e_Paper (11 November 2016)

SECOND EDITION

Betrayed and deceived, Santals

lose everything › 2

Tractor tramples

atrocity evidence › 3

Supreme Court verdict on arrest and remand

› 4

BD NGO wins Energy Globe

Award at COP22 › 5

Police against

revealing details of

death in crossfire › 32

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

News

ATTACKS ON MADARPUR COMMUNITY

Betrayed and deceived, Santals lose

• Nure Alam Durjoy and Tajul

Islam Reza from Gaibandha

Before being elected chairman of

Sapmara union, he was involved

in a popular movement advocating

for the local indigenous Santal

community’s claims over a land

now controlled by a government

sugar mill.

On Sunday, the same man stood

by and watched as police fired at

the community and his followers

set fire to their homes.

The betrayed community is in

shock after this 180-degree turnaround

by the man they helped put

in office.

Shakil Ahmed Bulbul, the president

of upazila Chhatra League and

newly-elected Sapmara UP chairman

in Gobindaganj upzila under

Gaibandha district.

The land in question was acquired

by the then-East Pakistan

government in 1962 for the mill. In

2014, some found that the contract

for acquisition had been violated

by the mill authority and a committee

was formed to get the land back

on that ground.

Bulbul was named the president

of this Shahebganj-Bagda Farm

Bhumi Uddhar Songram [land recovery

movement] Committee.

Santals who have now fled to

neighbouring villages, told the

Dhaka Tribune that it was at the

urging of Bulbul four months ago

that they, along with some Bangalis,

took to a 100 acre piece of the

1842.3 acre sugarcane farm and

built 600 new homes.

Not only the UP chairman, but

local lawmaker Abul Kalam Azad

too, gave them assurance that they

would be stay beside the community

in their struggle for land, some

claimed.

The burnt remains of those

‘Attack on Santals was planned’

• Syed Samiul Basher Anik

The recent attack on a Santal community in Gobindaganj,

Gaibandha was planned to evict them from their land, a citizens

body said yesterday.

After visiting the affected areas of Shahebganj-Bagda farm

in Gobindaganj on Tuesday, members of Shahebganj-Bagda

farm Bhumi Uddhar Sanghati Committee said Santals were

victims of a joint attack carried out by ruling party leaders,

local administration and police aiming to evict them from

their land.

The eight-member committee made the comment at a

A man shows empty shells of the bullets fired by police on local Santal and Bangali people of Gobindaganj upazila, Gaibandha when they resisted an eviction drive. The

photo was taken yesterday

MEHEDI HASAN

shanties have now been flattened

down with a tractor machine.

It began on Sunday with an attack,

where Bulbul and Azad’s men

press conference held at

Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in

the capital.

“Although two Santal

men – Shyamol Hembron

and Mongol Madri – were

killed in the illegal eviction

drive led by police, they are

refusing take the responsibility,”

said Jyotirmoy

Barua, convener of the committee.

Three Santal men remain

missing after police opened

fire on the people on Sunday,

he added.

Local union parishad

Chairman Shakil Akhand

Bulbul and his musclemen,

along with police and

sugar mill manager Abdul

Awal, attacked the Santals

and Bangalis in a planned

way under the guise of mill

staff, according to the committee.

“Prior to the attack, Bulbul

instructed his goons to

rob all the houses and spare

no one,” Jyotirmoy claimed.

The evicted Santal families

are now living under

the open sky while the government

has yet to extend a

helping hand, he added.

took part, the Santals said.

Police stood by as the men set

fire to the homes. Later they also

locked in a battle with the com-

Shahebganj Bhumi Uddhar Sanghati Committee holds a press briefing at the Reporters Unity in Dhaka

protesting the attacks on Santal Community in Gaibandha

DHAKA TRIBUNE

The committee called

upon the government to

launch a judicial probe into

the incident. •

News 3

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

everything

munity, which allegedly shot with

bows and arrows at police and got

shot at in return. Three men from

the village have died so far from

gunshot wounds.

How the tables turned

Bulbul contested the chairman position

for Sapmara union parishad

in March. The community says that

it was after his polls victory that he

turned against the Santals.

In a UP with about 18,000 voters,

the nearly 1,500 adults from

the community were a certain vote

bank for the aspiring politician.

Even recently, in a rally at Shahebganj

Bazar, MP Abul Kalam

Azad gave assurance to the community

that he would stand by

their demands.

But both the men were present

to look on as the community was

violently thrown out, not even given

the chance to take their belongings.

Rumila Kisku, one of the victims,

told the Dhaka Tribune how

she had lost her home and all her

belongings in the fire.

She has two children; one is

in class nine and the other one in

class two.

“Did we not vote for them? How

did they become chairman, MP?

Are we not citizens of this country?

Why does not the government look

after us?” she exclaimed at one

point.

‘Take what you can’

Victims alleged that the goons of

MP Azad and Bulbul led the attack

on the village.

Those who spoke to the journalists

were mostly women. Among

Tractor tramples atrocity evidence

• Nure Alam Durjoy

from Gaibandha

When the tractor finally stopped

growling, its driver glancing back

at the well-tilled patch of land; it

would be hard for anyone to guess

that this stretch of Madarpur village

was teeming with people just

five days ago.

More than 2,000 people, mostly

Santals, living in about 600 shanties

in the remote village under

Gaibandha’s Gobindaganj upazila.

They were displaced after their

houses were set afire on Sunday and

Monday, allegedly by men loyal to

local MP Abul Kalam Azad and Sapmara

Union Chairman Shakil Ahmed

Bulbul, in presence of police.

Two Santal men were killed and

three others were injured in clashes

on Sunday when the residents

No home, and now no education

• Nure Alam Durjoy and Tajul

Islam Reza from Gaibandha

them were Taran Murmu, Mikai

Murmu, Ajiran Begum and Rumana

Begum, former residents of the

village.

“Police have filed a case against

many of our men. They have run

away for fear of arrest,” one of

them said.

They claimed that during Sunday’s

attack there had been at least

4,000 people from nearby villages,

policemen, sugar mill’s guards and

goons working for the two politicians.

They also named several

people from Kothiabari, Rampura

and Goalpara villages.

Some said immediately before

the attack, there was an announcement

on a megaphone.

“‘Take what you can,’ they said

over the mike,” said Sri Ezekiel, one

of the victims.

The goons launched into the

shanties looting everything they

could.

“There was nothing we could do

when we saw a giant flame reaching

out to the sky,” he said.

Responding to the Dhaka Tribune’s

queries, Bulbul admitted

that he stood over the eviction of

the villagers but denied any wrongdoing.

“I resigned from the land recovery

committee in January,”

he said.

“There is this man named Shahjahan

Ali, who is the general secretary

of that committee. He is the

one who told the Santals to build

homes in that land,” he added.

“Besides, some organisations

and leftist groups also had a hand

in this,” Bulbul alleged.

Abul Kalam Azad MP could not

be reached for comments. •

The future seems dark for young

Santals of Madarpur.

Driven out of their village by

the police and local thugs, at least

60-70 children and youth from the

community have stopped going to

school for fear of assault.

They also lost all their textbooks

and study materials in the arson

that burned all their homes to

ground.

Following a violent eviction

carried out by local thugs watched

over by policemen, which began

on Sunday and continued intermittently

till Monday, some 1,000

Santal families have run away from

their homes and taken shelter in

nearby villages.

Children from the community

are saying they fear they might

be beaten up on their way to the

school, or even in the schools.

In a nearby village, one of our

correspondents found Santal families

sitting around in the yards of

people who had given them shelter.

Children were also there sitting

by their elders.

“We cannot go to school. We

tried to go. They said: You are Santals.

Why are you here? If we go to

school they will beat us,” said Magdulina,

a class-six student.

“Our books were burnt there in

the village. We do not even have

anything to eat. Our parents are

unfed too,” she said.

There are 60-70 students in the

community, most of whom go to

the Sahebganj Farm Government

Primary School. Some are college

and university-level students.

Workers of a sugar mill in Madarpur village under Gobindapur upazila, Gaibandha run a tractor on the land which, before

Sunday, was home to several Santal families to trample the burnt remains of their houses to the ground. The photo was taken

yesterday

MEHEDI HASAN

Archana, a class four student,

said she wanted dearly to get back

The picture shows a school attendance register of students. The school was not

even spared from the wrath of men of lawmaker and chairman MEHEDI HASAN

to school but could not because of

the fear of violence.

fought pitched battles with police,

sugar mill staff, and men loyal to

the MP and chairman.

Victims said the tractor was

brought in on Monday evening after

their houses were set on fire to erase

evidence that they lived there.

On Wednesday noon, this correspondent

saw a tractor – which,

according to people supervising

the operation, belonged to the Mahimaganj

Sugar Mill – levelling the

patch of land where the charred

houses stood but left the surrounding

area untouched.

When asked why they were

ploughing the area, the supervisors

claimed that the land had been

lying barren for a long time and declined

to speak further.

Several date and banana trees

bore signs of the arson.

Ansel Hembrom, one of the Santals

who lived there, said the tractor

had begun work in presence of

police on Monday night.

A barbed-wire fence was being

put up to cut off the place.

It was from here that the Pakistani

government evicted 25 families

in 1962 for setting up a sugar

mill. Those evicted went on to settle

in other parts of the country.

A 1962 deal between Pakistan’s

central and provincial governments

had a clause that the land

would be handed over to the previous

owners if it was used for other

purposes.

The sugar mill stopped production

in 2004 but the land was

leased allegedly to local politicians

and affluent people.

Some of those families returned

to lay claim to the land. They built

makeshift houses there in July. •

Medi Soren, a honors second

year student, said he could not

imagine that this sort of torture

would descend upon him and his

neighbours.

An SSC candidate said: “I have

exams soon and I am wondering

whether I will be able to sit for the

exam. I have no home now, where

am I going to study?”

Sahebganj Farm school’s Headmaster

Abdul Baki said none of his

Santal students had been to the

school since the incident.

He said he had spoken to some

of the parents and heard that the

students were afraid to come to the

school.

Five days ago, the community

was living in a long line of shanties,

nearly 600, built four months ago.

Now the place is a flat piece of land,

darkened with ash. •

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

News

Supreme Court verdict on arrest and remand

• Ashif Islam Shaon

The Bangladesh Supreme Court has

issued guidelines for the law enforcement

agencies and magistrates

over sections 54 and 167 of the Code

of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Section 54 empowers the police

to detain any person under suspicion

while Section 167 empowers them to

question an accused in remand.

In its full verdict the Appellate

Division has issued 10 guidelines for

the law enforcers about detaining

anyone on suspicion and nine guidelines

for magistrates, judges and tribunals

to deal with an accused.

A four-member Appellate Division

bench headed by Chief Justice

Surendra Kumar Sinha had passed

the order on May 24 this year, upholding

the High Court’s 2003 verdict

in a writ petition filed by Bangladesh

Legal Aid and Services Trust

(BLAST). The petition had sought

implementation of a judicial committee

recommendations which

investigated a private university

BIGSTOCK

student’s death after arrest under

Section 54.

In its verdict the High Court had

asked the government to amend

the sections within two months in

line with instructions given by the

court. The apex court has, however,

made some changes and issued

the final guidelines.

The Appellate Division yesterday

said that the court has formulated

some basic responsibilities

for the law enforcement agencies

to maintain at all level.

The Supreme Court has directed

magistrates, tribunals, courts and

judges – who have the power to take

cognisance of an offence as a court

of original jurisdiction – to ensure

observance of these guidelines.

The court also directed the inspector

general of police and the

director general of Rapid Action

Battalion (RAB) to circulate the

guidelines to all police stations for

compliance. It asked the registrar

general to circulate it for compliance

by the magistrates.

Guidelines for law enforcement agencies

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(v)

A law enforcement officer making the arrest of any person shall prepare a memorandum

of arrest immediately after the arrest and obtain the signature of the

arrestee with the date and time of arrest in the memorandum.

The law enforcement officer must inform a nearest relative of the arrestee – or,

in the absence of such relative – a friend suggested by the arrestee of the arrest

and the place of custody as soon as possible but not later than 12 hours.

The ground of arrest; name and address of the complainant; the name and address

of the relative or friend to whom information about the arrest is given;

and particulars of the law enforcement officer in whose custody the arrestee is

staying must be registered.

Registration of a case against the arrested person is a must for seeking detention

either in law enforcement officer’s custody or in judicial custody under Section

167(2).

No law enforcement officer shall arrest a person under Section 54 for the purpose

of detaining him under Section 3 of the Special Powers Act 1974 (for detention

or deportation).

(vi) A law enforcement officer shall disclose his identity and if demanded, shall

show his identity card to the person arrested and to those present at the time of

arrest.

(vii) If the law enforcement officer finds any marks of injury on the person arrested,

he must record the reasons for such injury and take the person to the nearest

hospital for treatment and obtain a certificate from the attending doctor.

(viii) If the person is not arrested from his residence or place of business, the officer

must inform the nearest relative of the arrestee in writing within 12 hours of

bringing the arrestee to the police station.

(ix)

(x)

The law enforcement officer shall allow the person arrested to consult a lawyer

of his choice if he so desires or to meet any of his nearest relation.

If an arrestee needs to be kept in custody for more than 24 hours, the law enforcement

officer must state in the forwarding letter to a magistrate why the

investigation cannot be completed within 24 hours and why he considers that

the accusations against the person are well founded. He shall also provide the

magistrate with a copy of the case diary.

Guidelines for magistrates, judges and tribunals

(i) If a person is produced for detention in custody without a copy of the case diary,

the magistrate or the court or the tribunal must release the person upon taking

a bond.

(ii) A magistrate/court/tribunal must not allow showing an arrestee arrested in another

case unless a copy of the case diary for that case is produced or if the

ground of the prayer is found not well founded or baseless.

(iii) On fulfilment of the above conditions, if the investigation of the case cannot be

concluded within 15 days of detention and if the case is exclusively triable by a

court of Sessions or Tribunal, a magistrate may send the accused on remand for

a term not exceeding 15 days at a time.

(iv) If the magistrate is satisfied that the accusation or the information about the

arrestee is well founded and that his detention is justified, the magistrate shall

pass an order for further detention in such custody as he deems fit and proper,

until legislative measure is taken as mentioned above.

(v) If a magistrate realises that a prayer aims at preventive detention, then the magistrate

shall not make an order of detention of a person in the judicial custody.

(vi) It shall be the duty of the magistrate/tribunal, before whom the accused person

is produced, to satisfy that these requirements have been complied with before

making any order under section 167 of the CrPC.

(vii) If the magistrate has reasons to believe that a law enforcement officer who has

legal authority to commit a person in confinement has acted contrary to law,

the magistrate shall proceed against such officer under Section 220 of the Penal

Code.

(viii) Whenever a law enforcement officer takes an accused person in his custody on

remand, it is his responsibility to produce that person in court upon expiry of

the remand period; and if it is found that the arrested person is dead, the magistrate

shall direct for the examination of the victim by a medical board; and in

the event of burial of the victim, he shall direct exhumation of the dead body for

fresh medical examination; and if the report of the board reveals that the death

was homicidal in nature, the magistrate shall take cognisance of the offence

punishable under Section 15 of the Hefajate Mrittu (Nibaran) Ain 2013 against

the officer concerned and the officer-in-charge of the police station concerned

or the commanding officer of such officer in whose custody the death of the

accused took place.

(ix) If there are materials or information to a magistrate that a person has been

subjected to torture or died in custody within the meaning of Section 2 of the

Nirjatan and Hefajate Mrittu (Nibaran) Ain 2013, the magistrate shall refer the

victim to the nearest doctor in case of torture and to a medical board in case of

death for ascertaining the injury or the cause of death; and if the medical evidence

reveals that the person detained has been tortured or died due to torture,

the magistrate shall take cognisance of the offence on his own under Section

190(1)(c) of the CrPC and proceed in accordance with law.

News 5

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE

COP22

Emitters’ proposal on $100 billion road-map unclear

• Abu Siddique

The climate finance road-map proposed

by the developed countries in

Conference of Parties (COP22) to fix

the modality and sources of the funds

has failed to give sufficient directions

for the future funding.

This road-map couldn’t clearly clarify

that “how far the adaptation finance

will be adequately scaled-up; which

portion of claimed climate finance will

be actually grants or grant equivalent;

how the most climate vulnerable countries

will get priority in funding considering

the institutional challenges,” said

M Zakir Hossain Khan, Climate Finance

Governance Analyst, who works for the

BD NGO wins Energy Globe Award at COP22

• Abu Siddique

Bangladeshi NGO Tahzingdong has

won the Energy Globe Award in

Earth category at COP22 this year

for its community-based forest

conservation project in Rowangchhari,

Bandarban.

The award was declared yesterday

at COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco.

The two other finalists for the

award were the Inga Foundation

of Honduras for its project named

“Land for Life” and AMSED of Morocco

for its project named “Waste

water treatment for agricultural

use with minimal Greenhouse Gaz

Emission in Asselda Village.”

The Energy Globe Award was

founded in 1999 by the Austrian energy

pioneer Wolfgang Neumann

and is one of the most prestigious

environmental awards today.

The goal of this award is to present

successful sustainable projects

to a broad audience as many of today’s

environmental problems already

have good, feasible solutions.

Projects which conserve and

protect resources or that employ

renewable energy can participate.

With a global call for participation,

Energy Globe invites outstanding

sustainable best practice

projects to participate in the annual

competition. From all over the

world, some 800 projects and initiatives

are submitted annually to

compete for the award.

With the goal of restoration and

conservation of the community

managed forest resources in the

Transparency International Bangladesh.

It also could not clarify that the

most vulnerable countries which have

not submitted any emission reduction

target whether they would be considered

for committed climate finance or

not, he added.

He also said that the role of Multilateral

Development Banks in climate

finance is not clear in the proposal.

The document reads that the pledges

made in 2015 alone will boost public

finance from an average of US$41

billion over 2013-14 to US$67 billion in

2020 – an increase of US$26 billion.

This projection is based on the

significant pledges and announcements

made by many developed countries

Bandarban hill district of Bangladesh,

Tahzingdong has been implementing

its project supported

by Arannayk Foundation of Bangladesh

since 2009.

The project covers 12,919.64

hectares of nine community conserved

areas which are commonly

called village common forests, and

it includes more than 1,000 indigenous

forest dependent families.

Tahzingdong has built two

community houses as part of institutional

capacity building and

Motivated by Tahzingdong’s reforestation programme, a man plants a sapling in his neighbourhood in Rowangchhari to

increase forest area

ENERGY GLOBE

installed two water supply technologies

that capture more than

387,000 litres of clean water in

a month from the forests using

a gravitational flow system, said

Aung Shwe Shing, executive director

of Tahzingdong. •

and Multilateral Development Banks

(MDBs), as well as reasonable assumptions

about trends of climate finance

from other countries.

It should be considered a conservative,

indicative aggregation of public

climate finance levels in 2020, rather

than a firm prediction, it also said.

The proposal came from 39 developed

countries as per the Paris Agreement

which stated that the developed

countries will meet the $100 billion per

annum target by 2020 and extend it

until 2025 in the context of meaningful

mitigation actions and transparency on

implementation.

It also said that prior to 2025, the

COP 22 will set a new collective quantified

goal from a floor of $100 billion per

year, taking into account the needs and

priorities of developing countries.

He raised question that the most

importantly “Road-map doesn’t include

direction on whether the future finance

against the claim for loss and damages

would be over and above this $100

billion dollars”.

This road-map sets out the range of

actions which are to fulfill the pledges

of developed country parties and make

further efforts to scale-up climate finance,

and significantly increase finance

for adaptation, in line with the priorities

expressed by developing countries.

It will also help developing countries

to develop and implement ambitious mitigation

contributions and adaptation plans

that are essential to attract investment,

according to the proposed road-map.

Zakir Hossain Khan also emphasized

that developing country parties should

use the COP22 negotiations to determine

the concrete definition of climate

finance that recognise only grants for

adaptation and also a common, clear

strong modalities, procedures and

guidelines (MPG) for climate finance accounting

to be developed under Article

13 of Paris Agreement that proposed a

broad based Transparency Framework”.

However, the last year’s OECD/CPI

report claimed that these countries had

delivered $62 billion in climate finance

in 2014. •

Hope and

despair of

vulnerable

countries

• Rezaul Karim Chowdhury

Following the discussion on insurance

mechanism in the loss and

damage issue in Paris agreement

adopted last year, the Least Developed

Countries and Most Vulnerable

Countries (MVC)s are raising

several questions in this year’s climate

conference in Marrakech.

Firstly, they want to know about

the premium of the insurance.

They demanded that the developed

countries should pay the premium

of the insurance as they are

responsible for global warming.

There are strong lobby from insurance

companies of developed

countries in this regard for pushing

the insurance under the loss and

damages mechanism though they

are not telling who will pay for that.

Another issue which is coming

from the vulnerable nations

is the inclusion of climate induce

displacement in the process of

Warsaw Institutional Mechanism

under which the discussion of loss

and damages is being taken.

Regarding financing, developed

countries’ position is not to go beyond

what they are contributing to

Green Climate Fund (GCF) and do

not want separate allocation for

loss and damages, while the developing

countries opted for new and

additional sources of fundings. •

TEMPERATURE FORECAST FOR TODAY

DRY WEATHER

LIKELY

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11

Dhaka 30 19 Chittagong 29 24 Rajshahi 30 19 Rangpur 30 20 Khulna 30 18 Barisal 30 18 Sylhet 31 18

DHAKA

TODAY

TOMORROW

SUN SETS 5:14PM

SUN RISES 6:12AM

YESTERDAY’S HIGH AND LOW

32.2ºC 17ºC

Sylhet

Chuadanga

Source: Accuweather/UNB

PRAYER

TIMES

Cox’s Bazar 29 22

Fajr: 5:35am | Jumma: 1:15pm

Asr: 4:00pm | Magrib: 5:30pm

Esha: 7:30pm

Source: Islamic Foundation

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

News

39th death anniversary of

Enamul Haque observed

• Tribune Desk

The 39th death anniversary

of country’s

first ever posthumous

eye-donor ARM

Enamul Haque was

observed yesterday.

Haque, a veteran social

worker and prominent

engineer, died in

2005

He had donated his

eye before three years

of his death. Later,

his corneas were transplanted to Shahadat

Chowdhury, editor of Saptahik 2000, and

one Ramzan Ali.

On the occasion, social

workers of different

organisations, groups,

individuals, family members

and journalists paid

homages to his grave.

A Milad and Doa mahfil

was also arranged.

Enamul Haque was

born in Rajkhola area,

Haora district, West Bengal

on October 1, 1921.

He had started his career

in teaching profession

in 1946.

He was one of the founders of Dhanmondi

Club. He was a linguist and was fluent in

four languages. •

A cargo laden covered-van turns turtle in Digraj area on the Khunla-Mongla Highway. Locals, drivers and

port authorities alleged that the highway has become rundown, as big potholes had developed at several

points of the roads. The photo was taken recently

DHAKA TRIBUNE

Rundown road makes

Mongla’s goods

transportation difficult

• Hedait Hossain Molla,

Khulna

Nearly six kilometres of

Khulna-Mongla Highway

are in very bad condition

and became unfit for vehicular

movement, as big

potholes have developed at

many points of the road due

to lack of repairs and maintenance.

Goods transportation and

other works of Mongla sea

port and Mongla export processing

zone are hampering

due to the bad condition of

the roads, said authorities.

Of the 60 kilometres, six

kilometres of Khulna-Mongla

Highway became unfit for

vehicular movement, said

locals.

During a visit to the roads,

this correspondent found

that a number of big potholes

have developed on the roads

making it risky for commuters

but Road and Highway

Department authorities do

not take any initiatives to repair

the roads yet.

Locals alleged that Mongla

is the second largest seaport

of the country and the

Khulna-Mongla Highway

is the only road which connected

Mongla with Khulna

and Barisal.

In 2013, Road and Highway

Department had repaired

the highway. After

three years of repairing,

this road has ruined and six

kilometres from Digraj area

to Belai on the highway are

in very bad condition and

became unfit for vehicular

movement.

As the road has become

unfit for vehicular movement,

thousands of trucks,

lorries and passenger buses

plying on the highway were

stuck up on the road for

hours, alleged locals.

Officials of Mongla sea

port, members of Navy and

tourists who came in the

area to visit world’s largest

mangrove forest Sundarbans

were also sufferings a lot due

to bad condition of the road.

Mongla Port Authority

Chairman Rear Admiral Reaz

Uddin Ahmed said: “This

highway is very much important

and we had tried to

repair the road for several

times in past with our own

accord. We also requested

Road and Highway Department

to repair the road and

they assured us that they

will repair the road as soon

as possible.”

When contacted Mahmud

Hasan, general manager of

Mongla Export Processing

Zone (EPZ), said: “We are

suffering huge due to bad

condition of Khulna-Mongla

highway. Foreign investors

also suffer when they came

here in aiming to invest

which discontent them to

invest.”

Mizanur Rahman, a fish

trader of Mongla, said: “We

need to use the road everyday

to carry our fish to Khulna

as most of the fish processing

factories situated in

Khulna.

But due to dilapidated

condition of Khulna-Mongla

highway we have to spend

at least 3 hours instead of

30 minutes to reach Khulna

from Mongla.”

Abdul Jalil, a bus driver

on the route, said: “Due to

big potholes in one side of

the road, drivers use only

one lane of the two lane road

which is causing huge traffic

jam.”

Anisuzzaman Masud, executive

engineer of Bagerhat

Roads and Hoghways, said:

“We have already called for

tender to repair the road and

hope we will able to start repair

works very soon.” •

News 7

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

Post office still bearing name

of Pakistani governor

• Md Wali Newaz, Faridpur

After forty four years of independence,

a sub-post office at Titumir

Bazaar in Faridpur town still carries

the name of the then East-Pakistan’s

governor Azam Khan.

Lieutenant general Mohammad

Azam Khan inaugurated the

market while he was the governor

of East Pakistan, present Bangladesh,

from 1960-62.

5 rescued while

being trafficked

to Iraq illegally

• FM Mizanur Rahaman,

Chittagong

The market, which was known

as new market that time, was renamed

Azam Khan Market and

the post office was named Azam

Market Town Sub-post Office.

Though after the independence,

the market was named Titumir

Bazaar, the name of the subpost

office remained unchanged.

Md Khalilur Rahman, deputy

commander of the district Muktijoddha

Sangsad, an association of freedom

fighters, and also a businessman

of the market, said: “It is very

shameful that after so many years of

independence, a government organisation

has been carrying the name

of a Pakistani governor.”

He said he had informed the district

post office of the fact verbally,

but they did not take any step.

Mohammad Mohosin Uddin,

postmaster of the district post office,

told the Dhaka Tribune that

he did not know about it.

He, however, assured that he

would take steps to change the

name as soon as possible.

Post-Master of Faridpur Post

Office Mohammad Mohsin Uddin

told the Dhaka Tribune that he

was not aware of the matter.

He also assured the correspondent

that he would request higher

authorities to rename the post office.

•

Two-day Lalon

festival begins

• Kudrote Khoda Sobuj,

Kushtia

A two-day Lalon Festival began yesterday

at the Lalon Akhrah in Kushtia.

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy,

Kushtia organised the festival.

The festival will see many

events such as musical events, discussions

on Lalon’s philosophy, Lalon’s

fair and so on.

Organisers arranged a seminar

titled at Lalon Academy auditorium

where Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy,

Kushtia, Director General Liaquat

Ali Lucky, Additional Deputy

Commissioner Mujib-ul-Ferdous, Islamic

University, Kushtia VC Dr Abul

Ahsan Choudhury were present. •

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB 7)

rescued five fortune seekers from

Chittagong Shah Amanat International

Airport on Wednesday while

they were being sent to war-torn

Iraq illegally.

“The five victims were rescued

from the waiting room of Immigration

of Chittagong Shah Amanat International

Airport while they were

waiting to board on a Qatar-bound

Air Arabia flight”, said Senior Assistant

Superintendent of Police

(ASP), RAB 7 Md Sohel Mahmud.

“They were handed over to

Patenga police station and a case

was filed in this connection”, said

ASP Sohel Mahmud. On October 12,

RAB personnel rescued 39 fortune

seekers from the airport. •

KUNIO HOSHI MURDER

Court for appointing

lawyer for accused at

government’s cost

• Liakat Ali Badal, Rangpur

A Rangpur court yesterday gave

directive to the government to appoint

a lawyer for members of the

banned Islamic outfit Jama’atul

Mujahideen of Bangaldesh (JMB),

who are accused in Japanese citizen

Kunio Hoshi murder, at its own

cost.

Special Judge Nareah Chandra

Sarkar passed the order after

he came to know that no lawyer

has been recruited for them. Five

members of the JMB were produced

before the court. The court

A human chain was formed on Rajshahi University campus yesterday, protesting attacks in minority people across Bangladesh

also fixed November 15 for the next

hearing.

On August 7, a court accepted

the charge sheet pressed against

eight members of the JMB in the

killing case.

The Court of Senior Judicial

Magistrate Arifur Rahman also excluded

five people, including BNP

leader Rashedun Nabi Khan Biplab,

from the case, as their involvement

in the killing was not found during

the investigation.

Knunio Hoshi, 65, was shot in

Kachu Alutari area on October 3,

2015. •

AZAHAR UDDIN

Bholaganj Land Customs Station

counting losses as limestone

import from India suspended

• Mahammad Sirajul Islam,

Sylhet

Limestone import from India

through Bholaganj Land Customs

Station in Sylhet has remained suspended

since Monday, causing an

economic loss to the country.

The forest department of the

India village Majai, located in the

taluk of Shella Bholaganj in Meghalaya,

from where the limestone

was imported through the land

customs station, had not been giving

car passes for limestone export

to Bangladesh for several days, said

Mujibur Rahman Mintu, secretary

to limestone importers group of

Bholaganj.

The forest department was doing

it, as Indian High Court had

imposed a ban on extracting limestone

from mines by machines on

August 2015, said Mujibur.

Due to the ban, limestone import

through other land customs

stations of Bangladesh had been

decreased significantly, as the Indian

exporters were now supplying

limestone from their stocks, added

Mujibur.

Every day around three to four

thousand metric tones of limestone

were imported through Bholaganj,

yielding about Tk1.1 to 1.2 millions

revenue, said Abul Hossain, superintendent

of the land customs station.

Bashir Ahmed, former general

secretary of limestone importers

group of Bholaganj, said the sudden

suspension of the import would affect

the cement industry of Bangladesh,

as limestone is the main raw

material for producing cement.

The price of cement might rise

for this reason, he added.

Besides, around 200 people,

who worked in stone crusher mills

in Bholaganj, have lost their earning

sources, as the mills were dependent

on limestone. •

World

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan: Trump may

favour India

Donald Trump’s surprise election

as US president has Pakistanis wary

that he may accelerate what they

see as a shift in American policy to

favour arch-foe India analysts said

on Wednesday. Trump’s anti-Muslim

rhetoric - he once proposed

banning Muslims entering the US

- and business ties to India are signs

that his administration could shift

further toward New Delhi REUTERS

INDIA

India SC orders Punjab to

share river water

India’s top court ordered authorities

in northern Punjab state Thursday

to share river water supplies with

neighbouring Haryana state. The

Supreme Court said the Punjab

government’s decision to terminate

the agreement via a state legislation

was unconstitutional and defied the

court’s own earlier orders calling for

the canal’s completion. AFP

CHINA

China home to 9m ‘leftbehind’

children

More than 9m children have been

“left behind” in China’s countryside

by parents who have moved

to its towns and cities to find work,

Beijing said Thursday. The plight

of such children, who are usually

looked after by grandparents but

sometimes have no guardians at

all, is one of the most emotive consequences

of China’s decades-long

economic boom. AFP

ASIA PACIFIC

Australia ratifies climate

pact amid Trump fears

Australia ratified the Paris climate

agreement on Thursday, amid

fears US president-elect Donald

Trump could follow through on his

pledge to cancel the landmark pact.

Australia’s approval of the binding

deal was delayed by national

elections in July and its announcement

Thursday came ahead of the

departure of the country’s foreign

and environment ministers for UN

climate talks in Marrakesh. AFP

MIDDLE EAST

Coalition strike kills 20

near IS-held Raqqa

US-backed forces pressed offensives

on the Islamic State group’s strongholds

in Syria and Iraq, as an air

strike by the American-led coalition

reportedly killed 20 civilians near the

Syrian city of Raqqa. Supported by

coalition air raids, Iraqi forces have

pushed into IS’s Mosul stronghold

and a Kurdish-Arab militia alliance

has been advancing on the jihadists’

de facto Syrian capital Raqqa. AFP

ANALYSIS

How pollsters missed a Trump victory

• Reuters, New York/London

Two days ago, pollsters and statisticians

gave Hillary Clinton odds

of between 75 and 99% of winning

the US presidential election. How

did so many get it so wrong?

In hindsight, the polling consensus

went astray in two major

ways.

The media, including Reuters,

pumped out two kinds of poll stories.

Some were national surveys

designed to estimate the entire

country’s popular vote, but not

the outcome in individual states,

where the contest is actually decided.

These polls actually got

the big picture right: Clinton won

more overall votes than President-elect

Donald Trump - but not

by as much as the polling averages

predicted, and not where she

needed to.

News organisations also produced

a blizzard of stories meant

to calculate the probability of victory

for the two candidates. These

calculations were predicated on

polls of individual states. In hindsight,

though, the stories seem to

have overstated Clinton’s chances

for a win by failing to see that

a shift in voting patterns in some

states could show up in other, similar

states.

In part, this is because polling

analysts got the central metaphor

wrong.

US presidents are chosen not

by the national popular vote, but

in the individual Electoral College

contests in the 50 states and Washington

DC. In calculating probable

outcomes, election predictors generally

treated those 51 contests as

completely separate events - as

HOW THE POLLS MOSTLY GOT IT WRONG

US presidential vote polling before the November 8 vote

unrelated to one another as a series

of 51 coin tosses.

Common miscalculations

The problem, said Cliff Young,

president of Ipsos Public Affairs

US, the polling partner of Reuters,

came down to the models the pollsters

used to predict who would

vote - the so-called likely voters.

The models almost universally

miscalculated how turnout was

distributed among different demographic

groups, Young said. And

turnout was lower than expected,

a result that generally favours Republican

candidates.

In 2000, when Republican

George W Bush beat Democrat Al

Gore, for example, the turnout was

about 60%, according to the US

Percentage points favoring... Hillary Clinton Donald Trump

Monmouth University

NBC News/

Wall Street Journal

Real Clear Politics

(RCP, collated)

Investor’s Business Daily/

TIPP* Tracking

Economist/YouGov

LA Times/

USC* Tracking

Selected major polls/forecasts

Nov 1 - Nov 7

Reuters/Ipsos

Fox News

ABC/Washington

Post Tracking

CBS News

Final result (RCP)

Clinton 0.2%

ahead of Trump

in the overall vote

*University of Southern California **TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence

Source: RealClearPolitics/LA Times/USC Tracking

Supporters celebrate as returns come in for Donald Trump during an election night in Manhattan, New York

Bloomberg

Census Bureau. Eight years later,

turnout was 64% when Democratic

nominee Barack Obama won his

first presidential election against

Republican Arizona Senator John

McCain.

This year, “whites with lower

levels of education came out

in greater relative numbers than

younger, more-educated and minority

voters,” Young said. “A point

here or a point there can really

change an election.”

Ultimately, missing that shift

in the state polls tripped up the

predictions. It also highlights how

the otherwise empirical process of

polling rests on a subjective foundation.

Each pollster must make a decision

about turnout. Their decisions

are informed by historical

voting patterns. But the actual

turnout in each state is unknowable

before election day.

The popular vote

Beyond the calculations of the

candidates’ odds of winning the

Electoral College, there was a near

constant stream so-called “horse

race polls,” or tracker polls, that

focused on the distribution of the

national vote between the major

candidates.

Here, too, pollsters -- and the

media that co-sponsored or covered

the polls – stumbled, largely

because the popular vote metric

itself is of limited utility and cannot,

of itself, predict the outcome

of the Electoral College.

As of Wednesday morning, Clinton

led the popular vote by slightly

less than 1 percentage point. The

McClatchy-Marist poll released

on November 3, for example, had

REUTERS

Clinton up by one point - one of

the most accurate calls of the popular

vote. But even that headline

number missed the point a bit, because

she lost the election in the

Electoral College.

A few polls correctly pegged

Trump as the winner. The International

Business Times/TIPP poll

had Trump leading on November

7. That poll put him ahead in the

popular vote by two percentage

points, which in the end overstated

his share by about three points.

In one sense, most polls were

relatively accurate: The Real Clear

Politics average of polls, for example,

had Clinton leading by about

3.3 points, little more than two

points above the actual outcome.

A polling error of two or three percentage

points is not uncommon

in modern politics.

Popular vote polls, however,

also exaggerate the influence of

massive states, such as New York

and California, in the outcome of

the election and mask trends that

might be occurring outside those

left-leaning states.

The Electoral College system

reduces the influence of big states

by distributing a disproportionate

number of votes to smaller states.

North Dakota, for example, has

about a quarter of one percent of

the US population but double that

proportion of Electoral College

votes. Conversely, Californians

make up 12% of the population but

only 10% of the Electoral College

votes.

Young said both pollsters and

journalist described the results of

the national polls and predictions

with a false precision by presenting

the result as near absolutes. •

World

Farmer suicide, banks call in police

as India moves to ditch banknotes

• Reuters, New Delhi/Mumbai

A farmer in southern India committed

suicide fearing she would

be left penniless after the government’s

shock decision to withdraw

high denomination notes

from circulation, police said

Thursday.

Indian banks called in thousands

of police on Thursday to

manage huge queues outside

branches, as people tried to exchange

bank notes abruptly pulled

out of circulation by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi in a crackdown

on “black money”.

Modi announced the shock

move on Tuesday night to ditch

Rs500 and RS1,000 notes - worth

a combined $256bn - that he said

were fuelling corruption, being

forged and even paying for attacks

by Islamist militants against India.

Some people frustrated by the

long wait got into arguments at

Canara Bank near the parliament

building in New Delhi, as people

barged into queues that wound

through the branch and on to the

street outside.

Economists and some businesses,

especially those involved

in cashless payments, have welcomed

the “demonetisation”

scheme as a vital step towards

broadening the formal economy

and improving tax compliance.

But it has disrupted the daily

lives of hundreds of millions of Indians

who live in the cash economy

that is estimated to account for

a fifth of India’s $2tn gross domestic

product and who have low confidence

in banks or plastic cards.

Farmer commits suicide

A farmer in southern India committed

suicide fearing she would

be left penniless after the government’s

shock decision to withdraw

high denomination notes

from circulation, police said

Thursday.

Kandukuri Vinoda, 55, had a

large amount of cash at her home

in Rs1,000 and Rs500 rupee

notes and panicked that her savings

had become worthless when

she heard Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s surprise announcement

on Tuesday.

Vinoda from Mahabubabad district,

east of Hyderabad city, had

sold some land last month and was

paid around Rs5.5m for it in cash.

She used some of the money

to pay for her husband’s medical

bills and planned to use the rest to

buy a new plot of land, local media

reported.

Many Indians living in rural areas

keep large amounts of cash at

home because of a lack of banks in

remote areas and to avoid paying

taxes.

Cash crunch

Although a few people were able

to exchange their old money for

new notes, there were strict caps

on account withdrawals and most

came away with bundles of lower-denomination

bills.

People were allowed to make

a one-time exchange of 4,000 rupees

in cash and one-time account

withdrawals of Rs10,000, capped

at Rs20,000 per week.

Cash dispensers remained

closed and were due to reopen on

Friday. •

Jihadists fray soldiers’ nerves in Mosul battle

• Reuters, Baghdad

A week after his tank division

punched through Islamic State

defences on the southeast edge of

Mosul, an Iraqi army colonel says

the fight to drive the militants out

of their urban stronghold is turning

into a nightmare.

Against a well-drilled, mobile

and brutally effective enemy,

exploiting the cover of built-up

neighbourhoods and the city’s civilian

population, his tanks were

useless, he said, and his men untrained

for the urban warfare they

face.

His Ninth Armoured Division

and elite counter terrorism units

fighting nearby seized six of some

60 neighbourhoods last week, the

first gains inside Mosul since the

October 17 start of a campaign to

crush Islamic State in its Iraqi fortress.

Even that small foothold is

proving hard to maintain, however,

with waves of counter attacks

by jihadist units including snipers

and suicide bombers who use

a network of tunnels stretching

4km under the city.

An Indian man displays new 2000 rupee notes outside the Reserve Bank of

India in Mumbai on Thursday

AFP

A soldier of the Iraqi army walks on November 7, 2016, past ammunition and a tank confiscated from Islamic State group

jihadists, in the town of Qaraqosh, Mosul

AFP

Toughest urban war

Even for the Counter Terrorism

Service, or special forces, trained

more specifically for the challenges

in Mosul, the last week of fighting

has been unprecedented.

“We are carrying out the toughest

urban warfare that any force in

the world could undertake”, CTS

spokesman Sabah al-Numani said

on Sunday.

One CTS officer, in Baghdad

on leave, told Reuters the biggest

threat came from snipers.

“You don’t know where or when

a sniper will strike,” he said.

That, combined with thousands

of people trying to escape the

fighting, was a constant source

of stress.

As he spoke, a voice on his radio

crackled - one of his men on

the frontline. “Sir, there are so

many civilians, they have these

suitcases with them as well. How

do I know what’s in them? And

they’re coming towards me...”

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr

al-Baghdadi, who declared a

cross border caliphate in Syria

and Iraq from the pulpit of a Mosul

mosque two years ago, told

his fighters last week there could

be no retreat in a “total war” with

their enemies.

Crashing waves

Hashemi said government forces

were only in full control of two of

the districts they entered last week.

The army says it has captured

five other districts, but fighting

continues in all of them and

Hashemi said in some neighbourhoods

the army had been driven

back three or four times - often at

night - before reclaiming territory

the next day.

With its tanks unable to navigate

narrow city streets, the Iraqi

army has called on US Apache

helicopters to target car bombers.

The Pentagon said on Monday

they would continue to be used

“in what we expect will be tough

fighting to come”. •

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

USA

Trump lawyers head to

court for upcoming fraud

trial

Lawyers for president-elect Donald

Trump on Thursday will head to

court for a hearing pitting the future

leader of the US against a group

of students who say they were

defrauded by one of his businesses.

The 2010 lawsuit was filed on behalf

of students who say they were

lured by false promises to pay up to

$35,000 to learn Trump’s real estate

investing “secrets” from his “handpicked”

instructors. REUTERS

THE AMERICAS

Mexico won’t pay for

Trump wall

Mexico said on Wednesday it would

work with Donald Trump for the

benefit of both nations after his surprise

US.election win but reiterated

it would not pay for his planned

border wall. Trump’s threats to

dump the North American Free

Trade Agreement agreement with

Mexico and Canada, and to tax

money sent home by migrants to

pay for the controversial wall on the

southern border. REUTERS

Britain rethinks property

fund rules

British authorities are considering

changing the rules governing commercial

property funds to prevent a

repeat of the investor panic that followed

the country’s vote to leave the

EU. Big funds worth around $22bn

in total were forced to suspend their

activities after running out of ready

cash when investors who feared

property prices would collapse

demanded their money. AFP

EUROPE

Merkel’s conservatives

warn of Trump effect

German Finance Minister Wolfgang

Schaeuble and other conservatives

warned on Thursday that populists

would pose a problem for Europe

unless mainstream politicians

responded after Donald Trump’s

victory in the US presidential

election. Trump’s win has shaken

many European lawmakers ahead

of elections next year, including in

France and Germany. REUTERS

AFRICA

South Africa’s Zuma faces

new no-confidence vote

South Africa’s scandal-hit President

Jacob Zuma faces a no-confidence

vote in parliament on Thursday,

but looks certain to survive despite

mounting anger within his party.

Zuma has fought off a series of

damaging controversies during his

presidency, and last week came under

further pressure after a corruption

probe raised fresh allegations

of misconduct. AFP

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

World

INSIGHT

US more divided than ever

• Reuters, Ellsworth, Maine

The 2016 US election was unprecedented

in the way it turned Americans

against each other, according

to dozens of interviews in rural

United States and across some of

the most politically charged battleground

states.

It divided families like the Fosters

in rural Ellsworth, Maine, broke

up friendships and turned neighbour

against neighbour.

In a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey,

15% of respondents said they had

stopped talking to a family member

or close friend as a result of the

election. For Democrats, this shoots

up to 23%, compared to 10% for Republicans.

And 12% had ended a relationship

because of it.

There was no comparative polling

data from previous elections.

But interviews with relationship

counsellors and voters suggest this

election stood out by summoning

passions, anger and a divisiveness

in ways that will make healing difficult

after Clinton’s loss to Trump

on Tuesday.

Sarah Guth, a Democrat in Colorado,

says her father - an ardent

supporter of Trump - no longer

speaks with her after they clashed

on Facebook over their political

views.

“He crossed a line,” she said.

After attending a Trump rally,

Guth wrote on Facebook that she

saw 10 minorities among thousands

of people. “I’m increasingly

convinced that this election is

about race,” she wrote. “I mean a

fear among the white majority that

their rule is coming to an end.”

Some posters told her “to go to

hell,” she recalled in an interview.

“And then my dad very publicly attacked

me, telling me that I should

be ashamed of myself.” The two

have not spoken since.

Ty Turner-Bond, a 35-year-old

black man in North Carolina, says he

lost friends because of his support

for Trump. Some called him an “Uncle

Tom,” a slur for African Americans

accused of deferring to white

people; others threatened violence.

‘People are tense’

In Springfield, a city on Ohio’s

Mad River, Duke Level, 57, voted

for Trump because he wanted “a

wrecking ball” to hit Washington.

The owner of Un Mundo Cafe isn’t

surprised this election created divisions,

and he fears they could get

worse.

“This is one of those crossroads

crisis moments in history,” he said.

Hours earlier, Trump rallied

about 5,000 supporters a few miles

away in a dirt-floored livestock arena.

He blasted Clinton as “the most

corrupt person ever to seek the

office of the presidency,” drawing

chants of “lock her up,” as well as a

few of “string her up.”

Down the street, Richard Scott,

51, an African-American supporting

Clinton, shook his head when told

of those chants. Those words, he

said, recalled 20th Century lynchings

of black Americans - including

in Springfield where a black prisoner

was shot and hung from a pole on

Main Street in 1904.

Weeks ago, he planted a Clinton

up Trump signs. Outside the funeral

home he owns, a pro-Clinton sign

was defaced with a “Hillary for Prison”

sticker. “People are tense,” said

Scott.

The election hardened an already-clear

racial divide in the

former industrial city of 60,000

people - a snapshot of America at

about 75% white and 18% black. Interviews

with residents suggested

its northern areas, mostly affluent

and white, would vote for Trump,

while its mostly black, lower-income

southern section would largely

support Clinton.

For some, the tensions reach the

bedroom. Sam Nail, a Cincinnati

marriage counsellor, said he has

two couples who cited the election

season as a “stressor” in their relationship.

Much of the anger gets uncorked

on social media and will be hard to

undo. Some is well publicized. National

Review writer David French

has written about “an unending

torrent of abuse” he and his family

faced online from white nationalist

Trump supporters, including

a Tweeted image of his 7-year-old

daughter’s face in a gas chamber.

Others are less well known, like

Brenda Thomas’ tangles with her

older brother on Facebook. She

says her brother unleashed a daily

stream of Facebook posts on Clinton

and President Barack Obama

that she found objectionable. She

said when her husband, a Republican,

tried to reason with him, he

was “unfriended” on Facebook.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, Karen

Wilson, describes this election

as “stressful” on Facebook. “I’ve got

family members who are mad at me

for deleting entire Facebook threads

when I thought they were becoming

too negative. I’ve deleted Facebook

friends who I realized I never should

have been friends with in the first

place,” said Wilson, 43.

Fourteen percent of respondents

in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said

they had blocked a family member

or close friend from social media

because of the election. For Democrats,

this rises to 23 percent compared

to 8 percent for Republicans.

WHO VOTED FOR WHO?

Based on exit polls November 8

Total national vote

By demographic

Hillary

Donald

Clinton Trump

Men

Income level

As of Nov 10,

1300 GMT

Below $30,000

$30,000 -50,000

$50,000 -100,000

$100,000 -200,000

$200,000 -250,000

47.7% 47.5%

More than

$250,000

Source : NYT/Edison Research for the National Election Pool/RealClearPolitics

Free speech attack

The divisions tore into the fabric of

some communities. In Provo, Utah,

Trump supporter Loy Brunson

awoke on an October morning to

find his car spray-painted with the

words “AmeriKKKa” - a reference

to “KKK” white supremacists - and

“Fuck Trump.” His two Trump yard

signs were destroyed.

“So I doubled down, got motivated

and put up 85 signs in my

yard,” he said. Within days, all but

six of those were stolen.

“This was more than vandalism,”

he said in an interview. “This

was a free speech attack.”

Some blame the divisiveness on

campaign rhetoric that inflamed

racial, ethnic and class tensions

that have long simmered in America.

Angry and extremist language

moved into the mainstream.

George Lakoff, a linguistics professor

at University of California,

Berkeley, blames Trump’s use of

language, which he ranks as among

the most violent of any candidate in

modern times. He specifically notes

Trump’s suggestion in August that

gun rights activists could take matters

into their own hands if Clinton

defeated him, as well as the New

York businessman’s comments that

she should go to prison.

“When you have extremes of

that order, you have extremes of anger,

extremes of fear,” Lakoff said.

In Mississippi, Chad Scott, an

activist in the Clay County Republican

Party, fears a post-election split

between the party’s working-class

Trump supporters and business-minded

elites - a sentiment

echoed in Maine, where Foster, the

42 51

53% Clinton

50 Trump

0 10 % 20 30 40

80 90 100

Women

White people

Black people

Hispanic/Latino

Under-30s

Over-45s

City population +50k

Small town/rural

COULD TRUMP’S VICTORY HERALD POPULIST WAVE?

After electoral upsets in U.S. and Britain, frustration with the political

status quo – over issues from immigration to inequality – is likely

to influence polls across Europe in the coming months

Britain: Nigel Farage, acting

leader of UK Independence

Party and one of architects of

Brexit vote, has hailed Trump’s

victory as “supersized Brexit”

Austria – Dec 4

Victory of Norbert

Hofer of Freedom

Party over Green

Party candidate

Alexander Van

der Bellen in

presidential elections could bring

to power first far-right leader of

western Europe since World War II

Italy – Dec 4

Failure by Prime

Minister Matteo

Renzi to win

crucial referendum

on constitutional

reform, could push

anti-establishment Five Star

Movement of Beppe Grillo

closer to reins of power

France – May 7, 2017 5

Germany – autumn 2017

Marine Le Pen,

leader of far-right

National Front, far

outpolls President

François Hollande

ahead of springtime

Frauke Petry,

whose Alternative

for Germany (AfD)

has hurt Chancellor

Angela Merkel’s

conservatives in

elections. Fewer people now

rule out her chances of victory

after Trump upset

series of regional elections this year,

is climbing in opinion polls ahead of

national elections next year

Pictures: Getty Images

Ellsworth resident at odds with his

sisters, witnessed the election’s political

vitriol first hand.

Foster’s van was one of 20 vehicles

spray-painted outside a Trump

rally on October 15 in the city of

Netherlands – Mar 15, 2017

Geert Wilders,

leader of anti-Islam

Freedom Party who

wants to emulate

Britain with “Nexit”

vote, running neckand-neck

with Prime Minister Mark

Rutte’s Liberals (VVD) in polls

ahead of parliamentary elections

Bangor. And across Ellsworth, pro-

Trump yard signs were stolen almost

as fast as they were planted,

Republican officials say.

Foster worries about the divisions

ahead. •

World

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

Al-aqsa mosque

ANALYSIS

Trump’s win means end

of Palestinian state era

• AFP, Jerusalem

Donald Trump’s shock election as president

will likely result in a US tilt towards Israel that

puts a Palestinian state even further out of

reach, his own campaign team and analysts say.

Hardline lawmakers, including some from

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud

party, said Trump’s win represented a “historic

opportunity” to abandon ideas of Palestinian

statehood and move towards annexing

the West Bank.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who

heads the religious nationalist Jewish Home

party and is seen as having ambitions to be

prime minister, said “the era of a Palestinian

state is over.”

While so much about Trump’s thinking on

the Middle East remains unknown, he and his

advisers have spoken of overturning decades

of precedent by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s

capital and relocating the US embassy

from Tel Aviv.

Trump said in March that “there’s nobody

more pro-Israel than I am,” adding that he

would oppose any attempt to force Israel into

an agreement it opposes.

The president-elect’s adviser on Israel, David

Friedman, said last month that he does

not believe Trump sees Jewish settlements in

the occupied West Bank as illegal, as nearly

all the rest of the international community

does.

Asked whether he believed in the twostate

solution, the basis of more than two

decades of peace negotiations, Friedman said

Trump was “tremendously sceptical”.

The Israeli right has welcomed such statements

and seized on Trump’s victory to promote

its cause – including, for some, a call to

bury the two-state solution once and for all.

Netanyahu, whose government is considered

the most right-wing in Israeli history, has

so far been more cautious.

Analysts say that may be because he is

wary of Trump’s notorious unpredictability.

As an example, they cite a statement by

Trump earlier in the campaign in which, to

the alarm of Israelis, he described himself as

neutral in the Middle East conflict.

While Netanyahu and Hillary Clinton

may have ideological differences, he at least

knows where she stands and what to expect,

they say.

REUTERS

Netanyahu congratulated Trump and

pledged to work with him, and the two men

spoke by telephone on Wednesday.

“The two leaders, who have known each

other for many years, had a warm and heartfelt

conversation,” a statement from Netanyahu’s

office said.

‘Loose cannon’

While Trump’s unpredictability is a concern

for Israelis, Netanyahu may be relieved to

have a Republican in the White House after

facing mounting criticism from President Barack

Obama over Israeli settlement building

in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel is concerned Obama may seek a UN

Security Council resolution on the issue before

he leaves office on January 20.

“There are many signs that the Trump administration

could be very accommodating

when it comes to getting along with the current

Israeli government,” said Shmuel Rosner,

a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute.

“This will be the time for right-wing Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to

have a counterpart in Washington that is not

instinctively against him and against his policies.”

The Palestinians, too, have publicly taken

a cautious approach despite reasons for concern.

President Mahmud Abbas congratulated

Trump and said he hoped peace could be

achieved during his term based on the borders

of 1967, the year Israel occupied the West

Bank.

However, a high-ranking Palestinian official

said that “we are worried because we

have here someone who has been completely

unpredictable, a loose cannon, and also because

this is not an issue just for the Palestinians

but for the rest of the world.”

He said the one consolation was that “his

statements are so unfeasible, unreasonable,

illogical, so in violation of international laws

and the international consensus, that they

cannot be implemented.”

“When faced with the realities of the office,

things change,” the official said, speaking

on condition of anonymity.

For Israel, there is no more important ally

than the United States, which grants it more

than $3bn a year in military aid.•

Business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2016

e_Paper (11 November 2016)

products

Features

Resources

Developer

Company

Pro Features

Help & Support

Integrations

Plans & Pricing

Company

e_Paper (11 November 2016)

Delete template?

Save as template?

products

Features

Resources

Developer

Company

Pro Features

Help & Support

Integrations

Plans & Pricing

Company