Tsunami swamps Japan after powerful quake

Updated Fri Mar 11, 2011 10:38pm AEDT
Large areas of Japan's northern Pacific coast have been swamped by a devastating tsunami, engulfing entire towns following a major 8.9 offshore quake.
The massive wave of water, as high as 10 metres in some parts, reached more than five kilometres inland.
The meteorological agency issued its top-level evacuation alerts for the entire Japanese coast amid warnings of a tsunami of between six and 10 metres.
Towns and farms around Sendai city in northern Japan have been engulfed by a seven-metre tsunami, while a four-metre wave swamped parts of Kamaishi on the Pacific coast.
Residents have been ordered to high ground and stay away from the coast as tsunamis can strike in several waves.
Seismologists say the quake was 160 times more powerful than the one that devastated Christchurch last month.
  • Wall of water crosses Japan's east coast
  • Large parts of Miyagi prefecture engulfed
  • Homes flooded, cars and boats washed away
  • No leaks of radioactive material from power plants
  • BOM says no tsunami warning for Australia
  • Contact DFAT on 1300 555 135
Japanese television has shown pictures of a wall of water kilometres wide moving its way across the countryside, engulfing everything in its path.
The Cosmo oil refinery in Chiba prefecture outside Tokyo has exploded, sending flames dozens of metres into the air, with firefighters unable to contain the inferno.
It is one of more than 40 blazes burning across Japan.
"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines near the epicentre within minutes and more distant coastlines within hours," the agency said.
A tsunami warning has been issued across the wider Pacific including Russia, the territories of Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia and Hawaii.
Russia has evacuated 11,000 people from areas that could be affected, including Kuril islands and Sakhalin island. Hawaii has also ordered evacuations.
The Bureau of Meteorology says there is no tsunami threat to Australia.
The quake, already considered one of the worst in Japan's history, struck about 382 kilometres north-east of Tokyo at a depth of 24 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
The USGS reported at least eight strong aftershocks, including a 6.8 quake on the mainland 66 kilometres north-east of Tokyo.
Are you in Japan? Send us your photos. You can also post photos on our Facebook wall or contact us on Twitter.
The death toll has already reached 23 and officials say an unknown number of people are missing.
In one incident a woman reportedly died in a building collapse in Takahagi, Ibaraki prefecture.
As the tsunami hit Iwate prefecture harbour, scores of cars and upturned boats smashed into bridges and buildings.
Kyodo news agency is reporting that police in Miyagi prefecture believe a ship carrying 100 people was carried away by the tsunami.
Shinkansen bullet trains stopped when the quake struck, while five nuclear power plants in northern Japan have been shut down.
The government says none of the plants are leaking radiation.
Power has been cut to 4.4 million homes in Tokyo and surrounding areas.
Many people were injured after a roof collapsed at a hall in Tokyo where a graduation ceremony for 600 students was being held, the fire department said.
Narita airport and airstrips in Miyagi prefecture have been closed.
The quake was felt as far away as the Chinese capital of Beijing, 2,500 kilometres to the west, residents said.

Help family, friends

A producer in the ABC's Tokyo office, Yumiko Asada, told PM the tsunami was a mix of soil and rubble.
"It's just swallowing the whole village town which is right next to the river. And I just see this, waves covering the rice fields and cars and homes. It's all being swept away. You just see the whole town turning into rubble in a second," she said.
The government has set up a crisis management team at the prime minister's office.
Prime minister Naoto Kan says the government will do everything possible to minimise the damage.
"The government will put its strength together and work hard in tackling this disaster," he said.
"We ask the people of Japan to act fast and to help one's family and neighbours. We should all help each other to minimise the damage."
The Department of Foreign Affairs says it is trying to determine whether any Australians have been affected by the earthquake or tsunami.
It says Australians who are worried about friends or family in Japan should first attempt to contact them directly.
The Department says if that does not work they can then ring its consular emergency centre on 1300 555 135.
Japan's northeast Pacific coast, called Sanriku, has suffered from quakes and tsunamis in the past and a 7.2 quake struck on Wednesday.
In 1933 a magnitude 8.1 quake in the area killed more than 3,000 people. Last year fishing facilities were damaged after by a tsunami caused by a strong tremor in Chile.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
Tags: disasters-and-accidents, earthquake, japan
First posted Fri Mar 11, 2011 5:06pm AEDT

Watch raw footage of the Japan earthquake and tsunami

By Liz Goodwin
An 8.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Northeast Japan spawned a ferocious tsunami that's caused massive destruction; flattening whole cities, starting raging fires, and killing hundreds.
We've gathered some videos that show the scope of the disaster, and you can also see The Atlantic's collection of photos of the quake.
The death toll has climbed above 10,000, with thousands still missing. In this stirring footage, you see the power of the tsunami tearing through the city of Kesennuma:
As the sun rose on Japan, the rescue operations began:

A view from above as the earthquake rocks Japan:
This Reuters report shows hundreds of cars being swept away by water and a live shot from inside a newsroom as the quake hits:
A Japanese news program narrates footage of a tsunami wave crashing over the countryside:

In the aftermath of the tsunami, an ocean whirlpool forms, trapping a boat:
The quake sparked a massive fire at a Japanese oil refinery:
The water overtakes Sendai airport:

A boat fights waves off the coast:

Fires broke out in Fukushima, Sendai, Iwate and Ibaraki:

In this raw footage, the ground cracks open and water begins to spout:

A skyscraper wobbles during the quake:

This raw footage shows the power of the tsunami carrying away large boats and even buildings:

Video of chaos inside a Japanese supermarket:

The quake wreaks havoc inside a Japanese home:

UPDATE: An earlier version of this story indicated that 80,00 persons were missing in Japan, but that figure was later disputed.

Japan earthquake: Tsunami hits north-east

Click to play
Live coverage from BBC News

Japan quake

Japan's most powerful earthquake since records began has struck the north-east coast, triggering a massive tsunami.
Cars, ships and buildings were swept away by a wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude tremor, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.
A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant, where pressure has exceeded normal levels.
Officials say 350 people are dead and about 500 missing, but it is feared the final death toll will be much higher.
In one ward alone in Sendai, a port city in Miyagi prefecture, 200 to 300 bodies were found.

At the scene

image of Roland Buerk Roland Buerk BBC News, Tokyo
In the centre of Tokyo many people are spending the night in their offices. But thousands, perhaps millions, chose to walk home. Train services were suspended.
Even after the most violent earthquake anyone could remember the crowds were orderly and calm. The devastation is further to the north, along the Pacific coast.
There a tsunami triggered by the quake reached 10km (six miles) inland in places carrying houses, buildings, boats and cars with it. In the city of Sendai the police found up to 300 bodies in a single ward. Outside the city in a built-up area a fire blazed across several kilometres.
Japan's ground self-defence forces have been deployed, and the government has asked the US military based in the country for help. The scale of destruction from the biggest quake ever recorded in Japan will become clear only at first light.
The quake was the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one which devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, said scientists.
Thousands of people living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate.
Japanese nuclear officials said pressure inside a boiling water reactor at the plant was running much higher than normal after the cooling system failed.
Officials said they might need to deliberately release some radioactive steam to relieve pressure, but that there would be no health risk.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier said the US Air Force had flown emergency coolant to the site.
But US officials later said no coolant had been handed over because the Japanese had decided to handle the situation themselves.
The UN's nuclear agency said four nuclear power plants had shut down safely.
Measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, it struck at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.
Map
The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at 800km/h (500mph) - as fast as a jetliner - before hitting Hawaii and the US West Coast, but there were no reports of major damage from those regions.
Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.
The biggest waves of more than 6-7ft (about 2m) were recorded near California's Crescent City, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
A tsunami warning extended across the Pacific to North and South America, where many other coastal regions were evacuated, but the alert was later lifted in most parts, including the Philippines, Australia and China.
Strong waves hit Japan's Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, damaging dozens of coastal communities.
A 10m wave struck Sendai, deluging farmland and sweeping cars across the airport's runway. Fires broke out in the centre of the city.
Map
Japan's NHK television showed a massive surge of debris-filled water reaching far inland, consuming houses, cars and ships.
Motorists could be seen trying to speed away from the wall of water.

“Start Quote

This is the kind of earthquake that hits once every 100 years”
Akira Tanaka Restaurant worker
In other developments:
  • Four trains are missing along the coast, says Japan Railways; and a ship carrying 100 people was swept away
  • Fire has engulfed swathes of the coast in Miyagi prefecture's Kesennuma city, one-third of which is reportedly under water
  • A major explosion hit a petrochemical plant in Sendai; further south a huge blaze swept an oil refinery in Ichihara city, Chiba prefecture
  • Some 1,800 homes are reported to have been destroyed in the city of Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture
  • A dam burst in north-eastern Fukushima prefecture, sweeping away homes, Kyodo news agency reports
  • At least 20 people were injured in Tokyo when the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony
In a televised address, Prime Minister Naoto Kan extended his sympathy to the victims of the disaster.

Deadliest earthquakes

27 July 1976, Tangshan, China: est 655,000 killed, 7.5
12 Jan 2010, Haiti: 222,570 killed, 7.0
8 Oct 2005, Pakistan: 80,361 killed, 7.6
31 May 1970 Chimbote, Peru: 70,000 killed, 7.9
Source: USGS
As aftershocks rattled the country, residents and workers in Tokyo rushed outside to gather in parks and open spaces.
Many people in the Japanese capital said they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.
In central Tokyo, a number of office workers are spending the night in their offices because the lifts have stopped working.
"This is the kind of earthquake that hits once every 100 years," said restaurant worker Akira Tanaka.
Train services were suspended, stranding millions of commuters in the Japanese capital.
About four million homes in and around Tokyo suffered power cuts.

More Asia-Pacific stories

RSS

Features & Analysis

Most Popular

Shared

  1. 1: Nato strike 'kills Gaddafi's son'
  2. 2: Spot yourself in our hi-def wedding picture
  3. 3: Royal wedding: Official photographs
  4. 4: Civet passes on secret to luxury coffee
  5. 5: Royals opt for delayed honeymoon

Read

  1. 1: Nato strike 'kills Gaddafi's son'
  2. 2: Royals opt for delayed honeymoon
  3. 3: Spot yourself in our hi-def wedding picture
  4. 4: Buffett admits 'mistake' on Sokol
  5. 5: Obama sends up Trump's ambitions
  6. 6: Royal wedding in pictures
  7. 7: Absent Ahmadinejad prompts debate
  8. 8: Hong Kong introduces minimum wage
  9. 9: John Paul pilgrims mass in Rome
  10. 10: Tripoli witness: Dying for fuel

Video/Audio

  1. 1: Wedding moments you might have missed Watch
  2. 2: Royal newly-weds fly off from palace Watch
  3. 3: Gaddafi son 'dead in air strike' Watch
  4. 4: Middleton family leave Goring Hotel Watch
  5. 5: Photographing the royal wedding Watch
  6. 6: First glimpse of the evening dress Watch
  7. 7: Nato strike 'kills Gaddafi son' Watch
  8. 8: Was the royal wedding cake flawless? Watch
  9. 9: Kate and William share kiss on balcony Watch
  10. 10: How the royal wedding dress was made Watch

Elsewhere on the BBC


Freedom for the Oromos and Great Perspectives for the Horn of Africa area

Freedom for the Oromos and Great Perspectives for the Horn of Africa area

By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Can Eastern African peoples finally find a short way to Democracy, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, and Historical Authentic Identity? What could ensue from the establishment of post-colonial, liberal, democratic administrations in all that large part of Africa that stretches in the south of Egypt and in the north of South Africa?

An independent Oromo state named 'Ethiopia'

When seceding from the present tyrannical state of bogus-Ethiopia, the independent Oromos will be determined to call their new, free, country ‘Ethiopia’. The Abyssinians will not have the possibility to call their area ‘Ethiopia’ too! They will be free to call their area ‘Abyssinia’, ‘Amhara’, ‘Axum’ or anything else.

One should expect a real earthquake, following the independence of the Oromos. The tectonic mega-event will cause a chain of secessions from the present tyrannical state of bogus-Ethiopia, and we have to expect that tyrannized Sidamas, Ogadenis, the rest of the south, as well as the Afars will have their own countries. As far as the present ruling ethnic groups of bogus-Ethiopia (Amharas and Tigrays) are concerned, we may assume that there will possibly be two different states, one centralized around Axum and Mekele, and another extended around Gondar. The former represents the realm of the Tigray and the latter that of the Amhara. It may look like an ultra-split, but this is the only viable and at the same time reasonable and rationalistic solution.

It is necessary that all the various peoples of the area enjoy their full freedom and independence first, that they better study and delve into their past second. Achieving a significant degree of self-conscience is determinant for any people allover the world. Self-knowledge is essential, and yet so many peoples of the Horn of Africa area have been prevented from this privilege, since this situation of ignorance and confusion was the main target of the colonial powers. Following these early steps, free democratic life, freedom of movement, thought, expression and cult, the establishment of a civic society, the various countries that will emerge from the collapse of colonial structures such as Sudan, 'Ethiopia', Somalia, etc will have the possibility to consider their chances of uniting economically and politically.

Europe should be taken as an example in this regard! Because they separated first (with the collapse of the Communist regimes), the Czech Republic and Slovakia were able to meet again and become one country along with many others this time, within Europe. Modern European History proves that free consultation, free deliberations, free negotiations of free, independent, democratic peoples, citizens and leaders is the only way to a possible multicultural Europe.

Fighting for freedom of expression, and freedom of vote, facing the brutal methods the Amhara/Tigray tyrannical regime attempts to employ against the oppressed masses of Oromos, Sidamas, Afars, Ogadenis and others, this is the task of the day for the various political organizations and parties of the Oromos. Today, the Oromos' first concern is to envisage the perspective of disentangling from the Amhara racist and tyrannical regime. For tomorrow the concern will be to prove that the Oromos can arrange their affairs far better when alone, free, and independent, and finally, at a later stage, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Finfinne (not Addis Ababa anymore) will consider options towards greater Eastern African designs.

Envisioning a role for the forthcoming independent Biyya Oromo state

Ultimately, the Oromos can become the regional Eastern African superpower and shape the future of the Horn of Africa region. Actually, any country, small or large, new or old, can become a regional locomotive for the development and the progress. If we see things beyond the unavoidable splitting of both, Sudan and Abyssinia, we realize that there are still large countries in the Horn of Africa area, having larger population than what a newly independent Oromo country is supposed to represent. Tanzania is already home to 37 million people, whereas Kenya has a population of 32 million people, big countries.

But what are their GDP, their per capita GDP, and their fixed line, mobile line, Internet penetration? It is obvious that for any country there are many other parameters to take into consideration: education, number of students, universities, foreign direct investment, balance of payments, exports/imports, economy growth, industry growth and so on. A country never becomes a leader just because of representing a large, or the largest, population. If this were the case, we would all be ruled by China and India! But these two countries are not as important as the US, France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia! France led the anti-US front before the Iraq war, not China! On the international scene, Italy is more important than India! Last year, when its interests were threatened in Sudan, China did not dare to veto! So, when it comes to parameters like the aforementioned, what matters is the shrewd and sharp thought, the anticipation of things to come, the conceptually rich mind, the in-depth knowledge of the facts and the issues, and consequently the introduction of highly advanced plans and viable projects of great perspective.

Until now, all the countries of the Eastern Africa have plunged into the marshes of underdevelopment for various reasons. It is to be hoped that a new force, a new state, with a youthful approach to politics, will introduce a wide range of new concepts and ideas, forcing therefore the rest to follow and catch up with.

The Oromo liberation leaders argue namely ‘that the Oromos should not repeat the practice we have seen in Abyssinian politics’. This is very positive a perspective; the prevailing Abyssinian practices of ethnic oppression must soon cease to be the recourse of ignorant dictators.

Envisioning the Biyya (country) Oromo as a regional superpower, in terms of a locomotive of development, of a multipartite, multicultural, multi-religious and multiethnic way for common progress and peace, is today a great task for Oromo intellectuals and expatriates.

How this will be achieved? Certainly the way will be through education, culture and political mobilization. The formation of a young class of specialists and technocrats able to run a modern country, not an archaic dysfunctional replica of today’s Abyssinia, the preservation and the cultivation of the Oromo culture and the study of the Kushitic – Oromo past, always interconnected with modern, fresh approaches to and concepts of the Humanities, and the general political mobilization that will enhance the sensitivity in terms of the African solidarity, against the only African colonial regime – that of the Abyssinian tyrants – and against the Western democratic involvement, these are the aspects of the triptych of the Oromo liberation and ultimate independence.

Of course, one must expect a great European interest, but one must rely on one’s own forces, effort, and commitment. Contrarily, more can be expected from America, a country of definite anti-colonial principles, beliefs, ideas and policies. The archaic structure of the Abyssinian state must not be permitted to exist anymore; it consists in such a flagrant rejection of the concept of the Human Progress towards Humanism and Democracy that it should not be allowed to develop its Christian Monophysitic religious extremism anymore.

More and more people in the correct positions in America understand that religious fanaticism is a problem, whether it comes from Saudi Arabia or from Abyssinia. It is always criminal whether Ossama bin Laden mobilizes ignorant people to kill Westerners or Abyssinian Debteras drum up ignorant, starving people to attack Christian Catholic or Protestant monks in Abyssinia. Obscurantism runs high, and thousands of valuable Gueze manuscripts – totally incomprehensible to the quasi-illiterate Monophysitic monks of Abyssinia – are out of reach for any serious Western scholar because of the Amhara Debteras’ fear that the Western scholars will unveil negative points of the Axumite/Gondar medieval rulers!

No one in America wants a Monophysitic – heretic – Christian Khomeini-like rule from Gondar or Axum in order to propagate theories of a forthcoming fight between his ‘Jesus’ and a supposed Anti-Christ. The radicalization of the Muslims in Abyssinia – as a result of the Christian – Muslim confrontation – could trigger negative developments throughout the Middle East and Africa.

Pondering on Axes of Oromo Foreign Policy

Examining the issue first through a historical perspective, we come to notice that the Kushites always expressed an interest for the Middle East and the Mediterranean World. Egypt had a lot of interests in the Aegean, in Cyprus and in Palestine. Ethiopian Meroe was in continuous contact with the Roman world, a statue’s head of Octavian Augustus was found at Meroe itself (present day Bagrawiyah in Sudan), embassies were constantly exchanged, stylistic architectural influences seem apparent either in the imperial baths at Meroe or at the so-called ‘Roman kiosk’ temple of Naqa, just to mention a few indications, and then in the Atlas North-Eastern African region, Khammitic Berbers intermingled with Carthaginians.

Later on, the authorities of the Kushitic Christian state of Makkuria, the central of the three Christian Sudanese kingdoms, had certainly strong contacts with the Greek Patriarchate at Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, since Makkuria introduced both Greek language as holy, religious language, and Makkurian language (a later form of Meroitic), written in Greek characters, as administrative language. All this testifies to great exposure to and exchange with the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.

In our times, all the geo-political and geo-strategic interest of an independent Oromo state must be directed towards the Horn of Africa area. This interest must be common everywhere in the area of the aforementioned countries. For every local tribe, people and state, the interest must be extended up to the 'new' 'borders' of this vast union (as sizeable as Brazil, around 8.2 million km2). Major projects should be commonly undertaken at the level of construction, communications, industrial development, education, tourism, services and so on. So the general interest should focus on this regional development. By lowering up to annihilating taxes among the member states, one would create an initial tendency that could be accentuated by big projects in construction and education. The area must act as a center of radiation, and this is not going to happen by means of reference to other areas, be they the Middle East, India or Europe.

An independent Oromo state should express a great part of concern and effort to bring down the nefarious and ominous ideology of Pan-Arabism that brought about the tyrannical imposition of Arabic language throughout the so-called Arabic speaking countries, a policy that results from the 2-century long colonial brainwash campaign named ‘Arab nationalism’. As a good example of local obscurantism, one can refer to the fact that in all the Arabic speaking countries, the realm of the so-called ‘Arab world’, fewer books are annually translated from all the languages of the world into Arabic than in Greece from all the languages into Greek. And yet, tiny 10 million people Greece is a very mediocre European country! Comparison with Turkey would also be disastrously prejudicial to the so-called ‘Arabs’!

A large Horn of Africa Union

There should not be a friction among Africano-centrists and Middleasterno-centrists! Countries emanating from the splitting of the two tyrannical, colonial states, Sudan and Abyssinia, plus all the other countries of the Horn of Africa Union, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, as well as Yemen, Oman, Mozambique, and Madagascar, are – and must feel they are – an entirely different area, a vast middle zone between Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East and the rest of the world. This will bring them closer to each other, and closer to success.

There is a great logic behind this multilingual, multicultural, multiethnic and multi-religious Union. It is not just the historical stamp left by Yemen that had first colonized - for a long period - the Eastern Coast of Africa, from the Horn area itself down to Dar es Salam in present day Tanzania during the Antiquity.

A correct understanding of the dynamics of the global world we are currently living in leads anyone to realize that only big state-units are going to survive and play a significant role in the future. A 60 or 80 million people country is not important anymore; I do not refer to Turkey and to Pakistan, but to France and Germany! It is not without reason that it was suggested that, if Europe does not advance according to the interests of the Franco-German axis, the two countries should abandon the Union, implementing a full fusion. For underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Indonesia, 130 or 220 million people do not create a real market that could guarantee growth and development. If this is the situation, geographic location matters a lot!

‘Accumulating’ 160 million people in a small corner of India, and ‘unfolding’ them around a vast strategic area are two different situations. On the other hand, 220 million people scattered on a multitude of islands, like the Indonesian Archipelago, cannot be easily interconnected, and then communications become either slow or expensive!

The geographic location matters not only in itself but in its relationship with other landmasses and/or countries. Indonesia is the natural passage from Australia to China. This does not imply a great system of communication, since Australia may be rich but is a small 20 million people country. In addition, Indonesia is to be found at the edge of dense navigation channel, namely the Malacca Straits. On the other side of Sumatra Island, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand complete a picture. Perhaps there too, a Union between Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the French Indochina countries, plus Philippines and Burma could be envisaged, but the disparities are of colossal dimensions. It is not sure at all that the leading regional financial tiger Singapore and the economically developed and advanced Malaysia and Thailand would be willing to create a commercial, economic, cultural and – even more so – political Union with poor and backward countries like Indonesia, Philippines, and Myanmar that are exposed to various religious radicalisms and extremisms (Islamic, Christian and/or Buddhist).

The geographic location of the Horn of Africa countries is very privileged indeed. From Egypt to South Africa, and from the borders of Central Africa and Congo to Oman and the Straits of Ormuz, a vast landmass and an immense sea space control a great part of the global communications and network connections. All the communications of Europe, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean worlds with Eastern Africa, India, South-East Asia, and China, and vice-versa pass from here. All the communications between the South African countries with the Middle East and Eastern Europe and vice versa also pass through there. The area is by nature the open window of the entire African continent to India. It can become the exclusive passageway between India and Europe. Furthermore, this geomorphic unit is the gateway of China to Africa that is not only a target market but the best place for the future need of China to outsource in a way to dominate the global industrial scenery. This is something we have not yet seen! Outsourcing has become a concern or a practice for America, Europe and Japan. The overheated economy of China will soon face the need for outsourcing. The Horn of Africa area is the best place for industries targeting Africa, Middle East, Europe and Russia. Odessa and Novorossiysk, for instance, are closer to Port Sudan than to Shanghai!

The combination of the geomorphic particularities, the linguistic variety, the cultural propinquity, and the common stagnant socio-economic situation, as well as the mutual desire for progress and development, change, freedom and democracy, plus the bulk of 250 million people, consist in the ingredients of a success story that the various invited peoples must express their worst self to make it impossible to come! That is why Oman and Yemen should join their African counterparts, after quitting the abominable and hilarious Arab League, an organization that attempts to impose a bogus-historical dogma, that is the existence of supposedly ‘Arab’ peoples in its state-members.

   By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Published: 8/3/2005


 Tsunami swamps Japan after powerful quake Large areas of Japan's northern Pacific coast have been swamped by a devastating tsunami, engulfing entire towns following a major 8.9 ...

Somalia: A Trap or an Opportunity for China?

Strong Earthquake Rattles Japan; Tsunami Warning Canceled The rise of a new power, and more particularly a superpower, is not a simple event; it never occurs easily and smoothly. Usually, this type of development implies rejection of the previously existing regional or global order. This does not imply necessarily a revolutionary ideology, but it certainly involves a revolutionary attitude.

Contrarily to a revolutionary ideology, which depends on a political – ideological system, a revolutionary attitude hinges either on a new technology that drastically changes the societies (railway, airplane, computers, Internet) or on a new perception of the world’s realities that subsequently changes the relations among the various competing states.

By accepting the existing global order and system of relationships, China will never truly become a superpower. The globally prevailing order of political – economic conditions has been set up over the past 2 – 3 centuries by the colonial powers, and involved the diffusion and imposition of the Anglo-French model of thought, behaviour and society allover the world; this system’s continuation is still being ensured by mainly America.

The prevailing global order involves indirect but incessant agitation of countries considered as rival by England, France and/or America. China experienced precisely this symptom before and during the Beijing Olympics, when protesters and secessionists appeared assertively in Eastern Turkistan and Tibet. By stating this, I merely refer to a development, leaving analyses aside.

Within the present world order, the rise of an economic superpower ‘China’ will simply not occur as long as China does not reciprocate, by systematically developing contacts with ethno-religious minorities and by methodically mobilizing ethnic minorities in England and France against the local pseudo-democratic, elitist, Freemasonic régimes.

The rest of the world is also the arena in which China has to deploy the necessary effort to eliminate Anglo-French colonial roots and impact, and the subsequent American influence. Somalia is a key point for China to differentiate itself from the loathsome colonial rulers, and oppose the machinations that have been undertaken.

A useless alliance of the Chinese squadron with the NATO forces off the Somali coast is expected by all political analysts; but it will not offer any differential advantage to Beijing; worse, China is thus expected to contribute to developments most desired by the colonial powers that will inevitably turn to their benefit, not China’s. Certainly, no one would seriously deal with the piracy networks that are totally controlled by the local Puntland – TFG war lords, and their invisible masters; in addition, this would not be wise for a power that intends to expand influence in the wider area.

On the contrary, a close cooperation between China and the Asmara-based wing of the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) would trigger major developments in Somalia, imposing China as major player in the geo-strategically critical Horn of Africa country. This new African policy of Beijing would not only help China have a solid foot in Somalia but would impact greatly Beijing’s relationship with the Islamic World, which in turn is key to positive developments and pacific settlement of any dispute and discord in Eastern Turkistan / Sin Kiang.

More light on the recently expressed interest of Beijing for the impending naval operations against the Somali pirates is shed in the Ecoterra 87th press release update that I publish herewith integrally.

87th Update 2008-12-23 18:05:22 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868

Day 90 - 2140 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now three months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

Frantic efforts on the side of the mediation team characterize the present days, since it has now become clear that only blame-games do not help concerning a tangible solution in such situations in Somalia.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held fully responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships --

A 15-year-old cancer survivor is appealing to Somali pirates through an open letter to release her father this Christmas. "Please! Please release him for me sir! Maybe you also have a daughter who loves you very much! My father just works so hard far away to help me survive from cancer of acute leukemia. So, please! I beg you--be my Santa Claus, please release my father for me!" said Michelle Arroyo. Michelle has been diagnosed with Biphenotypic Acute Leukemia (ALL/AML) and is scheduled to have her bone marrow abstract test on December 27, 2008 after finishing her intensification cycle.

"I humbly appeal to the Chieftain of those who captured my father, Mr. Roger F. Arroyo, the chief cook of the MV Chemstar Venus last November 16, 2008. Please, let my father come home to us this Christmas. I love and miss my father very much! Let my father be your greatest gift to me this Christmas!" the girl said.

Aside from Michelle’s father 18 other Filipino seafarers were on board the M/V Chemstar Venus hijacked by Somali pirates. Michelle’s mother Christy said to abc-news: "My husband called once last December 5, 2008. He and the other crews were so terrified with the threat of his captors to their lives if their principal will not pay their ransom money at the soonest possible time. According to him, they just eat once a day and are being guarded by armed men day and night", Mrs. Arroyo said. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affair Esteban Conejos said that all 92 Filipino seafarers are in good condition. Conejos said the DFA is exerting all efforts for the safe and immediate release of all remaining Filipino seafarers who are still in the hands of Somali pirates.

"We are continuing negotiations for the release of the remaining 92", said Conejos and he added that about 117 Pinoy seamen have already been released unharmed from Somalia this year. The government of the Philippines has been doing a two-fold approach in dealing with the piracy issue, he explained: "One, secure the early and safe release of the hostages through negotiations. While negotiating for the release, we also hold sessions with the families. I brief them regularly on the status of negotiations, we provide them with psychosocial interventions because they are emotionally affected by the incident", he said. In the case of the MV CHEMSTAR VENUS, however, the owner-manager IINO MARINE SERVICE CO LTD from Tokyo, Japan seems to leave it all to the insurance- and risk-management companies involved, who drag their feet.

With the latest captures and releases now at least 19 foreign vessels with a total of at least 360 crew members (of which 92 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed.

Over 132 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 19). Mystery mother vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean and not fully documented cases of vessels are not listed in the hi-jack count any more until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures.

Other related news -----------------

Ethiopia has made a firm decision to withdraw all its 3,000 troops from Somalia before the end of the year. The AU had asked the Ethiopians to stay on, at least until the arrival of AU peacekeeping reinforcements.

The African Union during their meeting in Addis Ababa has agreed to keep its peacekeeping force in Somalia for a further two months. But the AU's peace and security council appeared to make little progress on the problem of replacing Ethiopian troops when they leave at the end of the year. Ethiopia has rejected pleas to phase its withdrawal in co-ordination with the arrival of fresh forces. The AU force already in Mogadishu is too small to resist resurgent Islamist and nationalist fighters. The UN envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, on Monday described the country's problem as a "problem for the whole region". "There is a hidden genocide in Somalia which has sacrificed entire generations", he was quoted by AFP as saying. The real villains in Africa are the political and military leaders who are far more interested in their own welfare than in they are in the needs of their people. The most obnoxious example is certainly Robert Mugabe, the 84-year-old leader of Zimbabwe who has presided over the almost total collapse of his once-thriving country and its economy, closely followed by the former and present potentates from Sudan, D/R Congo, Nigeria, Somalia et. al. - but looking into the always most important question "QUI BONO?" one finds the money trail mostly ending up in the UK, the US, the UAE and elsewhere outside Africa, where the villains masterminds are based.

The international community is shying away from one of the most politically-troubled and dangerous war zones in the Horn of Africa: the perpetually strife-torn Somalia. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his end-of-year-speech confessed he has virtually given up all hopes of sending a U.N. peacekeeping force into the country, widely described as a failed state. "The danger of anarchy in Somalia is clear and present. So is the need to act", he told reporters during his year-end press conference. Ban admitted that the situation in Somalia is "very volatile and dangerous, risky for peacekeeping operations to operate there".

Asked to sum up his experiences during his two-year tenure as secretary-general, Ban said: "If I may just reflect personally, I started my job as secretary-general with excitement. It was very exciting for me, personally and officially". Then this excitement and exciting period turned into a sort of a very humbling period, he said. "Having seen so many people whose human rights, whose personal well-being had been not well treated, I felt very much humbled. Then there is always a problem of lack of resources and lack of political will; thus I have not been able to see the progress of all the initiatives and all the measures and all the country issues, which made me very much frustrated and troubled". He said that 2008 was also a year facing multiple crises -- food, energy and finance. "There are so many issues where many stakeholders are to be involved. Then with the global financial crisis, still we are feeling sort of a panicking. Many people have felt panic. These are some things that I feel personally, just a personal reflection", he added.

China warned Somali pirates on Tuesday it was prepared to use force when its navy ships arrive in the Gulf of Aden to combat a wave of piracy that has disrupted international shipping. It is the first time in recent history that China is deploying ships outside the Pacific, sending two destroyers and a supply ship which set sail on Friday, and the navy's deputy chief of staff said they would use force if needed. "When our naval vessels are ambushed by pirate ships, we will resolutely fight back to protect our own safety", Rear Admiral Xiao Xinnian said in a briefing to reporters. "If the act of piracy is already under way and the pirates are already robbing other civilian vessels, we will suppress their acts, provided we have the capability and conditions to do so", Xiao said the Chinese ships would mainly be charged with protecting the nation's commercial vessels as well as the ships of international organisations such as the United Nations World Food Programme. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the UN Security Council, Neven Jurica of Croatia, Monday both extended their welcome to China's decision to dispatch Chinese naval ships for escorting operations in the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters, saying the Chinese move is a strong support for the global efforts to fight pirates there, a Chinese envoy said here.

But China will also add special forces and helicopters to join the three warships to fight pirates off the coast of Somalia, the senior military official said today. The special troops and two helicopters will accompany the navy vessels to Somalia to protect China's commercial fleet and join the international community's fight against piracy, Rear Admiral Xiao Xinnian, deputy chief of the staff of PLA Navy, told a news conference in Beijing this morning. He said the action underlined China's commitment to its international obligations and "as a responsible major country in the world" and added: "Through this we also demonstrate the resolve and capability of the Chinese navy to deal with multiple security threats and complete diversified military tasks", he added. China said Tuesday it is now even seriously considering building its first aircraft carrier as it prepares to send two warships and a supply vessel to protect Chinese commercial ships in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia. China's move is seen by many analysts as yet another sign for global militarization and has especially Japan worried.

Important insight by Julian Ryall in Tokyo (for the Telegraph/UK) on US/China/Japan relations: Japan has enjoyed a close defence relationship with the administration of President George W. Bush, but even before his successor takes his seat in the White House there is concern that Beijing has already usurped the "special relationship" across the Pacific. "The government, diplomats and the policy makers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are very afraid", said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of international relations at Waseda University. "Before, China did not feel able to cooperate in global military operations with the US or other nations, but that has clearly changed and I forsee Beijing increasingly projecting its power overseas in the future", he said. Washington may have tried to reassure the Japanese government that the bilateral relationship remains intact, but those in power have bitter memories of the administration of President Bill Clinton, when the emphasis was on promoting ties with China at the expense of Japan.

By appointing Hilary Clinton as his secretary of state, Tokyo fears that President-elect Barack Obama will be going down the same road. "Japan should be taking a role in the effort to deal with the pirates as well", said Yoichi Shimada, a professor at Fukui Prefectural University. "I believe that a Japanese maritime force should be sent to the region, but this government is a coalition and the minority partner, New Komeito, is strongly opposed to the use of military power", he said. The other factor hampering the use of the Japanese military is the constitution, which limits very specifically the actions the military may take. Special laws had to be drawn up to enable Japanese forces to assist in the conflict in Iraq and even then their roles were strictly defensive and for reconstruction work. Passing similar laws for naval operations off Somalia would take several months to be approved. The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution last week approving operations against pirates in the western Indian Ocean, with Britain, the US and France amongst the nations to have already committed forces. They will reportedly be joined by two Chinese destroyers and a supply ship, which will cooperate with other nations' forces and share intelligence.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung criticized tour operators that continue to send cruise ships through the Gulf of Aden, accusing them of risking the lives of their passengers by sailing in a region plagued by piracy. "The German government has given a clear travel warning. The area is so dangerous that one mustn't use it for leisure activities. Those who sail there are knowingly putting the lives of their passengers at risk", Jung told Bild newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday. And in an interview German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that German-owned ships should fly Germany's flag if they want full protection from pirates off Somalia. Germany's tourist federation demanded last week that German cruise ships crossing the Gulf of Aden should each be escorted by a warship. While many seafarers agree with a move to abandon the flag-of-convenience circumventions of i.a. sound labour-laws, many tour-operators feel the minister is exaggerating in order to boost the moral of his troops on this "dangerous mission" against some malnourished Somalis in torn shirts, shorts and flippers.

The German defence minister at least revealed that the costs of the mission are not just the few million in overheads his office had stated earlier and confirmed: "The mission is costing around € 45 million (= 57.5 m US $) after all. And that's taxpayers' money." Most analysts agree that 6 m US $ from the Germans alone spent over the last 10 years on coastal protection and management in Somalia would have averted today’s problems with piracy, not to mention a situation whereby the other participants of the global armada would have chipped in. But the agenda obviously is a different one and that the naval powers have not banded together as an Anti-Somalia-Armada first has to be shown, since until today the forces have not arrested a single illegal fishing-vessel or a single trafficker in arms, drugs or humans in the waters of Somalia.

In a positive move Germany said Monday it would consider taking in foreign detainees from Guantanamo if the United States closes its "war on terror" jail, but only if the rest of the European Union steps up to the plate, the news outlet The Local reports. Deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said Berlin strongly backed the pledge by US president-elect Barack Obama to shut down the prison at the US naval base in Cuba. "In our view Guantanamo must be closed on legal and humanitarian grounds, in terms of international law and human rights, and for moral reasons", Steg told reporters. He said it was the clear responsibility of the United States to find a place for inmates it did not want to accept and who could not be returned to their home countries. But he said Berlin would seriously consider any US request to accept some of them. "We would need to, and want to, examine this issue when the United States has made clear what its specific plans and timeline are", Steg said. "(But) if we begin to review such closure plans and take a stance, then it can only be in a European context based on a discussion with all member states", he said, adding that Germany would reject any "side deals, swaps or conditions" put forward by Washington linked to handing over prisoners.

In a letter to European Union counterparts this month, Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said the EU should help the United States close Guantanamo by taking in detainees from third countries. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has ordered ministry officials to begin preparing for a possible request to take in former Guantanamo prisoners, his spokesman Jens Ploetner said, adding that German officials met with human rights activists and lawyers for detainees last month. "Efforts to close Guantanamo must not be allowed to fail" because of difficulty finding countries to accept former inmates, Plötner said. The German government's top human rights official, Guenter Nooke, launched a debate here last week when he called for Berlin to take in some of the 17 ethnic Uighur Chinese held at Guantanamo. The Muslim group has been in limbo at Guantanamo - despite being cleared for release by the US government - because officials cannot find a country willing to take them. The men cannot be returned to China because of fears they would be tortured there as political dissidents, US officials say. Steg said there were no German inmates at Guantanamo. Germany in August 2006 took back Turkish national Murat Kurnaz, who had been held at Guantanamo since January 2002 and was born and raised in Germany. After his return, Kurnaz accused Berlin of rejecting a US offer to release him in 2002 despite its vocal opposition to the jail. He has also said he was beaten by German special forces in Afghanistan while he was being held by the US military in late 2001, before his transfer to Guantanamo.

The charges were investigated by German authorities but never officially substantiated. The prison, which currently holds about 250 inmates, was opened in early 2002 at a remote US naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba as a way of holding detainees beyond the reach of US courts. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who will be staying on with the new US administration, said last week that an obstacle to quickly closing the site has been getting countries to take prisoners who are no longer considered a threat. Rights groups have called on EU countries to offer asylum to former detainees. And in a parallel move German human rights groups called on their government not to support a new Guantanamo-like detention-centre in Kenya for arrested Somali pirates, which has been already in the make by the US and the UK. Both countries dropped already alleged pirates from the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean off the Somali coasts into Kenya's infamous Shimo-la-Tewa maximum security prison, using against payment the former British colony with its inhuman detention facilities and at least questionable legal processing arenas in order not to stand up themselves to the challenges of the piracy cases. Germany's call for an international court to be set up to prosecute Somali pirates therefore was welcomed by the human rights defenders. "It needs to be an international authority" Jung stated in Djibouti.

Britain harbours state-pirates. Nigeria's anti-graft agency declared on Monday that a former minister, who now lives in Britain, is an official suspect over the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds. Nasir el-Rufai, the former minister for the federal capital Abuja, is "wanted" for allegedly misappropriating the massive sum of 32 billion naira ($246 million), the agency said in a statement. Nigeria's Senate began to investigate the allocation of plots of land in and around Abuja by former president Olusegun Obasanjo and others close to him, including El-Rufai, back in April. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had grown tired of waiting for el-Rufai to come foreward and answer its questions. El-Rufai had ignored a November 28 deadline and a second ultimatum three weeks later, it said. On Sunday several Nigerian dailies carried bold declarations by el-Rufai, as AFP reported: "Come and get me. In any case I have no intention of coming back to get my passport confiscated", one newspaper quoted him as saying. The EFCC recently issued a report saying that Nigeria's past leaders siphoned off almost $400 billion of state funds between independence in 1960 and 1999. Transparency International still ranks Nigeria as one of most corrupt countries in the world. With embezzled funds also Somali "leaders", like Abdullahi Yussuf in Kenya and the UK or Mohamed Ghedi in Kenya and the US have prepared their sleep-well homes far away from the mess they created in their homeland.

Dozens of people have died in central Somalia's Galgadud region after an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD), medical personnel said on 23 December. The worst-affected area is in and around the town of Balambale. "In a 30-day period, 16 people have been confirmed to have died in the town; 12 were children under five", Mahamud Mohamed Isturaye, the district medical coordinator, said. So far, Isturaye said, 139 cases of AWD had been registered in Balambale, adding: "These are the ones who made it here. We are getting reports of people dying in the outlying villages, but unfortunately we cannot reach them". He said AWD had broken out after heavy rains, which contaminated water in wells and barkads (water cisterns).

A French ship has been sent into the Mediterranean Sea to fix underwater communication cables between Sicily and Tunisia after they underwent damage earlier on Friday. The cables -- which carry more than 75 per cent of all communication traffic between Europe and the Middle East -- are believed to have been broken by a fishing trawler rather unlikely as a result of a seabed earthquake. It is the second time this year that trans-Mediterranean Internet cables have been damaged. In January, the cables were severed by a ship's anchor; web and telephone access was knocked out for millions of people in the Middle East and South Asia. It can, however, also not be ruled out that foul-play is involved.

   By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Published: 12/25/2008


  

China, Uighurs, Tibetans to Make Front against Common Western Foes. Amnesty International Report

In twenty one earlier articles, I republished the preliminary parts and 15 Africa-focused chapters of the 2010 Annual Report which was released a few days ago by the leading humanitarian NGO Amnesty International. Titles of and links to these articles are available in the latest of the series:

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Chapter on Nigeria
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160659)

Continuing the selected republication of chapters, I focused on overviews and chapters portraits of Asiatic countries, starting with the following:

Saudi Arabia, a Hell on Earth to End, Not a Partner to the West. Amnesty International 2010 Report
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160816)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Europe and Central Asia –Regional Overview
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160842)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Asia Pacific – Regional Overview
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160850)

Syria. Pan-Arabist Tyranny, Hell for Aramaeans, Sunnis, Kurmanjis. Amnesty International Report 2010
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160867)

Jordan. A Pseudo-monarchy Geared to Host Victims of Israel’s Fabrication. Amnesty Int’l Report
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160872)

AI 2010 Report. Biased Chapter on Iraq, Oblivious of Turkmen, Aramaeans, Shabak, Failis, Ahl-e Haq
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160901)

Oppressed South Azeris, Aramaeans, Baluch, Loris, Turkmen, Qashqai to Secede from Iran. AI Report
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160915)

Baluchistan in Uprising Demands Freedom, Secession from Pakistan. Amnesty International 2010 Report
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160974)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Chapter on India
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160975)

Amnesty International 2010 Report. Chapter on Bangladesh
(http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/160986)

In forthcoming articles, I will republish further Asia-focused chapters of the Report, highlighting omissions, oversights and cases of unbalanced presentation. In the present article, I republish the chapter on China. This chapter should be seriously taken into account by the Chinese administration. They have to analyze why the UK-based NGO focuses superbly on the Uighur and Tibetan minorities of China (in the specific chapter), but does not bother to refer even once to the tyrannized Afars and Sidamas of Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia).

This bias, corroborated through many other indications and proofs, should lead the Chinese authorities to a re-consideration of their policies with respect to the two autonomous regions, and to a reassessment of Beijing’s policy toward the EU-supported racist tyranny of Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) whose interests in Africa are in striking opposition to China’s.

People’s Republic of China
Head of state: Hu Jintao
Head of government: Wen Jiabao
Death penalty: retentionist
Population: 1,345.8 million
Life expectancy: 72.9 years
Under-5 mortality (m/f): 25/35 per 1,000
Adult literacy: 93.3 per cent

The authorities continued to tighten restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and association due partly to sensitivities surrounding a series of landmark anniversaries, including the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic on 1 October. Human rights defenders were detained, prosecuted, held under house arrest and subjected to enforce disappearance. Pervasive internet and media controls remained. "Strike hard" campaigns resulted in sweeping arrests in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), particularly following violence and unrest in July. Independent human rights monitoring was prevented in Tibetan populated regions. The authorities continued to strictly control the parameters of religious practice, with Catholic and Protestant groups practicing outside official bounds being harassed, detained and sometimes imprisoned. The severe and systematic 10-year campaign against the Falun Gong continued.

Background

China was increasingly seen as a critical player in global affairs, including on such issues as Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, climate change and the global economic recovery. This contrasted with the government’s increased insecurity at home stemming from a drop in the economic growth rate, rising unemployment and increased social tension associated with pervasive corruption, lack of access to adequate health care, housing and social security, and repression of civil society groups. As China’s economy continued to grow, the gap between rich and poor widened.

Freedom of expression – journalists/internet

As the internet was increasingly used to disseminate news and conduct debates, the authorities tried to control its use by restricting news reporting and shutting down publications and internet sites, including ones that "slandered the country’s political system", "distorted the history of the Party", "publicized Falun Gong and other evil cults", and "incited ethnic splittism". The government blocked access to content and recorded individuals’ activities through new filtering software such as Blue Shield.

Following the publication of Charter 08 in December 2008, a document calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights, police questioned signatories and put them under surveillance for many months.

Liu Xiaobo, a prominent intellectual and signatory originally detained in December 2008, was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment on 25 December for "inciting subversion of state power". His lawyers were given only 20 minutes to present their case, in a trial that lasted less than three hours.

Human rights defenders

Human rights defenders (HRDs), including lawyers, journalists, environmental activists, and proponents of democratic reform, were arbitrarily detained, harassed, subjected to house arrest, held in incommunicado detention, and imprisoned. Authorities tortured and ill-treated many of those in detention. Family members of HRDs, including children, continued to be targeted and were subjected to long-term house arrest and other restraints and harassment.

Police and security forces detained, harassed and abused lawyers representing politically sensitive HRDs, Falun Gong practitioners, farmers with claims against local officials regarding land rights or corruption, and those who had been involved in advocating reform of lawyers’ associations. Lawyers
were at particular risk of losing their license to practice.

On 4 February, 10 public security bureau officers and other unidentified men abducted prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng from his home in Shanxi province. His whereabouts remained unknown at the end of the year. Gao Zhisheng’s wife, Geng He, and their children arrived in the USA in March, escaping from the Chinese authorities’ ongoing harassment, which included preventing their daughter from attending school. The authorities continued to use vague laws governing the use of "state secrets" and "subversion of state power" to arrest, charge and imprison HRDs.

In August, HRD Tan Zuoren was charged with "inciting subversion of state power". He had organized an independent investigation into the collapse of school buildings during the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He had planned to publish the report prior to his detention. At the end of the year, the verdict had not been announced.

On 23 November, HRD Huang Qi was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for "illegally possessing state secrets". He had posted the demands of parents whose children had died in the Sichuan earthquake on his website.

Justice system

Unfair trials remained endemic. Judicial decisions remained susceptible to political interference; defendants were often unable to hire a lawyer of their own choice and were denied access to their lawyer and family; families were often not given adequate notice of trial dates and were frequently refused entry to trials. Confessions extracted through torture continued to be admitted as evidence in court. Millions of citizens tried to present their grievances directly to government authorities through the "letters and visits" system, otherwise known as the "petitioning system". Despite being legal, police often harassed petitioners, forcibly returned them to their home provinces and detained them in illegal "black jails" or psychiatric hospitals where they were at risk of ill-treatment.

Officials continued to intimidate the parents of children who died in collapsed school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008 and prevented them from speaking to the media or pursuing independent investigations.

Detention without trial

The authorities frequently used administrative punishments, including Re education through Labour (RTL), to detain people without trial. According to the government, 190,000 people were held in RTL facilities, down from half a million several years ago, although the real figures were likely to be much higher. Former RTL prisoners reported that Falun Gong constituted one of the largest groups of prisoners, and political activists, petitioners and others practicing their religion outside permitted bounds were common targets. The authorities used a variety of illegal forms of detention, including "black jails", "legal education classes", "study classes" and mental health institutions to detain thousands of people.

Torture and other ill-treatment and deaths in custody

Torture continued to be commonplace in places of detention, sometimes leading to death. Torture methods used on detainees included beatings, often with an electric prod, hanging by the limbs, force feeding, injecting unknown drugs and sleep deprivation.

In March, the death of a 24-year-old in a detention centre in Yunnan province triggered a heated online debate about police and "jail bullies" torturing and otherwise ill-treating inmates. The online debate led to revelations of other cases of deaths in detention and prompted an investigation by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP). In July, the SPP published a report investigating 12 of the 15 deaths that occurred in detention during the first four months of the year. Of these, seven were found to have been beaten to death, three to have committed suicide, and two had died of accidental causes.

Death penalty

China continued to make extensive use of the death penalty, including for non violent crimes. The death sentence continued to be imposed after unfair trials. Statistics on death sentences and executions remained classified as state secrets and, while executions numbered in the thousands, the government did not release actual figures.

Freedom of religion

People who practiced their religion outside officially sanctioned boundaries continued to experience harassment, arbitrary detention, imprisonment and other serious restrictions on their freedom of religion. Catholic priests and bishops who refused to join the officially recognized Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association continued to be detained and held incommunicado for long periods or subjected to enforced disappearance.

The whereabouts of 75-year-old Monsignor James Su Zhimin, an ordinary bishop from Baoding city, Hebei province, has remained unknown since his detention by police in 1996. Police beat and detained members of Christian house-churches, who practice outside officially recognized institutions, often demolishing their churches and sending them for RTL or to prison. The government campaign against the Falun Gong intensified, with sweeping detentions, unfair trials leading to long sentences, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention following torture and ill-treatment.

Chen Zhenping, a Falun Gong practitioner, was sentenced to eight years in prison during a secret trial in August 2008. She was charged with "using a heretical organization to subvert the law". Before, during and after her trial, Chen Zhenping was denied access to her lawyer. In September, prison guards told her family that she had been transferred to another location, but refused to say where. Chen Zhenping’s lawyers have been unable to obtain any additional information concerning her whereabouts.

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region

The authorities intensified already tight restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in the north-west of China following the eruption of unprecedented violence in Urumqi on 5 July. The government reported that 197 people were killed, the majority of whom were Han killed by Uighurs and more than 1,600 were injured. Uighurs had posted online calls for a protest in reaction to government inaction over the beatings and deaths of Uighur migrant workers by Han workers in a toy factory in Guangdong province in June.

Eyewitness accounts of events on 5 July suggest that police and security forces cracked down on peaceful Uighur demonstrators to prevent thousands from marching through the city. According to these reports, police beat peaceful protesters with batons, used tear gas to disperse the crowds, and shot directly into crowds of peaceful demonstrators with live ammunition, most likely resulting in many more deaths.

Following the unrest, the authorities detained hundreds on suspicion of participation in the protests, including boys and elderly men, in door-to-door raids. Family and friends of several detainees denied that the detained individuals had any role in the violence or the protests. Dozens of detainees remained unaccounted for at the end of the year.

In August, the authorities announced that they were holding 718 people in connection with the unrest, and that 83 of these faced criminal charges including for murder, arson and robbery. On 9 November, the authorities announced the execution of nine individuals, after unfair trials. Based on their names, eight were Uighurs and one was Han Chinese.

In December, an additional 13 individuals were sentenced to death and the authorities announced the arrest of an additional 94 people on suspicion of involvement in the July unrest.

In November, the authorities formally announced a "strike hard and punish" campaign in the region to last until the end of the year to "root out… criminals". The authorities blamed the unrest on overseas Uighur "separatists", particularly Rebiya Kadeer, the President of the World Uyghur Congress, and failed to acknowledge the role of government policies in fuelling discontent among Uighurs. These policies included restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly; restrictions on religious and other cultural practices; and economic policies that discriminate against Uighurs and encourage Han migration to the region. New regulations further tightened already strict controls on the internet in the region, criminalizing its use with the vaguely defined crime of "ethnic separatism". Restrictions on internet access, international telephone calls, and text messaging, blocked in the immediate aftermath of the 5 July unrest, remained in place at the end of the year.

On 19 December, the Cambodian government forcibly returned 20 Uighur asylum-seekers to China, against UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, objections. Chinese authorities allege they had participated in the July unrest, and days later denied that the deportations were connected to a new US$1.2 billion aid package to Cambodia.

Tibet Autonomous Region

Protests which erupted in March 2008 continued on a smaller scale during the year, accompanied by persistent detentions and arrests. Two Tibetans were executed for crimes alleged to have been committed during the March 2008 unrest. International human rights organizations reported a rise in the number of Tibetan political prisoners prior to sensitive anniversaries, including the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising which led to the Dalai Lama’s exile.

The authorities blocked communication flows to and from the region and prevented independent human rights monitoring. Tibetans’ rights to freedom of expression, religion, assembly and association continued to be severely restricted. The Chinese authorities became more assertive in their international policy regarding the Tibet issue, with public statements by Chinese officials that suggested their willingness to punish countries economically and diplomatically for perceived support of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan issues.

In October, two Tibetan men, Losang Gyaltse and Loyar, were executed. They were convicted of arson and sentenced to death on 8 April 2009 by the Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court. They had been arrested during unrest in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated areas in neighbouring provinces in March 2008.

On 28 December, DhondupWangchen, an independent Tibetan film maker, was sentenced to six years imprisonment for the crime of "subverting state power" after a secret trial by the provincial court in Xining, Qinghai province. The lawyer originally hired by his family was barred from representing him, and it is unclear if he subsequently had any legal representation or was able to defend himself during the trial.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

On 4 June, according to organizers, over 150,000 people commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen military crackdown, but the authorities denied entry to some Chinese and foreign activists who wished to participate. In July, tens of thousands marched for causes including an improvement in people’s livelihood, democracy and freedom of speech.

Racial discrimination

The Race Discrimination Ordinance (RDO) entered into force in July. In August, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) noted that the RDO’s definition of racial discrimination was not completely consistent with Article 1 of the UN Convention against Racism. CERD recommended that indirect discrimination with regard to language, immigration status and nationality be added to the definition. CERD also recommended that all government functions and powers be brought within the scope of the RDO.

Refugees and asylum-seekers

While noting planned reform in torture claims procedure, CERD recommended that the government guarantee the rights of asylum-seekers to information, interpretation, legal assistance and judicial remedies and encouraged the adoption of a refugee law with a comprehensive screening procedure for individual asylum claims. It also repeated its recommendation that the authorities ratify the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

On 31 December, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced that amendments to the Domestic Violence Ordinance would extend protection to same sex cohabitants and take effect on 1 January 2010. HKSAR law did not prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Macao Special Administrative Region

In June, sole candidate Fernando Chui Sai-on was elected by a 300-member election committee to become the city’s Chief Executive until 2014. In September, 12 candidates were directly elected to the 29-seat legislature. The remaining legislators are appointed or chosen by functional constituencies.

In February, the Legislative Assembly passed the National Security Law covering acts of "sedition", "secession", "subversion", "treason" and "theft of state secrets". Vague definitions of the crimes could be used to abuse the rights to freedom of expression and association. Tens of Hong Kong citizens, including legislative councilors, activists, journalists and a law professor, who were attempting to participate in activities concerning the proposed new law, were denied entry to Macao. In December, three Hong Kong activists, who planned to call for the release of Liu Xiaobo during a visit by President Hu Jintao, were also denied entry.

Note
Picture: China’s main ethnic groups
From: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/images/map/china/china-map-5.jpg

   By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Published: 6/7/2010


 Japan Earthquake 2011: Magnitude 7.4 Temblor Causes Tsunami Warning  TOKYO - Japan's meteorological agency says it has lifted a tsunami warning for the northeastern coast 90 minutes after a 7.4-magnitude ...
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)