PEOPLES DAILY , FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 2013
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International Baghdad bomb attacks kill at least 33 – police
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yrian rebels said on Thursday they targeted President Bashar al-Assad’s motorcade heading to a Damascus mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but state television showed him unharmed and the government denied he had been attacked. The Tahrir al-Sham rebel brigade, a unit of the Free Syrian Army, said it fired several artillery shells towards Assad’s convoy in the heart of the capital and that at least some hit their target. If confirmed, the attack would be one of the most direct against Assad in two years of conflict which have pitched mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against the Alawite president. Rebels have targeted Assad’s residences in Damascus and a bombing in the capital last year killed four of his inner circle, but there have been no reports of Assad himself coming under fire. Video footage distributed by the Tahrir al-Sham rebels showed smoke rising from what it said was the Malki district, where Assad and
A vehicle burns at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad’s Kadhimiya district. his close aides have homes. Other activists also reported rocket fire into the area. Syria’s government denied the reports. “The news is wholly untrue,” Information Minister Omran Zoabi said. Firas al-Bitar, head of the Tahrir
al-Sham brigade, said his fighters had carried out reconnaissance of the route of Assad’s motorcade and fired 120 mm artillery towards the president’s convoy early on Thursday. “The attack rattled the regime, even if Assad was not hit,” he told Reuters from an undisclosed location
in the capital. “There were two motorcades, one containing Assad and a decoy. We targeted the correct one.” Bitar’s brigade operates mainly in the Ghouta region on the eastern outskirts of the capital. Another official in Tahrir al-Sham said Assad’s forces fired rockets and artillery “like rain” on the region in response to the reported attack. Following the statement, Syrian state television showed footage of Assad praying alongside ministers and other top officials. It said the footage was from Thursday’s Eid prayers at the Anas bin Malek Mosque in Malki. Assad appeared unharmed and smiled at the worshippers as he entered the mosque. Islam Alloush of the Liwa al-Islam, another rebel brigade, told Reuters earlier on Thursday that rebels fired rockets which struck Assad’s motorcade. “Assad was not hit but the information we have based from sources within the regime is that there were casualties within his entourage,” Allooush said. Other activists also reported rockets were fired into the Malki area, which was sealed off by security forces.
Rohingya activist held after Facebook post
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n activist has been arrested in Myanmar after posting photos on Facebook from violent clashes between displaced Muslims and security forces in country’s restive state of Rakhine, police and an activist have said. It was not immediately clear what charges Than Shwe, a 29-year-old Rohingya Muslim, would face. A police officer who refused to give his name because he was not authorised to speak to the media said on Wednesday that the man was trying to cause trouble during a visit by UN special rapporteur on human rights. Tomas Ojea Quintana was touring the region after the deadly clashes.
Quintana has urged the state government to release the activist, Thailand based The Irrawaddy newsmagazine reported. Aung Win, a well-known Rohingya activist said said that Than Shwe’s wife called Quintana on Tuesday and told him that her husband had been detained. “He [Quintana] told our community leaders that he has already told the government to release all people who have been detained, included Than Shwe,” said Aung Win, according to the Thailand based newsmagazine. At least one person was killed and around 10 injured after the clash
in a camp for dispossessed Rohingya Muslims last Friday, in the latest violence in Rakhine state, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said. Police torture The most recent unrest occurred after the body of a fisherman was found in a creek near Ohn Taw Gyi camp, said Rakhine state spokesman Win Myaing, who called it a drowning. But rumors quickly spread that the man had been beaten to death by police. “He was bleeding from both ears. It looked like he had been smashed in the face by a rifle butt, all his teeth were gone,” said Aung Win, who saw the body before burial.
“This wasn’t a drowning. He was pretty clearly beaten and tortured.” A dispute over the death and custody of the body sparked several riots, which were broken up by police who fired first into the air and then into the crowd, Win Myaing said. Than Shwe, who works for an organisation that delivers food and supplies to camps for Rohingya Muslims, was accused of posting images of the dead and injured online, Aung Win said. Twenty officers went to his home at Monday and brought him to the police station, he said. The United Nations has called for dialogue following the latest unrest.
using what identity Japanese political leaders visit the Yasukuni Shrine, it is an intrinsic attempt to deny and beautify that history of invasion by the Japanese militarists,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We urge Japan to ... take concrete steps to win the trust of the international community, otherwise Japan’s relations with its Asian neighbors have no future. China and Korea suffered under Japanese rule, with parts of China occupied from the 1930s and Korea colonized from 1910 to 1945. Japanese leaders have apologized in the past but many in China and South Korea doubt the sincerity of the apologies, partly because of contradictory remarks by politicians. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry called the visits “deplorable”, saying they showed the ministers were “still keeping their eyes shut to history” and urging Japan to offer a sincere apology. Japanese conservatives say it is only
natural to honor the war dead and deny thatdoingsoatYasukuniglorifiesthewar. Internal affairs minister Yoshitaka Shindo and administrative reform
minister Tomomi Inada also visited the shrine as did a group of 89 lawmakers, includingLDPpolicychiefSanaeTakaichi and aides to another 101 MPs.
Japan shrine visit angers China
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apan’s prime minister sent an offering to a shrine for war dead yesterday,theanniversaryofJapan’s World War Two defeat, while cabinet members visited it in person, drawing harsh complaints from China and South Korea, and putting at risk tentative steps to improve ties. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was treading a fine line between trying not to inflame tension with China and South Korea and upholding a conservative ideology shared by his supporters. But at least three cabinet ministers and dozens of lawmakers paid their respects at Yasukuni Shrine, seen as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism. Visits to the shrine by top politicians outrage China and South Korea because the shrine honors 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal, along with war dead. China summoned the Japanese ambassador to protest. “It does not matter in what form or
A group of lawmakers are led by a Shinto priest as they visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two.
Asia & Middle East UN team to investigate chemical attacks in Syria
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he UN says weapons inspectors are to depart shortly for Syria to investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons. Under an agreement reached with Damascus, the UN team is to visit three sites over two weeks, including a northern town at the centre of allegations of chemical weapons use. Some 26 people were killed in the attacks in Khan al-Assal in March. The UN mission had been delayed over differences with the Syrian government over the scope of the investigation. However, on 31 July the Syrian government agreed to allow UN inspectors to visit the sites. On Wednesday the UN said its team had completed their trip preparations. “The government of Syria has formally accepted the modalities essential for co-operation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission,” a spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Eduardo delBuey, said. “The departure of the team is now imminent,” he added. The mandate of the 10-man investigating team, led by Swedish arms expert AkeSellstroem, is limited to reporting on whether chemical weapons were actually used and which ones, but it will not determine responsibility for any attacks. After the initial two weeks, the UN said, the trip was “extendable upon mutual consent”. Two of the locations to be investigated have n o t b e e n identified so far. What started out as antigovernment protests inspired by the Arab Spring quickly descended into a full-scale civil war in Syria, with more than 100,000 people killed during the 28-month conflict. The possibility of President Bashar al-Assad using Syria’s chemical weapons stock or rebels obtaining some of the stockpiles is one of the factors that has most worried Western observers of the conflict. The UN says it has received up to 13 reports of chemical weapons use in Syria - one from the Damascus government about the events at Khan al-Assal, with the rest mainly from the UK, France and USA. Both sides of the conflict the rebels and the government - have denied using chemical weapons. Syria is one of seven countries that have not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons. Syria is widely believed to possess large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.