A10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, JUNE 7 , 2022
The WorldIRAQ
Briton gets 15 years in
artifact-smuggling case
A British citizen was sentenced
Monday by a court in Iraq to
15 years in prison after being
convicted of attempting to
smuggle artifacts out of the
country, in a case that has
attracted international attention.
Geologist Jim Fitton and his
family argued that the 66-year-old
had no criminal intent. His
attorney said his client would
appeal the verdict. A German
national tried with Fitton was
found not to have had criminal
intent and will be released.
The judge found that,
according to the government’s
investigation, Fitton had criminal
intent to smuggle the artifacts he
had picked up.
The trial has grabbed
international attention at a time
when Iraq seeks to open up its
nascent tourism sector. The two
men first appeared in court on
May 15 and said t hey had not
acted with criminal intent and
had no idea they might have
broken local laws.
Fitton said that he “suspected”
the items he collected were
ancient fragments but that “at the
time I didn’t know about Iraqi
laws” or that taking the shards
was not permitted. Fitton said
that, as a geologist, he was in the
habit of collecting such fragments
as a hobby and had no intention
to sell them.Fitton and the German man,
Volker Waldman, were arrested at
Baghdad’s airport on March 20
after airport security discovered
the items in their luggage. They
had been part of a tourism
expedition to ancient Iraqi sites.
Their tour guide, a Britishcitizen who was in his 80s and in
poor health, died in police custody
for reasons unrelated to his
detention. He was found with
more than 20 archaeological
fragments in this possession.
— Associated PressDominican cabinet minister
killed in office: The Dominican
Republic’s minister of the
environment and natural
resources was fatally shot in his
office by a close friend, the office
of the president said. Authorities
said the man who shot Orlando
Jorge Mera has been detained.
Mera’s office is on the fourth floor
of a building in the capital, Santo
Domingo, that also houses the
Tourism Ministry. Mera was a
founding member of the Modern
Revolutionary Party. He was
appointed the environment
minister in August 2020.South Africa’s president faces
inquiry over unreported theft:
South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa is facing a criminal
investigation after a revelation
that he failed to report the theft
of about $4 million in cash from
his farm in 2020. An account of
the theft is contained in an
affidavit by the country’s formerhead of intelligence, who has
opened a case against
Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa has not
denied the theft but claims he
reported it to the head of his
V IP-protection unit, who did not
report it to police. In South Africa
it is illegal not to report a crime,
and according to Fraser’s
affidavit, Ramaphosa tried to
conceal the theft.British journalist, Brazilian
expert missing in Amazon: A
British journalist and an
Indigenous affairs expert are
missing in a remote part of Brazil’s
Amazon region, a local Indigenous
association said. The area has
been marked by conflicts among
fishers, poachers and government
agents. Dom Phillips, a
contributor to the Guardian, and
Bruno Araújo Pereira were last
seen at 7 a.m. Sunday in the São
Rafael community, according to
the Unijava association, for which
Pereira has been an adviser.
Pereira, who has received threats
from loggers and miners, is on
leave from Brazil’s Indigenous
affairs agency. Phillips also has
contributed to The Washington
Post and New York Times.77 monkeypox cases reported inBritain: Health officials in
Britain reported 77 more
monkeypox cases on Monday,
raising the country’s total to
more than 300. Britain has the
biggest identified outbreak of the
disease beyond Africa, with the
vast majority of infections in gay
and bisexual men. On Sunday, the
World Health Organization said
more than two dozen countries
that haven’t previously identified
monkeypox cases reported 780, a
more than 200 percent jump in
cases since late May.Ugandan opposition figure
released after paying bail: A
veteran opposition figure in
Uganda was released after a court
slashed his cash bail, which had
forced him to spend nearly two
weeks in custody, his attorney and
an aide said. Kizza Besigye was
charged with inciting violence as
he rallied supporters to protest
soaring commodity prices. He was
granted bail on the condition he
pay 30 million shillings ($8,000)
of it in cash. Besigye refused and
chose to go to jail. His attorneys
appealed to have the amount
reduced, and a judge slashed the
bail money to 3 million shillings,
which Besigye paid.
— F rom news servicesDIGESTJEREMIAS GONZALEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charles Shay , 97, right, and Julia Kelly take part in a D -Day event in
Normandy, France. Shay, a Penobscot Native American, was a 19-year-
old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on June 6,- Kelly, a Gulf War veteran, is from the Crow tribe. Said Shay of
his comrades who fell that day: “I know that their spirits are here.”
BY RACHEL PANNETT,
NIHA MASIH
AND AZAD MAJUMDERDozens of people were killed
and hundreds injured when a
huge fire triggered explosions at
a container depot in Bangladesh
over the weekend, authorities
said. The death toll reached 49
but was expected to rise, with
many of the injured in critical
condition.
The cause of the blaze at the
BM Inland Container Depot in
the town of Sitakunda, 20 miles
north of the country’s main port
in Chittagong, was not immedi-
ately clear. But it spread quickly
to containers of hydrogen perox-
ide, leading to multiple explo-
sions, fire officials said.
The fire was under control
Monday, officials said, but not
extinguished completely. “Some
containers are still burning. We
are working with the army and
navy to douse the fire,” said
Atikuzzaman, an assistant direc-
tor of the fire service who goes by
one name.
The depot company, jointly
owned by business executives
from the Netherlands and
Bangladesh, did not respond to a
request for comment Monday.
Ruhul Amin Sikder, a spokes-
man for the Bangladesh Inland
Container Depots Association,
said the magnitude of the blast
was no less than what was seen in
Beirut in 2020, when about 2,
tons of ammonium nitrate ex-
ploded at the port there.
The sound of the explosion
was so loud that it reverberated
half a mile away. Mohammad
Salahuddin, a resident of a near-
by village, said glass in the win-
dows of homes and mosques
shattered with multiple explo-
sions. Everything was “trem-
bling,” he said. “We felt like there
was an earthquake.”
A resident of another nearby
village, Mohammad Yakub, said
there was debris all around, re-
sembling a “war-torn” place.
Scenes at hospitals were “terri-
ble,” according to witnesses. Most
of the injured were rushed to
hospitals in Chittagong.
Zahidul Islam, a student at
Chittagong University, was one of
the dozens of volunteers who
rushed to hospitals to donate
blood. He said many of the in-
jured were screaming in pain and
some had lost limbs.
“Ambulances were coming in
every five minutes. The emergen-
cy unit was full. There was no bed
available,” Islam said. “Doctors
treated the patients wherever it
was possible.”
Bangladesh has a patchy in-
dustrial safety record, and fires
are not uncommon. A string of
tragedies a decade ago put a
spotlight on the country’s gar-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chemical jugs lie scattered at the BM Inland Container Depot in Sitakunda, north of the port of Chittagong. The fire and an initial large blast set off a chain of explosions.ment industry and the lax en-
forcement of safety rules. Export
production, especially in the gar-
ment industry, forms the back-
bone of Bangladesh’s economy,
employing millions of women.
Although steps have been tak-
en to improve the situation for
the many thousands of factory
workers, there were still morethan 21,000 fire-related incidents
in 2020, according to the Bangla-
desh Fire Service and Civil De-
fense.
At least 52 workers were killed
last year in a fire at a food and
beverage factory, which the Inter-
national Labor Organization
(ILO) said highlighted the “ur-
gent need” for authorities andbuilding owners to ensure that
workplaces are built and operat-
ed in compliance with national
fire-safety codes.
The worst workplace accident
in the country occurred in 2013,
when a building housing five
factories collapsed, killing more
than 1,100 people and injuring
2,500.An “effective industrial and
enterprise safety framework” is
urgently needed in Bangladesh to
prevent incidents like the depot
fire, the ILO, a United Nations
agency, said in a statement Mon-
day.
It is important to monitor
industries and address accident
risks to improve working condi-
tions in the country, the state-
ment said.
Rescue workers including fire-
fighters were among those killed
in the blaze, which broke out late
Saturday and burned into a sec-
ond night, according to fire de-
partment officials. Nine firefight-
ers died and 15 were injured in
their attempts to control the
blaze, officials said.
There were about 3,000 con-
tainers at the depot at the time of
the fire, customs officials said. Of
those, 33 containers contained
hydrogen peroxide. The fire trig-
gered a huge explosion and rap-
idly spread, with chemical-filled
containers igniting one after an-
other.
Images from the scene showed
overturned and burned-out con-
tainers and debris scattered over
the ground as firefighters worked
through Sunday to contain the
blaze. Drone footage showed
flames still smoldering across the
container depot and thick smoke
rising into the air.Majumder reported from Dhaka,
Bangladesh, and Masih from New
Delhi.Huge fire, blast kill dozens at Bangladesh depotHundreds injured, with many in critical conditionMAHMUD HOSSAIN OPU/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An injured man is taken for treatment in the capital, Dhaka, after being airlifted by the army. The blaze
broke out late Saturday and firefighters were still extinguishing flames Monday. N ine firefighters died.