KT 3-4-2013_Layout 1 - Kuwait Times

INTERNATIONAL
Japan welcomes JFK daughter as mooted US envoy
TOKYO: The mooted appointment of the daughter
of assassinated US president John F Kennedy to the
high-profile post of ambassador to Japan, was greeted
enthusiastically in Japan yesterday. Caroline
Kennedy, 55, who was an early supporter of Obama’s
2008 primary campaign before he took on and beat
Hillary Clinton’s Democratic machine, has long been
a rumored candidate for the plum Tokyo post.
Kennedy is in the advanced stages of the selection
process, an administration official told AFP.
Earlier Monday, both The Washington Post and New
York Times reported that she was actively being vetted
for the appointment. Japan’s top government
spokesman said it would be a “big news” for the
country if she gets the nomination. “Late President
Kennedy was a figure familiar to many Japanese,”
Yoshihide Suga said at a regular press conference on
Tuesday.
“It would be big news, and would deepen people’s
feeling of friendliness (to the United States),” he
said, adding that he would refrain from commenting
further until a final decision was made. Kennedy
would fit the long tradition of presidents naming
high profile envoys to key US ally Japan, who have
included former vice president Walter Mondale and
former senators Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker.
But she would also take up the post at a time of great
diplomatic peril, given North Korea’s fierce military
threats against the United States and its key regional
partners.
The crises had prompted some diplomatic
observers in Washington in recent weeks to suggest
that Kennedy could be passed over for a more experienced
diplomatic hand. But Kennedy’s chances may
have been enhanced by the arrival as secretary of
state of John Kerry, who was close to Caroline
Kennedy’s beloved uncle, late senator Edward
Kennedy. The White House and State Department
both declined to comment on the reports that
Kennedy was close to being named, but did not deny
them outright.
While politics and public service runs in Kennedy’s
blood, she has long resisted the public role of her
father, his brothers, Robert F. Kennedy and Edward
Kennedy, and many of their progeny. For a time in
late 2008 and early 2009, she toyed with the idea of
running for the New York Democratic Senate seat
vacated by Hillary Clinton when Clinton became
Obama’s first-term secretary of state. But the wealthy
Kennedy pulled out after a rough political ride amid
claims she was being foisted upon the New York
electorate with nothing but her family name as a
qualification.
Kennedy, whom many Americans remember as a
tragic little girl at her father’s 1963 funeral at
Arlington National Cemetery, caused a sensation in
2008, and fury in Clinton circles, when she broke
from her intensely private world to back Obama. In a
New York Times column titled “A President Like My
Father” Kennedy wrote of never having seen a president
who matched up to the way people still talked
about JFK. Now, she said, “I believe I have found a
man who could be that president.” If nominated, and
confirmed by the Senate, Kennedy would succeed
current US Ambassador to Japan John Roos, a former
Obama campaign donor. — AFP
PYEONGTAEK: A US Air Force F-16 fighter jet (center) lands on the runway during their military exercise at the Osan US Air Base in Pyeongtaek,
south of Seoul, South Korea yesterday. — AP
US deploys warship off South
Korea amid soaring tensions
North Korea says region on brink of nuclear war
SEOUL: The United States has positioned a warship
off the Korean coast as a shield against ballistic
missile attack as South Korea’s new president
vowed swift retaliation against a North
Korean strike amid soaring tensions on the
peninsula. But Washington also said it had seen
no worrisome mobilization of armed forces by
the North Koreans despite bellicose rhetoric over
a ramping up of international sanctions against
Pyongyang over nuclear weapons tests.
“If there is any provocation against South
Korea and its people, there should be a strong
response in initial combat without any political
considerations,” South Korean President Park
Geun-hye told the defense minister and senior
officials. North Korea says the region is on the
brink of a nuclear war in the wake of UN sanctions
in response to its February nuclear test and
a series of joint US and South Korean military
drills that have included a rare US show of aerial
power. In Washington, the White House has said
the United States takes seriously North Korea’s
war threats. But White House spokesman Jay
Carney said on Monday: “I would note that
despite the harsh rhetoric we are hearing from
Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the
North Korean military posture, such as largescale
mobilizations and positioning of forces.”
North Korea further escalated its rhetoric on
Saturday by saying it was entering a “state of war”
with South Korea in response to what it termed
the “hostile” military drills.
A US defense official said the USS McCain, an
Aegis-class guided-missile destroyer used for ballistic
missile defense, was being positioned off
the peninsula’s southwestern coast. “This is a
prudent move that provides greater missile
defense options should (they) become neces-
SYDNEY: Global media baron Rupert Murdoch
yesterday accused the government of his native
Australia of “disgraceful and racist” language
over a crackdown on visas for skilled migrants.
The Australian-born News Corporation chief
condemned the centre-left Labor government’s
rhetoric about the tightening of the 457-class
skilled visa program amid claims of abuse by
employers and disadvantage to local workers. “I
think the way that they’re talking about the 457
is pretty disgraceful and racist, but I’m a big one
for encouraging immigration, I think that’s the
future,” Murdoch told Sky News on a business
visit to northern Australia.
“A mixture of people-just look at America-is
just fantastic,” he added. Murdoch said there
were “difficulties for generations of migrants
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly
overwhelmingly approved the first UN treaty
regulating the multibillion-dollar international
arms trade yesterday, a goal sought for over
a decade to try to keep illicit weapons out of
the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and
organized crime. The resolution adopting the
landmark treaty was approved by a vote of
154 to 3 with 23 abstentions.
As the numbers appeared on the electronic
board, loud cheers filled the assembly
chamber. A group of treaty supporters sought
a vote in the 193-member world body after
Iran, North Korea and Syria blocked its adoption
by consensus at the end of a two-week
sary,” said the official, speaking on condition of
anonymity. The ship was not expected to participate
in any exercises, the official added.
South Korea has changed its rules of engagement
to allow local units to respond immediately
to attacks, rather than waiting for permission
from Seoul. Stung by criticism that its response
to the shelling of a South Korean island in 2010
was tardy and weak, Seoul has also threatened to
target young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
and to destroy statues of the ruling Kim dynasty
in the event of any new attack, a plan that has
outraged Pyongyang.
CHINA CALLED TO HELP
North Korea stepped up its rhetoric in early
March, when US and South Korean forces began
annual military drills that involved the flights of
US B-2 stealth bombers in a practice run, prompting
the North to put its missile units on standby
to fire at US military bases in South Korea and in
the Pacific. The United States also deployed F-22
stealth fighter jets on Sunday to take part in the
drills. The Pentagon said it was the fourth time F-
22s had been deployed to South Korea.
Australia, a close US ally and rotating UN
Security Council member, said it would urge
China to help enforce sanctions banning the flow
of technology and equipment to North Korea.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who leaves
on Friday for Beijing, plans to call on Chinese
leaders to help bolster stop-and-search provisions
for shipping to and from North Korea,
Foreign Minister Bob Carr said. Canberra also
plans its own banking and financial sanctions.
“The immediate priority is to see the sanctions
agreed on by the Security Council are properly
enforced,” Carr said yesterday.
KIM JONG-UN TIGHTENS GRIP
North Korea has cancelled an armistice agreement
with the United States that ended the
Korean War and has cut all hotlines with US
forces, the United Nations and South Korea. At a
recent meeting of North Korea’s ruling Workers
Party Central Committee, leader Kim Jong-un
rejected the notion that Pyongyang was going to
use its nuclear arms development as a bargaining
chip for foreign aid for the impoverished
nation.
“The nuclear weapons of Songun Korea are
not goods for getting US dollars and they are ...
(not) to be put on the table of negotiations
aimed at forcing the (North) to disarm itself,”
KCNA news agency quoted him as saying.
Songun is the Korean word for the “Military First”
policy preached by Kim’s father who used it to
justify the use of the impoverished state’s scarce
resources to build a 1.2-million strong army and
pursue development of weapons of mass
destruction. At the meeting, Kim appointed a
handful of personal confidants to the party’s
politburo, further consolidating his grip on power
in the second full year of his reign.
Former premier Pak Pong-ju, a key confidant
of the leadership dynasty, was re-appointed to
the post from which he was fired in 2007 for failing
to implement economic reforms. Pak,
believed to be in his 70s, is viewed as a key ally
of Jang Song-thaek, the young Kim’s uncle and
also a protege of Kim’s aunt. Pak is viewed as a
pawn in a power game that has seen Jang and
his wife re-assert power over military leaders.
Analysts said the move would not likely change
North Korea’s approach to a confrontation that
appears to have dragged the two Koreas closer
to war. — Reuters
Murdoch slams ‘racist,
disgraceful’ Australia
sometimes if there are too many from one area,
but they meld in a couple of generations and it
leads to tremendous creativity in the community”.
He said skilled migration was vital to economic
growth in Australia’s north, which is in the
grip of a mining and resources boom with billions
of dollars of investment slated for the coming
years.
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury rejected
the remarks, saying there was “nothing racist
about standing up for jobs and job opportunities
for Australians”. There is little love lost
between Murdoch’s Australian operations News
Limited and Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor
government-ministers have accused his newspapers
of campaigning for regime change. News
Limited has, in turn, been highly critical of the
final negotiating conference last Thursday.
The three countries voted “no” yesterday’s resolution
while Russia and China, both major
arms exporters, abstained.
Many countries, including the United
States, control arms exports. But there has
never been an international treaty regulating
the estimated $60 billion global arms trade.
Australian Ambassador Peter Woolcott, who
chaired the negotiations, said the treaty will
“make an important difference by reducing
human suffering and saving lives.”
“We owe it to those millions - often the
most vulnerable in society - whose lives have
been overshadowed by the irresponsible and
government’s proposed media reforms which
came in the wake of Britain’s phone-hacking
scandal.
Gillard’s Labor has been criticized by the leftleaning
Greens party, commentators and some
business leaders for plans to crack down on 457s
in an election year, accused of angling for the
anti-immigration vote. According to the immigration
department, growth in 457 visas has significantly
outstripped national employment
growth, suggesting “the program is being
increasingly driven by temporary visa holders
seeking to remain in Australia instead of the
demands of the Australian labor force”. The number
of 457 visa holders expanded 21.5 percent
between February 2012 and February 2013 to
107,510. — AFP
illicit international trade in arms,” he told the
assembly just before the vote.
The treaty will not control the domestic
use of weapons in any country, but it will
require countries that ratify it to establish
national regulations to control the transfer of
conventional arms, parts and components
and to regulate arms brokers. It covers battle
tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber
artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters,
warships, missiles and missile launchers,
and small arms and light weapons.
A phrase stating that this list was “at a minimum”
was dropped, according to diplomats,
at the insistence of the United States.
Caroline Kennedy
JAKARTA: The elite police unit on the front
line of Indonesia’s lauded terrorism clampdown
faces fresh allegations of torture and
unlawful killings, raising concerns it is
fuelling the jihadist cause. Detachment 88
was established after the 2002 bombings on
Bali that killed 202 people, mostly Western
tourists, and has gained strong public support
after claiming the scalps of some of the
region’s most-wanted extremists. But last
month a video emerged in which officers
from the anti-terror unit interrogated a suspect
writhing in pain after he had been shot
in the chest and forced to strip to his underwear.
“Why did you shoot me? I surrendered,” he
screams, as police repeatedly yell back that
he ask Allah for forgiveness. “You’re going to
die,” they say, trampling on three other suspects,
shooting into the ground to intimidate
them. The suspect who was shot in the video,
Rahman Kalahe, survived the incident and
was sentenced to 19 years’ jail over his role in
the beheading of three Christian schoolgirls
and the murder of a priest in Poso.
However, the footage has prompted the
National Human Rights Commission to
reopen its investigation into the 2007 raid,
while Islamic groups and members of parliament
have made calls to disband
Detachment 88. “Detachment 88 has used
torture, killings and intimidation, but they are
never held accountable. The unit must be dissolved,”
said Din Syammsuddin, chairman of
the nation’s second-largest Muslim organization,
Muhammadiyah, who took the video to
police.
The government insists that its security
forces have “great respect for human rights”.
“There are standard operating procedures in
the handling of terrorism. It is not true that
Detachment 88 employs a shoot-to-kill
approach,” presidential spokesman Julian
Aldrin Pasha said. “Any actions contrary to the
law, including human rights law, will be
processed. Without exception for anyone.
This country upholds and enforces the rule of
law,” he said. The Detachment 88 unit, which
gets funding and training from the United
States and Australia, has been successful in
quelling the kind of militant attacks on civilian
targets that rocked Indonesia in the past
decade.
Indonesia’s battle with terror is now being
fought almost entirely between militants and
police, much of it in Poso district-a known
hotbed for militant activity on Sulawesi
island, where the videotaped raid took place.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013
Indonesia anti-terror cops
accused of ‘fuelling jihad’
This shift in the nature of terrorism in
Indonesia has raised concerns that the unit’s
treatment of suspects is fuelling revenge
attacks. Since the establishment of
Detachment 88, Indonesian police have
killed at least 90 suspects in counterterrorism
operations, the International Crisis Group
reported.
But fully 50 of them have been killed since
2010, a year after the last major deadly attack
in the nation. “You can see why people get
angry when the police start shooting people
just because they have a copy of a book on
jihad in their rooms,” Todd Elliot, Jakartabased
terrorism analyst with Concorde
Consulting said. “When we haven’t seen a
major attack in years and police are killing
terror suspects every two months, you can
understand why people are asking questions.”
National Anti-Terror Agency chief
Ansyaad Mbai denies the unit is trigger-happy,
saying the deaths happen because terror
suspects rarely surrender and are often
armed. The numbers seem to support his
argument-in the same period that 50 suspects
were killed, 21 police were slain trying
to make arrests or investigate extremist activity.
In October, two officers investigating an
alleged terrorist camp in Poso were found
dead and buried in a hole with their throats
slit. “Terrorism is an extraordinary crime that
requires extraordinary operations,” Mbai said.
“They don’t respect Indonesians’ rights, so
why are we suddenly so concerned with
theirs?” he said. “Since Detachment 88 was
established, we have captured 850 terrorists.
Yes, dozens have been killed, but most were
taken alive.” Mbai sees the video as the latest
tactic in a long-standing campaign against
the unit, likely from political factions or hardline
Islamic groups that regularly paint
Detachment 88 as anti-Muslim. The rights
commission has recommended Detachment
88 employ a more transparent evaluation
process and the unit be held accountable for
any extra-judicial killings.
But Mbai said: “I don’t agree with these
calls to hold officers to account through legal
procedures. This will just demoralize the unit.”
Problems within Detachment 88 are not
unique to the unit. The UN’s Special
Rapporteur on Torture in 2008 found that
torture and abuse of suspects during arrest
and police detention were widespread in
Indonesia. “The video indicates a definite
need for better human rights training. The
whole police institution in Indonesia is still in
need of reform,” Elliot said. — AFP
BEKASI: Indonesian Christian Pastor Torang Simanjuntak (bottom) delivers mass next
to the ruins of the Taman Sari Batak Christian Protestant Church in Bekasi, on the outskirts
of Jakarta as minority Christians mark Easter amid rising cases of religious
intolerance. On March 21 the local government demolished the half constructed
church in front of its weeping congregation. Indonesia’s 240 million people identify
themselves as Muslim but the constitution guarantees freedom of religion. — AFP
UN adopts treaty to regulate global arms trade
Supporters complained that this limited the
treaty’s scope. The treaty prohibits states that
ratify it from transferring conventional
weapons if they violate arms embargoes or if
they promote acts of genocide, crimes against
humanity or war crimes. It also prohibits the
export of conventional arms if they could be
used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings
such as schools and hospitals.
In considering whether to authorize the
export of arms, the treaty says a country must
evaluate whether the weapon would be used
to violate international human rights or
humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists or
organized crime. They must also determine
whether the weapons transfer would contribute
to or undermine peace and security.
The treaty also requires parties to the
treaty to take measures to prevent the diversion
of conventional weapons to the illicit
market.
Ammunition was been a key issue in negotiations,
with some countries pressing for the
same controls on ammunition sales as arms,
but the US and others opposed such tough
restrictions. The final text calls for each country
that ratifies the treaty to establish regulations
for the export of ammunition “fired,
launched or delivered” by the weapons covered
by the convention. — AP