Established 1961 9 International Sunday, June 24, 2018 Anti-trafficking campaigners abducted and raped in India Indian activists condemn attack on frontline workers CHENNAI, India: Five Indian anti trafficking campaigners ing to curb the trafficking of women and children con- were gang-raped at gunpoint during an awareness pro- demned the shocking attack on “frontline workers”. “We gram they were organizing in a village, police said on are still processing what has happened,” said Rajiv Friday. Unidentified men picked up nine activists during a Ranjan Sinha of the Jharkhand Anti-Trafficking Network street play performance in Kochang village in Jharkhand - a coalition of 14 grassroots organizations working in state and drove them into a dense forest, where the men the central Indian state. “This is the first time field work- were beaten up and the women raped, police officer ers have been targeted and it is both surprising and Ashwini Kumar Sinha said. shocking. It is now going to “It is a very rare case, become more difficult to where people working on work on this issue.” anti-trafficking have been tar- India has seen an increase geted,” Sinha said in a phone in reports of human traffick- interview from Khunti district Field workers ing in recent years. Almost of Jharkhand. “We are not 20,000 women and children ruling out the possibility of targeted for were victims of trafficking in the involvement of trafficking 2016, a rise of 25 percent gangs and are investigating the first time from the previous year, all aspects.” The street play according to government had been organized by chari- data. Activists say the figures ty Asha Kiran, which runs a are under-reported, especial- shelter home for the rehabili- ly due to a lack of awareness tation of rescued girls in Khunti district of Jharkhand, in rural areas, emphasizing the importance of programs run which has been identified as a trafficking hotspot. by various charities to combat trafficking. There are around 200 rescued girls in Asha Kiran’s “The incident underlines the dangers on the ground and shelter. Most of were trafficked into domestic servitude the fact that human trafficking is an organized and ruthless to cities where a growing middle class is looking for crime,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini, an anti-trafficking cheap live-in labor. Jharkhand is among the top five charity that also works in Jharkhand. “Every day young states in India that reports increasing cases of human girls are being rescued from domestic servitude in Indian trafficking, with traffickers targeting poor villages, con- cities. Many of them are from remote villages, which is vincing vulnerable families to send their daughters away why these awareness programs are so important and the JHARKHAND: Schoolgirls holding placards participate in a protest rally against the rape of two teenage girls in Chatra for employment, campaigners said. Indian activists fight- incident is shocking.” —Reuters and Pakur districts of eastern state of Jharkhand, India.—Reuters gressional hearing: “Considering North Korea’s repeated will not provide details of the negotiations, warning Ten days after history of violating past agreements, there is little reason reporters the process “can be difficult when we’re dis- to trust them this time.” tracted by all of the questions going on.” But she denied And, despite his professed faith in Kim’s word, Pompeo that the talks were at a dead halt, even if the detailed Trump-Kim summit knows he has work to do to establish a roadmap towards negotiations have yet to begin. “We have been in commu- Community takes lead concrete steps and that he will have to speak to Kim again, nication with the Government of North Korea,” she said on hard work yet to begin probably in Pyongyang. Highlighting this apparent gap Thursday. to rebuild Philippine between Trump’s rhetoric and facts on the ground, the “Secretary Pompeo will be meeting with them and talk- administration Friday cited the “unusual and extraordinary ing with them at the earliest possible date to try to imple- city after siege WASHINGTON: The landmark summit between President threat” from North Korea’s nuclear arsenal to extend decade- ment the outcomes of the US-DPRK summit.” While Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong Un ended with a pledge old sanctions on Kim’s regime in a statement to Congress. Pompeo pushes on with follow up talks, Trump appears MANILA: When Tong Pacasum was allowed back into of “complete denuclearization,” but ten days on no timetable happy to celebrate the summit as a success, as if the joint the area where his family home once stood in Marawi for action has emerged. After flying back to Washington last War games statement itself marked a beginning to the end of Kim’s on the Philippine island of Mindanao, there was noth- week, giddy with success, the US leader tweeted “There is no “There’s a lot of work between here and there. My team nuclear program. He claims he has already received “good ing left for him to salvage months after a bloody siege longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea”-a bold claim with is already doing it. I’ll likely travel back before too terribly news” and on Thursday declared that the North has that levelled much of the city. But Pacasum considers Kim’s arsenal still in place. But senior US officials admit there is long,” Pompeo said on Monday, without setting a travel “already blown up one of their big test sites. In fact, it was himself lucky: his family is safe, and they have a title to much work to be done as negotiators thrash out the details of date. Pompeo’s spokeswoman Heather Nauert has said she actually four of their big test sites.” —AFP their property, which will be key as residents and what they hope will be Pyongyang “complete, verifiable and authorities begin rebuilding after the country’s biggest irreversible” disarmament. and fiercest urban battle in years. Many observers were disappointed that the short Others among the 200,000 Maranaos - as resi- statement of intent signed by the two leaders was not dents of Marawi are known - are not as fortunate. more clear on the definition of denuclearization, fearing When pro-Islamic State rebels laid siege to the city in Kim plans to keep his hard-won deterrent. Secretary of May 2017, everyone fled. Residents including Pacasum State Mike Pompeo angrily insists that the term “com- were allowed to inspect their homes and retrieve their plete” in the document “encompasses” the concept that belongings only recently. Groundbreaking - when the denuclearization will be “verifiable and irreversible.” demolitions of all affected structures will begin - is Trump has gone further, claiming on June 12 that the scheduled for July, after a private developer is selected. process will start very quickly, then on June 21 confusing The process will take several months, after which the issue: “It will be a total denuclearization, which is construction of roads and other public facilities will already taking place.” begin. The government will then give funds to residents Pompeo has been only marginally more cautious. On will then be given funds to construct their homes. June 13, he said “We believe that Kim Jong Un understands Rebuilding Marawi could cost more than $1 billion and the urgency ... that we must do this quickly” and added will be complete by the end of 2021, officials estimate. that he hopes for “major disarmament” with two-and-a- But the process could be delayed by questions on land half years. So far, however, this confidence rests solely on ownership, said Pacasum, who helped evacuate people trust in the assurances that Kim gave Trump at the summit, during the siege, and now liaises with the provincial and his reported promise to China to “implement the sum- government on rehabilitation. mit’s consensus step by step.” “It’s going to be a huge challenge, as a lot of resi- When Pompeo said of Kim’s pledge, “I was there when dents don’t have titles to their properties, even though he said it. He made a personal commitment. He has his rep- they have been living there for generations,” he said. utation on the line,” Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at “If we don’t do it right, it will cause more pain and suf- Brookings, was scathing. “This is one of the most naive fering, and we have already suffered so much,” said statements ever made by an American diplomat,” Wright SINGAPORE: US President Donald Trump, right, walks out with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, left, after Pacasum, who has participated in consultations with wrote on Twitter. “I hope he is trying to mislead us taking part in a signing ceremony at the end of their historic US-North Korea summit, at the Capella Hotel other residents and officials on the plans for rebuilding. because it would be truly frightening if he believed it.” on Sentosa island in Singapore.—AFP Abraham Denmark of the Wilson Center warned a con- Make or break Muslims as well as indigenous people have been caught in the middle of a five-decade old insurgency in Mindanao, exacerbated by loggers and mining compa- Pope to make Vatican Refugee children in nies eager to tap its rich resources including gold, copper and nickel, experts say. President Rodrigo Duterte has called the island a “flashpoint for trouble” changes in push for Bangkok, Jakarta and atrocities by Islamist and communist rebels. Martial law imposed in May 2017 is in place until the reform, transparency face trafficking risk end of the year. Conflict over land was one of the major triggers of BANGKOK: A lack of legal protections is putting refugee violence in Mindanao even before the siege, and could VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will be making several sig- children in Bangkok and Jakarta at heightened risk of traf- be a “make or break” issue in the rehabilitation of nificant changes in the Vatican in the next few weeks and ficking and forced labor, campaigners said.