International FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2014 Ukraine president shakes up military 200 troops killed in conflict to date KIEV: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko won parlia- conditions for a more lasting ceasefire. “anti-terrorist operation” grouping the army and other secu- ment’s approval yesterday to shake up the leadership of the The group includes a former president of Ukraine, who is rity bodies in the drive against the rebels. Though armed forces as they try to end a rebellion by pro-Russian informally representing Kiev, Moscow’s ambassador to Kiev, Poroshenko won backing on the military shake-up, a debate separatists. Parliament endorsed Colonel-General Valery and a high-ranking official from the Organization for on “decentralisation” proposals for the regions, which is part Heletey as defense minister after hearing Poroshenko Security and Cooperation in Europe. It should meet “no later of his peace plan, ran into trouble when a key coalition part- describe the 46-year-old as a man “who will work day and than July 5th with the goal of reaching an unconditional ner came out against them. night for restoring the military capability of our armed and mutually agreed sustainable ceasefire”, a document forces.” He also named a new chief of the general staff. agreed by the four ministers said. French President Francois Overnight ATTACKS Poroshenko took office last month with the country in Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged In overnight violence, one Ukrainian soldier was killed crisis, as two eastern regions press demands to break away Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday to encourage the when rebels approached in a car bearing a white flag and and join Russia, following the example of Crimea earlier this separatists to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian then opened fire, a military spokesman, Oleksiy year. After months of unsuccessful attempts to quash the authorities, the French president’s office said. Dmytrashkivsky, said. The border service also said nine uprising, he wants to sharpen the army’s effectiveness while border guards were wounded in a rebel mortar attack on exploring diplomatic options to end the crisis, which has Deterring aggression their post in Luhansk region on the border with Russia. revived East-West tensions in ways reminiscent of the Cold Poroshenko, looking solemn and at times striking the Poroshenko declared a week-long ceasefire on June 20 to War. table with his hand to make a point, did not mention the give rebels the time to down weapons under an amnesty Poroshenko on Monday rejected a further extension of a Berlin talks or the agreement on a possible new ceasefire, offered in his peace plan. 10-day unilateral ceasefire in the east, where the govern- but put the emphasis instead on the need for a strong, He extended it by three days on June 27. But on ment says 200 service personnel have been killed since the reformed army to defend Ukraine. Heletey, who will replace Monday he refused to prolong it on the advice of his secu- start of the conflict, as well as hundreds of civilians and acting defense minister Mykhailo Koval, would enact rity officials who said the ceasefire had allowed rebels to rebels. In Berlin on Wednesday the foreign ministers of reforms to build an army which would deter anybody “from regroup and rearm, and had cost the lives of government Russia and Ukraine, after talks with German and French min- planning aggression” against Ukraine, he said. The new troops. Poroshenko’s decision to relaunch operations isters, supported a further meeting of a “contact group” head of the general staff, 52-year-old Lieutenant-General against the rebels won US support but harsh condemna- involving separatist leaders and aimed at trying to work out Viktor Muzhenko, was until recently a top official in the tion from Russia. —Reuters Tale of abuse and revenge behind fall of China ‘tiger’ BEIJING: When Chinese official Zhou Jianhua refused to tell Communist Party investigators he had received massive bribes, he says they beat him and forced him to drink toilet water until he confessed. As a crackdown on corruption pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping ensnares a growing list of senior officials, Zhou’s account-in a recording obtained by AFP-offers a rare glimpse inside the ruling Party’s opaque internal disciplinary system. Lawyers say his case demon- strates how the faction-riven graft investigations can mask power struggles and are carried out with little respect for the law. “They used my relatives as hostages, and tortured me unrelentingly until I accepted the fabricated charges,” Zhou- handed a suspended death sentence earlier this year-told his lawyers in a recorded meeting. The Party’s internal justice system, known as “shuanggui”, operates without oversight from judicial authorities and has been increasingly criticized by China’s legal community. More than 15 officials have reportedly died from abuses in “shuang- gui” since 2007. Xi has vowed to take down high-ranking “tigers” as well as low-level “flies” in an anti-corruption push KARBALA: Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud Al-Sarkhi, in front of his introduced in response to widespread public anger over home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala. — AP endemic graft. Zhou’s case was thrust into the spotlight last month when one such tiger-the former top Communist offi- Iraq struggles to drive cial in Jiangxi province, Su Rong-was placed under investiga- tion. Zhou says his own fall came swiftly after he accused Su’s wife of corruption, and was payback from his party superior. back Sunni militants Red envelopes For years Zhou was a loyal Communist Party member and successful bureaucrat in Xinyu in Jiangxi, known for its enor- BAGHDAD: Baghdad’s forces struggled yesterday to break a military and militants have deployed lots of roadside bombs and car bombs.” mous steel plant, where he rose to become head of the city stalemate with Sunni militants, as US officials reached out to key lead- Juburi said it would be days before security forces could make a con- People’s Congress, the local legislature. Like his colleagues, ers to push for an end to political chaos in Iraq. Prime Minister Nuri Al- certed push into the city, the capital of Salaheddin province. he earned little but amassed enough money-sometimes Maliki meanwhile extended an amnesty aimed at undercutting sup- port for the militants who have overrun large areas of Iraq, after the Clashes south of Baghdad through illicit means-for his wife to travel to Britain and other new parliament’s first session ended in farce, with MPs walking out Maliki’s security spokesman also told reporters that loyalists had countries. But in 2011 Zhou began to suspect he might be instead of working on government formation. clashed with militants south of Baghdad. In an effort to break the targeted by an inquiry, and took the risky step of telling a On the ground, Iraqi forces were struggling to break a stalemate stand-off, the government has bought more than a dozen Sukhoi war- Party anti-corruption team that Su’s wife had been illegally with militants after initially wilting before the onslaught. They have planes from Russia, announcing on Tuesday that a second group of profiting from land deals in Xinyu. since performed better, albeit with limited offensive success.A police five aircraft had arrived in Iraq, implicitly as part of that deal. But the Weeks later, several of Zhou’s associates were taken into lieutenant colonel said security forces yesterday clashed with militants London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies said the police custody and he was informed that Su had ordered the near Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, which they have been three Sukhoi Su-25 ground attack jets shown landing in Iraq in a video same team to investigate him. In January 2012 Communist unsuccessfully fighting to retake in a highly-touted operation for over released Tuesday by the defence ministry are likely from Iran, which officials detained Zhou and took him to a centre where he a week. West of the northern city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, a roadside has pledged to aid Iraq against the militants. would be held for nearly six months without any access to a bomb yesterday killed one Kurdish peshmerga fighter and wounded IISS also noted that most of Iran’s Su-25s are actually from Saddam lawyer, normal practice under “shuanggui”. “He felt that four others. The cost of the conflict has been high for Iraq’s forces, with Hussein’s air force. Defecting pilots had flown seven planes across the because he reported Su Rong’s wife, he was being targeted nearly 900 security personnel among 2,400 people killed in June, the border during the Gulf War in 1991. As calls for politicians to unite as revenge,” said Zhou Ze, one of China’s most outspoken highest figure in years, according to the United Nations. The day remained unheeded, Washington contacted Iraqi and regional players human rights lawyers, who now represents the former before, Salaheddin province’s governor, Ahmed Abdullah Juburi, said individually, with President Barack Obama calling Saudi Arabia’s King bureaucrat. —AFP security forces were “advancing slowly because all of the houses and Abdullah and Vice President Joe Biden talking to former Iraqi parlia- burned vehicles (en route to Tikrit) have been rigged with explosives, ment speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi, a prominent Sunni leader. —AFP.