ARAb StAtES diSMAyEd At WESt'S cOMPlAcENcy - Kuwait Times

SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013
INTERNATIONAL
Afghan father guns down daughter over ‘affair’
KABUL: In front of 300 villagers, Halima’s
father shot her in the head, stomach and
waist-a public execution overseen by local
religious leaders in Afghanistan to punish
her for an alleged affair.
Halima, aged between 18 and 20 and a
mother of two children, was killed for
bringing “dishonour” on her family in a
case that underlines how the country is
still struggling to protect women more
than 11 years after the fall of Taliban
regime.
Police in the northwestern province of
Badghis said Halima was accused of running
away with a male cousin while her
husband was in Iran, and her father
sought advice from Taliban-backed clerics
on how to punish her.
“People in the mosque and village
started taunting him about her escape
with the cousin,” Badghis provincial police
chief Sharafuddin Sharaf said.
“A local cleric who runs a madrassa
told him that she must be punished with
death, and the mullahs said she should be
executed in public.
“The father killed his daughter with
three shots as instructed by religious elders
and in front of villagers. We went there
two days later but he and his entire family
had fled.” Amnesty International said the
killing, which occurred on April 22 in the
village of Kookchaheel in Badghis
province, was damning evidence of how
little control Afghan police have over
many areas of the country.
“Violence against women continues to
be endemic in Afghanistan and those
responsible very rarely face justice,”
Amnesty’s Afghanistan researcher Horia
Mosadiq said. “Not only do women face
violence at the hands of family members
for reasons of preserving so-called ‘honour’,
but frequently women face human
rights abuses resulting from verdicts
issued by traditional, informal justice systems.”
Police in Baghdis, a remote and impoverished
province that borders
Turkmenistan, said Halima had run away
with her cousin to a village 30 kilometres
(20 miles) away. Her father found her after
10 days and brought her back home,
where clerics told him he must kill her in
front of the villagers to assuage his family’s
humiliation. A Badghis-based
women’s rights activist said he had seen
video footage of Hamila’s execution,
which was not able to obtain.
“On the video, she is shot three times
in front of 300-400 people. Her brother
witnesses her death and breaks down in
tears,” said the activist, who declined to be
named to avoid reprisals.
“She is sitting on her knees in the dust,
wearing a large chador veil. A mullah
announces her funeral prayers first, then
her father shoots her from behind with an
AK-47 at a distance of about five metres.
“We have learned that a Taleban shadow
governor in the region asked the mullahs
to issue the death penalty for her.
“The local religious council first said she
should be stoned to death, but since the
cousin was not there, they decided that
she should be shot.” —AFP
S Africa officials fired
over wedding scandal
Gupta party guests land in air force base
LONDON: Former British servicemen Patrick Hemessey
(left) and Jake Wood (right) arrive with Mary Fitzgerald
(second right) and an interpreter named as Mohammed
(2L) at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in central
London yesterday to deliver a petition signed by over 75
thousand people calling for asylum for Aghan interpreters
who served the British army. — AFP
Afghan interpreters
take legal action
to stay in UK
LONDON: Lawyers for three Afghan interpreters who served
with British forces fighting the Taleban in southern
Afghanistan said yesterday they had launched a legal challenge
to a government decision not to let them settle in
Britain. The three argue they should be entitled to the same
treatment as interpreters with British forces in the Iraq war
who were given exceptional leave to remain in Britain and
financial help.
The interpreters say they face the threat of being attacked
by the Taleban in their homeland because of their work with
foreign forces. Lawyers have lodged proceedings against
British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence
Secretary Philip Hammond at the High Court on their behalf.
And campaigners were set to deliver a petition signed by
nearly 70,000 people supporting the three to Downing Street
later.
The law firm Leigh Day says one of the three Afghans they
are representing, named only as Abdul, remains in
Afghanistan, where he and his family have been receiving
threats by text message.
“The recent threats made against Abdul and his family further
underline the very real dangers these men and their families
face as a direct result of their work, and incredible bravery,
in support of the British forces in Afghanistan,” Rosa Curling
from the firm said.
“The government has a duty to ensure that they are not left
exposed to the very real dangers posed by the Taleban. “The
failure by the UK government to extend to the Afghan interpreters
the resettlement package offered to Iraqi interpreters
is unlawful and discriminatory.” — AFP
JOHANNESBURG: Five South African
officials, including police and military
commanders, have been suspended
after a chartered plane carrying about
200 guests from India to a lavish family
wedding was allowed to land at a South
African air force base, the government
said yesterday. The scandal, in which the
passengers allegedly bypassed customs
procedures on their way to a gaudy
entertainment complex, has angered
many South Africans who see the
episode as a case of cronyism linking big
business and the highest levels of government
in a country where corruption
is a growing problem.
The government sought to stem
public outrage over the incident,
launching an investigation into how the
Airbus A330 was given permission to
land Tuesday at the Waterkloof Air Force
Base and ordering it to fly on Thursday
to a civilian international airport in
Johannesburg. The wedding festivities
wrapped up yesterday.
The guests attended the wedding of
Vega Gupta, whose Indian immigrant
family has powerful business interests in
South Africa, and groom Aakash
Jahajgarhia in an extravaganza spanning
several days at Sun City, a leisure
center northwest of Johannesburg.
Some South African current and former
officials also attended. Justice Minister
Jeff Radebe said the suspended officials
included two brigadier generals at the
air force base and the head of state protocol,
Bruce Koloane.
He said the government is “gravely
concerned at this violation of the security
protocol and total disregard of established
practice for clearing the landing
of aircraft in a military facility that is of
strategic importance to the country.”
Radebe added: “Our particular concern
is that the aircraft was carrying international
passengers who do not fit the category
of government officials or VIPs on
official duty.” According to authorities,
two police officers and a reservist were
also arrested for working for a private
JOHANNESBURG: Members of the Gupta wedding party check in at O R Tambo
International Airport in Johannesburg for their flight back to India yesterday. — AFP
security company that provided escort
vehicles - black BMWs equipped with
illegal emergency lights and false registrations
- during the wedding guests’
transfer from the military base to Sun
City. Authorities were also investigating
the alleged use of marked police vehicles
in the incident, Radebe said.
The Democratic Alliance, an opposition
political party, said in a statement
that parliament should open an investigation
and alleged that the government’s
reaction was as an attempt to
protect President Jacob Zuma and
Cabinet ministers from the “political fallout”
of the scandal by targeting lowerranking
officials. South African media
reports said a son and a nephew of
Zuma were among the guests at the lavish
wedding. SABC, South Africa’s state
broadcaster, quoted Virendra Gupta,
India’s high commissioner, as saying
permission for the plane to land at the
base had been requested because of
security concerns for VIPs and “senior
political figures from India” on the flight.
The South African government, however,
said it did not have a record of
notification from the Indian High
Commission. Instead, it said, India’s
defense attache in South Africa requested
clearance from the air force, which
consulted the office of state protocol
without informing the military chief.
SABC quoted businessman Atul
Gupta as saying Gupta investments
have brought jobs to South Africa and
boosted tourism since the family began
operating in the country in the 1990s.
Atul Gupta is chairman of the familyowned
TNA media group. The family is
also involved in technology and other
interests.
Photographs of the wedding ceremony
showed the couple of traditional
Indian attire as they floated on a platform
across a pool at the Palace of the
Lost City, one of Sun City’s deluxe locations.
The bride was also photographed
joining the groom after stepping out of
a sculpture of a giant lotus flower.
While many South African newspapers
focused on the scandal, the Guptaowned
The New Age newspaper carried
a front-page headline on the event: “A
union of elegance and tradition.” — AP