The Washington Post - 06.08.2019

TUESDAY, AUGUST 6 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

BY SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN

cairo — A car packed with explosives detonated in downtown Cairo on Monday, killing at least 20 and injuring 47, Egypt’s Interior Ministry said. It was the highest terrorism-related death toll in the capital in more than two years. The government initially said the early-morning blast was caused by the collision of four cars. But later in the day, the Interior Ministry said the explosives-filled car was actually on its way to commit an attack in another part of the capital. “The technical inspection also indicated that the vehicle con- tained explosives that caused the blast when the car collided with the other cars,” the ministry said in a statement. “It is estimated that the car was being driven to a place to be used in carrying out a terrorist operation else- where.” The statement added that the car was stolen a few months ago from the province of Menufia, 55 miles north of Cairo. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. But Egyptian authorities were quick to blame Hasm, a militant group that emerged three years ago and has claimed several attacks. Egypt accuses Hasm of being the militant arm of the banned Mus- lim Brotherhood. The Islamist movement, once a political force, has denied the allegations. The blast started a fire that triggered the partial evacuation of the National Cancer Institute, the capital’s main cancer hospi- tal, according to Egypt’s Health Ministry. Even before the correction by the Interior Ministry, some wit- nesses suspected what had really happened. “There was a sound of an extremely loud blast,” a resident who gave her name only as Salwa told Reuters news agency. “It was no way two cars crashing. The car must have been rigged with explosives.” Monday’s attack was another tragedy for a nation that depends heavily on tourism for revenue and foreign currency reserves. It also underscored the lingering threat posed by militant groups, even though the country has not experienced a large-scale attack since November 2017. That was when Islamic State militants were widely believed to have killed more than 350 people at a mosque in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai region. In 2015, the Islamic State affili- ate in Sinai asserted responsibility for the downing of a Russian passenger plane after it left the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. That attack, which killed all 224 people aboard, shattered Egypt’s tourist economy. The last major militant attack in Cairo was in December 2016, when Egypt’s main Coptic Chris- tian cathedral was bombed by the Islamic State, killing 30 and injuring dozens. In a Facebook post on Monday, President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi offered his condolences to the victims’ families and vowed to “defeat this brutal terrorism.” sudarsan.raghavan@ washpost.com

Heba Farouk Mahfouz contributed to this report.

more than 40 people were hurt, some seriously. Senior police de- fended the response and said they were stretched thin. Police have arrested only eight people in those attacks, on rela- tively light charges of unlawful assembly. Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s economy is suffering. Official data last week showed the economy con- tracted 0.3 percent on a quarterly basis, while annual growth slowed to 0.6 percent. The Hang Seng stock index, which fell nearly 3 percent Monday, has suffered amid fears that the clashes have hurt Hong Kong’s status as a business center. Paul Chan, the city’s finance secretary, warned that Hong Kong could tip into recession, pointing to a drop in sales of luxury goods and jewelry. [email protected]

Anna Kam contributed to this report.

let the violent police get away with their crimes, Hong Kong won’t be the Hong Kong we know any- more.” At a rally near government buildings in the downtown area Monday, a lawyer said half her firm of a few hundred did not show up to work. Strikers includ- ed a 40-year-old who manufac- tures computer parts, a 36-year- old health services worker and a 26-year-old teacher. Even at Disneyland, employees said the city’s leaders were in dreamland. The government is trying to “escape reality” by not listening to protesters’ demands, said Alice Tam, 26. Denunciations of police have intensified since dozens of armed men, suspected to be linked to organized-crime gangs, attacked protesters returning from a rally last month. Police took almost 40 minutes to arrive, by which time

na’s central government. Chinese officials have warned of a crackdown; the army released a video last week that showed soldiers practicing shooting protesters. On successive weekends, riot police have unleashed tear gas in densely populated Hong Kong neighborhoods. Police said Mon- day that they had fired more than 1,000 rounds of tear gas in the past two months and arrested more than 420 people, including some who face charges of rioting that carry up to 10 years in prison. Outraged by the way that Lam and police have handled the crisis, protesters say it is time to raise the stakes. “We can’t just go on marches forever,” said Yue, a 26-year-old business owner who runs food and cultural tours. The strike would pressure the government by disrupting its systems, she said. “It’s about protecting Hong Kong’s core values,” she said. “If we

onstrators and police. Events over the past 72 hours underscored the disconnect between the city’s residents and those who govern them. Footage broadcast on television showed dozens of residents of a working- class area yelling at police officers to get out of their neighborhood, accusing them of inciting trouble. After two weeks out of public view, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam emerged Monday to con- demn the protests and the strike. She warned that the city was “on the verge of a very dangerous situation” but offered no concessions. “As a result of these widespread disruptions and violence, the great majority of Hong Kong people are now in a state of great anxiety,” she said. She urged Hong Kongers to “say no to chaos.” But the general strike demon- strated the dissenters’ increasing boldness. Many who didn’t show up to work, especially government employees, risked losing their jobs or facing punishment from em- ployers. Kwok, the operations worker at Hong Kong Airlines, highlighted the strike’s strategic intent. “The airport is the most impor- tant piece of infrastructure to the government, and shows the world an image of Hong Kong,” he said. “This is a matter of economic de- velopment. Can the government risk it?” Over 400 employees at the airline signed on to the strike, Kwok said, along with unions representing employees of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s largest carrier. More than 200 flights at Hong Kong airport — among the world’s busi- est — were canceled. The airport authority said “po- tential circumstances” might af- fect operations and advised pas- sengers to confirm the latest with their airlines. Striking workers say their anxiety stems from police violence toward demonstrators and a sense that Hong Kong’s leaders are not representing the city’s interests and are ceding autonomy to Chi-

BY SHIBANI MAHTANI AND TIMOTHY MCLAUGHLIN

hong kong — On Monday, Ken
Kwok didn’t head to his job in
airline operations. Neither did fi-
nancial planner Rachel Wong.
Ashley Yue put her Hong Kong
food tours on hold for the day.
Instead, they joined civil serv-
ants, bus drivers, baristas and pi-
lots in a citywide strike that shut
down businesses, crippled Hong
Kong’s subway system and caused
flight cancellations — an embar-
rassment for the Asian financial
hub’s beleaguered government. As
protesters rallied across the city,
even the happiest place on Earth
wasn’t immune: Dozens of work-
ers at Hong Kong Disneyland
went on strike, disrupting rides.
The actions — and the protest-
linked chaos that ensued again —
struck at Hong Kong’s increasing-
ly precarious position as an effi-
cient base for business and sig-
naled widening public anger over
the failure of its leaders to offer
concessions that could defuse
weeks of political strife.
Later in the day, police fired tear
gas to clear demonstrators from
roads and areas around police sta-
tions in several parts of the city
and made at least 82 arrests. Brief
scuffles broke out between pro-
testers and counterdemonstrators
in the neighborhood of North
Point, east of central Hong Kong.
The two groups lobbed traffic
cones and sticks at each other.
The political crisis, triggered by
now-suspended plans to allow ex-
traditions to mainland China, has
swollen as Hong Kongers demand
the bill’s full withdrawal, an inde-
pendent inquiry into police ac-
tions toward protesters, greater
democracy and amnesty for those
arrested in clashes between dem-

Chaos ensued when the government on Friday suddenly cur- tailed an annual Hindu pilgrim- age in Kashmir, citing a terrorist threat from Pakistan. All tourists were asked to evacuate the state immediately. Britain and Aus- tralia were among the countries to issue an advisory to their citi- zens against travel to the state. Administrative orders added to the panic of residents. People lined up at gas pumps and gro- cery stores as uncertainty loomed. In February, tensions escalated between the two nuclear-armed neighbors after a deadly attack on Indian forces by a local militant from a terrorist group that India accuses Pakistan of supporting. The two countries came to the brink of war and engaged in aerial combat for the first time in decades. The situation eased after an Indian pilot captured by Paki- stan was released. President Trump twice offered recently to mediate on the issue of Kashmir between India and Paki- stan. India has rejected the offers, calling it a “bilateral” issue. [email protected]

constitutional.” A former chief minister of the state, Mehbooba Mufti, said it was the “darkest day in Indian democracy” that would make India an “occupational force” in the region. Residents fear the move will also lead to a demographic change in the Muslim-majority area. Legal experts said the order could be challenged in court. “It violates the text and spirit of the Constitution,” said Suhrith Parthasarathy, an expert on constitutional law. “Article 370 is the tunnel through which the Indian constitution is carried into the state. To make it inoperable, you have to take the people of the state into confidence. What the present order does is to effectively abrogate Article 370 through executive whim.” Speculation over the central government’s plans for Kashmir raged for more than a week after local media reported the deploy- ment of 35,000 additional security personnel. Rights groups have often called Kashmir one of the world’s most militarized zones and have said abuses regu- larly take place there.

mained down. The Indian government has not said when these measures would be lifted. In another late-night move, authorities arrested two former chief ministers Monday who had warned the government against taking such a step. Calling the move “unprec- edented,” Ankit Panda, a New York-based geopolitical analyst, said it would be difficult to pre- dict what comes next. But “once news gets to the people of Kash- mir, who are still under a commu- nications embargo,” he said, “this decision will likely mobilize con- siderable resistance.” Indian government officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Parliament was in session, said the crackdown was a “precautionary meas- ure” to prevent an outbreak of violence. They also argued that the changes would improve the governance of the state, which they said had fallen behind the rest of the country in develop- ment thanks to the resurgent separatist movement. Political leaders from Kashmir called the move “illegal and un-

urged both countries to show restraint. Monday’s move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hard-line Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, won a big victory in Indian elections in May. The decision and its stealthy implementation are likely to further damage New Delhi’s relationship with its most restive state and ignite unrest there. There are also worries that the move may ratchet up tensions between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslims in the rest of the country. The “BJP has not only murdered the Constitution but also murdered democracy,” said Ghu- lam Nabi Azad, a leader of the opposition Congress party. India’s army and air force were put on high alert, and 8, troops were airlifted to Kashmir after the announcement, according to media reports. Life in Kashmir was paralyzed Monday. People were asked to stay indoors, and Kashmiris out- side the state struggled to contact family members and other loved ones as communication lines re-

vailing internal security situation fueled by cross-border terrorism,” Shah said. Article 370 had been consid- ered a cornerstone of Kashmir’s inclusion in India, instituted after the 1947 partition that sepa- rated India and Pakistan follow- ing the end of British colonial rule. Today, Indian-controlled Kash- mir is the country’s only majority- Muslim state, where militants for three decades have battled Indian forces, seeking independence or more autonomy. Pakistan dis- putes India’s control of the territory, and the two countries have previously gone to war over the region. On Monday, Pakistan con- demned India’s decision to revoke Article 370, saying it violated a U.N. resolution. Calling Kashmir an “inter- nationally recognized disputed territory,” Pakistan’s Foreign Min- istry said in a statement that it would continue to support the Kashmiri people’s “right to self- determination.” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Monday

BY NIHA MASIH

new delhi — India said Monday
it was revoking a constitutional
provision granting certain auton-
omous powers to Indian-
controlled Kashmir, setting the
stage for new clashes in the dis-
puted region.
The move followed a tense
night during which Indian au-
thorities put prominent politi-
cians under house arrest in Srina-
gar, Kashmir’s capital, and cut off
mobile and Internet services to
the Himalayan region. Thou-
sands of Indian troops were de-
ployed to Kashmir before the
announcement.
Amit Shah, India’s interior
minister, told Parliament that the
government would revoke Article
370, which gives Kashmir the
right to make its own laws. The
step also nullifies another provi-
sion that bars nonresidents from
purchasing property in the state.
Shah also announced that the
state would be reorganized ad-
ministratively, a move that would
effectively limit the powers of a
state government. This was being
done “keeping in view the pre-

India revokes special status of Kashmir, putting disputed region on edge

In Cairo, car

explosion kills

at least 20

Strike disrupts Hong Kong as unrest continues

TYRONE SIU/REUTERS Police made at least 82 arrests and fired tear gas to clear protesters from roads on Monday, as a citywide strike shut down businesses, crippled the subway system and caused flight cancellations.

BY SHIBANI MAHTANI

hong kong — A U.N. report
released Monday said that de-
fense companies from North Ko-
rea, Russia, China, India and at
least three other nations have
supplied arms to Myanmar’s mili-
tary in recent years, including
weapons used in a crackdown
against Rohingya Muslims that
has been described as a genocide.
The report also noted that
dozens of Myanmar companies —
some of which spent years on a
U.S. blacklist before sanctions
were lifted in 2016 — donated
more than $10 million to the
military, responding to a call to
fund the Rohingya campaign in

After the army expelled
about 700,000 Rohingya from
Myanmar, these companies have
helped to build infrastructure
over the sites of massacres.
Two years after their expul-
sion, hundreds of thousands of
Rohingya remain in refugee
camps in Bangladesh, with no
clear timeline for their repatria-
tion to Myanmar, nor a plan to
address their grievances should
they return.
“The revenue the military
earns from domestic and foreign
business deals substantially en-
hances its ability to carry out
gross violations of human rights

with impunity,” the U.N. fact-find- ing mission behind the report said in a news release. It pin- pointed 140 companies owned or controlled by the military. A Myanmar military spokes- man did not immediately re- spond to a request for comment. The U.N. mission is mandated to investigate human rights violations by the Myanmar military and called a year ago for military leaders to be investigated for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. On Monday, it called for an arms embargo on Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, and sanctions against the military. The United States recently im- posed a visa ban on Myanmar’s military chief, Min Aung Hlaing, and his deputy. Washington, along with the European Union and Canada, has also im- posed economic sanctions on lower-ranking Myanmar gener- als and troops. “We’d like to see action extend- ed to full economic sanctions, targeted against the people who lead the military and the military as an institution,” said Chris Sido- ti, a member of the U.N. mission. The Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, exercised total rule over the country until 2011, when it gave way to a military-

backed government. The country held democratic elections in 2015 in which Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power as the de facto leader of a civilian government, but the military continues to hold signifi- cant sway over parliament, key ministries and the economy. It also controls two conglomer- ates, the Union of Myanmar Eco- nomic Holdings and the Myan- mar Economic Corp. Min Aung Hlaing, the military leader, is the chairman of the first conglomer- ate. The 2015 elections prompted the United States, under Presi- dent Barack Obama, to drop long- standing economic sanctions against the country that were meant to chip away at the domi- nance of the military leaders and their affiliates. But the atrocities against the Rohingya in 2017 again relegated Myanmar to pa- riah status, and Western businesses have largely steered clear. The U.N. report highlights the complicity of some of the companies formerly on the sanctions list, which still maintain close ties with the military, in the crackdown against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Af- ter the purge began in August 2017, the report says, Min Aung Hlaing held ceremonies to solicit donations “in support of the

Tatmadaw’s military and other activities in northern Rakhine against the Rohingya.” “During these meetings, Sen- ior General Min Aung Hlaing made statements describing the conduct of the Tatmadaw in northern Rakhine, outlined the policy and military objectives of the ‘clearance operations,’ denied the existence of the Rohingya and advanced justifications for the Tatmadaw’s acts,” the report says. The ceremonies yielded more than $10 million in donations. The report highlights contin- ued cooperation between North Korea and Myanmar, a long- standing relationship that was meant to have ended once the Southeast Asian country started liberalizing after six decades of isolation. The report notes that Myanmar has probably pur- chased a range of weapons, including rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles, from one of North Korea’s primary arms traders, the Korea Mining Devel- opment Trading Corp. The company is subject to U.N. Security Council sanctions. “Arms relationships are very much a part of this long-standing relationship between these two countries,” Sidoti said. “The [Myanmar] military has shown very little sign of change, and it

seems to be quite clear that it is still involved in arms trade with North Korea.” The U.S. government has faced pressure from human rights groups to impose harsher sanctions on Myanmar. Rights groups say the visa ban on Min Aung Hlaing still falls short and will neither lead to accountability nor hurt the military’s revenue streams. Support for the military and its Rohingya campaign remains high in Myanmar, and many within the country believe the international community’s response has been disproportion- ate. On Saturday, protesters dem- onstrated against the U.S. visa ban, and the U.S. Embassy in Yangon warned staff to avoid the area. “Americans, get out!” the protesters shouted. A former member of parliament, Hla Swe, who also served in the military, ap- peared onstage in full tactical gear and denounced Suu Kyi and her government for not con- demning the sanctions. “We are ready to defend our country from outsiders!” Hla Swe shouted. [email protected]

Cape Diamond in Yangon contributed to this report.

N. Korea, others arming Myanmar despite atrocities, U.N. says

Leader warns city is ‘on the verge of a very dangerous situation’

The Washington Post - 06.08.2019

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