Maoist rebels killed at least 25 Indian paramilitary soldiers and injured six others in their stronghold in central India on Monday in one of the worst attacks on the country’s security forces in recent years, police said.

The rebels fired from hilltops at a group of paramilitary soldiers who were guarding workers building roads in a forested area of Sukma district of Chhattisgarh state, police officer Jitendra Shukla said.

The government has been trying to improve roads in the dense jungles of Chhattisgarh to make it easier for security forces to pursue the rebels.

The injured were taken by helicopter to a hospital. Other details were not immediately available.

CNNNews18 television quoted a paramilitary soldier as saying that hundreds of rebels attacked members of the Central Reserve Police Force and there was an exchange of gunfire between the two sides.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter that the attack was “cowardly & deplorable. We are monitoring the situation closely.”

The insurgents, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than three decades in central and eastern India, staging hit-and-run attacks to press their demand for a greater share of wealth and more jobs for the poor.

Last month, the rebels killed 11 paramilitary soldiers in an ambush in the region. In 2010, 76 Central Reserve Police Force soldiers were killed in the Dantewada region in the state in a similar attack by the rebels.

The government says the rebels are India’s biggest internal security threat. According to the Home Ministry, they operate in 20 of India’s 29 states and have thousands of fighters.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in a recent statement in Parliament that the Maoists are frustrated because of the success of recent security operations against them. He said that in 2016, 135 rebels were killed, 700 were arrested and another 1,198 surrendered to government forces, according to the New Delhi Television news channel.
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Out of the numerous privileges that India’s political and administrative elite has claimed for itself, none was more coveted than the flashing red light atop their cars. The screaming sirens and red beacons made policemen jump to attention, halt traffic and wave VIP vehicles through crowded roads and red lights — sometimes even as ambulances waited — raising public ire.

Now, this most visible symbol of India’s “VIP culture” is being dismantled, much to the delight of ordinary citizens.

Saying that every Indian is a VIP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has banned the use of the red light or “lal batti,” long a symbol of power and status. Starting May 1 only emergency services such as ambulances and fire engines will use blue lights.

The step comes three years after the Supreme Court called the widespread use of red lights “reflective of the Raj [British rule] mentality and the antithesis of the concept of a Republic.” The court was responding to a petition questioning why a host of public officials were flashing the lights.

“These symbols are out of touch with the spirit of new India,” Modi tweeted after the decision was announced.

The step has been widely welcomed as putting an end to a practice that sets India’s rulers “aristocratically apart” from the public.

“Why should one class of people be above others or made to feel that they are more equal than us?” questions New Delhi resident, Ratna Dehadrai, who has often fumed in traffic jams created by VIP cars.

However many point out that doing away with the red light targets no more than an outer symbol in a country where the ruling elite is probably the most entitled among the world’s major democracies.

“We have not got rid of feudalism while modern democracy has come,” says independent political analyst Neerja Chowdhury in New Delhi. “Entitlement — the whole concept has deepened rather than getting diluted.”

She recalls the excitement of a young lawmaker when he was appointed a minister. “What was he excited about? He said ‘my car will now have a “laal batti.’ It symbolized power, it symbolized being recognized within your peer group, within society.”

Although he and other politicians and officials may get accustomed to battling horrendous traffic jams like the rest of the country, they will continue to enjoy a host of privileges that give them priority access to every kind of public service from roads and airports to schools.

They jump airport queues, go past security checks, enjoy special access to tickets on overcrowded trains and get priority treatment in government hospitals. Top ministers live in sprawling, British-era colonial bungalows in the heart of New Delhi with a retinue of gun-toting guards that not only accompany them everywhere, but sometimes also their spouses on shopping trips.

But what has truly raised public wrath is a “VIP” mindset that sees some behaving as a law unto themselves.

They have been in the news for holding up commercial flights because they arrived late.

Last month, a member of parliament from the regional Shiv Sena party, Ravindra Gaikwad, hit the headlines when he not only struck a 62-year-old Air India employee, but later unrepentently proclaimed that he slapped him with his slipper 25 times. Why? He was in a rage about not getting a business class seat on an economy-only class flight.

Commercial airlines banned him from flying, but were persuaded by the government to lift the ban after a few days. A skeptical public, used to politicians getting away with such misdemeanors, was not surprised.

Many columnists and opinion makers say that such incidents are deepening a disconnect between politicians and voters and hope that Modi will target other perks of power that Indian public servants enjoy.

After the red light reform was announced, The Times of India noted in an editorial that a message needs to go out up and down the government.

“You are not a superior being. Stand in queues, carry your own baggage, don’t throw tantrums at toll plazas or manhandle airline workers, don’t lord it over the people you are paid to serve.”

That truly reflects public sentiment, but it may take years to happen.

 
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Sales of nuclear shelters and radiation-blocking air purifiers have surged in Japan in recent weeks as North Korea has pressed ahead with missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

A small company that specializes in building nuclear shelters, generally under people’s houses, has received eight orders in April alone compared with six orders during a typical year.

The company, Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, based in Kobe, western Japan, also has sold out of 50 Swiss-made air purifiers, which are said to keep out radiation and poisonous gas, and is trying to get more, said Nobuko Oribe, the company’s director.

A purifier designed for six people sells for 620,000 yen ($5,630) and one designed for 13 people and usually installed in a family-use shelter costs 1.7 million yen ($15,440).

Concerns about a possible gas attack have grown in Japan after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliament session this month that North Korea may have the capacity to deliver missiles equipped with sarin nerve gas.

“It takes time and money to build a shelter. But all we hear these days, in this tense atmosphere, is that they want one now,” Oribe said. “They ask us to come right away and give them an estimate.”

Another small company, Earth Shift, based in Shizuoka prefecture, has seen a tenfold increase in inquiries and quotes for its underground shelters, Akira Shiga, a sales manager at the company said. The inquiries began gradually increasing in February and have come from all over Japan, he said.

Evacuation drills

North Korean missiles have fired with increasing frequency.

Last month, three fell into waters within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, some 300-350 kilometers off the coast of northern Akita prefecture.

The Japanese government on Friday urged local governments to hold evacuation drills in case of a possible missile attack, heightening a sense of urgency among the public.

Some orders for the shelters were placed by owners of small-sized companies for their employees, and others by families, Oribe said. A nuclear shelter for up to 13 people costs about 25 million yen ($227,210) and takes about four months to build, he said.

The shelter his company offers is a reinforced, air-tight basement with an air purifier that can block radiation as well as poisonous gas. The room is designed to withstand a blast even when a Hiroshima-class nuclear bomb exploded just 660 meters away, Oribe said.

North Korea said on Sunday it was ready to sink a U.S. aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might, in the latest sign of rising tension in the region.

The United States ordered the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group to sail to waters off the Korean peninsula in response to mounting concern over the reclusive state’s nuclear and missile programs.

In Japan’s previous experience with sarin gas in 1995, members of a doomsday cult killed 12 people and made thousands ill in attacks on Tokyo subways.
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A Philippines lawyer filed a complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte and senior officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday, accusing them of crimes against humanity in a nationwide anti-drugs crackdown.

Attorney Jude Sabio said in the 77-page complaint that Duterte “repeatedly, unchangingly and continuously” committed crimes against humanity and that under him, killing drug suspects and other criminals has become “best practice”.

Sabio is the lawyer for Edgar Matobato, a man who has testified in the Philippines Senate that he was part of a hit squad that operated on Duterte’s orders.

It is the first publicly known communication to the ICC against Duterte and is based on the testimony of Matobato and retired policeman Arturo Lascanas, statements from rights groups and media reports, including a Reuters series on the killings.

The complaint alleges that Duterte and at least 11 senior government officials are liable for murder and calls for an investigation, arrest warrants and a trial.

Lawmakers found no proof of Matobato’s Senate testimony, which the president’s aides have dismissed as fabrication.

Almost 9,000 people have been killed since Duterte took office last summer. Police claim a third of those killings were in self-defense during legitimate police operations. Rights groups say many of the remaining two-thirds were committed by vigilantes cooperating with the police or by police disguised as vigilantes. Police deny this.

Duterte has persistently denied he is involved with any death squad and said that his orders to kill drug suspects come with the caveat that police should operate within the bounds of the law.

Ernesto Abella, a spokesman for Duterte, said last week authorities “follow operational protocols” and those who breached procedures were made to answer before the law.

He added that news reports about close to 9,000 people being killed in the drug war was “false news”.

Citing standard procedure, ICC spokesman Fadi el Abdallah declined comment on any possible communication filed. However, Reuters saw a copy of the complaint signed as received by the office of the ICC prosecutor.

Officials at Duterte’s office said they were not immediately able to comment.

 FIRST STEP Since it was set up in July 2002, the ICC has received over 12,0000 complaints or communications. Nine of these cases have gone to trial and six verdicts have been delivered.

The ICC has no powers of enforcement, and any non-compliance has to be referred to the United Nations or the court’s own oversight and legislative body, the Assembly of States Parties.

The complaint is only a possible first step in what could be a long process at the ICC. The tribunal first has to decide whether it has jurisdiction, and then decide whether it should conduct a preliminary examination.

It can then ask a judge to open an official investigation, which could lead to a trial.

Duterte has said he welcomed the prospect of the ICC putting him on trial. He said last month he would not be intimidated and his campaign against drugs would be unrelenting and “brutal”.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said last year her office was following developments in the Philippines “with a view to assessing whether a preliminary examination needs to be opened”.

“I am deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage state forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force,” she said.
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A human rights organization wants China to “immediately disclose” the whereabouts of eight North Koreans refugees, including four women, who were detained in China in March. 

Human Rights Watch said it believes the group that was randomly stopped in Shenyang, in northeastern China, is still in China. HRW wants Beijing to promise it will not return the refugees to North Korea, but will instead give them asylum or allow them to depart to a third country of their choice.

Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said, “By now, there are plenty of survivor accounts that reveal Kim Jong-Un’s administration is routinely persecuting those who are forced back to North Korea after departing illegally, and subjecting them to torture, sexual violence, forced labor – and even worse.”

Robertson urged Beijing to “respect its obligations under the Refugee Convention by protecting these eight North Koreans, and under no circumstances force them back to North Korea.” 

HRW said at least 41 North Koreans have been detained in China in the last nine months, including a teenager, a 10-year-old child and a pregnant woman. The rights organization said it believes at least nine of the 41 have been “forcibly returned’ to North Korea.

The rights group said it does not have “reliable estimates” of how many North Koreans have been sent back to North Korea by China. 

HRW said China forcing North Koreans back to North Korea where they face serious human rights violations or torture is “a practice forbidden by international treaties to which China is a party.” 
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An international media watchdog’s choice of Taipei for its first Asia office confirms its ranking of Taiwan as the freest place in the region for journalists despite competition from neighboring countries with long-standing democracies, the group and the island government say.

The French-based media freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) will open a formal office in Taipei within the next few months — after rejecting a site in Chinese-controlled Hong Kong — to monitor East Asia and build connections in local languages with local reporters, said regional director Cedric Alviani.

“On the press freedom index published by RSF every year, Taiwan is the best country in Asia,” he said. “Opening an office in Taiwan is also a way to recognize all the efforts, all the improvements that have been made in the past decades in Taiwan, which is contrasting a lot with the global situation, which is rather decaying.”

Press freedom arrived with democracy

Taiwan’s authoritarian government restricted media content before democratization in the 1980s. Content in the local Taiwanese dialect was banned and the government jailed the translator of Popeye for eight years because it saw the cartoon as a slight against strongman Chiang Kai-shek.

The island of 23 million people, with four mainstream daily newspapers and more than a half dozen cable TV networks, now exercises little control over the content put out by licensed media organizations.

“For such an authoritative group to set up in Taipei, I think one aspect is (RSF’s) recognition for Taiwan’s democracy and Taiwan’s degree of media freedom,” said George Hou, a mass communications lecturer at I-Shou University in Taiwan. 

“In addition, on the future path toward democratization, this will of course continue to push us,” he said. “Even though we’ve been recognized, there’s no turning back on this path.”

Taiwan welcomes group

Taiwan’s government welcomed the watchdog’s plans as it wants other countries to notice local media freedoms and differentiate the island from political rival China. China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the 1940s and uses its economic clout to block the island’s membership in the United Nations and other bodies requiring statehood.

“We very much welcome (RSF’s) decision to set up an Asian headquarters,” Taiwan cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung said. He calls the promotion of free media part of Taiwan’s “smart power” campaign for stronger recognition overseas in the absence of a U.N. seat.

“For Taiwan’s movement toward democracy and focus on this universal value, it’s especially meaningful to get approval from this organization,” Hsu said.

Group: Taiwan top in Asia

Taiwan ranked No. 51 on the watchdog’s list of 180 spots around the world last year, with Hong Kong in 69th place and mainland China at No. 176. China carefully screens out any media content that may offend the government and owns the country’s major media outlets.

Japanese media, despite operating in one of Asia’s oldest democracies, have faced an evasive government, a crackdown on certain websites and a “long-term censorship policy” following their reports on a nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011, according to fellow media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists. 

Questions about government pressure against media in Japan came up again in March 2016 when three television anchors were fired. They had criticized a restart of nuclear power in Japan and proposals to end the government’s pacifist military policies.

In South Korea, which is also a democracy, former president Park Geun-hye introduced stricter requirements for registering online newspapers and a provision to let third parties request the removal of defamatory Internet content, says the U.S.-based democracy advocacy group Freedom House.

“A lot of countries, they actually are free on paper, but the government authorities, the police put so much surveillance and pressure on media they cannot do their work freely,” Alviani said. “I would say in Taiwan the authorities really respect the rules as they have been set.”

Rejection of Hong Kong

Reporters Without Borders, a 32-year-old group with 12 offices and 130 correspondents, was working last year toward setting up its first Asia office in Hong Kong, a more common go-to place for international organizations seeing regional presence.

The NGO scrapped that plan because it feared the Chinese government might eventually shut it down or endanger the local staff, Alviani said. “In the long run it might be difficult to run our activities from Hong Kong,” he said.

Reporters Without Borders will monitor the media in Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, both Koreas and Mongolia from the Taipei office.
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