The Wall Street Journal - 19.08.2019

A8| Monday, August 19, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

the Taliban supplied such a plat-

form. The Taliban and Islamic

State are rivals.

President Trump met Friday

at his New Jersey golf resort

with cabinet officials and other

top national security advisers to

discuss the final details of a deal

with the Taliban to end Amer-

ica’s longest military engage-

ment abroad.

Under the agreement, which

is expected to be announced in

coming days, the U.S. would

start withdrawing its roughly

14,000 troops from Afghanistan

and the Taliban would start di-

rect negotiations with Afghan

government officials and other

prominent Afghan political fig-

ures over future political ar-

rangements.

The deal also calls for guar-

antees from the Taliban that Af-

ghanistan won’t become a base

for Islamic State, al Qaeda and

other radical jihadist groups to

carry out terrorist attacks

abroad.

The targeting Saturday of the

packed Dubai City Wedding Hall

was shocking. Weddings lie at

the core of community life here

and are a cornerstone of the so-

cial calendar. In keeping with

tradition, weddings are segre-

gated by gender, with most fes-

tivities conducted in separate

rooms.

According to security offi-

cials, the bomber approached

the stage where the groom had

been seated and blew himself up

as men and boys whirled in a

wedding dance.

While the bride and groom

survived, all of the members of

the band, among others, were

killed. By striking the men’s sec-

tion, dozens of women were

widowed and dozens more chil-

dren orphaned.

“This is our life,” an elderly

man said bitterly, as he salvaged

a photo from the wreckage that

had once adorned a wall.

“A heinous crime against our

people,” Mr. Ghani’s spokesman,

Sediq Sediqqi, said in a tweet.

“How is it possible to train a hu-

man and ask him to go and blow

himself [up] inside a wedding?!!”

KABUL—The death toll in a

suicide attack on a wedding in

Kabul soared to at least 63 peo-

ple, Afghan authorities said,

ratcheting up worries in a capi-

tal already taut with fears that

an imminent peace deal with the

Taliban and a hasty withdrawal

of U.S. forces will worsen secu-

rity.

More than 182 people were

wounded in Saturday’s blast,

which tore through the men’s

section of a hall that was

crowded with hundreds of well-

wishers, mostly members of the

minority Hazara community.

The Taliban, the largest and

most powerful militant group,

denied responsibility. The local

affiliate of Islamic State identi-

fied one its fighters, a Pakistani,

as the suicide bomber.

President Ashraf Ghani said

the Taliban couldn’t “absolve

themselves of blame, for they

provide a platform for terror-

ists.” Mr. Ghani didn’t say how

BYCRAIGNELSON

ANDEHSANULLAHAMIRI

Scores Die in Kabul Bombing

thronged for hours. Protesters

chanted slogans demanding

their rights, including chants

of “go, Hongkongers!”

By nightfall, tens of thou-

sands occupied several lanes of

public highway, before many

dispersed. By midnight, a few

dozen remained occupying a

highway near the government’s

headquarters.

Two similarly massive pro-

lysts said.

Over the past few days, the

Trump administration has spo-

ken out more strongly about its

concerns over the unrest. On

Thursday, President Trump

urged Chinese President Xi Jin-

ping to “humanely solve the

problem in Hong Kong.”

Billed by organizers as

peaceful and rational, Sun-

day’s rally saw streets

tended the overall rally, during

which people passed into and

out of the park. Police said

there were 128,000 in the park

at the peak period.

This weekend was the first

in nearly a month without po-

lice firing tear gas. The calmer

mood may offer an opportu-

nity for officials to consider

ways to initiate steps toward

resolving the crisis, some ana-

“With this huge number we

can say that the people of

Hong Kong have revitalized

and reauthorized the cam-

paign,” said Bonnie Leung,

vice convener of the Civil Hu-

man Rights Front, which orga-

nized the rally. “The campaign

has the support but the gov-

ernment doesn’t.”

The organizers said more

than 1.7 million people at-

tests in June against a pro-

posed extradition bill—which

would have allowed people in

Hong Kong to be sent to China

for trial—brought the city to a

standstill. The city’s leader,

Chief Executive Carrie Lam,

suspended the controversial

bill after the first protest,

though she refused to with-

draw it completely.

The campaign has since

broadened into a wider move-

ment calling for democratic

reform and driven by anger at

police use of force to counter

protests and make arrests.

Neither Mrs. Lam, city offi-

cials nor those in Beijing have

made any concessions since.

Instead, they have focused

their ire on thousands of hard-

core protesters who have in

recent weeks clashed more vi-

olently with police, with hun-

dreds arrested.

The government said Sun-

day night it would “begin sin-

cere dialogue with the public,

mend social rifts and rebuild

social harmony when every-

thing has calmed down.”

Protesters Sunday repre-

sented a broad cross-section

of society, as parents brought

young children and elderly cit-

izens turned out to demon-

strate their support.

“Today is like a reset of the

movement,” said a bespecta-

cled university student sur-

named Lam occupying Har-

court Road with his

classmates Sunday. “The gov-

ernment said it doesn’t re-

spond to violence, so now they

have another chance.”

WORLD NEWS

HONG KONG—Pro-democ-

racy demonstrators braved tor-

rential rain to hold their larg-

est rally in weeks, a show of

mass support that reset the

movement that opposes Bei-

jing’s tightening grip on the

city and heaped pressure on

officials to resolve its biggest

political crisis in decades.

The peaceful procession was

in contrast to recent weekends

which have seen bloody battles

between protesters and police

and shuttered the city’s airport

last Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of

mainly black-clad protesters of

all ages rallied Sunday in Vic-

toria Park, the starting point

of some of the biggest demon-

strations through 11 weekends

of unrest, with crowds over-

flowing into the streets. Many

marched 2 miles to the city’s

financial district, clogging ma-

jor road arteries, in defiance

of a police ban on any proces-

sion outside the park.

The scenes, which evoked

two giant marches in early

June, show that the movement

is far from fizzling out, in-

creasing pressure on local offi-

cials and their masters in Bei-

jing who have struggled to

contain the social unrest.

BYNATASHAKHAN

ANDJONEMONT

Hong Kong’s Peaceful Rally Adds Pressure

Show of mass support

raises stakes for city

to resolve its biggest

political crisis in years

Many demonstrators marched 2 miles to Hong Kong’s financial district, clogging major road arteries, in defiance of a police ban.

KIM HONG-JI/REUTERS

hensive Test Ban Treaty Or-

ganization, Mr. Zerbo has

sought to build support for

the accord, which has been

signed by 184 nations and

ratified by 168 of them. Mr.

Zerbo noted that while moni-

toring stations in the global

network have sometimes had

problems with power or com-

munications, the network, in-

cluding Russian stations, has

generally provided “great

data availability.”

“Before knowing the final

cause of this particular out-

age, we cannot link it to [the

problems that led to] any

previous cases,” Mr. Zerbo

added.

The episode has important

implications for arms control,

which is approaching a criti-

cal juncture. After the demise

of the U.S.-Russian treaty on

intermediate-range nuclear

forces and a debate in Wash-

ington over whether to ex-

tend a parallel accord that

limits U.S. and Russian long-

range nuclear arms, some

arms-control proponents say

the Comprehensive Nuclear

Test Ban Treaty may be the

last cornerstone of the tradi-

tional arms-control order and

so must be maintained.

The U.S. signed the Com-

prehensive Test Ban Treaty

during the Clinton adminis-

tration. While the Senate

hasn’t approved the accord,

the U.S. hasn’t conducted a

nuclear test since 1992.

The sudden silence of the

Russian monitoring stations

is likely to be seized on by

conservative critics of arms

control, who have complained

that the Russians can’t be

trusted.

In a March letter to the

White House, Sen. Tom Cot-

ton of Arkansas and several

other Republican lawmakers

asked Mr. Trump to consider

removing the U.S. signature

from the Comprehensive Nu-

clear Test Ban treaty.

Arms-control advocates

like Mr. Kimball, however,

said the episode shows that

the global monitoring sys-

tem—which has provided in-

formation on North Korea’s

nuclear tests—has proved

useful and that the U.S.

should strengthen it by rati-

fying the accord and urging

other nations to follow suit.

The organization Mr.

Zerbo heads has said that

other seismic and infrasound

stations in the organization’s

network picked up evidence

of the Aug. 8 explosion.

The disclosure about the

Russian monitoring stations

comes on the heels of a de-

bate over whether Russia is

strictly adhering to the Com-

prehensive Nuclear Test Ban

Treaty.

Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, the

director of the Defense Intel-

ligence Agency, said in May

that Russia was likely violat-

ing the treaty by secretly

carrying out nuclear tests

with very low explosive

power.

The following month, Gen.

Ashley amplified that accusa-

tion by stating that the en-

tire U.S. intelligence commu-

nity has assessed that Russia

has conducted small tests

that have “created nuclear

yield.”

Russia has denied the ac-

cusation and complained that

the Trump administration is

looking for an excuse to for-

mally withdraw from the ac-

cord.

The missile that was being

tested during the accident is

believed to be part of a Rus-

sian effort to circumvent U.S.

missile defenses, should

Washington ever build a na-

tionwide defense system.

At least seven employees

of Rosatom, Russia’s atomic

energy monopoly, and its De-

fense Ministry were killed in

the accident, Russia has said.

For now, those moving

money could be the minority. At

least a dozen professionals who

spoke to the Journal said they

hadn’t transferred any funds.

Likewise, two Hong Kong

hedge-fund managers said

they don’t think there has

been a rush of money leaving

the city, based on discussions

with their peers.

Others are less relaxed.

Ming Chung, a 42-year-old

who runs a business exporting

building materials, said he

dropped plans to buy a prop-

erty in Hong Kong and instead

invested HK$4 million, or

about $510,000, into a U.S.-

dollar insurance product.

help buoy the currency.

The monetary authority

said there was no noticeable

outflow of funds from the

Hong Kong dollar or from the

banking system, based on

their latest statistics and the

financial-market situation.

Comprehensive official data

on capital flows is available only

with a delay of several months.

And any outflows would follow

many years of funds moving the

other way. In March 2018, the

monetary authority said the city

had seen some $130 billion in

inflows since the U.S. began

quantitative easing, or loosen-

ing monetary policy by buying

assets, in 2009.

falling stock market could in-

dicate some people were shift-

ing money abroad.

The Hong Kong dollar has

been pegged to its U.S. equiva-

lent since 1983. The de facto

central bank, the Hong Kong

Monetary Authority, lets the

U.S. dollar trade between 7.

and 7.85 Hong Kong dollars,

and it buys or sells greenbacks

to keep the currency pair

within those bounds.

The Hong Kong dollar

traded at 7.8399 Friday, near

the weak end of the band,

even though interbank bor-

rowing rates in Hong Kong are

higher than their U.S. counter-

parts, which would usually

and the city’s stock and prop-

erty markets are under pres-

sure. The extradition bill that

sparked the unrest, and the

months of clashes that have

followed, have together raised

questions about the city’s fu-

ture as one of the world’s larg-

est international financial

hubs, and how much auton-

omy it can maintain in its

dealings with Beijing.

Ken Cheung, chief Asian

foreign-exchange strategist at

Mizuho Bank, said the weak-

ening of the Hong Kong dollar

against the U.S. currency, de-

spite their respective interest

rates, was a worrying sign of

capital outflows. He said a

Sarah Fairhurst, a 52-year-

old partner at the Lantau

Group, an economic consulting

firm, said she transferred

200,000 Hong Kong dollars

(about $25,500) into British

pounds because of concerns

about the protests.

“It’s very unsettling here,”

said Ms. Fairhurst, who has

lived in Hong Kong for 12

years. She said seeing videos

of police using tear gas near

her office have made her par-

ticularly nervous. “I don’t

know what’s going to happen,

but I know that I don’t want

my money trapped here.”

Retail, tourism and business

confidence have all suffered,

Money is leaking out of

Hong Kong as months of pro-

tests raise concerns about the

city’s future.

The local currency has

weakened rapidly since early

July, a move analysts attribute

partly to outflows. Some busi-

nesses say they are seeing

money move abroad, and sev-

eral individuals who spoke to

The Wall Street Journal said

they have either swapped

money into other currencies

or are considering doing so.

Residents Move Money Abroad as Protests Escalate

By Steven Russolillo ,

Joanne Chiu

and Eli Binder

Numerous monitoring sta-

tions have been set up in

Russia, and those stations

share information with the

international organization

that oversees the treaty, as

well as with nations that

have signed the accord, in-

cluding the U.S.

The stations are designed

to monitor everything from

seismic shifts to sound waves

for signs of nuclear activity.

The two stations that went

silent in Russia are designed

to measure radioactive parti-

cles in the atmosphere, ac-

cording to the treaty organi-

zation’s website.

Arms-control experts said

the monitoring problem ap-

pears to be a Russian effort

to conceal information about

the accident and not an ef-

fort to hide evidence of a

prohibited nuclear weapons

test.

“It is a very odd coinci-

dence that these stations

stopped sending data shortly

after the Aug. 8 incident,”

said Daryl Kimball, the execu-

tive director of the Arms

Control Association, a non-

governmental organization

promoting arms-control poli-

cies.

“It is probably because

they want to obscure the

technical details of the mis-

sile-propulsion system they

are trying and failing to de-

velop,” Mr. Kimball said. “But

this is not a legitimate rea-

son to cut off test-ban moni-

toring data transmissions.”

Russian officials in Mos-

cow and at the nation’s em-

bassy in Washington, D.C.,

didn’t respond to requests

for comment.

As the executive director

of the Vienna-based Compre-

Continued from page A

Russian

Monitoring

Went Out

One expert called the

outage at the Russian

monitoring sites ‘a

very odd coincidence.’

A bomber struck the men’s section of a wedding hall, leaving dozens of women widowed.

RAFIQ MAQBOOL/ASSOCIATED PRESS