World
Russian team ends search mission in crash site
Friday, 18 May 2012 00:00
A 12-MEMBER search and rescue team from Russia ended Thursday its mission to search and evacuate victims and wreckage of the ill-fated Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed into Mount Salak, Bogor, West Java, on May 9. In Dr Sukanto Hospital Jakarta, families of victims gathered to answer questions relating to victims' identifi cation process. Three weeks is the predicted time to complete the identifi cation process. Chief of the Search Mission coordinator Ketut Parwa has confirmed no survivors were found in the wreckage of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100). "As we enter the ninth day of the search and evacuation processes, the joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team has not found any survivors," Parwa declared Thursday. He, however, continued to hope for a miracle, although the chance was very slim. "We hope to fi nd a survivor although the possibility is very slim. We believe in miracles," he stated.
Most the victims' bodies were found in a disfigured condition, most likely because of the plane's explosion or because they were hit by the plane's wreckage. On the eighth day of the evacuation process, the SAR team evacuated the victims' remains in a total of 37 body bags, which were taken to Jakarta via Land and air. On Thursday morning alone, the team evacuated fi ve body bags of the victims' remains from the crash site to Jakarta. According to Parwa, the search efforts will continue for an indefi nite period of time. The Russian-made SSJ-100 was on a demonstration fl ight with 45 people on board when it crashed. The victims consist of eight Russians, 35 Indonesians, one Frenchman and an American. PNA/ANTARA
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Guam joins global condemnation of Iran’s human rights abuses
Monday, 30 April 2012 00:00
THE Senate of the western Pacifi c isLand territory of Guam has called upon the United States to keep up its pressure on Iran over human rights abuses. A resolution was unanimously passed on April 27 by the isLand's 15-member legislature. Fourteen senators voted in favor of the resolution, with none against. One senator was absent and did not vote. Guam - the largest and southernmost of the Mariana IsLands - is a US territory with its own elected governor and legislature. The resolution, which was co-sponsored by the Senate's speaker Judith Won Pat and two other senators, urges the US Congress and President - on behalf of the people of Guam - to "continue their efforts in calling upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to ensure that the nation's youth will not be denied access to higher Education because of their faith."
The resolution specifi cally cites Iran's official government policy to "ensure that 'progress and development' of the Baha'is 'are blocked' with explicit directives that Baha'is 'must be expelled from universities....'" "Although we are small on Guam and far away and removed from the situation in Iran, we want to show the world that we have compassion for the Baha'is' suffering and persecution," said Benjamin J.F. Cruz, vice-speaker of the Senate and a co-sponsor of the resolution. Legislative Secretary Tina Rose Muña Barnes added, "When I put my name on the resolution to co-sponsor it, I did so with conviction because I believe that Education and knowledge is a key to success. And knowing youth are being denied that opportunity I asked myself, how can I not stand up and add my voice? We should not be afraid to stand up and say, 'I want to help.'" The Senators' made their remarks at a public hearing on April 16, ahead of the April 27 vote. The fi rst recorded mention of the Baha'i Faith in Guam was 1936. Today there are some 200 Baha'is on the isLand. "It is our hope that this resolution will hasten the end of denial of Education to the Baha'i youth of Iran and will allow them to be free to serve their country and the world," said a spokesperson for the Guamanian Baha'i community. BWNS
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UN Security Council welcomes Taylor verdict
Monday, 30 April 2012 00:00
THE members of the UN Security Council said in a press statement released Friday that they welcome the verdict issued against former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, which deemed that he is guilty of several violations of international law. "The members of the Security Council welcome the issuance of the verdict of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the trial of Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, which found him guilty of aiding and abetting and planning crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during Sierra Leone's civil war," said the press statement.
"Serious crimes and violations of international humanitarian law, including murder, rape and enlisting children into armed forces, are of particular concern," the statement said. The Special Court for Sierra Leone announced the verdict against Taylor on April 26 in The Hague, where Taylor has been on trial for almost fi ve years. According to the press statement, the 15-member council also expressed its sympathy to those impacted by Taylor's crimes. PNA/ XINHUA
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Diplomats scramble over Scarborough stand-off
Friday, 13 April 2012 00:00
AS Beijing and Manila diplomats were hard at work in Manila on Wednesday in containing any further strain in their "steadfast friendship" over a territorial stand-off in Scarborough waters off Zambales province, their colleagues in Beijing were united in declaring that the partnership "is one which has survived the upheavals of revolutions and wars of liberation, and will transcend the vagaries of time and circumstance." The testimonials to friendship on April 11 were led respectively by Philippines Charge d'Affaires Alex G. Chua of the Philippine embassy in Beijing and former Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who is now the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People's Congress, at the launching in Beijing of the "2012-2013 Philippine-China Years of Friendly Exchanges (YFE)."
After days of trading allegations of sovereignty-breaking incursions by their respective national-flagged vessels into the Scarborough shoal -- over which they have conflicting territorial claims -- Chinese and Filipino tempers have now abated and negotiations are in full swing for a friendly and diplomatic way out of a near confrontation in the otherwise peaceful South China Sea. Both countries have also repeatedly declared they want the tension resolved diplomatically. Neither wants to break the calm, even as China's director of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, Deng Zhonghua said it is Beijing's policy to fend off any oil exploitation on its Huangyan IsLand (Panatag) without prior approval from Beijing.
"Use of force (to resolve the issue) is not a possibility," Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario told reporters. Analysts also said that neither claimant to that part of the South China Sea (called the West Philippine Sea by the Philippines) would be the fi rst to fi re off against peaceful ideals. While seeking a diplomatic solution to the row, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has emphasized that sovereignty must prevail without violence. The DFA, MOFA and the embassy have not issued any further comments on the standoff, apparently out of respect for the diplomatic process. Apart from Li, China's highranking delegation to the April 11 launch included Wang Yingfan, former Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, and the fi rst president of the China- Philippines Friendship Association.
The Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China spearheaded the event. Wang has expressed his commitment to bridge peopleto- people exchanges in various fi elds, interjecting that "I may not have Philippine blood but I consider myself half-Filipino because of my special feelings for the Philippines." The Philippines launched its counterpart ceremony on March 20, with del Rosario at the helm and China's Vice Minister for Agriculture Niu Dun dispatched from Beijing.
Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, led the Philippine delegation to Beijing, joined by Manila Rep. Zenaida B. Angping, who is also prominent in the Filipino-Chinese community in Manila. DFA officials Ma. Theresa Lazaro and Aileen Mendiola-Rau were also part of the delegation. Li noted the friendly relationship between the two countries since ancient times and highlighted the family ties that bind the two countries as manifested by the Chinese ancestry of many prominent Filipinos as well as the birth in Quezon Province of General Ye Fei, one of China's most illustrious military heroes. PNA
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US, not China, poses threats to SE Asia: 2 church groups
Monday, 02 April 2012 00:00
WASHINGTON, DC-- Increased US militar y presence, and not China's emergence, will heighten tension in Asia, two Asian church leaders said at an ecumenical conference here on Sunday. Bishop Felixber to Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) said the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), is opposed to all forms of US militar y inter vention in the region and is calling for a review or abrogation of the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement. Another church leader, The Rev. Kim Young Ju, general secretar y of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), said the NCCK is opposed to the plan of the South Korean government to build a new US militar y base in his countr y.
Calang and Kim headed a panel discussion on peace, militarization and US policy in Asia and Pacific during the Ecumenical Advocacy Days, an annual conference when faith-based groups in the United States draw up a list of US domestic and international policy issues that they will lobby for before the US Congress. There has been a growing concern over security in the region since US President Barack Obama announced in November the new US policy in Asia-Pacific that calls for redeploying American militar y forces away from Europe and the Middle East and sending them to Asia. The policy, dubbed the Pacific Pivot, is widely considered as the US' reaction to the growing economic power of China in the region. Both Calang and Kim, however, said they do not see China as a regional threat.
"The Philippines has a long histor y of trade with China, even before the Spanish colonized us," said Calang of the IFI, one of the member-churches of NCCP. "We have been co-existing peacefully with China for so long." He said even if China and the Philippines have conflicts, such as the one over the Spratly IsLands, he believes these conflicts can be and should be settled through diplomacy. Kim, for his par t, believes that it's up to China and Korea to settle between them whatever dif ferences they may have in the future. He also said involving the US would actually invite China to assume a more belligerent position.
"We (China and Korea) are neighbors, and as neighbors, we must live harmoniously," he said through an interpreter. "But building a US militar y base at the nose of China, is that harmonious living?" "To promote peace in Asia, we need to demilitarize it," Kim said. Last year, the South Korean government began construction on a $970- million naval base in the southern isLand of Jeju. Many anti-base activists in Korea suspect that the naval base will ser ve as an outpost for the United States Navy to project its power against China.
With a strong domestic and international pressure to close US militar y bases in Okinawa, Japan, the US has been scrambling to look for new hosts for its militar y bases and troops in Asia. Jeju IsLand, the home of three Unesco World Natural Heritage sites and nine Unesco Geo-Parks, is believed to be among the alternative sites being considered by the US for its militar y bases.
Calang said the plan to build a military base in Korea, the VFA in the Philippines and the recent push to amend Article 9 of Japan's Constitution are the recent manifestations of the growing US inter vention in Asia. Ar ticle 9 stipulates that Japan forever renounces war and prohibits it from maintaining armed forces. Critics claim that the US, has been pressuring Japan to amend the ar ticle, so that Japan can share the burden of policing the region as the US' junior par tner. One US foreign policy analyst, however, dismissed the US' anti-China posturing as "largely an adver tising campaign."
"It's an election year; this is the time to conduct the Pacific Pivot," said John Fef fer, co-director for the Washington, DC-based thinktank Institute for Policy Studies. Feffer said the Obama administration and the Democratic Par ty to which Obama belongs need to do something this year to address questions about the seeming lack of US action against China's growing influence. "Now, Obama can say, 'we have pivoted in Asia'," Feffer said during the conference. Another exper t on East Asian affairs, The Rev. Xiaoling Zhu of the Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ in the US, said there seems to be a distor ted view of security in the Asia-Pacific region.
"China has not been to war in the last 45 years," he said. "It is the US that has gone to war in the '60s, the '70s, up until today." Calang is part of the Philippine delegation that toured US cities to seek the support of the American church and government leaders, members of the diplomatic community and the Filipino Americans in asking the Philippine government to address the human rights violations in the countr y. The delegation met earlier in the week with the US Senate, House and State Depar tment and submitted a repor t on the human rights conditions in the Philippines. The delegation also asked US leaders to put human rights conditionalities on US militar y aid to the Aquino administration. (Noel Pangilinan is an editor of a hyperlocal website for immigrant communities in New York City.)
By NOEL PANGILINAN Special to The Gold Star Daily
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