15 May final World supplement

DT
VOL1, ISSUE 17 | Monday, May 15, 2017
World Tribune
Meet the man who
saved France
Macron’s victory
explodes France’s
2 political landscape
3
Trump, Comey and
Russia: What is going
on in the White House?
India turns on Rohingya
refugees seeking their
7 deportation as Kashmir boils

2
Monday, May 15, 2017
DT
Analysis
Anti-establishment centrist Macron’s victory
explodes France’s political landscape
• Tribune Desk
In the aftermath of a historic presidential
election, France’s politics
are in upheaval. A generation of political
leaders has been swept aside.
New ones are emerging. Parties are
collapsing or struggling to remake
themselves as politicians scramble
to form alliances to maintain their
power.
The most obvious and pressing
challenge confronts the victor, Emmanuel
Macron, who will officially
become president on Sunday. With
national legislative elections less
than five weeks away, he must find
a way to forge a working majority
in the National Assembly, France’s
lower house of Parliament.
For Macron, the legislative elections
are in many ways the third
round of the presidential race, they
are even called that by some in the
French news media, because they
will determine his real strength
to push through his controversial
agenda to make the French economy
less rigid.
Macron has no party in the current
Parliament. So his top aides
have urgently set about selecting
candidates to run in almost every
parliamentary district in the country.
The meltdown of the party system
has suddenly thrust France,
one of the EU’s core countries, and
long one of its most static and resistant
to change, into the same
political caldron as countries like
Britain, Italy, Greece and Spain. All
have seen their politics destabilised
in recent years with the implosion
of traditional parties and the emergence
of populist newcomers.
“There is commonality between
the French situation and the general
historic moment,” said Pierre
Rosanvallon, a historian of politics
at College de France, one of the nation’s
most prestigious universities.
“France had rather organised
parties, and they are melting down
very rapidly; it’s the same thing as
in Italy,” said Rosanvallon, pointing
to the decline of Italy’s Christian
Democrats and Communists as the
populist Five Star movement has
ascended.
The task for Macron’s movement,
now being renamed La Republique
en Marche!, is to quickly define itself
for voters before the first round of
legislative elections on June 11. Runoffs
will be a week later.
If Macron does not win a majority,
he will be forced to work with
shifting majorities from bill to bill,
or to form coalitions with other
parties, and coalitions “are not really
in the French tradition,” said
Fabienne Keller, a senator from the
mainstream party on the right, the
Republicans.
FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON
Power of youth
Aged 39. France’s youngest
president, beating the record
held by Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte, and one of the
world’s youngest leaders
He has never before held
elected office
Louis
Napoleon
Bonaparte
(1848-1852)
French elite
An outstanding student
of politics, economics,
philosophy and public
administration at France’s
top schools
“But to elect a president of the
Republic who is neither from the
Socialists nor from the large movement
of the right and centre is also
unusual,” she added.
The need to build from the
ground up is not Macron’s problem
alone, however.
Identify crisis
Both establishment parties, the Republicans
and, on the left, the Socialists,
are facing a painful identify
crisis after an unprecedented election
that shunted them aside. The
populist or more hard-line parties
that have risen at either end of the
political spectrum are also experiencing
growing pains.
Issues like globalisation, which
dominated much of the presidential
campaign, have cut across old
political dividing lines and are helping
to scramble alliances.
Macron’s victory last Sunday is
threatening both mainstream parties
as some of their politicians look
to defect to the winning team. Yet
he has characterised his movement
as neither of the left nor of the right,
thereby giving himself room to pivot
in almost any direction.
The trap he is trying to avoid is
having too many faces from existing
parties and having En Marche
look simply like a fig leaf for the
same old players from a discredited
political establishment.
That has left Macron with a difficult
needle to thread, trying at
once to attract new faces as well as
enough old hands for his legislative
Claims the middle ground
“Neither right nor left”
A centrist who vows to
overhaul the economy.
A committed European
Emmanuel
Macron
group to work effectively.
Similarly, he’s aiming for a balance
of members from right and
left, to avoid being seen as too close
to either the Socialists or the Republicans.
Future plan
So far, Macon’s movement has announced
it has candidates in 428
of the 577 legislative districts, and
it hopes to have more by the filing
deadline on Friday. His team said
52% of the initial list had never held
elected office, and exactly half were
women.
The team’s presentation was not
exactly smooth, the list first distributed
to journalists had several mistakes,
and almost immediately Macron’s
leading centrist ally, Francois
Bayrou, said he was unhappy with
the number of places accorded to
members of his party.
Still, some have lined up to join
Macron. They include Manuel Valls,
the former prime minister, who declared
his Socialist party “dead”
after its disastrous showing in the
presidential race. About 20 incumbents
from the Socialist party or its
allies have already been nominated
by Macron’s party to bear its colours.
En Marche initially rebuffed
Valls, but then reached a compromise
saying it would not run anyone
against him, implicitly suggesting it
could work with him in a coalition.
Macron’s party also has the Republican
party in its sights. In the
presidential election, its candidate,
Takes office on May 14
Ex-investment banker
Joined Rothschild in 2008
8th president
of the 5th Republic
(established 1958)
Elected on May 7, 2017
for a 5-year term
Won 66.1% of the vote, beating
the far-right’s Marine le Pen
Meteoric rise in politics
2012: Senior advisor to French
President Francois Hollande
Aug 2014: Economy minister
Aug 2016: Resigns from government
to form his own political movement
Francois Fillon, failed to make it to
the second round after being tarnished
by embezzlement charges.
But the party itself has survived,
and until Fillon encountered the
scandal, it was seen as the logical
successor to the unpopular Socialist
government led by President
Francois Hollande.
The Republicans have worked
overtime to ensure that none of
their legislative candidates defect
to Macron and have trumpeted that
none were on En Marche’s recently
released candidate list. Also, in
several of the districts where En
Marche has yet to announce candidates,
moderate Republicans are
running, suggesting Macron’s party
is leaving the door open to them.
If discipline holds, the Republican
party stands a chance of becoming
the largest group in Parliament.
If it musters a majority, it
would even have the leverage to insist
that one of its members become
prime minister, with the potential
to wrest control of domestic policy
from Macron.
But France’s political shake-up
is wider even than the mainstream
establishment.
An influential wife
His wife Brigitte is 24 years his
senior. She was “totally captivated”
when she met Macron, then one
of her French students. She was 39.
He was 15.
She thought he would
become a writer
On the Move!
Macron’s political
movement, founded
in 2016, quickly
gained momentum.
Renamed “Republic
on the Move”, it now
has 260,000 members
‘Far right’ challenge
On the far right, the party of Macron’s
vanquished opponent, the
National Front of Marine Le Pen,
is weighing a name change and yet
another revamping, with numerous
calls within the party to do away
with its anti-euro platform.
By increasing its presence in Parliament
and forging new alliances,
the National Front hopes to set itself
up as the nation’s main opposition
to Macron during his five-year
term. Most political analysts expect
that Le Pen could gain at least 30
seats in the National Assembly after
the June election.
The same may hold for the dominant
new force on the far left, the
France Unbowed movement, led
by Jean-Luc Melenchon. Melenchon
announced that he would run
for a National Assembly seat from
the southern port city of Marseille,
where he won more votes than any
other candidate in the first round of
the presidential election.
That would be a significant increase
for both populist candidates,
and enough to make themselves
a persistent nuisance to Macron.
Now, Le Pen’s National Front has
just two seats, and France Unbowed,
formed just last year, has no
presence at all.
Olivier Faure, who heads the
Socialists’ group in the National
Assembly, called Macron’s list of
candidates “a blank page” with
no “common culture” besides the
expectation that they will support
Macron’s agenda.
For now, every day brings new
political configurations, and it is
likely to be months before a new
political topography emerges in
France. •
[This is an excerpt of a The New York
Times article, which can be found at
http://nyti.ms/2r4cTP0]

Insight
3
Monday, May 15, 2017
DT
Trump, Comey and Russia: What is going on
in the White House?
• Tribune Desk
Last week, US President Donald
Trump has met the Russian ambassador
and sacked the FBI Director
in a move his critics have dubbed
his “Watergate moment”. Meanwhile
his spokesman, Sean Spicer,
was forced to hide in the bushes
and fend off a media ravenous for
answers in what is rapidly becoming
one of the most complex and
intriguing political stories in years.
Trump’s firing of FBI Director
James Comey raised troubling
questions about the real motives
for Comey’s ouster. One seemed to
come close to being a threat against
the dismissed FBI chief.
Some of the words and deeds
may simply constitute ugly public
optics. Others blow away long-established
norms of presidential
behaviour, and experts say they
approach limits of legally permissible
conduct. Establishing an actual
criminal violation may be a long
shot, though a lower threshold exists
for impeachment proceedings
for what the Constitution describes
as high crimes and misdemeanors.
Here’s what you need to know
about the latest drama unfolding in
Washington.
Who is Comey and why is he
sacked?
FBI Director James Comey was
abruptly fired on Tuesday after the
Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, and
his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, decided
his role was no longer tenable.
The President said he would take
their “clear recommendations” to
remove him and search for a new
leader for the job that is politically
appointed for a 10-year term.
“The FBI is one of our Nation’s
most cherished and respected institutions
and today will mark a new
beginning for our crown jewel of
law enforcement,” Trump said.
Is that really the reason?
Republicans and the White House
claim the sacking came after
Washington had lost confidence in
Comey over his bungled handling
of Hillary Clinton’s emails during
the election.
Critics smell a rat and say it’s a
politically motivated decision to
Comey, after he admitted in March
the FBI was conducting an investigation
into the Trump team’s links
to Russia.
Was it acceptable to fire Comey?
Though it happened only once before,
when President Bill Clinton
sacked William Sessions in 1993,
there’s no question that the president
is empowered to fire an FBI director
before the conclusion of his
PROBING THE RUSSIA CONNECTION
Key figures in investigations on the links between Russia and the administration of US President Donald Trump
Paul Manafort
Trump campaign chair
Worked for the Moscowbacked
Ukraine leader before
helping Trump gain the
Republican Party nomination
Resigned after his ties with
Russia came under scrutiny
SACKED
Sally Yates
Acting Attorney General
Told the White House,
18 days before Flynn’s
dismissal, that he was
vulnerable to Russian
blackmail
She was dismissed four
days later, for defying
Trump’s travel ban order
or her 10-year term.
The initial White House rationale
was that Trump acted on the
recommendation of the Justice Department’s
top two officials. Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein
produced a memo that cited as justification
Comey’s handling of the
Hillary Clinton email investigation
and his insistence that he would
have done things the same way if
he had another opportunity.
The explanation rapidly shifted
when Trump told NBC News he had
long wanted to fire Comey, calling
him a “showboat.” The president
and White House officials have also
professed frustration with an investigation
into possible collusion
between Russia and Trump’s presidential
campaign, which Comey as
FBI director was leading.
What happened with the emails
again?
The email debacle dates back to
the campaign when Comey was
in charge of an investigation over
Hillary Clinton’s use of a private
server at home for State Department
emails. In July last year, he
Carter Page
Trump campaign advisor
Disavowed by the campaign
as his frequent trips to
Moscow drew attention
Link with Russia
investigated by the FBI,
according to the
Washington Post
Flynn’s incomplete account
of his calls with Kislyak
cost him his job
Jeff Sessions first said he
never met Kislyak during
the campaign, later
admitted to doing so
said she was “extremely careless”
in handling classified material, but
“no reasonable prosecutor” would
bring a case against her.
However the issue would not go
away and in October, 11 days before
the vote, Comey shocked Congress
by stating the FBI had found
new emails on the laptop of Hillary
Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin’s
husband — disgraced Congressman
Anthony Wiener.
A week later, Comey said the
new emails had “not changed our
conclusions” and Clinton should
not be charged. Trump accused
the system of being “rigged” while
crowds at his rallies shouted “lock
her up”.
Russian meddling as Trump
became president
Meanwhile, Trump was elected and
US intelligence agencies continued
working on Russian interference in
the election. Once Trump was in the
White House, Comey briefed him
along with three other intelligence
bosses, who said they believed Russia
interfered in the campaign.
In February, National Security
Donald Trump
President of the United States
Was told by intelligence
chiefs and by James Comey
that Russia had acted in
favor of his election victory
Called the Russia-campaign
probe “fake news” and
“a witch hunt”
Sergey Kislyak
Jeff Sessions
Russian ambassador to the US US Attorney General
Accused of lying under oath
over meetings with Kislyak,
later recused himself from
investigations relating to
Russia and the Trump
campaign
Recommended to Trump the
dismissal of James Comey
Adviser Michael Flynn resigned
after lying about his connections
to Russia in a move that added to
general speculation about links between
the Trump administration
and Russia.
In March, Comey testified to Congress
and confirmed an FBI investigation
was underway. He also shut
down Trump’s claim he was “wiretapped”
by President Obama, saying
there was “no evidence” of that.
The last straw
In May, Comey testified again, saying
he handled the two investigations
into the Trump and Clinton
camps equally and had to “do the
right thing” without thinking about
political consequences.
He later corrected a statement
about “hundreds of thousands of
emails” being sent from Abedin’s
account, saying it was actually
only a small number and others
were automatically backed up. Later
that day, he found out he was
sacked via live TV reports. Press
Secretary Sean Spicer dodged reporters
and appeared not to know
what is going on.
Michael Flynn
National Security Advisor
RESIGNED
RESIGNED
ELECTED
SERVING RESIGNED
RECUSED
SACKED
Was picked for the role in
November, resigned after it
emerged that he lied about
phone calls he had with
Russian ambassador
Sergey Kislyak
James Comey
Director of the FBI
Confirmed in March that
the FBI was investigating
possible Russian collusion
with Trump’s campaign
Fired for allegedly
mishandling the Hillary
Clinton email server issue
What does it all mean?
For now, that depends on your political
point of view. Trump supporters
claim Comey was a bungler
who needed to go to restore faith in
the system. Critics say it was an audacious
move by Trump to take out
the man investigating him.
What remains unclear is whether
Rod Rosenstein was asked by
Trump to do an assessment on
Comey’s position or whether he did
it independently.
We also don’t know what will become
of the FBI investigation into
Russian collusion with Trump team
officials and whose remit it will fall
under. Attorney General Jeff Sessions
previously recused himself
from any involvement in the investigation
after having been found to
have lied under oath about his own
links with Russia.
Finally, why sack Comey now
when Trump has been in office for
four months? Was it in relation to his
corrected testimony? Rosenstein’s
report? Or something deeper at play?
Only time will tell. •
Sources: AP, news.com.au

4
Monday, May 15, 2017
DT
Week in Review
Russia marks 72nd anniversary of vic
MAY 8
Macron wins French presidency
Emmanuel Macron was elected French president on
Sunday with a business-friendly vision of European
integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right
nationalist who threatened to take France out of the
European Union.
The centrist’s emphatic victory, which also smashed
the dominance of France’s mainstream parties, will
bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another
populist upheaval to follow Britain’s vote to quit
the EU and Donald Trump’s election as US president.
With virtually all votes counted, Macron had topped
66% against just under 34% for Le Pen, a gap wider
than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election
surveys had suggested.
Even so, it was a record performance for the
National Front, a party whose anti-immigrant policies
once made it a pariah, and underlined the scale of the
divisions that Macron must now try to heal.
AFP
MAY 9
Moon wins South Korea election by landslide
AFP
Left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-In
began his five-year term as president of South Korea
Wednesday, following a landslide election win after a
corruption scandal felled the country’s last leader.
Tuesday’s ballot was called after Park Geun-Hye was
ousted and indicted for corruption, and took place
against a backdrop of high tensions with the nuclear-armed
North.
Voters were galvanised by anger over the sprawling
bribery and abuse-of-power controversy that
brought down Park, which catalysed frustrations over
jobs and slowing growth.
Moon, of the Democratic Party, who backs engagement
with the North, promised unity after final results
from the National Election Commission (NEC) showed
he took 41.1% of the vote, some 13.4 million ballots.
Voter turnout was at its highest in 20 years, the
Yonhap news agency reported.
The result was “a great victory of great people”
who wanted to create “a country of justice... where
rules and common sense prevail”, Moon told cheering
supporters on Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul.
AFP
MAY 10
Supporters rally for Jakarta’s jailed Christian governor
Supporters of Jakarta’s Christian governor staged a colourful
rally outside city hall Wednesday a day after he
was jailed for blasphemy, in a case that has damaged
Indonesia’s image as a bastion of tolerant Islam.
A crowd wearing red and white, the colours of the
Indonesian flag, gathered outside the colonial-era
building calling for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s release,
and singing the country’s national anthem.
“Let’s fight for justice,” said acting governor Djarot
Saiful Hidayat, who was Purnama’s deputy and has
taken over his powers, to cheers from the crowd.
Purnama was jailed Tuesday for two years after being
found guilty of blasphemy against Islam, a shock decision
after prosecutors recommended only probation.
The jail sentence and his loss in last month’s
Jakarta’s election to a Muslim rival amid the blasphemy
controversy have stoked concerns that a much-vaunted
brand of tolerant Islam in Indonesia is under threat.
AFP
MAY 11
Wall collapse kills 24 at Indian wedding
A wall crashed down on an Indian wedding
party during a storm killing at least
24 people including four children and
injuring many more, police said Thursday.
The concrete wall fell on guests
who had taken shelter from violent
rain in a tin shack on Wednesday night,
police superintendent Anil Tank said.
He said 26 people were injured, 15
of them seriously. TV footage showed
anxious relatives standing next to
hospital beds.
The wall was about 13 feet high and
90 feet long.
Police launched an investigation,
detaining a wedding hall manager for
causing death by negligence.
Tank also announced compensation
of RS50,000 for the family of
each person killed.

Week in Review 5
DT
Monday, May 15, 2017
tory in WWII
Russia marks the end of World War II in Europe and its victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 on
May 9. This year’s 72nd Victory Day parade included some 10,000 members of the armed
forces showcasing more than 100 advanced military hardware, including tanks, anti-ballistic
missiles, and other displays of Russian defence systems and weaponry, as TU-160 and TU-
95MS bomber aircraft fly over Red Square in the capital Moscow.
The Soviet Union is estimated to have lost 26 million people in the war, including the 8 million
soldiers. The nation’s immense suffering contributes to Victory Day’s status as Russia’s most
important secular holiday.
Picture shows Russian servicemen parade with tanks on the Red Square in Moscow.
reuters
MAY 12
Nepal signs up to China’s new
Silk Road plan
Nepal on Friday signed up to China’s
new Silk Road drive, a massive
infrastructure project spanning some
65 countries at the centre of the
Asian giant’s push to expand its global
influence.
The long discussed deal between
impoverished Nepal and its much
bigger neighbour comes just days
before China hosts a summit for 28
leaders near Beijing, showcasing the
ambitious plan.
The One Belt, One Road Initiative
(OBOR) spearheaded by President Xi
Jinping would see 60% of the global
population and around a third of
global GDP linked through a network
of Chinese-bankrolled ports, railways,
roads and industrial parks.
The deal will see China plough money
into Nepal for a series of projects including
boosting its road network, power
grid and a new railway connecting the
capital Kathmandu with Lhasa in Tibet.
“We believe China will bring more
investment to Nepal, helping the
country overcome its status as a landlocked
and least developed nation,”
said Nepal Foreign Minister Prakash
Saran Mahat at the signing of the deal
on Friday.
Analysts have expressed concern over
the Asian giant’s attempt to take a
lead in global commerce, cautioning
that an integrated world trade system
where China’s Communist party sets
the rules could come with serious risks
and hidden costs.
New York-based Fitch Ratings said
that political motivations might
trump “genuine infrastructure needs
and commercial logic”, leading to “a
heightened risk of projects proving
unprofitable”.
AFP
AFP
MAY 13
Pope Francis makes Fatima child
shepherds saints
Two young shepherds who had visions
of the Virgin Mary 100 years ago in
Fatima, a Portuguese site now a global
draw for pilgrims, were declared saints
Saturday by Pope Francis.
Catholic faithful from all over
the world cheered, filling a giant,
400,000-capacity, esplanade that
faces the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima,
some of them crying, with many
more watching the canonisation from
adjacent streets on giant screens.
“We declare the blissful Francisco
Marto and Jacinta Marto saints,” the
Argentine pontiff said in front of the
white basilica where the siblings are
buried, two giant portraits of the little
shepherds hanging in the background.
“We register them on the list of
saints, declaring that they must be
venerated as such by the Church.”
The canonisation took place on
the 100th anniversary of the day
when Jacinta, then aged seven, her
brother Francisco, nine, and their
cousin Lucia, 10, first reportedly saw
the Virgin Mary on the spot where
the sanctuary was built.
She is said to have appeared six
times between May and October 1917 to
the three impoverished, barely-literate
shepherds, and apparently shared three
prophesies with the trio at a period
marked by the ravages of World War I.
MAY 14
North Korea successfully launches new ballistic missile
North Korea on Sunday launched another ballistic missile, the
first since April 29, according to the South Korean military.
North Korea fired the missile at 5.27 am local time from
an area in the vicinity of Kusong, North Pyongan Province,
according to a statement from the South Korean Joint Chiefs
of Staff.
The South Korean authorities added that the missile
traveled about 700km before falling into the waters of the
Sea of Japan, indicating that it was a successful test, and they
believe that it is a ballistic missile, although they continue
analyzing the details of the launch to determine its type.
The trial was also detected by the United States Pacific
Command in Hawaii and the Japanese Ministry of Defense,
which pointed out that the missile traversed the trajectory
for about 30 minutes before falling about 400 kilometers
from the east coast of North Korea, into the waters of the
Japanese exclusive economic Zone.
AFP
Japan’s Defence Minister Tomomi Inada said, in statements
to local media, it reached an altitude of 2,000km and could be a
new type of medium-range missile in the development phase.

6
Monday, May 15, 2017
DT
Facts
CHINA TO REBUILD ANCIENT SILK ROAD
President Xi Jinping’s $1tn plan – known as One Belt, One Road –
will see two trade routes to Europe. The plan will bind China’s economy
to 60 countries, home to 4.4 billion people, half the world’s population
Government funds invested in Belt and Road project
$890bn. China
Development
Bank
Rotterdam
NETHERLANDS
Venice
ITALY
$50bn
China-based
AIIB
Athens
GREECE
Moscow
1
Istanbul
TURKEY
Nairobi
KENYA
Tehran
IRAN
$40bn.
Silk Road
Fund
Dushanbe
TAJIKISTAN
3
4
Gwadar
PAKISTAN
Colombo
SRI LANKA
$10bn. New
Development
Bank
RUSSIA
Samarkand
UZBEKISTAN
Bishkek
KYRGYZSTAN
Almaty / KAZAKHSTAN
2
Kolkata
INDIA
Urumqi
Beijing
CHINA Xian
Fuzhou
Guangzhou
Hanoi
VIETNAM
Q&A
Why is religious
intolerance on the
rise in Indonesia?
A guilty verdict and two-year jail sentence for Jakarta’s
Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama
on blasphemy charges have fuelled concerns about
the erosion of religious freedoms in Indonesia.
Faith-based tension has been mounting in recent
years in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority
country, undermining its pluralist reputation.
Here are three points that explain the issue:
Clubbed, hacked and stoned
Indonesia has often been praised for its moderate,
inclusive brand of Islam, and the constitution
guarantees freedom of worship for six religions.
However the archipelago’s sizeable religious
minorities, mainly Christians and Muslim Shias and
Ahmadis, have been increasingly targeted as more
conservative forms of Islam grow in popularity.
Some Christian churches and mosques where
Muslim minorities pray have been closed due to
pressure from hardliners. Shias and Ahmadis,
regarded as heretics by some Sunnis, have been
forced from their homes in mob attacks and on
occasion even killed.
In one of the most high-profile cases, a group
clubbed, hacked and stoned three defenceless
Ahmadis to death in front of police in 2011 in western
Java, sparking international outrage.
Radicals on the rise
During the three-decade rule of dictator Suharto,
authorities sought to run the country along secular
lines, largely keeping religion out of public life
and limiting the influence of hardline groups.
Following Suharto’s downfall in 1998 and Indonesia’s
transition to democracy, more conservative
forms of Islam, often influenced by harsher brands
of Middle Eastern Islam, have had space to flourish.
The new freedoms have allowed the growth
of hardline groups, such as the Islamic Defenders
Front (FPI), and successive governments have
been criticised for failing to tackle the radicals for
fear of being accused of attacking Islam.
“Post-Suharto, there has been quite a significant
‘Islamisation’ of society,” said Bonar Tigor
Naipospos, deputy head of Indonesian rights
group Setara Institute.
“As long at it is to enhance people’s and society’s
obedience to God, that’s okay, but we are
now seeing a different phenomenon – the rise of
radicalism.”
Silk Road Economic Belt
Maritime Silk Road
Belt and Road projects
1 Moscow-Kazan high-speed
railway: $375m, 770km line is first
stretch of 7,000km high-speed rail
link to Beijing
2 Khorgos Gateway: Cargo hub
on China-Kazakh border will handle
one million containers per year
Sources: Xinhua, Forbes, Financial Times, Spiegel
Kuala Lumpur
MALAYSIA
Picture: Associated Press
Jakarta
INDONESIA
3 Tehran rail line: First freight train
from China arrived in Tehran in
February 2016
4 China-Pakistan highway: Under
construction at cost of $46bn.
“Economic corridor” between China
and Pakistan will link China to port
of Gwadar on Arabian Sea
© GRAPHIC NEWS
Indonesia’s image to suffer
Hardline groups such as the FPI, once considered
fringe organisations, played a key role in organising
protests against Purnama, and analysts say
they will feel emboldened after his jailing and last
month’s election loss.
The accusations that Purnama insulted Islam
centred on comments he made during a speech in
September last year ahead of the vote for the next
Jakarta governor.
He light-heartedly accused his opponents of
using a Koranic verse to trick people into voting
against him.
A video of his comments was posted online,
sparking fury across the nation and leading to
mass protests in Jakarta.
The saga, which led to Purnama being hauled into
court to face trial on blasphemy charges, was seen as
having contributed heavily to his loss to a Muslim
opponent in a ballot he had been expected to win. •
Source: AFP

Insight
7
Monday, May 15, 2017
DT
India turns on Rohingya refugees seeking
their deportation as Kashmir boils
• Thomson Reuters
Foundation, Jammu
It was around 3am when Abdul
Kader was awoken by his children’s
screams as flames spread through
their corrugated iron and wood
shack and dense smoke filled the air.
The 37-year-old burkha seller
and his family escaped last month’s
blaze unhurt, as did the six other
Muslim Rohingya refugee families
living there, but it has left the community
in India’s northern city of
Jammu fearful and on edge.
“The police said it was an electrical
short circuit, but we think it
wasn’t an accident,” said Kader, sitting
on the floor of a madrasa in a
slum in Jammu’s Narwal area.
“They don’t like us here and want
us to leave. We were driven from
Burma, then Bangladesh and now
they want us to leave India. The situation
is bad for us wherever we go.”
For almost a decade, India has
been a safe haven for thousands
of Rohingya fleeing persecution in
Myanmar. Around 14,000 Rohingya
live here, with half residing in
the Himalayan state of Jammu and
Kashmir (J&K).
But rising tensions with bordering
Pakistan and a spike in separatist
violence in neighbouring Kashmir,
coupled with nationalist anti-Islamic
sentiment globally, are threatening
the Rohingya once again as demands
grow for their eviction.
Right-wing political parties, including
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s party, blame them for crime
in Jammu, straining public resources,
and claim they pose a threat to
security.
As a result, India has started
registering and monitoring the Rohingya,
a move which activists fear
could eventually force them back
to Myanmar where they face atrocities,
including murder, rape and
arson attacks.
“Indian authorities know very
well the abuses the Rohingya community
have been facing in Myanmar,”
said Amnesty International
India’s Raghu Menon. “Deporting
them and abandoning them to their
fates would be unconscionable.”
Most persecuted community
Often described as the most persecuted
community, the minority
Rohingya have for years faced discrimination,
repression and violence
in northwestern Myanmar.
Denied citizenship by the largely
Buddhist government since the
1990s, they face apartheid-like conditions.
Hundreds have died in communal
violence, and thousands have
sought refuge in Thailand, Indonesia,
Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.
Around 75,000 people have fled
to Bangladesh just since October
as the military cracks down on Rohingya
insurgents.
Mass killings and gang rapes by
the army in recent months have
been documented, prompting the
UN to claim this could be seen as
crimes against humanity and ethnic
cleansing.
Some 7,000 Rohingya refugees
live in Jammu, mostly residing in
urban slums, eking out a meager
living selling garbage or doing manual
work for Indians, often underpaid
and exploited.
“They are extremely poor and settle
wherever they find safety,” said
Suvendu Rout from ACCESS, a Delhi
charity providing Rohingya refugees
with literacy and skills training.
“Many are construction workers
and are contributing to building
India’s infrastructure, while others
collect rubbish which helps keep
our cities clean.”
Parasites, criminals, security threat
But a contrasting narrative is being
spun in J&K, a troubled state which is
disputed by bordering Pakistan, and
where a separatist insurgency has
simmered for almost three decades.
Over the last six months, Jammu
has witnessed a string of anti-Rohingya
public protests by political
parties, Hindu groups, student bodies
and the business community.
Billboards demanding refugees
“Quit Jammu” have been put up, local
media have branded them “parasites”,
Rohingya effigies torched
on the streets, and a petition filed
in the High Court seeking their eviction
from J&K.
Arun Gupta, spokesman for
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
which is also part of J&K’s coalition
government, says public hostility
towards them is growing.
“Jammu is a small place, and
with this kind of influx, it is problematic.
They are into a lot of illegal
activities and since they are poor
and idle, they are easily accessible
to anti-national elements seeking to
destablise Jammu,” said Gupta.
“Kashmir is already on boil. We
Children belonging to Rohingya Muslim community read Koran at a madrasa, or a religious school, at a makeshift settlement,
on the outskirts of Jammu on May 6, 2017
REUTERS
do not want this to spread to Jammu.
People here have started to realise
this and believe these refugees
should leave as of yesterday.”
Many advocating for the eviction
even suggest rival Pakistan may be
behind the Rohingya migration
here, with the aim of stoking trouble
but evidence to support these
claims is scarce.
Police in Jammu, for example,
say only 11 cases against Rohingya
refugees have been registered in
the last six years. These include illegal
border crossing, rape and theft.
They also been no cases or evidence
to suggest links to separatist
militancy in Kashmir, connections
with Pakistan, or their involvement in
Islamic radicalisation, the police add.
Political analysts say the Rohingya
are getting caught up in two different,
yet equally nasty undercurrents:
a global wave of xenophobic
sentiment and the local Indian and
Pakistan dispute.
“Pakistan certainly has a history
of meddling in Kashmir, and we can’t
rule out the possibility that it would
Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party’s Anti-Rohingya and Bangladeshi billboards in Jammu
want to use the Rohingya to serve its
interests in Kashmir,” said Michael
Kugelman, deputy director of the
South Asia Program at the Woodrow
Wilson International Centre.
“But even if there’s something
to these allegations, this doesn’t
justify the draconian measures being
called for against the entire Rohingya
community, most of whom
we can safely assume are perfectly
law-abiding folks simply trying to
make a living.”
Little protection for refugees
The home ministry has responded
positively to the eviction demands
and last month directed all states to
register and identify Rohingya refugees
as a first step.
A home ministry official said after
this identification process they
would decide on the next step.
“Can’t really say at this stage if
it will be deportation. They are Myanmar
nationals who have come to
India from Bangladesh. Diplomatic
consultations are on with both Myanmar
and Bangladesh about this,”
Twitter
the official said.
Those backing the deportation
stress India is under no legal obligation
to provide the Rohingya refuge.
India is not a signatory to the
1951 Refugee Convention, which
spells out refugee rights and state
responsibilities to protect them.
Nor does the country have a domestic
law to protect the almost
210,000 refugees it currently hosts.
They also argue Rohingya are
technically “illegal”, pointing to Article
370 of the constitution which
gives J&K “special status” and prevents
outsiders from permanent
settlement.
Human rights groups disagree,
saying deporting the refugees to
Myanmar violates the internationally
recognised principle of non-refoulement
that forbids forcibly returning
people to a country where
they are at risk.
In the Rohingya slum in Jammu’s
Narwal area, many feel the
intensifying anti-Rohingya rhetoric
is leading to hate crimes such as
assaults or suspicious fires in their
settlements.
The UN Refugee Agency (UN-
HCR) says while India has not informed
them of any change in policy
towards the Rohingya, there are
signs the space in Jammu is shrinking
for them.
“A few Rohingya families have
informed UNHCR they had to leave
Jammu due to fear,” said the UN-
CHR in a statement, adding it was
helping them resettle in other parts
of India.
Madrasa teacher Kafayat Ullah
Arkani, 32, say most have no choice
but to stay in Jammu for the time
being. •