WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday backed Taiwan’s assertion that the strait dividing the island from the Chinese mainland is an international waterway, a further rebuff to Beijing’s claim to exercise sovereignty over the strategic passage. The Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists, who established the People’s Republic of China. In recent years, US warships, and on occasion those from allied nations such as Britain and Canada, have sailed through the strait, drawing Beijing’s anger. On Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry said the country “has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait” and called it “a false claim when certain countries call the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters’.” Commenting on Tuesday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in an email to Reuters: “The Taiwan Strait is an international waterway, meaning that the Taiwan Strait is an area where high seas freedoms, including freedom of navigation and overflight, are guaranteed under international law.” Price added that the world has “an abiding interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and we consider this central to the security and prosperity of the broader Indo-Pacific region.” He reiterated US concerns about China’s “aggressive rhetoric and coercive activity regarding Taiwan” and said the United States “would continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting through the Taiwan Strait.” Earlier on Tuesday, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou called China’s position a “fallacy.” China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and views the island as an inherent part of Chinese territory. Taiwan says China has no right to speak for it or claim sovereignty, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their own future and that the People’s Republic of China has never controlled any part of the island.
KABUL: An attack claimed by Daesh on a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least two people and injured seven, officials said, another deadly incident in a spate of violence targeting minorities and places of worship. On an affiliated Telegram channel, the local branch of Daesh said the attack was in response to insults leveled at the Prophet Muhammad, an apparent reference to remarks by an Indian government spokeswoman that have been condemned by many Muslim-majority countries. Grey smoke billowed over the area in images aired by domestic broadcaster Tolo. A Taliban interior spokesman said attackers had laden a car with explosives but it had detonated before reaching its target. A temple official, Gornam Singh, said there were around 30 people inside the building at the time. A spokesman for Kabul’s commander said one Sikh worshipper had been killed in the attack and one Taliban fighter was killed as his forces took control of the area. Since taking power in August, the Taliban say they have increased security in Afghanistan and removed the country from militant threats, although international officials and analysts say the risk of a resurgence in militancy remains. Daesh has claimed some attacks in recent months. The group said a suicide attacker stormed the temple on Saturday morning armed with a machine gun and hand grenades after killing its guard. Other militants fought for more than three hours with Taliban fighters who tried to intervene to protect the temple, targeting them with four explosive devices and a car bomb, the militant group said. The blast on Saturday was widely condemned as one of a series of attacks targeting minorities, with a statement from neighboring Pakistan saying its government was “seriously concerned at the recent spate of terrorist attacks on places of worship in Afghanistan.” The UN’s mission to Afghanistan said in a statement that minorities in the country needed to be protected and India’s President Narendra Modi said on Twitter he was “shocked” by attack. Sikhs are a tiny religious minority in largely Muslim Afghanistan, comprising about 300 families before the country fell to the Taliban. Many have since left, according to members of the community and media. Like other religious minorities, Sikhs have been a continual target of violence in Afghanistan. An attack at another temple in Kabul in 2020 that killed 25 was also claimed by Daesh. Saturday’s explosion followed a blast at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz the previous day that killed one person and injured two, according to authorities.
FRANKFURT: Russia’s war in Ukraine could take years, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a German weekly newspaper, adding that the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would increase the chance of liberating the Donbas region from Russian control. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told Bild am Sonntag. “Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.” A NATO summit in Madrid later this month is expected to agree an assistance package for Ukraine that will help the country with the move from old Soviet-era weaponry to NATO standard gear, Stoltenberg said earlier this week. Ukraine vowed on Saturday to prevail against Moscow as it fought Russian assaults near a key eastern city and multiple locations came under shell and missile attack. Russian forces were defeated in an attempt to storm Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in March. Russia has since refocused on the Donbas region in the eastern part of Ukraine.
ADDIS ABABA: The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Friday that security forces had summarily executed residents in Gambella, suspecting them of collaborating with rebels who attacked the southwestern city earlier this week. The assault on Gambella on Tuesday triggered an hours-long gunfight between security forces and the Oromo Liberation Army, a rebel group which is branded a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government. After soldiers successfully repelled the attack by the OLA and a local armed group, “residents faced various human rights abuses at the hands of the Gambella regional ... forces,” the EHRC, a state-affiliated independent rights body, said in a statement.
The rights body urged the authorities to ‘conduct an investigation and ensure accountability into illegal acts committed by security forces.’
“EHRC has, from witness accounts and video evidence it has received, understood that individuals suspected of participating in the (rebel) attack or collaborating in the attack were killed,” it said, adding the security forces carried out “door to door executions.” The rights body urged the authorities to “conduct an investigation and ensure accountability into illegal acts committed by security forces.” The statement was released the same day that a video circulating on social media, whose authenticity could not be immediately confirmed, showed a man, allegedly of Oromo ethnicity, being shot dead by several uniformed men. A spokesman for the Gambella regional authorities said in a press release that the “information being circulated on some social media platforms suggesting that an ethnic-based assault has occurred is false.”
MANILA/JEDDAH: Ten years after he was abducted and held hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants, Arab News Asia bureau chief Baker Atyani is again recalling long days of captivity in the jungles of the southern Philippines following news that one of his captors has surrendered to the Philippine military.
Atyani was on duty, reporting for Al-Arabiya News Channel, in June 2012, when Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant outfit operating in Sulu province, kidnapped him for ransom.
He was held captive for 18 months, often in solitary confinement, before managing to escape.
In the years since, some of those who held Atyani hostage have been killed by the military in the southern Philippines and others arrested. This week, one of the most notorious of the group’s members, Ben Quirino, also known as Ben Tattoo, whom Atyani remembers as the strongest ASG fighter, surrendered to the Philippine military.
Formed in 1991, ASG emerged a splinter group of the Moro National Liberation Front, a movement seeking autonomy for Filipino Muslims in the southern Philippines. It was initially influenced by Al-Qaeda, but since the early 2000s has been involved mainly extortion, assassinations and kidnappings for ransom. Some of its factions, including the Sawadjaan group of which Tattoo was a sub-leader, provided support to Daesh operations in Southeast Asia.
Tattoo, 41, has been linked to the murder of several foreigners, including two Canadian tourists who were abducted from the island resort of Samal in 2015 and taken captive to the group’s stronghold in Jolo. He had filmed himself beheading the Canadians in 2016 after a $6.4 million ransom was not paid.
When news of Tattoo’s surrender broke on Friday, Atyani recalled how the militant used to point his machete and M-14 rifle at him.
“He should face justice. He should be punished for what he has done,” the veteran reporter said.
He added: “It feels bittersweet. My mind is flooded with memories of the long days that have been spent in the jungles of Sulu being a hostage in the hands of Abu Sayyaf.”
For more than 500 days, Atyani was kept in a hut, with Tattoo checking on him often.
“He used to be the muscle of the ASG Sawadjaan faction, considered to be one of the best fighters, a front-line fighter and the strongest among them,” Atyani said.
“Ben Tattoo was also known as Ben M-14 because he was always carrying an M-14, with a wooden butt that was carved specifically for him.”
Atyani said that the cruelty Tattoo displayed over the years was part of the militant’s attempts to prove he was a dependable member of the faction that was dominated by the Sawadjaan clan, of which he was not a member.
“He was always trying to prove that he was a good fighter, that the Sawadjaan family could depend on him, and that he could do the impossible,” Atyani said.
But his brutal approach could not sway the leaders of ASG and he was never able to get close.
In the video ASG took as they murdered the Canadian hostages, Tattoo was only militant not covering his face.
“Tattoo always tried to prove that he was someone who could be trusted, and he was trying to be very close to the first circle of the group, but he never got this opportunity and that’s why he was trying to prove himself.”
Atyani believes Tattoo’s attempts to gain a higher rank in the group eventually resulted in him being isolated after the faction’s leader, Hadjan Sawadjaan, was killed by troops in the Patikul area of Jolo, the ASG stronghold, in 2020.
“Sawadjaan’s sons didn’t want Ben to emerge as a leader,” Atyani said. “After the death of Hadjan, he ended up having no shelter or support from the jungle community that is mostly dominated by the Sawadjaan family and ASG chief Radullan Sahiron.”
Abu Sayyaf is the most violent of the Islamic separatist groups operating in the southern Philippines, and claims to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago. After splitting from the Moro National Liberation Front in the early 1990s, the group launched a campaign of kidnappings for ransom, bombings, assassinations and extortion, and has had ties to Jemaah Islamiyah.
Tattoo surrendered to the military in Patikul following the surrender of his half-brother, Almujer Yadah, who was responsible for ASG’s logistics and food supplies.
“We consider these two as the most notorious ASG leaders to have surrendered considering the number of cases that have been filed against them — from kidnaping for ransom, murder, and many more,” Maj. Gen. Ignatius Patrimonio, commander of the 11th Infantry Division designated to fight militancy in Sulu, told Arab News on Friday.
“They got tired of running from pursuing military forces. Besides, they no longer have the support of the local populace, their group has been badly decimated, and their brothers killed.”
ASG’s strength has been declining since 2018, when the Philippine military stepped up its crackdown on Daesh affiliates. Data from the 11th Infantry Division shows that the number of active militants has decreased from about 300 in 2019 to an estimated 100.
Brig. Gen. Benjamin Batara Jr., commander of the 1103rd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction over Patikul, told Arab News the military has been tracking Tattoo and Yadah since last year.
“Apparently, they were already under pressure because of continuous military and police operations and a series of surrenders of their fellow Abu Sayyaf members,” he said.
The military handed them over to police on Friday and both are facing a series criminal charges.
Atyani believes the weakened state of Abu Sayyaf Group and other militant outfits has led to the surrender of a number of its fighters.
Although the support of the locals may not have wavered much — some still believe in what they call “the cause of the people of Mindanao” — the killing or arrest of a string of militant leaders in the past three years has hastened the extremist groups’ decline.
“There have been no reports of any kidnapping incidents for at least a year or a year-and-a-half, which means they are facing serious financial issues — and without money they can’t survive,” Atyani said.
A total of 67 Abu Sayyaf members in Sulu have surrendered to security forces in Jolo so far this year.
Nine years after his escape, Atyani’s emotions are still raw.
“You imagine yourself again in the same situation. That’s why I feel for those who are actually still in the hands of either Abu Sayyaf or other militant groups.”
He recalls his fear of the unknown, saying that it was the reason he kept going, prompting him to make the decision to stay alive and not give in to those he calls “ignorants” — hence his multiple attempts to free himself.
“I was ready to lose my life — but my way, not their way.”
Atyani’s ordeal came to an end on Dec. 3, 2012, when he finally managed to break free to safety.
For almost a decade, news of his captors’ deaths or capture have brought a sense of relief.
“I could see that people who have been unjust to me are actually now facing what they deserve. Either they’ve been killed or arrested, or are now behind bars. This is certainly kind of a relief. But, again, it is a story that never ends. These scars of my kidnapping, I think, will never go.
“So justice is being done and has been done.”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is “one step away” from exiting the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list” after the global watchdog said an on-site visit could lead to the South Asian nation’s removal, the state minister for foreign affairs said on Saturday.
Pakistan has been on FATF’s “grey list” since 2018, a list featuring countries under increased monitoring due to inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing, which made foreign firms more cautious about investing in the country.
The financial crime watchdog, set up by the Group of Seven industrial powers to protect the global financial system, kept the country on the list on Friday, but said that Pakistan had substantially completed its two action plans, which covered 34 items.
The monitoring group said that an on-site visit was warranted to verify that reforms had begun and were being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment was in place to sustain future improvements. Once it successfully passes the onsite visit, FATF said the country will be removed from the list.
“The successful completion of the action plans and its formal endorsement by FATF means that Pakistan has come to one step away from exiting from the grey list,” State Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who chairs Pakistan’s National FATF Coordination Committee, told a news conference in Islamabad.
“The on-site visit is a procedural requirement and it marks the beginning of the end-process that will eventually culminate in the exit of Pakistan from FATF’s grey list.”
Khar said that Islamabad and FATF are still working on scheduling the visit, and aim to conclude the entire process before the monitoring group’s next plenary in October.
Getting off the grey list is expected to further the investment climate in Pakistan.
“I am confident that this good news from FATF will restore confidence in our economy, will give it a much-needed boost and would improve the investment climate,” Khar said.