade of Gaza.
Going by the strong reactions by many Western powers, the
episode will further isolate Israel.
Israel's behaviour, though shocking, was in line with its past
conduct, including its increasingly inhuman occupation of
Palestine and its propensity to deal with threats, real or
imaginary, with military force -- witness the 1981 attack on
an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction, and the 1982 and
2006 invasions of Lebanon.
No other country has defied as many Security Council
resolutions as Israel. It maligns even its mildest critics as
anti-Semitic. Paranoid Israel lives with a make-believe
self-perception of victimhood, and is obsessed with security
defined in anti-Palestinian terms.
Israel's government today includes the far right and fascists
such as foreign minister Avigdor Liebermann, who wants all
Palestinians driven out of the West bank, Gaza and East
Jerusalem.
Israel has turned Gaza into the world's largest open-air
prison and systematically impoverished it. The blockade covers
2,000 items, including glass, paper, cancer medicine, toys and
chocolate. The flotilla aimed to break the siege with 10,000
tonnes of relief material like wheelchairs, and pencils for
schoolchildren, which are banned.
Over four-fifths of Gaza's 1.5 million people are dependent on
international food aid. Sixty-five per cent of them are
children, of whom ten per cent are permanently stunted from
undernourishment. In Gaza, unemployment runs at a crushing 50
per cent.
Gaza was left devastated by Israel's invasion of December
2008, which killed 1,400 civilians, and damaged or destroyed
11,000 houses, 105 factories, 20 hospitals and clinics and 159
educational institutions. Of the 51,800 people displaced,
20,000 still remain homeless.
Karen Koning Abu Zayd, former head of the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency, says: "Gaza is on the threshold of
[being] intentionally reduced to … abject destitution, with
the knowledge, acquiescence and…encouragement of the
international community."
The blockade amounts to collective punishment of civilians
under foreign military occupation, prohibited under
international law. As UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied
Palestinian Territories Richard Falk, also an eminent US
jurist, put it: such massive collective punishment "is a crime
against humanity, as well as a gross violation of…Article 33
of the Fourth Geneva Convention".
The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict led by South
African jurist Richard Goldstone, also a Jew, concluded that
Gaza's blockade may amount to persecution, a crime against
humanity. Israel attempted to discredit Goldstone.
Israel evidently prefers being seen as savage, rather than
weak. But this makes little difference to Israel's sworn
enemies like Hamas and Hezbollah. And it deeply embarrasses
Israel's allies. The cost of defending Israel is steep and
rising.
The Gaza siege has become a huge political liability and must
be called off. But Israel is taking wantonly contrarian
positions because it fears that if the siege ends, critical
global attention on its occupation of Palestine will trigger
its unravelling.
Contrarian behaviour comes naturally to Israel. For instance,
it built close relations with apartheid South Africa. The
Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid
South Africa, a just-published book by US-based scholar Sasha
Pulakow-Suransky, documents how Israel sold arms to South
Africa, then under international sanctions, and more
crucially, clandestinely gave it nuclear weapons.
The nuclear deal was struck between South Africa's defence
minister PW Botha and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence
minister, now its president. With Israel's help, South Africa
is believed to have made at least six nuclear weapons, which
it destroyed when apartheid's end became imminent.
Israel gets away with its consistently roguish behaviour
primarily because of the United States' support. This, in some
respects, is a hangover from the Cold War when Israel was an
important strategic ally. It no longer is. And the influence
of the US's legendarily powerful Zionist lobby is in decline.
Even American Jewish opinion is turning critical of Israel.
About half the participants in recent anti-occupation
demonstrations in the US were Jews.
The US would have earned much global goodwill, neutralised
some jihadi opposition, and strengthened its own security had
it criticised the flotilla attack.
Washington could yet shift its stance -- if it finds the cost
of cleaning up after Israel exorbitant. The recall of their
ambassadors to Israel by many countries is a pointer in that
same direction.
Israel has lost its only friend in the Islamic world, Turkey.
Until recently, the two had close military relations both
within and outside NATO. Turkey voted for Israel's unfortunate
entry into the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development.
Turkey is an emerging regional power, which seeks a high
profile. It recently agreed with Brazil to exchange slightly
enriched uranium from Iran with medium-enriched material for
its "research" reactor.
If Israel continues to ignore sane advice, it will be
eventually reined the way apartheid South Africa was -- by a
combination of global sanctions and external pressure, with
opposition from the Palestinians and sections of domestic and
global Jewish opinion.
Falk urges: "It is time to insist on the end of the blockade
of Gaza. The worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment, and
sanctions (BDS) against Israel is now a moral and political
imperative..." He warns: "Unless prompt and decisive action is
taken to challenge the Israeli approach to Gaza, all of us
will be complicit in criminal policies that are challenging
the survival of an entire beleaguered community."
The BDS campaign is gaining momentum in many countries, but
not in South Asia. India is building close relations with
Israel, led by huge arms-purchase deals and counter-terrorism
intelligence sharing. This is a historic blunder. India must
fundamentally revise its approach to Israel. Pakistan too must
cease and desist from holding clandestine talks with Israeli
leaders.
This won't happen unless South Asian political parties, civil
society organisations and the intelligentsia launch a powerful
BDS campaign, which demands a complete cessation of military
purchases and joint ventures, a boycott of Israeli products,
beginning with those made in the occupied territories, and
sanctions. This campaign has become urgently imperative.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and
peace and human-rights activist. Email: prafulbidwai1 @yahoo.co.in
Disastrous
judgment: System has failed Bhopal
The investigators, the politicians, the corporate sector
and the judiciary have given short shrift to the hapless
victims.
Neeta Lal
A
quarter of a century after the world's most horrific
industrial disaster - the Bhopal gas-leak tragedy -
unfolded in India's central state of Madhya Pradesh, an
Indian court has tried to bring closure to the incident by
delivering an outrageous verdict.
On that fateful night of December 2 and in the early hours
of December 3, 1984, when a deadly cocktail of methyl
isocyanate and sundry lethal gases spewed out of Union
Carbide Corporation's (UCC) now defunct pesticide plant,
over 3,500 people were asphyxiated instantly to death and
thousands others were maimed for life. In the ensuing
weeks, 15,250 more people who had inhaled the noxious gas
or consumed contaminated water breathed their last.
It is said that the full impact of the gases unleashed on
Bhopal's residents was so disastrous that it may never be
fully assessed by science. The fact that, 26 years after
the fiasco, chemicals can still be traced in the milk of
lactating women in Bhopal is illustrative of the scale of
this monumental human tragedy.
Shockingly, despite the disaster's magnitude, the Indian
judiciary has awarded a meagre sentence of just two years'
imprisonment for causing "death by negligence" to the
convicted former Union Carbide India Limited Chairman
Keshub Mahindra and seven other senior Indian executives.
Worse, all seven applied for - and were granted - bail
immediately after their sentencing on Monday.
Apart from the grossly inadequate quantum of punishment,
what rankles Indians most is the fact that the case's
chief accused - Warren Anderson, now 89, the erstwhile UCC
chairman at the Bhopal plant - is still at large. The
former UCC honcho - currently living on Long Island in a
luxury villa - has skilfully evaded arrest despite two
warrants being issued against him, the last in July 2009.
As if this injustice wasn't enough, the victims and their
families had earlier received compensation of just
Rs75,000 (Dh5,864) for each person who died and about
Rs25,000 for the injured. This was in 1999, after the
Indian government had received a payment of $470 million
(Dh1.7 billion) - negotiated down from $3 billion - in a
protracted out-of-court settlement with Union Carbide.
When livid activists pushed The Dow Chemical Company, of
which Union Carbide became a subsidiary in 1999, for more
compensation, it washed its hands of the case, saying "all
the liabilities were settled when the company paid the
compensation in a settlement brokered by the Indian
Supreme Court".
Breakdown
In other words, the Bhopal disaster verdict has failed the
Indian people on every count. From the investigating
agencies to the politicians to the corporate sector to the
judiciary, there is an overwhelming feeling that all
agencies have given short shrift to the hapless victims.
There has thus been a most unfortunate conclusion to the
Bhopal saga.
Indeed, talk of sustainable development, environmental
issues and human rights sounds hollow in the absence of
justice for the victims of the tragedy. This shockingly
lenient ruling gives the unfortunate impression to the
global community that it is easy for foreign investors to
literally get away with murder in India. This may well set
an unhealthy precedent, with big foreign companies
believing they can operate with little accountability in
the country.
Incomplete legislation
It seems that the lack of strong liability laws in India
means that errant companies can buy their way out of major
disasters cheaply. Therefore, there is an urgent need to
craft a strong legal framework to ensure that industrial
accidents are handled in the most responsible manner.
A judgment of this magnitude, involving a high-profile
corporation, has the potential to shape the policies of
big business in India. More stringent laws are needed to
cope with environmental disasters and industries that
routinely deal with hazardous substances. This has become
even more urgent with the proliferation of nuclear power
plants across vast swathes of the country.
The mistakes made in the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster
are being repeated in the Civil Liability for Nuclear
Damage Bill, introduced by the Indian government in
parliament in November. The Bill sets a limit on the
compensation to be paid in the case of an accident at a
nuclear site and places responsibility for paying this
compensation on the operator, and not the suppliers or
foreign companies that install the reactors in India.
The Bill limits the civil liability of any company running
a nuclear power plant to Rs5 billion (Dh391 million) per
accident, with an overall cap of roughly Rs21 billion
(Dh1.6 billion), and also exonerates the international
companies that supplied the equipment and technology.
The Bhopal judgment is also likely to have implications
for India's geo-strategic position vis a vis the US. There
was already a sense of disquiet about the Bhopal disaster
within the Obama administration and this verdict, which
has incensed so many in India, is particularly sensitive
at a time when Washington is contemplating pressing
charges against British Petroleum for the oil spill off
the Louisiana coast, which claimed 11 lives.
The Union Carbide case will continue as the victims and
their families plan to appeal. Be that as it may, this
verdict should hold valuable lessons for the Indian
authorities. It proves that governmental neglect, coupled
with judicial apathy, is the perfect recipe for disaster.
The entire episode is a grim reminder of the avoidable and
exorbitant price that ordinary and unsuspecting people
have to pay for the state's inefficiency and callousness.
All eight of the Indian defendants in the Union Carbide
case were found guilty, but this is of little comfort to
the thousands who have suffered in Bhopal. More than
2o,ooo people were killed, and their lives have been
valued at 55 cents each. Meanwhile, the former chairman of
the US company refuses to appear in an Indian court.
Neeta Lal is a New Delhi-based journalist.
Should a minister who insults Arabs
continue to be a member of the French Cabinet?
Hortefeux has the dubious honor of being the first serving
minister to be convicted of a racist charge. In many
countries this would cause widespread condemnation and the
minister would be expected to apologize and resign.
Iman Kurdi
Last
Friday, Brice Hortefeux, France's minister of the
interior, was convicted of a racial slur against Arabs. A
Paris court found him guilty of private insults of a
racial nature for which he was fined 750 euros. He was
also ordered to pay 2000 euros to MRAP (Movement Against
Racism, Anti-Semitism and for Peace) that brought the case
against him.
Hortefeux has the dubious honor of being the first serving
minister to be convicted of a racist charge. In many
countries this would cause widespread condemnation and the
minister would be expected to apologize and resign. It
would be the honorable thing to do, especially for a
minister of interior. A minister or official who heads law
enforcement must be seen to lead by example. If the
minister of justice says it is OK to make racist remarks,
what message does that send down the ranks?
So what exactly did Horefeux do?
The story centers on a young man called Amine
Brouch-Benalia. As his name suggests, Brouch-Banalia has
North African origins. His father is an Algerian. Last
September, at a convention for young members of the ruling
UMP party in Seignosse, Brouch-Benalia asked to have his
picture taken with Hortefeux. As he does so, a woman is
heard telling Hortefeux "Amine eats pork and drinks beer",
to which Hortefeux replies "Oh but that's no good. He does
not fit the prototype" and they all laugh. Then another
female voice says, "He's our little Arab" to which
Hortefeux responds: "You always need one. When there is
one it's OK, but when there are lots of them there are
problems." And more laughter.
The exchange was caught on camera and posted on Le Monde's
website last September. It is unclear whether Hortefeux
was aware he was being filmed. Though they are in a public
place, the group are walking along in the sunshine and the
whole exchange is said in a spirit of banter. It is not
exactly a press conference. So where's the harm? They were
just joking around.
People who fight racism are often accused of not having a
sense of humor. The "it was just a joke" or "they can't
even take a joke" line is one you hear every day. What
they fail to understand is that humor is one of the most
potent forms of racism. If a joke makes you laugh it's
because it reveals a truth you relate to. If you make fun
of people from minorities you are both enforcing the
stereotype behind the joke and belittling the person or
the group you are making fun of.
The thing about this exchange is its frightening banality.
It's not offensive in the sense of inciting hatred or
being out and out offensive like the opinions of certain
politicians from the far right, but it is insulting and
damaging to Arabs all the same.
First there is the woman who proudly tells us that this
particular Arab eats pork and drinks alcohol. In other
words she is saying that he is OK because he does not do
as other Arabs do, he is a "good" Arab, one who had
adopted her values and way of life, and implicitly an
exception. He is the exception that makes the rule, the
one "good" Arab among the multitude of "bad" Arabs. Then
Hortefeux goes on to confirm that very prejudice. The use
of the word "prototype" suggests that Arabs are all the
same and is demeaning in its dehumanizing connotation.
When he says one is OK, but when there are lots there is
trouble, he is not only labeling Arabs troublemakers but
confirming the idea that you might find one or two who are
acceptable, but the majority are no-goods. And of course
it once again tells French citizens born to Arab parents
that they are not "genuine" French citizens. It's bad
enough hearing this kind of thing from members of the
general public but coming from the minister of the
interior and former minister of immigration, it's
devastating.
The outrage and condemnation at Hortefeux's conviction has
been a little slow. Though the opposition socialists have
called for him to apologize and resign, he has not done
so. He is a close friend of President Nicolas Sarkozy and
continues to enjoy the support of his prime minister and
political party.
Hortefeux is not a racist, we are told. Perhaps not,
though you need not be a racist to make a racist remark.
Racism is not a category, x is a racist and y is not, but
a continuum. In fact, the "we're not racists" refrain can
hide the most entrenched prejudice. People who tell you,
"I'm not racist, I have a black/Jewish/Muslim friend"
usually genuinely believe that the act of befriending a
member of a minority is evidence of their lack of racism
and fail to notice that they have held on to much of the
stereotypical beliefs that underpin racism.
What I find most appalling is Hortefeux's unwillingness to
apologize. He could quite simply have said I made a
mistake, I apologize. But instead, ever since the story
first broke out in September, he has come up with first
one and then another cover story, sometimes saying that he
meant people from the Auvergne region of France and not
Arabs, and at other times saying his remarks were about
having his photograph taken, one is OK but many is a
problem. Who exactly is he trying to kid?
What impresses me most about this case is that in France
an NGO can take the minister of the interior to court. And
win! Though not quite, as MRAP, the NGO in question had
brought a criminal case, whereas the judges only found him
guilty of a minor offense. The court decided that the
comments were made in private and not in public, and thus
did not constitute a criminal offense. Both Hortefeux and
MRAP have appealed the decision. If the Court of Appeal
also finds Hortefeux guilty of a racist slur, will he then
do the decent thing and apologize?
International
Strike, security
lockdown in Kashmir after youth's killing
AFP, Srinagar, India
Thousands of Muslims Saturday defied strict security
restrictions and marched to chants of "we want freedom" in
Indian Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar to protest the
death of a teenager.
The 17-year-old was killed in downtown Srinagar Friday
during clashes between anti-India protesters and riot
police, after which thousands of police and paramilitary
sealed off neighbourhoods to stop more demonstrations.
But as the student's body arrived at his home in Srinagar,
thousands of protesters marched in defiance of police, who
fired shots into the air and used teargas in an
unsuccessful attempt to halt the protest march.
"Security forces have ordered us not to venture out. They
say a curfew has been imposed," resident Tanveer Ahmed
told AFP by telephone. Police denied imposing a curfew in
some areas.
"We are enforcing restrictions on civilian movement to
maintain law and order," police officer Pervez Ahmed said.
In other parts of Srinagar, where security restrictions
were not imposed, a spontaneous strike closed down shops,
offices and businesses. The region is in the grip of a
20-year insurgency against Indian rule. The unrest has
left more than 47,000 people dead by official count.
Tensions in the region have been running high after local
police accused the military of killing three civilians in
April. The army initially said they had killed three armed
rebels but later ordered an enquiry and initiated action
against two officers.
Amnesty calls for
investigation into Thai unrest
AFP, Bangkok
Rights group Amnesty International called on Thailand's
prime minister Saturday to ensure an independent and
impartial investigation into recent unrest and to lift a
state of emergency immediately.
Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva has commissioned an inquiry led
by a former attorney general into the loss of 90 lives
after recent clashes between armed troops and
anti-government "Red Shirt" demonstrators.
"Independence is of paramount importance to any
investigation's credibility," wrote Amnesty's acting
secretary general Claudio Cordone, saying the probe should
be free from affiliation with either side in the clashes.
"The investigation must also be impartial, including
alleged human rights abuses by both sides."
The Reds' rally, broken up on May 19 in an army crackdown
on their vast camp in the centre of Bangkok, sparked
outbreaks of violence that also left nearly 1,900 people
injured.
Kanit Nanakorn, leading the investigation, has said his
aim was to establish facts rather than responsibility.
But Amnesty's letter urged the probe to be conducted with
the view "to initiating prosecutions against alleged
perpetrators of human rights abuses," which it said were
clearly committed by both security forces and protesters.
The government has defended the use of armed troops,
saying they were only authorised to fire live ammunition
as warning shots, in self-defence or against "terrorists"
whom it has accused of inciting the unrest.
Abhisit has voiced plans to have a Red Shirt sympathiser
on the inquiry panel to ensure confidence in its
neutrality, but the main opposition party has warned of a
likely "whitewash", saying Kanit was too close to the
government.
A two-month-old emergency decree, in place across about a
third of Thailand, could hinder accountability by
conferring immunity on officials for certain acts
committed in the court of their duties, according to
Amnesty.
The decree also authorises "vague and excessive" powers of
censorship that "have actually led to the mere expression
of opinions and views being penalised," the rights group's
letter said.
India won’t deploy army to
combat Naxals
AFP, New Delhi
The Army will not be used in a "combat role" in the
ongoing anti-Naxal battle. The Centre and states will,
instead, recruit ex-servicemen - including retired sappers
for de-mining exercises - on contractual basis to fill the
gap and will focus on strengthening paramilitary and
police personnel through intensive training and
recruitment programmes. Role of armed forces will only be
limited to "training".
The Cabinet Committee on Security, which met under Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, took these decisions.
It expected states to lead the charge against Maoists with
the Centre mainly helping them with additional "security
assistance" in terms of paramilitary personnel and "more
funds" for modernisation of police forces and pursuing
"development programmes". The committee, which analysed
the proposals and counter-proposals of both the home and
defence ministries before arriving at the decisions, also
decided to meet again soon to give final shape to the
strategy.
"CCS will also invite chief ministers of Naxal-affected
states. Their views will help the Centre in finetuning the
strategy," a top government official said.
Although the CCS meeting remained inconclusive in terms of
giving final shape to the strategy and earmarking
additional funds, it addressed major concerns of both
defence and home ministries on major issues. "Since it was
decided not to expand the role of armed forces at all
beyond training, the focus was mainly on looking at
alternatives to address the need of home ministry as well
as states," the official said.
As the armed forces do not want to be dragged into yet
another internal security duty beyond their existing roles
in J&K and N-E states, the CCS allowed home ministry to
fill the gap by recruiting ex-servicemen in a big way.
"While a couple of states are already doing this,
remaining ones will also be asked to recruit retired armed
force personnel for de-mining exercises and other security
duties on minimum three years contract," the official
said. The committee decided that the Centre would provide
adequate funds to states for this purpose as well as for
recruiting regular police personnel and increasing number
of police stations in Naxal-hit districts.
Since the defence ministry argued that IAF could not spare
a more helicopters to ferry troops, the CCS explored the
option of hiring choppers from Pawan Hans for emergency
duties including evacuation of injured personnel.
NAB Chairman Naveed Ahsan
tenders resignation again
Dawn Online
Chairman National Accountability Bureau (NAB) tendered his
resignation on Saturday, DawnNews reported.
Ahsan had earlier resigned in February 2010 but was asked
by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to continue till the
appointment of his successor.
Myanmar denies having nuclear weapons
program
AP, Yangon
Myanmar's military junta denied it isdeveloping a nuclear
weapons program, decrying such allegations asgroundless
and politically motivated.
State radio and television news reported on Friday the
ForeignMinistry's denial, which claimed that
anti-government groups incollusion with the media had
launched the allegations with the goal of "hindering
Myanmar's democratic process and to tarnish thepolitical
image of the government."
A week earlier, the Norway-based Democratic Voice of
Burma, aMyanmar exile news service, charged that the
junta, aided by North Korea, is actively pursuing a
nuclear weapons program with the aim
of developing a bomb and long-range missiles.It said its
conclusions were based on a five-year study and
revelations by a recent Myanmar army defector.
The report was issued as a U.S. senator postponed a trip
to Myanmar, saying it was a bad time for such a visit
because of new allegations that its military regime was
collaborating with North
Korea to develop a nuclear program.Sen. Jim Webb, a
Democrat from Virginia, has been a leading proponent of
greater engagement with Myanmar. The United States
hasgenerally shunned the military regime, imposing
political andeconomic sanctions because of its poor human
rights record and failure to hand over power to a
democratically elected government.
NKorea vows to blow up
South propaganda facilities
AP, Seoul
North Korea vowed Saturday to launch an all-out attack
against South Korean loudspeakers and other propaganda
facilities along their heavily fortified border, warning
it could even turn Seoul into a "sea of flame."
The rival Koreas ended decades of propaganda campaigns in
2004 as their relations warmed. However, South Korea
resumed radio broadcasts to North Korea last month and
installed a dozen propaganda loudspeakers along the border
to punish the North for allegedly sinking a South Korean
warship. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told
a parliamentary hearing Friday that loudspeaker broadcasts
would begin after the U.N. Security Council decides on any
new measures against the North, Yonhap news agency
reported. South Korea has asked the U.N. Security Council
to punish the North for what Seoul says was a North Korean
torpedo attack on the 1,200-ton Cheonan warship that
killed 46 sailors.
A multinational investigation led by South Korea concluded
last month that North Korea was responsible. The North has
denied responsibility and threatened to respond to South
Korean retaliatory measures with war.
The General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a
statement Saturday that North Korea would launch an
"all-out military strike" to blow up any propaganda
facilities along the border, and that its retaliation
would be "a merciless strike foreseeing even the turn of
Seoul ... into a sea of flame."The statement was carried
by the official Korean Central News Agency.Seoul, South
Korea's capital of over 10 million people, is just 37
miles (60 kilometers) south of the border, well within
North Korean artillery range.
The North's military earlier warned it would fire at any
propaganda facilities installed in the Demilitarized Zone
that has separated the two Koreas since the end of the
1950-53 Korean War, which concluded in a truce, not a
peace treaty.
Militants behead two
loggers in Philippines
AFP, Philippines
Islamist militants in the southern Philippines beheaded
two loggers they abducted just hours earlier, police said
on Saturday.
Police on Basilan island retrieved the headless corpses of
the two victims early Saturday after they were abducted by
Abu Sayyaf gunmen while at work, said local police chief
Antonio Mendoza. It was the second report of killings of
civilians by the Abu Sayyaf on Basilan this month.
Abu Sayyaf was set up with seed money from Al-Qaeda in the
early 1990s and is suspected by the military of tactical
ties with Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Islamist
group blamed for several attacks in Indonesia.
Brigadier-General Eugene Clemen, commander of the
Philippine Marine forces on Basilan, said the latest
victims were murdered late Friday, hours after they were
taken.
"They had been warned not to venture in that area because
it was dangerous," Clemen said of the loggers, adding they
had no official permit to cut trees in the area.
Most of the Abu Sayyaf's top leaders have been killed or
arrested in military operations backed by US Special
Forces troops providing training and intelligence, but the
rebels continue to pose a security threat.
China police officer shoots three
dead
AFP, Beijing
A policeman shot dead three civilians and injured a police
chief in northern China's Inner Mongolia region, state
media reported on Saturday.
Police found an elderly couple killed at their home early
Saturday morning in Taipusi and later found their daughter
dead in a separate flat, Xinhua news agency.
Police went to arrest suspect Wang Fengliang, a fellow
officer, and he refused to surrender and twice shot and
injured a police chief identified only by his surname Hou,
Xinhua said. Hou was hospitalised after the shooting.
Wang was eventually taken into custody, said the report,
which did not indicate a motive in the alleged killings.
China has been plagued in recent months by a wave of
violence, particularly a spate of knife attacks at schools
that have left 17 people dead-including 15 young
children-and more than 80 injured.
Iran
urges West to accept nuclear fuel swap deal
AFP, Tehran
Iran called on Western powers on Saturday to accept a
nuclear fuel swap deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil as a
"dignified" way out of an intensified atomic standoff, the
state news agency IRNA reported.
"The best dignified way out of Iran's nuclear issue for
Western countries is to accept the fuel swap," the head of
Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, told
IRNA.
He branded the standoff with world powers over Iran's
atomic programme as their "self-created quagmire."
International pressure increased on Iran as the UN
Security Council on Wednesday slapped a fourth round of
sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear drive, this time
tightening the noose on military and financial
transactions.
Iran has refused to heed UN demands of suspending its
uranium enrichment programme, insisting it is aimed at
peaceful nuclear fuel production, and it denies charges of
seeking atomic weapons as suspected by the West.
In May, Iran signed a deal with temporary UN Security
Council members Turkey and Brazil to ship about half of
its low enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile to Turkey for an
exchange with higher enriched reactor fuel.
Western powers reacted coolly to the deal, which builds on
an October proposal by the UN nuclear watchdog to ship
Iran's LEU to Russia and France to be converted to reactor
fuel.
But Iran dragged its feet for several months, insisting it
wants a simultaneous swap on its own territory, a
condition that was rejected by world powers backing the
UN-brokered proposal.
Russia now says Iran
sanctions ban S-300 missiles
AP, Moscow
The new U.N. sanctions prevent Russia from delivering
S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran, a Kremlin official, in
a reversal of the position announced by Russia's Foreign
Ministry the day before.
Friday's Kremlin statement was sure to please Israel and
the United States, which have long urged Russia not to
supply the powerful missile system. Russia signed a deal
to sell the missiles in 2007, but has delayed their
delivery.
The U.N. Security Council resolution passed Wednesday bans
Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of
delivering nuclear weapons, investing in nuclear-related
activities and buying certain types of heavy weapons.
The Kremlin official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the S-300 falls under these sanctions. The U.N.
resolution does not specifically prohibit Russia from
supplying the S-300, the U.S. State Department spokesman
said.
"However, for the first time, the resolution calls for
states to exercise vigilance and restraint in the sale or
transfer of all other arms and related materiel,"
spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington. "We
appreciate Russia's restraint in the transfer of the S-300
missile system to Iran."
This distinction may help explain the initial confusion.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko
said the U.N. resolution did not apply to air-defense
systems, with the exception of shoulder-fired missiles.
The head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical
Cooperation, which oversees arms trade, also said Thursday
that the sanctions would not affect the S-300 deal. But on
Friday the agency said an analysis of the resolution
indicated the missile system was banned under the new
sanctions.
In Paris, a French presidential aide said that Russia's
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in talks with French
President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday, said that Russia had
decided to "freeze the delivery of the S-300 missiles."
Putin also said supporting the Iran sanctions was a
decision that "wasn't exactly easy," according to the
presidential aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity in
keeping with Sarkozy's office policy.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will issue a decree
specifying which types of weapons cannot now be sold to
Iran, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in
Moscow. Russia in the past has sold other air-defense
missiles, aircraft
Kyrgyzstan asks Russia to
send troops to help quell ethnic violence
AFP, Markhamat, Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan's interim leader on Saturday asked Russia to
send troops to help quell ethnic violence in the south of
her country, which she warned had spiralled "out of
control".
Interim President Roza Otunbayeva appealed to Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev to send military forces to help
stem the violence after a second day of ethnic clashes
that have killed 62 and wounded almost 800 people.
"I have signed a letter asking Dmitry Medvedev for
third-party forces to be sent to the Kyrgyz Republic,"
Otunbayeva said in a nationally televised address. "Since
yesterday the situation has got out of control. We need
outside military forces to halt the situation. For this
reason we have appealed to Russia for help."
Otunbayeva discussed her country's situation with Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin by phone late last night, the
Russian government added.
The provisional government-which seized control of the
ex-Soviet state in April-had also appealed to retired
police and army officers to go to the city of Osh to halt
a descent into civil war.
"The authorities will be grateful for any volunteers who
are ready to help prevent civil war in the south of
Kyrgyzstan," said government spokesman Azimbek Beknazarov,
the 24.kg news agency reported.
Thousands of Uzbek women and children have fled the
violence to the nearby border with Uzbekistan, an AFP
reporter witnessed, raising the spectre of a possible
humanitarian crisis.
The border remains sealed from the Uzbek side.
"We just want peace in Kyrgyzstan, we don't want any wars
with the Kyrgyz people.... But most of the Kyrgyz people
don't understand and we are suffering from their actions,"
an elderly Uzbek woman, who declined to give her name,
said at a border crossing near the Kyrgyz village of
Markhamat.
"They are shooting us, killing us!"
People reached by telephone in Osh described an
increasingly violent and chaotic situation, with gunfire
echoing across the city amid what seems to be a near-total
collapse of central authority.
Andrea Berg, a researcher for Human Rights Watch who has
been trapped in a guest house in Osh since the fighting
began, pleaded for intervention by the international
community.
"The situation here looks terrible. The government doesn't
have any more control over the city. It's war," she said.
"There is no way for a safe passage out to the airport and
the Uzbek neighbourhoods are burning. Shootings
everywhere. Horrible phone calls from people locked in
these mahallas (Uzbek neighbourhoods) seeing how their
neighbours are being slaughtered."
Violence erupted in Osh overnight Thursday when brawls
between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz escalated into running
street battles. Cars were smashed and burned and buildings
set on fire throughout the city.
The toll of wounded may rise sharply once the government
is able to enter the Uzbek neighbourhoods, Berg warned.
The unrest also spread to the Bishkek overnight Friday,
where one medical official told AFP that 27 people had
been hospitalised, some in critical condition.
Ethnic Kyrgyz protesters there had Friday commandeered
cars and minibuses to travel south to Osh, while police
used dogs to break up protests, the Kabar news agency
reported.
Since last April's uprising, which ousted president
Kurmanbek Bakiyev and left 87 people dead, foreign leaders
have warned of the danger of civil war in the strategic
Central Asian state, which has both US and Russian
military bases.
Berg's call for an international peacekeeping force was
seconded on Saturday by former Kyrgyz prime minister Felix
Kulov, one of the country's most respected political
leaders.
ICC seeks UN help for
arrest of Darfur war crime indictees
AFP, United Nations
The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor sought
help from the UN Security Council Friday to secure the
arrest of two senior Sudan officials accused of Darfur war
crimes, accusing Khartoum of failing to cooperate.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the 15-member council that the
Sudanese government "has the primary responsibility and is
fully able to implement" warrants issued by the ICC in
2007 for the arrest of former government minister Ahmed
Haroun and militia leader Ali Kosheib.
"It (Khartoum) has not done so," he said, adding that he
was relaying a request from the ICC's judges for the
Security Council to act in response to Sudan's lack of
cooperation. Moreno-Ocampo later told reporters that he
was pleased with the expressions of support by council
members.
Mexico's UN Ambassador Claude Heller, the council chair
this month, meanwhile said the general sense among members
was that "the government of Sudan should comply with the
decisions of the court."
The warrants for Haroun, Sudan's former secretary of state
for humanitarian affairs who became governor of south
Kordofan state, and Kosheib, list 51 counts of crimes
against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in the
war-torn Darfur region.
Charges include murder, torture, mass rape and the forced
displacement of entire villages.
Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad
lashed out at Moreno-Ocampo "for telling his usual lies
and fabrications" and interfering in Sudan's domestic
affairs.
He described the ICC prosecutor as "the biggest impediment
to peace in our country."
Heller stressed the need for a "holistic approach" to the
Sudan issue but insisted that "peace requires justice."
39 killed in Mexico
shootings as drug war rages on
AFP, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Gunmen brought terror to two towns in northern Mexico,
killing at least 39 people, police said Friday, as the
country struggles to tackle the scourge of powerful and
violent drug cartels. In Chihuahua, the capital of
northern Chihuahua state, more than 30 armed men stormed a
drug rehabilitation center overnight, killing 19 people
and wounding four others.
Meanwhile, an unknown number of gunmen carried out a
series of armed attacks and executions across the town of
Madero, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, police
said. In Chihuahua, the gunmen arrived in six trucks
around midnight on Thursday and stormed the second floor
of the Templo Cristiano Fe y Vida (Christian Faith and
Life Temple).
Firing large-caliber weapons at patients and employees,
they killed 14 immediately and then fatally shot another
five people before depositing a threatening message and
fleeing. The raid lasted little more than 10 minutes,
according to residents living next to the center.
Shortly afterward, police and soldiers surrounded the area
searching in vain for the perpetrators, and ambulances
ferried the wounded, including four reportedly in serious
condition, to local hospitals.
Chihuahua has long been the scene of gruesome
trafficking-related violence and authorities say rehab
centers are often targeted because of small-scale drug
dealing or the presence of individuals seeking refuge from
violence or rival gangs.
In September 2009, two similar attacks in nearby Ciudad
Juarez left a total of 28 dead.
Police said the rehab center targeted overnight may have
housed members of the "Los Mexicles" gang linked to the
Sinaloa cartel, which is warring with "Los Aztecos,"
affiliated with the Juarez cartel.
In Madero, a gang of gunmen killed scores of people in a
series of armed confrontations and shootings in at least
five different locations in the city. So far, "20 bodies
have been found in different parts of the city," a federal
police officer told AFP.
The attacks reportedly began Thursday, with confrontations
between police and a group of gunmen moving around the
city in vans. Authorities then received reports Friday
that bodies had been discovered on a local beach and in
other locations throughout the town.
There was no immediate information linking the incident to
drug violence, but Tamaulipas has been caught in the
crosshairs of a bloody confrontation between the Gulf
cartel and their former allies, Los Zetas, which was
formed by former elite military personnel.
Along with the death toll, the region's violence is unique
for the level of cruelty that continues to befall victims
of the drug cartels, which have been terrorizing residents
and officials alike with beheadings, mutilation and
depraved methods of torture all part of the daily record.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned the violence
in Chihuahua and expressed his condolences to the families
of the victims.
"These are outrageous acts that reinforce the conviction
of the need to use all out forces to fight criminal groups
engaged in such acts of barbarism," Calderon said in a
statement from Johannesburg, where he was attending the
start of the World Cup.
Some 23,000 people have died in surging, drug-related
violence following the launch of a military clampdown on
organized crime, involving some 50,000 troops, at the end
of 2006.
Rescuers search for
survivors of deadly US floods
AFP, Chicago
Rescuers searched for survivors Saturday at campsites in a
remote forest in the southern US state of Arkansas, one
day after flash flood tore through the area killing at
least 16 people.
Survivors described a torrent of water rampaging through
the Ouachita National Forest, catching campers and
families vacationing in hillside cabins completely unaware
in the dead of night.
Chad Stover from the Arkansas department of emergency
management told AFP Friday that 16 people had died, and
that "there are probably about 30 people still missing."
The rescuers halted their search in the remote region
overnight, but began again at daybreak, an official with
the emergency management department told AFP Saturday.
"This is still a very much search and rescue mission, not
a search and recovery mission," said the official.
The exact number of people missing however was impossible
to determine because the Albert Pike campground, which
bore the brunt of the massive surge of water, had no
registration system to show how many campers were present.
At other camp sites the floodwaters swept the records
away. Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln said she would tour
the flood-stricken area Saturday along with Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsak.
Lincoln, speaking on CNN, said that the remote location of
the forest has complicated rescue efforts.
Business/Economy
Spain
unveils proposed labour market reform
AFP, Madrid
Spain's Socialist government on Friday unveiled details of
its proposed labour market reform that is aimed at
reviving economic growth and allaying jitters over its
public finances.
Among the measures included in the draft published by the
labour ministry is the creation of a government-sponsored
fund for each worker that could be used by firms to pay a
portion of an employee's severance in case of a dismissal.
The fund, modeled after a system in place in Austria,
would be set up in 2012.
The reformed labour law would also limit the length of
fixed-term contracts to two years, with the possibility of
an extension of one year, and allow companies to reduce
worker hours in a downturn instead of dismissing staff.
Spain's unemployment rate has soared to 20 percent of the
workforce-the second highest in the European Union after
Latvia-since the collapse of a property bubble at the end
of 2008.
Many economists blame the high jobless rate on the high
cost of firing workers in Spain, which makes employers
reluctant to hire staff and encourages the use of
temporary contracts that have few benefits and rights.
Nearly one in four Spanish employees, 24.3 percent, were
on temporary contracts during the first quarter of this
year, according to national statistics agency INE.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's cabinet will
approve the labour reform on Wednesday and it will then be
voted on by parliament on June 22 where his socialist
government are seven seats short of a majority. "It's
going to be a substantial labor reform for our labor
market, and I trust it will have majority support in
parliament," Zapatero told reporters on Thursday during an
official visit to Italy.
Last month the assembly passed the government's
15-billion-euro austerity package, which includes cuts to
public workers' salaries, by just one vote as a number of
government backbenchers either abstained or voted against
the plan.
The government is pushing ahead with its own version of
the labour law reform after talks between unions,
employers and the government to reach a consensus
collapsed Thursday after nearly two years of meetings.
Spain's two largest unions, the CCOO and the UGT, have
threatened a general strike if the government unilaterally
imposes reforms that hurt workers.
EU
leaders to press ahead on bank tax
AFP, Brussels
EU leaders are to throw their support behind proposals for
a European tax on banks to help bear the huge costs of
financial crises, according to a document obtained by AFP
today.
In the absence of a global consensus for such a tax, EU
countries are prepared to press ahead with it in the
27-nation European Union at a June 17 summit in Brussels.
According to a draft of the final summit statement, the
leaders "agree that a tax on financial institutions be
introduced to guarantee that they contribute to paying for
the costs of crises."
EU leaders call on their finance ministers and the
European Commission to prepare a report on what form the
tax should take "in October 2010", according to the
document, which has already been approved by EU
ambassadors.
The document said that preparations for the tax should
consider how it could be implemented without putting
European banks at a disadvantage to competitors elsewhere
which are free from such a levy.
While a consensus has emerged in Europe in favour of such
a tax, divisions persist over how to apply it, notably
whether it should be on banks' assets or profits.
"In reality, the debate remains open," one European
diplomat said.
Divisions also remain over what the money raised through
the tax should be used for with the European Commission
wanting it to go towards a rainy-day
bank bailout fund and France and Germany preferring that
it stays in their budgets. Despite the lack on
international consensus for a global bank tax, European
countries are to make the case for it at June 26-27
Toronto summit of leaders from the G20 leading economic
powers.
The global bank tax is supported by the International
Monetary Fund, European powers and the United States. It
is resisted by some developing nations plus Canada and
Australia, who argue that they should not have to pay to
clear up a mess they did not create.
Canada and Brazil, whose banking sectors emerged largely
unscathed from the financial crisis, favour higher capital
reserve requirements instead.
UN, China launch
joint program to address food- related challenges
Xinhua, Beijing
Some 1.8 million people will benefit from a new United
Nations project that tackles malnutrition and improves
food safety for China's most vulnerable groups.
Known as the "Joint Programme on Improving Nutrition, Food
Safety and Food Security for China's Most Vulnerable Women
and Children," the Millennium Development Goal Achievement
Fund (MDG-F) program was launched in Beijing on Friday.
The Spanish government through the MDG Fund has provided 6
million U.S. dollars and the Chinese government 1 million
U.S. dollars for the three-year project that ends in 2012.
The project will cover six of China's poorest counties:
Zhen'an and Luonan in Shaanxi Province, Panxian and
Zheng'an in Guizhou Province, and Wuding and Huize in
Yunnan Province. The project was conceived to address
specific food-related challenges in China. There are vast
disparities in nutritional status between urban and rural
Chinese children. A main source of child nutrition, breast
milk, is undermined by a low breastfeeding rates among
Chinese women and inadequate breastfeeding duration by
those who do breastfeed.
In addition, poor food security has resulted in an
insufficient intake of nutrient-rich foods and
deficiencies in iodine, folic acid and Vitamin A. The
joint programme will strengthen the national database on
the nutritional situation of women and children.
The project will also reduce malnutrition and
micro-nutrient deficiencies among poor women and children
in the pilot counties by asking mothers to breastfeed
their babies for six months, by providing women and
children with micro-nutrient supplements and by
strengthening food fortification efforts. In the area of
food safety, the program aims to make children's food
production and preparation safer and in line with national
food safety standards. A joint programme-management
committee has been established to coordinate the project,
monitor its progress and document lessons learnt.
France to slash 45b euros spending
by 2013
AFP, Paris
France will slash state spending by 45 billion euros (54.5
billion dollars) in the next three years to get its public
deficit back down to three percent, Prime Minister
Francois Fillon said Saturday.
In France's first announcement of austerity measures as
bond markets have mounted pressure on European nations,
Fillon said the government would cut the public deficit by
100 billion euros, with half coming from slashing spending
and half from increasing revenues.
"We've taken a commitment to bring down our deficit from
eight to three percent by 2013 and we will concentrate all
of our efforts on it," Fillon said at a meeting of new
members of his UMP party.
The prime minister said state spending would be cut by 45
billion euros.
Closing tax loopholes will bring in five billion euros,
and a rebound in the economy should bring in an additional
35 billion euros, he added.
"As and when growth returns, revenues will grow once
again," said Fillon.
The remaining 15 billion euros will come from halting
temporary measures to boost the economy, said the prime
minister.
Euro to hit dollar parity in 2011,
if still exists
AFP, London
The euro is set to sink to parity with the dollar in 2011
because of the slow pace of economic recovery in Europe,
if it has not broken up by then, a consultancy predicted
Friday.
In a quarterly report on global economic prospects the
London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR)
forecast that the European single currency would fall to
parity against the US greenback next year. The CEBR
predicts that the Federal Reserve Bank will start to raise
US interest rates in late 2010 in response to
strengthening growth.
In contrast, it says, the European Central Bank "will
remain hamstrung by the weakness of the European economy
and will be forced to hold rates down."
CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams said the report
was prepared on the assumption that the embattled euro
would still exist a year from now-but he was pessimistic
about the long-term prospects for the currency.
"It is almost inevitable that the euro will break up at
some point," McWilliams said. "It could be soon, it might
be in five to 10 years time."
"In the meantime, the one certainty is that the euro will
be weak," McWilliams said.
"It has already fallen by 30 cents against the dollar this
year and will probably fall the final 20 cents to break
parity when it becomes clear that US rates are about to
rise while euro rates will be held down because of the
weakness of the economy."
Report author Charles Davis said the global recovery was
"surprisingly robust in the emerging markets while clear
risks remain in the advanced economies," highlighting two
main concerns.
"Overheating in the emerging markets will require monetary
policy tightening and the fear that in some of the weaker
economies in the Western world that growth will slow even
further when fiscal stimuli are removed."
China signs
trade deals with Sri Lanka
AFP, Colombo
Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang held talks with Sri
Lanka's president today after signing six trade and
economic deals, the president's office said in a
statement. Zhang had a breakfast meeting with President
Mahinda Rajapakse and the two reviewed ongoing
Chinese-assisted infrastructure projects.
"Today's meeting followed the signing of agreements
between China and Sri Lanka for economic and technical
cooperation, highways development... IT and the
development of maritime ports," the statement said without
giving details.
Zhang arrived in Colombo on Thursday with a 30-member
delegation.
Sri Lanka maintains close ties with China, a key supplier
of small arms to the island's armed forces during the
height of fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Government forces crushed the rebels in May last year and
Sri Lanka has publicly thanked China for its generous
military support. Colombo has been buying naval craft, jet
aircraft as well as tanks and small weapons from China.
Indian hiring
activity among world's highest
PTI, New Delhi
All those looking for a job, India is surely the place to
be, as current hiring levels in the country for
professional and managerial staff have emerged as one of
the highest worldwide, a survey says.
Global staffing firm Antal, conducted a survey - Global
Snapshot - across more than 9,600 companies in 55
countries in May on whether they were currently hiring and
firing at professional and managerial levels.
"The trends around the world found that not only have
recruitment levels in India increased since the beginning
of the year, they are now among the highest in the world,"
the survey stated. India has continued to make a steady
recovery from its depressing start of 2009, when less than
30 per cent firms in the country were recruiting at
professional or managerial levels. Current hiring levels
in the country are up at 73 per cent in the survey
conducted in May, from 71 per cent in January, while the
percentage of firms shedding staff is down to just 11 per
cent now from 16 per cent earlier, the report revealed.
Countries having a higher rate of hiring included Canada
(76 per cent), Egypt and Malaysia (75 per cent), Argentina
and Saudi Arabia (74 per cent).
China and Pakistan also witnessed strong hiring rates at
72 per cent and 62 per cent, respectively.
"We have seen resurgent activity in hiring in the past few
months at the mid and senior levels. Our revenues have
nearly doubled from the previous quarter," Antal's Mumbai
office Managing Partner Joseph Devasia said. "We have seen
increased hiring across several sectors, including
manufacturing, which is a great sign," Devasia added. The
lead in the on-going recovery seems to have been taken by
the manufacturing sector where a staggering 96 per cent
companies are planning to hire over the next three months.
The survey also showed that Indian organisations plan on
increasing their hiring activity even more, with 77 per
cent expecting to hire managerial staff over the next
three months.
China rejects US
accusations on yuan
AFP, Beijing
China on Saturday again defended its foreign exchange
policy, dismissing as "baseless" a call by US lawmakers
for a probe into the impact of alleged Chinese currency
manipulation on American industry.
Facing election-year pressure, US lawmakers from both
sides of the political aisle have vowed to launch
legislative action within weeks to punish China over its
currency policy.
They say China keeps the yuan undervalued, making Chinese
exports cheaper and leading to massive job losses and
factory closures in the United States and a ballooning
trade deficit.
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke this month,
they sought a ruling on whether Beijing's currency policy
provided an "unfair subsidy for Chinese paper products
that should be remedied through trade measures."
But Chinese commerce ministry spokes-man Yao Jian on
Saturday warned using trade measures to pressure Beijing
could violate international trade rules.
National
8,500 rural post offices to turn
into ‘Post-e-Centre’
BSS, Dhaka
Bangladesh Post office (BPO) has adopted a plan to turn
its 8,500 rural post offices across the country into
'Post-e-centre' with the facility of offering various new
digital services aiming at reducing urban-rural digital
gap.
The primary objective of a rural Post e-center is to offer
financial payments like remittances, allowances through
various electronic channels and access to internet and
other electronic facilities like webcam and digital studio
to the hard to reach people, Director General of BPO
Mobassher Ur Rahman told BSS on Saturday.
The project would be coordinated by the UNDP funded Access
to Information (A2I) project, operated from the Prime
Minister Office in line with the government's vision for
building digital Bangladesh.
"We have already sent a proposal of the project with an
estimated cost of Taka 595 crore for next four years to
the planning commission for approval," he said adding, "we
are expecting the proposed project will get the nod of
ECNEC by next month."
After getting the allocated fund, he said, they have would
able to turn the first 1000 rural post offices into e-post
office by this year, 2500 in second, 4000 in third and
rest of in the fourth and final year.
At the post e-centers, along with regular postal
activities rural people can make money transaction through
mobile phones in a speedy manner and they can also get all
kind of internet facilities for accessing to information
about agriculture and various government services
including health and education as well as making video
conferencing. "There will be at least one computer with
internet connection for use free of cost," postal chief
said.
Besides, photocopy, fax, mobile phones and other digital
services are available in the e-centre for communication
with minimal fess which will add up to post office's
revenue. All post masters at those 8,500 post offices
would be given training for running and managing the
e-centers to implement the projects. Besides, IT-experts
at 550 under upazila post office will be recruited to
provide support service at the e-centers.
"After implementing the projects, we can claim that all
rural post office are equipped with digital devices as
presently 8200 post offices out of total about 9700 in the
country are marked as rural," Post office DG said.
Local markets flooded as bumper mango yields being
achieved in N-dists
BSS, Rangpur
A super bumper production of all varieties of mangoes is
being achieved as its harvest continues in full swing and
the local markets have been flooded with the
most popular and juicy fruits now everywhere in northern
Bangladesh.
Farmers, officials and experts concerned today predicted
an all- time record bumper mango production this season
despite the initial droughts that partially affected
booting and normal growth of the tender mangoes till the
seasonal rains in the region.
Meanwhile, hundreds of the people are now purchasing ripe
mangoes of different varieties and enjoying tastes of the
most popular fruits as its prices are within the reach of
almost everyone and much lower than last year due to huge
productions.
Almost all varieties mangoes except some aristocrat
varieties like Lengra, Fazlee and Ashwina etc have
appeared in the markets and prices of the sweetest
varieties like Gopalbhog, Nakfazlee, Khirsapati, Mohanbhog,
Chyatapori, Haribhanga and Lakhna are ranging between Taka
40 and 55 per kg.
Besides, dozens of the local and indigenous varieties of
mangoes are being sold at rates between Taka 15 and 30 per
kg in the region and the mango growers are little unhappy
this time for comparatively lower markets prices than the
last season.
Mayor Liton for ensuring transparency and accountability
in RCC administration
BSS, Rajshahi
Mayor of Rajshahi AHM Khairuzzaman Liton on Saturday vowed
to ensure transparency and accountability in
administration and development works of Rajshahi City
Corporation (RCC).
"I am pledge-bound to establish corruption-free
administration and to make the uplift works free from all
sorts of irregularities and corruptions," he categorically
said while presiding over the RCC's 9th General Meeting at
the city bhaban seminar hall here. In this regard, he
urged upon all officials, staffs and others concerned to
extend their wholehearted cooperation to make the
commitment a success.
"We are implementing various development programs with
public money, so we have no right to plunder money," he
reminded the officials concerned.
The meeting approved the budget of Taka 261.05 crore for
2010-11 fiscal after discussing and reviewing the progress
of different development programs and various
service-delivery activities like education, healthcare,
street lighting, environment and administrative
activities. Earlier on June 7 last, the city corporation
announced the budget at a press conference.
Chairmen of different standing committees, including
finance and establishment, education, urban infrastructure
and water and power, placed their development proposals on
behalf of their respective committees.
Mayor Liton said the present council of the city
corporation has been working relentlessly to enhance the
civic amenities through undertaking new more time-fitting
programs.
Program for massive plantation has been adopted for
environmental development with assistance from some
organizations.
Besides, he said the corporation will distribute 200
battery-driven auto-rickshaws among the jobless youths for
employment generation side by side with increasing the
city corporation's income.
In this regard, he revealed that the government has given
approval to two housing projects at Mushrail and adjacent
to Fire Brigade-city bypass road and tourism spot project
on the Padma river bank.
RCC Councilors, officials and others concerned attended
the meeting.
Aboriginals observe land-robbers resistance day in Naogaon
BSS, Rajshahi
The Ethnic communities observed the first 'Land-robbers
Resistance Day' at Khatirpur village under Porsha Upazila
of Naogaon district in a befitting manner with a call to
forge strong resistance against the land-grabbing
elements.
Around 1,500 aboriginal people irrespective of age and sex
brought out a rally and paraded the main roads marking the
day.
Earlier, they also staged a human chain program at the
nearby Sutrail crossing putting forward a set of demands
including resolution of the aboriginals' land-related
crises, ensuring overall security and withdrawal of false
cases filed against them by the perpetrators.
On this day of last year, some influential quarters
coupled with their hired goons committed a barbarism on 56
aboriginal and 18 hardcore poor families in a bid to grab
their ancestrally dwelling 22 bigha of lands after
evicting them from their houses.
The attackers also set their thatched houses on fire and
repressed the women and children and looted the family
assets and utensils forcing their livelihood into a deep
crisis.
However, they victims ultimately foiled the evil-effort
and land-grabbing conspiracy collectively. Subsequently,
they decided to observe the June 12 as the day of
'land-robbers resistance' every year.
Some local aboriginal rights-based organizations-
Sonadanga Tarun Sangha, Dighari Parishad, Pargana Parishad,
Porsha Bhumiheen Sangathan, Porsha Upazila Lahanti Akhra,
Jatiya Adibashi Parishad, Adibashi Adhikar Kendra and
Adibashi Somonnoy Parishad jointly organized the programs.
Aboriginal leader and Lecturer of Dhamuirhat Women College
AC Albert Soren, labors leader Abu Toyab Ali, President of
Upazila Bhumiheen Sangathan Mijanur Rahman, President of
Gomostapur Thana Adibashi Somonnoy Parishad Kornelues
Mormu, Kostaninta Mormu, Naren Mormu, Khirti Barowar,
Director of Adibashi Unnayan Protishthan of Ashrai Syed Ul
Alam Kajal and its development manager Bangapal Sarder
addressed the rally.
The speakers urged upon the government to take stern
action against the land-aggressors so that none could dare
to commit such kind of heinous crime.
Sports
France struggles to draw with Uruguay
AFP, Cape Town
Former champions France failed to set the World Cup alight on
Friday as they struggled to a 0-0 draw against 10-man Uruguay
in an uninspiring start to their campaign.
Rarely can a team have arrived at a World Cup with more
baggage than France, unsettled by rumoured internal strife and
criticised at home for poor form.
They did little to appease their detractors against the South
Americans, with neither side able to take the early initiative
in Group A after South Africa and Mexico drew 1-1 in the
opening match of the tournament.
France coach Raymond Domenech raised a few more eyebrows by
leaving not just Thierry Henry on the bench but also Florent
Malouda.
Nicolas Anelka was tasked with the main goalscoring duties and
Arsenal's Abou Diaby drafted in for the Chelsea midfielder.
But they looked far from convincing at a packed Green Point
Stadium. "It's frustrating not to have won. Perhaps we weren't
quite calm enough or precise enough, but they defended very
well and they have a certain quality to their game," said
Domenech.
"Clearly I would have preferred 1-0 but that is not what
occured." He was clearly disappointed with the inability of
his team to get a goal.
"I am happy with the overall performance, but we didn't finish
as strongly as we could have done. We didn't have the
finishing touches, which is a pity," he said. France skipper
Patrice Evra said he saw plenty to please him in the game. "We
really wanted the three points, but I am really proud of the
team," said Evra. "I think we did well. It's the first match.
I'm confident for the games ahead. We really deserved to win.
Apart from free-kicks, I couldn't see where Uruguay were going
to be dangerous." Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez disagreed,
saying a draw was a fair result.
"When you consider France's history and the fact they had far
more finances than us, then I am happy with a draw, which we
deserved," he said. "The group is now evenly balanced and the
next games will be crucial."
Both sides started lively enough with France having a great
opportunity to take an early lead on six minutes when the
dangerous Franck Ribery gave his defender the slip down the
left.
The Bayern Munich star sent a low cross into the box with
Sidney Govou's outstretched foot sending the ball just past
the post, a chance he should have buried. Uruguay were
struggling to find their groove until Diego Forlan found space
just outside the penalty area and curled in a shot that forced
a fine save from Hugo Lloris.
The game began opening up and minutes later Yoann Gourcuff
tested the Uruguay keeper with a swinging free-kick that
Fernando Muslera did well to punch away.
But just as suddenly the match got bogged down in midfield and
the chances dried up, with the teams going to the break
all-square.
The second half started as the first finished and it was
becoming a turgid affair.
Forlan showed glimpses of the form that bagged him so many
goals last season, effortlessly bringing down a ball on his
chest before blasting wide early in the second period. But the
goalkeepers were hardly troubled with Anelka all at sea as
France's lone striker. He paid the price with Henry replacing
him for his 121st cap with 19 minutes left. Malouda also came
on for Gourcuff as Domenech threw his last dice, but to no
avail with France failing to capitalise when substitute
Nicolas Lodeiro was shown a red card for a wild challenge on
Bakary Sagna with eight minutes left.
South
Korea earns first World Cup victory
AFP, Port Elizabeth
South Korea registered the first win at the 2010 World Cup, a
richly deserved 2-0 victory against Greece here Saturday to
give it a live chance of achieving its ambition of a last 16
berth.
South Korea, semifinalist when it co-hosted the competition in
2002, was too quick and too smart for Otto Rehhagel's Euro
2004 champion, who was sent packing by goals from Lee Jung Soo
and captain and Manchester United midfielder Park Ji Sung.
The Manchester United star reflected: "This was my third World
Cup goal and it makes me very honoured but ultimately it's
down to the team winning.
"We had a good result today, and as this is the first World
Cup in Africa I'm thrilled." Coach Huh Jung-Moo added: "The
first game is always difficult, my team played well, we
prepared thoroughly. "Our main strategy was looking at
Greece's set pieces.
"If we had been a little calmer we could have perhaps scored
more goals."
The Asian side grabbed this Group B fixture by the scruff of
the neck as early as the seventh minute when Celtic's Ki Sung
Yueng's freekick from beside the left corner flag skimmed over
the heads of the Greek defence for Lee to volley in at the far
post.
Considering it was Greece with their far superior statures
that were supposed to present the setpiece threat the manner
of Korea's goal will have come as a nasty surprise.
Understandably Rehhagel did not look the happiest person among
the crowd at the three-quarter full 42,000-capacity Nelson
Mandela Bay stadium in this Eastern Cape port.
The Koreans proceeded to run rings round the Greeks and were
close to a second goal in the 27th minute after Park Ji Sung's
superb through ball found Park Chu Young only for the Monaco
striker's shot to be deflected over the crossbar by keeper
Alexandros Tzorvas.
Rehhagel made one switch at the break, replacing captain
Giorgis Karagounis with defender Christos Patsatzoglou.
Seven minutes later Greece, who has never had the pleasure of
celebrating a World Cup goal, fell further behind after a
masterful charge by the sparky Park Ji-Sung. The talismanic
Manchester United midfielder beat off defenders Avraam
Papadopoulos and Loukas Vyntra to slot the ball deftly past
Tzorvas, triggering a flurry of flag waving among the Korean
fans.
This Group B opener represented a personal milestone for
Michael Hester, the first New Zealander to referee a match at
the World Cup, and he marked the occasion by dishing out a
yellow card to Greek defender Vasilis Torosidis.
Ten minutes from time something unusual took place, Greece had
a shot at goal - but Korea's veteran keeper Jung Sung Ryong
lived up to his nickname of 'Spiderhands' to tip Theofanis
Gekas's close range attempt over the bar.
South
Africa revels in afterglow of World Cup opener
AFP, Johannesburg
South Africans rejoiced Saturday in scoring the first goal
at the World Cup opener, as police readied security to
ward off any hooliganism for the first matches by England
and Argentina. Mexico stopped South Africa's Bafana Bafana
from reaching their dream of an opening day victory,
ending the game with a 1-1 draw.
But that was enough to win the adoration of South African
media, who declared the opening day "Fantastic". "Respect!
That's what we earned yesterday," The Star newspaper said
on its front page.
"Defying the prophets of gloom and doom, South Africa
pulled off a stunning World Cup opening ceremony, and
Bafana Bafana followed that up with a heart-stopping draw
against Mexico," it said.
The wave of national pride at hosting the World Cup
largely swept over the grief for Nelson Mandela, who
skipped the opener after his great-granddaughter was
killed in a car accident while returning from a concert
the night before.
The Citizen newspaper reported that the driver tested at
twice the legal alcohol limit. Mandela's office said the
driver was a relative, but no one has identified him.
Police have charged him with drunk driving and culpable
homicide, but a court appearance expected Friday was
postponed to allow for further investigations.
The family of the 91-year-old Nobel laureate, still the
conscience of the nation two decades after his release
from an apartheid prison, pleaded for privacy as they
mourned the death.
Police said the day went off without other major incident,
allowing organisers to breathe a sigh of relief after
years of worry about South Africa's high crime rate and
its recently upgraded public transport.
"We could not have asked for more: a capacity stadium, a
host nation with a will to win, an incredible atmosphere
and spectacular football," said World Cup boss Danny
Jordaan. "The match went well and all of South Africa can
be proud of what we have done in front of 500 million
people."
Johannesburg's already heavy work-day traffic was
compounded by the 85,000 fans rushing to Soccer City,
situated between downtown and the Soweto township, leaving
many racing to their seats right at kick-off. Trains also
suffered delays in arriving at the stadium's new station,
which opened just days ago, while a blackout in Soweto
also meant some fans' televisions went dark during the
match.
South Africa has fended off worries about its readiness
for the tournament ever since it was named the host six
years ago.
All the stadiums and major projects like new highways and
rail lines have been completed on time, although crime is
still a worry. Journalists have been robbed at gunpoint
and thieves have even stolen cash from the rooms of the
Greek team.
Proteas rally to 352 despite
Benn's five wickets
AFP, Port of Spain
Half-centuries from Mark Boucher, AB de Villiers, and
Ashwell Prince trumped a penetrative, marathon spell of
spin bowling from Sulieman Benn to put South Africa in a
favourable position in the opening Test against West
Indies on Friday.
Boucher missed most of the preceding limited-overs
matches, but he got his groove back in the top score of
69, de Villiers supported with 68, and Prince made 57, as
the South Africans were dismissed for 352 in their first
innings about 10 minutes before the scheduled close on the
second day at Queen's Park Oval.
"I think we played pretty well," said de Villiers. "We
realized after the first day, the pitch was taking a lot
of turn, and quite slow, and it was not easy batting in
the first session.
"I am really proud of our effort. We strung good
partnerships together, and we got the team out of
trouble."
He added: "All in all, it was a good day for us. We would
have been happy with 300, but we got 352, and so we will
need to come on the third day and pick up some early
wickets to put West Indies under pressure."
Boucher made five fours and one six from 146 balls in his
knock to beef-up the visitors' total, after their innings
appeared at the cross roads at 238 for seven.
He reached his 50 from 102 balls with a single to point,
and added a valuable 86 for the eighth wicket with Dale
Steyn either side of tea to tilt the balance back in
favour of South Africa.
Steyn was stumped off Benn for 39, and Boucher continued
to rally the South Africans with tail-enders Morne Morkel
and Lonwabo Tsotsobe before he was last man dismissed,
caught at long-off off Dwayne Bravo.
De Villiers and Ashwell Prince had put the South Africans
back on track, when they slid to 107 for five inside the
first hour of the day.
The pair added 122 for the sixth wicket to revive South
Africa before they were dismissed in the space of 25
balls.
Before lunch, de Villiers and Prince had carried the South
Africans to 190 for five at the interval. De Villiers and
left-hander Prince gave some backbone to the Proteas'
innings, after West Indies claimed two early wickets.
De Villiers got off the mark with a lofted four to long-on
off Shillingford, and one of Prince's earliest strokes was
also a lofted drive to long-on off Benn for his first
boundary, and he also carted Shillingford over long-off
for a six.
South Africa had continued from their overnight total of
70 for three, and suffered an early blow, when
night-watchman Paul Harris was caught at cover for 10 off
Benn in the fifth over of the day.
The South Africa batsmen became bogged down against tight
spin bowling from Benn and Shillingford, who trapped
Jacques Kallis lbw playing back and across to a
well-pitched delivery for 28.
The two sides also play Tests in St. Kitts (June 18-22)
and Barbados (June 26-30). South Africa have dominated
West Indies in Tests since their re-entry into
international cricket following international isolation.
They have won 14, and lost three of the 22 matches between
the two sides, and two of the wins came at Port of Spain
in 2001 and 2005 in the two Tests the sides have played
here.
Serbia and Ghana in
must-not-lose opener
AFP, Pretoria
The World Cup Group D opener between Serbia and Ghana in
Pretoria today is one that neither side can afford to
lose, in a tough pool that also includes Germany and
Australia.
While many might believe that the clash at the Loftus
Versfeld stadium is crucial in the battle for second place
behind the Germans, the group should be far closer than
that with even the Aussies capable of shaking things up.
In tight groups any defeat can put a team under pressure
and such a reverse in this game could see the losers
potentially needing to beat Germany to reach the knock-out
stages. It all suggests a tight and cagey affair for which
neither side has had an ideal build-up.
Ghana have lost arguably their best player in Chelsea's
Michael Essien, who misses the entire tournament with knee
ligament damage, and that blow will certainly hit their
hopes.
What's more, their second most high-profile star, Inter
Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari, is struggling to be fit
for the opener following a thigh injury, although he
expects to make it. Despite the potential threat posed by
Australia, Muntari believes that this match is the most
important for the team's qualification. "Germany are the
group favourites and so it will doubtless come down to
Serbia - we don't know quite what to expect against them,
but we know they are a good team," he said.
One advantage Ghana have is that they will know more about
their opponents than vice versa, thanks to their Serbian
coach Milovan Rajevic, who insists that he has no divided
loyalties.
"I am 100 percent Ghanaian. I am a professional, my
primary target is to win against Serbia and to qualify,"
he said. Meanwhile, Serbia's preparations have been hit by
a change of training venue due to a worry about picking up
injuries. They switched from their practice pitch at the
AW Muller Stadium in western Johannesburg to the
University of Johannesburg's rugby stadium.
"I think they put a surface down a few days ago, so the
pitch has not yet laid down nicely," said Lazio defender
Aleksandar Kolarov, a reported target for new Real Madrid
coach Jose Mourinho. "The surface was a bit unstable, so
we were worrying about injuries." However, Serbia have
allegedly come up with a novel solution by employing the
services of a mysterious and controversial doctor,
Marijana Kovacevic, to protect them.
The daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti reported that the
players have decided to pay out of their own pockets to
engage Kovacevic's alternative healing services, which
reportedly include a special gel made from horse placentas
and six hour massages, as their Federation was not
convinced.
"Our players wanted her as a part of the team, but
Serbia's Football federation has rejected the call," the
daily quoted a source close to the national squad.
Germany seeks Aussie
tonic for World Cup boost
AFP, Durban
Germany opens its World Cup campaign against Australia
today with the Antipodeans eager to show they will not be
a punching bag for weightier European opposition.
The Germans are three-time winners of world football's
showpiece tournament, but Joachim Loew's side face a bumpy
ride against Australia, and also Ghana and Serbia, in a
challenging Group D.
Germany dominated their qualifying group on the road to
South Africa, humbling Russia home and away, but each of
their group rivals also finished top of their respective
qualifying groups.
"Of course there is some kind of pressure as we go into
this game as favourites," acknowledged German winger Lukas
Podolski.
"But we will go into our three group games with confidence
and we really, really want to win the opening game.
"We know that Australia will be defence-minded and we will
just have to try and find the gaps. We will just have to
use our strikers and find a way through."
There has been much debate over whether Miroslav Klose,
the top scorer at the last World Cup, or Stuttgart's
Brazilian-born Cacau will start as Germany's lone striker.
Germany will already be without captain Michael Ballack,
who will miss the entire World Cup through injury and who
has just been shown the door by English champions Chelsea.
Australia, however, received a boost with the news that
key man Tim Cahill and Blackburn Rovers midfielder Brett
Emerton, who has not played in any of his team's three
warm-up games because of a calf injury, were both fit to
play the Germans.
Australia, coached by Dutchman Pim Verbeek, conceded just
four goals in 14 matches in qualifying, and Everton's
attacking midfielder Cahill said the 'Socceroos' were
happy to have been labelled "boring" by Loew.
"Let them throw stones, we'll just cop it on the chin,"
said Cahill, who missed Wednesday's training after
injuring his neck in last weekend's 3-1 warm-up loss to
the United States but has since started full training.
"There is a lot of talk about the Germans talking us down
and how well they are going to do and for us that is a
positive.
"We are going into the game as underdogs and hopefully try
to make our imprint on the game as soon as possible."
Australia will be looking to build on their impressive
performance from the 2006 World Cup in Germany when they
finished second in their group behind Brazil and ahead of
Croatia and Japan.
It took a penalty deep into injury-time for Italy to beat
then-coach Guus Hiddink's side in the last 16 on their way
to winning the final.
As for Germany, they have been largely untested since
losing to Spain in the final of Euro 2008, but have a
balance of promising talent and seasoned veterans, even
without Ballack.
Germany, now captained by defender Philipp Lahm, also have
a knack of coping well with the pressure of the knock-out
stages and have won all four penalty shoot-outs they faced
at previous World Cups.
"As far as I'm concerned, this German team is the best
I've played in," said Lahm.
And Werder Bremen centre-back Per Mertesacker said all
German thoughts were fixed on a victory.
"I don't want to be negative about it, but it would be a
very bad start for us to lose the opening game to
Australia," he said. "We need to get as many points as
possible, as soon as possible under our belts."
Uruguay takes heart
from blunting France
AFP, Cape Town
Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez says he is happy with taking a
point off France, and now fancies their chances in a
finely poised Group A. The South Americans soaked up the
early French pressure to successfuly blunt the 1998
champions in a scrappy game at Cape Town's Green Point
Stadium on Friday.
Tabarez took satisfaction out of a small country like his
taming a footballing nation with bigger finances and more
high-profile players. "I wouldn't say that France deserved
to win. We controlled them and they never really troubled
us," he said.
"The group is now evenly balanced and the next games will
be crucial. "When you consider France's history and the
fact they had far more finances than us, then I am happy
with a draw." Athletico Madrid striker Diego Forlan was
comfortably their most effective player, going close
twice, and he felt both teams deserved a point.
"We had a few good chances but we were often guilty of
wasting our final ball. It's a shame. I thought the match
was quite even," said the former Manchester United star,
who was named man-of-the-match.
While Tabarez was content with the point, Uruguay have the
unwanted mantle of being the first country to have a
player sent off in South Africa after substitute Nicolas
Lodeiro's dismissal for a brutal tackle.
Lodeiro received his marching orders in the 81st minute
for a lunge at Bakari Sagna, just 15 minutes after coming
on. Tabarez had some sympathy for the player.
"Theoretically, any card is avoidable but I was once a
player and I know what it is like to be out there," he
said. Uruguay, who won the tournament in 1930 and 1950,
must now regroup before their next match against hosts
South Africa in Pretoria on Wednesday. "All the teams are
on the same footing now," said Tabarez.
Duckworth and Lewis get
honours recognition
AFP, London
The inventors of cricket's controversial Duckworth-Lewis
method were among those included in the honours list
marking the birthday of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II
published here on Saturday.
Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, whose surnames have become
part of the fabric of cricket, were both awarded the MBE
(Member of the Order of the British Empire).
The university statisticians' formula is widely regarded
as the fairest, if perhaps the most complicated, method
yet devised of setting revised targets in one-day matches
interrupted by bad weather.
Significantly, unlike other systems, Duckworth-Lewis, in
use since 1996, has the capacity to reward the fielding
side for taking wickets.
Such has been its fame, the 'Duckworth-Lewis Method' was
used as the name for both a band and its "indie cricket
concept album" last year. But that hasn't stopped it
coming in for criticism, most recently at the World
Twenty20 where eventual champions England lost to hosts
the West Indies in a group match by eight wickets.
Although England scored 191 -- a challenging Twenty20
total-rain meant the West Indies were left with a target
of 60 from six overs.
Angry England Twenty20 captain Paul Collingwood, awarded
the MBE for his bit-part role in the final Test of the
team's 2005 Ashes win, said afterwards: "I don't know what
equation you should have but you shouldn't have that one."
Robben arrives in
Johannesburg
AFP, Johannesburg
Dutch winger Arjen Robben arrived in Johannesburg on
Saturday in a bid to keep his hopes alive of playing in
the World Cup for the 'Oranje' as struggles to recover
from a hamstring injury.
The 26-year-old suffered a small tear in his left
hamstring in last weekend's pre-World Cup friendly win
over Hungary in Amsterdam and stayed back in Holland to
receive intensive treatment while the team flew to the
republic.
The Dutch begin their World Cup campaign against Denmark
at Johannesburg's Soccer City on Monday, but Holland's
head coach Bert van Marwijk has already said he will not
select Robben, as it is still too soon after the injury.
The Bayern Munich star arrived here on Saturday morning
and was taken to the Dutch base at the Hilton hotel in
Sandton under a police escort.
Robben had been receiving daily treatment in Holland under
veteran physiotherapist Dick van Toorn to help him recover
from the injury in the back of the left thigh.
Van Toorn has insisted Robben will be ready to play on
Monday, but with plenty of talent in his squad, van
Marwijk says he does not want to risk Robben re-injuring
himself.
"We must avoid a relapse, as I have said in the last few
days, Arjen has played virtually no football or trained in
the last three weeks," said the coach. After the Denmark
game, the Netherlands face Japan on June 19 and Cameroon
on June 24 in Group E.
Domenech puts brave
face on drab draw
AFP, Cape Town
France coach Raymond Domenech insists his team have
nothing to worry about despite a drab 0-0 draw with
Uruguay in their opening World Cup game.
The 1998 champions blew their chance to seize the
initiative in Group A after South Africa battled to a 1-1
stalemate with Mexico in the first game of the tournament
on Saturday.
While Domenech admits he was frustrated not to grab all
three points, he said there was no reason to press the
panic button.
"It's frustrating when it goes like that, when we push and
push and say to ourselves, 'It has to go in'," he said.
"But we were also saying to ourselves, 'Let's hope we
don't suffer an unlucky counter-attack' because that would
have been very disappointing, given the level we played at
in this match."
Rarely can a team have arrived at a World Cup with more
baggage than France, unsettled by rumoured internal strife
and criticised at home for poor form.
And they did little to appease their detractors against
Uruguay, who played with 10 men for the final eight
minutes after substitute Nicolas Lodeiro was sent off for
a wild challenge on Bakary Sagna.
Domenech chose not to reinstall the country's all-time top
scorer Thierry Henry to the starting 11, and also
controversially left Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda
out as well amid rumours of a spat.
The benching of Henry left Nicolas Anelka as the solo
striker and he was all at sea for much of the match,
although Malouda's fill-in Abou Diaby did well enough.
Henry and Malouda finally came out in the last 20 minutes
but even they were not able to press home the advantage of
playing against 10 men.
The coach put a brave face on their performance.
"It's a shame. I was going to say it was almost a great
0-0, but I would have preferred a bad 1-0," he said.
"Our opponents were solid, as you'll see in the coming
matches. We succeeded in stopping them from building
almost any moves. As a team, were performed very well."
Manchester United's Patrice Evra, who has taken over the
captain's armband from Henry, insisted they controlled the
match and could have won.
"We could have won. We really wanted to take the three
points," he said.
"I'm proud of the team as I think we put in a good
performance. It's the first match and we needed to win it,
but I'm very confident for the rest of the tournament.
"We controlled the game and we really deserved to win."
France, beaten finalists in 2006, did remind everyone of
their potential with some slick early play, when Franck
Ribery was at the heart of the best of their attacking
forays.
But they were unable to keep up the momentum in a turgid
match with little goalmouth action.
Attention now turns to their next game against Mexico on
Thursday in Polokwane, a crunch encounter that both sides
need to win.
Domenech said he would review the Uruguay clash carefully
and then decide on whether he needs to make changes.
"I obviously need to think about that and can't give you
an answer straight away," he said.
"I need to take stock and we will take our time, watch the
match again and on that basis see what can or should be
done."
Asia Cup comes first
during World Cup: Afridi
AFP, Karachi
Pakistan's cricket squad left for Sri Lanka Saturday to
compete in the Asia Cup, optimistic that the event will
not be upstaged by the football World Cup now under way in
South Africa.
"Football is huge, but I hope after the 90 minutes of
excitement (of a World Cup game) fans will give cricket
its due attention and follow the Asia Cup," Pakistan
captain Shahid Afridi told AFP before his team left for
Colombo.
The tenth Asia Cup will be played from June 15-24 in
Dambulla, in central Sri Lanka, about 150 kilometres
northeast of Colombo, coinciding with the month-long
football tournament that opened in South Africa Friday.
Besides Pakistan, the Asia Cup will also include India,
Bangladesh and hosts and defending champions Sri Lanka.
Afridi said that his team will follow the football World
Cup while in Sri Lanka, but mostly on rest days.
"Like millions of Asians I also follow football and my
favorite team is Brazil, so like my teammates I will
follow World Cup matches as and when we have time, but the
focus remains the Asia Cup," said Afridi.
The 13-man team first flew to Dubai from where they will
reach Colombo later Saturday. Fast bowler Mohammad Asif
will fly via Doha, Qatar because of a ban on visiting the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) over a drug offence.
Asif was deported from the UAE in June 2008 after a 19-day
detention for possession of a banned drug while returning
home from league cricket in India.
Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq will travel to Colombo
from England, where he is playing county cricket.
Afridi said he hoped his team will be in form after a
turbulent three months for Pakistan cricket which saw
senior players banned and fined for disciplinary
violations and poor performance.
"What happened in the past is behind us," said Afridi, who
was made captain for all three forms of the game last
month. "We have a blend of seniors and juniors who all
know their duty well."
In March the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) banned and fined
seven players, including Afridi, following their
December-January tour of Australia. They lost all three
Tests, five one-day internationals and the only Twenty20
match of the tour, which was also marred by discipline
violations.
However, the board later lifted the bans on former captain
Younus Khan and Shoaib Malik and reduced the fines on
appeals. Afridi's three-million-rupee (35,000-US-dollar)
fine for ball-tampering was revoked.
Another former captain, Mohammad Yousuf, did not appeal
and instead retired in protest. All-rounder Rana
Naved-ul-Hasan's appeal against a one-year ban and fine is
pending.
Malik was recalled for the Asia Cup squad, while Younus is
favourite to return for the tour of England which follows
the Asia Cup.
Afridi said both the Asia Cup and England tour would be
important for the revival of the Pakistani team.
"It is a good chance for the players to turn the fortunes
of the team, so this is very important phase for our
cricket," said Afridi.
Express paceman Shoaib Akhtar is also back in the team
after being sidelined since May last year because of a
knee injury.
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