The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Former Ivorian president arrives to face ICC
- NATO attack was blatant aggression - Pakistan army
- China's sway runs deep in Myanmar's ancient capital
| Former Ivorian president arrives to face ICC Posted: 29 Nov 2011 08:39 PM PST ROTTERDAM (Reuters) - A plane carrying former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo, facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court, arrived at Rotterdam airport Wednesday, a Reuters witness said. The Hague-based court, which is also pursuing Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and investigating alleged crimes in Kenya, Libya and Central African Republic, has so far declined to comment on the warrant. Gbagbo would be the first former head of state to be tried by the ICC since its inception in 2002. The ICC opened an investigation last month into killings, rapes and other abuses committed during a four-month conflict triggered by Gbagbo's refusal to cede power to Alassane Ouattara in last year's Ivorian election. The conflict ended only when French-backed pro-Ouattara forces captured him on April 11. The ICC's silence means there is as yet no information on what exactly Gbagbo is to be charged with. The Ivory Coast plane landed at Rotterdam airport at 02:44 a.m. BT and entered a hangar, the Reuters witness said. Gbagbo had been flown by helicopter Tuesday from remote Korhogo in northern Ivory Coast, where he had been under house arrest since his capture, and transferred on to a plane, Ivorian military officials said. Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| NATO attack was blatant aggression - Pakistan army Posted: 29 Nov 2011 08:21 PM PST ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A senior Pakistani army official has said a NATO cross-border air attack that killed 24 soldiers was a deliberate, blatant act of aggression, hardening Pakistan's stance on an incident which could hurt efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
In a briefing to editors carried in local newspapers on Wednesday, Major-General Ishfaq Nadeem, director general of military operations, also said NATO forces were alerted they were attacking Pakistani posts, but helicopters kept firing. "Detailed information of the posts was already with ISAF International Security Assistance Force), including map references, and it was impossible that they did not know these to be our posts," The News quoted Nadeem as saying in the briefing held at army headquarters on Tuesday. The NATO attack early Saturday shifted attention away from Pakistan's widely questioned performance against militants who cross its border to attack U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, and has given the military a chance to reassert itself. On Tuesday, Pakistan pulled out of an international conference on Afghanistan, an angry riposte after the attack by NATO plunged the region deeper into crisis. Islamabad's decision to boycott next week's meeting in Bonn, Germany, will deprive the talks of a key player that could nudge Taliban militants into a peace process as NATO combat troops prepare to leave Afghanistan in 2014. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she regretted Pakistan's decision to boycott next week's international conference on Afghanistan but hoped to secure Islamabad's cooperation in future. "Nothing will be gained by turning our backs on mutually beneficial cooperation. Frankly it is regrettable that Pakistan has decided not to attend the conference in Bonn," Clinton told a news conference in South Korea. The army, which has ruled the country for more than half of its history and sets security and foreign policy, faced strong criticism from both the Pakistani public and its ally, the United States, after the secret U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The al Qaeda leader had apparently been living in a Pakistani garrison town for years before U.S. special forces found and killed him in a unilateral operation. Pakistanis criticised the military for failing to protect their sovereignty, and angry U.S. officials wondered whether some members of military intelligence had sheltered him. The army seems to have regained its confidence, and anti-NATO protests suggest it has won the support of the public in a country where anti-American sentiment runs high even on rare occasions when relations with Washington are healthy. Exactly what happened at the Pakistani posts along an unruly and poorly defined border is still unclear. NATO has promised to investigate. A Western official and an Afghan security official who requested anonymity said NATO troops were responding to fire from across the border. Pakistan said earlier the attack was unprovoked. Both the Western and Pakistani explanations are possibly correct: that a retaliatory attack by NATO troops took a tragic, mistaken turn in harsh terrain where differentiating friend from foe can be difficult. Nadeem was adamant that all communications channels had informed NATO that it was attacking Pakistani positions. "They continued regardless, with impunity," The News quoted him as saying. (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sugita Katyal) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| China's sway runs deep in Myanmar's ancient capital Posted: 29 Nov 2011 07:48 PM PST MANDALAY, Myanmar (Reuters) - The stalls of Mandalay's biggest market are lined with Chinese-made clothes, appliances and cosmetics -- a clear sign of the grip Myanmar's giant neighbour has over the city. "You think of me as Chinese, right?" said Xiao Wei, one of many ethnic Chinese merchants at the Zeigyo market in Mandalay, a bustling city and former royal capital in central Myanmar. "When I am in China, no one believes I am a foreigner until they see my passport." The Chinese influence has always been strong in Mandalay, perched beside the broad Irrawaddy River, 264 km (165 miles) southwest of the border with China's Yunnan province. Ethnic Chinese families have lived in the city for generations and Chinese dialects are commonly heard. Many shop signs and advertisements are in Chinese. But relations between the neighbours have not always been cosy. As elsewhere in Southeast Asia, an ago-old suspicion of China runs deep. Anti-Chinese riots erupted in the 1960s and for years afterwards China supported communist guerrillas battling Mynamar's military government from northern hills. But after the United States imposed sanctions on the country, also known as Burma, after a military crackdown on student-led democracy protests in 1988, Mandalay, and Myanmar itself, slipped deep into China's embrace. Now many ordinary people feet stifled by that and analysts say Myanmar's rulers, including its military men who have officially handed power to a civilian government, want to loosen their dependence on China and balance out foreign relations. That's why U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should get a warm welcome when she arrives in Myanmar on Wednesday for a visit that could do more to end the country's isolation than any other diplomatic gesture in 50 years. Clinton's trip follows a decision by U.S. President Barack Obama to open the door to expanded ties, saying he saw "flickers of progress" after reforms by the civilian government that took office in March. While for many in Myanmar, from hardline generals to reformers and pro-democracy campaigners, China has become a symbol of angst, it is bound to remain hugely influential, no matter how warm relations with the United States might grow. Chinese money is financing new ports, highways and dams across the resource-rich country of 50 million people. Those projects underpin more than $14 billion (8 billion pounds) of pledged Chinese investment for the fiscal year ending in March, making China by far the biggest investor in Myanmar. But in a sign Myanmar wants a little less of China, President Thein Sein in late September halted construction of a $3.6 billion dam being built by China in northern Myanmar because of public anger over its impact downstream on the Irrawaddy, seen as a holy river. OPPORTUNITIES IN ANCIENT CAPITAL Once home to English writer George Orwell, Mandalay was heavily bombed during the Japanese occupation in World War Two. When Allied forces re-took the city in 1945, snipers fought running battles in the grid-like streets. The city, under the shadow of Mandalay Hill and a giant Buddha statue at the top, was home to Myanmar's royal court until the last king was deposed and exiled by the British in the 1880s. Though the monarchy was banished, Mandalay remained the centre for Buddhism and about 60 percent of Myanmar's monks are said to live in the city. It also provides an insight into China's sway over Myanmar. Shops in the ancient monastic centre are packed with Chinese businessmen, many of them seeking their fortune in jade and other gemstones dug from Myanmar mines. Wang Yihong, from China's Jiangxi province, said he had invested $1 million in a gold mine about 150 km (100 miles) from Mandalay. "There are definitely business opportunities," the 51-year-old businessman, puffing on a cigarette, said at Mandalay airport after arriving on a flight from China's Kunming city. "Burma is rich in resources and China needs these resources." According to official figures, there are 400,000 ethnic Chinese in Mandalay province, including 70,000 in the city, but researchers said the real number could be much higher because many Chinese have registered themselves as Burmese. Whatever their numbers, it's clear that the Chinese, whether newly arrived or residents for generations, are better off than ethnic Burmans. It's the Chinese own villas on the outskirts of the city and visit its upmarket shops. Chin Han, a motorcycle taxi driver dressed in a traditional Burmese sarong, said he could make a better living if he spoke a Chinese language. "I'm making $200 a month now, but if I could speak Chinese, I think I could make at least $300 a month," he said, waiting for customers in the shade of a tree. "That's why I've sent one of my sons to learn Chinese. Chinese people are really hard workers, while we Burmese people spend too much time on tea and drinks, and even pray. Maybe we should learn something from the Chinese." GEMS FOR SALE In the city's gem market, sellers are often indigenous Burmese wearing sarongs and slippers. Chunks of the milky green stone are on display at stand after stand. The buyers are usually Chinese, wearing trousers and shoes, who sit at long flat tables, checking the jade with small flashlights and bottles of water with a little holes in the top to wet the stones and judge quality. Once a deal is made, a bundle of kyat, Myanmar's currency, is exchanged. "We buy the jade here but the processing here is not good enough, so we take the jade to Guangzhou to process and resell," said a Chinese merchant from Guangdong province near Hong Kong, who only gave his family name Li. There are 10 Chinese schools in Mandalay. Feng Huaiwei, an administrator at one of them, said he had suffered discrimination for many years. "Things for Chinese here are getting much better," he said. Behind him, Chinese proverbs hung from the wall, and there were notices inviting students to join winter camps in China. While Mandalay is peaceful, distrust of China and the Chinese simmers. Dan Na, a 32-year-old woman chatting with friends at a temple, said she did not respect the Chinese even if they were more prosperous. "They are not Buddhists, not Christians, they just make money," said Dan Na, wearing thanaka on her face, a yellowish-white cosmetic paste made from ground bark. Speaking broken English, Dan Na said she sold fruit on the streets for a living but she took comfort from her religion. "I believe in Buddha and my next life will be great." (Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Dean Yates and Robert Birsel) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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