A Taliban suicide car bomber killed an Afghan regional base commander and two soldiers Saturday in the southeastern province of Khost, officials and insurgents said.

A government spokesman, Mubarez Zadran, told VOA the Afghan forces were targeted in Mando district. The powerful blast also wounded six students from a nearby school, most of whom suffered life-threatening injuries.

A Taliban spokesman who said insurgents carried out the assault claimed the explosion had killed five Afghan special forces members. He asserted the slain Afghan commander was a “trustworthy” partner of U.S. forces and had  worked closely with them in the region.

Khost borders Pakistan and was formerly a stronghold of the notorious Haqqani terrorist network, which is fighting alongside the Taliban against local and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Kabul alleges Haqqani fighters stage their attacks from sanctuaries inside Pakistan and contends they receive support from Pakistani intelligence — claims that Islamabad denies.

Insurgent attacks in Afghanistan have risen sharply in recent days, as they often do when springtime weather approaches.
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A fugitive anti-state Pakistani extremist leader has asked followers to find and execute “blasphemers” in the country for insulting Islam and its Prophet Muhammad.

In a video message sent Saturday to VOA and other media outlets, Fazlullah Khurasani, who heads the militant Tehrike-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), issued the threat without identifying the alleged blasphemers.

TTP, which is commonly referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, has been waging deadly attacks for years against the state, killing tens of thousands of Pakistanis, including security forces.

“It is the right time to seek them out and finish them. Our fighters are looking for them and we also need youth in schools and colleges, or wherever they are to take revenge and punish them for insulting our Prophet Muhammad,” Khurasani said.

Flanked by other commanders and masked security guards, the militant leader spoke in native Pashto with subtitling in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.

It was not immediately known where Khurasani recorded his message because Pakistani authorities maintain that he and his fighters have taken refuge in neighboring Afghanistan after fleeing military operations on the Pakistan side of the border separating the two countries.

Authorities already under fire

The militant threat comes at a time when authorities in Pakistan already are under fire for taking certain actions that critics believe are fueling religious intolerance and extremist behavior in the society.

Five social media bloggers had been briefly detained, allegedly by Pakistani security agencies, for placing “blasphemous content” online, though the government has denied its involvement.

The young men re-emerged and returned to their families last month after about four weeks and before fleeing Pakistan.

Some of the bloggers have since alleged through media interviews they were taken away by state institutions for being critical of the powerful military and refuted blasphemy charges as fabricated.

On Friday, the chief judge of the high court in Islamabad instructed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to continue with its probe into online “blasphemous content” and arrange for bringing the five bloggers back to Pakistan in case any evidence was found against them.

Anti-blasphemy crackdown

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered authorities last month to crack down on suspects in Pakistan involved in posting “blasphemous material” on social media.

The government also has approached Facebook and Twitter to seek their assistance in discouraging Pakistanis from indulging in such “offensive” activities from abroad.

Critics, however, see the crackdown as an attempt to deter political descent in the name of religion, and they fear it is encouraging Islamist militants.

Separately, an anti-terrorism court in the Pakistani capital last week turned three online bloggers into the custody of the FIA so it can investigate blasphemy charges against them and determine whether they should be formally tried and punished.

Rights activists have accused successive governments of using the country’s blasphemy laws to deter political opponents and media commentators. The laws carry severe punishments, including the death penalty for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

In its 2016 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom observed that for years, the Pakistani government has failed to protect citizens, minority and majority alike, from sectarian and religiously-motivated violence,

“USCIRF is aware of nearly 40 individuals currently sentenced to death or serving life sentences for blasphemy in Pakistan,” it read.
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Pakistan’s unilateral decision to build a wall along the de facto border with Afghanistan is proving popular at home while fanning emotions on the other side that were enflamed by Islamabad’s decision to close border crossings.

In both cases, the stated reason was to halt terror attacks in Pakistan that it has blamed on terrorists operating from havens in Afghanistan, although it remains unclear how effective that restricting travel along the porous border can be.

Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, announced last Saturday that work has begun, with the first priority on border areas in Bajaur and Mohmand agencies because they are considered “high threat zones.”

Trench half done

Comparisons were immediately drawn with President Donald Trump’s promise to build a wall along the Mexico border to prevent illegal immigration and keep out drug traffickers and other criminals. Sections of the 2,500-kilometer Pakistan-Afghan border wind their way around and over mountainous terrain that will be hard to close off.

Pakistan finished a trench along about half the length last year that did nothing to prevent a recent string of terrorist bombings that ended a relatively quiet period brought about by an ongoing military operation.

Afghanistan also accuses Pakistan of allowing terrorists to operate from the tribal areas. Both Washington and Kabul believe the Haqqani network, al-Qaida and the Taliban Shura either carry out or plan terrorist attacks in Afghanistan from Pakistan’s soil.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Daulat Waziri told a news conference Tuesday that Pakistan can be a good friend of Afghanistan “if Pakistan ends support to terrorists.”

Both sides deny allowing terrorists to use their territory for cross-border attacks.

Fencing inevitable

Islamabad closed all border crossings with landlocked Afghanistan a month ago but reopened the crossings earlier this week to allow legal travelers and thousands of stranded Afghanistan-bound shipping containers to resume their journeys.

Brig. Mahmood Shah, the former security chief for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, said the repeated attacks made fencing inevitable and that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has committed $115 million to the project.

“Proper securing of borders with mutual consultation will put an end to allegations of cross-border incursions of militants that has vitiated the relations between the brotherly neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan,” former Pakistani President Asiz Zardari added in a statement.

Pakistani defense analyst Maria Sultan said the fence also will help tamp down drug trafficking.

“Better border management is also in the interest of Afghanistan and Kabul should cooperate,” Sultan said.

Popular in Islamabad

Sentiment on the streets of Islamabad backed the decision, too.

“I think, on the Pak Afghan border, security measures need to be taken” said Khalid Mahmood. “Because from there, the wrong kind of people — terrorists — come into our country. I think it’s a very good thing. It should already be in place. I think we are already late. No country allows anyone to enter in his or her country without a visa.”

Added Muhammed Ali: “Many people cross the border from there (Afghanistan), spread terror and go back. Many of our Pak Army men and innocent people are killed in these incidents. This is unacceptable.”

But not in Kabul

Feelings ran just the opposite in Afghanistan, which never has accepted the so-called Durand Line drawn by Britain at the turn of the 20th century as an official border.

“Neither the Afghan government nor the people living on both sides of the imaginary Durand Line can allow Pakistan’s unilateral actions,” said Javed Ahmed Wafa, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s ministry for tribal affairs and border regions.

Last June, at least four people were killed when Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged artillery fire over Pakistan building a formal border control mechanism at Torkham, the main border crossing between the two countries.

“This will affect lots of people on both sides of the Durand Line,” Syed Ishaq Gillani, the head of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan and a member of the Afghan Parliament, told VOA’s Urdu service. “It will create division among families. Pakistan should have not done this in haste. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan should have resolved this issue through dialogue.”

“It will also affect tribesmen (on both sides). The Durand Line passes through villages,” where families live straddling the border.

Amin Akbar Haswani, saw it both ways.

“If we invest in security, it’s a long-term investment.… It will have better impact on business,” Haswani said. “But this fencing should not have an impact on people-to-people contacts and bilateral businesses.”
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The number of tourists visiting Cambodia’s genocide sites has more than tripled during the last 10 years, raising concerns that commercialism is compromising efforts to preserve memorials for 2 million people who perished here under Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge.

Chhour Sokty, director at Choeung Ek, the best known of the sites commonly called The Killing Fields, said visitor numbers had leaped to as many as 800 a day since he began working here 11 years ago, with media promotions leading to increased numbers of tourists, who are helped by vastly improved roads and amenities like public toilets.

“I was in charge here in 2005 when there were only about 100 to 200, or a maximum 300 visitors per day. But now it is about 700 to 800 per day during high season,” he said.

Watch: Tourism at Cambodia’s Genocide Sites Raise Concern

Genocide tourism

Each day at Choeung Ek, 17 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, tourists arrive by tuk-tuk (three-wheeled taxi), motorbike and air-conditioned coaches.

The attraction is macabre; skulls stacked neatly in a stupa (dome-shaped monument) surrounded by mass graves where thousands were bludgeoned to death, usually with an ox-cart axle, and buried — all victims of the 1975-1979 mass killings by Pol Pot’s henchmen.

“Most people from around the world have heard about that black period in Cambodia, which killed almost 2 million people,” said Kob Kalyaney who works for a private tour agency.

“Tourists want to learn if the history is real and they want to witness it,” she said.

There are hundreds of sites across Cambodia like Choeung Ek. The difference is that here, and at the S-21 extermination camp in Phnom Penh, admission is charged, bringing in a tidy income. Booksellers, street vendors, tuk-tuk drivers, tour companies and beggars all do a brisk trade.

Leaving a mark

And too many tourists have left their mark.

Some scribble graffiti on prison walls at S-21, site of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum where Pol Pot’s victims were processed before being sent to the Killing Fields. Buildings, prison cells and grisly displays of paintings and photographs, along with instruments of torture, have been displayed for daily crowds.

At Choeung Ek, some innocently tie ribbons and notes to the mass graves, but others collect bone fragments, smoke and eat on the steps of the bone-filled stupa and ignore rules regarding the use of cameras and silence.

Youk Chhang, executive director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), said Western tourists arrived here with an abstract mindset that avoids unnecessary displays of violence while Asian visitors expect to see blood and graphic evidence of what happened.

He said it was a mix that needed to be catered to, but stressed that neither Choeung Ek nor the S-21 site in Phnom Penh, a former school, were businesses run for profit.

“We should preserve for our children not for the tourists. But tourists are welcome if they want to visit, if they want to see it, they want to understand it, they’re welcome. That’s the whole purpose of the preservation of the site,” he said.

He said a lack of information was partly to blame for inappropriate behavior and that tourists were not aware of the rules and recently introduced regulations. But he added that photos of Khmer Rouge leaders on the exhibition walls of Choeung Ek were often replaced because of graffiti.

“People get so upset when they see the photograph of the Khmer Rouge leaders so they write on it. … I think that it can be bad, it can be good,” he said. “You cannot stop people from being, feeling upset.”

Evidence and a sanctuary

The bones at Choeung Ek and the remnants of S-21, like all the other Killing Fields sites, are evidence and crime sites for the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, which has spent the last decade prosecuting Pol Pot’s surviving lieutenants, securing three convictions for crimes against humanity.

Currently two former leaders, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, are on trial for genocide, while further cases involving lower ranking cadre are pending and could last another five years.

A quiet debate over what to do with the remains of so many people once the tribunal is finished persists. Many people believe the bones should be cremated according to Buddhist tradition, while others say the sites should be kept as they are.

“It’s our memory, it should be preserved the way it is; historically and with respect to our culture, rather than try to create something to attract tourists that’s leading to commercializing the memory, which is something that you do not want to do,” Youk Chhang said.

New and improved

DC-Cam has backed a proposed genocide center, the Sleuk Rith Institute, a $40 million construction of five towers in Phnom Penh, rising out of a surrounding forest and designed by London-based Zaha Hadid Architects.

It will become the permanent home of the largest collection of genocide-related material in Southeast Asia, archived by DC-Cam.

That would complement the original sites where atrocities were committed.

Youk Chhang said the raw, original state of the prison, when it boasted a large wall map of Cambodia made of human skulls, was far more profound than the current day experience.

“You know in the ’80s or in the ’90s it is as it is, it’s extremely powerful, very effective. And that itself also creates a feeling … it forces people to show some respect, because it is so original,” he said.

S-21 and Choeung Ek have been rebranded as museums, but Youk Chhang said facilities need to be improved further, and that might include a guest book in each room at S-21, or a white board and a space where people can think and write about their experiences.

But any change would be limited and any major work delayed until after the Khmer Rouge Tribunal has finished its work.

Youk Chhang’s sentiments were echoed by Khoeun Somrach, a middle-aged tuk-tuk driver who works from S-21 and first came here in 1980 when the floors were still covered in blood and the remains of those tortured to death inside the camp were scattered between class rooms.

“Before, it was really quiet, we only had nationals coming to visit but now there are many foreigners,” he said, adding the grounds around S-21 need an upgrade. “We should preserve the evidence but the place needs to be cleaned.”

Luke Hunt contributed to this report.
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Waving the national flag, the U.S. stars and stripes and shouting military-style slogans, tens of thousands of supporters of arrested former South Korean President Park Geun-hye rallied Saturday for her to be released from detention on corruption allegations. 

Park was jailed Friday over allegations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money from businesses, take bribes and allow the friend to unlawfully interfere with state affairs. The Constitutional Court ruled March 10 to remove her from office after she was impeached in December. 

Opponents protest nearby

Reflecting a nation deeply split over its future, Park’s opponents held their own protests in nearby streets, celebrating her arrest and calling for her conservative policies to be erased. Seoul police used thousands of police officers and hundreds of buses to separate the two crowds, whose rallies have divided the city’s streets in recent months. 

Park’s arrest marked a stunning fall for South Korea’s first female president, who convincingly defeated her liberal opponent in 2012 thanks to overwhelming support from conservative older voters, who remembered her dictator father as a hero who rebuilt a nation devastated by a 1950-53 war with North Korea. 

Gathering in streets near Seoul City Hall, Park’s supporters, many of them in their 60s or older, chanted “Release President Park Geun-hye” and “Disband the National Assembly” and roared in approval as organizers accused Park’s political rivals as “leftist North Korea sympathizers” and “turncoats.”

“She could have avoided this all if she wanted to, but Park chose the road of a martyr,” Jung Mi-hong, one of the organizers, bellowed from the stage. “She has offered to sacrifice herself to protect the constitutionalism of the Republic of Korea and a free democracy,” Jung said, referring to South Korea’s formal name.

Chung Kwang-taek, a protester, said that Park’s opponents “ruthlessly attacked a lonely woman who dedicated herself to the country” and that she would overcome her troubles to “live forever as a historical figure.” 

In jail for up to 20 days

Prosecutors can detain Park for up to 20 days, during which they are expected to formally charge her. The most damning accusation alleges that Park took tens of millions of dollars in bribes from technology giant Samsung in exchange for business favors, which would be punishable by a prison term longer than 10 years and even a life sentence if she is convicted. 

Park has apologized for putting trust in her jailed friend, Choi Soon-sil, but has denied breaking laws. 
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Voting began Saturday in 19 by-elections in Myanmar, in the first test of the popularity of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy since it formed the government a year ago.

Nine of the contested seats are in the Lower House, three are in the Upper House and the rest are in state and regional assemblies in ethnic minority areas.

Some seats became vacant because the lawmakers were promoted to the Cabinet; some because of deaths and others were never filled in the 2015 general election after security concerns in the area forced the cancellation of voting.

Turnout expected to be low

The contests Saturday have not caused the same excitement or engagement as the 2015 general election, and turnout is expected to be low. The NLD’s campaign has lacked star appeal as election rules prohibit Suu Kyi herself from campaigning on its behalf. But many voters still came to the polls.

“Even though today is Saturday, it’s not a day off for me,” said San Win. “This is the time I go to work. But no matter what kind of difficulties I face, I take the time to come here to vote.”

The main opposition party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, is hoping that the government’s perceived slow progress since taking power will work to their advantage at the ballot box. The USDP is the military-backed party that held power before Suu Kyi took office.

Suu Kyi’s party popular

But even if there has been some disappointment in the slow pace of change under Suu Kyi’s government, her party remains the first choice among many voters.

“I voted for NLD (National League for Democracy) in the 2015 general election and I voted again now because I like the way the NLD government are working for us and our country. I am so glad,” said Kyaw Htway.

The voting comes at a time of renewed hostilities between some ethnic guerrilla forces and the Myanmar army, especially in Shan state, where a number of the by-elections are taking place. Ethnic parties performed poorly in 2015, but they are hoping that anger at the government will see them make gains.

Around 2 million people are registered to vote Saturday.
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President Donald Trump doubled down on his tough talk on trade with a pair of executive orders Friday, which he says are designed to level the playing field and reduce the $500 billion US trade deficit, more than half of which is with China. As Mil Arcega reports, the issue of unfair trade is likely to come up when the U.S. president meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week.
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Japan’s whaling fleet returned home Friday after killing 333 whales in the Antarctic, achieving its goal for the second year under a revised research whaling program.

The Fisheries Agency said the five-ship fleet finished its four-month expedition without major interference from anti-whaling activists who have attempted to stop it in the past.

Court ruling

Japan says the hunt was for ecological research. Research whaling is allowed as an exception to a 1986 international ban on commercial whaling. Opponents of the Japanese program say it’s a cover for commercial whaling because the whales are sold for food.

The International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that Japan’s Antarctic whaling program should stop because it wasn’t scientific as Tokyo claimed. Japan conducted nonlethal whaling research in the Antarctic in 2015, and revised its program in 2016 by reducing the catch quota to about one-third of what it used to kill. 

“It was great that we have achieved our plan. We will steadily continue our research toward a resumption of commercial whaling,” Fisheries Agency official Shigeto Hase said at a welcome ceremony in Shimonoseki, homeport for the fleet’s mother ship, Nisshin Maru. 

Officials said the whalers used parts of the whales to determine their age, nutrition and reproductive conditions. Opponents say such studies can be done using non-lethal methods.

Humane Society objects

Kitty Block, executive vice president of Humane Society International, an animal protection group based in Washington D.C., said Japan is needlessly killing whales every year. 

“It is an obscene cruelty in the name of science that must end,” she said in a statement. 

Japan has hunted whales for centuries as a source of protein and cheaper alternative to other meats. Its whale catch has fallen in recent years in part because of declining domestic demand for whale meat. Protests by the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd have also contributed to the decline. 

Critics say it’s a dying industry, but Japan’s government has spent large amounts of tax money to sustain the whaling operations, saying it’s a Japanese cultural tradition that must be preserved. 
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A big challenge facing Hong Kong’s new chief executive, Carrie Lam, is a controversial $11 billion high-speed rail line and station that links the port city with China. Beijing plans to install Chinese police at the station and that could be the first test of whether Lam can balance the interests of China and those of the people of Hong Kong. Joyce Huang’s report for VOA is narrated by Bill Ide.
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Austria’s top diplomat on Friday called on both sides of the conflict in Azerbaijan’s autonomous breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh to renew the political settlement process.

Marking the first anniversary of deadly clashes in the Azeri region, which is populated mostly by ethnic Armenians, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), emphasized his hope for a fresh start in the largely stalled peace negotiations.

“Clashes and serious violations of the cease-fire on the Line of Contact, resulting in casualties, were of particular concern to us throughout the past year,” Kurz said in a public statement. “It is now high time for a focus on pragmatic and practical steps for confidence-building as well as a resumption of substantive negotiations.”

The United States, Russia and France, which co-chair OSCE’s Minsk Group for conflict mediation, used diplomacy to halt the violence between Armenian-backed separatists and Azeri forces, which was the deadliest incident since a 1994 cease-fire established the current territorial division. Although they have been unable to secure a binding peace resolution, former U.S. Ambassador Carey Cavanaugh said, the renewed push by the OSCE presents a rare opportunity for U.S. and Russian coordination.

“President [Donald] Trump had made clear during his campaign, and since then, that he would like to find a way to have more positive relations with Russia. This might be one of those areas where that is more easily tackled,” said Cavanaugh, who once co-chaired the Minsk Group as a special negotiator alongside Russian and French diplomats.

Opportunity to surprise

“For two decades we’ve been working together as co-chairs on this, and I can tell you as a former co-chair — and I have talked with my successors — that the cooperation would surprise people,” he said.

Unlike the Syrian and Ukrainian conflicts, Nagorno-Karabakh is place where U.S. and Russian interests converge. Considering the constant cease-fire violations since the 2016 clashes left more than 100 people dead, Nagorno-Karabakh, he said, cannot be considered a frozen conflict, but rather “a simmering one, which needs a lot of attention and has a lot of danger.”

The only solution that can prevent further violence is close coordination between U.S. and Russian diplomats, whose nations would both benefit from a sustained peace in the region.

But that can only happen, Cavanaugh said, if both Azeri and Armenian-aligned factions show Washington and Moscow that they are ready to re-engage the peace process.

“The sides need to send clear signals to Moscow, to Washington, to Paris, that they are prepared now really to work on peace again.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Armenian service.
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