The Capital Times, May 16, 2005
Anti-U.S. demonstrators killed in protests
By Stephen Graham
AP Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -
Afghans enraged by the alleged
desecration of Islam's holy
book at a U.S. prison staged
a third day of violent protests
Thursday, burning an American
flag in the capital and ransacking
relief group offices to the south
as demonstrations spread to
neighboring Pakistan.
Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice promised "appropriate
action" would be taken if the
allegations are proven true.
Three more demonstrators were
shot and killed in clashes with
police, officials said, bringing the
death toll to at least seven in the
biggest anti-American protests in
Afghanistan since the fall of the
Taliban in 2001 - and presenting
a fresh challenge to efforts to
stabilize the country.
While most of the protesters
were students, officials suggested
that elements opposed to
Afghanistan's U.S.-backed
government were stirring the
violence, which has also targeted
American troops and the United
Nations.
The demonstrations could
complicate President Hamid
Karzai's plans to ask for military
aid on a trip to Washington this
month, a prospect that has stoked
a previously muted debate on
how long U.S. troops should
stay to secure the country, still
riven by a Taliban-led rebellion.
That debate may play out in
parliamentary elections this year.
The Afghan leader, on a trip to
Europe, has played down the
violence as the growing pains of
Afghan democracy.
The trigger of the unrest was a
brief report in the May 9 edition
of Newsweek magazine that
interrogators at the U.S. prison
on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
placed Qurans in washrooms
to unsettle suspects, and in one
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case "flushed a holy book down
the toilet."
Desecration of the Quran is
punishable by death in both
Afghanistan and Pakistan, but
diplomats and officials have
been taken aback by the intense
reaction - further enflamed by
bloodshed in a police crackdown
on anti-U.S. protesters in the
eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad
on Wednesday that left four dead
A soldier ducks behind a small wall to shield himself from the protestors' debris at the recent demonstration.
and over 70 wounded
It was unclear why
demonstrations broke out this
week and - not after previous
media reports. In July 2004, for
example, the Arab station Al-
Jazeera ran an interview with a
former Guantanamo detainee
who claimed he saw a U.S.
soldier stomp on the Quran and
that another American soldier in
the southern city of Kandahar
threw a holy book into the toilet.
Pakistan protested to the U.S.
government last weekend about
the alleged abuse cited in the
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Newsweek report, giving the
article wider play in the region's
media than the Al-Jazeera
interview may have received last
year. _ .
At the Pentagon, Gen. Richard
Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan
believe that local political factions
- and not the reports about the
alleged desecration - are driving
the violence in Jalalabad
Myers said the military is
investigating the allegation but so
far has not been able to confirm
it. In one case, an inmate, in an
act of defiance, ripped pages out
of his Quran and stuffed them into
the toilet in an attempt to back up
the plumbing, Myers said, citing
logs from the prison.
U.S. officials tried again Thursday
to calm tempers, promising a
thorough probe and insisting all
inmates at Guantanamo, many
of them Pakistanis and Afghans
captured after the Sept. 11
International News
attacks, are given Qurans, prayer
beads and time to pray.
"Disrespect for the Holy Quran
is not now, nor has it ever been,
nor will it ever be tolerated by
the United States," Rice said
in a statement to a Senate
appropriations subcommittee.
"Our military authorities are
investigating these allegations
fully," she said. "If they are proven
true, we will take appropriate
action. Respect for the religious
freedom for all individuals is one
of the founding principles of the
United States. ... I am asking that
all of our friends reject incitement
to violence by those who would
mischaracterize our intentions."
In Thursday's bloodiest incident,
police fired on hundreds of anti-
U.S. demonstrators in the town
of Khogyani to prevent them from
going to Jalalabad, 20 miles to
the north, said police chief Maj.
Gul Wali.
Wali counted three deaths
among the protesters, who he
Pope invites countries without diplomatic
By The Associated Press
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope
Benedict XVI reached out on
Thursday to countries that don't
have diplomatic relations with the
Vatican, inviting them to establish
ties with the Holy See.
Benedict didn't name the
countries, saying only that he
appreciated messages that came
from some of them following the
death of Pope John Paul II and
his election as pope. China,
Saudi Arabia and Vietnam are
among the countries that don't
have relations with the Vatican.
Benedict made the comments in
a speech to diplomats accredited
to the Holy See, his first since
being elected pope on April 19.
He delivered his speech in French
- the language of diplomacy
- to representatives of the 174
countries with which the Vatican
has relations, in a ceremony in
the Sala Regia of the Apostolic
Palace.
"I'm thinking also about the
nations with which the Holy See
still hasn't entered into diplomatic
relations," Benedict told the
ambassadors, many in formal
dress with sashes and medals
on their chests.
He said he appreciated the fact
that some of these countries
sent messages to the Vatican
following the death of John Paul
and after his election.
"I want to express my gratitude
and address a deferential greeting
to the civil authorities of these
countries, expressing the wish
to see them soon represented at
the Apostolic See," he said.
China didn't send any official
condolences to the Vatican
following John Paul's death, but
Photo courtesy of reuters.com
relations with Vatican to establish ties
said were armed.
However, Interior Ministry
spokesman Latufallah Mashal
said two people died. Mashal
said a third protester was killed
in a separate clash with police in
Wardak province, south of Kabul.
He provided no details.
In neighboring Logar province,
CARE International, one of the
largest international relief groups
in Afghanistan, said students
attacked its office, thumping one
staff member over the head with
a piece of wood and trashing
two computers. Another foreign
relief group office next door was
reportedly set ablaze.
"It's the symbols of this change
in Afghanistan" that have been
singled out, said Paul Barker, the
country director for CARE. "There
are probably people around the
country inciting this."
In the capital, more than 200
young men gathered in front of
Kabul University chanting "Death
to America!" and carrying banners
including one saving: "Those
who insult the Quran should be
brought to justice."
About two dozen students
clambered onto the roof of a
nearby building and burned an
American flag to applause and
cries of "God is great!" from the
crowd below. Dozens of police -
some armed with sticks, others
with assault rifles - looked on.
Demonstrations also broke out
in Pakistan, where more than 200
supporters of a radical Islamic
group rallied in the northwestern
city of Peshawar, and demanded
that the United States offer an
apology.
"This insulting of the Quran is a
shameful act. It has torn to bits
America's claims of being an
enlightened country," said Abdul
Jalil Jan, one of the organizers.
Peaceful demonstrations also
have been reported in at least five
other Afghan provinces and the
Pakistani cities of Islamabad and
Quetta. A larger demonstration in
Pakistan was planned for Friday.
Premier Wen Jiabao did say on
April 21 that China was willing to
build relations with the Vatican
if Benedict breaks ties with rival
Taiwan.
Beijing's communist government
ordered Chinese Catholics to
break ties with the Vatican in
1951. Roman Catholic churches
in China are run by a government
sanctioned group that recognizes
the pope as a spiritual leader but
has no formal relations with the
Vatican and appoints its own
priests and bishops.
The Vatican is the only European
government that has official
relations with Taiwan. China still
claims the self-ruled island as its
territory and refuses to have any
official contact with governments
that recognize its rival as a
sovereign country.
Benedict told the ambassadors
he was particularly in favor
of supporting dialogue to end
conflicts, and recalled his own
experience growing up in wartime
Germany.
"For my part, I come from
a country where peace and
fraternity are dear to the heart of
all the people," he said, "notably
for those who like me knew war
and the separation of brothers
from one nation for the sake
of devastating and inhuman
ideologies."
DD YOU KNOW?.
Pope John Paul II was
404iied to the papacy
n October 1978.
Nine killed in
eastern Uzbekistan
By Bagilla Bukharbayeva
AP Writer
ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan (AP) -
Outrage over the terror trial of 23
Muslims exploded into broader
unrest in eastern Uzbekistan on
Friday when armed protesters
stormed a jail to free defendants,
clashing with police in violence
that brought thousands of
protesters into the streets. At
least nine people were killed and
dozens wounded, witnesses and
officials said.
One protester, who put the
death toll as high as 20, said 30
soldiers were being held hostage
because they were shooting at
demonstrators. Two of the dead
were children, Sharif Shakirov, a
brother of one of the defendants
told The Associated Press.
President Islam Karimov and
other top officials rushed to the
eastern city of Andijan, where
the government insisted it
remained in control despite the
chaos, though it blocked foreign
news reports for its domestic
audience.
The unrest prompted
neighboring Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakstan, former Soviet
republics like Uzbekistan, to seal
their borders.
"The people have risen," said
Valijon Atakhonjonov, a brother of
another one of the defendants.
Karimov's office said nine people
were killed and 34 wounded in
clashes between protesters and
security forces.
Armed protesters stormed the
prison early Friday, officials and
witnesses said. All 23 defendants
_ prominent businessmen
accused of terror ties and Islamic
extremism _ were freed, said
defendant Abduvosid Egomov,
33.
Egomov, pale and thin, was
holed up in a local government
compound that had been overrun
by protesters, who were breaking
up pavement stones to reinforce
a metal fence surrounding the
compound, to stave off security
forces.
"We are not going to overthrow
the government. We demand
economic freedom," Egomov told
The Associated Press.
"If the army is going to storm,
if they're going to shoot, we are
ready to die instead of living as
we are living now. The Uzbek
people have been reduced to
living like dirt," Egomov said.
The protesters say the trial,
which has provoked one of the
biggest backlashes against
the authoritarian government,
is part of a broad government
crackdown on religious dissent.
Thousands of Muslims have
been jailed in Uzbekistan over the
past few years in a government
campaign that critics say has
affected many innocent believers
and only inflamed anger against
Karimov's harsh rule.
In the capital, Tashkent, on
Friday a suspected suicide
bomber was shot and killed
outside the Israeli Embassy on
Friday morning, according to the
U.S. Embassy, but it was unclear
if the incident had any link to the
unrest in Andijan.
Uzbekistan emerged as a
key U.S. ally after the Sept. 11
attacks, and hosts hundreds of
U.S. troops.
The men, arrested in June,
are accused of being members
of the Akramia religious group
and having contacts with the
outlawed radical Islamic party
Hizb-ut-Tahrir. Authorities accuse
Hizb-ut-Tahrir of inspiring terror
attacks in Uzbekistan last year
that killed more than 50. The
group, which claims to eschew
violence, denied responsibility.
Akramia unites followers of jailed
Uzbek Islamic dissident Akram
Yuldashev, who was accused of
calling for the overthrow of the
predominantly Muslim country's
secular government _ an
accusation he denies.
The group's members are
considered the backbone
of Andijan's small business
community, giving employment
to thousands of people in the
impoverished and densely
populated Fergana Valley.