A10 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 , 2019
The World
BRAZIL
As Amazon burns, ban
on land-clearing fires
Brazil on Thursday b anned
most l egal fires for land-clearing
for 60 days in an attempt to stop
the burning that has devastated
parts of the Amazon region.
The decree was signed by
President Jair Bolsonaro and
followed international criticism of
his handling of the crisis.
The period of the ban coincides
with the dry season, when most
fires are usually set. The decree
allows fires in some cases,
including those deemed healthy
for plant life and if set by
indigenous people who engage in
subsistence farming.
Brazil’s f orest code normally
allows farmers and others to set
some fires as long as they have
licenses from environmental
authorities.
This year, however, there was a
sharp increase in nationwide fires
compared with the same period in
2018, raising concerns that people
were emboldened to burn more
after Bolsonaro said rainforest
protections were blocking
economic development.
Also Thursday, B olivia said that
it will ask for more international
help to contain similar fires that
were set to clear land and, in many
cases, got out of control in strong
winds.
— Associated PressSOUTH KOREANew trials ordered for
Park, Samsung heirSouth Korea’s top court on
Thursday sent back jailed ex-
president Park Geun-hye’s
corruption case to a lower court
for separate trials on the charges
on which she was convicted.
The Supreme Court also
ordered retrials for Park’s
confidante and Samsung’s d e facto
chief, t wo other high-profile
figures convicted in a 2016 scandal
that sparked massive protests.
Park was impeached in December
2016 and removed from office in
March 2017.
An appellate court last year
sentenced Park to 25 years in
prison after convicting her on
bribery, e xtortion, abuse of power
and other charges.
But the Supreme Court ordered
the Seoul High Court on Thursday
to deal with Park’s bribery charge
separately from the other charges,based on a law requiring such
action in cases involving a
president or other elected official,
even when the alleged crimes are
committed together.
Among other charges, Park was
convicted of colluding with Choi
Soon-sil, a confidante, to takemillions of dollars in bribes and
extortion fees from businesses,
including Samsung, while in office
from 2013 to 2016. The two women
were also convicted of taking
bribes from some of the
companies, including Samsung.
The scandal led to the arrests,indictments and convictions of
dozens of government officials
and business leaders. Choi
received a 20-year prison term,
and Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong
received a suspended prison term.
The Supreme Court ordered the
Seoul High Court to start new
trials for Choi and Lee, as well.
— Associated PressUganda confirms another Ebola
case: A 9-year-old girl tested
positive for Ebola in Uganda after
traveling with her mother from
Congo, where an outbreak of the
highly infectious disease has
killed nearly 2,000 people. The
girl, who was bleeding through
the mouth and had a high fever,
was identified and screened for
Ebola at a border crossing,
Uganda’s Health Ministry said.
She was immediately isolated. In
June, a family of Congolese with
some sick members crossed into
Uganda via a bush path. Two of
them later died of Ebola, and the
others were sent back to Congo.Violence erupts in Indonesia’s
Papua: Protesters i n Indonesia’s
restive Papua province s et f ire to a
government building a nd broke
into a prison a s thousands rallied
against r acism and called f ortheir region’s i ndependence,
officials s aid. The government has
blocked telecommunication and
Internet access in the r egion since
last week a mid spreading
protests over p erceived r acial and
ethnic discrimination. Indonesia
has a significant security
presence i n Papua and West
Papua, w here a decades-long
separatist movement simmers
and t he p redominantly C hristian
indigenous people resent a n
influx of Muslim Indonesians.Thai court upholds convictions
of 2 Myanmar migrants:
Thailand’s S upreme Court upheld
the c onviction of two Myanmar
migrants sentenced to death in
the m urder of two British
backpackers on a resort island in- Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin h ave
denied killing David Miller and
raping a nd k illing Hannah
Witheridge. Their bodies w ere
found S ept. 15, 2014, on a beach
on the island of Koh Ta o. The
defendants w ere employed as
service workers on t he island.
Their attorneys claimed that t he
evidence was mishandled and
that their clients m ade
confessions u nder duress that
they later retracted.
— F rom news services
DIGESTSTEFAN WERMUTH/BLOOMBERG NEWS
A construction worker stands between the rail tracks during a tour
of the Ceneri Base Tunnel, part of the New Rail Link through the Alps
project, in Camorino, Switzerland. The Ceneri tunnel, Switzerland’s
third-largest rail-tunnel project, is scheduled to become operational
at the end of 2020.BY SHIBANI MAHTANI AND TIMOTHY MCLAUGHLIN IN HONG KONGW
ith her city facing an
abyss, in her words,
Hong Kong l eader Car-
rie Lam strode to the
microphone this week and reas-
serted that urgent steps were
needed to pacify protests that have
plunged the Asian financial hub
into its worst crisis i n decades.
What she must not do, she said,
is compromise. She wasn’t ignor-
ing protesters’ demands, she said.
She was rejecting them outright.
“It is not a question of not re-
sponding; it is a question of not
accepting those demands,” she
said.
As Hong Kong’s political up-
he aval stretches on, the refusal of
Lam and her government to enter-
tain any concessions that might
restore calm has surprised even
pro-establishment voices and
moderates. Her stance has left
many wondering whether Lam is
unable — rather than unwilling —
to make decisions on the most
pressing matters affecting the
semiautonomous Chinese terri-
tory.
“Beijing thinks the protests will
burn out as a result of the regime’s
intransigence and provocations,”
said Kenneth Chan, a political sci-
ence professor at Hong Kong Bap-
tist University and a former pro-de-
mocracy lawmaker. “The ultimate
game is to imbue in society a collec-
tive sense of hopelessness [by]
stonewalling the p rotests.”
Lam’s office, in response to a
request to elaborate on her Tuesday
remarks, said her government has
responded to protesters, particu-
larly by stopping work on the extra-
dition bill that sparked the unrest.
It said it hoped that dialogue with
“people from all walks of life, in-
cluding those with different politi-
cal views,” would help address dif-
ferences.
Two years into her term as chief
executive, Lam, a former civil serv-
ant, is under immense pressure to
ease tensions in Hong Kong. To ur-
ists are canceling trips, forcing ho-
tels to put staff on unpaid leave.
Businesses are hurting; some are
sharpening exit plans. Residents
have become casualties of tear gas.
More strikes and protests are
planned in the coming days.
China’s ruling Communist Party
has issued ominous threats to try to
stamp out the protests. On Thurs-
day, the People’s Liberation Army
conducted its 22nd troop rotation
into the Hong Kong garrison since
1997, state media said. Pictures
showed armored personnel carri-
ers moving between the border city
of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, un-
derscoring fears of a Chinese mili-
tary intervention. The paramili-
tary People’s Armed Police have
been practicing crowd-control tac-
tics at a Shenzhen stadium in re-
cent weeks.
And, in a widening crackdown,
activists Joshua Wong and Agnes
Chow, student leaders who rose to
prominence in pro-democracy
street protests five years ago, were
arrested Friday morning, t heir par-
ty s aid in a statement.
With the crisis threatening to tip
Hong Kong into r ecession and pub-
lic grievances playing out in street
clashes with police, there is little
indication that Lam intends to give
ground. Whether she has the au-
thority to do so, political analysts
say, i s central to Hong Kong’s s tatus
and its ability to exercise a “high
degree of autonomy,” to which the
city is entitled under the terms of its
1997 return t o Chinese sovereignty.
Lam, who is appointed by a com-
mittee mostly loyal to Beijing rath-
er than by popular vote, said Tues-
day that she had not lost control.
Regina Ip, a member of Hong
Kong’s Executive Council and a
pro-Beijing lawmaker, said top
leaders are “united” behind Lam
and her decision.
Hardcore demonstrators “are
finding every conceivable excuse tostage more protests,” s he said in an
interview. “ That’s w hy I r eally won-
der if giving in to any of their de-
mands will s top their protests.”
Lam has tried to kick-start a
“platform for dialogue,” hoping to
get protesters to talk with her gov-ernment. At her residence Satur-
day, Lam held the first meeting
aimed at establishing this plat-
form, attended by 19 politically
moderate local luminaries.
More than half the people in
attendance, one participant toldThe Washington Post, were in favor
of addressing two key protester de-
mands: complete withdrawal of
the extradition bill that triggered
the protests and an independent
investigation that would include
scrutiny of police tactics. Lam hassuspended the bill, which would
have allowed Hong Kong to extra-
dite criminal suspects to mainland
China, but has stopped short of
withdrawing it from the legislative
agenda.
At the Saturday meeting, Lam
appeared to understand that fully
withdrawing the bill would be ef-
fective in easing tensions, but she
was more resistant to protesters’
calls for an independent inquiry
into the months of violence f or fear
of aggravating the police force, said
Tik Chi-yuen, chairman of the cen-
trist political group Third Side,
who was present. Police have said
that an existing internal mecha-
nism for investigating complaints
is sufficient.
Given her “soft approach” i n the
weekend meeting, Tik said he was
surprised when Lam, in her news
conference just days later, ap-
peared to flatly reject the idea of
meeting any of the protesters’ five
demands.
Efforts to start a dialogue with-
out concessions would be “mean-
ingless” and “not effective,” Tik
said. “You cannot achieve any-
thing.”
Lam’s refusal to budge has per-
plexed even some in her own camp.
“There’s a consensus that the
government can do two things, but
she refuses to do anything,” said
Felix Chung, a pro-Beijing lawmak-
er who also represents the textiles
and garment industry.
Senior government officials, he
added, h ave urged her to start work
on an independent inquiry a nd for-
mally withdraw the bill. “It is very
difficult to have anything done at
this moment if she still insists on
not doing anything simple.”
Surveys show that Lam may
have l imited ability to connect w ith
the majority in her city. An August
survey released this week by the
Hong Kong Public Opinion Re-
search Program, an independent
pollster, put Lam’s approval rating
at 2 4.6 percent — the lowest among
any post-colonial leader. Net trust
in the Hong Kong government is
also at its lowest since records be-
gan in 1992.
Lam has o ther options to end the
crisis. The pro-government Sing
Ta o Daily newspaper floated the
idea of invoking the colonial-era
Emergency Regulations Ordi-
nance, which grants sweeping
powers to the chief executive.
Lam on Tuesday did not dismiss
the idea, saying that the govern-
ment would look into all Hong
Kong laws that could “stop violence
and chaos.” This month, she asked
at a news conference whether pro-
testers “really want to push [Hong
Kong] into a n abyss.”
Under the law, the chief execu-
tive is granted control over deten-
tions and deportations, arrests and
transportation hubs, as well as the
ability to censor publications. The
ordinance was used in 1967 during
leftist riots in which 5 1 people w ere
killed a nd nearly 900 injured.
The discussion on resorting to
emergency legislation is “a highly
contentious if not dangerous
move” t hat will have an “immedi-
ate and profound impact on Hong
Kong’s reputation as a free society
and rule of law,” s aid Peter Cheung,
a political scientist at the Educa-
tion University of Hong Kong.
In private meetings, Lam has
expressed optimism that protests
will die d own once school reopens
next month. Ye t students a re plan-
ning a mass b oycott of classes, a nd
protest organizing is fervent
ahead of the 70th anniversary of
the founding of the People’s Re-
public of China i n October.
[email protected]In Hong Kong, questions grow over
leader’s response to protesters
THOMAS PETER/REUTERSPAUL YEUNG/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, top, said Tuesday that she would not accept any of the protesters’ demands, surprising
even some of her allies. Months of rallies have spooked tourists and business, threatening to send Hong Kong into recession.