9 killed, 52 hurt

Police inspecting the damage at the JW Marriott in Jakarta yesterday. Eyewitnesses say the first blast ripped through the right-side lobby of the Marriott at around 7.45am.-- PHOTO:
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST, 18 July 2009

JAKARTA: Nearly five years after the last terrorist attack in the Indonesian capital, explosions tore through two of its five- star hotels yesterday morning.

Among the dead who had been identified by press time were three Australians, a New Zealander and an Indonesian.
The bodies of other victims were said to be too mangled to be identified but were believed to be those of foreigners. Police said the casualties included citizens of Indonesia, the United States, Australia, South Korea, the Netherlands, Italy, Britain, Canada, Norway, Japan and India.
The Ritz-Carlton and the JW Marriott face each other and are separated by a small road. The blasts gutted both of their lobbies. The attack was the second on the Marriott. It was first hit by a car bomb in August 2003 that killed 12.
Eyewitnesses said the first blast ripped through the right-side lobby of the Marriott at around 7.45am.
At the time, well-known US business consultant James Castle was chairing his weekly breakfast meeting with 18 other high-level executives in a plush room just off the lobby.
Barely two minutes later, another explosion rocked the Air Langga restaurant of the Ritz-Carlton while guests were having breakfast.
Witnesses described grim scenes of bloodied survivors fleeing from the hotels. Television footage showed broken beams, shattered windows and a ruined buffet breakfast area in the Ritz-Carlton.
Mr Alex Asmasoebrata was jogging near the hotels at the time of the blasts.
'There was a smell like firecrackers, and then five minutes after that, there was an explosion at the Ritz-Carlton,' he said, adding that he saw a foreigner with a leg severed and two others with burns.
National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told Agence France-Presse that the bombs had been packed with nails, ball bearings, nuts and bolts to cause maximum carnage.
Indonesia's police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said two suicide bombers carried out the attacks, one at each hotel, using devices similar to those used in previous attacks by the Jemaah Islamiah (JI).
The group has links to Al-Qaeda and has been blamed for a series of bombings in Indonesia, including the 2002 blasts in Bali which killed more than 200 people.
Chief Danuri said the bombers used explosives similar to those found in a house in Cilacap, Central Java on Tuesday.
A sombre-looking President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - who had just received an overwhelming mandate for a second term partly on his record in fighting terror - condemned the attacks.
He vowed to hunt down those responsible for the crime, after visiting the hospitals where victims were taken to.
Speaking in a televised press conference, he also responded to speculation that the attacks were tied to the recent presidential election. He said he had received intelligence reports of plans for violence and anarchy linked to the results.
It was too early to say who was responsible, he said, but nothing should be ruled out, including the possibility that the attacks may have been politically motivated.
Dr Yudhoyono said that the JI terrorist group may not have been responsible.
But analysts such as International Crisis Group director Sidney Jones said that suicide bombings were characteristic of Noordin Top, a Malaysian fugitive master bombmaker who leads a splinter JI group. The group claimed responsibility for the last attack in Indonesia in 2005.
She said the attacks were least likely to be related to the presidential election because planning had to start much earlier.
Jakarta's benchmark stock index ended the day down only 0.6 per cent.
Ms Joanna Tan of Forecast in Singapore said Dr Yudhoyono's second term of office and relatively good performance in the economy should keep investor confidence supported.

lynnlee@sph.com.sg wahyudis@sph.com.sg With additional information from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

Another terrorist attack. What are the consequences for Indonesia having hotels being bombed numerous times? Are there lessons for us to learn? Can we still take peace and security for granted?

140 dead in Xinjiang violence

TV images showed protesters rocking a bus and the bloodied faces of people (above) caught up in the riots, which are believed to have erupted following a protest by Uighurs. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
TV images showed protesters rocking a bus (left) and the bloodied faces of people caught up in the riots, which are believed to have erupted following a protest by Uighurs. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

10 July, ST

URUMQI (CHINA): Violent riots erupted in China's restive Xinjiang region, killing at least 140 people in what is believed to be the country's worst ethnic unrest in decades.

More than 800 others were injured after the bloody clash between the police and ethnic minority Uighurs broke out on Sunday in the region's capital, Urumqi.
The authorities said there were 300 to 500 protesters, but other sources put the number at as high as 3,000.

The death toll was still rising, said the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Reports quoting witnesses said yesterday the unrest had spread to Kashgar, another Xinjiang city, where more than 300 people protested outside a mosque. No casualties were reported.

The unrest comes just 18 months after riots left at least 22 people dead in Tibet, another sensitive region in China.

The rioting is likely to alarm Beijing, coming just three months before events to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The riots were believed to have erupted following a protest by Uighurs demanding a probe into a clash between Han Chinese and Uighur factory workers in southern Guangdong province late last month which left two Uighurs dead.

Some accounts said the police turned violent when the assembly, which began peacefully, refused to disperse.

The Chinese government blamed the exiled World Uighur Congress (WUC) led by businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, living in exile in the United States, for instigating the riots. But the Sweden-based Congress rubbished the accusation.

Dramatic images of the violence broadcast by China's state television showed people being attacked, cars being smashed and smoke billowing from burning vehicles.

Footage showed a woman being kicked by two people as she lay on the ground. Others, who appeared to be Han Chinese, sat dazed and bloodied.

Local television showed graphic photographs of people killed in the riots, with the faces of some victims beaten into a bloody pulp, reported AFP. One man had his throat slit.

Xinhua did not specify the ethnic identities of those killed, or whether they were civilians or police.

But it said the People's Hospitals in Urumqi treated 291 people, of whom 17 died. Among them, 233 were Han Chinese, 39 were Uighurs, while the rest were from other ethnic minorities.

'This is the worst unrest I have seen since coming to Urumqi 12 years ago,' a Han Chinese motel employee told The Straits Times. 'It was sudden and I don't really know what happened. I'm quite scared.'

Chinese media quoted Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri describing the situation as 'still seriously complicated'.

Thousands of riot police officers and paramilitary policemen have locked down Urumqi and set up checkpoints to catch fleeing rioters, said Xinhua.

Several hundred suspected rioters were arrested, with police still searching for another 90 people.

Yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon led international calls for restraint in China.

Analysts say the violence highlighted the deeper problem of the Uighurs' resentment of the growing Han Chinese dominance in Xinjiang. The eight million Uighurs make up the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, but not in Urumqi, which has attracted large numbers of Han Chinese migrants.

'The riots probably resulted from three sources of grievances,' said Professor Barry Sautman of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

'One, the failure of the authorities to satisfactorily resolve the killing of Uighurs in the Guangdong factory. Two, economic disparities between Han migrants and Uighurs.

'Third, restrictions on religious practices, like forbidding Muslim university students to fast during Ramadan.'

shpeh@sph.com.sg

S'pore's meritocratic edge

MM Lee spoke during the lecture yesterday about how Singapore had to compete and survive in an ever-changing world. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG

April 10, 2009
S. RAJARATNAM LECTURE

Cohesive, multiracial and alert to vulnerabilities are crucial traits, says MM
By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has urged Singaporeans not to delude themselves that they are a part of the First World in South-east Asia.

Singapore is situated in a region with 'special features' which makes it particularly vulnerable, so to keep its competitive edge and be relevant to the world, it must stay a cohesive, multiracial, multireligious nation based on meritocracy, he said.

'Our region has its own special features. Singapore's destiny would be very different if we were sited in Europe or North America.

'We cannot transplant our island elsewhere. Therefore, a recurrent issue for Singapore is how to differentiate ourselves from our neighbours in order to compete and survive, and also get along with them,' he said.

Mr Lee made these points in a prepared lecture to 500 Foreign Service officers, diplomats, and guests at the annual S. Rajaratnam Lecture, an event organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diplomatic Academy and named after Singapore's first foreign minister.

Highlighting the fundamentals of Singapore's foreign policy, he said that as a small country, Singapore 'must seek a maximum number of friends, while maintaining the freedom to be itself as a sovereign and independent nation'.

To survive, it must stay relevant to the world, find its competitive edge, and rise above geographical and resource constraints.

'Had we disported ourselves like our better-endowed neighbours, we would have failed,' he said.
While time and working together in Asean had worn down many of the 'sharper edges' in Singapore's relations with its immediate neighbours, certain fundamental vulnerabilities remain, and successor generations of Singaporeans must not forget these, he said.

He elaborated on the 'complexities' of Singapore's relations with its neighbours, in particular those caused by differences between their political and social systems.

Life in jail for Rwanda's genocide leader

The skulls of victims in the Nyarama Church are chilling reminders of the Rwanda genocide in 1994, when hundreds of thousands were killed. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

A genocide survivor grieves over the mummified remains of relatives at a memorial centre in Rwanda. Most survivors of the atrocity have expressed satisfaction after the UN-backed war crimes court sentenced the mastermind to life in prison. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

19 Dec 2008, ST

NAIROBI: A United Nations court has sentenced a former army colonel accused of masterminding Rwanda's genocide in 1994 to life in prison.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), based in Tanzania, has accused Theoneste Bagosora, 67, of being in charge of the troops and the extremist Interahamwe Hutu militia that butchered 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days.
'Colonel Bagosora is guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes,' the court said yesterday.
The slaughter is thought to have been triggered by the mysterious downing of a plane carrying Rwanda's then-president Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, and his Burundian counterpart on April 6, 1994.
The tribunal ruled that Bagosora was also responsible for the assassination of former prime minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana.
It also ruled that Bagosora, then the Cabinet director of the Defence Ministry, was behind the massacre of Tutsis at road blocks in Kigali, the capital, and in his home region of Gisenyi in the north.
After the genocide, he fled into exile in Cameroon, where he was later arrested in 1996. His trial began in 2002 and lasted five years until mid-2007.
Bagosora faced 11 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was tried along with three co-defendants, two of whom, also ex-military officers, were also sentenced to life, while the third was acquitted. Bagosora's lawyer said his client would challenge his conviction.
Earlier, the court sentenced businessman Protais Zigiranyirazo, brother-in-law of Habyarimana, to 20 years in prison for genocide and extermination. He has already served seven years.
Zigiranyirazo was convicted of 'aiding and encouraging' the killing of some 1,500 Tutsis on April 8, 1994 in northern Rwanda and 10 to 20 others near Kigali.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

I'm sure those who came and stayed on the show enjoyed the movie. Do share your feelings under comments how you feel after watching 'Hotel Rwanda'.

Movie Screening @ CCSS

Date: 13 February 2009
Time: 1.30pm
Venue: AVA Room

This movie screening is for 4EA and 4EB. 5N1 and 5N2 are welcomed too. This is one of my all time favourite movies. Gripping and emotional. It really sums up a lot of the concepts we learn in SS. For example the causes of conflict in a multi-ethnic society and the effectivenss of the international organisation such as UN. This movie is also about heroes and I like movies with heroes. :-)
Some guiding questions for you before we watch the movie:
1. What is a genocide?
2. Who is the hero in the movie and why is he a hero?
3. Who are the two groups of people involved in the conflict?
4. How did the conflict develop?

5. How effective is UN in ensuring world peace and security in Rwanda?

Please visit the official website to understand more about the movie. Answers for the questions above can be found at the website. We've a movie date on Friday, see you!

Project on 'Bonding Singapore'

To: 4EA, 4EB, 5N1 & 5N2
Now that you’ve learnt about how Singapore manages ethnic diversity in Social Studies, I would like you to look around and look for evidences of effort put into ensuring Singapore’s racial/religious harmony.

In line with Total Defence Day on 16 February, the chapter on 'Bonding Singapore' is about one of the 5 defences, social defence. You'll need to do this online project to fulfil your CME assessment (10%).

1. You are to take picture using your digital camera or handphone camera of places, people or objects that show how Singapore fosters social cohesion in a multi-ethnic Singapore.
2. Write a short caption of whom the people or what the objects are and where and when the picture was taken.
3.Give a short write-up of why this picture that you’ve taken shows how Singapore creates opportunities for Singaporeans to bond.
4. Send your photo as a .jpg attachment and your write-up (of who, what, where, and when) in the main email body to ksumay89.bondingsingapore@blogger.com.
5. Do not send WORD document attachments.
6. In your email, use your CLASS: NAME (INDEX NO.) in the subject field eg. 4EA: CHEN HONG (1)
7. You'll be assessed based on choice of the photo and quality of write-up.
8. Bonus marks will be given to students who comment on other students' work.
9. Deadline for the project: 6 February 2009.
10. Two sample posts will give you some ideas.