MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Pakistan’s gun-slinging chief justice faces backlash Fragile power balance threatened
PAG-ASA: In this Friday, June 15, 2012 photo released by the Office of Kalayaan Municipality Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon, residents and workers place a sign beside a Philippine flag at the newly opened Pag-asa elementary school on a disputed South China Sea island. Philippine officials have opened the school on a South China sea island. —AP
Philippines officials opens school on disputed island MANILA: Philippine officials have opened a small k indergar ten on a South China Sea island that is also claimed by five other governments. Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon said yesterday that the school was opened June 15 without fanfare to help a poor Filipino community on the island in the Spratly archipelago and not antagonize rival claimants. Five students were welcomed by their teacher in a classroom filled with crayons, pencils, coloring books and a blackboard, Bito-onon said. A Philippine flag fluttered in the breeze in the schoolyard on the 37hectare (91-acre) island, which the Philippines calls Pag-asa - or “hope” in Tagalog. “We’re trying to come up with as normal a community as possible and this is one important step,” Bito-onon said by telephone. “The kids were very excited. They grabbed their new schoolbags and prodded their parents to bring them to class early.” He said older children could also be accommodated in the school if he can get more government funding. Fifteen children
from the island currently attend elementary school on the mainland and stay with relatives there, he said. Filipino troops guard Pag-asa, the largest of nine islands, sandbars and reefs held by the Philippines under a municipality led by Bito- onon. The Philippine government established the far-flung municipality in 1978 to reinforce its claim to the Spratly archipelago. More than a dozen families have been encouraged by the government to live on the tadpole shaped island 480 kilometers (300 miles) off southwestern Palawan province by offering them free food, shelter, electricity, water and now, education. China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also claim the mostly barren Spratlys, which are believed to be rich in oil and gas and are near one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.. A nonbinding 2002 accord discourages aggressive acts that could spark fighting. Bitoonon said opening a k indergar ten could not be seen in anyway as having violated that pact. — AP
Australia calls for refugee deal after boat tragedy SYDNEY: Australia’s government yesterday renewed its call for a refugee swap deal with Malaysia after an asylum seeker boat sank off remote Christmas Island leaving up to around 90 people dead or unaccounted for. Canberra clinched a deal last year to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia in exchange for 4,000 of that country’s registered refugees in a bid to deter people-smugglers from the dangerous maritime voyage Down Under. But Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fragile coalition government was unable to pass the required legislation through parliament without the support of the opposition and asylum-seekers have continued to risk the voyage, mostly via Indonesia. “Without the Malaysia solution you’ve got a cobbled together Indonesian solution that is wholly unsatisfactory, it’s not protecting the borders, it’s not saving lives,” Foreign Minister Bob Carr told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Carr’s comments came after Australia suspended the search for more survivors from a people-smuggling boat which capsized in the Indian Ocean between Indonesia and Christmas Island three days ago. Rescuers reached 110 people in the hours after the boat sank some 109 nautical miles (202 kilometres) south of the Sunda Strait in Indonesia on Thursday but despite an extensive search, no survivors have been recovered since. While 17 bodies have been found, an
exact death toll may never be known because there were no firm figures on how many had been on board the ship. Customs officials believe there were about 200 people on board when the boat went down, bringing the total dead and unaccounted for to around 90. “I think it really underscores why people should not set off on this incredibly dangerous passage,” Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said as she urged opposition leader Tony Abbott to negotiate a compromise on the Malaysia deal. “I don’t think we can keep seeing these sorts of human tragedies occurring.” Abbott, who favours offshore processing of boatpeople on the tiny Pacific island state of Nauru, poured cold water on any kind of compromise. “ The Malaysian people-swap is not offshore processing, it’s offshore dumping,” he told journalists in Melbourne. “What’s needed here is not compromise for compromise’s sake but policies that work.” The sunken boat is believed to have originated in Sri Lanka and to have been carrying male mostly Afghan asylumseekers. Authorities said nine of the survivors were under the age of 18, including a 13-year-old boy. Authorities warn of the dangerous journey asylum-seekers face when they pay people-smugglers to bring them to Australia, often on overcrowded, wooden boats. The latest accident is the worst since 2001, when a boat known as the SIEV X sank, killing 353 of the more than 400 people on board.— AFP
ISLAMABAD: To his admirers, Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is a hero whose relentless pursuit of a money-laundering case against the president is teaching a generation of the country’s leaders a long-overdue lesson in respect for the law. To his critics, he is a runaway judge in the grip of a messiah complex whose turbo-charged brand of activism threatens to upend the power balance underpinning Pakistan’s precarious embrace of democracy. Last week, Chaudhry made his boldest move yet by disqualifying prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani as punishment for his repeated refusal to obey court orders to reactivate a corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari. Gilani’s downfall marked a watershed in a long-running showdown between the judiciary and the government that has laid bare the institutional tensions plaguing a country that has test fired ballistic nuclear missiles, but has yet to agree on how it should be run. “In practical terms, democracy is finished because the balance of power between the parliament, the executive and the judiciary has been ruined,” said a senior member of Zardari’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its 65 years as an independent nation, has also not hidden its disdain of Zardari’s government, but has made it clear it does not wish to seize power. And it has its own problems with Chaudhry’s activism. The drama has been spiced by allegations of bribe-taking brought against Chaudhry’s son by a billionaire property developer, who has himself been accused of land-grabbing and fraud. The controversy briefly put the stern-faced judge on the defensive before he regained the initiative by disqualifying Gilani. The next chapter in the saga could start as early as Wednesday, when the Supreme Court holds its latest hearing in more than two years of legal wrangling aimed at forcing the government to re-open proceedings against Zardari. Pakistan’s political class is now transfixed by the question of whether Chaudhry will opt to pause in the wake of his victory over Gilani, or press home his advantage by demanding that Raja Pervez Ashraf, the new prime minister, re-activate the case. Zardari, a consummate political survivor, has already sacrificed Gilani in his determination to ensure the money-laundering case, which falls under Swiss jurisdiction and dates back the 1990s, remains closed. While many Pakistanis are happy to see his unpopular government on the ropes, the pugnacious chief justice is facing a growing backlash from those who fear his courtroom victories are being bought at the price of Pakistan’s stability. “We all have a problem with corruption, we all want these guys taken to task,” said Mehreen Zahra-Malik, a columnist with The
News. “But I don’t think it should be at the expense of the entire house falling apart.” GRIDLOCK Opposition parties have exploited the crisis to pile pressure on Zardari, raising the risk that the government might be forced to call general elections before its term expires in March. Whatever the president may decide, the stage is set for a new bout of institutional gridlock at a time when Pakistani needs agile leadership to face a host of challenges, from a chronic power crisis to Islamist militancy and tense relations with Washington. The source
GARHI KHUDA BAKHISH: Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf (C), offers prayers along with party leaders over the grave of slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto at the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh yesterday. —AFP of Chaudhry’s zeal is to be found in one of the more turbulent episodes in Pakistan’s recent history, according to lawyers and commentators who have tracked his ascent. Appointed in 2005, Chaudhry became embroiled in a confrontation with Pervez Musharraf, then Pakistan’s military leader, who removed him from office after he opposed plans to extend the general’s term in office. Huge crowds poured onto the streets to support Chaudhry’s stand against the generals. Zardari’s government, which took power in 2008, was forced to re-instate him the following year after an outpouring of street protests by lawyers. The heady victory seems to have shaped the judge’s self-image as a champion sent to right the wrongs inflicted on ordinary Pakistanis by a self-serving elite and an overprivileged military. He has since used his powers to investigate everything from petrol and sugar prices to cases of people whose rela-
Philippines: Jordanian journalist held captive MANILA: A Jordanian journalist and two Filipinos hired to help him with reporting are being held captive on an island in the southern Philippines by a one-armed leader of the Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf, the interior secretary said yesterday. Jesse Robredo said that Baker Atyani, an Islamabad-based journalist for Middle East broadcast network Al-Arabiya, and two colleagues, are being held by militant Radullan Saheron on Jolo island. “They are now being held against their will,” Robredo told reporters in a text message. “There was no mention of ransom, but one of the Filipino captives called his wife and asked the latter to contact his company.” The two Filipinos, Rolando Letrero and Ramelito Vela, work for a Manila-based media production house and were hired by Atyani. Al-Arabiya said it has lost contact with Atyani. Robredo said they presumed that the captive crew was asking something from his employers, “but, we cannot say outrightly if its ransom. We are keeping our lines open for
communication.” Saheron is one of two remaining Philippines Islamist militant leaders on the US State Department’s terrorist watch list. The other is Isnilon Hapilon. Washington has put up to $5 million bounty on their capture dead or alive. The Philippines initially denied Atyani was a hostage, even though the Jordanian foreign ministry issued a statement last week saying he was a captive in the southern Philippines. Atyani arrived on June 11 at the island stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnap-for-ransom and for beheading captives. The militants are now holding two Chinese, an Australian, two Europeans and a Japanese as captives on Jolo and nearby Basilan islands. The next day, Atyani and his crew were seen boarding a mini-bus to the island’s interior, seeking an interview with Yasser Igasan, an Islamist militant leader with connections to al Qaeda and Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiya. — Reuters
China earthquake kills at least 2, injures 100
HELMAND: An Afghan labourer works in a shop in Garmser, Helmand Province yesterday. The 130,000 NATO troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and there are fears that their exit will lead to a reduction in rights and freedoms in the war-torn country. —AFP
BEIJING: An earthquake yesterday hit a mountainous area of southwest China, killing at least two people and injuring around 100, the official Xinhua news agency said. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake had a magnitude of 5.5 and struck the border between the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan just before 4:00 pm (0800 GMT), at a shallow depth of only 9.3 kilometres (5.8 miles). The Chinese government put the magnitude of the quake at 5.7. It was followed two minutes later by an af tershock of 3.3, the China Earthquake Network Centre said. The quake toppled houses and cut off communications with parts of Ninglang county in Yunnan, Xinhua said, adding that casualties were also reported in Sichuan’s Yanyuan county. Yunnan provincial authorities had
tives say they have been abducted by Pakistan’s intelligence services. The judge’s eagerness to rewrite the rules of Pakistan’s power game have won him support among those who see the judiciary as the only realistic hope of holding their leaders to account. Zardari’s choice of Ashraf as prime minister may only reinforce Pakistanis’ sense of despair in their government. As a former power minister, many Pakistanis hold Ashraf partly responsible for the chronic electricity shortages that triggered a fresh bout of violent protests last week. But Chaudhry, too, has got his fair share of criticism. Some say the decision to disquali-
sent relief supplies to Ninglang, where the quake was strongly felt, including 300 tents, it said. The province had also sent a team to the area. An official in Lijiang city, which administers Ninglang, told AFP it was too early to have detailed estimates of casualties and damage. Separately, a Yanyuan county government official was quoted by Xinhua as saying that “many” houses in rural areas had collapsed, but he gave no figure. “I felt it, but I don’t know about casualties,” another official of the Yanyuan civil affairs bureau told AFP, adding that the government was trying to calculate the casualties. The area is inhabited by the Yi ethnic minority, Xinhua said. China estimates there are around 7.8 million Yi people living in four provinces, including Yunnan and Sichuan, many in mountainous areas. —AFP
fy Gilani smacks of a grudge match cheered on by his allies in Pakistan’s boisterous media. Legal experts have questioned whether Chaudhry may have exceeded his powers by ousting the prime minister, arguing that there were other options available to resolve the stand-off with Zardari’s government. “It’s my impression that the judgments are highly politicised,” said Asma Jahangir, a respected human rights lawyer. “The populist approach of the chief justice will destabilise the democratic process.” The ruling PPP believes Chaudhry is deliberately fast-tracking corruption proceedings against its members, while leaving cases against opposition politicians to gather dust. The media frenzy triggered by Gilani’s ouster also eclipsed a subplot that had, days earlier, put Chaudhry in the spotlight over allegations that his son had accepted huge bribes from Malik Riaz, a business magnate. — Reuters
News
in brief
4-day India well rescue fails as girl found dead NEW DELHI: A four-day rescue mission to save a young girl who had fallen down a dry well in India ended unsuccessfully yesterday when her body was brought out by emergency services. The efforts to save five-year-old Mahi Upadhyay were televised live by national news channels, with people across the country performing religious rituals and offering prayers for her survival. The girl fell down the well on June 20 while playing with her friends in a village in Harayana state, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of New Delhi. Hundreds of soldiers, engineers and medical experts were involved in the attempt to rescue her, using heavy machinery to dig a parallel tunnel to reach her as well as pumping oxygen into the well to try to keep her alive. Her body was carried out yesterday wrapped in a blanket and taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared her dead. “Mahi was stuck at a level of 60 feet (20 metres). The diameter of the well was very narrow, nothing could be sent inside to save her,” senior police officer Anil Rao told reporters at the scene. Six divers saved after going missing in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: Six scuba divers who went missing off a Malaysian resort island were rescued when they were spotted by a passing tugboat yesterday after spending a night in the sea, a maritime official said. The boat spotted the divers, a Singaporean, a Chinese and four Malaysians, off Tioman island on Malaysia’s east coast, said Syed Mohamad Fuzi Syed Hasan, an official with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. The Malaysian boat, which was on its way to Indonesia, later informed authorities, who picked up the divers, he said. Another official had said earlier the boat was Indonesian. “Luckily all are safe,” Syed Mohamad Fuzi told AFP, adding that they were uninjured and back on Tioman island. The six, who were aged between 25 and 33 and included two women, were reported missing after going diving off the island Saturday. A seventh member of the group, who lost the rest underwater, raised the alarm. Syed Mohamad Fuzi said that due to a misunderstanding, the alarm was raised when the six were still diving. When they resurfaced, the boat was gone as it went to get help, and they drifted away with the current. Syed Mohamad Fuzi said the divers were experienced, had inflatable jackets and huddled together throughout the night so no one would become separated from the group. Malaysia’s east coast islands, famed for their corals and marine life, are a popular dive destination and accidents are rare.