WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2014
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Hunger Games salute becomes symbol of Thai resistance
BANGKOK: Opponents of Thailand’s military coup are risking arrest by flashing
the three-finger salute from the “Hunger
Games” movies to defy a junta that has
banned all public protests. The gesture
has become the unofficial symbol of
resistance against a military regime that
has suspended democracy and severely
cur tailed freedom of expression.
“Showing three fingers has become a
symbol to call for basic political rights in
a country ruled by one person as if with
the most sovereign power, who is
General Prayut Chan-O-Cha,” Sombat
Boonngamanong, a prominent activist
wanted by the junta, wrote on Facebook.
Critics of the May 22 coup, including
the youngest daughter of ousted former
premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have posted
photographs of themselves flashing
three fingers on Facebook and other
social media sites. “Dear #HungerGames.
We’ve taken your sign as our own. Our
struggle is non-fiction,” wrote one Twitter
user. In the “Hunger Games” movies, the
residents of a dystopian future North
America-who are forced to compete in a
televised death match-initially use the
gesture to mean thanks, admiration and
good-bye to someone they love. It later
becomes a more general symbol of their
uprising against a wealthy, totalitarian
regime.
In Thailand some protesters say the
salute is also a nod to the French revolutionary motto “liberty, equality and fraternity”. The military-which has imposed
martial law, controls on the media and a
night-time curfew-has warned that people flashing three fingers could face
arrest under its ban on public protests. “If
they gather as more than five people
and show the symbol of three fingers
then it ’s against the law,” army
spokesman Winthai Suvaree told
reporters. But he suggested that people
posting photos on the Internet were
unlikely to be detained, saying coup
makers were “not paying any attention”
to the three-finger salute by Thaksin’s
daughter.
Protest crackdown
The junta mounted a show of military
strength over the weekend to deter small
but defiant anti-coup flashmob rallies
that popped up outside shopping malls
and near train stations in the capital
Bangkok. Some people have taken to the
streets reading George Orwell’s dystopian
novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Six people
were arrested, included a woman shoved
into a taxi by undercover police apparently disguised as journalists. Security forces,
many carrying riot shields, were
deployed, backed briefly by an armored
humvee with a soldier manning a mounted machine gun. The army has warned
protesters that they-and even their families-face punishment under strict martial
law, which has imposed sweeping curbs
on freedoms. —AFP
BANGKOK: Anti-coup protesters flash a three-finger salute during a gathering at
a shopping mall which was broken up by security forces in downtown Bangkok.
Opponents of Thailand’s military coup are risking arrest by flashing the three-finger salute from the “Hunger Games” movies to defy a junta that has banned all
public protests.— AFP
India minister dies in road
collision; a blow for Modi
Indian roads among the world’s most dangerous
NEW DELHI: India’s minister for rural development died yesterday after a road collision in New Delhi, depriving Prime Minister
Narendra Modi of a key ally eight days after
coming to office with a mandate to revitalize a stalled economy. India’s roads are
among the most dangerous in the world,
and the capital, New Delhi, ranks near the
top of cities that account for the most fatalities. Gopinath Munde, 64, was on his way
to the airport for a victory rally in his home
state of Maharashtra, on India’s west coast,
when his sedan was hit by a car. He died in
hospital. “My tributes to a dynamic leader
whose premature demise leaves a void
hard to fill,” Modi said in a tweet, amid a
flurry of tributes from allies and political
opponents. “Condolences to Munde’s family. We stand by them in this hour of grief.”
Dozens of supporters of the ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party swarmed the party
headquarters where Munde’s body was
brought in a flower-bedecked truck. Modi
laid a wreath and consoled members of
Munde’s family, including his daughter.
Modi had entrusted to Munde the crucial
task of spearheading a battle on poverty in
the countryside, home to more than half of
India’s population of 1.2 billion, but which
contributes just 14 percent of gross domestic product in Asia’s third-largest economy.
The minister was sitting in the back of his
Maruti SX4 sedan when it was hit on the
side by a Tata Indica saloon, whose driver
police said was in custody. Munde’s driver
and a personal assistant survived.
Doctors tried to revive Munde for 50
minutes after he was taken to the All-India
Institute of Medical Sciences in the capital,
a hospital spokesman said. “There was no
spontaneous breathing, no pulse, no cardiac activity,” he added. India is the world’s
capital of road deaths, thanks to a lethal
brew of poor road planning, weak law
enforcement, a surge in trucks and cars,
and a flood of untrained drivers. More than
230,000 people were killed on Indian roads
in 2010, or a rate of almost 19 deaths per
100,000 people. As many as 15 people died
in road accidents every hour in India in
2012 with 53 injured, the National Crime
Records Bureau says.
Piyush Tewari, president and founder of
SaveLIFE Foundation, said lack of enforce-
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) pays his respects over the mortal remains of Gopinath Munde, India’s
Rural Development and Water and Sanitation Minister, as BJP President Rajnath Singh (right) looks on at the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi yesterday. — AFP
As a leader of a backward community,
ment of rules, of air bags and of rapid trau- the state that is home to Mumbai, the
ma care was the cause of so many deaths. financial capital. He was twice elected to Munde had helped the party expand its
“Enforcement is almost negligible. If it’s India’s lower house of parliament, in 2009 base in rural areas and among low-rankalmost negligible in a city like Delhi, you and again last month in the landslide gen- ing castes, especially in the state’s central
region of Marathwada. India’s rural develcan imagine what happens in other parts eral election victory of the BJP.
He had served as the party’s deputy opment ministry is also charged with
of the country,” he told Reuters. Munde
becomes at least the third senior Indian leader in parliament and was being con- administering a land acquisition law
politician to die in a car crash in recent sidered a potential chief minister of adopted by the previous Congress govtimes. The Congress party’s Rajesh Pilot, a Maharashtra, where the BJP is hoping to ernment and which has drawn mixed
former transport minister, was killed in oust its Congress rival in elections for a reactions. While activists hailed its provi2000, and Sahib Singh Verma, a former BJP new assembly later this year. Maharashtra, sion of securing up to 80 percent
along with neighboring Gujarat, Modi’s approval from the owners of land targetlabour minister, in 2007.
home state, is one of India’s engines of ed for acquisition, Indian business fears
growth on the west coast, and is vital to the procedures will swell costs and delay
Mass leader
Modi called a cabinet meeting to mourn plans to restore momentum to the econo- investment projects. Munde defended
Munde, whose body will be flown home for my. “It is a big blow for us,” Transport the law in his first comments after taking
a funeral today. From 1995 to 1999, Munde Minister Nitin Gadkari, a party colleague office, saying it was not aimed at industrialists.— Reuters
was deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, from Maharashtra, told reporters.
Japan PM seeks answers over N Korea abductions
TOKYO: Shinzo Abe’s tough stance over
Japanese citizens kidnapped by North
Korea decades ago helped catapult him to
a first, brief stint as Japan’s prime minister.
Back in office for well over a year, Abe is
now pushing for answers in an issue that
has dominated his career, but must ensure
he does not fall out of step with Japan’s
biggest ally, the United States. Nearly 26
years after first learning that Japanese citizens might have been abducted by
Pyongyang’s agents, Abe is working to
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe arrives at the Japan Business
Federation general assembly in Tokyo
yesterday. — AFP
uncover the fate of a dozen Japanese
nationals Tokyo says were kidnapped along
with hundreds of other compatriots who
may also have been snatched away.
After talks with North Korea in
Stockholm, Abe announced last week that
Pyongyang would reopen a probe of missing Japanese. In return, Japan will ease
some economic sanctions when the probe
starts and consider humanitarian aid later.
Abe’s commitment to solving the mystery
of the kidnappings is not only a matter of
personal sympathy for the victims. It also
reflects his agenda to build a stronger,
more self-reliant Japan. But the push could
put Japan out of line with the United States
and South Korea, the two other nations
most at risk from the North’s missile and
nuclear programs. With North Korea reportedly on the verge of a fourth nuclear test,
maintaining close unity will be crucial for
the allies.
Yesterday, Japan’s foreign minister said
Abe might consider visiting Pyongyang if
that would help get results, but Abe later
told reporters it was too soon to decide,
Japanese media said. Japanese officials
stress Tokyo is in close touch with both
Washington and Seoul, and some pundits
say Japan will calibrate its actions to avoid
upsetting the United States. “I think Abe is
well aware that for him, Japan, and many
other countries in East and Southeast Asia,
the real issue is China, and how the United
States is engaged on that issue,” said Jun
Okumura, visiting scholar at the Meiji
Institute for Global Affairs. “I don’t think Mr.
Abe can afford to incur the anger of the
United States.”
Sung-Han Kim, a former vice minister for
foreign affairs in South Korea and a professor at Korea University, said at a conference
in Kuala Lumpur: “Japan’s sanctions are not
a big portion of the sanctions on North
Korea. I think Japan is smart enough to
control this.” US officials have privately
asked Japan to keep it posted on its dealings with the North, but aired no public
complaints. “ We will ensure that our
alliance evolves to reflect the shifting security environment,” U.S. Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel said on Saturday, two days
after Abe announced the deal with
Pyongyang.
Personal and policy reasons
Abe has both personal and policy reasons for pushing aggressively to achieve
closure over those kidnapped by
Pyongyang’s agents in the 1970s and 1980s
to help train spies. “It’s a signature issue. It’s
why he catapulted out of the back benches
to the prime minister ’s office,” Jeffrey
Kingston, director of Asia studies at Temple
University’s Japan campus.
“He’s a guy with spine who will stand up
for Japan.” By Abe’s own account, he first
heard of the kidnappings in 1988, when
the parents of abductee Keiko Arimoto visited the office of his father Shintaro, a senior member of parliament for whom the
young Abe was working as an aide. “At first,
I was half sceptical that it was really possible for a nation to kidnap the citizens of
another country, but as I looked into it, I
had to believe in North Korea’s crime,” Abe
wrote in his 2006 book, “ Towards a
Beautiful Country”.
Many Japanese had long dismissed
accounts that citizens such as Arimoto,
who disappeared in Europe in 1983, and
13-year-old Megumi Yokota, who vanished
on her way home from school in 1977, had
been spirited away by North Korean
agents. Abe, however, adopted the topic as
his own when he was first elected to parliament in 1993 and helped found a group of
like -minded lawmakers dedicated to
uncovering the truth in 1997.
For Abe and his conservative colleagues,
the kidnappings go beyond human
tragedy, resonating with their view that
Japan’s ability to defend its people was
weakened by the US-drafted, post-war
pacifist constitution, a charter he wants to
revise. When North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il shockingly admitted to 13 kidnappings at a September 2002 summit with
then-prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Abe
- along on the trip as Koizumi’s aide grabbed the public spotlight when it was
reported that he had demanded Koizumi
leave the meeting unless Kim apologized.
Kim apologized and pledged to punish
those responsible.
Abe, his popularity assured in large part
due to his tough stance toward Pyongyang,
succeeded Koizumi in 2006, but made little
headway on abductions or anything else
before quitting after just a year due to
political deadlock and ill-health. But allies
who shared his passion for the abductees
issue were among those who helped stage
his comeback five years later. Abe has kept
the abductions as a top priority while
focusing on economic revival and beefing
up Japan’s security policy. Doubts persist,
however, over whether Pyongyang’s probe
will yield results - it failed to keep a similar
promise in 2008.
Whether Abe can achieve closure despite
hints by Pyongyang of possible survivors is
also unclear. Japan has identified 17 citizens
it says were abducted, of whom five came
home in 2002. North Korea has said another
eight were dead, but Tokyo wants better
proof of their fate as well as other missing
persons who may also have been kidnapped.
“Whatever credible story North Korea produces, it is almost certain to be a story the
Japanese public will not enjoy,” said
Okumura at the Meiji Institute.—Reuters
News
in brief
Sri Lanka frees 29
Indian fishermen
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda
Rajapakse has ordered the release of 29 Indian fishermen held on poaching charges, officials said yesterday, in a move to ease tensions over illegal fishing. The island’s navy arrested the Indians on
Sunday along with six trawlers, days after Rajapakse
held talks with India’s new Prime Minister Narendra
Modi in New Delhi on poaching disputes and other
issues. “President Mahinda Rajapakse as a goodwill
measure has ordered the release of 29 Indian fishermen arrested by the Sri Lanka navy while fishing in
Sri Lankan waters,” his office said in a statement.
Official sources say the arrests had renewed tensions between fishing communities in the two
South Asian neighbors. Rajapakse had marked
Modi’s assumption of office last week by ordering
the release of all Indian fishermen held in the
island. But official sources said there were only five
Indian fishermen in custody at the time and they
had been held for allegedly smuggling narcotics in
2011.
JHARKHAND: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
leader, Yashwant Sinha waves from inside a police
vehicle after his arrest at Hazaribagh in eastern
Jharkhand state yesterday.—AFP
Former India finance
minister behind bars
NEW DELHI: A former finance minister of India’s
ruling party was behind bars yesterday over accusations he led 300 protesters in storming an electricity office and tying up its manager to denounce
blackouts, a report said. Yashwant Sinha and 54 coaccused were remanded in judicial custody for 14
days on assault charges by a court in eastern India
after refusing to pay bail, the Press Trust of India
news agency reported. The protest involving Sinha,
who is also a former foreign minister, comes as new
Prime Minister Narendra Modi struggles to fix
endemic electricity shortages that have hindered
economic growth. Police allege that Sinha and
more than 300 members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) invaded the office of the state electricity
board in Jharkhand on Monday and then barricaded themselves inside. Sinha, who used to represent
the area in parliament, and several dozen fellow
demonstrators were detained after they allegedly
trussed up the general manager, said police superintendent Arvind Kumar Singh.
Two die, 13 trapped
as building collapses
SAMARINDA: Two workers were killed and 13
trapped yesterday after a partially-constructed
building collapsed on the Indonesian part of
Borneo Island, officials said. Scores of construction
workers fled the building site in the city of
Samarinda in East Kalimantan province as the
three-storey structure crashed to the ground in the
early hours. Rescuers pulled two bodies from the
rubble following the accident, which happened just
hours after work was finished on the third floor,
local disaster agency chief Robby Hartono said.
“Thirteen workers remain trapped under the rubble. We can still hear cries and groans,” he said,
adding that rescuers were struggling to shift piles
of broken concrete and mangled metal. Three people were pulled alive from the rubble and taken to
hospital, he said. Hartono blamed the building’s
weak foundations for the accident.
Shelling of Iraq’s
Fallujah kills 18
FALLUJAH: Shelling of conflict-hit Iraqi city
Fallujah killed 18 people and wounded another
43 yesterday, according to Doctor Ahmed Shami
at the city hospital. The shelling, which hit a market, municipal offices and in the vicinity of the
hospital itself, struck at around midday, said an
AFP journalist in the city, just a short drive west
of Baghdad. Fallujah has been out of government hands for months, with militants holding
sway. The army has regularly shelled the city, and
attempted multiple ground offensives in a bid to
re-take it. The army insists it is targeting militant
hideouts, but residents and human rights groups
say civilians are bearing the brunt of the shelling.
Human Rights Watch also said last month that
authorities have likely violated the laws of war by
targeting Fallujah hospital.