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INTERNATIONAL In Cyprus, a new generation inherits a conflict PYLA, Cyprus: Tell a Greek Cypriot that your next destination is the Turkish city of Istanbul, once the seat of empires, and there’s a chance you will be gently chided. “You mean ‘Constantinople,’” the conversation partner might say, referring to the former Byzantine capital, which fell to Ottoman armies in 1453. This allegiance to the past is tinged with defiance, a stubborn refusal to call a place by the name chosen by the inhabitants of a hostile country. But it is more recent civil strife and war, nearly half a century ago, that infuse the psyche of Cyprus, a Mediterranean island favored by vacationers for its sun and beaches. In a strange twist, divided Cyprus has taken on a role meant to unify, this month assuming the rotating presidency of the European Union, a sixmonth stint that gives it a self-promotional platform even as it scrambles for a multi-billion dollar bailout to support its troubled banks. In another quirk of split-screen Cyprus, it is seeking money from oil-rich Russia, an increasingly important friend, in addition to the EU, as it tries to avoid the austerity measures that would likely come with any European aid. At the heart of these dueling directions lies the “Cyprus problem”, as it is blandly known. Talk of a peace settlement between the island’s majority Greek Cypriot community and Turkish Cypriots that would end decades of political uncertainty is giving way to a sense that the problem is, unofficially, the default solution. “People are simply not interested in any form of power-sharing,” said Yiannis Papadakis, a social anthropologist at the University of Cyprus. “There is a strong denial of this reality.” Papadakis said the problem is so consuming that it has sapped will on both sides to debate migration, the environment, women’s rights and other important social issues. He questioned whether they can compromise and trust each other if they ever reach a political settlement. Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, split into an internationally recognized, Greek-speaking south and a Turkish-speaking north after a 1974 invasion by Turkey, a reaction to a coup attempt by supporters of union with Greece. Travel restrictions between the two sides have relaxed, but negotiations on security and territory foundered. Only Turkey, whose EU candidacy has stalled partly because of the impasse, recognizes the government in the north. The result is an island that is not quite a nation, with an identity that is the sum of its shards. When George Andreou became the first Cypriot to climb Mount Everest and held up his nation’s flag at the summit in May, it was a reminder of division as well as a symbol of unity. The flag, designed by a Turkish Cypriot and adopted in 1960 after independence from British rule, shows a map of the whole island and two olive branches, a symbol of peace between communities. But Turkish Cypriots use a flag that is a variation of the star and crescent emblem of Turkey, their patron. In his rucksack, Andreou, 39, also carried the old flag of his hometown Famagusta, which he and his ethnic Greek family fled ahead of Turkish MBABANE, Swaziland: A picture taken on July 24, 2012 shows a group of pupils playing in an empty geography class at St Mark’s High School. — AFP Swazi strike battling to gain more traction MBABANE: In the geography class at St Mark’s High School, boys play chess on a board scratched onto a workbench in one corner, while in another a girl knits a scarf while her friends gossip. Swazi teachers have been on strike for more than a month, but so far their abandoned classrooms are the only tangible result of a movement that wants not just salary increases but democratic reforms in Africa’s last absolute monarchy. “Our ultimate goal is democracy,” said Sibongile Mazibuko, president of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers, who see King Mswati III as the country’s biggest problem. “He creates the poverty himself.” Teachers went on strike on June 22 demanding a 4.5 percent salary increase. Other public servants joined briefly, but the movement is stuttering after nurses returned to work on Tuesday following a court interdict. Sporadic protests have drawn hundreds into the streets, where police greet them with rubber bullets, water cannons and batons. Now most teachers go to school only to sign attendance registers, but still don’t teach. Police have arrested 41 teachers, and the union has spent almost 150,000 emalangeni ($18,000) on legal fees, Mazibuko said. “The protests have become unsustainable. We are looking at stayaways, picketing on the premises,” she said. Their financial demands are modest - they want a 4.5 percent raise, while inflation is around nine percent. It’s their political demands that roil the palace, which like to paint a picture of traditional mountain kingdom where the monarch is revered by his subjects. That image has faded as pro-democracy protests mushroomed over the past year, sparked by a crippling financial crisis. The International Monetary Fund has urged the government to slash its public wage bill as the economy stagnates, but has pulled its team from the country after the kingdom made no progress on reforms. Striking teachers have had their salaries slashed as authorities retaliate against the strikes, receiving as little as 30 emalangeni for their last paycheck. Some were handed dismissal letters and threatened with jail for contempt of court if they didn’t report to work, said government spokesman Percy Simelane. “Even if money could come now it would be very difficult to increase salaries,” he told AFP. “We need to adhere to this advice or sink.” Teachers point to a 30 percent increase lawmakers awarded themselves in 2010. “If you’ve paid yourself so much, why can’t you pay them?” asked Mazibuko. “The politicians’ kids are outside the country. The king’s children are outside the country. They will not invest in educating kids for the poor,” she said. Public servants also blame the lavish lifestyle of Mswati and his 13 wives. Forbes magazine rates him as among the world’s 15 richest royals, keeping each wife in her own palace. This week opposition groups claimed three of the queens and an entourage of 66 would travel to Las Vegas for a holiday. The lawmakers’ big paychecks “could be contributing towards the hefty salary bill that we have,” Simelane said. “If it is not (withdrawn) amid the outcry... discontent will be very rife.” But he insisted democratic reforms were not necessary. “We are one of the most democratic societies in the region,” he said. “The king loves his people. I don’t think he can create conditions where people go hungry,” he said. About 60 percent of the tiny country’s 1.1 million people live on less than $2 a day. The UN World Food Programme says one-fifth of the country experienced food shortages this year. Simelane also justified police violence against protesters. “In most cases provocation of some kind came out,” he said. “We have one of the most disciplined police forces in the region. They normally don’t shoot to kill.” Life in Swaziland continues despite the school groundings, the tiny country’s troubles far from the international spotlight. Other government workers are also demanding raises, but generally are not downing tools. But Mazibuko is adamant that growing awareness will see her movement succeed. “Little by little people are seeing the light,” she said. forces, less than one year after he was born. The climber has never returned to his house in Famagusta, where Turkish Cypriots now live, because he thinks it would help to legitimize Turkish forces based in the northern part of the island. “It is like I never lived my childhood or I refused to remember,” Andreou wrote in an email. “I know from my parents that they had been very difficult years since we left everything behind, hoping we would go back soon. It never happened. Instead, we lived in houses without doors and windows, in tents, in the fields, anywhere just to stay safe and away from war.” Days after Andreou, a banker, returned from the Himalayas, his wife gave birth to their first child, who may grow up to discover the same sour politics. The same goes for the 3-yearold daughter of Ahmet Sozen, a Turkish Cypriot research director at Cyprus 2015, a group that seeks to In this May 19, 2012 photo, Cypriot George Andreou, 39, holds up his nation’s flag on Mount Everest. — AP BUCHAREST: Romanians voted yesterday on whether to impeach their unpopular president, Traian Basescu, after a government campaign to remove him that has drawn international criticism of its methods and raised doubts about the country’s IMF aid deal. Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s leftist Social Liberal Union (USL) has suspended Basescu and its drive to unseat him has brought a stern dressing-down from Brussels, which accused him of undermining the rule of law and intimidating judges. Ponta’s government took office in May and is holding the referendum to seek popular backing for the impeachment of Basescu for overstepping his powers. He is unpopular for backing austerity and for perceptions of cronyism. Opinion polls show that some 65 percent of Romanians want to remove the former sea captain from office, but the opposition has called for a boycott of the vote and the USL is struggling to get the turnout of over 50 percent needed for a valid vote. “I am not a fan of Basescu but I will not vote because I do not approve of the way the government stepped on laws to have their way,” said Dan Popescu, a 52-year-old Bucharest pensioner. Many people are on holiday and the temperature is expected to hit 39 Celcius, prompting the government to set up extra polling stations, many of them at seaside restaurants and hotels, to make it easier to vote. After three hours of voting, the election bureau said turnout was 9.1 percent by 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), suggesting it could be very close to 50 percent by the time polls close at 11 pm. Basescu and his allies, the opposition Democrat Liberal Party (PDL), asked their supporters to boycott the referendum. The suspended president initially urged Romanians to vote against what he called a coup d’etat, but his stance shifted this week when he and his PDL allies said they were concerned about the possibility of electoral fraud. promote joint understanding. Sozen said the uncertainty goes back to the 1950s, when his father, now 80 years old, was a police officer in a British administration fighting a Greek Cypriot guerrilla group that sought union with Greece. While today’s stalemate is violencefree, Sozen maintains the ethnic Greek-Turkish divide has a corrosive impact on Cypriot psychology. “I don’t want my little daughter to go through the same thing in her life,” said Sozen, The government had tried to make it easier to impeach Basescu by removing the minimum turnout rule but was forced to back down by harsh EU criticism and a Constitutional Court ruling that a 50 percent turnout was obligatory. “I hope the voting presence will be decisive and ... that by the end of this day we will know and enforce the will of a majority of citizens,” interim president and USL co-leader Crin Antonescu said after voting. The row over Basescu has delayed policymaking, raised doubts about Romania’s 5 billion euro International Monetary Fundled aid deal, sent the leu currency plunging to record lows, and pushed up borrowing costs. The IMF has said it will begin a two-week review of Romania’s aid deal on July 31, a who was inspired to become a professor of politics in order to help find a solution, even though his selfdescribed “life mission” sometimes exhausts and frustrates him. Polls by his group indicate that Turkish Cypriots, who have leaned toward living apart because of fears of being dominated, and Greek Cypriots, who have tended to prefer a one-state island dominated by their majority, are moving further from the compromise of a power-sharing federation. Greek Cypriots fear encroachment from Turkey, a rising power that objects to Greek Cypriot plans for offshore oil and gas exploration. They highlight past suffering, but gloss over the question of 1960s attacks on Turkish Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots resent the Greek Cypriot rejection of unification in a 2004 referendum. “As more time passes, it’s not good for the result, meaning that people are not moving toward the solution spirit. On the contrary,” said Sozen, noting that the problem is exacerbated by a gap between Cypriots and their leaders. “People are alienated in the sense that the common people are shut away from the official process. The general public is not really informed by what is happening.” In February, Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu said negotiations with the Greek Cypriot leader left “a zucchini taste in the mouth,” a Turkish way of saying they have grown bland. His Greek Cypriot counterpart, President Demetris Christofias said in May that talking to Eroglu was like trying to knock down a wall by throwing eggs at it. — AP MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012 Romanians vote on impeaching president Basescu unpopular for backing austerity KOMAGGAS, South Africa: The man slips the plastic pouch of gems into his mouth, an illicit haul from the sandy deposits scattered among the mountains of South Africa’s diamond coast. “It’s my safe,” he explains, sliding the stash week later than planned because of the impeachment referendum. Romania has made progress since the 1989 overthrow of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and joined the EU in 2007, but the economy slipped back into recession in the first quarter of this year and pockets of severe poverty remain. Brussels has a wide range of levers with which to put pressure on Romania, whose justice system is under EU monitoring. Romania gets European cash to help it catch up with other members and the bloc contributes to its IMF-led aid deal. Ponta felt the full weight of EU wrath after his government took on the Constitutional Court, threatening to replace judges and reduce its powers, and ignoring one of its decisions. — Reuters MAMAIA, Romania: A Romanian tourist casts her ballot at one of the additional polling stations which have been set up along the Black Sea coast to facilitate voting for holidaymakers and rural populations in this Black Sea resort city yesterday. — AFP Death no deterrent for S African gem diggers back along the inside of his cheek. The group of diggers are waiting for the cover of darkness to make another raid on a disused mine, opposite their make-shift camp, where 10 miners died in an avalanche three months ago. Illegal KOMAGGAS, South Africa: A picture taken on July 6, 2012 shows an illegal miner sifting sand and stones as he looks for diamonds. — AFP miners in South Africa are ready to risk death to chase a share of the mineral riches that shaped the continent’s biggest economy. In sparsely populated Namaqualand, where the famed gem deposits run along the icy Atlantic Ocean to the Namibian border, diamond giant De Beers was once the top employer, providing 3,000 jobs and building two towns with recreation halls, a golf course and schools, to house its staff. But its mines were halted in 2008 and the company’s Namaqualand operations are in the final stages of a 225 million rand ($27 million, 22 million euro) sell-off after years of retrenchments. The slowdown has emptied out the private mining towns, but has lured growing numbers of diggers from the area’s other small settlements into the abandoned fields. “I can say that more than 60 percent of the active workforce are involved in the informal diamond trade,” said Andy Pienaar, of the social outreach office in Komaggas, one of the few small villages in the mining area. “There was sort of a blessing from the community that ‘people, you may go’” dig, he added. “It was about survival. It was about sustaining and we’re not talking about high life standards, we’re talking about just basically survival.” Komaggas has little sign of gem wealth along dirt roads that wind past humble homes where many residents survive on government welfare payments. But one local buyer, who also digs with a team who share the profits, estimates that he has made about 400,000 rand since he started digging three years ago. “It changed my life completely. I don’t even mind about looking for a job now because I was running around Cape Town, Johannesburg, looking for a job - there’s no need now, I’ve got a job now,” he told AFP. “I’m not a rich man but I can support my family each and every month.” — AFP
KUALA LUMPUR: The surprise statement came during a rainy spell and when the seven dams in Malaysia’s richest, most populous state were full. Reserves of treated water in the opposition-controlled state of Selangor were perilously low, said the water company supplying a population of 7 million in the country’s main industrial base. It was seeking approval to start immediate rationing. For many it looked like politics, not water, was behind the problem - a measure of how high tensions are running ahead of national elections that must be called by early next year and which may be the closest in Malaysia’s history. “Of course, it’s a political conspiracy,” said Teresa Kok, a member of the Selangor state executive council and opposition member of parliament. The July 14 announcement has set off an ill-tempered battle between the opposition-run state and the federal government that foreshadows an intense election struggle for the crucial swing state that is a base for multinationals including Panasonic Corp and British American Tobacco. The state leadership says the ruling coalition is using water supplier Syabas to manufacture a water crisis and sow doubts in voters’ minds over the opposition’s competence. Syabas, a unit of Puncak Niaga Bhd, has links with the Malaysia’s ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO). Rozali Ismail, the chairman of Puncak Niaga and executive chairman of Syabas, is INTERNATIONAL Water ‘crisis’ signals fierce fight for Selangor CANNING, India: An Indian farmer participates in a bull race in a paddy field in this village around 105 km south of Kolkata yesterday. Farmers participate in the race in the belief that participation before ploughing their fields will bring good rain and a better harvest. — AFP Philippines nabs top Abu Sayyaf militant MANILA: Philippine police commandos have captured a militant from the violent Abu Sayyaf group who is linked to past kidnappings and helped Southeast Asian terrorists travel in and out of the southern Philippines, officials said yesterday. Regional police chief Senior Superintendent Edgar Danao said a special police action force and agents of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime arrested Ahmadsali Badron on Saturday in Lamion village in Tawi Tawi, the country’s southernmost province. Tawi Tawi is near Sulu province, where the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf has jungle strongholds. Badron, who also uses the names Asmad and Hamad Ustadz Idris, has been implicated in the 2000 kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf gunmen of 21 people, mostly European tourists, from Malaysia’s Sipadan diving resort, Danao said. Badron is also suspected of helping arrange the entry and exit from the southern Philippines of Asian operatives belonging to the Indonesiabased Jemaah Islamiyah militant network. Among the top terror suspects who managed to travel in the country’s south with Badron’s help was Dulmatin, an Indonesian militant accused of helping plot the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people in Bali, Indonesia, Danao said. Dulmatin, a suspected bomb-maker who was on a US list of most-wanted terrorists, hid for years with the Abu Sayyaf in the southern Mindanao region and returned to Indonesia, where he was gunned down by police in March 2010. Badron allegedly received funds from a Palestinian militant that were used to spread Islamic extremism. A Muslim preacher from Sulu, Badron is also believed to have kept ransom money raised by the Abu Sayyaf. He has been identified by former hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf, according to a police report. The Abu Sayyaf is blamed for the country’s worst bomb attacks, kidnapping sprees and for beheading some of its hostages during the last two decades. The Abu Sayyaf was founded in 1991 on southern Basilan island with suspected funds and training from Asian and Middle Eastern radical groups, including Al-Qaeda. It came to US attention in 2001 when it kidnapped three Americans, two of whom were later killed, and dozens of Filipinos. The kidnappings prompted Washington to deploy hundreds of troops in the country’s south in 2002 to train Philippine forces and share intelligence, helping the military capture or kill most of the Abu Sayyaf’s top commanders. Now without a central leader, the group still has close to 400 armed fighters and is still regarded as a key threat. — AP US drone kills seven militants in Pakistan MIRANSHAH, Pakistan: A US drone attack yesterday killed at least seven militants in Pakistan, officials said, days before the country’s intelligence chief visits Washington with the contentious raids likely to be discussed. Attacks by unmanned American aircraft are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, which says they violate its sovereignty and fan anti-US sentiment, but US officials are said to believe the attacks are too important to give up. Drone strikes are likely to be a major issue when Pakistan’s spymaster, Lieutenant General Zaheer ul-Islam, holds talks in Washington on August 1-3 with his CIA counterpart. In yesterday’s attack, the second in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, missiles struck a compound in Khushhali Turikhel village of the troubled North Waziristan tribal district, which lies on the border with Afghanistan. “US drones fired six missiles into a militant compound. At least seven militants were killed,” a security official told AFP. “It is not immediately clear if there was an important militant killed in the attack.” The toll might rise as militants search for colleagues buried under the rubble of the compound, the official said, adding that missiles also hit and destroyed two militant vehicles. Local intelligence officials confirmed the attack and casualties. Khushhali Turikhel lies around 35 km east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan which is considered a stronghold of Islamist militants. Washington regards Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt as the main hub of Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan. Ten militants were killed on Monday in a similar attack in Shawal area of North Waziristan. In a drone attack at the start of July, six militants were killed and an attack on June 4 killed 15 militants, including senior Al-Qaeda figure Abu Yahya Al-Libi. There has been a dramatic increase in US drone strikes in Pakistan since May, when a NATO summit in Chicago could not strike a deal to end a six-month blockade on convoys transporting supplies to coalition forces in Afghanistan. On July 3 however, Islamabad agreed to end the blockade after the United States apologised for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in botched air strikes last November. Islam’s trip on Wednesday marks the first Washington visit in a year by the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and signals a thaw in relations beset by crisis since US troops killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad in May 2011. In protest at US drone attacks, local Taleban and Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur have banned vaccinations in North and South Waziristan, putting 240,000 children in the region at risk. They have condemned the immunisation campaign as a cover for espionage. In May, a Pakistani doctor was jailed for 33 years after helping the CIA find bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination program as a cover. — AFP treasurer for the party’s Selangor branch and was dubbed Malaysia’s “water king” by Forbes, which ranks him as the country’s 37th richest person. The federal government says the state has jeopardised its water supply by blocking the construction of a 3.8 billion ringgit ($1.2 billion) treatment plant. “If we can make Malaysia the global centre for IPOs, how can it be that we can’t resolve water issues,” Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted as saying this week by The Star newspaper, referring to several big stock debuts in Malaysia this year. The problem could be resolved, he said, once the people of Selangor “choose a government that can do it”. As Malaysia’s traditional engine of growth, the west-coast state was a prized, unprecedented win for the opposition in the last election in 2008, and the most potent symbol of the ruling coalition’s worst election performance. Wresting back the state would help lay to rest doubts about Najib’s leadership within his own party and help the coalition rebound nationwide. For the opposition, retaining Selangor is crucial if it is to have any chance of winning a parliamentary majority and forming a government for the first time. The state has been at the centre of concerns over voter fraud, with the opposition accusing the government of handing out voting rights to thousands of illegal immigrants. “The stakes are the highest in Selangor. The prime minister really needs to win it NEW DELHI: Indian activist Anna Hazare, who galvanised the country last year with his hunger strikes against corruption, began a new fast yesterday to press demands for a crackdown on official graft. Hazare and his supporters want parliament to strengthen a pending anti-corruption bill and the creation of a special team to probe possible graft allegations against 15 ministers, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The 75-year-old former army truck driver threatened to fast until death if the demands are not met. “I am confident that... the people of my country will not let me die. I draw my strength and confidence from you,” Hazare told several thousand supporters gathered at a popular protest site in central New Delhi. Some senior members of the Hazare campaign had already started hunger strikes at the same venue four days before. Hazare became an unlikely national hero last August when he led countrywide protests that tapped into a rich seam of public anger at India’s endemic corruption. During a 12-day hunger strike, he was feted as a latter-day Mahatma Gandhi and mobbed at a triumphal procession through the capital New Delhi. Singh’s government, tainted by a series of graft scandals, was caught out by the outpouring of public emotion and forced to negotiate with the Hazare campaign, which it previously condemned as manipulative and undemocratic. Although around 4,000 supporters turned out Sunday as Hazare began his latest fast, observers say the campaign has lost much of its momentum since the heady days of last summer. The media has also been less supportive, suggesting that Hazare risks overstepping in insisting that parliament adopts his campaign’s input for the new anti-corruption bill. “Anna and his cohorts must realise that they are only a pres- back,” said Ong Kian Ming, a political analyst and lecturer at Kuala Lumpur’s private UCSI university. The perceived performance of the four oppositioncontrolled states will be a crucial campaign issue as the three-party opposition alliance tries to convince voters it is capable of running the country. Penang, another opposition-held state, has set an enviable record, attracting the country’s highest level of investment in the manufacturing sector for two years running and slashing public debt levels by over 90 percent in three years. Selangor’s record is less spectacular. The state government has been dogged by talk of infighting and Malaysia’s ruling coalition is presenting the water issue as exhibit A to show the state is being mismanaged. “They want to influence the course of the elections. They have a monopoly over water resources and are holding the people to ransom,” said opposition MP Tony Pua, adding that uncertainty over water supply was endangering investment in the state. Syabas’ shock warning of water rationing this month prompted indignant state officials to pose for pictures in front of dams brimming with water to show there was no shortage. Syabas hit back with images showing treatment plants at low reserve capacity, bolstering its case for the new plant. “The responsibility for ensuring that Selangor has enough water treatment plants lies with the Selangor state government,” it said in a statement sure group. They cannot hold parliament to ransom. Their primary job is to keep the issue of corruption in play, the <strong>Times</strong> of India said in a recent editorial. Using fasts to arm-twist the government is against the very spirit of democracy and amounts to political blackmail,” it said. Hazare’s direct attacks on Prime Minister Singh and the ruling Congress party have also led to accusations that he and his campaign organisers were pursuing a political agenda. But his supporters who gathered yesterday insisted that Hazare’s message was very much alive and rejected suggestions that the campaign was los- released on Thursday. Selangor has threatened to take over the water company’s operations, a bid that was rejected by the government. The state government remains set on a takeover and is going ahead with plans to sack Rozali, aiming to use its 30 percent stake in Syabas to trigger a vote of no-confidence. The federal government wants to open tenders for the new plant in a month, but it needs Selangor’s permission to proceed. The state government says the plant would lead to a steep rise in water tariffs and that projections for water consumption and population growth used to justify its construction are too high. Instead, it wants 225 million ringgit from the federal government to upgrade two existing plants and is prepared to add 200-300 million ringgit of its own funds. Selangor state sources say the level of non-revenue water - the volume lost before it reaches the customer - at Syabas is above 33 percent. That measure of efficiency compares with Singapore’s 5 percent, Denmark’s 6 percent, and even falls short of Bangladesh’s 29 percent, they say. Campaigners against Syabas are urging the company to open its books to show if there really is a shortage. “Failing to do so would only prove that the water crisis is manufactured,” said Charles Santiago, an opposition member of parliament and coordinator of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation group. — Reuters MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012 India anti-graft activist Hazare starts new fast Campaign has lost momentum, media support KABUL: Afghan security forces are dying at five times the rate of NATO soldiers as Taleban insurgents step up attacks ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014, the latest figures show. While deaths among NATO’s troops are regularly chronicled in the 50 countries that contribute soldiers to the war, the daily casualties among the Afghans they are fighting alongside rarely make headlines. A total of 853 Afghan soldiers and police were killed in the past four months, government figures show, compared with 165 NATO troops, according to a tally kept by the website icasualties.org. President Hamid Karzai warned in May that the Afghan death toll would increase as the US-led troops start withdrawing and hand increasing responsibility for security to Afghan forces. Both NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Afghanistan’s interior ministry have noted a surge in attacks in recent months since the start of the Taleban’s annual summer offensive. “Enemy-initiated attacks over the last three months (April-June) are 11 percent higher compared to the same quarter last year,” ISAF said in a report last week. The month of June alone saw the highest number of attacks in nearly two years, with more than 100 assaults a day across the country, including firefights and roadside bombings, the US-led coalition said. Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said at the weekend that there had been a surge in casualties suffered by police in the past four months, with 635 killed and 1,246 wounded. “This year, the enemies of Afghanistan have intensified their attacks against Afghan security forces,” he said. “We have increased our operations against the enemy and they also intensified their attacks,” he said, adding that 1,730 insurgents had been killed over the same period. The upturn comes as NATO countries have already started to withdraw their 130,000 troops after more than 10 years of war and ahead of a 2014 deadline for an end to combat operations. Politicians in NATO countries, where polls show that most voters want their soldiers out of Afghanistan, regularly refer to “ending the war in 2014”. But all signs point to the fact that the war will not end for the Afghans - and could get much worse. “The Taleban are sure that at the end of the day the foreign forces will leave and the only force that will remain to fight them is the Afghan force,” author NEW DELHI: India’s anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare gestures at a protest yesterday. — AP and analyst Waheed Mujda told AFP. “Since they started their new summer offensive their goal has been to target Afghan forces, to demoralise them and to create fear so that no one could join them,” he said. Mujda also suggested that the government underplayed casualties in their statistics because “they don’t want to demoralise the forces”. He said a more realistic figure had been presented earlier this month by a former chief of the National Directorate of Security, Amrullah Saleh, who said more than 1,800 members of the Afghan security forces were killed in the previous three months - well over double the official figure. Defence Ministry sources told AFP that in the four months since the start of the Afghan solar year at the end of March, 218 Afghan soldiers had been killed. Police, who play a paramilitary role in the wartorn country, are more exposed to insurgent attacks ing steam. “This rally is not about numbers. Our strength should not be measured in how many people have come here. Our strength lies in our conviction and truth,” said Mitul Rana, 26, a software engineer. Housewife Kaushalya Devi, 40, brought her eight-year-old son to the protest venue. “Hazare is fasting for us, so we thought it was our duty to come and show our support,” Devi said. “I want my son to know about him because he is the only true leader of our country. Those who claim to be the leaders are corrupt from head to toe. We must expose their real faces,” she added. — AFP Afghan forces deaths outstrip NATO’s 5-1 in local areas where they are always on the roads or manning small checkposts while the army operates out of fortified bases. ISAF said one reason for the increase in the number of attacks over recent months was an earlier start to the summer fighting season because of an early end to the harvest of opium poppies - a major source of income for Taleban Islamist insurgents. Another was the increased presence on the battlefield of Afghan security forces as they take more responsibility from NATO troops ahead of the drawdown. Despite the rise in attacks, the number of coalition deaths in the first six months this year - 220 - was down on the same period last year when 282 died, according to icasualties.org. About half of all deaths in both periods were due to roadside bombs, the statistics show. The homemade bombs are also responsible for most civilian deaths - which run higher than those for either army. —AFP MANILA: A Filipino woman holds on to the umbrella as strong winds blow while her son eats bread in a Manila suburb yesterday. Rains continue to pour in the city as tropical storm Saolan blows off the northeastern coast of the Philippines. — AP
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UAE widENS cRAckdOwN; MORE ISlAMiStS ... - Kuwait Times

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