BEIJING: China tightened controls over dissidents while pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and elsewhere sought ways to mark the 31st anniversary Thursday of the crushing of the pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
That came after authorities in Hong Kong took the extraordinary move of canceling an annual candlelight vigil in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s Victoria Park for the first time in 30 years.
Authorities cited the need for social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak, despite the recent reopening of schools, beaches, bars and beauty parlors. Hong Kong has had relatively few cases of the virus and life has largely returned to normal in the city of 7.4 million.
However, China has long detested the vigil, the only such activity allowed on Chinese territory to commemorate victims of the crackdown, which remains a taboo subject on the mainland. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people were killed when tanks and troops assaulted the center of Beijing on the night of June 3-4, 1989 to break up weeks of student-led protests seen as posing a threat to authoritarian Communist Party rule.
Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students had gathered in 1989, was quiet and largely empty on Thursday. Police and armored vehicles stood sentry on the vast surface the square. Few pedestrians lined up at security checkpoints where they must show ID to be allowed through as part of mass nationwide surveillance measures aimed at squelching any dissent.
The cancelation of the vigil also comes amid a tightening of Beijing’s grip over Hong Kong, with the National People’s Congress, China’s ceremonial parliament, moving to pass national security legislation that circumvents Hong Kong’s local legislature and could severely limit free speech and opposition political activity.
In Hong Kong, a law is being passed to make it a crime to disrespect China’s national anthem and 15 well-known veteran activists were arrested and charged with organizing and taking part in illegal demonstrations. Those actions are seen as part of a steady erosion of civil rights Hong Kong was guaranteed when it was handed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
Despite the ban on the vigil, the Asian financial hub was bracing for “pop-up” protests of the type that raged around the city during months of anti-government protests last year that often led to violent confrontations between police and demonstrators.
Thousands have been arrested over the demonstrations, which were sparked by proposed legislation that could have seen suspects extradited to mainland China where they could face torture and unfair, politically biased trials.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic and Democratic Movements of China that organizes the annual vigil has called on people around the city to light candles at 8 p.m. and plans to livestream the commemorations on its website www.64live.org.
Alliance Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan said protesters still planned to gather at the park to mourn victims of the massacre and show their support for the democratic cause in China. It wasn’t clear what form the activity would take or how many would attend. The entrance to the park was blocked by police barriers on Thursday.
“Hong Kong government tried to please or show loyalty to Beijing and ban our gathering before even the national security comes in. But we are determined,” Lee said at a kiosk set up by the group to distribute flyers in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district near the park.
Other vigils, virtual and otherwise, are planned elsewhere, including in Taiwan, the self-ruled island democracy whose government called again this year for Beijing to own up to the facts of the crackdown.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo marked the crackdown anniversary on Tuesday, a day after federal forces used tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from a park in front of the White House.
Pompeo tweeted criticism of China and Hong Kong for banning the vigil before meeting privately with a group of Tiananmen Square survivors at the State Department. That too drew criticism from China.
Alongside the exchanges of rhetoric, China’s small, beleaguered dissident community has again come under greater scrutiny from the authorities. Many have been placed under house arrest and their communications with the outside world cut off, according to rights groups.
China has released the last of those arrested for directly taking part in the Tiananmen demonstrations, but others who seek to commemorate them have been rearrested for continuing their activism.
They include Huang Qi, founder of website 64 Tianwang that sought to expose official wrongdoing. Reportedly in failing health, he is serving a 12-year-sentence after being convicted of leaking state secrets abroad.
Tiananmen anniversary marked by crackdown, Hong Kong vigil ban
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Tiananmen anniversary marked by crackdown, Hong Kong vigil ban
- Hong Kong cancels annual candlelight vigil for the first time in 30 years
- Tiananmen Square, where thousands of students had gathered in 1989, was quiet and largely empty on Thursday
Pakistani security forces kill 27 insurgents during raid in Balochistan
- The operation in southwestern Pakistan was conducted in Kachhi, a district in Balochistan province, the military said in a statement
QUETTA: Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout on Monday, killing 27 insurgents, the military said.
The operation in southwestern Pakistan was conducted in Kachhi, a district in Balochistan province, the military said in a statement. Security forces were acting on intelligence.
The slain “terrorists were involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as innocent civilians,” and were being sought by law enforcement agencies, the statement said.
It provided no further details about the slain men, but small Baloch separatist groups and Pakistani Taliban have a strong presence in Balochistan, which is the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, mainly on security forces.
The separatists are demanding independence from the central government.
UK’s Starmer urged to fire minister hit by Bangladesh graft probe
- Siddiq, 42, has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August
- Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges including mass murder
LONDON: Britain’s Keir Starmer faced fresh pressure Monday to sack his anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, as Bangladesh’s graft watchdog filed new cases against her and her aunt, the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina.
Siddiq, 42, has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August after a student-led uprising against her decades-long, increasingly authoritarian tenure as prime minister.
Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges including mass murder.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission announced she and family members including Siddiq were subject to another graft probe, this time over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka.
Family members including Siddiq had already emerged as named targets of the commission’s investigation into accusations of embezzlement of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.
Bangladeshi money laundering investigators have since ordered the country’s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to Siddiq as part of the probe.
Earlier this month, the UK minister referred herself to Starmer’s standards adviser, following the flurry of allegations, which also included that she lived in properties linked to her aunt’s Awami League party.
Siddiq has insisted that she has done nothing wrong.
Asked Monday whether her position in the UK government remained tenable, senior British minister Pat McFadden told Sky News she had “done the right thing” with the self-referral.
He insisted the standards adviser had the powers to “carry out investigations into allegations like this.”
“That is what he is doing, and that is the right way to deal with this,” McFadden said.
However, following further accusations in British newspapers over the weekend, UK opposition politicians want Siddiq fired.
“I think it’s untenable for her to carry out her role,” the Conservatives’ finance spokesman Mel Stride told Times Radio on Sunday.
The party’s business spokesman Andrew Griffith sought to focus the spotlight on Starmer, arguing Monday it was “about the tone at the top.”
“Remember he called himself ‘Mr Rules’, ‘Mr Integrity’,” he told LBC News, referring to Starmer’s pitch to voters before last year’s general election that he represented a break with years of Tory scandals.
Siddiq is an MP for a north London constituency whose ministerial job is part of the finance ministry and responsible for the UK’s financial services sector as well as anti-corruption measures.
Over the weekend, a Sunday Times investigation revealed details about the claims that she spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen.
The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi lawyer with links to Hasina, her family and her ousted government, according to the newspaper.
It also reported Siddiq and her family were given or used several other London properties bought by members or associates of the Awami League party.
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer who heads a caretaker government, demanded a detailed probe in light of the allegations.
He told the newspaper the properties could be linked to wider corruption claims against Hasina’s toppled government, which he said amounted to the “plain robbery” of billions of dollars from Bangladesh’s coffers.
India’s Modi opens strategic tunnel to disputed frontier with China
- New tunnel is part of a $932 million infrastructure project linking Kashmir with Ladakh
- Last March, Modi also inaugurated a tunnel in disputed northeastern border state
NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated on Monday a strategic Himalayan road tunnel that would give year-round accessibility to areas along the contested border with China.
The Sonamarg tunnel is part of a $932 million infrastructure project that helps connect Indian-administered Kashmir with Ladakh, a high-altitude, cold desert region nestled between India, Pakistan and China that has been the subject of territorial disputes for decades.
As the 6.4-km-long passage, also known as Z-Morh, stretches beneath a treacherous mountain pass cut off by snow for four to six months a year, it is expected to increase mobility in the region and allow rapid deployment of military supplies.
“With the opening of the tunnel here, connectivity will significantly improve and tourism will see a major boost in Jammu and Kashmir,” Modi said at the opening ceremony in Sonamarg.
The massive infrastructure project also includes a series of bridges, high mountain roads and a second tunnel — expected for completion in 2026 — of about 14 km that will bypass the challenging Zojila pass and connect Sonamarg with Ladakh.
“The inauguration of the tunnel ensures uninterrupted supply chains for military essentials, safeguarding lives by mitigating avalanche-related risks,” Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Jairam Gadkari said.
India’s new tunnel opened amid an ongoing border dispute with China, which came to a head in 2020 following deadly clashes on their de facto Himalayan border known as the Line of Actual Control.
The conflict led the two countries to deploy thousands of troops to the area, as both sides stopped patrolling several points on the border in Ladakh to avoid new confrontations.
Last October, New Delhi and Beijing reached a deal to resolve the military stand-off after multiple high-level meetings aimed at resolving the conflict.
“India has been trying to reinforce its border network so that it is able to provide logistics support for the army and in the process also help civilians,” Prof. Noor Ahmad Baba from the political science department at the University of Kashmir told Arab News.
He said the tunnel is significant for its security and defense aspect and how it is improving connectivity to tourist spots like Sonamarg.
“(The tunnel) gives all-weather connectivity to the Ladakh region … which is a strategically significant region because of the continuous tension with China.”
India and China have been unable to agree on their 3,500-km border since they fought a war in 1962.
Last March, Modi inaugurated the Sela tunnel in the northeastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh, which the government has said will strengthen strategic capabilities along the LAC.
Germany welcomes release of German-Iranian rights activist from prison in Iran and her return home
- FM Annalena Baerbock: It’s ‘a great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally embrace her family again’
- Taghavi was arrested in October 2020 during a visit to Tehran and later sentenced to prison for alleged involvement in an ‘illegal group’
BERLIN: Germany’s foreign minister on Monday welcomed the release of a German-Iranian rights activist from prison in Iran and her return to Germany.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wrote on the social media platform X that it’s “a great moment of joy that Nahid Taghavi can finally embrace her family again.”
Baerbock retweeted a post by Taghavi’s daughter, Mariam Claren, with a photo of herself hugging her mother, which said: “It’s over. Nahid is free! After more than 4 years as a political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran my mother Nahid Taghavi was freed and is back in Germany.”
The German Foreign Office expressed delight that Taghavi’s “time of suffering has come to an end and that she has been reunited with her family.”
“Ms. Taghavi and her family have endured unbearable hardship,” the ministry said, adding that the German government had worked hard for her “overdue release.”
Taghavi was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison in Iran in 2021.
Rights group Amnesty International, which lobbied for Taghavi’s release for years, said in a statement Monday that “after more than 1,500 days in arbitrary detention, Iranian-German women’s rights activist Nahid Taghavi has been released.”
“Since her arrest, Amnesty International had been campaigning for her unconditional release and an end to her persecution,” the group said, adding that Taghavi landed in Germany on Sunday.
Taghavi was arrested in October 2020 during a visit to Tehran and later sentenced to prison for alleged involvement in an “illegal group” and for “propaganda against the state” and was held incommunicado for months and tortured, Amnesty International said.
Afghanistan hails Saudi ties as Taliban FM meets Kingdom’s envoy in Kabul
- In 1996-2001, Taliban rule was recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE
- Saudi embassy in Kabul has been reopened since December
KABUL: Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister has said ties with Saudi Arabia were “invaluable” to the country, following his first meeting with Riyadh’s new envoy in Kabul.
Amir Khan Muttaqi held talks with the Saudi Ambassador to Afghanistan Faisal Torki Al-Buqam on Sunday, less than a month since the Kingdom reopened its embassy in the Afghan capital.
“The meeting underlined matters related to expanding bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia,” foreign affairs ministry spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmad said in a statement.
“Welcoming the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia & calling Afghanistan-Saudi relations invaluable & historic, FM Muttaqi underscored the need to increase the exchange of delegations between the two countries.”
Saudi Arabia was among a host of nations that withdrew its diplomats from Kabul in August 2021, following the Taliban’s return to power and the withdrawal of US-led forces from Afghanistan.
Though the Taliban are not officially recognized by any country in the world, Saudi Arabia has joined a number of foreign governments in resuming the work of its diplomatic mission in Kabul.
The Kingdom has been providing consular services for Afghans since November 2021, and resumed sending aid through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center later that same year.
“Our goal is to take advantage of the opportunities available to us,” Zakir Jalaly, director of the second political division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Arab News on Monday.
“We also welcomed the (reopening) of the Saudi embassy and expressed our desire to see increased cooperation between the two countries. Saudi Arabia’s religious, political, and regional position make relations with the country vital for Afghanistan.”
During the first Taliban stint in power in 1996-2001, their administration was recognized by three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
Since they retook control of Afghanistan, the Taliban administration has been working to gain international recognition and dealing on a bilateral level with regional countries, including India, China, Central Asian republics, as well as Gulf nations.
“Resuming diplomatic relations with another country like Saudi Arabia means further steps toward legitimacy and recognition of the Islamic Emirate,” Abdul Saboor Mubariz, board member of the Center for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul, told Arab News.
“Cooperation between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia can also be enhanced in other areas. For instance, Saudi Arabia needs a human workforce and Afghanistan can cooperate in this regard in case of an agreement and facilitation of work visas for Afghans … Afghanistan can also encourage Saudi Arabia to invest in the country.”
Azizullah Hafiz, a political science lecturer at the Ghalib University in the western city of Herat, said the Kingdom was a “very important country” at the global and regional level.
“Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have had very long relations. Like other nations in the Muslim world, Afghans look at Saudi Arabia as a leader of the Islamic world and therefore, expect an active role from the country in Afghanistan,” Hafiz told Arab News.
Afghans also stand to benefit from critical humanitarian aid and development assistance, particularly through investment in infrastructure projects, he added.
“Presence of the Saudi ambassador in Kabul will facilitate direct engagement with the Afghan government and overcome concerns as it will also pave the way for enhanced cooperation in areas such as diplomacy, trade and investment.”
