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YK
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15 THE HINDU SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2014
NOIDA/DELHI
INTERNATIONAL
GLOBESCAN
Pattaya. As it drove along a
downhill road in the early
morning darkness, it lost
control and slammed into
an 18-wheeler truck that
was in front of it. AP
BANGKOK: A double-decker
tour bus carrying students
ona school trip to the beach
crashed on Friday into a
truck in eastern Thailand,
killing 15 people and injur-
ing more than 30 others,
police said.
The fatalities included 13
children, between the ages
of 10 and 15, and two teach-
ers, said police officer Lt.
Col. Anukarn Thammavi-
jarn. The bus was carrying
about 60 girls froma school
in northeastern Nakhon
Ratchasima city for a day-
trip in the seaside town of
15 killed in bus accident
Workers recover bodies
from the bus.
PHOTO: AP
YANGON: Doctors Without
Borders said Friday it has
been expelled from Myan-
mar and that tens of thou-
sands of lives are at risk.
The decision came after the
humanitarian group re-
ported it treated nearly two
dozen Rohingya Muslim
victims of communal vio-
lence in Rakhine state,
which the government has
denied.
The humanitarian group
said it was deeply
shocked by Myanmars de-
cision to expel it after two
decades of work in the
country.
Today for the rst time
in MSFs history of oper-
ations in the country, HIV/
AIDS clinics in Rakhine,
Shan and Kachin states, as
well as Yangon division,
were closed and patients
were unable to receive the
treatment they needed,
the group said in a state-
ment, using the French
acronymfor its name.
As Myanmars main pro-
vider of HIV drugs, supply-
ing treatment to 30,000
people, the group described
the impact as devastating.
Myanmars presidential
spokesman Ye Htut had
criticised Doctors Without
Borders in the Myanmar
Freedom newspaper for
hiring Bengalis, the term
the government uses for
Rohingya. AP
Myanmar expels aid agency
MADRID: More than 200 mi-
grants stormed across a tri-
ple-layer border fence into
Spains north African territo-
ry of Melilla on Friday, Span-
ish authorities said, in one of
the largest such crossings in
years.
Some 300 people launched
the dawn assault to cross into
the Spanish city, which lies on
the northern tip of Morocco,
and 214 made it across, the
authorities said.
They were singing songs of
joy through various parts of
the city, the Spanish govern-
ment authority in Melilla said
in a statement.
The assault beganat 6am, it
said, as migrants assembled
on the Moroccan side of the
border.
The crossing was marked
by throwing of all kinds of ob-
jects stones, sticks and bot-
tles at police, the
statement said.
It said one Spanish officer
was grazed on the scalp and
another lightly bruised on the
leg.
It was the latest in a series
of coordinated assaults by
African migrants on the bor-
der of Melilla, which along
with fellow Spanish territory
Ceuta has the European
Unions only land borders
with Africa.
The two cities sit across the
Mediterranean from main-
land Spain, surrounded by
Moroccan territory.
At least 14 migrants
drowned in Moroccan waters
on February 6 while trying to
enter Ceuta by sea after sev-
eral hundred tried to storm
the land border.
In that incident, Spanish
security forces were accused
by human rights groups and
witnesses of ring rubber
bullets at the immigrants,
sparking a heated debate in
Spain.
This week, Spains interior
ministry said it had banned
border guards from ring
rubber bullets to stop mi-
grants crossing the fence into
its north African territories.
The ministry said civil
guards red rubber bullets,
but denied this action con-
tributed to the drownings.
The 480 person-capacity
immigration centre in Melilla
has overowed inrecent days,
brimming with more than
1,000 people.
On February 17 about 150
African migrants made it into
Melilla in another mass as-
sault by migrants bearing
sticks and stones.
Some 500 migrants storm-
ed the fence on Monday and
about 100 made it over in
what an official described as a
very violent assault that left
27 people injured.
Spanish authorities last
year put barbed wire ontop of
the barrier as a deterrent,
drawing criticismfromrights
groups. AFP
Over 200 migrants
force way into Spain
Migrants queue up inside a holding centre after
climbing a fence to enter the Spanish enclave of
Melilla on Friday. PHOTO: AP
MOSCOW: Strained relations
between Russia and Ukraine
in the wake of regime change
in Kiev escalated into open
hostility as the new author-
ities in Kiev accused Mos-
cow of armed invasion,
while ousted President Vic-
tor Yanukovych, speaking
from Russia, said pro-fas-
cist forces had seized power
in Ukraine.
Hundreds of armed men,
who reportedly were pro-
Russian militia, took control
of two main airports in Cri-
mea on Friday to prevent
Kiev extremists from com-
ing to the peninsula to
cause trouble.
Ukraines border officials
in Kiev said Russian military
had surrounded a Ukrainian
coastguard base in Sevasto-
pol, while a Russian warship
blocked Ukrainian patrol
boats from leaving the Se-
vastopol harbour.
The Russian Black Sea
eet shares the Soviet-era
naval base in Sevastopol
with a smaller Ukrainian na-
val force.
The moves came a day af-
ter the Parliament in Cri-
mea, a Ukrainian autonomy
with a predominantly Rus-
sian population, rejected the
authority of new pro-West-
ern leaders in Kiev and voted
to hold a referendum on
greater independence from
Ukraine. The Crimean law-
makers also replaced the re-
gions Kiev-appointed head
of government with Russian
politician Sergei Aksyonov,
leader of the Russian Unity
party.
Ukraines new Interior
Minister Arsen Avakov said
the uniformed and well-dis-
ciplined men were Russian
military, a claim denied by a
spokesman for the Russian
eet in Sevastopol. Mr Ava-
kov denounced the seizure
of the airports as an occupa-
tion and armed invasion.
The Ukrainian Parliament
on Friday called for an emer-
gency meeting of the U.N.
Security Council to inter-
vene in the crisis in Crimea.
Lawmakers appealed to
Russia, the United States
and other signatories of the
1994 Budapest Memoran-
dum, which guaranteed Uk-
raines sovereignty and
territorial integrity in ex-
change for its surrender of
Soviet-era nuclear weapons.
The Parliament also urged
Russia to stop moves seen as
undermining national sov-
ereignty and territorial in-
tegrity of Ukraine and
supporting separatism.
The Russian Foreign Min-
istry on Friday turned down
Ukraines request to conduct
emergency consultations on
the situation in Crimea on
the grounds that the events
in Crimea were a conse-
quence of internal political
processes in Ukraine.
The Russian Parliament is
set to debate next week bills
that would facilitate rules for
foreign territories to join
Russia and for Ukrainians to
receive Russian citizenship.
Addressing his rst press
conference after being
granted shelter in Russia Mr
Yanukovych said he is still
the legitimate President of
Ukraine and would contin-
ue his ght for the future of
Ukraine.
Mr Yanukovych said the
West had cynically de-
ceived him, as well as the
Ukrainian people, when he
signed a E.U.-peace deal
with the opposition, but
power was seized by pro-
fascist forces and radical
mobsters.
Mr Yanukovych expressed
understanding for Crimeas
revolt against the usurpers
in Kiev, but said Crimea
must not break away from
Ukraine. He supported Rus-
sias involvement in the Uk-
rainian crisis, but
categorically opposed an
invasion of Ukraine and vio-
lation of its integrity.
Russia needs to use all of
the leverage it has to pre-
vent, the terror, that is un-
folding in Ukraine, the
fugitive Ukrainian leader
said.
New authorities in Kiev accuse Moscow of armed invasion
Vladimir Radyuhin
READY TO FIGHT: Ukraines ousted President Viktor
Yanukovych at a news conference in Rostov-on-Don,
a city in southern Russia about 1,000 km from
Moscow, on Friday. PHOTO: AP
Yanukovych slams pro-fascist coup
PARIS: A Frenchman kept in
solitary connement in
Cameroon for 17 years
following a controversial
embezzlement conviction
arrived in Paris Friday,
ready for a new lease on
life after what he said was
an unimaginable ordeal.
A visibly moved Michel
Thierry Atangana, 49,
stepped off the plane and
met his family, including
his two sons aged 19 and
23, and said he was
extremely worn out.
His detention had drawn
appeals fromFrench
President Francois
Hollande who termed it
unacceptable and the
U.N. rights agency which
denounced the inhuman
conditions under which
he was being held.
The ordeal was one that
you cannot imagine, said
Mr. Atangana, who was
born in Cameroon and
acquired French
nationality after marriage.
I need time for
introspection before I can
express myself as a free
man, he said.
He was held in isolation
in a cell that was too small
for him. He couldnt even
stand up straight, his
lawyer Eric Dupond-
Moretti told reporters.
I amvirtually seeing
himfor the rst time in my
life today, said Eric, Mr.
Atanganas 23-year-old
son. We will take time to
know each other and to
rebuild our relationship,
he said. Eric Atangana was
only six when his father
was imprisoned.
Mr. Atangana was
released after Cameroons
President Paul Biya, who
critics accuse of being
authoritarian, signed a
decree on February 18
pardoning prisoners
sentenced for more than
ten years on charges of
embezzling public funds.
Mr. Atangana was sent
to Cameroon by his
employers in connection
with a highway
development project in
1994.
Mr. Atangana was
sentenced to 15 years in
prison in 1997 and then
sentenced again in 2012 to
20 years. AFP
Frenchman returns home after
17-year Cameroon jail ordeal
Michel Thierry
Atangana.
PHOTO: AFP
BANGUI: French President
Francois Hollande urged uni-
ty in the Central African Re-
public on Friday, nearly three
months into a tough military
mission to stop religious
bloodshed.
His high-security visit to
Bangui caps a week that saw
the French parliament ex-
tend Operation Sangaris and
another 400 extra troops ar-
rive in the deeply unstable
former French colony, taking
their number to 2,000.
Mr. Hollande went straight
to the airport base of Oper-
ation Sangaris for a brieng
with his Defence Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian and the
commander of the French
mission, General Francisco
Soriano, journalists at the
scene said.
One aim of the interven-
tion is to avoid at any price
the partition of the country,
Mr. Hollande said while he
reviewed French troops, add-
ing that thousands of lives
have been saved thanks to
you.
The stakes of this visit are
to assess what has been ac-
complished in three months
and to decide onthe next mis-
sions, the French leader
said.
Faced with relentless
bloodshed inwhicharmed ex-
tremist Christian militias
have slaughtered Muslim ci-
vilians in revenge for atroc-
ities by a mainly Muslimrebel
alliance that seized power for
10 months last year, France
has been forced to change its
objectives.
Francois Hollande
thought that the mission of
the Sangaris troops would be
over in a few months. A mis-
take, the Bangui daily Le Qu-
otidien declared on Friday.
Mr. Hollande was set to
meet interimPresident Cath-
erine Samba Panza, who has
urged France and the 6,000
troops deployed by the Afri-
can Union to make full use of
their U.N. mandate to wipe
out these unchecked ele-
ments that poison our lives.
France sought to help re-
establish the authority of the
state, renew dialogue and
prevent partition, Mr. Hol-
lande said.
Paris has acknowledged
that its troops face consider-
able difficulties in halting the
conict, but Gen. Soriano
stressed Thursday that the
Central African people need-
ed to start doing their share.
Mr. Hollande visited the
landlocked, largely lawless
nation for the rst time in
early December, days after
French troops poured into
the country to cheers from
villagers. AFP
Hollande calls for unity in CAR
Francois Hollande.
PHOTO: AP
MONTREAL: Mail carriers and
the elderly have come out
strongly against the phasing
out of door-to-door mail de-
livery in Canada since it was
announced in December,
holding protests and suit-
ably writing letters.
The union representing
Canada Post workers said the
Crown corporation should
have looked at diversifying its
services in order to boost rev-
enues, instead of making cuts.
The elderly and Canadians
living with disabilities or mo-
bility issues, meanwhile, say
they will be disproportion-
ately affected by the change,
and have received backing
fromopposition parties.
It was irresponsible of the
government and Canada Post
to cut door-to-door mail de-
livery, said opposition New
Democratic Party MP Hoang
Mai.
Canada Post announced
the move in response to fall-
ing volumes. AFP
Canadians
protest mail
service
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Interior
Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali
Khan on Friday told the Na-
tional Assembly that there
was no military operation in
the Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA) and a de-
cision of this sort would not
be a secret.
He reiterated that there
were only precision strikes
and the impact on people was
not much. Earlier, while ta-
bling the new National Inter-
nal Security Policy, he said
that the precision strikes
would hit the homes and
hideouts of terrorists.
The Prime Minister will
convene a meeting of the
Chief Ministers of the four
provinces to discuss the pol-
icy. He said that there were
1017 terrorist attacks in Pa-
kistan in the last six months,
killing 878 people.
No military
operation in
tribal areas:
Nisar
Meena Menon
BANGKOK: The protesters who
once threatened to shut
down Thailands capital say
they are signicantly scaling
back their presence in the
streets.
Protest leader Suthep
Thaugsubansaid inhis night-
ly speech Friday that the pro-
testers would withdraw from
several stages erected at key
intersections around the city.
AP
Thai protesters
scale back
gatherings WASHINGTON: Al-Qaedas Af-
ghanistan leader is laying
the groundwork to re-
launch his war-shattered or-
ganisation once the United
States and international
forces withdraw from the
country, as they have
warned they will do without
a security agreement from
the Afghan government, U.S.
officials say.
Farouq al-Qahtani al-Qa-
tari has been cementing lo-
cal ties and bringing in small
numbers of experienced
militants to train a new gen-
eration of ghters, and U.S.
military and intelligence of-
cials say they have stepped
up drone and jet missile
strikes against him and his
followers in the mountain-
ous eastern provinces of Ku-
nar and Nuristan. The
objective is to keep him from
restarting the large training
camps that once drew hun-
dreds of followers before the
U.S.-led war began.
The officials say the coun-
terterrorism campaign a
key reason the Obama ad-
ministration agreed to keep
any troops in Afghanistan
after 2014 could be jeop-
ardised by the possibility of
a total pullout.
I think most are waiting
for the U.S. to fully pull out
by 2014, he said.
The administration would
like to leave up to 10,000
troops in Afghanistan after
combat operations end on
December 31, to continue
training Afghan forces and
conduct counterterrorism
missions. But without the
agreement that would au-
thorise international forces
to stay in Afghanistan, Presi-
dent Barack Obama has
threatened to pull all troops
out, and NATO forces would
follow suit. After talking to
Afghan President Hamid
Karzai this week, Mr. Oba-
ma ordered the Pentagon to
begin planning for the so-
called zero option.
U.S. military and intelli-
gence officials say unless
they can continue to y
drones and jets from at least
one air base in Afghanistan
either Bagram in the north
or Jalalabad in the east al-
Qahtani and his followers
could eventually plan new
attacks against U.S. targets,
although experts do not con-
sider him one of the most
dangerous al-Qaeda leaders.
AP
Al-Qaeda threat in Afghanistan: U.S. officials