THE MIZORAM POST AIZAWL SATURDAY 05 JUNE 2021 INTERNATIONAL 5 vigil organizer arrested on Tiananmen anniversary HONG KONG, JUNE 04 correct. pushing for democracy in along with the sharp curtailing Police arrested an organizer of Efforts to suppress public Hong Kong and China, surely of political rights in Hong Hong Kong’s annual candlelight memory of the Tiananmen they will come after me at Kong. vigil remembering the deadly events have lately turned to some point, so it’s sort of “China’s authoritarian Tiananmen Square crackdown Hong Kong, where the June 4 expected. regime has used another kind and warned people not to attend Museum was closed this week As Chinese authorities seek of force enforced amnesia in the banned event Friday as and police again Friday warned to curb remembrances, they its attempts to bury the truth authorities mute China’s last residents not to attend the vigil. also seem confident the of the brutal crimes it pro-democracy voices. The nighttime event in passage of time will erase committed against its people”, In past years, tens of thousands Victoria Park has been banned memories of the 1989 said in of people gathered in Hong for a second year under crackdown. a statement online. Kong’s Victoria Park to honor coronavirus pandemic The government made no On self-governing Taiwan, the victims who died when restrictions, although the city response to an appeal from activists who host an annual China’s military put down has had no local cases for over , published Tiananmen memorial that student-led pro-democracy six weeks. But the action on the Human Rights in China draws hundreds are moving protests on June 4, 1989, comes amid sweeping moves to website, urging the party to mostly online as the island killing hundreds if not quell dissent in the city, release official records about faces its worst virus outbreak thousands. including a new national the crackdown, provide of the pandemic. The New China’s ruling Communist security law, election changes compensation for those killed School for Democracy, an Party has never allowed public and arrests of many activists and injured, and hold those NGO, is setting up a temporary events marking the military’s who participated in pro- responsible to account. memorial pavilion Friday attack on protesters and democracy protests that swept Tiananmen Mothers said 62 afternoon where people in citizens, and security was Hong Kong in 2019. of its members have died since small groups can leave increased in the Beijing square Hong Kong police in the group representing victims’ flowers and other mementoes Friday morning, with police vehicles and on foot cordoned relatives was founded in the in honor of the date. checking pedestrians’ IDs and off parts of Victoria Park, late 1990s. It said many young The U.S. State Department tour buses shuttling Chinese including football fields and Chinese have grown up in a issued a statement of support tourists as on any other day. basketball pitches, to prevent false sense of prosperous for those advocating for Authorities have squelched any unauthorised gatherings. Charles Kwok, the president told reporters police had memory of Tiananmen.After behind bars for taking part in jubilance and enforced victims and pursuing the truth all discussion of the events on Police said they were aware of of the students’ union, said that arrested a 36-year-old woman the ban was issued, Chow unauthorized assemblies in glorification of the government about the events. the mainland, where the few calls on social media urging the event was legitimate and from the Hong Kong Alliance, urged people to commemorate 2019. (and) have no idea of or refuse “The courage of the brave remaining activists and victims’ people to turn up for the vigil. legal and that they hoped to as well as a 20-year-old food the event privately by lighting Chow, a barrister, said in an to believe what happened on individuals who stood advocates are put under Taking part in an illegal commemorate the people who delivery man for advertising a candle wherever they are. earlier interview with The June 4, 1989, in the nation’s shoulder-to-shoulder on June increased police monitoring gathering has a maximum sacrificed for freedom and and publicizing an Last year, thousands went to Associated Press that she was capital. 4 reminds us that we must and taken away on involuntary penalty of five years democracy. unauthorized assembly on Victoria Park to light candles expecting to be imprisoned at The suppression of never stop seeking vacations around the imprisonment. In the For HKU students, in their social media accounts and sing songs. Police later some point for her activism. commemorations of the transparency on the events of anniversary. Responding to a , cleaning the Pillar of Shame, even after the vigil was banned. charged more than 20 activists She has been part of the Hong Tiananmen victims has been that day, including a full question about the crackdown, students took part in the we shall learn how our Chow Hang Tung, vice chair including Chow for their Kong Alliance since 2010. accompanied in recent years accounting of all those killed, Foreign Ministry spokesman annual washing of the Pillar of predecessors defended the of the group, was arrested participation in the I’m already being by harsh repression against detained, or missing”, the Wang Wenbin on Thursday Shame sculpture, which was freedom of expression before, Friday morning, according to unauthorized assembly. persecuted for participating religious and ethnic statement said, adding that reiterated China’s stance that erected to remember the and we shall not easily give up, the alliance, which organized Two other key members of and inciting last year’s minorities in Tibet, the such demands echoed in the its response to the political victims of the Tiananmen Kwok said.Law Kwok-hoi, the vigil and ran the June 4 the Hong Kong Alliance Lee candlelight vigil, she said. If I northwestern region of struggle for political rights in turmoil of 1989 had been Square crackdown. police senior superintendent, Museum dedicated to the Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho are continue my activism in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong. Huge mystery sinkhole in Jerusalem evictions that fuelled Gaza war could still happen JERUSALEM, JUNE 04 that allows Jews to reclaim Jerusalem and the occupied who gained internet fame Mexico A long-running campaign by properties lost during the West Bank. Jordan settled after a widely circulated growing Jewish settlers to evict 1948 war surrounding several Palestinian families video showed a Palestinian MEXICO CITY, JUNE 04 (AGENCIES) dozens of Palestinian Israel’s creation, a right on the land in the early resident scolding him for A massive water-filled sinkhole families in east Jerusalem is denied to Palestinians who 1950s after they fled from stealing her home, says the which opened up for unknown still underway, even after it lost property in the same what is now Israel during the Palestinians are squatting on reasons in a field in central Mexico fuelled weeks of unrest and conflict, including 1948 war. Settlers began private property. is getting bigger, local authorities helped ignite an 11-day Gaza Palestinian citizens of trying to evict them shortly They’ve lived here since said. The sinkhole, which was just war. Israel.The Israeli rights after Israel captured the 1956. This is not exactly five metres in diameter when it was An intervention by Israel’s group Ir Amim, which West Bank and east ancestral land going back to first discovered in the village of attorney general at the closely follows the various Jerusalem in the 1967 war. the times of Abraham,” he Santa Maria Zacatepec in the height of the unrest has put court cases, estimates that at For Palestinians, the said. Fauci says he is a central state of Puebla, is now 97 the most imminent evictions least 150 households in the evictions conjure bitter tenant and has no personal by 78 metres, the general on hold. But rights groups neighbourhoods of Sheikh memories of what they refer involvement in the legal coordinator of the local civil say evictions could still Jarrah and Silwan have been to as the Nakba, or dispute, but he insists the defence, Jose Antonio Ramirez, proceed in the coming served with eviction notices catastrophe, of Israel’s land belongs to the Jewish said on Thursday.The owner of the months as international and are at various stages in creation, when some people. only house in the vicinity, which attention wanes, potentially a long legal process. 700,000 Palestinians a We don’t want to cause stands directly on the edge of the igniting another round of The plight of four majority of the population them any pain and crater, first discovered it when she bloodshed.The settlers have extended families fled or were driven from suffering, but we need to heard a loud noise at the weekend. been waging a decades-long comprising six households their homes as the new state have our land back,” he Ramirez said her house was at campaign to evict the in Sheikh Jarrah, who were battled five Arab armies. said. “If there are people risk.The causes of the sinkhole families from densely at risk of imminent eviction, Most ended up in refugee there, they have to were being investigated.Mexico's populated Palestinian triggered protests that camps in the West Bank, unfortunately get out.” Ir national civil defence said neighbourhoods in the so- eventually merged with Gaza and neighbouring Amim estimates that settler underground water flowing in the called Holy Basin just demonstrations over the of families requested that evictions once the furor dies according to Ir Amim, countries. organizations have already easily eroded soil may have caused outside the walls of the Old policing of a flashpoint holy the attorney general also down and international including a group of families This isn’t just about evicted 10 families in the crater.The estimated depth of City, in one of the most site. After warning Israel to intervene in their cases, attention turns elsewhere. set to be evicted in August. Sheikh Jarrah, it’s about the Sheikh Jarrah and at least the hole is around 20 metres. sensitive parts of east halt the evictions and securing a delay. Israelis are We’re talking about over Banners hang in the entire Israeli occupation, 74 families in Silwan, a few The Popocatepetl volcano is Jerusalem. withdraw from the site, currently trying to form a 1,000 Palestinians in both street in Sheikh Jarrah, and that’s the problem. They kilometers (miles) away, in about 50 km west of Santa Maria Israel captured east Hamas fired long-range new government, adding these two areas that are at small, occasional protests aren’t going to stop here, the last few decades. Zacatepec. The ground there Jerusalem, home to holy rockets at Jerusalem on May more uncertainty to the risk of mass displacement,” are still held there. Police says Saleh al-Diab, who was The Israeli government contains deposits of ash and fine sites sacred to Jews, 10, triggering heavy fighting process. Cohen said. “Because these man checkpoints at either born, grew up, married and and a settler organisation volcanic fragments.According to Christians and Muslims, in between Israel and the That has bought time for measures are taking place in end of the road and keep raised his own children in that markets properties in the US Geological Survey, sinkholes the 1967 war and annexed it Islamic militant group that the families, but nothing has such an incremental watch as Jewish settlers who one of the homes under Sheikh Jarrah did not form when groundwater circulates in a move not recognized rules Gaza. been resolved. manner, it’s so much easier seized one of the homes in threat in Sheikh Jarrah. respond to requests for underground, dissolving the rock internationally. Israel views As tensions rose, Israel’s Everything is very much to dismiss. The families in 2009 come and go. You lose your home to comment. Israel has beneath the surface and creating the entire city as its capital, Attorney General Avichai hanging in the balance,” Sheikh Jarrah are stuck in The settlers say they them in 1948 and then they previously said the evictions spaces and caverns underground. while the Palestinians want Mandelblit secured the said Amy Cohen, a limbo. A total of at least 65 acquired the land from Jews come back after 1967 and are a private real estate Authorities have repeatedly east Jerusalem as the capital postponement of the final spokeswoman for Ir Amim. families in two areas of the who owned it before the take your home again, he dispute and accused Hamas warned the public to stay away of their future state.The hearing in the case of the Rights advocates fear Israel neighborhood are 1948 war, when Jordan said. Yaakov Fauci, a settler of seizing on the issue to from the crater. settlers are using a 1970 law four families. Another group will proceed with the threatened with eviction, captured what is now east from Long Island, New York, incite violence. ‘FIND HIM AND KILL HIM’: A pilot’s desperate escape from Kabul KABUL, JUNE 04 were furious that he had been initially approved in October, called a friend, who arranged before ultimately letting them Asadi wanted Zainab to The Asadi family was up absent without leave since last as first reported by Stars and for the family to live at Bagram pass. Motley said she secured attend American schools and before dawn Tuesday after a fall. They had repeatedly Stripes.The pilot’s application Air Base, a US facility. the Asadis’ second learn English. His wife said fitful night’s sleep. ordered him to report for last fall “was found to have not They kept a low profile. humanitarian parole last she had been practicing her They dressed quickly in duty, but he refused. been fully vetted” by the American service members month, without seeking English: “Good morning,” new clothes bought the day “I worried that they would Department of Defense, helped feed and care for endorsement from the and, “Hi, how are you?” she before and tucked a few never allow me to leave leading to the department to them, Asadi said. They Pentagon. On Tuesday, she recited. Zainab said she was precious belongings into two because then every pilot withdraw its support, Major showered Zainab with toys accompanied the family from eager to play with the suitcases and two backpacks. would want to go to the US,” Robert Lodewick, a Pentagon and stuffed animals.In early Kabul to Dubai, United Arab sponsor’s family dog, which Major Naiem Asadi was he said in lightly accented spokesperson, said in a December, Motley said, Emirates, and on to New York she had seen romping around about to make the move of a English. statement. American commanders — and a new life in America during a video call. lifetime — one that would But now Asadi, 32 — a The Defense Department ordered the family to leave. for the family. By Tuesday night, the separate his family from their farmer’s son, a graduate of “would have been in the She said she persuaded the Asadi’s American sponsor, Asadi family was struggling to loved ones and the only Afghanistan’s military officer position of abetting the military to return the family’s who requested anonymity to sleep on padded seats inside country they have ever known. academy and by many desertion of a serving Afghan passports. The Asadis then help safeguard the precise the modern, gleaming Dubai As he and his wife, Rahima accounts the Afghan air officer, as Asadi had not went into hiding at a safe location of the Asadis in the International Airport. They Asadi, zipped their luggage, force’s leading killer of informed his chain of have been threatened by the armed MD-530 helicopters house in Kabul. United States, has offered had never traveled outside they worried that unforeseen Taliban fighters — was command of his parole Taliban. Most can only dream that protected the crash site “We just prayed and housing in New Jersey and has Afghanistan or flown on an obstacles would block the leaving his native country, application,” Lodewick said. of relocating their families to of a downed US Air Force pilot prayed to somehow be able to paid travel expenses, Motley international flight. Rahima path to their final destination. probably forever. “It’s a pity. He did this to the United States.Asadi in northern Afghanistan until go to the US,” Asadi said. The said. A dozen former and Asadi and Zainab The decorated Afghan air In the pale morning light escape from serving his conceded that his actions he was rescued. “This is one family rarely went out, fearing active US military advisers encountered an escalator for force helicopter pilot had in Kabul, the pilot held three homeland,” said Lt. Col. could undermine air force of countless events where that someone would report who worked with Asadi have the first time. The girl rode been in hiding with his wife dark-green Afghan passports. Jalaluddin Ibrahimkhel, an morale, but he said he acted Major Asadi’s actions have them to the Taliban, who he pledged support. Once in the the stairs with delight, but and daughter, Zainab, 5, for Inside each was a full-page Afghan air force to protect himself and his protected and saved lives,” said had told him, “The US United States, the family will her mother stumbled. seven months. The Taliban stamp bearing an image of spokesperson, adding that family. He said he ignored Yost wrote in a statement cannot protect you.” be able apply for asylum. “Mom, don’t be afraid!” had threatened his life, Abraham Lincoln that would others were now more likely orders to report for duty included with the pilot’s 2020 On Tuesday morning, Asadi From the plane, Asadi Zainab said. On Wednesday posting his photo online with carry them to the United to “make excuses and because he feared he would application. and his wife, both wearing telephoned his father in afternoon, their Emirates the instructions “Find him and States: “Holder has been escape.” With the Afghan air be detained for desertion. In the same application, an new plaid shirts and jeans, Ghazni province in Airline flight landed at JFK kill him,” he said. granted parole authorization force struggling to support But he said he had fulfilled assistant secretary of defense, piled into an SUV bound for southeastern Afghanistan to Airport in New York. The On top of being a pilot, he by USCIS for one year,” it read. ground troops as US forces his 10-year commitment to Ezra Cohen, wrote of Asadi, the Kabul airport. Zainab, reveal that he was flying to the Asadis were ushered into a is Hazara, a member of an An American lawyer had withdraw air support and the military last year — “Applicant and his family are clutching a pink rose, hopped United States. Last year, the meeting with immigration ethnic minority that has been helped the family obtain essential flight mechanics, serving eight of those years as in imminent danger of being inside, her ponytail bobbing. Taliban wrote and phoned his officers, without their lawyer, repeatedly attacked by the humanitarian parole — a Asadi’s furtive escape raised a pilot, logging 3,000 flight killed by the Taliban.” An airline official accepted father and ordered him to but were granted entry 45 Taliban and the Islamic State little-known authorization by an elemental question: If the hours and countless combat After their application was documents showing that the surrender his son or face minutes later. group in Afghanistan. Asadi the US Citizenship and country’s ace attack missions. “I haven’t done revoked in October, the Asadis had tested negative death, according to a copy of The family walked outside said even air force Immigration Services to enter helicopter pilot was permitted anything wrong,” he said. family’s passports were for the coronavirus the day the letter attached to the 2020 onto US soil, weary but commanders often the United States for a year — to walk away from his post, To those he served with, he delivered to the US military, before. Then an immigration parole application. Now, as elated. “I’m really not so discriminated against him but only after the US military what were other Afghan pilots was a hero.Air Force Capt. said Kimberley Motley, a North officer in a glass booth used the father learned that the tired because of all the new because of his ethnicity.There abruptly revoked a similar — and other soldiers — to Robert Yost wrote that in July Carolina-based human rights a magnifying glass to family was on its way to safety, and beautiful things we’ll be was more: His commanders refugee application that was think?Many pilots and soldiers 2020, Asadi flew one of two attorney. Frightened, Asadi examine all three stamps he wept and hung up. doing now,” Naiem Asadi said.