MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 INTERNATIONAL Violent protests as Nepal adopts new constitution

KATHMANDU: Nepal yesterday adopted a new “The democratic revolution of Nepal’s peo- that will devolve power from the centre has against the constitution, which have seen some men. Hundreds had gathered yesterday outside constitution aimed at bolstering its transforma- ple which began nearly seven decades ago and widespread support, but critics say the planned parts of southern Nepal shut down for weeks. parliament in Kathmandu, which was decked tion to a peaceful democracy after decades of the people’s wish for long-term peace has internal borders will leave some historically mar- Work on the bill began in 2008 after the out in balloons and Nepali flags. political instability and a long civil war, even as become a reality today.” The new constitution is ginalised groups under-represented in parlia- Maoists won parliamentary elections and abol- The mood on the capital was broadly cele- protests raged over its terms. The charter, the the final stage in a peace process that began ment. They include the Madhesi and Tharu eth- ished the monarchy. It was initially supposed to bratory although there were some protests ear- first to be drawn up by elected representatives, when Maoist fighters laid down their arms in nic minorities who mainly inhabit Nepal’s south- finish by 2010, but the Maoists were unable to ly yesterday by political groups who oppose the had been voted into law Wednesday after the 2006 after a decade-long insurgency aimed at ern plains, along the border with India. secure enough support for the two-thirds bill. They include a breakaway faction of the main political parties-spurred by a deadly earth- abolishing an autocratic monarchy and creating “In this happy moment we have been majority needed to push it through parliament. Maoist party whose spokesman Khadga quake to shelve differences-agreed on a new a more equal society. unable to include half of Nepal’s population,” The three biggest forces in parliament-the Bahadur Biswakarma said the new charter was federal structure. But its adoption follows weeks of clashes said senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai, a Nepali Congress, UML and Maoist parties-finally “against the spirit of the war we fought and the Firecrackers went off in celebration in between police and protesters that have left former prime minister, referring to the densely reached agreement in June, spurred by a 7.8- people’s revolution”. Critics say it does too little Kathmandu as President Ram Baran Yadav more than 40 people dead, among them two populated southern region known as the Terai. magnitude earthquake two months earlier that to empower minorities, and many took to announced the adoption of the long-delayed children and a police officer lynched as he was “It is not time for us to celebrate yet.” killed nearly 8,900 people and destroyed Twitter to voice their disapproval under the constitution at a ceremony in parliament. “I con- driven to hospital in an ambulance. One pro- around half a million homes. hashtag #notmyconstitution. Bhimarjun gratulate all Nepali brothers and sisters on this tester was killed yesterday when police fired Deadly quake But there has been strong opposition from Acharya, a constitutional lawyer, said the bill historic moment, the announcement of Nepal’s into a crowd which had defied a curfew in the Police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam said some quarters, including Hindu groups who do included provisions for improving the involve- constitution from the Constituent Assembly by southern district of Parsa to demonstrate protests had been held in several parts of the not believe Nepal should be a secular state. ment of low-caste groups, women and minori- the representatives of the people for democrat- against plans to divide the world’s youngest Terai, where some demonstrators had also van- Rights groups say it discriminates against ties in national politics, but some of these were ic rights, economic prosperity and national uni- republic into seven federal provinces. dalised lawmakers’ homes. Neighbouring India women by making it more difficult for them to not clear-cut and success would depend on ty,” he said. The move to create a new federal structure has expressed concern at the ongoing protests pass on citizenship to their children than it is for how they were implemented. — AFP Catalan fever grips Spain as election draws closer

MADRID: Political tension in Spain peaks this week stability” and could drive them to abandon the in the countdown to a vote in Catalonia that could region, causing a possible credit crisis. Various eco- lead the region to declare independence, poten- nomic lobbies have warned against secession, tially breaking up one of Europe’s oldest countries. including Catalonia’s main business association The prospect of the rich northeastern region of 7.5 Foment del Trabell, which said it could cause “enor- million people seceding from Spain has trans- mous financing difficulties”. Mas claims Madrid is formed the September 27 election for the regional orchestrating an intimidation campaign against parliament into a battle for the country’s future. independence. “But the more they mobilise, the Catalan nationalists are pitted against the more votes we pile up,” he said Friday at a rally. Spanish government which has heavyweight back- ing from the likes of US President Barack Obama. General election warm-up Pressure on Catalan regional president Artur Mas The Catalan question fills countless newspaper and his allies has mounted over the past two columns-mostly anti-independence-and prompts weeks, with banks, businesses and European lead- television interviews with politicians and experts. ers warning of the high stakes. Madrid has blocked But the battle is also being fought on the ground, Mas from following Scotland’s example by holding with Rajoy’s Popular Party (PP) canvassing in a straight referendum on independence, so he has Catalonia, a region where it is largely unwelcome. framed the regional election as an indirect Rajoy has been criticized for going after Mas in plebiscite. the courts instead of negotiating with him, and for ignoring Catalan demands for greater fiscal pow- Obama, Cameron back Spain ers. The prime minister has not shifted his tough Polls show pro-secession candidates could win stance on Catalonia, but his PP party is campaign- a majority in the 135-seat Catalan parliament next ing hard there to stop voters defecting to a new Sunday. If they win, Mas has vowed to push political rival, the centre-right Ciudadanos party. through an 18-month roadmap to secession for the The Catalan vote will also be a gauge of Spain’s region, which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s econo- upcoming general election in which Ciudadanos my. Spain’s Conservative Prime Minister Mariano and the left-wing party Podemos are mounting a Rajoy has rolled out the big guns in response, strong challenge to Rajoy. Like the PP, Mas’s CDC COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan workman cleans the rain-soaked memorial for the Sri Lankan soldiers killed while battling Tamil Tiger rebels, near the securing the backing of several world leaders in his party has been hit by corruption scandals which parliament. — AFP opposition to secession. Obama and British Prime have fuelled the rise of these two new forces, trans- Minister David Cameron called for Spain to stay forming Spain’s electoral landscape. But Mas’s united, after Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel opponents are divided. facing up to wartime also backed Rajoy. The main opposition Socialists are calling for a The European Commission reiterated its warn- constitutional reform to answer Catalan demands. ing that Catalonia would drop out of the EU if it Podemos is in favor of letting Catalans vote in a ref- past after damning UN verdict broke away from Spain. Mas claims that in practice erendum on the issue but says Spain should reform the bloc would never let his region go. Major itself in such a way that they would not want to Spanish and European banks have also joined the leave. Ciudadanos, polling in fourth place national- People still searching for justice political fray, along with Catalan businesses, with ly, defends the unity of Spain. “We want to end this both sectors breaking their long silence in the separatist campaign and put an end to this debate,” COLOMBO: Six years after the end of its bloody civil war, of the UN, which has called on Colombo to bring in inter- he promised to restore human rights and the rule of law tense weeks leading up to the vote. Commercial said Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera. In next Sri Lanka this week took historic steps to confront its trau- national judges and prosecutors to assist in investiga- as well as mend fences with regional power India and the and saving banks associations warned that Sunday’s vote, he said, “there should not be win- matic past-but in the conflict-torn Tamil heartland of tions as the only concrete way to achieve accountability. West. Catalonia’s secession would put at risk “financial ners and losers.” — AFP , people are still searching for justice. A long-await- But Sirisena, who favors a domestic inquiry, has stayed “We have averted sanctions,” declared new Foreign ed report from the United Nations human rights office on quiet on the issue. “People in Jaffna are not aware of what Minister , who went before the UN Wednesday laid bare horrific wartime atrocities commit- is going on in Geneva, but what they are hoping for is jus- Human Rights Council in Geneva last week to promise ted by both the army and the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels tice,” said local Tamil politician Suresh Premachandran. fresh efforts to ensure accountability. “If the European in the bitter 37-year war. Union and the US slapped sanctions against us, our econ- It came as President ’s new gov- Pariah no longer omy would have collapsed because more than 50 per- ernment vowed to punish war criminals, with a promise Sri Lanka became an international pariah after repeat- cent of our exports are to those two destinations,” he said. to set up a truth commission and a reparations office to edly resisting calls for a credible probe into the horren- help heal the wounds left by the conflict. Its conciliatory dous crimes allegedly committed by government forces ‘Getting away lightly’ stance is in striking contrast to that of strongman former during and after the war. At the height of Rajapakse’s rule, The international community-and Sri Lanka’s Tamils- leader Mahinda Rajapakse, who insisted his troops did the EU and the US withdrew trade concessions and world have welcomed the new tone set by the island’s leaders. not kill a single Tamil minority civilian, despite compelling leaders including Manmohan Singh, then Indian prime International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO, called it evidence to the contrary. minister, boycotted a Commonwealth summit he hosted a “welcome departure from the aggressive nationalist “That (denial) was the biggest mistake Sri Lanka in 2013. and authoritarian policies of the former government”. made,” government spokesman said. British Prime Minister David Cameron, who attended The (TNA), the minority’s main In the northern Tamil capital of Jaffna, roads and other the summit, used his visit to heavily criticize Rajapakse party, has softened its position, welcoming the UN report war-damaged infrastructure have been repaired and after becoming the first foreign leader to travel to battle- and saying there should be “introspection” into its own where the military was once a constant presence in peo- scarred Jaffna since Sri Lanka, a former British colony, failure to end ethnic tensions. Tiger rebels fighting for ple’s lives, surveillance is a thing of the past. gained independence in 1948. The Tamil Tigers suffered a outright independence for the Tamil minority were Yet thousands are still living in refugee camps six bitter defeat in a no-holds barred military campaign that known for their trademark suicide bombings that years after the war ended in May 2009, and bombed-out also killed thousands of troops. claimed high-profile targets as well as thousands of civil- houses and bullet hole-riddled buildings still scar the The UN says 40,000 Tamil civilians died at the hands of ian lives. In a big shift in policy, the United States will back streets. Tamil citizens want the perpetrators of wartime government forces in the final months of the conflict as Colombo’s plans for a domestic inquiry in a proposed res- BARCELONA: Candidate of the Ciutadans (Citizens) political party Ines Arrimadas crimes to be brought to justice and say they do not trust the army moved to crush the guerillas. When Sirisena olution to the UN Human Rights Council, US Assistant speaks during a campaign meeting for the upcoming Catalan regional elections. —AFP a local inquiry to reach the truth. They have the support came to power in January-backed strongly by the Tamils- Secretary of State Nisha Biswal said last month. — AFP ‘Witch’ killings haunt India’s remote villages

NEW DELHI: As he recovers in a children’s shelter in had caused several villagers’ deaths. “It continues to which include jail terms and fines for branding some- dirt-poor areas home to mainly tribal or indigenous “Lack of information and access to basic services eastern India, 17-year-old Ganita Munda is haunted by thrive because of people’s strong belief in such remote one a witch and for taking part in attacks against groups where most of the witchcraft-linked crimes has to be corrected to address the problem,” Bindhani the sound of his family’s screams as a witch-hunting areas that any illness, crop damage, loss of animal life them. But experts say laws alone are not enough, and occur. In these areas where basic social services like said. Witch-hunting is also used as an excuse to settle gang killed them in their home. The teenager remem- or personal setback is somehow linked to the occult, are pressing for better education to combat the super- modern medical clinics are lacking, some villagers family feuds and land disputes. It is women who are bers breaking free of the attackers and fleeing his rural witchcraft or kalajaadu (black magic),” Bijay Kumar stitions driving the violence. continue to turn to quack doctors who sometimes lay mostly targeted in the deeply patriarchal villages village home in Orissa state to a nearby forest where Sharma, one of Orissa’s most senior police officers, “Ignorance about issues related to health, justice, the blame for an unexplained misfortune or illness on where they are falsely accused of being witches by he hid alone in the dark for hours. told AFP. agriculture or husbandry are at the root of why people black magic. those with a score to settle. — AFP “I shouldn’t be here. I still don’t know how I man- Sharma is charged with enforcing a specific law, become victims to such acts,” rights activist Sashiprava aged (to survive),” Ganita told AFP of the July attack introduced in Orissa last year, designed to tackle and Bindhani told AFP from Orissa’s capital Bhubaneshwar. that left his parents and four of his brothers and sisters reduce the number of crimes against people accused Despite differences, Croatia and dead, including one as young as three. The knife- of witchcraft. Other states have passed similar bills, Long ignored wielding villagers targeted the family because Ganita’s including in remote, northeast Assam last month, Rapidly modernizing India has also ignored many Hungary cooperate on migrants mother had been branded a witch, blamed for a recent outbreak of illness among local children. BEREMEND: Croatia and Hungary have traded under the control of the Islamic State jihadist group, The attack is one of many recorded every year in barbs on a national level, each pointing the finger at which has seized a swathe of territory in Iraq and deeply superstitious rural India, and authorities have the other over their responses to Europe’s escalating neighboring Syria. “It’s horrible. I am so tired.” The 21- been criticized for failing to curb the problem. A mob migrant crisis. On the ground, however, it’s a differ- year-old, his face thin and covered in stubble, con- of villagers chanting “kill the witch” attacked Ganita’s ent story. Ministers from the neighboring govern- tinued: “All the members of my family were killed- family in a remote and impoverished area of Orissa ments have hit out at their counterparts, Hungary my sister, my mother, my father, all of them. “I am the state where the belief in black magic is prevalent. has built a barbed-wire barrier along much of its only survivor. I just want to live my life. That’s all.” “They blamed her for casting evil spells on young chil- border with Croatia, and Zagreb has pledged to con- dren who were ill,” said Ganita, whose nine-year-old tinue redirecting migrants-most of whom have tak- ‘Our destination, Germany’ brother Shambhunath also survived. “I somehow en perilous journeys from the Middle East and Soon after, another bus came to a stop. The wriggled out of their grip,” Ganita said from the home Africa-towards Hungary. doors opened, and a pile of baggage spilled out in Keonjhar district where he is recovering from a knife But at the borders themselves, authorities on onto the road. Ammar, a young man with an athletic wound to the stomach sustained during the attack. both sides appear to have cast aside the rhetoric build who was wearing a white shirt with plaid and exhibited high levels of cooperation and coordi- shorts, jumped off. “I am here with five members of Legislation not enough nation. At an immigration point linking the north- my family, but our whole group is made up of 15 Around 160 murders linked to witchcraft were eastern Croatian town of Baranjsko Petrovo Selo people, all Syrians,” the Damascene law student said. recorded in 2014 across 13 of India’s states, 32 of them with Beremend in Hungary on Saturday night, 11 “We met on board an inflatable boat between in Orissa, according to the latest government figures. buses transported around 600 migrants towards the Turkey and Greece.” “We are on our way to our desti- The numbers have remained steady in recent years, frontier between the two countries. One bus after nation, Germany, any city there.” The scenes of coop- with about 2,300 people, mostly women, killed in such another would stop just meters (yards) from the bor- eration between Croatian and Hungarian authorities attacks since 2000. The issue made international head- der, allowing passengers to disembark before pro- at the border were a marked contrast to the heated lines in August when five women were dragged from gressing on foot into Hungary, where a phalanx of exchanges between the two sides in public. their homes and beaten to death in neighboring buses collected them and immediately departed. Hungary hastily completed a 41-kilometre barbed- Jharkhand state. The entire process took around 15 minutes per wire barrier along its border with Croatia, with the bus, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. “I remaining 330 kilometers of the two countries’ fron- Twenty-seven people were arrested over those ORISSA: In this photograph taken on July 12, 2015, state police personnel and a forensic labora- killings, which happened after a self-proclaimed doc- have been travelling for 20 days,” said Aras, a native tier running roughly along the Drava river, which is tory assistant investigate the house where six members of a tribal family were hacked to death of Iraq’s vast desert province of Anbar, now largely difficult to cross. — AFP tor declared the “witches” were casting evil spells that on suspicion of practicing sorcery at Mundasahi village of Joda block in Keonjhar district. — AFP