INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2015 Strongman looms large as votes

PARAMARIBO: Suriname goes to the polls in general Surinamese interior. The smallest country in South elections yesterday with its convicted drug trafficker America, Suriname was colonized by the British and president striving to tighten his controversial grip on Dutch and gained independence from the the reins of power. The colorful Desi Bouterse, who in 1975. Five years later, a group of ser- has ruled the small South American country on and geants led by Bouterse overthrew prime minister off since 1980, is seeking to dispense with his alliance Henck Arron and installed a military government. with one-time nemesis and preside Whether in his dictator’s fatigues and sunglasses or over the first non-coalition democratic government in his sharp president’s suit, Bouterse, 69, has loomed Suriname’s history. Bouterse’s National Democratic large over the country’s politics ever since. Party formed a government after the last elections in His regime put down two countercoups and 2010 by forging a motley mega-coalition, returning rounded up and executed 15 opponents in 1982, an him to power for the second time since his 1980-1987 event known as the “December killings.” Bouterse military government. stepped down in 1987, but returned to power in 1990 But after the coalition fell apart, the NDP decided in a second, bloodless coup. After leaving power a to go it alone this time, buoyed by strong standings in second time, Bouterse was indicted and court-mar- opinion polls. The party needs to win at least 26 seats tialed for the December killings, but his coalition in the 51-member National Assembly to govern alone, passed a controversial amnesty law in 2012 that and 34 seats to re-elect Bouterse-the president is cho- aborted the trial. sen by a two-thirds majority of parliament. “Strong The president and his family have faced a host of foundations have been laid for the future of this coun- other legal woes, adding to the country’s reputation try,” Bouterse, who has been a coup leader, dictator for drug running, money laundering and graft. The and an international fugitive, told large crowds on Netherlands convicted him in absentia of cocaine Saturday. He accused the main opposition V7, a coali- smuggling in 1999, but he remained free because tion of six parties, of fearmongering. Suriname does not extradite its citizens. Earlier this “We have to stop with using the culture of fear and PARAMARIBO: A Surinamese woman votes (right) at a polling station during the general elections in year, a Dutch court rejected his third bid to have the unremitting suspense against this society,” he bel- Paramaribo yesterday. — AFP conviction overturned. In all, seven parties and four lowed, to hearty cheers from supporters. The V7, coalitions are vying for the ballots of 350,000 regis- which has a broad ethnic base in the racially diverse “powerful, honest government, good governance.” before teaming up with his former foe in 2010. tered voters, who will also elect their district and local country whose 500,000 people have roots in Asia, The third main group in the election fray, and possible representatives. Polls open at 7:00 am (1000 GMT) and Africa, Europe and the Americas, in turn accuses powerbroker, is the Alternative Combination alliance Bouterse looms large close 12 hours later. The first, partial results are Bouterse of massive corruption. At the same time, leg- led by Brunswijk, a former guerrilla leader who fought The party’s base are the Maroons, the descendants expected at 10:00 pm, with a projection of the full islator Chan Santokhi, who leads the V7, promised a a civil war against Bouterse’s military government of fugitive slaves who set up settlements in the results early today.— AFP 3 die in attack targeting Suicide truck bomb kills Pakistan President’s son at least 5 in Afghanistan KANDAHAR: A suicide truck bombing that the incident was under investiga- killed at least five people and wounded tion. And in western Farah province, Gov Militants target telecoms, one dead 62 in southern Afghanistan yesterday, Asif Nang said rival insurgent groups had officials said. The truck struck at the gate been fighting each other for three days, QUETTA: Three people were killed and four others of the provincial council’s compound in leaving at least 25 dead on both sides. injured when Baluch separatists targeted a convoy Zabul province’s capital of Qalat, council Nang said the fighting in Khaki Safed dis- carrying the Pakistani president’s son in the south- director Atta Jan Haqbayan said. Three of trict was between the Taleban and a western province of Baluchistan late Sunday night, the wounded were council members, group that identified itself as an Islamic police said. “An explosive laden motorbike parked at including two women, and children were State affiliate. He said 10 of those killed a roadside was blown up with a remote control also among the wounded, Haqbayan were identified as Taleban insurgents and device when [the] convoy of President Mamnoon said. Mirwais Noorzai, Zabul’s police 15 as having aligned themselves with IS. Hussain’s son, Salman Mamnoon was passing by late chief, said the attacker used a small truck Nang provided no further details. The Sunday night in Hub Industrial Zone near the border in the bombing. President Ashraf Ghani Taleban have been fighting to overthrow with Karachi,” local police official Ghulam Mustafa condemned the attack in a statement. No the Kabul government since their own Shah said yesterday. He said the president’s son was group immediately claimed responsibility regime was ousted in the 2001 US-led unharmed as his vehicle had already passed the spot for the attack. Insurgent activity in Zabul, invasion. The Islamic State group is where the device exploded hitting a rikshaw and the which borders Pakistan, has intensified in believed to have a presence in last vehicle of the convoy. “The rikshaw driver, a 12- recent months. The province has also Afghanistan, mostly in the south. Afghan year-old child in the rikshaw and a passerby died at seen a number of kidnappings, especially and foreign officials differ on how wide- the spot while four police personnel of the security of minority Hazara Shiite men, raising spread and operational the group’s pres- squad received minor injuries,” he said. fears that Afghanistan’s war may be tak- ence is but most agree it is growing. Zahid Ullah, a senior police official confirmed the ing on a sectarian element. Meanwhile, in northern Sari Pul province, incident and said the president’s son owns a dairy Also yesterday, three policemen were police said the body of a local official in farm in the area and is a frequent visitor. “The presi- killed in neighboring Kandahar province charge of religious affairs, Abdul Wodod, dent’s son was the apparent target of the attack,” he when a firefight erupted between two was found yesterday, three days after he said. Meerak Baluch, spokesman of the Baluch groups of officers, said provincial police was kidnapped. Gen Habib Gulbhary, the Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the spokesmen Zia Durrani. Four of the offi- provincial police chief, said Wodod was attack in a telephone call to AFP. “We claim responsi- cers involved in the fight in Maiwand dis- kidnapped by unknown assailants in bility for the attack, it was in response to the military trict fled the scene, said Durrani, adding Sozma Qala district.— AP operation carried out in various areas of Baluchistan,” he said. Resource-rich Baluchistan is the largest of Pakistan’s four provinces, but its roughly seven mil- lion inhabitants have long complained they do not Quake shakes Tokyo receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth. KARACHI: Pakistani volunteers and rescue workers unload an injured victim of a bomb blast upon Rebels began their fifth insurgency against the state his arrival at a local hospital in Karachi. Police say the son of Pakistan’s president has escaped a in 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed roadside bomb attack unharmed after the blast killed three people and wounded 15. — AP TOKYO: A strong quake shook build- broadcaster NHK reported the effects in the fighting since then. ings in Tokyo yesterday, setting off were felt over a large area around the Lashkar-e-Islam - in the same area, warning phone age. Muslim-majority Kashmir is a heavily militarized alarms and temporarily bringing the capital. Militants target telecoms companies to shut down their operations and land- region, claimed by both Pakistan and India in full but city’s subway system to halt, AFP However, there were no immediate In another development, militants attacked a lords to dismantle mobile phone towers erected on ruled by the two countries in part. Separatists have reporters in the Japanese capital said. reports of injuries or any damage, mobile phone shop in Indian Kashmir yesterday, their property. “We warn these telecommunication been fighting Indian security forces in the Indian- Scientists said there was no risk of a including at any of the shuttered killing one employee and wounding two, in the sec- companies to close all networking services, close administered part of the region since 1989, although tsunami from the quake, which had a nuclear power stations in the region. A ond attack in as many days to target telecommunica- their offices and stop recharging services as well. We the frequency of attacks has waned in recent years. magnitude of 5.3, according to the US massive 9.0 magnitude quake that tion businesses in the disputed region. The militants warn the retailers as well to stop recharging the sub- India accuses Pakistan of training and arming the Geological Survey. The Japan struck off the country’s northeast coast fired at a franchisee outlet of state-owned company scribers within seven days,” the posters read. rebels, a claim Islamabad denies. Militants killed an Meteorological Agency earlier put it at in 2011 generated a powerful tsunami BSNL in Sopore in northern Kashmir before fleeing, a Militants had hurled two grenades at a mobile Indian soldier in the south of Indian-administered 5.6. Both runways at Narita Airport, the that wreaked havoc in a wide area. As senior police officer said. phone tower used by Vodafone, Aircel and Airtel Kashmir yesterday after they opened fire on an army main international gateway to Tokyo, well as killing more than 18,000 peo- The attack follows the appearance last week of near a police station on Sunday. One of the grenades patrol, the police officer said. The army then killed were temporarily closed so staff could ple, it destroyed thousands of homes posters - bearing the name of militant group exploded near the tower without causing any dam- one of the militants after returning fire.m —Agencies check for any damage. and sparked a nuclear emergency at Neither was affected. Alarms on Fukushima when waves swamped mobile phones and in buildings reactor cooling systems. Japan is locat- sounded as the quake developed with ed at the junction of a number of the Nepalese mark one month since quake a series of vertical bounces, as well as earth’s tectonic plates and experiences a side-to-side shaking. The quake around a fifth of the planet’s most struck at a relatively shallow 35 kilo- powerful quakes every year. But rigid KATHMANDU: Hundreds of Nepalese gathered yes- when flying into Kathmandu. “Its collapse signifies he said. metres (22 miles), the USGS said, put- building codes and strict enforcement terday at the rubble of a 19th-century tower in the devastation our country has suffered,” she said. The twin quakes destroyed nearly half a million ting its epicenter just 34 kilometers mean even powerful quakes that Kathmandu to mark one month since a devastating The 50.5-metre high attraction-which contained a houses and left thousands in desperate need of food, north of the heaving metropolis of might devastate other parts of the earthquake killed more than 8,600 people in the spiral staircase and offered visitors panoramic views clean water and shelter, with experts warning that Tokyo, one of the most densely popu- world frequently do little damage to Himalayan nation. The quake, which was followed by of the capital-was reduced to just its base when the the opportunity to help victims is closing fast before lated areas in the world. National Japanese infrastructure.— AFP a second major tremor on May 12, brought down quake struck. Ram Chandra Shrestha, who spent 12 monsoon rains arrive next month. The World Food buildings across the country including historic tem- years tending the garden in the tower complex, told Program announced plans to open up land and air ples, monuments and the much-loved Dharahara AFP that “it is hard to look up and not see the tower, routes to get more aid to far-flung mountain villages tower as tourists and locals climbed its more than it sends a chill through my heart”. Those attending demolished by the quake, although no details were 200 steps. the ceremony, organized by political party given. “To open up some of the overland routes is Turkmenistan unveils After the national anthem was played on loud- Bibeksheel Nepali, told of their despair not only of gonna be incredibly difficult, it’s gonna be incredibly speakers, crowds surrounded the collapsed tower losing their homes but also their jobs, leaving them dangerous and it’s gonna be incredibly expensive,” and observed 56 seconds of silence at 11:56, the facing a bleak future. Like thousands of others, 41- WFP’s emergency coordinator Richard Ragan told leader’s gold statue moment the 7.8-magnitude quake ripped through year-old Dil Maya Rai has been living in a tent since reporters. The United Nations has repeatedly called Nepal on April 25. Nina Shrestha, a 23-year-old stu- the massive quake. “We can’t find a room to rent and on international donors to ramp up their aid contri- ASHGABAT: The isolated Central Asian Berdymukhamedov did not attend, the dent carrying a small Nepali flag, said the nine-storey the carpet factory where I worked also collapsed in butions, with only a fifth of its $423 million appeal state of Turkmenistan yesterday parliament’s speaker Akdja Nurberdieva tower was “always the first thing” she looked for the quake,” Rai said. “I don’t know how we will get by,” trickling in so far. —AFP unveiled a large gold statue of President said it was the result of “multiple sug- Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov riding a gestions from simple people, work col- horse, in a move echoing his predeces- lectives and public organizations,” in sor’s cult of personality. The 21-metre order “to mark his services to the home- statue, located in the capital Ashgabat, land”. The ceremony featured a rendi- depicts the president mounted on his tion of the national anthem, soldiers favorite horse, Akkan (“White Khan”), taking an oath of loyalty to the presi- and saluting with his right hand. dent and a flock of white pigeons being Cast in bronze and covered in 24- released into the sky. carat gold leaf, it is the first such monu- Last year, the parliament named ment of the president of the energy-rich horse-lover Berdymukhamedov a ex-Soviet country since he came to “Master Jockey and Mentor”. He was lat- power in 2006. The statue is called “The er recognized as a “People’s Horse Protector”, Berdymukhamedov’s unoffi- Breeder” at a day of equestrian events in cial title. The former dentist came to April. In 2013, the president suffered a power after the death of Saparmurat fall from his horse seconds after win- Niyazov, who built a gold statue of him- ning a race, clips of which have gained self that rotated with the sun’s move- thousands of views on YouTube. “The ments. It was taken down several years protector” statue was unveiled to mark after Niyazov’s death, but has since Ashgabat Day, a holiday celebrating the been moved to the outskirts of the capi- capital of 400,000 people that was rec- tal. ognized by the Guinness Book of Niyazov, known for establishing a Records in 2013 for having “the highest personality cult, also renamed months density of white marble-clad buildings”. after members of his family and wrote a Turkmenistan is regularly blacklisted as “book of the soul” that all school chil- one of Freedom House’s “Worst of the KATHMANDU: Nepalese residents and others participate in a candle-light memorial for the victims of the April 25 earthquake in Kathmandu dren were expected to learn by heart. At Worst” list of repressive countries for its yesterday, as the country marks one month since a deadly earthquake struck the Himalayan nation. — AFP the unveiling of the new statue, which lack of civic liberties.— AFP